The Far West (35 page)

“Shall we tell Lan now?”

I could tell that William really wanted to tell
somebody
, and Lan was the only family either of us had in reach. So I nodded, and let William pull me to my feet for the pure joy of taking his hand, and we went to look for my brother.

Lan was startled by our news, and by the time he got over being startled and gone on to being pleased, half the camp had heard. Professor Ochiba and Wash were the first to offer their congratulations, and I could see they meant them. Professor Torgeson said all the right things, but I could see she was more hoping I’d made the right choice than sure of it. Roger came over just long enough to wish us happy in a stiff tone.

Dinner turned into a party; Captain Velasquez even brought over a fiddler he’d run into in town, so there was music and singing and even a little dancing, though that was mostly circles and reels on account of the difficulty of finding partners. I saw Roger dancing with Sergeant Amy several times,
and I was pleased they were enjoying themselves. Neither William nor I ever did get a proper letter written; I had to scribble a quick note the next morning to give to the post rider before we started packing up to leave.

Getting through settlement territory took longer than I’d expected. Since it was autumn, the weather was especially uncertain; we even had an early snow halfway to Puerta del Oeste, though it was barely enough to coat the grass in slippery slush before it melted. It felt a little odd to be able to trade for food instead of sending out hunters every few days, but the variety was more than welcome.

We stopped briefly at the study center to leave the live specimens we’d collected — two prairie dogs, a chameleon tortoise, a porcupine, and a young Priscilla hawk. There wasn’t any point in trying to take them through the Great Barrier Spell when they’d have to come back out to the menagerie eventually.

Except for the gray skies and bare trees, going back through West Landing was a lot like leaving it on our way out. People lined up along the boardwalks, waving and gaping like we were a circus come to town. The mayor met up with us at the edge of town and rode up front along with Adept Alikaket, Captain Velasquez, and Mr. Corvales all the way to the bridge. I heard later that the mayor had wanted to make a speech, but had the good sense to figure that a cold November day wasn’t the best time for a lot of fuss out of doors.

They’d cleared the traffic on the bridge so that we could ride straight across from West Landing to Mill City. William, Lan, and I rode over the bridge together, though
technically Lan should have stayed with the exploration section until Mr. Corvales officially dismissed everyone. The mayor of Mill City was waiting on the east bank, along with more curious folks, but they didn’t get much of a show. Mr. Corvales, Adept Alikaket, and Captain Velasquez got to the far side of the bridge, dismounted to shake hands with the mayor, and then signaled that we were dismissed. Right away, the train of expedition horses and people started breaking up and mixing with all the folks who’d come to welcome us back. By the time Lan and William and I got there, there wasn’t much left in the way of organization.

Papa and Mama were standing with Professor Graham off to one side. I saw them first and turned my horse toward them, and a few minutes later we were all home.

The Joint Cathayan-Columbian Discovery and Mapping Expedition was considered a great success by almost everybody. We’d gone nearly eight hundred miles, which was over three hundred miles farther into the Far West than any other expedition. Thanks to Roger, we’d brought back a detailed map of the whole North Plains Territory and then some, a lot of which wasn’t plains at all. We had brought back specimens of twenty-three new plants and eleven animals, and sketches of dozens more. And we’d dammed up the westernmost end of the Grand Bow River and kept the Great Barrier Spell from collapsing, hopefully for long enough so that somebody else might be able to do something more permanent.

There was at least as much fuss made over all of us as there’d been over the members of the McNeil Expedition. Adept Alikaket put up with it for about three days, then informed everyone most politely that he really had to go home himself, and left for Washington. He stayed there for a couple of months, talking to people from the State Department and the Frontier Management Office, and then went back to Cathay.

A year later, William and Lan and I each got a package containing a strip of silk painted with odd, finger-shaped hills. Beside them was a row of symbols that looked like someone piled up a bunch of boxes and triangles and straight lines in little heaps. The translation that came with it announced that Adept Alikaket Shilin was now Master Adept Alikaket Shilin. There was a little card, too, that Master Adept Alikaket had written himself, acknowledging his friendship and saying that we would be welcome if we ever came to visit the Cathayan Confederacy.

Mr. Corvales went back to Washington as soon as the fuss in Mill City died down. He was still pretty worried about the magic piling up at the far end of the Grand Bow River, and wanted to get someone started working at a way to solve the problem for good and all. He was pretty successful, one way and another: They’re already planning to send more people out next year, and if all goes well, they’re hoping to put a permanent research outpost somewhere between the spot where we overwintered and the dam we built.

Professor Ochiba and Dr. Lefevre both stayed in Mill City for the rest of the winter, working with Professor Torgeson to organize and write up all the notes we’d taken. Wash stuck around, too, right up until Professor Ochiba left to go back to Triskelion University. Then he went out to ride circuit for the settlements. He showed up again as soon as Professor Ochiba came back to start organizing the new research outpost. Mama and Allie shake their heads and say that the two of them — Wash and Professor Ochiba — ought to make up their minds
whether they want to marry or not, and then just do it, but I’m not so sure. They seem happy as they are.

Roger and Sergeant Amy eloped six weeks after the expedition got back, which surprised everyone. Amy mustered out of the army (though most people still call her Sergeant Amy, anyway), and now she’s organizing all the folks who want Roger to do geomancy for them now that he has his certification.

Elizabet and Bronwyn stayed in Mill City for a few weeks (like everyone else, they had notes and observations to organize), then went off to Washington for a while to help Adept Alikaket and Mr. Corvales convince people about the dam. Last I heard, they were thinking of joining an expedition to map the South Plains Territory.

Lan spent the winter working partly with the Homestead Claim and Settlement Office and partly with Professor Ochiba, Professor Torgeson, and Dr. Lefevre. When Professor Ochiba went back to Triskelion, Lan went along with her. Papa and Mama are pleased that he’s finally going to finish his schooling; William’s father, on the other hand, can’t make up his mind whether that means that Triskelion really was a good choice for William, or whether William was a bad influence on Lan. Mostly, I think he just doesn’t want to admit straight out that he was wrong.

And William and me? We were married just after Christmas, a little less than two months after the expedition returned. We spent the rest of the winter helping the professors with their notes, then went out to the study center to work with all the specimens the expedition brought back. We don’t expect
to stay there for too long, though. Neither of us is suited to the settlements, but we’re both hoping to go along on the new expedition, and if they do build a research outpost, we’re certainly going to try to get a place there.

Once the Far West gets into your blood, it’s hard to get it out again.

Patricia C. Wrede is the universally acclaimed author of
Thirteenth Child
,
Across the Great Barrier
, and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles series, as well as other novels, including
Mairelon the Magician
,
The Magician’s Ward
, and, with Caroline Stevermer,
Sorcery and Cecelia
,
The Grand Tour
, and
The Mislaid Magician
. She lives in Minnesota.