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Besides, it hadn’t started raining yet. And wounded as he was, they assumed he’d be back.
No, they hadn’t thought to follow him; they’d been posted to keep anyone from entering the ger, not to keep him from going anywhere. Besides, he was a foreigner; you couldn t guess what he was doing. Half an hourlater they’d been relieved, and hadn’t mentioned it to their replacements—it hadn’t seemed necessary, and besides, it was raining then.
Nils’s horses were gone from the paddock, the one that Shakir had given him, and the two that Kaidu had gifted him with. The horse guards on duty, who were slaves, knew nothing about it. Kaidu, angry now, had the horse guards of the earlier watch brought to him. Yes, the giant had come and gotten his horses well before midnight. They thought it was all right. They were his horses.
What way had he gone? They hadn’t noticed; it had been very dark. It hadn’t started to rain yet, but the overcast had been heavy, and one could see only a few paces.
Kaidu’s anger died. “He is a wizard,” the chief said thoughtfully. ‘Who can understand the comings and goings of a wizard? A foreign wizard, especially. And if, in the afternoon, his wound was dangerous, what might his wizardry have accomplished with it since? I’d hoped to recruit him as the shaman of my house. He is wiser and more honest than Teb-Tengri, and more able. But …” He shrugged.
Achikh jogged back to the ger where his companions waited. Hans and Baver had already bundled their things; Hans would follow Nils, and Baver intended to go with him. “Hurry,” Hans said to Achikh. “We will wait while you get ready.”
Achikh shook his head. “No,” he said, “I’ll let him go. It is not my place to tell him to come back, or to follow him when he refuses. And I believe my brother needs me. But if you’ll wait a little, I’ll see that you have a
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pack horse and supplies, that you need not slow down to hunt along the way. You’ll be slowed enough by tracking.”
It galled Hans to delay, but he was a Northman, and trailwise beyond his years. Besides, the cook had just arrived. So they waited, he and Baver, and ate.
Meanwhile Kaidu sent horsemen spiralling out from the encampment, under orders to continue till they found tracks that they thought were the Northman’s. They were not to follow them, but to mark the place and bring back word. Hans and Baver should stay till then.
It was afternoon before the two left. By then a cool wind was breaking up the clouds. Briefly, Baver thought Achikh was going to change his mind and go with them, but he didn’t. They left alone, with supplies and a small banner of Kaidu’s house that had a safe-conduct rolled up in it.
TWENTY-FOUR
Hans and Baver had set out riding briskly, for Nils’s tracks had been headed southeastward on the ancient highway, and tracking didn’t seem necessary. It should, they thought, be enough simply to follow the road. They’d hoped to catch sight of him before dark. He had his wound, after all, and he’d started before midnight. Surely he’d had to stop and rest. Probably he’d holed up in his shelter tent when it began to rain, to sleep at least until it quit.
But the days were growing shorter, and dusk arrived before they caught up with him. “Shall we go on?” Baver asked. “He has to be weak after losing blood the way he did.”
Hans had seen more wounds than Baver, and paid closer attention to them. Nils had bled freely enough, but the loss had not been great, especially for someone his size. What troubled Hans most was that Nils had chosen to leave without him. He must have had a reason, but nonetheless— Hans nodded; someone following the road as Nils was would surely not leave it far to camp— not far enough to miss, even in the night. If they stayed
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with it, making good use of their remounts, they’d catch him before daylight.
They stopped briefly to let their horses graze. For their own supper, they made do with curds and airag, then pushed on. By midnight Baver was having trouble staying awake in the saddle. Hans, on the other hand, wasnt sleepy. He had something to occupy him—watching for sign that Nils might have left the road, farther than he’d expected. When the halfmoon set, about midnight, he thought of camping. Instead he took a chance and pushed on. Twice he stopped at arroyos. One had a tiny creek, and the other might have water a little upstream or down. At each he dismounted and knelt, examining as best he could, with eyes and fingers, the grass and ground alone the old roadbed for sign of someone having left the road. And found none. Nor did the dry arroyo have tracks in the bottom. Hans mounted again and pushed on.