13
Cuthbert - not the most sanguine of personalities in any situation - grew more and more impatient as the day brightened toward true dawn. It's Reaping, he thought. Finally Reaping, and here we sit with our knives sharpened and not a thing in the world to cut.
Twice he asked Alain what he "heard." The first time Alain only grunted. The second time he asked what Bert expected him to hear, with someone yapping away in his ear like that.
Cuthbert, who did not consider two enquiries fifteen minutes apart as "yapping away," wandered off and sat morosely in front of his horse. After a bit, Roland came over and sat down beside him.
"Waiting," Cuthbert said. "That's what most of our time in Mejis has been about, and it's the thing I do worst."
"You won't have to do it much longer," Roland said.
14
Jonas's company reached the place where Fran Lengyll's party had made a temporary camp about an hour after the sun had topped the horizon. Quint, Rhea, and Renfrew's vaqs were already there and drinking coffee, Jonas was glad to see.
Lengyll started forward, saw Susan riding with her hands tied, and actually drew back a step, as if he wanted to find a comer to hide in. There were no comers out here, however, so he stood fast. He did not look happy about it, however.
Susan nudged her horse forward with her knees, and when Reynolds tried to grab her shoulder, she dipped it to the side, temporarily eluding him.
"Why, Francis Lengyll! Imagine meeting you here!"
"Susan, I'm sorry to see ye so," Lengyll said. His flush crept closer and closer to his brow, like a tide approaching a seawall. "It's bad company ye've fallen in with, girl . . . and in the end, bad company always leaves ye to face the music alone."
Susan actually laughed. "Bad company!" she said. "Aye, ye'd know about that, wouldn't ye, Fran?"
He turned, awkward and stiff in his embarrassment. She raised one booted foot and, before anyone could stop her, kicked him squarely between the shoulderblades. He went down on his stomach, his whole face widening in shocked surprise.
"No ye don't, ye bold cunt!" Renfrew shouted, and fetched her a wallop to the side of the head - it was on the left, and at least evened things up a bit, she would think later when her mind cleared and she was capable of thinking. She swayed in the saddle, but kept her seat. And she never looked at Renfrew, only at Lengyll, who had now managed to get to his hands and knees. He wore a deeply dazed expression.
"Youkilled my father!" she screamed at him. "You killed my father, you cowardly, sneaking excuse for a man!" She looked at the party of ranchers and vaqs, all of them staring at her now. "There he is, Fran Lengyll, head of the Horsemen's Association, as low a sneak as ever walked! Low as coyote shit! Low as - "
"That's enough," Jonas said, watching with some interest as Lengyll scuttled back to his men - and yes, Susan was bitterly delighted to see, it was a full-fledged scuttle - with his shoulders hunched. Rhea was cackling, rocking from side to side and making a sound like fingernails on a piece of slate. The sound shocked Susan, but she wasn't a bit surprised by Rhea's presence in this company.
"It could never be enough," she said, looking from Jonas to Lengyll with an expression of contempt so deep it seemed bottomless. "For him it could never be enough."
"Well, perhaps, but you did quite well in the time you had, lady-sai. Few could have done better. And listen to the witch cackle! Like salt in his wounds, I wot . . . but we'll shut her up soon enough." Then, turning his head: "Clay!"
Reynolds rode up.
"Think you can get Sunbeam back to Seafront all right?"
"I think so." Reynolds tried not to show the relief he felt at being sent back east instead of west. He had begun to have a bad feeling about Hanging Rock, Latigo, the tankers . . . about the whole show, really. God knew why. "Now?"
"Give it another minute," Jonas said. "Mayhap there's going to be a spot of killing right here. Who knows? But it's the unanswered questions that makes it worthwhile getting up in the morning, even when a man's leg aches like a tooth with a hole in it. Wouldn't you say so?"
"I don't know, Eldred."
"Sai Renfrew, watch our pretty Sunbeam a minute. I have a piece of property to take back."
His voice carried well - he had meant that it should - and Rhea's cackles cut off suddenly, as if severed out of her throat with a hooking-knife. Smiling, Jonas walked his horse toward the black cart with its jostling show of gold symbols. Reynolds rode on his left, and Jonas sensed rather than saw Depape fall in on his right. Roy was a good enough boy, really; his head was a little soft, but his heart was in the right place, and you didn't have to tell him everything.