From Across the Clouded Range (56 page)

“
Why are you looking at me
like that?” Dasen examined himself then turned defensive. “I think
I’ve been doing pretty well considering. I mean . . . .”

“
You’ve been doing great,”
Teth assured. She put a hand on his arm. “How are you feeling? Your
head and stomach should be better by now.”

“
Yeah, they’re better, but
the sickness has been replaced with cramps. I know were saving the
food, but can we have something soon?” He held his stomach and
doubled slightly as a spasm struck.

Teth felt her own stomach rumbling and
cramping. She had not allowed them anything more than a single
strip of meat and the few berries she had found along the way. As
it was, they only had a few more strips of meat, she was out of
arrows, and they had lost their only pot at the bridge. If they
made a fire, she could dig some roots and roast them, but that
would mean smoke. Unless they found a village soon, they were going
to get very hungry. “We’ll eat the rest of the meat when we stop,”
she conceded. “It’s not doing us any good in my
satchel.”

Dasen nodded his agreement.

“
Speaking of which,” Teth
sighed, “I suppose we should start looking for somewhere to spend
the night. It is already starting to feel cool. I think the
weather’s changing. We might have a cold night.” Teth felt the
cooling air drawing the heat from her sweat-soaked skin and
clothes. She shivered, as gooseflesh rose on her arms. “You wait
here. I’m going to scout around. I’ll find us another tree to sleep
under and leave a false trail for anyone who’s following us.
Hopefully, that will buy us some time if they come while we’re
sleeping.”

“
Can I do anything while
you’re gone? I feel worthless waiting for you. Is there anything
around here we can use as food? If you show me, I can gather it
while you’re gone. Or can I get some wood for a fire?”

Teth thought. She wondered
if Dasen realized the significance of what he had just done. He had
just asked to do a woman’s jobs while she performed the very manly
task of scouting.
He gets it!
Teth felt her emotions rising, joy flooding her.
She could not help the smile that burst onto her face. “It’s
alright,” she said. “Just rest. It’s been a long day. I’ll figure
out something to eat. There’s still plenty of time before it’s
fully dark.”

“
Okay. I won’t argue with
you, but you should let me help if I can.” He smiled back at her as
he eased himself to sit on the trunk of a fallen tree. “We are
joined after all. We’re supposed to be a team.”

Teth smiled again –
a team of equals
. “I’ll
be back in a few minutes. If you see anything, knock on a tree like
we discussed the other day. Okay?” Dasen nodded, brought his hands
to his knees, and stretched his back. With that, Teth bounded into
the trees feeling as if she were floating despite the stiffness and
fear that had weighed on her a few minutes before.

She had not gone far before she saw
the first stump. The remnants of an ancient oak, it spanned nearly
three of her feet end to end, and it had been recently cut.
Tracking the line of its fall with her eyes, she saw the piles of
sawdust where its branches had been removed, the gouges where it
had been dragged away, and additional stumps scattered among the
trees, leaving leering holes to the dark-blue sky above.

A
freehold
, she realized immediately.
We’re outside of Ipid’s lumber rights. Someone
else has these rights and they’re taking the most valuable
trees.
With the realization, she felt her
pulse rise. Somewhere around here there would be a compound where
the owners lived. It was exactly what they needed, food, shelter,
and a cart to take them to a village.

Teth ran back to where she had left
Dasen. He had moved to the ground and fallen asleep leaning against
the fallen tree that had been his seat. His head was cocked back at
an uncomfortable angle, and he was snoring softly. Teth smiled as
she lightly shook his shoulder. “Dasen, wake up. I think there may
be a freeholder compound nearby. We can probably get food and
shelter there, maybe even a cart or horses to carry us to a
village.”

Dasen’s eyes slowly fluttered open. He
smacked his lips, rubbed his eyes, and stretched his neck. Finally,
he focused on Teth crouched a few feet in front of him. His breath
caught and he looked down at her hand resting on his bent knee.
“What? I mean, what did you say?”

Teth repeated herself, but
she was not sure if Dasen heard her. He was looking at her in the
strangest way, absorbing her features, watching her lips,
considering yet hesitant, fearful, unsure. She wondered if he was
going to kiss her and found herself looking at him in the same way.
She licked her dry, cracked lips, brushed a strand of damp hair
back from her face, and tilted her head slightly.
I’m right here, you fool.

But Dasen did not rise to the bait. He
cleared his throat and looked away, “A freehold, you say. What is
that?”

The moment broken, Teth
snapped herself back and stood. She took a deep, shaking
breath.
What is this stupid boy doing to
me?
“You haven’t heard of
freeholders?”

“
No. It must be unique to
this area. Or a term they just use here.”

“
I suppose.” Teth paused.
She reached a hand down to help him up. “A freeholder is a man who
has purchased or been given the land he works and owns it outright
rather than working for a landlord. There are several of them in
this part of the forest. They are remote, and there’s no easy way
to get the trees to market, so they usually cut down the most
valuable trees on the property and sell them to woodworkers for
furniture and such.”

Dasen yawned then looked around as if
expecting to see someone walk out to greet them. “They have
something like that out east, but I don’t know that there is a
common name for it. Usually its servants or workers who have been
especially loyal or useful who are given their own plots of land,
but they still have to sell their crops back to the landlord, so
it’s not that much different. I’ve heard of something like that for
mining too . . . .”

Teth stopped listening. Dasen had
barely said five words all day. She had obviously hit on a topic of
interest. As he droned on about the commercial efficiencies of
small-scale landholders, she made a mental note to not make the
same mistake again.

When they reached the stump she had
seen earlier, she turned and motioned Dasen to be quiet. He
complied immediately and watched the trees nervously. “It’s
alright,” she assured. “I haven’t seen any signs that people have
been here recently. But we should be careful. It’s possible the
invaders have found the compound too or that the owner isn’t very
fond of strangers.”

Dasen nodded and looked suddenly
nervous. “Do you think the invaders could have made it this far
already? If so, should we be risking it? Should we go around
instead?”

“
I wouldn’t be surprised
if their scouts have gotten this far, but most of the freeholds are
miles from the villages. I don’t think they would have found
it.”

“
But it has a road leading
to it, right? They have to get the timber out somehow. Wouldn’t the
invaders just follow the road?”

Teth thought. Dasen had a good point.
“Maybe, but we might as well see. As long as we’re careful, we
should be alright. They can’t be expecting us.” Dasen did not look
any more confident. “Do you want me to scout it, and you can stay
here?” she offered.

He thought about that. Teth could not
decide if she liked or hated the fact that he would consider
letting her go alone. “No,” he finally decided. “We should stick
together. You lead. I’ll follow as quietly as I can. Just signal if
I need to stop.”

They moved slowly, cautiously,
following the clear trail left by the trees that had been dragged
from their homes. Teth tried to keep them obscured as much as
possible, and the soft ground muffled even Dasen’s steps. Still it
was over a mile before the tracks stopped and they peered out from
behind one of the few trees that still surrounded a set of rough
plank buildings.

All told there were half-a-dozen
buildings of various sizes and states of repair. The largest was a
two-story house that sprawled across one side of the great clearing
with numerous additions that made it look like a miniature version
of a Morg lodge. Given that three or more generations of the family
might live in that house, it was probably nowhere near big enough.
In front of the house, encompassing the entire center of the
clearing, was a small field of vegetables with green stalks just
beginning to bear their fruit. Arrayed around the garden were a
small barn with pens for animals – likely pigs, a few sheep, and a
milk cow – radiating from it, a chicken coup, a large empty
structure with no walls that likely housed the wagon, a stable, and
two ramshackle sheds. All the buildings were made of rough grey
planks over stout wooden beams. The roofs were mossy wooden
shingles with the exception of the house, where a new set of
shingles still stood out tan against the weathered gray of the
building below them.

And all the buildings were empty. No
animals were in the pens. No women worked the garden or sat on the
house’s long porch. No children ran between the buildings. There
was no wagon or men stacking it with logs. The garden appeared to
have been ransacked and trampled – plants were broken, uprooted,
sprawling on the ground. The door of every building stood open.
Tools, clothing, even furniture had been torn from them and
scattered.

“
The invaders have already
been here,” Teth gave voice to what they already knew.

Immediately beside her, Dasen released
a long breath that she could feel on her neck. “So they’re ahead of
us. We’ll never get clear now.” His voice held defeat. She felt him
deflating.

“
There’s still hope,” Teth
replied. “They are probably desperate for supplies after their trip
across the mountains. They are probably sending raiding parties out
ahead of the army to steal food and supplies. If they have an army
large enough to conquer the continent, it will take days for all of
them to get through the forests and across the river. Then they
have to regroup and plan their advance. It may be days or weeks
before they march in earnest.”

“
I hope you’re right,”
Dasen said with a sigh. She noticed that his eyes had turned to the
rapidly darkening sky, but there was nothing there to
see.

“
Well, let’s take a look,”
Teth declared. Dasen stared at her as if she were crazy. “Don’t
worry. Whoever did this is long gone. Haven’t you ever played
hide-and-seek? The best place to hide is somewhere that the seeker
has already looked.”

“
Isn’t that
cheating?”

“
Not if the seekers plan
to ‘beat the wildcat out of you.’ Come on.” Teth snickered at
Dasen’s shock then rubbed his arm reassuringly. “Well its better
than fucking the wildcat out of me, right?” Dasen looked like she
had just slapped him. She stood and walked cautiously to the back
of the first building, a shed that looked like it might collapse
with the slightest push.

Dasen joined her a few seconds later,
and they snuck together around the building then crouched down and
watched the yard for a few more minutes. There was nothing. Doors
swung slightly in the gentle breeze. Water dripped slowly from an
overturned bucket teetering off the well. A rabbit shot out from
the garden, sprinting toward the cover of the trees, leaving Teth
reaching reflexively toward her empty quiver. Finally, she stood to
her full height, and, with a final glance at the first stars above,
walked confidently into the yard.

Nothing happened. There was no trap.
No hiding freeholders. No creatures waiting. They walked across the
garden, found nothing worth taking, and cautiously entered the
umbrous house. Once their eyes adjusted to the dark, they found
empty dishes with the remnants of porridge still sitting on the
table. The invaders had come at breakfast, near dawn, hours ago.
The kitchen was ransacked. Shards of shattered crockery crunched
under their feet. Every scrap of food had been taken as had pots,
pans, knives, anything useful. Blankets had been stripped from
beds. The pantry and vegetable cellar were barren. Even in their
desperate state, Dasen and Teth could find almost nothing that
would help them. So with their stomachs rumbling, they ate the
remnants of cold porridge from the wooden bowl that remained on the
table. Teth allowed them to supplement the barely edible goo with
what remained of the dried meat. It was not enough, but it waylaid
momentarily the aching of their bellies.

By the time they were done, the house
was so dark that they could barely see each other across the narrow
table, but Teth saw the jerking of Dasen’s shadow. He was falling
asleep as he ate. She felt her own eyelids creeping down unbidden
and knew that their day was done. “We shouldn’t sleep here,” she
said through a yawn. “The freeholder or some of his family may come
back and get the wrong idea. Or your friends might find our
trail.”

Dasen yawned long and deep. His head
eased toward the table before he caught himself and jerked it back
up. “So back to the forest? Under another tree?”