17
Scents on the Wind
By the light of the stars, Jin studied the tracks of the Freefolk wagons. The trail continued north but was much diminished from the day before. He judged about thirty wagons had passed this way, plus a few horses—no more than a third of the former total.
They’ve split up. Why? Jin scratched behind his right ear as he thought about it. He could backtrack to last night’s Freefolk camp and look for clues, but if he did so, he might not reach tonight’s camp before morning. And, after all, the wagon tracks still led north to City Divpaxis, and that was the direction that interested him.
He decided to forget about the rest of the caravan and loped on down the trail. He moved much faster than any wagon, but even so, he was surprised how quickly he caught up to his quarr
