“I’ll return soon,” Jenrosa said and left for the river, taking the horses with her.
“What is she doing?” Ager asked Kumul, alarmed when he saw her walking toward the mercenaries waiting for the caravan to pull ahead.
Kumul grunted his approval. “What we cannot do ourselves. With my size and your crookback we would be recognized right away.”
They spent a nervous few minutes watching her water the horses and refill their leather bottles. Two mercenaries were standing not ten paces from her, talking between themselves.
When she returned, they started off, keeping as close as possible to a large wagon that hid them from any casual search.
“Did you overhear them?” Ager asked impatiently.
“They know their captain is searching for someone, but not who he is. They are worried that he is taking them so close to Chett territory. They are scared of them.”
“Did they say who is their captain?”
“No, but it isn’t Prado. They talked about him being with their chief, but they did not seem fond of him.”
“Not surprising,” Kumul noted. “Not after he lost their prize catch.”
“There was something else,” Jenrosa said. “They kept on talking about not going back to Hume. They were upset about it.”
Kumul and Ager exchanged glances. “You were right,” Kumul said. “They are going north.”
“With or without Lynan,” Ager said. “That could mean that if we find Lynan and hide him from them, they will eventually give up their search and leave.”
“I think, as we get closer to the sooq, the mercenaries will become more desperate,” Jenrosa said. “It’s important we find Lynan first.”
“We talked about that and agreed—” Ager started, but Jenrosa cut him off with a sharp wave of her hand.
“No, you talked about it. I agreed to nothing. I am going to find Lynan. You two stay here. And don’t worry, no one will be bothered about me.”
She gave Kumul the reins to her horse, and before either man could stop her, she ducked around the rear of the wagon and disappeared.
“She will get us all killed,” Ager complained.
Kumul shook his head. “No. No, I don’t think so. She will be fine.”
Ager thought he heard something more than respect in his friend’s voice. He looked keenly at Kumul but could read nothing in his expression.
A wind blew up and sent dust into their eyes. They bowed their heads and ploughed on.
Lynan was riding on one of Gatheras’ wagons when he saw the lush green circle of growth that surrounded the Strangers’ Sooq. He stood up on the board to get a better view. South of the sooq began the Lesser Desert, its gray rocky ground dull under the bright autumn sun, but to the west and north of the sooq started the Oceans of Grass. It was not the brilliant green he had imagined, but a washed-out green, like thin agate. And it moved. He held his breath in wonder. Breezes played across the grass like invisible hands. It seemed to him that the whole plain was alive.
“It is beautiful,” he said aloud.
The driver beside him snorted. “I have been here during drought. It is dead then, as dead as the desert.”
Lynan did not believe this place could ever be truly dead. This is the greatest life I have ever seen, he thought.
“Sit down, boy,” Gatheras hissed, pulling along side on his donkey. Lynan sat down in something of a daze. The merchant saw Lynan’s expression and chuckled. “Quite a sight the first time, isn’t it?” he said.
“It is beautiful.”
Gatheras looked thoughtfully at him. “The only people I have heard call it that before were Chetts.”
“My grandmother was a Chett,” Lynan said absently, his attention still focused on the plain.
“Indeed? She must have been very short for a Chett.”
Jenrosa had walked as casually as possible from wagon to wagon, trying to see the face of every person she passed without being obvious about it. There were no mercenaries riding with the caravan anymore, but that was not to say they did not have their spies here looking out for anyone behaving oddly. She passed wagons carrying dried fruits, spices, pottery, iron and copper ingots, ropes and cloth; she walked by merchants and servants, fellow travelers and priests. And no sign of Lynan.
Her attention was distracted when the sooq came into view. The sight of the verdant water hole and the vast distances beyond made her gasp. The plains drew out to meet the sky at some distant horizon. The grass seemed to move in time with the scattered clouds that scudded overhead. She breathed in deeply, and smelled grass and air and… and freedom. It was like nothing she could have imagined, but now that she had seen it she knew that somehow it was what she had been looking for her whole life. A new world, she thought. A home.
Angry words roused her from her reverie, and she dodged aside as a wagon loaded with lumber trundled past, its driver still swearing at her. She swore back and was stomping off, pretending high dudgeon, when she saw a youth had also been captivated by the sight of the sooq. He was standing on a wagon hauling pottery. Someone came up on a donkey and said something to him and he sat down, still staring ahead. She noted the livery he wore, and because she became conscious of it was able to imagine the youth’s build without it.
She stopped in her tracks. Oh God oh God oh God… She started running to catch up with the wagon, but then changed her mind and stopped again. A man walking with a long stick swerved to avoid her and muttered something indecent. She ignored him. She could not just go up and grab Lynan and hug him and cry in relief. That would draw more attention than either of them wanted. She thought quickly. She knows where he was now. She had to get the others. They would trail behind and make their move when the caravan reached the sooq. She could barely contain her excitement.
She turned back to find Kumul and Ager, and soon discovered them trudging beside the same wagon she had left them with. She tapped both on the shoulder as she came abreast. She made sure her face was downcast, but it was a struggle.
Kumul glanced at her. “At least you tried,” he said encouragingly.
“True,” she said, sighing.
“I still think it was a dangerous thing to do,” Ager commented, but his voice was concerned, not angry.
“True.”
“I wonder where is right now, and what he’s doing,” Kumul said.
“Sitting on a wagon tending a load-full of pottery,” Jenrosa suggested casually.
Kumul snorted. “Probably.”
They walked on for a while in silence until the sooq came into view and Kumul and Ager saw it for the first time.
“Quite a sight,” Ager said. “I think Lynan would be impressed.”
“He was,” Jenrosa said.
They fell quiet again. A minute later Ager looked sideways at Jenrosa. “What did you say?” Jenrosa feigned puzzlement. “You said something about Lynan.”
“I did?”
Silence again. And then, despite all her efforts, the laughter came. First, just the pressure of air against her throat, then a sort of explosion through her nose, and finally a great guffaw that startled her companions. She could not speak. Eventually, the guffawing weakened to a persistent giggling that hurt her ribs. Ager’s eyes lit up with sudden understanding and he joined in. Kumul looked at both of them as if they were mad. His expression made Jenrosa and Ager laugh more violently. They finally got it under control, reducing their mirth to a hoary wheeze.
“People are looking,” Kumul hissed at them.
“Right,” Ager said tightly, and that set him and Jenrosa off again.
“God’s death!” Kumul snapped. “What’s so bloody funny?”
“Don’t you see?” Ager said, forcing the words between fits of laughter. “Jenrosa found him!”
Revelation made Kumul’s face go pale under his close-cropped beard, and then the broadest smile Jenrosa had ever seen lit up his face, and seeing it, her own heart lifted even higher.