(eng) Patricia C. Wrede - Frontier Magic 03 by The Far West

Author:The Far West [West, The Far]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Once we met up with the wagons and the mammoth, the riding pattern shifted around some. Roger and Professor Torgeson and I rode near the mammoth; the rest of the scientists and most of the exploration-and-survey team bunched up around the supply wagons. Captain Velasquez rode in front, and the soldiers fanned out in a loose protective circle. Wash and Mr. Zarbeliev and Greasy Pierre rode even farther out, switching places periodically and scanning for trouble as only experienced circuit magicians and trappers could.

It wasn’t much like my last three trips out West, but I didn’t care. The trees hadn’t leafed out yet, and there were only the barest hints of new green under last year’s dead grass, but it still smelled more like plants and less like smoke and axle grease and people. Even with all the wagons and the horses kicking up dust, the air smelled different from the air in Mill City or West Landing.

We reached the first wagonrest around mid-afternoon. The expedition leaders had agreed to keep the first day’s ride short, to give everyone some extra time to work out how best to set up camp. They’d also planned things out with the Settlement Office so that the expedition could head almost straight west, but still take advantage of the wagonrests that the Settlement Office had set up to protect settlers on their way out to allotments at the edge of settlement territory. The expedition was a little bigger than most settlement groups, but not too much, so there should have been enough room.

The big problem with that was the mammoth. The protection spells on the settlements and wagonrests made it irritable, and nobody west of the river wanted it anywhere near their towns or crops. That first night, Adept Alikaket tried to bring it into the wagonrest, and it started stamping and trumpeting and nearly broke free before he finally gave up. Then he suggested taking down the protection spells on the wagonrest so that we could bring the mammoth inside along with everyone else, but after the show the creature had already put on, nobody else thought that was a good idea.

While the adept and Mr. Corvales and Captain Velasquez were all arguing, I went over to the mammoth. It was still nervous and unhappy. Professor Jeffries and Adept Alikaket had rigged up another harness for it, one that you could hang bags and baskets on, and it was still fully loaded because nobody had dared try to get near it while it was so jumpy.

Three of the army men were holding the restraining ropes, and none of them looked any happier than the mammoth felt. One of them saw me and touched his cap. “You’d best get back, miss,” he said. “He’s mean.”

“Eff Rothmer,” I said. “It’s all right. He knows me. I helped move him to the menagerie last summer.”

“And she’s worked with him for a good five years,” a familiar voice said behind me.

“William!” I turned, smiling. “Did they send you over?”

William shook his head.

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