Chapter 12

Glaciated, or nearly so, the highest passes were denied them. What seemed like a good canyon from miles away often turned into a dead end. Often, making their way around the southern edges of each huge mountain led them into another canyon between smaller mountains. While there wasn't yet snow at the elevation they'd turned east again at, crossing the great folds in the land, there was definitely ice in the air.

The Jade was a fine traveling companion, McAllister and Sable both agreed, willing to go where Sable led. There was no competition for who was in charge there, McAllister knew. The Jade simply took it for granted that flesh-and-blood horses, even if they were sometimes jade statuettes, could not compete with a twenty-ton fire-breathing horse of steel.

No, the pale-green roan horse was uncomplaining about the footing, climbing, backtracking, or pulling, and was always able to find the safe path, the forage, or the running water.

The Jade's rider was the problem.

Garrulous and talkative, voluble and prolix, he combined verbosity with loquaciousness. The man simply loved the spoken word, especially when his words were spoken.

Ban-Den had been as taciturn and quiet as McAllister, and while traveling, spoke only when necessary. But Ban-Den cantered down the easy valley far to the south and west of them now, and if his two charges hadn't proven to be too saddle-sore, he was likely in the City of the Light of the Western Empire by now. Sourly, McAllister wondered if the person who tagged the city with such a long name were related to Shan Hu.

A hundred ideas to become rich an hour, McAllister counted. Famous? Shan Hu could make it happen in a day, if he were put in charge. Women by the score, palaces and kingdoms for the winning could be McAllister's if he would only record the pearls of wisdom Shan Hu doled out every tenth-part of an hour.

Shan Hu was also good at complaints. Complaints about soreness, though they walked more than rode in the mountains, complaints about walking, complaints about the food. McAllister kept his silence, perversely. Not to explode at the other man had been difficult at first, but he'd not spoken, save to Sable, and that in the silent manner.

McAllister gritted his teeth, and plodded on through the mountains.

Careful with the Jade's hooves, which were still unshod, McAllister never went over rocky ground if he could help it. The horse himself seemed to understand this, placing his feet with care. The Jade seemed to love the long grassy meadows they found, usually with a stream in the middle, sandwiched between folds in the mountains, but too often the meadows ran north-south, and were crossed in an hour.

When they at last reached one final mountain range, taller than all the others, the valley before them was wide, and McAllister agreed they could turn south and look for a lower pass.

This day was the second day in the great valley with the broad river flowing through brown grasses, grasses that were now frosted, but would thaw into a damp mess that would have both men's legs wet through and cold by noon. Unspoken by all was the hope that this was the final valley, the final range to find a pass around.

"I'm going to ride ahead," Shan Hu abruptly announced, causing McAllister to squint at him from his position shaving, the knife blade held still in the midst the last stroke.

"He wants to force you to speak," Sable advised him without audible sound.

"If I weren't worried for the Jade, I'd let him ride out there alone," McAllister replied in the same manner. "I wonder if he can learn the local language?"

"Call the Jade back, McAllister. I think Shan Hu should know you command his horse also."

"Very well," McAllister said.

Scarcely five minutes later, McAllister and Sable stopped beside the Jade. McAllister looked down at the man sitting on the ground, staring resentfully at the horse who wouldn't move for him.

"I did not want to leave," he told them, from his seat on the wet grass. "I was working with fertilizers, trying to grow the prized orchids in hothouses in the northern climes our father was relocated to. Mother always liked orchids."

McAllister said nothing.

"All I wanted was to buy myself a house, afford a wife, and gift my sister with a dowry, get her a good marriage." Seeing McAllister still wouldn't speak, he continued. "Then one of the fertilizer concoctions I tried caught fire all on its own, making the most brilliant violet smokes, prettier than the prettiest orchid. It was as if my deceased mother spoke to me then, telling me I should nurture this carefully, that it could be the thing we needed..."

"Huídào knew what to do better than I did. She has the soul of an academician, patient and careful. I can't keep to one task, as I'm sure you've noticed." What McAllister noticed was the bitter tone of the words.

The taller man sighed from his place on the grass. "Do you know where we're going? Can you tell me about it?"

McAllister silently offered the man the Jade's reins, and waited for him to stand.

"We're riding through flatter lands, and we do not want to mire in snow. We want to reach the Eastern shore, and search through the cities there for an object lost nearly twelve hundred years ago. To do that, we ride through land the local men inhabit, men I know nothing of. It would be good if we did it quickly and silently," McAllister told him, his voice crackling from disuse.

The small party finally rounded the last of the tallest mountains, and found a gap through the remaining ranges. The terrain was largely flat, with loose, pebbly dirt. Only hardy grass and strange, gnarled low trees grew in the near constant wind. Low, long hills stretched across the countryside, with no real discernable pattern to them. Behind them, ominous clouds built on their first day out of the mountains.

"I don't know if it will rain again," the horse told him, "but it could be snow."

McAllister agreed. "We ride until the Jade cannot see," he said aloud.

Shan Hu only nodded. Taking his cue from McAllister, the man had finally learned McAllister did not require conversation while traveling.

Turning away, McAllister and Sable shared quiet amusement.

When the rain came, it was an icy, driving, soaking rain. The men slept between the kneeling horses, the canvas tent-cloth covering them. Sable said nothing of the heavy cloth bundle, tied, full-sized, to the saddle. McAllister saw the metal was rubbed shiny in a few spots, though Sable told him not to be concerned, as the horse would replenish the miniscule lost mass when next in her human form.

Sable and the Jade held a quick conversation about whether or not he should be returned to the statuette form at night. "It's more of he has a sense of agreement, or disagreement, willing or not," she reported to McAllister.

The Jade flicked an ear at Shan Hu, and Sable nickered. "He understands the game is to keep Shan Hu in the dark. As horses go, he's one of the brighter ones I've met."

The next day was cold and gray, and frost was in the air. "I do not think snow is far behind us," McAllister said aloud.

Nodding, Shan Hu simply rolled his tent cloth back up and tied it to the now-resaddled Jade.

"There are men moving on horses, watching us," Sable reported at midday.

"They must know every roll and wash in the land," McAllister replied to her. "I only see one or two. There must be more."

"Look for warm air," Sable suggested. "Their breath is bright against backdrop of the cold land."

McAllister nodded grimly. "I forget that I can see such," he told the horse. Aloud, to Shan Hu, he said, "We are being followed. Or flanked, though they do not close."

Shan Hu simply nodded.

They set up camp that night, another cold camp, though Sable breathed warm air under the canvas. Where the local plainsmen went at night, McAllister could not say, though Sable assured him there were none close by.

Before the dawn, McAllister roused the other man. The four were moving again as the dawn grew brighter. Far to the east where the sky was not yet beclouded, there glowed the hint of rose, from under the line of dark cloud that spread eastward. Just before the sun rose, there came a fleeting moment when the undersides of the cloud and all the world lighted with an eerie green light. The moment passed as the first red-gold limb of the sun broke the horizon.

"I'd heard of that," McAllister said aloud. "It's supposed to happen at sea when conditions are favorable. What those conditions are, I could not say."

"I did not know it happened on land," Shan Hu said. "I, too, have heard of it. The scholars say it is because light is made of many colors, and sometimes you can purify it to a single color."

McAllister led them at an easy canter, while the day grew dimmer and the air heavier, promising snow. At the fourth hour of the afternoon, McAllister and Sable were aware their escort had returned.

The situation did not remain as the day before had. Two of the plainsmen rode at a path to intercept the horses. Sable stopped, and the Jade beside her, when the two approached within speaking distance.

One said something to the other, then, while McAllister's eye ran over the bow and the short quiver each carried. The bows showed signs of advanced workmanship, these bows were recurved, and showed signs of being laid up from narrow strips of wood. The tanned leather garments the men wore were fur-lined, with what appeared to be rabbit or hare skin, and showed signs of good seamstress work, practical garments for the winter season. McAllister's eyes noted the small, light saddles and the presence of stirrups carved from wood, mounted on leather straps.

"Someone has taught these plainsmen things the Red Indians of my world never knew," McAllister mentioned to Sable, once more without words.

"My shaman says you understand my speech," the older of the two before them said. "I thought it was an errand like to the chase of a downy feather in an autumn wind."

"I understand," McAllister answered.

The two plainsmen exchanged glances of surprise, and then the oldest replied. "My shaman asked me to offer you hospitality and a contest for the duration of the blizzard that comes."

"Your shaman has good weather-sense," McAllister allowed.

"He said also you come with two spirit-horses, one of great wisdom, from far away, and one more like ours. He said you come with one man who could not speak our language, but could make music to pass the days away until the snow melts enough for travel."

McAllister nodded. "Then we accept."

The snow began as McAllister and Shan Hu unsaddled the horses. Fat, lazy flakes fell at the first, but before the sun fully set, the grass all around wore a faint feathering of white.

"I'll stay in this form," Sable said. "This is no situation as was the Western Empire of Han."

McAllister nodded. "I haven't been obliged to kill anyone trying to attack me in some time. It's good you're wary."

"Then I'll use my breath and keep the horses warm, and keep the Jade from fighting the stallion of the herd."

McAllister cocked his head at that thought, but refrained from pointing out the Jade could be returned to a statuette. After a moment's more thought, he concluded that if he were the Jade he'd rather live his life than remain a statuette. That settled, he followed Shan Hu into the long low building.

His host told him, "My shaman asked for you and your companion to be seated beside him when he arrives. It will likely be four days in the shelter, and he would converse with you."