not wish to fly in there.” He looked over at her again. “I hope that there is a meadow to camp in ahead.”
I hope so too. But the animals didn’t seem at all uneasy, and it seemed to her that their instincts could be trusted. Her horses and Fox’s just plodded along with apparent contentment, and if the buffalo, which were extremely skittish creatures, had not liked the surroundings, they would certainly have made their unease known long ago.
Just as she was beginning to wonder if there was going to be any end to these woods, she saw golden sunlight beaming down on the road ahead, literally like light at the end of a tunnel, and the nearer they got to it, the more there was to see. There was a big meadow ahead, and once she and Fox actually reached it, she saw it was a water meadow with a stream cutting along one side of it. Some of the animals were already being watered there, and their handlers were holding others. Her horses smelled the water and it took no urging to get them off the road and into the long grass, even though it was rough going for them. She pulled up beside Rosamund’s vardo, hopped down off the front of her vardo, where she drove from the open door, and slipped their bridles off so they could drink and crop grass for a while. Fox led his own brown-and-white horse to drink.
“I have food!” Rosamund said, waving from the door of her vardo. “I have enough for the three of us.”
“Good, thank you,” Giselle replied. The cooks were distributing food to everyone from the back of what the Americans called the “chuck wagon,” and Giselle presumed Rosamund had gotten it there.
It wasn’t fancy: bread and butter, cold beef and spicy mustard, but Giselle was famished suddenly, perhaps because the open sky of the meadow had relieved some of that feeling of being closed in too tightly. She raised her eyebrow at the spicy mustard, however; she’d never seen that on the tables of the Americans so far.
Rosamund smirked. “I realized I was going to have to supply a few things for myself if I wanted them,” she said, as Fox took his portion with thanks. “I’ve got a nice crock of sauerkraut, another of pickles, and pots of mustard. They don’t take up much room.”
“I should have thought of that,” Giselle told her with chagrin.
“You are not used to traveling,” Rosamund pointed out. “Now, I want to talk with you two. I don’t much care for the spot we’re supposed to camp in tonight, but it’s just about the only option. But I want you both to be alert. We might even want to think about keeping a watch.”
“What are we watching for?” Giselle asked, stopping before she bit into her bread and meat.
“I don’t know,” Rosamund admitted. “But it’s an abandoned mill and a little village, and there are four Elemental Magicians among us. That could attract . . . things. Things we’d rather not attract.”
Fox nodded. Today, for the sake of traveling, he was not in his finery. He wore faded canvas trousers and an old shirt, like the rest of the men wore, and his hair was braided tightly going down his back. Giselle was in her split canvas skirt and a soft shirt, and she had rebraided her hair this morning and wound it around her head. Rosamund was in her hunting gear.
“There are too many of us to attract bears or wolves, even if they are tempted by the cattle,” Rosamund continued. “But . . . I don’t know why this village was abandoned, nor how long ago. It might have been plague. It might have been that the people just died off or left. Or it might have been something . . . else.” She shrugged. “The worst that happens is that each of us loses a couple of hours of sleep.”
“Are you going to warn Captain Cody?” Giselle asked. Rosamund nodded, but her mouth twisted up into a wry expression. “Not that I expect him to pay any attention to me. He’s too used to America, where the hazards are purely physical.”
“But this is the Schwarzwald,” Giselle agreed, somberly.
“I am not sure we need lose sleep,” Fox said thoughtfully. “I know that my spirit creatures will stand watch. Will yours?”
Giselle and Rosamund exchanged a look. “Maybe,” Giselle said. “The ones around here seem shy.”