"Yoshiki Toba, Onyx," Led said simply by way of intro shy;duction. "She's our new hand." Led's lieutenant eyed her willowy, muscular form skeptically, but said not a word. Obviously adding a woman warrior to their ranks was noth shy;ing new. Onyx wondered at Led's reasons for not telling Toba of her spellcasting abilities, but she knew she had already strained Led's tolerance for questions.
"You're doing better on the horse," Led observed. "Just in time, too."
"We're leaving now?" Onyx glanced from the last ranks of ogres up to the small wagon behind Toba.
Led pushed back the helmet he'd donned since she'd last seen him. "Any problem with that?"
"No!" she said quickly, her mind racing. How will I tell Kadagan and Joad I'm leaving? I don't even know where I'm going! "I was just surprised, is all."
"Me, too," said Led. "That fool cartwright has been string shy;ing me along, taking a month to build this little wagon, if you can believe that."
"What kind of cargo requires a wagon specially made for it?" she asked artlessly.
"Something thaf s going to make me rich, once I get it to its new owner in Kernen," he said with a mysterious smile, then wagged his finger. "You've forgotten rule number one again, Onyx." Led dropped his helmet back over his face. "Take the right flank, and make certain you remember rules two and three." With that, he gave a shrill whistle and circled his arm once over his head.
The group set off for the southeastern gate. Onyx had to spur the horse to a trot to gain her place on the right of the wagon, opposite Led.
Once outside town the small train turned toward the mountains. Thin woods lined the road, thickening as the way led farther from town. Aside from an occasional sneeze or curse from one of the ogres, the group was silent. Onyx won shy;dered whether Kadagan and Joad were watching from some shy;where. If Dela was in the strange wagon Toba was driving,
surely Joad would know. If she wasn't-I'll deal with that if it turns out to be true, thought Khisanth.
They established a steady pace, headed through the foothills, toward a place Led called Needle Pass, the only siz shy;able gap through the Khalkist Mountains within a hundred miles. The gray clouds had been chased from sight by a strong, chill wind. Onyx swayed in her saddle with each of the mare's steps up the steep, rocky incline. She tried repeat shy;edly to listen for any sound from the wagon, but her keen hearing revealed nothing.
After a short time on the trail, Onyx's entire body ached. She concentrated on the horse's mane, let the color and tex shy;ture absorb all her thoughts. Slowly, the pain in her legs diminished. The weight of the armor no longer strained her back or curved her spine.
Hawks cried out as they circled above the lumbering party. The wagon's wheels creaked and rumbled over the frozen ground, occasionally crunching a rock or shattering a frozen puddle. Led's horse was perfectly abreast of the two that pulled the wagon under Toba's direction. The human's face was impassive, eyes always scanning ahead, his posture in the saddle ramrod straight.
Hours later, as the sun slipped over the western horizon, Led chose a campsite. The spot lay near a small pool that was constantly fed fresh water from a swiftly flowing mountain stream. Led gave a shrill whistle. The wagon rolled to a stop next to Onyx, the ogres behind it. Toba jumped from the buckboard and began firing off orders. The ogres established a makeshift camp in the narrow clearing, digging fire pits with their claws, while Led's lieutenant unhitched the wagon and posted himself as guard over the precious cargo. While Toba was about, there would be no examining the cart to see if Dela were inside.
Led sprang from his saddle and stepped around the wagon to help Onyx from hers. He settled the woman atop a large rock, then fished around in his leather pack. "Jerky?"
He held out a red-brown shriveled strip that looked like animal hide picked clean and left too long in the sun. She hes-
itated, not sure what to do with it.
"Better eat while you can," he said, holding it closer to her. Led tore off a piece of the jerky and chewed it vigorously. "It'll be a while before Toba gets a fire started and any food cooked."
He noticed then that the woman was watching the ogres, who towered over the shouting Toba. "You may not think they look like much, but you wouldn't believe where we started with them. No organization at all. None of them could even wield a club with any accuracy. They relied mostly on crushing opponents to death." He looked appre shy;ciatively at their ten-foot frames. "Not a bad technique, either, when you think about it."
"Why do they work for you?" Onyx asked. She watched the wiry Toba strike a violet-colored ogre with a club. The creature dug marginally faster, a vicious snarl erupting through its pointy green teeth.
"I killed their chieftain." Led took a long pull on a wine shy;skin that hung from a frayed string on his right shoulder. "They hated him," he continued, wiping his mouth on the back of his fringed leather sleeve. "Blogrut was even greedier than most ogres, driving them hard, feeding them little, and giving them less than nothing of what meager booty they managed to find.
"We make sure that they're fed regularly, and that each of them gets some bit of treasure now and then, even if it's just a shiny button." He ducked his head through the wineskin string and handed the leather bag to Onyx. "They're as loyal as any human troops, so Toba and I sleep in shifts."
Within minutes the ogres had scraped out fire pits, gathered wood, and started several fires: large ones for warmth and a smaller one for cooking.
Led pulled some thick blankets from his saddle pack and tossed one to Onyx. "Unless you can sleep through an ogre's snoring, you'll want to bunk down here by my fire." He dropped his blanket and settled to the ground, leaning against the soft bundle. As Onyx did the same, Toba stepped up with three steaming platters of brown stew.
They ate the same way they traveled, in silence. Onyx smiled at the irony of sharing bread and meat with these people she might shortly have to kill.
"What's funny?" asked Led, mopping up the last of his plate with a lump of hard bread.
"Nothing," Onyx lied. "If s good to be out of town."
"You prefer the open spaces? Me, too," Led replied.
Onyx felt suddenly talkative, though she wasn't sure why. "It isn't the buildings I mind," she explained. "If s the people. I feel uncomfortable surrounded by strangers. I have to watch what I do and say too closely. I like more freedom."
Obviously bored with such prattle, Toba gathered up the platters and strode back to the cooking fire. Watching him go, Onyx wondered if the nyphids were also watching. She wished she knew enough about the maynus to use it to contact them. If nothing else, she suspected Joad could confirm whether Dela was in the wagon.
Led slid over next to Onyx, their elbows touching. She stole a glance at his profile; a brown weed was clamped between his white, even teeth. She had never been so close to another crea shy;ture without killing it. Led exuded some unfamiliar, inviting scent that made her want to lean in and smell his skin. The impulse brought her nose halfway to his neck before her new human senses jerked her back. Led gave her a curious glance. Then, to her surprise, he reached up with a gloved hand and swept a strand of hair from her forehead.
Led pulled the weed from his lips. "What's that in your hands?" he asked, looking at the two stones she was shuffling between her fingers.
"These?" she looked down. "I found them along the trail and thought they looked interesting."
"Let me see." Taking them from her dark fingers, Led tipped the stones toward the firelight. One was pure black, with alternating bands of slightly lighter hues. "Hmm," he said. "This big egg-shaped one is onyx."