Black Unicorn, Tanith Lee [famous ebook reader txt] 📗

striking the goadagainst his boot, which was hung with small silver discs. “You’dbetter see the leader.” He turned and raised his arm, callingloudly back into the dust and trample of the arriving caravan: “Night’s rest! All stop here!”

The caravan sprawled about the oasis in the sunset. In all,there were seven covered carts, and these had been drawn up tomake a wall against the desert. In the gap between each pair ofcarts burned a fire. Jackals had approached, and howled to each other in the near distance. The palm tree and the well were thecenter of the camp. Here water was drawn continuously, anddates—and incidentally the peeve—had been shaken down.

“What’s that?” the man with the goad said, pointing at thepeeve. “Funny-looking thing.”

“My animal,” said Tanaquil.

The peeve growled, and Tanaquil tapped its head. “Ssh.”

“Bad,” said the peeve.

“Eh?” said the man with the goad, glaring at the peeve.

“Oh,” said Tanaquil, “it’s just barking.”

The man with the goad was called Gork. His head cloth wassecured by a silver band, his dark clothes were sprinkled withornaments, and across his chest hung a large gold pocket watch. He constantly ticked and clinked, and when he felt he was notmaking enough noise, he rapped the goad on his boots andwhistled.

“This way. The leader’s awning is going up over there.”

Under his awning, the leader of the caravan sat on a chair in the sand. He had been journeying in one of the silken cages ontop of one of the three pinkish camels that had brought up therear. He was a fat man with a beard.

Gork explained the situation in his special manner. “This bitof a girl’s come after us, but let herself get robbed on the way.She hasn’t a penny, and expects us to take her on.”

“I’m afraid we couldn’t do that,” said the leader, not bother ing to look at either of them, only into a box of candied grapes.“You must pay your way. Food alone is expensive, not to men tion our protection.”

“You can’t,” said Tanaquil firmly, “leave me in the desert to die.”

“Well of course that would, technically, be against the law,”said the leader. He beamed upon the grapes. He said nothingelse.

The peeve stirred restively at Tanaquil’s side.

Tanaquil said quickly, “My three brothers at Um know I meant to join this caravan. Eventually, if they don’t get word from me from the city, they might seek out the caravan’sleader.”

“She’s a nuisance, isn’t she?” said the leader to Gork. “Give her that lame mule on Wobbol’s cart. And a snack to tide her over. Then she can bundle back to her village.”

“I don’t want to go back to Um,” said Tanaquil. She clawed at her wits and said, “Isn’t there something I can do to earn a passage with you?”

“What on earth could you do?” asked the leader, looking ather for the first time, as if she were a rotten grape found in thecandy box.

There was a spluttering crash and chorus of yells and oaths.Up on the dunes, the watching jackals cackled.

The leader, Gork, Tanaquil, and the peeve all turned to see.Displayed in the firelight, one of the carts had thrown a wheel.The cart now listed, and the man who had been at the wheels, cleaning them of sand and oiling them, lay feebly strugglingunder several large bags and sacks that had fallen out. Men ran torescue him—or the bags and sacks.

“Useless,” said the leader. He ate another grape. “Deprivethat fellow of rations tomorrow.”

“Trouble is, leader,” said Gork, beating on his boot, “Wobbolwas the only one who was any good at repairing wheels and stuff.And as you remember, Wobbol went off in a huff when you bought his cart and load off him at quarter price—”

“Yes, yes,” said the leader. “The goods will have to be putonto the mules.” “The mules won’t be able to take it, leader, not for all those miles.”

Tanaquil felt light-headed. What had happened to her was crazy, but also it must have been right. For now everythingconspired to help her. Surely she would never see the unicornagain, and she would come to disbelieve in it, with time. But stilla kind of magic was working about her, because she had takenthe risk.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “I can fix your wheel.”

“You?” said Gork.

The leader only grimaced; he had sly, flat eyes.

“Don’t mock, Gork. Let’s see if she can. If she can,” he added, “she can travel with us, eat with us, no charge. On theother hand, if she can’t, I’ll throw her to those jackals.”

Tanaquil shrugged. It was on her tongue to say the jackals would be preferable company anyway to the leader, but she did not. Instead she walked over to the spilled cart, the bristlingpeeve on her heels.

“Clear these sacks out of the way,” said Tanaquil, in theimperious tones of her mother. “Are there any tools?”

Presently she was kneeling by the cart. Since it was Wobbol’s, she suspected he had engineered the faulty wheel out of revenge.The wheel shaft was set crooked, and the pin in the wheel hadsnapped. Tanaquil organized one of the fires into a forge. Shesent the caravan servants running about to fetch and carry. Her self, she hammered out the new pin from a brooch she was

handed. It did not take great strength. Even Gork came to watchthe stupid village female who could mend wheels.

When the wheel was soundly back in place, Tanaquil stood up.

“That’s a fair job,” said Gork grudgingly. “Where’d a girl learn that?”

“My brothers taught me,” said Tanaquil prudently, “at Um.”

5

For almost three weeks Tanaquil traveled in the caravan. Ev ery hour she was excited. Every hour she lived with a sense ofinsecurity and danger she had never known before. She was outin the world.

At least once a day, they would pass some marker in thesand, indicating the route to the city. Most of these were plainstone posts about ten or eleven feet in height, often looking muchshorter where the sand had washed against them. But as theycame nearer to the city , there began to be occasional stone pylonsstretched up at the