Page 9 of The Spy

“Take as much time as you like,” she replied, laughing.

Karl took her at her word.He braced his feet on the running board as they finally got around the kids and their massive caravan and picked up speed again.He meant to only stay up there until he had his wind back and his legs were less shaky.Instead, he managed about five whole minutes before he fell asleep.

Chapter Six

SOMEONE WAS POKINGhis shoulder.Karl groaned and batted at the pestering finger and tried to curl into a tighter ball.

“It’s lunch.You have to get up if you want food.”

Emily’s voice penetrated through, and consciousness slowly began to filter in.He wasn’t in the room he shared with Shan at the Royal Forces barracks.Nor was he in the narrow bed in the closet-sized room he had been allotted at Timmonsville.His back ached differently right now than that terrible mattress had ever caused.Karl slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the narrow bands of light filtering in through the thick canopy of leaves overhead.He was sitting on a hard, wooden bench, awkwardly curled into a corner where the side of the wagon protruded, with his feet braced on the running board so he didn’t slide.

Memory returned in a rush, and he sat up, gasping as his back cracked in three places as his spine realigned.

“When did we get to a forest?”he asked, turning to look at Emily, who still had her finger raised as if she was planning to poke him again.He eyed that finger until she stuck out her tongue and closed her fist.

“About two hours ago?You’ve been asleep for about five hours, give or take,” Tilly called from where she was climbing down from the seating platform on the other side.

“You okay?”Emily asked.She frowned at him, eyes too shrewd for her age as she studied him.“You never sleep like that when we’re on a mission.”

“I used a lot of magic last night,” Karl replied.“Much more than I normally ever do.I drained my energy reserves.But I’m feeling better now,” he added truthfully.The worst of the exhaustion had faded.He didn’t feel back to full strength yet, but he would be able to keep up for the rest of the day, and a good night’s sleep tonight would clear up the rest.“Did you say we’ve stopped for lunch?”he asked.

She nodded.“Just long enough to water the horses though.They’re passing out cold rations.”

“Then let me up.I could use some food.”

Emily obediently climbed down, giving Karl room to follow.He stretched again once he was on the ground, working out the last of the ache before heading after Emily to the back of the caravan.Marc was there, passing out traveler’s bread, hard and inedible until it was softened with water or tea, which kept it from going bad for months on the road, and he also had a tin of jerky open for people to take from.

Sage and onion exploded on Karl’s tongue as he took a bite of jerky, and he held back a groan of pleasure.The jerky was his father’s secret recipe, which Char made in large batches for groups leaving the barracks.The hard bread was also Char’s, although that was more difficult to tell since most hard bread was the same level of blech and drippy mess once it was softened enough to eat.Ralph walked by as Karl was waiting for his turn with the water skin to douse his bread.

“Looks like we’re alone,” Ralph called out, speaking toward the wagon.“I’m going to let you guys out.”

“Finally!”

The groan was muffled, but the voice recognizable.Karl abandoned his lunch and hurried over in time to see Ralph press on a seemingly random spot on the side of the caravan.A panel on the side popped open, revealing a narrow space about the length of a body.A shuffling sounded, and a moment later Ama squeezed himself out of the space, his cheek rubbing on the ceiling as he’d needed to keep his head turned to fit.

“It’s a pressure switch,” Ralph explained as he slotted the panel back into place.“I can push the button from this end to open it, but if someone inside doesn’t want to be discovered, they can put pressure on the switch from their end and it won’t push.I think the engineers who designed this must have been smugglers in a previous life.”

Karl nodded and murmured something in answer, but most of his focus was on Ama who was standing hunched over as if he still hurt.Ama was wearing clean clothes and Emily had obviously healed him since he wasn’t bleeding everywhere anymore, but he was definitely not in great shape.Even his brown hair looked mottled, as if the lash marks on his back were reflected there.

“I can seal the skin and kill infection, but I’m not strong enough or trained enough to fix the deeper wounds,” Emily muttered, a piece of jerky hanging from between her lips.

“He needs a real healer, but we’re at least a week out from the border if we can keep this pace,” Ralph said, agreeing.Ralph reached up to the arched roof of the wagon and pushed another random spot.A panel a foot square popped open in the overhang for the roof.A moment later a small hand appeared from above the hatch, pushing the panel open along some sort of invisible hinge.The head that followed the hand belonged to a little girl.She had dark hair pulled back into a ragged tail at the base of her neck and equally dark eyes.Karl guessed she was about Emily’s age of ten.

She placed both hands flat on the roof as if to lever herself up and out, tensed her shoulders, and then somehow leaped straight up and out of the hatch in one smooth move.She landed easily on the ground at Ralph’s side on all fours, looking up at them with a scowl.An image of a kitten, with its back arched and fur on end while spitting angrily, flashed across Karl’s imagination.If he had to bet, he would guess she was some sort of cat shifter.

“Lady Ettine, I know our fare is simple, but I promise it is tasty.Please, join us for lunch.”Ralph bowed and waved in the direction of where Marc was still supervising lunch.

Lady Ettine stood and dusted off her hands, something regal in the way she managed to look down her nose at Karl.She nodded her thanks to Ralph and headed toward Marc.As she reached where Emily stood, their eyes caught.Both of them looked away sharply, letting out ahumphas they did.Ettine continued on, while Emily went over to Ama.Clearly there was some history there.Karl shrugged.Either they would work out their difficulties, or they wouldn’t.It didn’t really matter.Besides, Emily knew better than to let her emotions interfere with a mission so there was no point in Karl worrying or trying to help solve the problem.

“We’re close to that pond, right?”Ama asked Ralph, glancing around at their surroundings.All Karl saw were trees and underbrush on either side of the wide dirt path they were following.

“I don’t know about ‘that pond,’ but we’re close to Ri Lake,” Ralph replied, pointing to their left.“The bank is about a hundred yards that way, and the road follows it to a campsite for our stop tonight.”

“They know what I look like; tonight might be too late.Give me five minutes to go wash this out and change my appearance.”Ama started hobbling in the direction Ralph had pointed toward.

“I’ll come help!”Emily chirped, her voice as bright and cheery as the first robin in the morning—and just as grating.Ettine winced, and suddenly Karl knew why Emily was keeping up her innocent child act despite their being safely away from prying eyes for the moment.

“Whoa there, tiger,” Ralph said, dropping a hand on her head to bring her to a halt.“He doesn’t need any more healing.Let the man have some space.”

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