Their horses were behind and above them, in the strip of fire-scarred brushy woods where the open prairie met the valley, all loose-tethered, except his mare Epona who was guarding them. He made a low chittering sound between his teeth, something that melded into the natural buzz and twitter and creak of the wilds. That would keep her quiet, even if she scented another horse or heard it neigh. The problem was that it wouldn?t mean anything to Edain?s horse or the pack beast, who were…

Not more than average bright, even for horses. I love horses but Epona aside…

He was glad he?d done so a minute later, when the dull thud-and-clop of hooves sounded on the broken asphalt and dirt of the roadway that followed the Illinois River below. Four men rode into sight, with as manymore packhorses on leading reins-there were bundles over their backs, and from the look of them and the trail of flies those held butchered game carcasses strapped up in the hides. Between them and Rudi the brush moved again, and he thought he caught the glint of edged metal through the gloaming of the summer evening. Someone was being a little overeager, or had forgotten to dip the blade of his spear in mud.

Ambush, sure and I had the right of it, Rudi thought. They?re concentrating on the road down there, and with the sun at their backs to blind anyone looking their way. The which means they can?t see me and Edain easily either, of course.

From what he?d heard in Iowa the only dwellers here were vicious savages, descendants of city folk who?d lived through the first Change years by eating each other, worse and worse as you went farther east. That had been Ingolf?s opinion too, and Ingolf Vogeler had made his living off salvage expeditions into the dead cities for many years. Journeying halfway across the continent with him had taught Rudi that the man from Wisconsin was usually a good judge.

On the other hand, Edain and I cannot haul all those wagons of treasure to the Mississippi alone, Rudi mused. From the way things have gone this past week, we can?t even get close to them without help from the folk hereabouts.