Dumery had never seen a lake before, and he stared. It was soflat! Large bodies of water didn’t bother him, but he was used to Ethshar’s harbor, where the water was in constant motion, waves rippling in from the Gulf and breaking against the piers and quays. Even the river, while it had no waves, had a visible current.
The lake, though, appeared as calm and still as a puddle.
The barge was hugging the right-hand shore-what Dumery thought of as the eastern bank, though in fact at the moment it was still to the north. After a few moments of staring out at the open expanse of water, Dumery turned and saw that they were passing a dozen yards or so from a stone tower.
He blinked in surprise, and looked more closely.
They were passing a castle, a castle built right on the shore of the lake!
“Hai,” Dumery called. “Where are we?”
Naral Rander’s son looked up.
“Take a good look, boy,” he replied. “We’ve just crossed the border. Welcome to the Baronies of Sardiron!”
“We have?” Dumery asked.
“That’s right; the boundary runs across the middle of this lake-Boundary Lake-from that tower, which is Sardironese, to one on the other side, which is Ethsharitic. From here on we’ll be on Sardironese waters-up until now the river was Ethsharitic.”
“Oh,” Dumery said, looking about uneasily, half expecting to see some difference in the water itself.
There was none; it was still clear and blue.
“There’s a third tower over on the western shore,” Naral remarked, “between the two rivers that flow into the lake-that’s Sardironese, too. The Baronies claim both the rivers going in, the Hegemony has the one going out.”
“Tworivers coming in?” Dumery asked, suddenly seriously worried.
“Certainly,” Naral said, startled by the question. “The Great River, and the Shanna River.”
“Which one are we taking?” Dumery asked.
“The Great River, of course,” the crewman said. “We told you when you came aboard, we’re bound for Sardiron of the Waters.”
“And the Shanna River doesn’t go there?”
“No, of course not-it goes to Shanna.” Naral considered for a moment, then continued, “Or really, it comesfrom Shanna, since we’re downstream here. Not much business out that way, and the river’s not easy to navigate, either-it’s wider and slower and shallower, and you can run a boat aground if you aren’t careful. Even a barge.”
Dumery had stopped listening. He had panicked at the thought that maybe the boat he was on was going to take one route, while theSunlit Meadows took the other, and he wouldnever have a chance of catching up with the man in brown.
He was calming down now, though. TheSunlit Meadows was bound for Sardiron of the Waters; the crewman who chased him off had stated that quite definitely.
The barge, too, was bound for Sardiron of the Waters. Neither one had any business in Shanna. There was nothing to worry about.
He looked around, and realized that they were already approaching the western end of the lake-he could see trees, and something that might have been the roof of the other Sardironese tower, beyond the water in that direction.
An hour later they had left the lake behind and were into the Upper Reach of the Great River, inside the borders of the Baronies of Sardiron.
Not long after that they passed under another high-arched wooden bridge; this one was guarded by a castle on the western shore, just in case anyone had had any lingering doubts as to whether this land was truly a part of the Baronies.
The change of government made little difference; the barge still passed farms and fields, trees and villages, docks new and used. The river was still blue, the sky was still blue, and Dumery still had shoveling to do.
It was late in the afternoon of the fifth day when he glanced up from his shovel, to the east, and saw a familiar boat, tied up at a dock that the barge was passing.
It was theSunlit Meadows, gleaming bright in the sun. He had finally caught up to it.
He looked around, but saw only the cattle and the river and the blue sky above. He wished he could swim; the shore wasn’t so very far away.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t, and trying to get ashore wasn’t worth the risk of drowning.
He waited, biding his time, growing steadily more frantic with the thought that even now, the man in brown might be getting farther away-and even if the man was still on that boat, Dumery himself was now moving steadily farther away from it.
The possibility that the dragon-hunter had gotten off theSunlit Meadows days ago hadn’t escaped him, but he tried not to think about that. At least, if he could catch up to the crew of the passenger boat, he couldask.
For a moment he considered simply asking the crew of the barge to put him ashore somewhere along the eastern bank, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had signed on for the journey to Sardiron of the Waters, and he knew that the men were glad to have him there to man the shovel; they weren’t likely to let him off that easily.
Particularly not Kelder the Unpleasant, whose goal in life seemed to be to make everyone else miserable. So far he hadn’t bothered Dumery much, since the job Dumery had was already about the worst thing that could be inflicted aboard the barge without interfering with business, but the boy didn’t doubt for a moment that if Kelder knew Dumery wanted off, he’d make absolutely certain that Dumery stayed on the barge.
So Dumery waited, not saying anything about his plans.
Finally, as the sun dropped below the western horizon, the crew called to the sylph. That seemingly tireless creature obeyed, looping the tow-line around a stump on the steep eastern bank.
Dumery breathed a little easier upon seeing that; he had worried about what he would do if they had tied up on thewestern shore.
Not that they ever had yet.
The remainder of the day was torture. He didn’t dare try to slip away until most of the barge’s crew was asleep, and until the man on watch was someone he wasn’t scared of.
The evening repast and the subsequent chatter seemed interminable, but eventually the men were yawning and stretching and climbing into their narrow little bunks below the foredeck.
Kelder took the first watch, unfortunately, and Dumery lay on his own rough perch at the stern, wrapped in his borrowed blanket, trying to stay awake without letting Kelder know it.
He had dozed off, but started awake at the sound of voices. Kelder was rousing Naral for his shift.
Dumery tensed, but lay still.
He heard Naral complaining about having a particularly pleasant dream interrupted, and Kelder snarling that he was too tired to care, and then, over the steady breathing of the sleeping cattle, he heard scuffling and scraping as Kelder climbed into a berth.
Naral’s footsteps sounded as he climbed up to the foredeck and settled onto the stool there. Dumery lifted his head and peered across the length of the barge, over the cargo.
Naral was sitting on the foredeck, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
Dumery slipped out from under his blanket and crept over toward shore.
The barge was tied at the bow, and the stern had been left to drift until it bumped gently against the bank. Dumery knew that in the morning, if the sylph could not tug the barge away because it had snagged or run aground, the cattle would all be herded over to the left-rather, portside, though in fact the barge usually tied up along the starboard-and the barge would be rocked free.
He reached the starboard corner of the stern and got to his feet, casting a cautious glance toward Naral.
The man hadn’t noticed anything. If he did happen to look up, he would probably just assume Dumery was answering nature’s call.