Gideon hadn’t tarried long, which made me wonder if he’d said everything he had come to say. Had he really made a fourteen-mile roundabout ride just to give me news of an Asian catastrophe? No, more likely he was leading a routine patrol. I laid such thoughts aside and went to work. After putting the finishing touches to a watering bucket in the forge, I went out to tend the fields.
A little later, I was headed to the house for a glass of milk and a bit of jerky when Todoh set up a yammer. A line of six horsemen rode through his territory directly toward the house, and he didn’t appreciate the intrusion. Still, he had sense enough not to press his objection too strenuously.
From this distance the riders looked to be tribesmen. A lot of fringed buckskin and a feather or two. Coming from t
