“I’m going to tell them one of the goats got out,” Tessa explained. She set her potato down on the quilt, and Daisy left Fox’s lap to finish it.
“Brat,” Ilsit said, shaking her head at Tessa.
“I got us into this,” Tessa went on. “I’ll take some of the risk. It’s not just Adelaide who needs our help.”
Before we lost the light, I walked towards the front of the caravan to collect our bread rations. The undertaking was so long, I reasoned it might take me a half hour to reach the front. Though I had protested walking to deliver the mother’s moss that night, I did want to get the lay of the whole caravan. I could carry on in my service the following night. I needed a good night’s sleep in me. I also needed to track the moon as I would be forced to use Magda’s trick of moss delivery on a full moon. For a long time, I had resorted to moonless nights for protection, but I could not memorize a path in the dark when every night we would be somewheredifferent.
Tents and wagons spread out nearly as far as I could see in every direction on either side of the dust road. The making of camps became more uniform the farther I went, and soon I fell into a line of other civilians queuing at a small circle of army wagons that smelled of bread.
“It is so kind of King Pollux to do this for the penitents,” I heard an old woman say next to me.
When I got to the front of the line, I was met with a man sitting at a small table, a ledger spread out before him. The circle of wagons was closed behind him and guarded by more soldiers.
“You must worry about bread thieves,” I jested in greeting.
“Wagon number,” he said without looking at me.
“Oh. Four hundred and twenty-three,” I answered.
“Three!” he called out so loudly I jumped.
A teenaged boy outfitted in the Perpatanian gray came out from between two of the guards and set three small, round loaves of bread on the table.
“Oh, hold on,” I said. “I’ve five in my party.”
“No, you don’t,” said the man with the ledger. “Next!” he called.
“Sir, I mean no trouble, but we’ve five women in our wagon?—”
“Next!” he repeated.
“Please check again,” I pleaded. “It is myself, Roberta Finch, my apprentice, Fox, who uses my last name, Tessa Tanner, Jade Atwood, and Ilsit—” I stopped, understanding my mistake.
“Madam, get out of the way,” the ledger man said. “It seems you travel with those listed as dead. The church and therefore the army do not recognize them as souls in need of the king’s graces.Next!”
“But that’s five mouths to feed on three folks’ rations.”
“Listen, woman,” said a burly man behind me. He jerked his head at the line of people behind him. “These folks have a right to eat. You travel with sinners who didn’t sign the penitents’ list. They starve because they do not repent. Move along. Let the repentant get the meals they deserve.”
He was right. Only Tessa, Fox and I had signed on as penitents.We would get only rations for three. That meant food for three split amongst five for at least a whole season of travel. Halving potatoes would not stretch that far.
“That’s right!” called out a man further down the line. “Only the faithful get to eat! That’s what the priest said.”
“That’s the way it is!” said a third man, and others joined in to agree.
The burly man stepped up to take my place at the table, pushing me to one side and the loaves to the ground.
“No!” I groaned. I scrambled to pick them up and brush off any dirt on the sides. I piled them into my apron and clumsily stood to my feet. When I did, I saw the one-eyed man standing so close to the burly man it was almost intimate. He had his right hand resting, almost in a caress, on the nape of the other man’s neck. His lips rested just at the edge of the man’s ear, and he said something.
The other folk in line had fallen quiet, watching.
The man with the ledger and the guards nearby watched too.
The burly man began to shake his head and jerk away from the one-eyed Vyggian, but then he went slightly limp and began to shudder.
The hand on his neck had tightened.
“Apologies, lady,” he gasped in my direction.
