"That's insane!" Susan spoke indignantly, as one is apt to when one hears one's hometown unjustly maligned. "We welcome strangers to our fairs, so we do, and always have! We're not a bunch of... of savages!"
"Soft, soft," Cuthbert said, giggling. "We know that, but Deputy Dave don't know we know, do he? He knows his wife makes the best white tea for miles around, and after that Dave's pretty much at sea. Sheriff Herk knows a leetle more, I sh'd judge, but not much."
"The pains they've taken to warn us off means two things," Roland said. "The first is that they intend to move on Reaping Fair-Day, just as you said, Susan. The second is that they think they can steal Parson's goods right out from under our noses."
"And then perhaps blame us for it afterward," Alain said.
She looked curiously from one to the other, then said: "What have you planned, then?"
"To destroy what they've left at Citgo as bait of our own and then to strike them where they gather," Roland said quietly. "That's Hanging Rock. At least half the tankers they mean to take west are there already. They'll have a force of men. As many as two hundred, perhaps, although I think it will turn out to be less. I intend that all these men should die."
"If they don't, we will," Alain said.
"How can the four of us kill two hundred soldiers?"
"We can't. But if we can start one or two of the clustered tankers burning, we think there'll be an explosion - mayhap a fearful one. The surviving soldiers will be terrified, and the surviving leaders infuriated. They'll see us, because we'll let ourselves be seen ..."
Alain and Cuthbert were watching him breathlessly. The rest they had either been told or had guessed, but this part was the counsel Roland had, until now, kept to himself.
"What then?" she asked, frightened. "What then? "
"I think we can lead them into Eyebolt Canyon," Roland said. "I think we can lead them into the thinny."
5
Thunderstruck silence greeted this. Then, not without respect, Susan said:
"You're mad."
"No," Cuthbert said thoughtfully. "He's not. You're thinking about that little cut in the canyon wall, aren't you, Roland? The one just before the jog in the canyon floor."
Roland nodded. "Four could scramble up that way without too much trouble. At the top, we'll pile a fair amount of rock. Enough to start a landslide down on any that should try following us."
"That's horrible," Susan said.
"It's survival," Alain replied. "If they're allowed to have the oil and put it to use, they'll slaughter every Affiliation man that gets in range of their weapons. The Good Man takes no prisoners."
"I didn't say wrong, only horrible."
They were silent for a moment, four children contemplating the murders of two hundred men. Except they wouldn't all be men; many (perhaps even most) would be boys roughly their own ages.
At last she said, "Those not caught in your rockslide will only ride back out of the canyon again."
"No, they won't." Alain had seen the lay of the land and now understood the matter almost completely. Roland was nodding, and there was a trace of a smile on his mouth.
"Why not?"
"The brush at the front of the canyon. We're going to set it on fire, aren't we, Roland? And if the prevailing winds are prevailing that day ... the smoke ..."
"It'll drive them the rest of the way in," Roland agreed. "Into the thinny."
"How will you set the brush-pile alight?" Susan asked. "I know it's dry, but surely you won't have time to use a sulfur match or your flint and steel."
"You can help us there," Roland said, "just as you can help us set the tankers alight. We can't count on touching off the oil with just our guns, you know; crude oil is a lot less volatile than people might think. And Sheemie's going to help you, I hope."
"Tell me what you want."
6
They talked another twenty minutes, refining the plan surprisingly little - all of them seemed to understand that if they planned too much and things changed suddenly, they might freeze. Ka had swept them into this; it was perhaps best that they count on ka - and their own courage - to sweep them back out again.
Cuthbert was reluctant to involve Sheemie, but finally went along - the boy's part would be minimal, if not exactly low-risk, and Roland agreed that they could take him with them when they left Mejis for good. A party of rive was as fine as a party of four, he said.
"All right," Cuthbert said at last, then turned to Susan. "It ought to be you or me who talks to him."
"I will."
"Make sure he understands not to tell Coral Thorin so much as a word," Cuthbert said. "It isn't that the Mayor's her brother; I just don't trust that bitch."
"I can give ye a better reason than Hart not to trust her," Susan said. "My aunt says she's taken up with Eldred Jonas. Poor Aunt Cord! She's had the worst summer of her life. Nor will the fall be much better, I wot. Folk will call her the aunt of a traitor."
"Some will know better," Alain said. "Some always do."