Free The Luck Of The Wheels by Megan Lindholm Page B

she all right?'
    Ki looked disgusted. 'Willow!' she called. 'You can come out now. They've gone.'
    In an instant the disheveled girl appeared in the door of the wagon. She raced across the trampled earth to fling herself into Vandien's arms. He exclaimed with pain, but didn't push her away. 'I was so scared, I was so scared!' she sobbed into his shoulder. 'All I could think of was to hide.'
    'Are the Duke's patrols always so threatening?' Ki asked. 'I would rather have faced the robbers.'
    'She doesn't have travelling papers,' Goat guessed suddenly. 'You thought they were after you, didn't you, Willow?' His voice was snidely speculative. 'Why would the Duke's patrol be interested in a little girl running away to her lover? Or is Kellich starting to take his big talk seriously?'
    'Shut up! Shut up!' Willow screeched savagely, and Vandien held her firmly to keep her from going after the boy.
    'Quiet!' Ki bellowed, her voice cracking on the word. Silence fell. Vandien looked astounded at the command. Ki took a breath, feeling her throat's rawness. 'Now. Quietly,' she said. 'Tell me. I knew Vandien and I needed papers because we had the wagon and were doing business with it. I thought it was sort of like a trade permit. It seems I was wrong. Are you two supposed to have travelling papers, just to go from town to town?'
    'Of course,' Goat answered. 'Or how would the Duke know where anyone was? How could they tell good citizens from rebel scum? I have my papers. My father got them the morning we left. I have no reason to sneak from town to town. Not like some.'
    'Willow?' Ki asked.
    The girl buried her face against Vandien's shoulder. 'I didn't have time! I didn't have enough money!' she wept. 'If I'd waited for the papers, you'd have gone. And I needed the money to pay you to take me. I didn't think anyone would stop us or check us. What are you going to do?' She lifted red-rimmed eyes to gaze into Vandien's face. Are you going to leave me here? Do you know what they'd do to me if they caught me, alone on the road, with no papers?' She was shaking.
    'They might think you were a rebel,' Goat observed heartlessly. 'Or a sympathizer, carrying information. Or maybe just a roadside whore and ...'
    Ki's look shut him up.
    Vandien put steadying hands on Willow's shoulders. 'No one's leaving you,' he said softly. 'But don't you see the danger you put us all in? If you'd told Ki and me, we would have been prepared. It's not like the Romni don't know how to handle harassment. Ki knows a dozen tricks, and I have a few of my own. But we need to know what we're up against. We're strangers to your Duke's holdings.'
    His voice was calm, reasonable. Willow lifted her tearstained face. 'The Duke's patrol,' she faltered, 'keeps the roads clear. Of robbers, and Tamshin, and such... those without papers. Rebels, they call them. Rebels. As if just being too poor to afford papers, or not wanting to account for every step of your life, should be a crime. And the Duke lets - if they find anyone without papers - they can take what they wish from them. Even their lives. It's how they're paid. Oh, the Duke pays them some, but that's how he keeps them eager. If you don't have papers, you're game for the patrol.'
    'Eager.' Ki said the word flatly. She looked at Goat. 'You knew that?'
    The boy shrugged carelessly. 'Everyone knows that.'
    'And you still put them after the Tamshin.' There was disbelief in her voice.
    'They're only Tamshin!' he protested hotly, while Willow cut in with, 'You'd rather they had me?'
    'I'd rather they had no one. I'd rather I'd never heard of your Duke of Loveran.' She turned away and picked up the battered kettle. She examined it to see if it would still hold water. For a moment Vandien watched her, then took Willow's shoulders and gently pushed her aside from him to walk over to the trampled quilts. Cautiously he bent down, his hand against his sore ribs. He picked up a quilt and shook it.
    'It's mendable,' he said, and began to