Free The Bloodline Feud (Merchant Princes Omnibus 1) by Stross Charles

thing to do, was it? But I haven’t been doing sensible properly since I got myself fired on Monday
.
    Unzipping the day pack from her backpack, she filled it with necessities, then set out for the escarpment.
    It was a clear, cold morning, and the wisp of smoke she’d seen yesterday had disappeared. But she knew roughly where she’d seen it, and a careful scan of the horizon with binoculars
brought it into focus once more – a pause in the treeline, punctuated by nearly invisible roofs. At a guess, it was about three miles away. She glanced at the sky and chewed on her lower lip:
Doable,
she decided, still half-unsure that it was the right thing to do.
But I’ll go out of my skull if I wait here two days, and Paulie won’t be back until tomorrow.
Bearing and range went into her notepad and onto the map, and she blazed a row of slashes on every fifth tree along the ridgeline to help her on the way back. The scarp was too steep to risk on her
own, but if she went along the crest of the ridge, she could take the easy route down into the valley.
    Taking the easy route was not, as it happened, entirely safe. About half a mile farther on – half a mile of plodding through leaf mounds, carefully bypassing deadfalls, and keeping a
cautious eye open – an unexpected sound made Miriam freeze, her heart in her mouth and ice in her veins.
Metal,
she thought.
That was a metallic noise! Who’s there?
She dropped to a squat with her back against a tree as a horse or mule snorted nearby.
    The sound of hooves was now audible, along with a creaking of leather and the occasional clatter or jingle of metalwork. Miriam crouched against the tree, very still, sweat freezing in the small
of her back, trying not to breathe. She couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like a single set of hooves. With her camouflage-patterned jacket, knitted black face mask, and a snub-nosed pistol
clutched in her right hand, she was a sight to terrify innocent eyes – but she was frightened half out of her own wits.
    She held perfectly still as a peculiarly dressed man led a mule past, not ten yards away from her. The animal was heavily overloaded, bulging wicker baskets towering over its swaying back. Its
owner wore leggings of some kind, but was swathed from head to knees in what looked like an ancient and moth-eaten blanket. He didn’t look furtive; he just looked dirt-poor, his face lined
and tanned from exposure to the weather.
    The mule paused. Almost absently, its owner reached out and whacked it across the hindquarters with his rod. He grunted something in what sounded like German, only softer, less sibilant.
    Miriam watched, fear melting into fascination. That was a knife at his belt, under the blanket – a great big pigsticker of a knife, almost a short sword. The mule made an odd sort of
complaining noise and began moving again.
What’s in the baskets?
she wondered.
And where’s he taking it?
    There were clearly people living in these woods.
Better be careful,
she told herself, taking deep breaths to calm down as she waited for him to pass out of sight. She pondered again
whether or not she shouldn’t go straight back to her campsite. In the end curiosity won out – but it was curiosity tempered by edgy caution.
    An hour later, Miriam found a path wandering among the trees. It wasn’t a paved road by any stretch of the imagination, but the shrubbery to either side had been trampled down and the path
itself was muddy and flat: Fresh road apples told her which way the man with the mule had gone. She slashed a marker on the tree where her path intersected the road, crudely scratching in a bearing
and distance as digits. If her growing suspicion was true, these people wouldn’t be able to make anything of it. She picked her way through the trees along one side of the path, keeping it
just in sight. Within another half-mile the trees ended in a profusion of deadfalls and stumps, some of which sprouted amazing growths of honey fungus.