Besides, it's too wide to fit in the alley entrance.
"Now, I can't carry that fat little bugger by myself. By the time I could drag
the two of them to the Close some nosy-body's sure to notice me and ask
questions I couldn't answer. Even if I got lucky I'm not sure I could heave
these two bloated pumpkins up into the wagon."
Mudge nodded sagely. "That's for us, then. Jon-Tom?"
Jon-Tom's head had finally cleared of smoke and drink, but plenty of confusion
still remained. Things had happened awfully fast and his thoughts were running
into one another.
"I don't know." He was also worriedly watching the street. Foul-fighting police
might appear at any minute, and what Talea had told Mudge about them being
guilty by their mere presence at the scene of the crime had a transworldly ring
of truth to it.
"I'm not sure this is what Clothahump had in mind when he asked you to educate
me."
" 'Tis a fine innocent you are, mate. As you of all people ought t' know, life's
incidents are dictated by fate and not neat plannin'. We can't stay 'ere
jabberin' all night, lest some idle patrol stumble on us. If you think the
copfolk were hard on those poor innocent brawlers, consider wot they're likely
t' do t' those they think 'ave assaulted respectable citizens. Or be it then so
much different where you come from?"
"No," he replied, "I think they'd react about the same as here."
Mudge had moved to slip an arm around the waist of the unconscious
squirrelquette, then flipped her with a whistle over his shoulders. "I'll take
charge o' this one," he said, stumbling.
"Thought you might," snorted Talea. "Here, let me help." She caught the lady's
legs just as the overburdened Mudge was about to lose his balance completely,
the looked back at Jon-Tom.
"Don't just stand there gawking like a kid at a treepeep nook. Put that great
gangling self of yours to work."
Jon-Tom nodded, knelt, and managed to get his arms underneath the snoring,
bubbling muskrat shape. The creature was as heavy as he appeared, and the weight
made Jon-Tom stagger. Working the mass around he finally got the rotund burden
in a fireman's carry.
"Truth, 'tis muscles the lad 'as, if not yet overmuch common sense," Mudge
observed. "Does 'e not, lass?"
"Let's get on with it," she said curtly.
On reaching the end of the alley they hesitated. Talea studied the street to the
right while Mudge cautiously checked out the other end. Nothing was visible in
the nebulous lamplight save cobblestones and lonely clumps of garbage. The night
mist had thickened somewhat from earlier in the evening and bestowed on the
fugitives a blessing beyond price.
Jon-Tom hurried out after them, the globular body of the muskrat bouncing
slightly on his shoulders. He felt something warm on his cheek. At first he
thought it was blood, but it turned out to be only saliva dripping from the
victim's gaping mouth. He pushed the drooling head farther aside and
concentrated on keeping close enough to the others to insure he wouldn't lose
track of them in the fog.
His feet were carrying him along a course of events he seemed powerless to
alter. As he jogged up the street, he considered his present condition.
In the short time he'd been in Lynchbany he'd nearly been assaulted by a beggar,
had taken part in a distressingly violent riot, and was presently serving as an
accessory to assault, robbery, and possibly murder. He decided firmly that as
soon as circumstances permitted he would have to make his way back to
Clothahump's Tree, with or without Mudge's assistance. There he would plead with
the wizard to try sending him home, no matter the cost. He could not stand
another day of this.
But though he did not know it, he was destined to spend rather more time than
that. Forces far greater than anything he could imagine continued to gather, the
little sounds his boots made in the street puddles faint echoes of the thunder
to come....
VII
Eventually they turned a corner onto another street. Mudge and Talea heaved the
motionless form of the squirrelquette onto the back of a low-slung buckboard.
Clicking sounds like thick wire brushing against glass came to them. They froze,
waited in damp silence. But the wagon they heard did not turn down their street.
"Hurry up!" Talea urged Jon-Tom. She turned and snapped at Mudge, "Quit that and
let's get out of here."
Mudge removed his hand from beneath the squirrelquette's dress as Jon-Tom bent
his head and shoulders to dump the muskrat. That unfortunate landed with a dull
thump in the wagon. Despite Mudge's insistence that both victims were still
alive and breathing, the musk-rat felt very dead to the worried Jon-Tom.
That was now a major concern. He thought he might be able to talk his way out of
being in the same wagon with a couple of robbery victims, but if either one of
them died and they were stopped by the police he doubted even Clothahump would
be able to help him.
Talea was rapidly pulling a thick blanket of some woven gray material over the
bodies. Then the three of them were running around to the front seat of the
wagon.
There wasn't enough room there for all of them on the down-sized platform. Talea
had grabbed the reins and Mudge had already mounted alongside her, so Jon-Tom
had no choice but to vault the wagon rail and sit in the bed behind them.
" 'Tis best anyway, mate." Mudge smiled sympathetically. "I know the wood's
'ard, but as big as you are we don't want to draw any more attention than we can
get away with. Snuggle yourself down low and we won't."
Talea gave a flip of the reins and shouted a soft "Hup!" and they were on their
way. Just in time, too. As they rumbled down the street another rider passed
them close.
Despite his exhaustion and confusion Jon-Tom's interest was aroused. He barely
had time for a glance at the mist-shrouded rider.
A white-faced, leather-clad rabbit was mounted on a slim lizard traveling on all
fours. The reptile had a long snout with two short tusks protruding upward from
just back of the nostrils. Its eyes were searchlight bright and yellow with
black slit pupils.
The rider sat in a saddle that was securely attached by multiple straps to the
lizard's neck and belly, the extra ties necessary because of the animal's
peculiar twisting, side-to-side method of travel. It gave a snakelike appearance
to the motion. The long tail was curled up in a spiral and fastened to the
reptilian rear with a decorative silver scroll. Blunt claws appeared to have
been trimmed close to the quick.
As he watched them vanish down the street, he thought that the rider must be
getting a smoother ride than any horse could provide, since all the movement was
from side to side instead of up and down.
That inspired him to inspect their own team. Shifting around on the wood and
trying to avoid kicking the terribly still forms beneath the gray blanket, he
peered ahead beneath the raised wagon seat.
The pair of creatures pulling the wagon were also reptilian, but as different
from the rabbit's mount as he was from Mudge. Harnessed in tandem to the wagon,
they were shorter and bulkier than the single mount he'd just seen. They had
blunt muzzles and less intelligent appearances, though that evaluation was
probably due more to his unfamiliarity with the local reptilian life than to any
actual physiologic difference.
They trudged more slowly over the cobblestones. Their stride was deliberate and
straightforward instead of the unusual twisting, side-to-side movement of the