From Across the Clouded Range (62 page)

“
I should check on the
baby,” Lu said. “She’s prob’ly wantin’ ta eat.”

“
Well, there’s no reason
you can’t do that while yir boilin’ water, is there?” Seri
snapped.

“
No, but the rabbits . . .
.”

“
Fine, give ‘em ta Summer.
I swear, the two of you . . . .”

Louisa smiled as she fell in behind
Seri and Teth. As she passed, she handed the rabbits to Summer. The
seemingly reserved girl might have killed her sister-in-law with
her eyes, but she accepted the string.

“
Women,” Jer said with
dismay. “They’ll fight over whether or not the sun’s comin’ up in
the mornin’. I don’t know how Seri puts up with ‘em. An’ it won’t
be too long befir Kevin’s lookin’ fir one.” He shook his head but
smiled. “So now that we’s got the girls out of the way, why don’ ya
tell me what ya know ‘bout this invasion an’ such.”

Jer placed an arm around Dasen’s
shoulder and led him toward the house. As they walked, Dasen told
their story in as much detail as he thought appropriate, ending
with their goal of reaching Wildern so they could tell the
Chancellor what they’d seen. To protect Tethina, he left out her
role in their escapes, downplayed the dangers they’d faced, and
glossed over their time on the other side of the river. Jer
listened intently with no comment beyond the occasional grunt or
nod. The exception was his mention of the creatures. At that, the
old man squeezed his shoulder.

“
I seen ‘em in the sky,”
he whispered. “But don’ say nothin’ ‘bout that ‘round the girls,
if’n ya don’ mind. They’s already seen enough, an’ I don’ want ‘em
any more panicked than they’s already.”

“
Of course,” Dasen
promised. “But what about you? What happened here?”

They stood near the barn, fifty paces
from the house where the women had disappeared, but Jer watched the
structure nervously nonetheless. He rubbed his weathered head and
drew a breath but did not get a chance to speak.

“
The water’s hot if ya
want to clean up,” Louisa yelled from the porch. She sat a steaming
wooden bowl on a small table then returned with a towel and
razor.

“
Why don’t ya go ‘head an’
clean up?” Jer suggested. “It’ll be some time ‘fore dinner. Our
story’ll wait till yir done.”

Dasen nodded, and they walked silently
back to the house. As they approached, he heard Teth’s voice rise
from an open side window. “I’m sorry, but it won’t fit. My
shoulders are just too broad.”

“
Now, dear,” Seri
responded with a sigh, “let’s try another. I’m sure we can find
something. Maybe one of Summer’s dresses. . . .”

“
She’s smaller than
Louisa,” Teth growled. “This isn’t going to work.”

“
So,” Jer pulled Dasen’s
attention away, “sounds like Tethina has her own mind, if ya don’
mind me sayin’.”

“
You could say that,”
Dasen conceded.

“
Don’ worry ‘bout it.” Jer
slapped his arm and laughed. “Seri’s the same way. It’s good
really. She had those boys under ‘er thumb right from the first.
They couldn’t put a thing past ‘er. You’ll learn ta appreciate that
when ya have yir own kids.” Dasen could only nod.

“
Here ya are,” Jer said as
they climbed the stairs to the porch. “I’ll leave ya to
it.”

Dasen thanked him then pulled off his
shirt, scrubbed himself down, shaved his nascent beard, then dried
off, put on the clean shirt Seri brought him, and cautiously
entered the house.

“
Feelin’ better?” Jer
asked.

With the sun setting, it
was decidedly dark in the house, and it took Dasen a moment to find
their host sitting at the end of a long table. At the other end of
the huge main room, Summer was stirring a large pot that hung over
a low fire. She had removed her bonnet, but Dasen could not see
anything more than shadows through the strands of brown hair that
had escaped the mammoth braid wound on her head. She stoked her
swollen belly and hummed to herself as she stirred. On the other
side of the room, Danny sat on a rug looking at one of the
illustrations in a worn copy of
The Book
of Valatarian
. Squares of colored light –
red, blue, green, yellow – stretched across him from the bright
panes at the top of a west-facing window. Finally, in the farthest
corner, sitting on a stool, leaning against a wall almost behind a
hutch that held painted ceramic plates and mugs, was Louisa. She
held a baby to her and watched it eat. Dasen diverted his eyes, but
not before he saw the white expanse of her bared breast.

“
Louisa,” Jer scolded, “do
ya have ta do that ‘ere? Ya have yir own room.”

She looked up surprised, the slightest
shade of vitriol crossing her expression, then stood and marched
without a word to a room at the back.

“
Sorry ‘bout that,” Jer
said. “That one’s almost more trouble than she’s worth sometimes.”
He shook his head and looked toward Danny. “Makes ‘er some good
kids though and not a hitch with either one. Summer, now, she’s a
sweet girl but so small, an’ Kal’s the biggest of the boys. I worry
‘bout ‘er when the baby comes. Course, Seri knows what she’s
doin’.”

Just then Teth walked in through a
door in the back of the house carrying a wooden bowl. Her face and
hair were still damp, skin pink from scrubbing. She still wore her
men’s clothes, though the shirt was new, probably donated by Jer’s
youngest son.

She waited a second for her eyes to
adjust then scowled at Dasen as she approached the table. Dasen
rose and met her before she reached the bench where she had surely
intended to sit next to Jer. “Tethina,” he greeted, “you look
refreshed. I am sorry that Seri was unable to find you a dress.”
Teth almost growled, but Dasen wasn’t taking it. They weren’t in
the forest any longer. He was not going to let her ruin the
Muldon’s hospitality. “I am sure Summer could use a hand with
dinner. Or I believe there was work to be done in the garden. I am
speaking with Jer right now. I will have time for you
later.”

Teth looked at him as if she’d been
slapped. Her eyes went wide, mouth hung open, nostrils flared. Her
muscles tensed so that they were almost shaking. But Dasen did not
give in. “Go along now. Perhaps Summer can give you some advice on
carrying a baby.” He did not stay to see the expression that the
final comment earned him, but he could almost feel her hatred like
heat from a fire as he turned. He took a deep breath and steeled
himself. He had always known this would be difficult, but it would
only be made worse by waiting.

Jer just smiled as Dasen returned to
his seat. “Don’ be too tough with ‘er,” he suggested. “She’s had a
hard life, that one. Never had no one but that aunt ta show ‘er
what’s right.”

Dasen nodded but felt Teth’s eyes
boring into him from where she sat with Summer by the fire. The
girl was prattling on about the baby she carried, asking Teth to
feel it kick. Teth barely seemed to notice for the venom she
projected at her husband. “So what happened here?” Dasen finally
asked, wanting desperately to change the subject.

Jer took a deep breath and scanned the
room. Just then Seri entered and walked over to them. “Do you need
anything? I’m sorry we don’t have tea. Some water,
maybe?”

“
We’s alright, mother,”
Jer told her. “I’s just goin’ ta talk with Dasen fir a bit. Let us
know when the stew’s ready.”

In way of answer, Seri rubbed Jer’s
shoulders then bent and kissed the top of his bald head. He looked
up at her with affection. A tear escaped her eye and rolled down
her round cheek.

“
None of that now,
Mother,” Jer said gently. “We’ll be alright. Don’ ya worry. Now run
along an’ let me talk ta Dasen ‘ere.” Seri nodded and brushed the
tear away as she went to join Teth and Summer near the fire. To
Dasen’s relief, Teth had stopped trying to kill him with her eyes.
Her hand actually rested on Summer’s belly, a look of shock spread
across her face.

“
It’s just like ya said.”
Jer’s low voice pulled Dasen from the scene. “They’s big men with
big horses. Big as Morgs I s’pose, though I ain’t seem many of
them. There’s about a dozen of ‘em. They came ridin’ up our little
road yesterday right about this time of day. I’s jist comin’ back
with the boys. We’d been planning out the next tree we’s gonna take
when all a sudden there’s men everywhere, yellin’ in some language
I never heard. I don’t even right know what happened. One of ‘em
hit me and everythin’ went black.” He rubbed a purple lump on the
side of his head for emphasis.

“
When I woke up, Seri’s
holdin’ me, and the invaders, as you called ‘em, are driving out of
‘ere with everything we have an’ using my own wagon ta do it.” Jer
paused and took a deep shaking breath. “Worst part is they done
took my boys. Tied ‘em up and led ‘em out behind the wagon jist
like the sheep an’ pigs.” Jer’s voice broke as he struggled with
the memory. “I wanted ta fight then, ta git my boys, but mother
stopped me. Prob’ly good too cause I think they’d killed me, and
then there’d be no one left ta look after the girls.”

Jer’s eyes remained fixed on the table
a short way in front of him, but Dasen was certain that he did not
see the worn planks. Dasen did not think that a man who looked as
hard as Jer should be capable of weeping. It simply did not appear
that his face would allow it, but he was close. He finally wiped
the emotions away with a cloth that he produced from his pocket.
“At least they didn’ hurt the girls none,” he forced a smile. “Men
like that, they could of done a lot worse, I thank the Order fir
that anyway.”

“
And you haven’t seen them
again?” Dasen asked.

Jer shook his head. “I kept an eye out
all mornin’. Had the girls ready ta hide in the cellar – the
bastards never did find that – had my bow ready, but they never
showed again. Finally, I went ta check the snares. That’s when I
found y’all.”

“
But you saw creatures? In
the sky?” Dasen tried to lower his voice, but Jer still scanned the
room to be sure no one had heard.

“
This mornin’,” he
whispered. “They’s far off, but I’s always had good eyes, an’ I
could see they wasn’t nothing normal. Matches what you seen, I
suppose.”

Dasen nodded and
thought.
Are they still looking for
us?
“But no creatures on foot? Just the
men on horses?”

“
That’s right an’ lucky
‘nough from what ya said.”

There was a pause as both
of them seemed to run out of things to say. They stared at the
table for a while then Dasen’s eyes drifted to Teth. She was
holding a bowl as Seri filled it with stew. The two of them talked.
It looked almost as if she were enjoying herself. Dasen felt his
heart leap at the thought.
Is it working
already?

“
So,” Jer interrupted,
“you think they’re from o’er the mountains? Ya think they’re the
Exiles er some such?” He tried to make the last a joke, but the
intensity of his eyes revealed the lie of it.

“
I definitely think
they’re from across the mountains,” Dasen said, voice cast low. “As
for Exiles . . ., I don’t know. I . . . .”

“
Time ta stop¸ you two,”
Seri scolded. “Dinners ready, an’ the way yir talkin’ I’m beginnin’
ta think yir plannin’ somethin’.”

Jer snapped his eyes from the table.
The sadness and stress of a moment before melted away, replaced by
his warm smile. “Right ya are, Mother. We’s getting’ too serious.
We need somethin’ ta fill our mouths ‘fore they get us in trouble.
Ain’t that right, Dasen?”

“
Surely. May I help get
the food on?”

Seri laughed. “You’re a dear. Thank ya
fir the offer, but we can manage.” With that she turned and asked
Summer to get Louisa. Finally, she nudged Jer. “Did ya tell
‘im?”

Jer looked surprised then grabbed
Dasen’s arm and spoke low while Seri filled cups with water. “I can
understand why yir goin’ ta Wildern, an’ that’s a brave thing yir
doin’, but there’s no reason ta subject poor Tethina ta all this.
She’s more’n welcome ta stay with us. We’ll look after ‘er fir ya,
an’ when all this is over, ya can send fir ‘er. I’m not tellin’ ya
how ta keep yir wife, now, but women ain’t as tough as us men. Yir
obviously plenty cap’ble given what ya’ve done thus far, but it’s
gonna be a dangerous trip, an’ ya might not be able ta look after
‘er like ya’d want. That’s all I’m sayin’.”

Teth practically threw a bowl of stew
at Dasen. Her face twisted up like she’d just eaten a bad piece of
fruit. Obviously, she’d heard Jer. Dasen could only hope that she
would not decide to make a point of the lies inherent in what their
host had just said. He tried to make his face stern, but his eyes
ended up pleading instead. After what seemed a long time, she
growled, low in her chest and went to get more bowls.

#

Dasen spent the rest of the evening in
a state of dreadful bewilderment. It started with dinner, a
delicious rabbit stew that eventually filled his impossibly empty
stomach. He sat with Jer at one end of the table. Teth was
surrounded by the women and children at the other. Open seats
separated them where Jer’s sons would have been. Jer said a simple
prayer, then they ate. As was proper, there was little interaction
between the men and women. Dasen and Jer spoke about less weighty
subjects: his studies, his father’s business, the basic economics
of a freeholder. Teth was similarly swamped with questions about
her joining ceremony and time in the wilderness. To Dasen’s
bewilderment, she answered the questions enthusiastically and
upheld his version of events, giving him, if anything, too much
credit for what they had done. To his dread, she did it with a
knowing smirk, and when she looked at him it was with a dreamy-eyed
affection that could only be meant as sarcastic.