A Child of Great Promise: An Altearth Tale by Ellis L. Knox

Author:Ellis L. Knox [Knox, Ellis L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-31T05:00:00+00:00

But they did not hide for much longer. The next day—the third since leaving Arles and crossing the wide, dark bridge over the Rhône River—they were forced onto a main road by encroaching marais to their south and west.

“We do not want to hide so well we sink into the mud,” Jehan had blandly observed.

So they walked along a good road, mostly empty, with Jehan scanning constantly in front and behind. In the late afternoon, with the sun starting to descend into their eyes, he stopped them, then hurried them off the road into a tangle of scrub oak and buckthorn.

“Wagons are coming from behind,” he explained. “We will wait for them to pass.”

Jehan had said the town of Vauvert was not far and Talysse had been hoping for lodging, or at least a warm meal.

“It would be wiser,” the elf said. “Merchants talk, and innkeepers talk even more.”

She resigned herself to eating dried meat and stale bread, washed down by tepid water.

The rumble of wagon wheels soon sounded. Peering through the buckthorn branches she saw not a wagon but a parade of wagons—she counted nine, with more hidden by a bend in the road.

Jehan stood up.

“What are you doing?” Talysse demanded. “You’ll be seen.”

“I know these people,” he said. “Stay here. I’ll go talk with them.”

“What—?”

“We may have caught some luck,” he said. He glanced down and, for once, trouble had left his brow. “I won’t be long. Wait for my return.”

Like I would just leave, Talysse thought. For the briefest moment she entertained that idea. All she’d been doing was following others for over a week now, and where had it got her? Hiding in the bushes, that’s where, with a wizard hunting her.

“Talysse?” Detta touched her shoulder, her eyes questioning.

“We’ll wait,” she said. “For now. What are these people, I wonder?”

“Wagoneers,” the gnome said.

Talysse looked over at her. “What? You know them?”

“My da told me stories,” Detta said. “Wagoneers are elf folk who travel… well, in wagons.” She waved an arm toward the line of wheels and dust.

“Where do they live?”

“In the wagons.”

The elf strode toward the wagons, one arm raised in a hail. Talysse gazed in wonder at the parade, which was as colorful as a sunset. Every wagon was painted, even to the wheels. Each was pulled by a horse that itself was decorated with ribbons and even flowers. The people, hard to make out at a distance, wore clothes every bit as colorful.

“Living in wagons,” Talysse whispered. “Sounds wonderful.”

The line of wagons—more than a dozen were now in view—slowed to a stop. Jehan approached the lead wagon, which was painted with elaborate designs over a black base, making it look slightly sinister. In the silence, Talysse could hear voices but no words. After a short exchange, Jehan started back. The wagons moved again, but now they pulled off the road onto an empty meadow. By the time Jehan returned to the stand of buckthorn, the wagons were forming into a circle. The elf looked satisfied.

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