A few stones rattled down the hillside, distracting her from her dark thoughts. Parahan was coming back.
“I don’t know what’s on the road ahead,” he told them when he reached their group. “I only saw about a mile’s length of it. But there’s a game trail that way” — he pointed uphill — “that takes us out of view while still allowing us to travel along the line of the river. We might be able to skirt anyone on the road itself.”
“Tie everything down that might make a noise,” Rosethorn ordered. “Muffle the harnesses, whatever jingles. Evvy, your chickens must take a nap, I’m afraid.”
Evvy grimaced, but she took out the packet of cat-sleep herbs and sprinkled some over the crates. She used only a pinch for each: The spell was powerful. Normally the Trader spell that disguised the cats was enough to make people think they heard hens, but Rosethorn didn’t want to risk any noise as they moved to higher ground.
Rosethorn continued to say, “We’ll walk. Check your own gear. Nothing that clanks. Parahan, muffle those spears.”
When they were ready, Rosethorn told Parahan, “Evvy leads.”
His eyes went wide with surprise. “Evvy! But —”
“You’ll see,” Rosethorn told him. “Go on, girl.”
Evvy said nothing. She was already summoning her magic. With her in the front and Rosethorn in the rear they set off, each of them leading a pair of animals. Evvy slid the reins up over her elbows so she could stretch out her hands. Gently she flicked and twitched her fingers, shaking them to and fro lightly at the same time as she sent her power out to the many bits of stone uphill of her. Inside her head she could feel the stones in the cut between the two hills giggle as they shifted and slid, all sizes easing around one another. They had never had this kind of energy before, but it was more interesting than just tumbling down, pushed by streams of snowmelt or rain or the feet of animals. They liked it. The only sounds the rocks made were faint clicks as they edged into position, each one sliding into the right spot next to another. Behind her Evvy left a smooth stone path under the horses’ and the mules’ feet. Better yet, the new footing gave way just enough to cut the sound their hooves made.
Up and up they climbed. At last she heard a soft bird whistle. She glanced back to see Parahan point off to her left. There, in a dip on the far side of the western hill, was the game trail.
She turned onto it, hands still moving. The trail itself was beaten earth. This time she urged the stones to either side, letting them roll into deeper grass.
The ground began to rise again. To their right, to the northeast, hill after craggy green hill rose, stabbing into the sky. Behind them were the mountains of the Drimbakang Sharlog. Evvy could hear Rosethorn was struggling to breathe. She needed her special tea for managing in the heights. Evvy or Briar would make it when they stopped for lunch.
They must be higher than Evvy realized if Rosethorn was having trouble. These were mountains, for all they looked like hills close up. They hummed in Evvy’s bones. What would she do when she came to the big ones, those with rocky sides that had been swept of almost anything but stone and snow? Those mountains would sing in a voice that would surely rattle her poor head clean off her neck.
Short of the top of the fourth hill, another soft whistle from Parahan brought her to a stop. This time he left his horse and mule and crept ahead of the others. Evvy sat in the grass and even ate a bit after she thumped the muscle cramps from her thighs. Working her magic and teasing those stones had thrust the horrors down where she didn’t have to think about them. Briar had made a cold mix of Rosethorn’s breathing tea and was pouring it for her. It was just as well they had gotten a chance to rest.
Parahan returned and beckoned them close. “There is half a company in the road,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “Fifty soldiers. Yanjingyi regulars, curse it! Not locals.”
“If we’re quiet they’ll never know we were here,” Briar replied, his voice just as soft. “The game trail will put that next ridge between us and them. Even if they look up they won’t see us. We’ve got to take word to the God-King about Weishu’s plans. Guaranteed he doesn’t know these kaqs are here, either.”
Parahan grinned at Briar’s use of the Trader slang; Rosethorn nodded at his thinking. Once more they went forward with Parahan in the lead. Evvy reached farther ahead with her power, shooing the rocks away. Even the animals seemed to understand that the alternative to silence was death if the enemy caught them.
Between more hills they went, the green shoulders rising sharply on both sides of their group. The biggest worry came when they reached a stream. It ran along the foot of a tall ridge on their right. They couldn’t avoid a little splashing as the animals crossed. When they halted on the far side, there were no sounds of movement anywhere. Parahan crawled to the shoulder of the hill on their left, to see if he could glimpse the road and the enemy. When he came back, he said they were now beyond the soldiers below. If their present trail kept on parallel to the road heading west, they might evade the Yanjingyi soldiers completely.
Rosethorn and Briar weren’t listening. Like the ponies and the mules and even Parahan’s horse they had pointed their noses into the wind that came down from the north and over the stream. “Bamboo,” Rosethorn whispered. “Seaweed. Vinegar.”
Briar frowned. “Peony? Pomegranate for certain.”
They turned their heads to stare uphill at the ridge.