31. Now Evangeline
NOW: EVANGELINE
That afternoon, on a large brown Sibbereen, Evangeline rode alongside our wagon for a quarter of an hour or so.
“What’s the Vyggian lady want with us?” Tessa whispered from the other side of Ilsit, where she sat on the driver’s seat.
The three of us were perched on the bench, Ilsit taking the reins. Jade and Fox were walking at the back to stretch their legs.
I kept sneaking peeks through the open flap of the wagon tent to check they remained unbothered. Every time I made to join them, they waved me off as I had walked most of the previous day.
“I don’t trust anyone but the five of us,” Ilsit proclaimed. “And I don’t like it. What is she about?”
I explained my encounter with Reed the night before and my conversation with the scouts that morning.
“That one-eyed bastard has magic?” Ilsit asked.
“Does the Vyggian lady have it too?” Tessa spoke over her.
“I don’t think she is Vyggian,” I explained.
“In fact, I would bet the braided one is the only full Vyggian. The lady warrior may even be Tintarian. The one-eyed man is only half Vyggian, and the other half has to be Tintarian because how else can he see the god-tree door? And we thought the big one was a Helmsman.”
“Then why in Rodwin’s blazing hell did Thane hire them?” Ilsit asked.
Tessa nodded. “It’s peculiar. I mean the Helmsmen are declaring they side with Perpatane, so that one is not so out of order.
No one would hold it against any of The Flavored Three for remaining neutral.
They are all cut off from the mainland. So that explains the full Vyggian taking on the work, but Thane has hired one and a half Tintarians.
And there’s no need. Gerard has a veritable army at his command.
Plenty of them could be used as scouts.”
I shrugged. “Maybe Thane has had his fill of Perpatane. I do not think he trusts his father, his brother, his priest, or the captain anymore.”
They looked at me.
“Try not thinking with your cunt,” Ilsit half yawned.
Tessa smacked her tongue against the inside of her teeth. “Ilsit, really. I mean I’ve no sense of decorum myself, but for gods’ sake.”
“Am I wrong?” Ilsit asked with a smile.
Tessa looked to me. “I’ve nothing but love for Thane. What other man would step aside, give his wife to a foreign woman, and then protect that woman as he would his own sister? And yet . . .”
There was a beat as I sat with her words.
“You mean he is still his father’s son?” I finished for Tessa.
“That is what I mean. And I do not judge him for that.”
“How goes it, ladies?”
We looked to the side of the wagon where Evangeline rode.
“What do you want?” Ilsit shouted.
The scout’s chin dipped in surprise, but she rallied quickly and said, “I just visit to see how your day goes. I am soon to ride ahead to help choose a campground. But I thought I would see how you fare. It is Robbie, correct?”
I nodded down at her. “You can call me Robbie, yes.” I then gave her Tessa and Ilsit’s names. “And the woman walking at the back is called Jade. The girl is called Fox. And her pet fox is called Daisy. Which can be confusing. We thank you for your concern, Evangeline.”
“It is damn good of you,” said Tessa.
“I am as tough as any man, lady warrior,” Ilsit pronounced, not taking her eyes from the reins and the backs of our horses.
“Oh I am sure, madam,” Evangeline rushed to assure her. “I’ve no doubt you are a capable grouping! I just don’t want you to have to suffer even the bother of an unwanted man thinking to chance it with any of you.”
“You think you can scare them away?” Tessa asked. She sounded sincere, and I heard the worry in her voice.
“They’re all scared of me,” Evangeline sang out. “I beat nine in a row of them at arm wrestling. The first night we made camp. They think I’ve the strength of demons in my arms or something. Very religious, the lot of them. Didn’t know there was a sort as superstitious as Tintarians.”
“Completely different people, you fool—”
“Thank you,” I said loudly, cutting Ilsit off. “We appreciate the gesture.”
“I’ll come by in the afternoons then?” the woman asked.
“We’d be grateful for it,” Tessa said.
Ilsit rolled her eyes.
I flicked her hard in the thigh.
She stepped on my toe.
“Quit it,” chided Tessa as the three of us watched the tall proud back of the lady warrior ride off towards the front of the procession. “We’re lucky she’s a generous sort. Can’t hurt to have men think we’ve a protector.”
“How can you trust her?” Ilsit challenged.
Tessa did not answer and neither did I.
In the following days, Evangeline and her Sibbereen would ride at the side of the wagon and chat with whichever two or three of us sat on the driver’s bench.
She would tell us openly of her childhood growing up as the daughter of a brothel owner, though she was vague about her being from Tintar.
Ilsit found this frankness winsome even if she claimed to distrust the lady warrior.
But soon all five of us found ourselves looking to her daily visits to our wagon’s place on the road amidst hundreds of others.