When they rode north out of the village, they had not only the pack string, but the tax girls, and three village youths who insisted they wanted to join the rebel band. And eight of the tax cattle. The rest had scattered, and there was no time to round them up.
When he rode away from town at the head of his column, Macurdy already could see faint dawnlight along the eastern horizon. Before long he could see a mile or more. No one seemed sleepy, and from time to time they trotted their horses. The sun rose, and began its daily trip. They passed farmers on the road or at chores, or in the fields—men and women who stared worriedly at them, and kept out of their way. Meadow larks challenged each other in liquid notes, while marsh hawks soared over the hay fields, watching for rodents. Gradually the morning warmed, but remained less than hot; the humidity was low and the breeze pleasant. It would be easy, Macurdy told himself, to think the danger was over, if there’d been any in the first place. And maybe it was over, but that seemed unlikely.
After a bit, Blue Wing found him. “Macurdy! Macurdy!” he cawed, and Macurdy, pulling off the rutted, hoof-packed road, waited while the column passed. Waited for what he was sure was bad news. A rail fence bordered the road there, and with uplifted wings, the great raven braked to land on it. Carrying on a conversation in flight was difficult.
“You are not where you told me you’d be!” he said accusingly.
“I found out things I hadn’t known. The North Fork Road’s too dangerous. We’d have been caught.”
“They’re coming! Many more of them than you! And they’re riding faster! You’d better hurry!”
“Thanks. We’ll go as fast as we dare, but we don’t dare wear the horses out.” And the pack string may start to gallop, and the cattle. That’ll use them up fast.
The cattle, Macurdy decided, were the most dispensable, but he’d keep them as long as he could. “How close have they gotten? Have they forded the creek with the brushy banks?”
Blue Wing looked at him exasperated. “Most of the creeks around here have brushy banks.”
“The creek with brush that comes up to the road. The next to last creek we crossed between here and the village.”
“I’ll see.” The bird flexed its legs, and launched itself with a whoosh! whoosh! of powerful wing strokes. Then Macurdy urged his big gelding into a canter, to catch the head of the column again.
The great raven was back before many minutes, and Macurdy and Tarlok pulled off the road while the column passed. Their pursuers had crossed the creek, Blue Wing said, were well past it. Tarlok shook his head. “We won’t reach the forest before they catch us. Not unless we leave the pack string behind, and the cattle. And if we do that, they’ll say they beat us—that we quit. That we’re scared of them. And the story will spread.”
“Right.” And it’ll kill the optimism people have been feeling. Especially these guys. He turned to Blue Wing again. “There are two places ahead where we rode through woods last night, after we left the forest, but I couldn’t see well enough to know what it’s like there. Go take a look for me.”
Again the great raven left, then returned. Blue Wing always described things differently than a human would, but it seemed to Macurdy there were opportunities in those woods.
He chose one squad and told them what he had in mind for them. The country here was higher, sloping generally southward, and where the woods farther south were mostly in scattered small blocks, here they were irregular, oriented on irregularities in the terrain. It was midmorning when Macurdy came to a broad shallow draw, with a creek running through it flanked by woods. By that time Blue Wing had swooped low a couple of times to urge speed; their pursuit was getting close. Looking back, Macurdy could see a dust cloud: the reeve’s men. No doubt they were trotting their horses by intervals.
He and Tarlok kicked their own animals to a brief downhill canter, leading the column into the draw. When they were well into the trees, Macurdy and the squad he’d chosen drew up. Tarlok pulled off too, and called for the others to halt.