Magic Casement by Dave Duncan

did.”
    Relief!
The Gods were not as cruel as she had feared.
    “But
keep your eyes open,” he said.
    “For
what?” she asked, and the ermine collar was tickling,her nose.
    He
laughed softly. “For some handsome young man of good family. Preferably a
younger son, and certainly one with some brains and tact. One who pleases you.
One who would be willing to live in this wild, far-off country at your side and
help you keep Krasnegar out of the clutches of Nordland and Impire both.”
She looked up and the laugh was not in his eyes. Even in the bad light she
could see the yellow. He looked ill!
    “Your
Majesty!” the captain said urgently from outside the door.
    “Tides
do not wait for kings, my darling.” Then he was gone. She was horribly
aware of Aunt Kade standing there and she wanted to be alone.
    “We
can go back up on deck and wave, if you want,” Aunt Kade said quietly.
    “There
was so much I wanted to say!” Inos was very much afraid she was about to
weep. “And I couldn’t say it because there was no time. All those
formalities!”
    “That’s
why we have them, dear.” Kade patted Inos’s arm. “They keep
us behaving like royalty.”
     

4
    Southward
lay the hills. On the hills were the herds, and therefore the herders.
    Herding
was lonely work and usually dull. The cattle and the horses were the first to
return to the land in the spring, as soon as the winter hills began to molt
into brown. Rack-boned and staggering, they were driven across the causeway and
then by gentle stages up to the higher slopes to join as many of the sheep as
had survived. There they prospered mightily. They grew fat and sleek and
produced young-and also began to develop independence of mind. In particular,
they took to hankering after the hayfields and crops. Much of the herdsmen’s
time was spent in keeping the livestock away from the farming. Cattle
especially were stubborn creatures that could not see why they must graze the
scanty grass of the uplands when the valley bottoms were more lush.
Undiscouraged, ever hopeful and bovinely stupid, they would spend all day
circling around, looking for a new approach. A few stout fences would have made
life simpler for the herders, but in Krasnegar the cost of lumber made fences
unthinkable. So there were no fences and the dreary contest continued, day
after day, year in and year out.
    Not
long after his return, Rap was ambling the high hills upon a gray gelding named
Bluebottle while three large, tangle-haired dogs bounded along at his side. He
was wearing beige leather trousers that he had purchased in the spring. Their
many patched patches bespoke a long history of previous owners, but they were
very comfortable, and he regretted that his ankles were already growing out of
them. He carried a shirt tucked in his belt on one side and a lunch poke on the
other. Earlier there had been rain to give the world a clean, fresh smell, but
now the sun smiled from a cloudless sky, the wind played lazily in the grasses,
and a curlew wailed its mournful cry.
    Dull!
Almost he could have hoped for a wolf or two coming after a lamb or a calf or a
long-legged foal, but wolves normally found easier pickings in the summer among
the coneys and mice. And even wolves were not very exciting-the dogs took care of
them, upon request.
    That
day Rap was minding the horses. They were not quite so idiotic as the cattle,
but their leader was a stallion named Firedragon who had a driving ambition to
keep his herd as large as possible. He objected mightily to having its members
conscripted and driven off to take their turns at wagon duty. He was willing to
forget about the hay crops in the name of freedom, dreaming of some promised
land to the south, beyond the reach of men, to which he was determined to lead
his people. These tendencies, also, it was Rap’s job to discourage, with
the enthusiastic but muddled assistance of his dogs.
    The
morning had been spent, therefore, in maneuvers, with Firedragon