victim. This would help her to play the role."
"How far would it be from here?" Danat asked.
Otah, his mind already more than half in the past, calculated. They were
six days south of Utani on this steamcart for water. Udun had been a
week's ride or ten days walking south from Utani....
"She could reach it in three days," Otah said, "if she knew where she
was headed. There are more than enough streams and creeks feeding the
river here. Water wouldn't be a problem."
"If we go there now, we might reach it before she does," Idaan said,
looking out over the river.
"The camp's still the better wager," Danat said. "It's where she parted
ways with them. They left their sleeping tents, so there's shelter of a
sort. And it doesn't require walking anywhere."
Maati started to object, but Otah raised his hand.
"It's along the way," Otah said. "We'll stop there and look. If she's
been to the camp, we should be able to tell. If not, we won't have lost
more than half a day."
Maati straightened as if the decision were a personal insult, turned and
walked back to the stern of the boat. Time had not been gentle to the
man. Hard fat had thickened his chest and belly. His skin was gray where
it wasn't flushed. Maati's long, age-paled hair had an unhealthy yellow,
and his movements were labored as if he woke every morning tired. And
his mind ...
Otah turned back to the water, the trees, the soft wind. The white haze
of sky was darkening as the day wore on, the scent of rain on the air.
The others-Idaan, Danat, Eiah, Ana-moved away quietly, as if afraid
their conversation might move him to violence. Otah breathed in and out,
slow and deep, until both his disgust and his pity had faded.
Maati had lost the right to feel anger when his pupil had killed Galt,
and any sentimental connection between Otah and his once-friend had
drowned outside Chaburi-Tan. If Maati thought that stopping at the camp
was a poor decision, he could make his case or he could choke on it. It
was the same to Otah.
In the event, they lost more than half a day. Maati identified the wrong
stretches of river twice, and Eiah had no eyes to correct him. When at
last they found the abandoned campsite, a soft, misting rain had started
to fall and the daylight was beginning to fail them. Maati led the way
into the small clearing, walking slowly. Otah and two of the armsmen
were close behind. Eiah had insisted that she come as well, and Idaan
was helping her, albeit more slowly.
"Well," Otah said, standing in the middle of the ruins. "I think we can
fairly say that she's been here."
The camp was destroyed. The thick canvas sleeping tents lay in shreds
and knots. Stones and ashes from the fire pit had been strewn about, and
two leather bags lay empty in the mud. One of the armsmen crouched on
his heels and pointed to a slick of black mud. A footprint no longer
than Otah's thumb. Idaan's steps squelched as she paced near the ruined
fire pit. Maati sat on a patch of crushed grass, his hem dragging in the
mud, his face a mask of desolation.