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CHAPTER 21

      THE BARGE passed Kingsport just before dawn. Wrapped in Ess-Issa's enchanted sleep, they slipped untouched through the net that King Dur had stretched across the water. They never felt it, and the net never trembled as they passed.

      When they woke, late in the day, they were far to the south of the city. At dusk, when the shadows lay long across the water, they reached the spot at which they had to go ashore.

      Zex poled the barge close to the riverbank. Ware and Ember leaped into the icy water and dragged it to ground on a gravelly shore.

      Hasty pointed to the painted cart. "How are we going to m-move t-that?" he asked.

      "Among us, we can pull it," Zex said calmly. "It's only a few hours travel across the plain, and although it'll be hard when we get into the mountains, we'll manage. Two of us can pull while the third one walks and rests. Come on, let's get it ashore."

      What a change, Ware thought, to see Zex making plans to move the cart. He said nothing, however, merely nodded and took a firm hold on the wheel beside him. With Ember on the other side, he dragged the cart off the barge and onto the thick bed of gravel that edged the water.

      Instantly, the cart tipped forward and its wheels sank into the gravel. Zex thrashed into the water after them, and together the three of them dragged it forward.

      "Lift! Keep it upright," Zex shouted. "Get behind, you women, and push. Hurry up."

      If the others were surprised at Zex' change of heart, they never mentioned it. In any case, pushing and pulling as they were, they had no breath to comment on anything.

      As the cart's wheels ground through the fine gravel, Ware muttered, "I never thought that I'd miss that pony."

      Finally, with a great effort, they got the cart to firm ground. There they sank down around it, puffing.

      "May I never complain of mud again," Zex declared, stretching his back and then relaxing against one of the scarred, painted wheels. "Gravel is worse than anything."

      Steel took off her boots and emptied a substantial amount of water from each. "Well, we're almost there. If the weather holds, we'll be there by morning."

      "The sooner the better," Zex agreed. "Dur's men will be on our trail before we know it. One good thing about these cursed pebbles — they'll show no marks of our passage."

      "Surely it will be some time before they reach this place," Hearth said, wringing water out of her sopping skirts.

      "Don't be too sure," Steel answered. "The river moves fast, but it doesn't follow a straight path. If Dur's men come due south, they could be her by nightfall."

      Ware sat up sharply. "Then you should go on at once, Steel. Take Zex with you," he added, thinking of how the soldiers had run from the bear on the day they met Ember, "and the rest of us will bring the cart as best we can."

      Zex put a possessive hand on the cart's painted side. "No. We'll stay together."

      They were all on their feet now, gathering their packs, nodding at Zex's decision. Only Ware continued to argue. "But Steel's in danger — "

      "Safety in numbers," Zex said blandly. "Now: who takes the first pull on the cart?"

      Hasty said eagerly, "I can help. We'll go two-and-two."

      Zex surveyed him. "You? Hmm . . . I never thought of you as being one of us men, but — yes, you're strong. And it true; if two are always fresh, we'll move faster."

      "Bring the Ezzeman to land and release the barge into the current," Steel said, pulling on her boots. "No point in leaving it here to show where we came ashore."

      "Leave the snake on board." Zex said indifferently. "Let him get off when it passes but Ezzeen."

      Ware gave Zex a black look. However changed he was, Ware thought, the Berach was the same man as before. Without a word, Ware waded back to the barge and carried the unconscious Itok to land, still wrapped in his quilt.

      "Leave him — he's dead baggage," Zex growled. "You can't carry him while you pull the cart. Be sensible."

      "Prince Zex . . ." Steel had begun to speak when Ember broke in.

      "Nobody need to carry 'im . . . Do it this way." Using a coil of rope from the barge, he fastened a blanket between the traces of the cart, forming a hammock.

      Zex snorted, but he offered no further argument when Ember took the Ezzeman's unconscious body from Ware' arms and placed it in the hammock, tying it securely in place.

      Ember and Zex took hold of the cart by the traces and moved off across the plain. Ware, with Hasty at his heels, dragged the barge out into the current. Knee-deep, they watched the river take the heavy thing into its arms and carry it away.

      "Where is it going?" Hasty asked softly. "Will it drift to the end of the world?"

      "It'll probably go aground somewhere, but if it stays with the water it will pass through Ezzeen, down to where the river empties into the great sea," Ware answered.

      Looking after it, Hasty murmured, "Through the desert lands and into the sea . . . I wish I were on it, Ware. They say that seawater tastes like tears. I wish we could go there and find out if that's true."

      "If you were on the raft, you wouldn't be here. Don't you want to meet King Hawk and find out what comes next?"

      The boy nodded soberly. "Yes, I do. But Ware, I want taste the salty water, and I want to see Ezzeen. I want to do it all."

      Ware shook his head at that. But he also smiled and put his arm around the boy's thin shoulders as they waded back to shore and followed the others across the twilight valley and toward the mountains.

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