The Luck Of The Wheels by Megan Lindholm Read Free Book Online Page A

forget how you first behaved.'
    Goat looked up at her. She didn't know if his gaze was sly or shy. 'Do you like me?'
    'I don't know yet,' she said coolly. Then, in a kinder voice, she added, 'Why don't you get dried off and dressed and come back to camp? Try being likeable and see what happens.'
    He looked down at the muddied water and nodded silently. She turned away from him. Let him think for a while. She took the leads from the horses and left them to graze by the spring. They wouldn't stray; the wagon was all the home they knew. As she pushed through the brush surrounding the spring, she wondered if she should ask Vandien to talk to the boy. Vandien was so good with people, he made friends so effortlessly. Could he understand Goat's awkwardness? The boy needed a friend, a man who accepted him. His father had seemed a good man, but there were things a boy didn't learn from his father. She paused a few moments at the edge of the trees to find words, and found herself looking at Vandien.
    He knelt on one knee, his back to her, kindling the night's fire. The quilts were spread on the grass nearby; the kettle waited beside them. As she stepped soundlessly closer, she saw that his dark hair was dense and curly with moisture. He had washed already, yes, and drawn a basin of water for her as well, from the water casks strapped to the side of the wagon. Sparks jumped between his hands; grass smouldered and went out. He muttered what was probably a curse in a language she didn't know. She stepped closer, put one hand on his shoulder and stooped to kiss the nape of his neck. He almost flinched, but not quite.
    'I knew you were there,' he said matter-of-factly, striking another shower of sparks. This time the tinder caught and a tiny pale flame leaped up.
    'No, you didn't,' she contradicted. She watched over his shoulder as he fed twigs and bits of dry grass to the infant flame. Idly she twined one of his damp curls around her finger. It bared the birthmark on the back of his neck, an odd patch shaped vaguely like spread wings. She traced it with a fingertip. 'Vandien?' she began cautiously.
    'Sshh!' he warned suddenly, but she had already heard it. Hoofbeats; a horse being ridden hard. As one they moved to the end of the wagon, to peer down the road. Goat's comments on how the Duke felt about Romni had put Ki's nerves on edge.
    A great roan horse with a thick mane and tail galloped heavily toward them. The pale grey of the evening sky and the wide empty plain was behind it; it was the only moving thing on the face of the world. Its hooves were falling clumsily, as if it were too weary for grace, and lather outlined the planes of the animal's muscles, but for all that it had beauty. Atop it were two girls, their heavy hair spilling black and red and moving with the horse's stride. Their faces were flushed and bright beneath a haze of road dust. Their loose robes had been hiked up so they could straddle the big roan, and their bare legs and sandaled feet gripped the barrel of his body. Ki watched them come silently, seized by their beauty and vitality.
    'It looks like the two girls from the hiring mart,' Vandien murmured by her ear. She could hear the smile in his voice. 'I guess the red-haired one is running off to her sweetheart after all.'
    Then: 'Halloo, the wagon!' A clear voice rose in the twilight. Vandien stepped out from the wagon and lifted a hand in greeting. The two girls flashed wide grins as they saw him, and then the sweating horse was pulled from the road, and came toward them over the coarse turf. The girl in front pulled in on the reins. The roan tucked his head stubbornly, and then perked his ears to her voice. He halted obediently, but tossed his head as if to show her he obeyed only because he wanted to.
    'Lovely,' Ki muttered to herself, caught up in his clean lines and proud head.
    'Aren't they?' Vandien said as the girls slid from the roan's back.
    She had to nod to that, too. She guessed their ages fell