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Wonder where they'll camp?' Vandien's dark eyes were bright with curiosity.
    'Company would be nice,' Ki agreed, privately thinking that Goat might find boys of his own age to run with while she and Vandien made the camp and had a quiet moment or two.
    'Camp near Tamshin?' Goat asked with disgust. 'Don't you know anything of those people? You're lucky I'm here to warn you. For one thing, they smell terrible, and all are infested with fleas and lice. All their children are thieves, taking anything they can get their dirty little hands on. And it is well known that their women have a disease that they pass to men, and it makes your eyes swell shut and your mouth break out with sores. They're filth! And it is rumored that they are the ones that supply the rebels with food and information, hoping to bring the Duke down so they may have the run of the land and take the business of honest merchants and traders.'
    'They sound almost as bad as Romni,' Vandien observed affably.
    'The Duke has ordered his Brurjan troops to keep the Romni well away from his province. So I have never seen one, but I have heard ...'
    'I was raised Romni.' She knew Vandien had been trying to get her to see the humor of the boy's intolerance, but it had cut too close to the bone. That conversation had died. And the afternoon had stretched on, wide and flat and sandy, the only scenery the scrub brush and grasses drying in the summer heat. A very long day ...
    At least the boy had been keeping quiet these last few hours. Ki sneaked another look at him. His face looked totally empty, devoid of intelligence. But for that emptiness, the face could have been, well, not handsome, but at least affable. It was only when he opened his mouth to speak, or bared those yellow teeth in his foolish grin, that Ki was repulsed. He reached up to scratch his nose, and suddenly appeared so childish that Ki was ashamed of herself. Goat was very much a child still. If he had been ten instead of fourteen, would she have expected the manners of a man, the restraint of an adult? Here was a boy, on his first journey away from home, travelling with strangers to an uncle he hadn't seen in years. It was natural that he would be nervous and moody, swinging from sulky to overconfident. His looks were against him too, for if she had seen him in a crowd, she would have guessed his age at sixteen, or even older. Only a boy. Her heart softened toward him.
    'We'll stop for the night at those trees ahead, Goat. Do you think that greener grass might mean a spring?'
    He seemed surprised that she would speak to him, let alone ask him a question. His voice was between snotty and shy. 'Probably. Those are Gwigi trees. They only grow near water.'
    Ki refused to take offense from his tone. 'Really? That's good to. know. Vandien and I are strangers to this part of the world. Perhaps as we travel together, you can tell us the names of the trees and plants, and what you know of them. Such knowledge is always useful.'
    The boy brightened at once. His yellow teeth flashed in a grin. 'I know all of the trees and plants around here. I can teach you about all of them. Of course, there is a lot to learn, so you probably won't remember it all. But I'll try to teach you.' He paused. 'But if I'm doing that, I don't think I should have to help out with the chores every night.'
    Ki snorted a laugh. 'You should be a merchant, not a healer, with your bargaining. Well, I don't think I will let you out of chores just for telling me the names of a few trees, but this first night you can just watch, instead of helping, until you learn what has to be done every night. Does that sound fair?' Her voice was tolerant.
    'Well,' Goat grinned, 'I still think I shouldn't have to do any chores. After all, my father did pay you, and I will be teaching you all these important things. I already saved you from camping near the Tamshin.'
    'We'll see,' Ki replied briefly, struggling to keep her mind open toward the boy. He said such