The Two of Swords: Part 14 Read Free Page B

not long after noon and lay on the grass while the horses drank. Verjan got up after a while and sat next to Chanso.
    “He’s still wrong, you know.”
    “He was right about this gap, wasn’t he?”
    “Meaning nothing. Maybe he’s got a slightly better memory than me, so what? He’s wrong about going south, and you know it.”
    Chanso thought for a moment. “There’s plenty of water now,” he said. “And you can bet there’s deer and waterfowl and plenty other game along the river. Should be cooler in the day and warmer at night. In fact, it reminds me a lot of home.”
    “I’m not saying you’re wrong. But we’re going deeper and deeper into hostile territory.”
    Chanso shrugged. “Why would there be Ironshirts here?” he said. “I figure, if they haven’t caught up to us by now, they’re not going to. I think we’ve seen the last of them. They’ve got to have better things to do than tracking a few stragglers.”
    “Oh, sure. And the moment the country people see us—”
    “So we won’t be seen. Don’t know about you, I haven’t set eyes on a living soul since we left the battle. Can’t see any farms or houses downriver, can you? I think this must be ride-around country, like home.” He frowned. “Haven’t seen any livestock either, mind. So maybe nobody lives here at all. That’d be better for us, wouldn’t it?”
    Verjan looked away. “The further we go,” he said, “the further we got to go back, once you’ve all seen sense. Look, even supposing we do make it to the sea, then what? Find a boat, he says. Dream on. And suppose we find a boat. We can’t hire anyone to sail it, we’ve got nothing. Sure as hell we can’t sail it ourselves. Down on the coast, anywhere there’s likely to be boats, there’s going to be a lot of people. We can’t just go strolling about, we’re the
enemy
.”
    “Doesn’t follow.” Trahidour joined them. “If we get some local clothes, cut our hair off, we’re just half a dozen poor folks looking for work.”
    Verjan turned and poked Trahidour’s forehead. “What about
that
? These people don’t have the cuts. What’re you going to do, wear a sack over your head?”
    “No,” Chanso said, “a hood. And we can pay for our passage, we got six good horses.”
    “Fine.” Verjan was getting angry. “So we’re going to walk all down through Blemya.”
    “No,” Trahidour said calmly. “We’re going to head for the marketplace, where there’s always some of our people, and we’re going to send home for them to come and get us. Or we borrow horses. If we get to Blemya, we’ll be all right, I’ve been there, we can fit in easy, find work, we’ll be safe there till we can get home. The main thing is to get the hell away from this war. I’ve had about as much of it as I want. Don’t ever want to see those Teeth again.”
    “Exactly.” Verjan got to his knees. “So we go back to Choris Anthropou, where they’re on our side. Damn it, we’ve got pay owing to us there. We can hire a damn coach and four back home, forget about boats. But if you go with
him
, he’ll get you killed. That I can promise you.”
    A shadow fell across Chanso’s face; he looked round and saw Conselh standing behind him. “Him,” he repeated. “And who might
he
be, Verjan?”
    Verjan got up slowly. “You got lucky,” he said. “There happened to be a gap and a river, and now they think you’re a fucking prophet. Folha? Over here. I want three of those arrows.”
    Folha walked over. “What for?”
    “I’m going back. This is stupid. I don’t want to leave you boys with this crazy man, but I’ve had enough. So give me the arrows and I’ll get going.”
    “Sorry,” Conselh said. “We need them. Go if you must. You can take your horse, but that’s it.”
    For a moment, Chanso thought Verjan was going to take a swing at Conselh; but instead he swung round and made a grab for the quiver at Folha’s waist. Folha took a long step back; Verjan