Free Destiny's Road by Larry Niven Page B

that only came with you. But the oven."
    Are all Twerdahl women like this? He chose to ask instead, "So why didn't Loria tell Tarzana?"
    "Why don't I ask her that?"
    He couldn't stop grinning. "Big joke. On her sister. So why didn't Tarzana leave?"
    "Big joke?"
    On Loria? On Tim Hann? "Wend, where does that put me? I can't be dating both of your daughters." A weird impulse made him add, "Can I?"
    "No, but you don't have to make up your mind right away."
    "Good," he said. "Wonderful," meaning it. Then he said, "Wait. Yes, I do. Is that what I think it is?"
    The dust plume had settled some while they talked, but it was still there.
    Wend said, "They'll he here late tomorrow. Speckles are cheap after they leave Spiral Town, if they've got any left. We usually wait. Unless we're out."
    "I never told you why I left Spiral Town."
    "Not just following Cavorite?"
    Jemmy told her.
    Caravan. Merchants' guns. Fedrick blowing a watermelon to bits. Eight years later: caravan. Fedrick again, Fedrick's gun, Fedrick dying on the floor.
    Tim Hann was the mask that hid a merchant-killer. Nobody in Twerdahl Town knew that, but they all knew he was a stranger come straight down the Road ahead of the caravan. Anyone in Twerdahl Town might blurt that out to any merchant.
    He didn't tell her his name.
    She listened and nodded. He was expecting her to shrink from him, but she didn't.
    "I think I'd best keep moving down the Road," he said. "Even if they send someone ahead, I can outride him on a bike."
    "How will you feed yourself?"
    "I found you. Further down the Road, maybe there are people too."
    "Speckles? You can't go to merchants, Tim. What do you think you'll do, trade for speckles with locals? They had to buy theirs from merchants. I don't keep more than I need for my family. Most people don't."
    "Okay, I get stupid and die. At least it's not right away. Wend, I don't
    really want to leave."
    She said, "Marry Loria or marry Tarzana. Marry into the family. We'll tell them you're one of us. Do you mind changing your name?"
    Huh?
    "When a wanderer marries a local-"
    "No, I don't mind."
    "It's rare, but it has happened."
    "I don't mind.''
    "All right. Three days now you've been a Twerdahl. Let a merchant see you on a board first, he'll see you as a Twerdahi whatever you do next."
    "Am I good enough?" A clumsy Twerdahl would catch a suspicious eye.
    "I've watched. Tim, you're good with the board."
    "And cooking? Let me do some of the cooking."
    "Right."
    "I need to buy some things. I don't know what you use for money."
    "Money?"
    Jemmy was only carrying a few coins, the price of three or four meals. He showed them to Wend. When she shook her head, he gave them to her. It would be bad if merchants found those on him. Then he asked, "What do you do if you want something?"
    "Ask. Give something back."
    "With a caravan?"
    "With them too, but they want to know what they're getting."
    "I bet they do!"
    "What do you need?"
    "More clothes. Shoes. Speckles. A board, I guess."
    "Nobody has all of that."
    "I need the whole town to cover for me, to make the merchants think I'm one of them. Wend, what if I give Twerdahl Town my bike?"
    "I'll talk to them," she said. "Over dinner."
    The dust crawled toward Twerdahl Town.
    The ovens in the Bloocher kitchen outclassed Tim Hann's first pile of lava chunks. Jemmy was sure he could improve his oven. Sitting on his board, his feet wiggling in the sand, he started making sketches.
    A few boys watched over his shoulder and made comments.
    The Bednacourt girls came to him, all three. "We've been talking," Loria said.
    "With Wend," Tarzana said.
    "Mother," amplified Glind.
    Men of Jemmy's age surrounded them, and they were all listening. Loria pulled him to his feet. "Let's surf."
    The town's teen boys followed them into the water. Once beyond the waves, the boys who tried to join them were somehow cut off, discouraged. They watched from a distance, while Bednacourt girls surrounded Tim Hann like three predators.
    Tim