Luck of the Wheels. Megan Lindholm

voice cut in over the noise of his protest. ‘Listen. Ki didn’t say you weren’t nice. She said that some of the things you say aren’t nice. And she asked you, rather politely, to stop saying them. Now, you choose. Do you want Ki to speak honestly to you, as she would to an adult, or baby you along like an ill-tempered brat?’

      There was a challenge in Vandien’s words. Ki watched Goat’s face flood with anger.

      ‘Well, I was being honest, too. The Tamshin are thieves; ask anyone. And my father did pay for my trip, and I don’t see why I should have to do all the work. It’s not fair.’

      ‘Fair or not, it’s how it is. Live with it,’ Vandien advised him shortly.

      ‘Maybe it seems unfair now,’ Ki said gently. ‘But as we go along, you’ll see how it works. For tonight, you don’t have to do any chores. You can just watch. And tomorrow, you may even find that you want to help.’ Her tone was reasonable.

      ‘But when I wanted to help today with the driving, you said no. I bet you’re going to give me all the dirty chores.’

      Ki had run out of patience. She kept silent. But Vandien turned to Goat and gave him a most peculiar smile. ‘We’ll see,’ he promised.

      The light was dimming, the trees loomed large, and with no sign from her the team drew the wagon from the road onto the coarse meadow that bordered it. She pulled them in near the trees. The big animals halted, and the wagon was blessedly still, the swaying halted, the creaking silenced. Ki leaned down to wrap the reins around the brake handle. She put both her hands on the small of her back and arched, taking the ache out of her spine. Vandien rolled his shoulders and started to rise from the plank seat when the boy pushed past him to jump from the wagon and run into the trees.

      ‘Don’t go too far!’ Ki called after him.

      ‘Let him run,’ Vandien suggested. ‘He’s been sitting still all day. And I’d just as soon be free of him for a while. He won’t go far. Probably just has to relieve himself.’

      ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ Ki admitted. ‘You and I are used to a long day. It would be harder for the boy, especially to ask a stranger to stop the wagon for him. Maybe we should make a point of stopping a few times tomorrow. To eat, and to rest the horses.’

      ‘Whatever you think.’ Vandien dropped lightly to the ground. He stood stretching and rolling his shoulders. ‘But I don’t think that boy would be embarrassed to say anything.’ He glanced over at Ki. ‘And I don’t think your coaxing and patience will get anywhere with him. He acts like he’s never had to be responsible for his own acts. Sometime during this trip, he’s going to discover consequences.’

      ‘He’s just a boy, regardless of his size. You’ve realized that as much as I have.’ Ki groaned at her stiffness as she climbed down from the driving seat.

      ‘He’s a spoiled infant,’ Vandien said agreeably. ‘And I almost think it might be easier to humor him as such for this trip, instead of trying to grow him up along the way. Let his uncle worry about teaching him manners and discipline.’

      ‘Perhaps,’ Ki conceded as her fingers worked at the heavy harness buckles. On his side of the team, Sigurd gave his habitual kick in Vandien’s direction. Vandien sidestepped with the grace of long habit, and delivered the routine slap to the big horse’s haunch. This ceremony out of the way, the unharnessing proceeded smoothly.

      As they led the big horses out of the traces and toward the water, Ki wondered aloud, ‘Where’s Goat gotten to now?’

      A loud splashing answered her. She pushed hastily through the thick brush surrounding the spring. The spring was in a hollow, its bank built up by the tall grasses and bushes that throve on its moisture. Goat sat in the middle of the small spring, the water up to his chest. His discarded garments littered the bank. He grinned up at them. ‘Not a very big pool, but big enough to cool off in.’

      ‘You did get yourself a cool drink before stirring up the mud on the bottom, didn’t you?’ Vandien asked with heavy sarcasm.

      ‘Of course. It wasn’t very cold, but it was drinkable.’

      ‘Was it?’ Vandien asked drily. He glanced over at Ki, then reached to put Sigurd’s lead into her hands. ‘You explain it to the horses,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure they’d believe me.’ He turned and strode back through the trees to the wagon. Ki was left staring down at Goat. She forced herself to behave calmly. He had not been raised by the Romni. He could know nothing of the fastidious separation of water for drinking from water for bathing. He would know nothing of fetching first the water for the wagon, then watering the horses, and then bathing. Not only had he dirtied all the available water, his nakedness before her was offensive. Ki reminded herself that she was not among the Romni, that in her travels she had learned a tolerance for the strange ways of other folk. She reminded herself that she intended to be patient, but honest, with Goat. Even if it meant explaining these most obvious things.

      He grinned at her and kicked his feet, stirring up streamers of mud. Sigurd and Sigmund, thirsty and not fussy, pulled free of her slack grip and went to the water. Their big muzzles dipped, making rings, and then they were sucking in long draughts. Ki wished she shared their indifference.

      Goat ignored them. He smiled up at Ki. ‘Why don’t you take your clothes off and come into the water?’ he asked invitingly.

      He was such a combination of offensive lewdness and juvenility that Ki couldn’t decide whether to glare or laugh. She set her features firmly in indifference. ‘Get out of there and get dressed. I want to talk to you.’ She spoke in a normal voice.

      ‘Why can’t we talk in here?’ he pressed. He smiled widely. ‘We don’t even have to talk,’ he added in a confidential tone.

      ‘If you were a man,’ she said evenly, ‘I’d feel angry. But you’re only an ill-mannered little boy.’ She turned her back on him and strode away, trying to contain the fury that roiled through her.

      ‘Ki!’ His voice followed her. ‘Wait! Please!’

      The change in his tone was so abrupt that she had to turn to it. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said softly, staring at her boots. His shoulders were bowed in toward his hairless chest. When he looked up at her, his eyes were very wide. ‘I do everything wrong, don’t I?’

      She didn’t know what to say. The sudden vulnerability after all his boasting was too startling. She couldn’t quite believe it.

      ‘I just … I want to be like other people. To talk like they do, and be friends.’ The words were tumbling out of him. Ki couldn’t look away. ‘To make jokes and tease. But when I say it, it doesn’t come out funny. No one laughs, everyone gets mad at me. And then I … I’m sorry for what I said just now.’

      Ki stood still, thinking. She thought she had a glimpse of the boy’s misunderstanding. ‘I understand. But those kinds of jokes take time. They’re not funny from a stranger.’

      ‘I’m always the stranger. Strange Goat, with the yellow eyes and teeth.’ Bitterness filled his voice. ‘Vandien already hates me. He won’t change his mind. No one ever gives me a second chance. And I never get it right the first time.’

      ‘Maybe you don’t give other people a second chance,’ Ki said bluntly. ‘You’ve already decided Vandien won’t like you. Why don’t you change the way you behave? Try being polite and helpful. Maybe by the end of this trip, he’ll forget how you first behaved.’

      Goat looked up at her. She didn’t know if his gaze was sly or shy. ‘Do you like me?’

      ‘I don’t know yet,’ she said coolly. Then, in a kinder voice, she added, ‘Why don’t you get dried off and dressed and come back to camp? Try being likeable and see what happens.’

      He looked down at the muddied water and nodded silently. She turned away from him. Let him think for a while. She took the leads from the horses and left them to graze by the spring. They wouldn’t stray;