The hangfire storm continued to hover, the storm smell was strong in the air. Whether it was that or the hate rolling at them from every side, by nightfall the mules were as skittish as highbred horses and considerably more balky. Yaril and Jaril vanished for a while, came back jittery as the mules; they flitted about overhead long after Brann and Danny Blue stopped for the night, camping in a grove of Xuthro redleaves that whispered around them and sprayed them with pungent medicinal odors as the heat of the campfire lifted into the lower branches.
Danny Blue rested his teamug on his knee and cleared his throat. Brann gave him no encouragement. A catface came into the light, crystal eyes flashing a brilliant red, the cat stared at him for an uncomfortably long time, then withdrew into the darkness; he couldn’t forget it was out there not one minute and while that was comforting in one way, in another it turned his throat dry thinking about the changers pacing and pacing in their sentry rounds, feral fearsome beasts angry at the world in general and at him in particular. He gazed across the fire at Brann who was in her way quite as lethal. “I’m sorry about last night,” he said.
She nodded, accepting his apology without commenting on it.
“I do fine,” he said, “as long as it’s the rational side of me called up. Or the technical side. Doesn’t matter who’s running the show, Akamarino or Ahzurdan or me.
It’s emotions that screw me up, ah, confuse me. Ah, this isn’t easy to talk about…”
She looked coolly at him as if to say why bother then, looked down at her hands without saying anything.
Anger flared in him, but he shoved it down and kept control, him, Danny Blue the New, not either of his clamoring progenitors. “When it’s strong emotions, well, Daniel avoided them most of his life, couldn’t handle them, which gives Ahzurdan an edge because he played with them all since he was born, anger, you know, lust, frustration, resentment, he’s loved a maid or two, a man or two, been wildly happy and filled with cold despair, too much passion, his skin was too thin, he had to numb himself, dreamsmoke washed out the pain of living, you know all that, you heard all that on the trip here. He has ambivalences about you, Brann, growing all over him like a fungus, I suppose I should say all over me. That’s the problem, I can’t control him when there’s emotion involved. Think about it a minute. How old is Danny Blue? Three weeks, almost four, Bramble-all-thorns…”
Her head came up when she heard the name the changers sometimes gave her. “Don’t call me that.”
“Why not, it suits you.”
“Maybe it does, maybe not. My name is Brann and I’ll tell you when you can call me out of it.” She twisted up onto her knees, touched the side of the teapot, refilled her cup and settled back to her blankets. She sipped briefly at the hot liquid, then sat with her legs drawn up, her arms resting on them, both hands wrapped around the cup as if she needed the warmth from it more than the taste of tea in her mouth. “Do me a favor,” she said, “experiment on someone else.” She gazed at the fire, the animation gone out of her face, her eyes shadowed and dull. After several moments of unhappy silence, she shivered, fetched a smile from somewhere. “You still think you want me when you’ve combed the knots out, I expect I’d be fool enough to try again. At least you already know what I am. What a relief not having to explain things.” She gulped at the tea, shivered again. “Looks like everyone about knows where we’re going and why.”
“And they don’t like it.”
“And they don’t like it. Yaril, Jaril,” she called. “One of you come in, will you?”
The ash blond young woman came into the firelight, tall and slim, limber as a dancer, crystal eyes shadowed, reflecting fugitive glimmers from the dying fire. She glanced at Danny Blue, her face bland as the cat’s had been, showing nothing but a delicately exaggerated surprise at seeing him there. He grinned at her, Daniel uppermost now and finding her much to his taste, an etherial exotic lovely far less complicated and demanding than Brann; watching her settle beside Brann her shoulder and profile given to him, he wondered just how far she’d gone in taking a human shape and what it’d feel like making love to a skinful of fire, hmm! who was also a contact telepath. Now that’s rather offputting. Gods, 01’ Dan, you’re hornier ‘n a dassup in must. And neither of them’s going to have a thing to do with you and it’s your own damn fault. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, huh, that’s not where the bullet went. Say this is over and you survive it, you’ll have to hunt up a whore or three and argue old Ahzurdan into a heap of ash so you can get your ashes hauled. Till then I guess it’s the hermit’s friend for you if you can get yourself some privacy, shah! as Brann would say, to have those changers come on me and giggle at what I’m reduced to… uh uh, no way. A little strength of mind, Danny Blue, come the morning, dunk yourself in that river, that should be cold enough to take your mind off.
“A while back,” Yaril said, “Jay and I, we decided we wanted to know what all the glares were about, so we paled out and probed a few of those peasants out there. They’ve had news about us from Silagamatys, all of them, farmers boatmen you name it. They’re trying to think of some way to stop us. They don’t know how so far, the ones we checked were thinking of sneaking up on us when we’re asleep and knocking us in the head or something like that, maybe setting up an ambush and plinking us with bolts from crossbows, so far they haven’t nerved themselves into trying anything, it was mostly wish and dream, but they surely wouldn’t mind if we fell in the river and drowned. They’re worried about Settsimaksimin, if anything happened to him the wolves would be down on them from all sides. They love the man, Bramble, sort of anyway, he’s mixed up in their heads with the land, everything they feel for the land they feel for him, it’s like when they’re plowing the soil, they’re plowing his body. They pray for him, and, believe me, they’ll fight for him. Any time now we’re going to start running into big trouble. Probably tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the wilder local lads tried their hands with bulikillers or scythe blades. Probably around the third nightwatch, I doubt if they’ll come sooner and later it’d be too light.”
“You and Jay can handle them?”
“Hah, you need to ask? Braaaann.” She clicked her tongue, shook her head, finally sobered. “You want us to wake you?”
“As soon as you see signs of trouble, yes. We want to get the mules saddled and the supplies roped in place in case we have to leave fast.”
“Gotcha, Bramble. Anything else?”
“Um… what’s the land like ahead?”
“Pretty much more of the same for the first half day’s ride, another river joins this one a little after that, hard to tell so far off but I think there’s some sort of swamp and the road seems to turn away from the river. You want Jay or me to go take a look?”
Braun frowned at the fire. “I don’t… think so. No. I’d rather you rested. Take turns with Jay. How are you doing on energy? It was a cloudy day. Give me your hand a minute. Good. That god didn’t change you so much you can’t take from me, I thought a minute it might have, self-defense, you know, so we-couldn’t build the bridge again and suck godfire out of it, but I suppose it wanted to be sure we could handle Amortis if she poked her delicate nose in the business with Maksim.
“You needn’t worry about us, Bramble, our batteries are charged, matter of fact we’ve been pretty well steady state since we left the ship.”
“Happy to hear it, but tired or not, you and Jay both operate better after a little dormancy, I think its like with people, you need your sleep to clear out the day’s confusion. So, you rest, both of you, hear?”