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for land to build a new Pilatu, it certainly wasn't in that direction.
By the time they had packed and begun to move, it was already into the late
afternoon. The baron and the sec boss made a conscious decision to carry on
marching through most of the night to put distance between themselves and any
war parties bent on revenge. But by the middle of the night, it became
apparent that the exhausted
Pilatans would need to rest. Scouting sec parties that had been sent ahead,
and also to track back to warn of any approaches from the rear, had nothing to
report. There was even a lack of predatory wildlife in this part of the plain
and woodland. Stretches of flat, open land had been punctuated by sudden
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bursts of woodland, which the Pilatan caravan had skirted around rather than
risk becoming entangled. It was in the shelter around the edges of one such
outcrop that
Sineta and Markos brought the caravan to a halt, to allow the exhausted people
to take some rest.
As the caravan settled to rest for the remainder of the night, Markos and
Sineta once again broached the subject they had raised earlier with
Mildred, Doc and J.B.
Having posted sec sentries for the night, the sec boss came over to where the
companions had settled with Sharona. Ryan was about to tackle the matter of
who this woman was, and why she had seemingly arrived out of nowhere when
believed chilled, when the sec boss requested that he and the baron talk with
them.
In truth, Ryan was relieved for the distraction.
He hadn't been looking forward to tackling the subject and had had no idea
where to begin.
Come to that, he still had no idea of where
Sharona had been or how she had landed in the same place as the companions-and
he had absolutely no idea what her intentions were with regard to her son and
to the rest of the traveling party. She had been reticent on the matter during
the day's march, refusing to be drawn on her own life and instead pumping Dean
for details of what had occurred to him during the time that they had been
parted.
While the rest of the companions were waiting for Ryan to explain, they were
stunned when he told Markos that it would be fine to talk to the sec boss and
the baron.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Krysty asked angrily. "We're owed an
explanation, aren't we?"
"And I'm sure we'll get it-in time," Ryan said pointedly, staring at Sharona.
"But first let's hear what Sineta and Markos have to say."
"I think we know some of it," J.B. ventured.
Ryan frowned. "So we've all been keeping secrets. Fireblast, this had better
not become a habit."
Any argument was cut short by the arrival of the baron and the sec boss, who
outlined the proposition put to half of the companions earlier in the day.
Ryan whistled. "There's a lot of your people that could make it rough for us,
if we agreed," he said.
Markos nodded. "That much is true, and I
acknowledge that we are not asking you to undertake that which is easy, but I
feel that we could learn so much from you. Speaking personally, I know that I
have learned much."
Ryan grinned. "I told you about that. You learn
about tactics as you go along, and you'll learn about the mainland as you go
along. Anything that we say or do right now is no substitute for actually
living it and learning from experience."
"This much I have gathered," Markos said with due consideration. "But that is
not the only thing I
have learned, and in many ways, it is the least of my concerns." He continued
in a halting tone, stopping to consider every word. "My brother-in the days
when I believed him to be a man of honor and integrity, taught me that the
black man and the white man were completely separate and that never the twain
could meet. That is something that was deeply ingrained in me, perhaps even
more than I was fully aware. But I
do not feel that way anymore. We are different, but we are equal. That feels
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