'That's not what we were told,' Ki replied, wondering if he were fishing for a bribe.
'Well, it's what I'm telling you now. See the clerk in the Ducal Office. Hauling anything else?' The voice was hard with no effort at politeness. Liar, it called Ki, and expected no truthful answer to its questions.
'Nothing but our travelling supplies,' Ki replied.
The Brurjan by Vandien wrinkled his tawny nose as he leaned into the cuddy. 'Goddam stinking Humans,' he muttered as he mounted the step. The wagon creaked dangerously under his weight. Vandien let him get well within, said nothing as he opened the bedding cabinet and tumbled the quilts to the floor to search behind them. He dragged his clawed hand through the bins of flour and grain, searching for hidden trinkets or weapons. Ki's clothing and then Vandien's joined the heap on the floor. Vandien kept his lips sealed as the Brurjan filched an enameled brass bracelet, slipping it into his pouch. He remembered the street girl he had bought it from, choosing it from her tray of bracelets and feathered earrings as Ki stood by his shoulder, protesting and laughing as he insisted on trying every bracelet against her browned wrist. He looked away as the bracelet vanished forever, along with a handful of coppers he had forgotten in his other vest.
It was only when the Brurjan stooped by the tuber cupboard that Vandien spoke. 'Sorry about the vomit. The boy was sick all over in here. Mind you, don't get any on you. I hope Algona has a public well, so we can clean things up in here.'
The Brurjan dropped the quilt and straightened abruptly, knocking his head against the cuddy ceiling. He glared at Vandien, sniffed his dripping fingers, and then growled his outrage. As he left the cuddy, he slapped his hand clean down the front of Vandien's shirt. Vandien grunted with the impact, but forced himself to stand still and accept it. Willow, he reminded himself firmly. Willow.
'They clean?' the Brurjan on the horse demanded.
'No,' snarled the searcher. 'But there's nothing worth taking, either.'
'Go on, then,' the leader ordered, and turned aside from the wagon. Goat belched loudly and spit a mouthful of saliva into the road dust, earning him a glare from the searcher. But a shepherd with some ratty sheep was approaching, and the leader was gesturing for him to perform his search. Ki shook the reins and the wagon lurched forward. Vandien caught the doorframe, swung himself up inside the caravan and pulled the door closed behind him. He crouched by the potato cupboard. 'Just a little longer,' he muttered. 'We're past the guards, but stay hidden until Ki tells you to come out.' He straightened slowly, and began unbuttoning his soiled shirt.
Algona was a dusty little town, built of mud bricks, paved with mud bricks, a place constructed from its own dust and the infrequent rains. The water well seemed to be the sole reason for the town's existence. All the caravans stopped here for water and a day of rest, so the Ducal Offices were here to collect fees and issue papers, and the Brurjan troops were quartered here to enforce the Duke's will. There was very little else for Brurjans to do in Algona, which accounted for their unusually sullen temperaments, and their sour outlook on the drab little town accounted for the beaten and furtive attitudes of the folk they encountered. Or so Ki reasoned as she pulled a sopping shirt from the wooden bucket. She wrung it carefully over the bucket, conserving water out of long habit. The shoulder seam was torn out of this one. Ki clicked her tongue. Vandien would mutter over mending it. His own fault, though. Why couldn't the damn man practice his fencing without a shirt on, instead of tearing out shoulder seams with extended lunges?
'When is he going to get back?'
Goat's whine was so in tune with Ki's own thoughts that it didn't even annoy her.
'Soon. I hope. As soon as he gets our papers fixed.' Ki rocked back on her heels and looked around. The public well was no more than a wide depression in the earth, paved with stone blocks. The water welled up somewhere in the center of the depression and filled it before the overflow was channeled away to the gardens surrounding the Ducal Offices. Surrounding the well was a great open courtyard. In it, children played while women bent over tubs and garments. No one spoke to Ki, but the bright wagon and the big horses were objects of curiosity. Mothers repeatedly called children away from them, while studiously ignoring both Goat and Ki. Ki wrung out the last garment and tossed it into a basket beside her.
'Maybe he went to a tavern and got drunk and forgot all about us,' Goat suggested sourly.
'I doubt it.' Ki looked at the basket of wet laundry, wondering how to dry it. The bricks of the courtyard were coated with dust. Senseless to spread clean wet clothes out on them. Maybe tonight they'd camp by trees, or at least near clean grass. She hoped the clothes wouldn't sour before then. And she hoped Vandien had enough coin to pay for the papers they'd need to get out of this town. Goat's papers were good all the way to Villena. Damn this Duke and his rules. She suspected they were being overcharged for their travel permits by officials who sensed they were strangers to the routine. Well, there was little she could do about that. Except to get out of this Duke's territory as swiftly as she could ... after she had dropped off Goat, of course.
'Want me to go look for him?' Goat offered hopefully.
'No. Just stay where you are. As soon as Vandien's back, we're leaving. I don't like the feel of this town; we're too obviously strangers, and the Brurjans are too bored.'
'They can't be any more bored than I am,' Goat grumbled. 'Can't I just get down and walk around a little? What's the harm in that? There are so many people here, so different from people I've known before. I want to see everything.' 'Look around. This is it.' Ki tapped, then opened the side door of the wagon, and pushed the basket of laundry in before her. It was stifling inside the cuddy, but she shut the door behind her. The door of the potato bin swung open. Willow peeked out, then crawled out. Her red hair clung damply to her face and neck. 'Are we leaving?' she asked hopefully.
'Talk softly. No. Vandien isn't back yet. You must be patient. And try to be more still. Twice I heard the wagon creak behind me while I was doing the laundry. Luckily Goat was up on the bench fidgeting, or anyone could have guessed someone was inside. We have to be careful, Willow. This whole town feels like a storm cloud. The townfolk would like a chance to peck instead of being pecked; the Brurjans would love a new kind of prey. So. Be still, be silent, and as soon as Vandien gets back with the papers, we'll be on our way. Do you understand?'
Willow was poking through the laundry. 'Did the tea stain come out of my red skirt?' she asked anxiously. 'It's Kellich's favorite.'
Ki drew the skirt out of the basket and shook it out for Willow's inspection. The girl studied it, then nodded and smiled. 'I want to wear that, the day after tomorrow when he meets me. I want to walk into the Two Ducks with that skirt swirling around my legs and my hair loose on my shoulders.'
There was something in the girl's wistful voice that no woman could have denied. Ki found herself answering her smile. 'The Two Ducks? Is that an inn?'
Willow nodded happily. 'It's on the edge of Tekum, not far from the land and house of the man Kellich works for. He said he would meet me there.'
'He did?' Something seemed slightly odd to Ki, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Ki refolded the red skirt and set it atop the basket of laundry. 'Be still and be silent, then, and we'll get to the Two Ducks by the day after tomorrow. Are you hungry?'
Willow shook her head. 'Two hot to eat anything.'
'Then sleep if you're bored. No, in the cupboard, Willow, I'm afraid. Just in case anyone peeks in the window.'