Ben Dover's Arc

Chapter 23 of 150

Ben paid Ollie in coin from his belt pouch. The freight operator counted it twice, then whistled low. A shape moved out from the shadow behind the station. Not a horse. A long-bodied creature, gray and rust, harness strapped across its chest, saddle bolted high on its shoulders. It padded to the cart and stood, alert, watching Ben with one orange eye. "She pulls the run at night," Ollie said. "Faster than any team. Get in." Ben climbed into the cart with Anita and Justin. Justin set the taped crate between his boots. The creature leaned into the harness and the cart rolled. The road blurred. Ben gripped the rail and tried to think. "I don't know what the buyer looks like," he said. Anita turned. "What?" "Ollie said tall and hooded. That's nothing. The fork will have travelers. Carters. Anyone in a cloak." He pressed his palm to the rail. "I could walk right past our chest." Justin looked at the crate. "The chest hums. Under the felt. Barely. I can hear it if I get close." "Close enough to touch," Anita said. "That doesn't help in a crowd." Ben watched the dark road slide by. Then he looked at the creature pulling them. Its ears pricked at every sound. Its nose worked the wind. "Ollie," Ben called forward. "Your animal. Does she track scent?" "She tracks anything I ask," Ollie said. "Freight, people, lost bags. Why?" "The chest she carried yesterday. Did she smell it long enough to remember?" Ollie was quiet a moment. "Two days in the traces with that box behind her. She'd know it in her sleep." Ben's chest went tight in a new way. "Then she can find it again. And whoever is with it." They reached the fork before dawn. Three roads met at a stone marker. A low inn sat at the joining, shutters closed, one lantern lit. Two carts stood outside. Four people moved in the yard, loading sacks. Two wore hoods against the cold. Ollie stepped down and unhooked the creature from the traces. He knelt by her head and murmured. Then he pulled a strip of cloth from his pocket, one that had ridden under the chest, and held it to her nose. The creature lifted her head. She turned once, slow, tasting the air. Then she walked straight past the two hooded figures at the carts and stopped at the inn door. She sat. She looked back at Ben. Inside, Ben thought. Not in the yard. Inside. He stepped down from the cart. Anita caught his sleeve. "We don't know who's with them," she said. "We know where they are," Ben said. "That's what I needed." He walked toward the inn door. The creature stood and fell in beside him. Justin followed with the crate. The lantern threw their shadows long across the stone. The buyer was behind that door. So was the chest.