The Oathbound Wizard-Wiz Rhyme-2 by Christopher Stasheff Page B

nervously.
    "Yes, that's why I thought we might do well on guard duty. Why don't you folks just sit down and have a bite while we watch for you?"
    "Bless you, kind sir!" The wife tottered toward the cart and sank to the road beside it, cradling the baby in her lap.
    "Uh, I had in mind off the road," Matt said, eyeing the dirt strip as though he expected a Sherman tank to come clanking up. "Just in case, you know."
    "Aye, aye." The husband reached down to help his wife up. "Just a few more steps now, Judy, there's my lass. Some open grass there, off the road a pace, aye."
    Judy sighed, managed to rise, and tottered off toward the shade of a tree, leaning on her husband's arm.
    There was an explosive snort followed by a trio of delighted shrieks behind him. Matt swung about, alarmed, but saw Narlh turned back frontward, nose in the air, too lofty to be concerned about what was going on around his tail. Matt smiled and turned to the cart.
    From the tongue he had to lift and pull, he gathered the soldiers had gotten the family donkey, too.
    He pulled the cart off the road and near the tree, where the wife was nursing the baby. Narlh ambled along, nose in the air. Matt wondered if he was really watching for an aerial attack. "Bless ye, kind sir!" The wife had a real smile on.
    "My pleasure, I'm sure." Matt folded up cross-legged, facing the husband.
    "So you're bound for Merovence?"
    "Aye, if I can come to those mountains!" the man said, exasperated. "They seem so close, yet ever do they retreat from me!"
    "It's the clear air--it magnifies them so that they seem closer. I'd say you're still about two days from the pass at the top."
    "You have come from there?" the man said, wide-eyed. Matt nodded. "And I'd plan on lightening your load, if you can--some of that road is very steep, and it's all uphill."
    The wife bit her lip again, and the husband said quickly, "We have brought little enough. What we have are things too dear to part with." Matt just couldn't understand why married people seemed to acquire so many things that they couldn't bear to part with. Maybe it was because there were so many more of them.
    He pushed himself to his feet. "Rest while you can. I'll send the kids over." He turned away to shoo the children from Narlh back to Mama. As they ran for the picnic, he muttered to the monster, "Never knew you were soft on kids."
    "Hey, I think they look yummy!"
    "Come off it. You were having as much fun as they were." Narlh shrugged, with a rattle of wings. "Look, I missed out on it when I was a fledgling. A guy can try to make up for lost time, can't he?"
    "I couldn't agree more." Matt glanced back over his shoulder--and saw the father carving a ham. His mouth watered. "They, uh--came well provided."
    "Huh?" Narlh looked over, then turned away with a snort.
    "Well, I thought it looked pretty good!"
    "Each to his own," the monster said.
    "Just what's wrong with it, anyway, huh?"
    "It's not bleeding."

As he paced the circle on sentry duty, Matt reflected that Narlh must prefer his food still moving. When he said he liked fresh meat, he meant it. He gave the family about an hour, by the sun, then turned back to nudge the father.
    "Sun's past noon. You might want to get back on the road."
    "Aye." The man sighed and forced himself to his feet. He reached down to help his wife up and called out, "Jorge! Cecile! Rampout!" The children left off playing hide-and-seek and came pelting back.
    "Bless you for your kindness," the wife said, smiling, then suddenly dewy-eyed. " 'Tis good to know a few souls still act with charity."
    "More and more where you're going," Matt assured her.
    "I must trust in that." The father sighed. "We have no money and will have no farm. We must depend on kindness, now."
    "No money?" Matt lifted his head. "Say...maybe we could strike a deal."
    "Deal?" The father was instantly wary.
    "Yes. I'm living off the land, see, and it's not exactly fat here."
    "Aye." The wife blinked away tears again. "The