They told him, stepping on one another’s lines. It turned out they were from two different districts. Three were from north, up the road not many hours’ ride; the others were from three day’s ride northeast.
“Anyone here injured?” he asked.
They’d all been beaten after their capture, and the two from the northeastern band hadn’t eaten for four days, except what the dwarves had fed them. Macurdy realized that he was pretty hungry himself. “All right. We’re going north another quarter mile or so. There’s an inn there. I’ll hide you near it and go see about horses.”
One of the rebels spoke then—one of the northeastern group—a rangy, tough-looking man who’d given his name as Wolf. “Where are you from?” he asked. “You don’t sound like Tekalos, neither hillsman nor flatlander.”
“From off west,” Macurdy said, “the other side of the Great Muddy. A country called Oz; I was a soldier there. Two of us were, and the woman’s father was a commander. She’s one of a caste of warrior women, weapons-trained all her life. She’s killed two men since we left there.”
“How’d you get mixed up in our trouble?”
Macurdy laughed wryly. “We didn’t get along with our troll’s spawn of a commander. So one morning about daybreak I tromped the seeds out of him and three of his bully boys. Then we grabbed some horses and took off. Kept ahead of them long enough to cross the Muddy.”
Macurdy realized that his story sounded unlikely, but it went with the lingering discoloration of his face, and his missing and broken teeth.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Wolf said. “How’d you get mixed up in the troubles here? Why’d you cut us loose?”
“Any king, or count, or reeve who’d hang people up like that, deserves all the enemies he can get. We decided we’d give him six more.”
“How’d the dwarves get mixed up in it? I never heard of them mixing in tallfolks’ troubles before.”
“They’re young westerners, feeling their oats.”
“Umm.”
It was apparent that Wolf still had reservations, but he’d go along for the time being. The rest were probably too grateful, Macurdy decided, and too hungry, to question their rescuer’s motives. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s get moving. We’ve got to get well away from here before daylight.”
They walked slowly, keeping to the grain field to avoid people riding away from town and the fires. His rebels were rural, automatically considerate of growing crops, and stayed in single file to lessen damage. After a bit they crossed the Valley Highway and continued well past the inn, then angled northwest across pasture. Northeastward, Macurdy could make out horses grazing, probably rental animals belonging to the innkeeper. Scattered along the north-south road were spreading trees that would have inhibited dew formation, and he steered toward one of them. When they got there, they found a thin fringe of shrubs and saplings growing along the rail fence, screening the pasture from the road. The rebels sank to the ground.
“I’ll leave you here for a while,” Macurdy said, “while I see what horses I can scrounge. Wolf, come with me. I’ll be back before long.” Then he headed toward the inn.
The dwarves had come in just ahead of him. The town gates had been opened, and the last room already let when they’d arrived, so they’d crowded in with Jeremid, Melody, and Verder, in the small room Macurdy had rented earlier.
“I’ve got the others waiting north up the road,” he told them. “They’re not in very good shape; haven’t been eating, and two were beaten up pretty badly. I’ll take them north up the road to the nearest rebel camp, but I need horses for them.”
“Simple enough,” Jeremid said. Melody was nodding agreement even before he explained. “Just take some from the stable. Saddle what you need and go.”
Macurdy shook his head. “There’s the stable boy, and whatever guard or guards the innkeeper has there. We’d have to manhandle them; tie and gag them. And the only enemies I want in this country are the king and his henchmen.”
Tossi spoke before Jeremid could argue. “As I count them,” the dwarf said, “we need only three more. I’ll hire them from the innkeeper in the mornin’, or buy them if he’ll sell.”