From the Mississippi to the east coast, where the cities had been thickest, little remained but bands like these-and Rudi seemed to have been fortunate indeed in the ones he met.

Luck of that sort is only to be expected, if you?re fated to dree a hero?s weird, he thought with an inward grin, half at himself, half defiant mockery at the Powers. It?s one of the compensations for the fear and danger and general misery and the prospect of an early death. You?re lucky until you aren?t, so to say. ?They was all littles, the pamaws,?cept old Jake, he was my pa, and Tuk?n Samul?s,? Jake said.?He brought everyone out and hid?em till the New Year. He was a good one, old Jake the sailor man. Dead a long time now, though; he?s a good spook? Spirit-guardian, Rudi translated mentally.

– ?for all of us Southside studs n? bitches.?

Men and women, his mind added.

It was going to be a strain talking, until he learned a bit of this dialect. He?d heard many on his trip across the continent, but none quite so strange except those that weren?t English at all.

They stayed in the river valley for the most part, working their way south and slightly west, despite the deep dark under the trees that blocked most of the moonlight. A little reflected from the rippling surface of the Illinois, enough to use if you were very careful, and if the horses were sure-footed. They rode on the verge of the broken pavement to spare their feet, with only the sound of the hooves to mark their passage. Rudi guessed that the Southsider camp was down by the riverbank, and wasn?t surprised; it would be easier all round, with firewood close to hand, drinking water, cover from prying eyes, and shelter-the higher land around here was mostly open tallgrass prairie.