The Rain Wild Chronicles: The Complete 4-Book Collection. Robin Hobb
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upstream.
The keepers, including Thymara, had hastened to their small boats and followed. She had hoped to be paired with Tats. It had been a selfish hope; he was well muscled and experienced with small boats and she knew he would do his share of the work and perhaps more. Jerd had been waiting at the shore, standing by one of the small boats. She waved cheerily at Tats as they arrived and called out to him, ‘I’ve already loaded your rucksack, slowcoach. Let’s go! Your green dragon was one of the first ones into the water.’
‘Sorry, Thymara,’ Tats had muttered, red-faced.
‘Sorry for what?’ she’d said, but it was a moment too late for him to hear it. He was already hastening to push Jerd’s boat out into the water. Nearly all of the other boats were already loaded and pushing away from the shore, each carrying two or three dragon keepers. Rapskal sat alone and dejected in the sole remaining boat. His face brightened the moment he saw her. ‘Well, I guess we’ll be partners, then,’ he’d greeted her. And as annoyed as she’d felt with the situation, she still found herself nodding. Tats’ ‘sorry’ was still rankling in her breast. He’d known that what he was doing was rude enough to rate an apology to her, but it still hadn’t dissuaded him from doing it. The scum-rat.
‘Let me get my gear,’ she’d told Rapskal, and had run back to their deserted campsite. She’d grabbed her pack and returned to the canoe. Rapskal sat in it, paddle poised, as she shoved it out into the river. She’d leapt the water and landed in the narrow boat, making it rock wildly but keeping her feet dry. Seizing her heavily-waxed paddle, she pushed them out into deeper water. A spare set of paddles was under her feet. Not for the first time, she wondered how long their paddles would stand up to the river, and how long their boat would last. The river had been mild of late, its water dark grey. Like every child who had grown up in the Rain Wilds, she knew the water was most dangerous when it ran milky white. Then anyone who fell into it might be scalded and blinded from a single dunking. The dark grey water that flowed past her paddle today would do no more than sting, but its touch was still to be avoided.
This was her first time to partner with Rapskal in a boat. To her surprise, he proved to be competent, digging his paddle in rhythm with hers. He guided them deftly around snags and mud bars as she provided most of the power that pushed them along. They kept to the edge of the river and the shade of the leaning trees, moving where the current was slowest and soon caught up with the others. Greft, she noticed, had joined Boxter and Kase in one of the larger boats. Their paddling was uneven; Greft was using his oar mostly as a tiller. She and Rapskal moved easily alongside them and then passed them. She felt a small thrill of satisfaction at that. Rapskal grinned at her conspiratorially, and she felt an irrational lift to her spirits.
The boats of the other keepers were arranged in a straggling line before them. Sylve and Lecter shared a canoe, as did Warker and Harrikin. Alum and Nortel seemed well matched as paddlers. Tats and Jerd had moved up to lead them all, not that leadership was necessary. The trail the dragons had left was unmistakable, both in the river shallows and on the boggy bank. They had trampled the brush into the mucky shore of the river, and in the shallows, their deep footprints streamed a deeper grey water into the slow current.
‘They’re moving pretty fast, aren’t they?’ Rapskal observed enthusiastically.
‘Right now they are. I doubt they’ll be able to keep it up for long,’ she replied as she paddled doggedly. The dragons steadily and swiftly increased their lead. She was astonished to see them move so rapidly. She had expected the small swift boats to keep pace with them easily, but every time she glanced up, the dragons were farther away. Even the silver and the brown dragon were lolloping along after the others. She noticed that the silver was holding his tail above the water, and hoped he’d continue to do so. It bothered her that she hadn’t finished bandaging his injury. It bothered her even more that Skymaw had left without even speaking to her. Apparently she meant little to the blue queen.
‘Did you see your dragon today?’ she asked Rapskal. She was settling into the rhythm of paddling again. First, she knew, her muscles would ache. Then they’d ease into the exercise and for a time, all would go smoothly. What she dreaded was when they’d begin to ache again, because no matter how they hurt, they could not stop paddling until they went ashore for the night. A few days of travelling by boat had toughened all of the dragon keepers and taught them the basics of watercraft, but she had a feeling that her body would hurt a lot more before she was completely accustomed to this. She leaned harder into her paddling.
‘Course I did.’ Rapskal timed his words to his efforts. ‘After I ate, I went and groomed Heeby. Then we did our flying exercises. Then I watched Heeby eat. It made me mad. The big dragons take the best food. She doesn’t get as much to eat as they do. When we stop tonight, I got to catch her a fish or something. But I think that’s going to be a problem. If the dragons go this fast, so we have to paddle all the time to keep up, when are we going to have time to hunt or fish for food for them?’
‘There’s supposed to be some food on the barge for us, and some dried meat for the dragons. We don’t know how long they’ll keep up this pace. Maybe they’ll stop in a few hours and we’ll have time to hunt.’ She shook her head. ‘There’s a lot we don’t know yet. I guess we’ll learn as we go along.’
‘I saw the hunters get on board the barge back there. They’re supposed to help us get meat for the dragons each day.’
‘I didn’t see them. I’m glad they got here before the dragons decided to leave. But if the hunters are on the barge back there, how are they going to hunt anything?’
‘That’s a very good question. What’s that ahead of us?’
She squinted against the sunlight bouncing off the river. ‘Looks like a big snag sticking out into the water, with a lot of driftwood piled up against it.’
Rapskal grinned. ‘We’ll have to go out in the current to get around it.’
‘No. Let’s hug the shore. If we have to, we’ll portage around it. I don’t want to get out in the current.’
‘Are you scared?’ Rapskal sounded delighted at the prospect. When she glanced over her shoulder at him, he turned his wide grin on her. When he smiled, all his strangeness seemed to melt away and he became simply a very handsome Rain Wilds youth. She still shook her head at his challenge.
‘Yes, I am scared,’ she replied firmly. ‘And we are not going out into the current. Not until I’m better at managing this boat.’
But suddenly, partnering with Rapskal instead of Tats did not seem such a poor trade.
Leftrin waited until Alise was aboard the barge before he started up the ladder. He knew he needed to focus his mind on the final loading of the barge and shoving the Tarman back out into the current. No one had expected the dragons to stampede off like that. The plan had been that the barge would lead the way, followed by the keepers in their canoes guiding and encouraging the dragons. Now the dragons were completely out of sight and the last of the canoes would soon vanish around a bend in the wandering river. And here he sat, on shore still, with a cargo of dried meat, hardtack, salt pork and pickled breadleaf still being loaded. If any of the young keepers overturned their canoes, there would be nothing he could do to help them. And from what he’d seen of the youngsters, mishaps seemed more likely than not.
Well, all he could do right now was worry about them until he had all the stores safely stowed. Then he’d have to get his barge back out into the water and headed upriver. He tried to push Alise out of his thoughts. Now was no time to be wishing that he could sit her down in the galley and offer her a quiet cup of tea and some talk. He’d been so proud of her for standing up to Sedric when he tried to bully her into backing out of her adventure. She’d kept a stone face and a stern resolve all the way back to the barge. He followed her up the ladder, wondering if he’d have time to let her know how impressed he was.
But as he stepped onto his deck, he encountered not only a heap of unstowed cargo but three strangers lounging against it. Alise had frozen where she was, just off the ladder, her back to the barge’s rail. Instinctively he moved between her and