Taking Flight

“Asha, don’t worry,” Kelder said quickly. “Look, we can go back and build a cairn over your brother’s body to keep it safe, and then we can go catch the caravan and get his head back-they’re headed for Shan, same as we are, so we’re bound to catch up with them somewhere. I mean, there’s only the one Great Highway.”

“Build a what?” Irith asked.

“A cairn. Like a box made of rocks, I mean. Isn’t that called a cairn?”

“I don’t know,” Irith said, “I never heard of anything like that. Do they do that in Shulara?”

“No,” Kelder said, “but I heard about it in an old story about an enchanted princess.”

“What kind of story?” Irith asked suspiciously.

“Just a story my grandmother told me,” Kelder said.

“It sounds weird to me,” Irith replied dubiously.

“We should do it,” Asha said.

Kelder nodded agreement.

Irith looked from one to the other, and then announced, “You’re both crazy, but all right, we’ll do it.”

Chapter Nine

Irith eyed the structure critically.

“So I never built a cairn before,” Kelder said defensively. “I don’t see you helping much.”

“I never even heard of a cairn before,” Irith said, tossing her hair, “and I think the whole idea is stupid. I wish I still hadn’t heard of one.”

Asha staggered up holding another rock, one she could barely carry. Kelder quickly took it, then looked over the stone oval, trying to decide where to place it.

“Are we just going to leave all Abden’s friends lying here?” Asha asked, as Kelder set the stone in place.

Kelder looked around at the mutilated corpses, wrinkling his nose at the sight and the stink, and then said, “Yes.”

Asha shrugged. “All right,” she said. “I just thought I’d ask.”

“Go find another stone,” Kelder told her.

“This is stupid,” Irith said, sitting down cross-legged on the grass. “And boring, too. How are you going to make it cover him without falling in and squashing him?”

“I thought I could make it arch over,” Kelder said.

Irith grimaced.

Kelder frowned. “I don’t think it’s going to work,” he admitted. He looked around, as if hoping to find inspiration.

All he saw was headless, decaying corpses, and an equal number of dead horses. The horses, at any rate, mostly still had their heads attached.

Irith, too, looked around, wrinkling her nose. “Ick,” she said. “I hate to say it, but what if you used some of the saddles to cover him, and then covered those with rocks? They look stiff enough to work.”

Kelder considered the matter, then nodded.

“That should work,” he said. He headed for the nearest horse. “I’m surprised nobody’s taken the saddles yet.”

Irith shrugged. “Looting corpses isn’t much fun,” she said. “Probably most people who pass this way have better things to do. Besides, they might be worried about getting cursed or something. But even with the smell, and curses or not, I bet you won’t find any purses here any more.”

Kelder looked up from the cinch-strap he was tugging at. “Do you think there might really be any curses here?” he asked.

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “Why would anyone curse us for trying to help a little girl give her brother a proper funeral?”

Kelder had no answer for that; besides, he was discovering that pulling a thick leather strap out from under a dead horse, even a mangled one, takes a great deal of strength. Being a champion of the lost and forlorn wasn’t much fun, so far. It didn’t seem to impress his intended bride, either.

“Um…” he said, as he lost his grip and fell backward, “could you give me a hand here?”

Irith gave a loud sigh, then came to help.

Together, they freed the saddle; Kelder then carried it over and fitted it across his half-built “cairn,” like a barrel-vaulted roof.

It fit just fine, and looked strong enough to serve as a frame for a stone covering. He turned to Irith. “Thank you for the help, and for the suggestion,” he said.

She waved away his gratitude. “I just didn’t want to be stuck here all day while you were finding out how hard it is to build arches,” she said.

Three hours later the job was done; Abden’s headless remains were entombed in leather and stone. It had taken three saddles to cover the cadaver.

“You’re sure it’s the right body?” Kelder asked, looking around at the others, still lying scattered across the grassy verge.

Asha nodded.

“Good,” Kelder said, straightening up and rubbing the back of his waist. His back was stiff and sore. “Then let’s get going.” He looked up at the sun. “I doubt we’ll catch the caravan today, but we can at least get started.”

Irith shook her head. “No, we can’t,” she said.

Kelder glared at her. “Why the hell not?” he demanded.

“Because it’s more than four leagues from Angarossa Castle to the town of Sinodita, and there isn’t a decent inn anywhere in that four leagues,” Irith said. “We’ve taken more than half a day on this stupid job, and I don’t want to be walking around here after dark.”

Kelder looked up at the sun again, then back at Irith. “It’s not much more than an hour past noon,” he said. “How far is it to the Angarossan border?”