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saddlebags with his eyes closed, pushed himself slightly more upright,
adjusted his left leg, and asked Saun suddenly, You know the name of that
farmer town the malice was supposed to have come up under?
Greenspring, Saun replied absently, craning his neck through the open,
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leeward side of their shelter to look, in vain, for a break in the clouds.
Do you know where it is? Ever been there?
Yeah, couple of times. It s about twenty-five miles northwest of Bonemarsh.
He sat back on his saddlecloth and gestured vaguely at the opposite shelter
wall.
Dag pursed his lips. That must be, what, pretty nearly fifty miles above the
old cleared line?
Nearly.
How was it ever let get started, up so far? It wasn t there in my day.
Saun shrugged. Some settlement s been there for as long as I ve been alive.
Three roads meet, and a river. There were a couple of mills, if I remember
rightly. Sawmill first. Later, when there got to be more farms around it, they
built one for grain. Blacksmith, forge, more. We d stopped in at the
blacksmith a few times, though they weren t too friendly to patrollers.
Why not? asked Fawn, willing to be indignant on Saun s behalf.
Old history. First few times farmers tried to settle up there, the Raintree
patrollers ran them off, but they snuck back. Worse than pulling stumps, to
try and get farmers off cleared land. On account of all the stumps they had to
pull to clear it, I guess. There finally got to be so many of them, and so
stubborn, it would have taken bloodshed to shift em, and folks gave up and
let em stay on.
Dag frowned.
Saun pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them in the damp chill.
Fellow up there once told me Lakewalkers were just greedy, to keep such prime
farming country for a hunting reserve. That his people could win more food
from it with a plow than we ever could with bows and traps.
What we hunt, they could not eat, growled Mari.
That s the same fellow who told me blight bogles were a fright story made up
by Lakewalkers to keep farmers off, Saun added a bit grimly. You wonder
where he is now.
Griff and Varleen shook their heads. Fawn bit her lip.
Dag wound a finger in his hair, pulling gently on a strand. He was overdue
for another cut, Fawn thought, unless he meant to grow it out like his
comrades. I want to look at the place before we head home.
Griff s brow furrowed. That d be a good three days out of our way, Dag.
Maybe only two, if we jog up and catch the northern road again. He added
after a moment, We could leave here two days early and be home on schedule
all the same.
Mari gave him a fishy look. Thought it was about time for you to start
gettin resty. Hoharie said, seven days off it for that leg. We all heard
her.
Come on, you know she padded that.
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Mari did not exactly deny this, but she did say, And why would you want to,
anyway? You know what blight looks like, without having to go look at more.
It s all the same. That s what makes it blight.
Company captain s duty. Fairbolt will want a report on how this all got
started.
Not his territory, Dag. It s some Raintree camp captain s job to look into
it.
Dag s eyelids lowered and rose, in that peculiar I-am-not-arguing-about-this
look; his gaze met Fawn s curious one. Nonetheless, I need to see whatever
can be seen. I m not calling for a debate on this, in case any of you were
confused. A faint, rare tinge of iron entered his voice. Not arguing,
apparently, but not giving way, either.
Mari s face screwed up. Why? I could likely give you a tolerably accurate
description of it all from right where I sit, and so could you. Depressing,
but accurate. What answers are you lookin for?
If I knew, I wouldn t have to go look. More hair-twisting. I don t think
I m even looking for answers. I m think I m looking for new questions. He
gave Fawn a slow nod.
The next morning dawned bright blue, and everyone spent it getting their gear
spread out in the sun or up on branches to dry out. By noon, Dag judged this
task well along, and floated the notion of starting out today in gentle, easy
stages, to counter Mari s exasperated look and mutter ofTold you so. But since
Mari was as sick of this place as everyone else, Dag soon had his way.
With the promise of home dangling in the distance, however round-aboutly, the
youngsters had the camp broken down and bundled up in an hour, and Saun led
their six mounts and the packhorse northwest. They skirted wide around the
dead marsh, flat and dun in a crystalline light that still could not make it
sparkle, for all that a shortcut across the blight would have saved several
miles.
Halfway around, Mari drew her horse to a halt and turned her face to a
vagrant moist breeze.
What? Saun called back, alert.
Smell that? said Mari.
Right whiffy, said Varleen, wrinkling her nose.
Something s starting to rot, Dag explained to Fawn, who rode up beside him
and looked anxiously inquiring. That s good.
She shook her head. You people.
Hope is where you find it. He smiled down at her, then pushed Copperhead
along. He could feel his weary patrol s mood lighten just a shade.
As he d promised Mari, they weaved through the woodlands of Raintree at a
sedate walk. They rode with groundsenses open, like people trailing their
hands through the weeds as they strolled, not formally patrolling, but as
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routine precaution. You never knew. Dag himself had once found and done for a
very early sessile that way, when he was riding courier all alone in the far
northeast hinterland of Seagate. Still, their amble put a good twelve miles
between them and the Bonemarsh blight by the time they stopped in the early
evening. Dag thought everyone slept a bit better that night; even he did,
despite the throbbing ache in his healing thigh.
They started off the next day earlier, but no faster. Varleen spotted two
mud-man corpses off the trail that appeared to have died naturally, running
down at the end of the stolen strength the malice had given them, suggesting
the hazard from the rest of their cohort was now much reduced. Even at this
slow pace, the little patrol came up on the first noxious pinching of the
blight around Greenspring by midafternoon.
In the shade of the last live trees before the trail opened out into cleared
fields, Dag held up his hook, and everyone pulled their mounts to a halt.
We don t all have to go in. We could set up a camp here. You could stay with
Varleen and Griff, Fawn. Blight this deep will be draining, even if you can t
feel it. Bad for you. And& it could be ugly. Will be ugly.
Fawn leaned on her pommel and gave him a sharp look. If it s bad for me,
won t it be worse for you? Convalescing as you aren t at least not any too
fast, that I can see.
Mari vented a sour chuckle. She s got you there.
Fawn took a breath and sat up. This place it s something like West Blue,
right?
Maybe, Dag allowed.
Then I need to see it, too. She gave a firm little nod.
They exchanged a long look; her resolve rang true.Should I be surprised?
Soonest begun, soonest done, then. We won t linger long. Dag braced himself
and waved Saun onward.
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