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"I've known ground like this," Ahn-Kha said. "Older, though, more evenly grown up."
"You see, Val," Price explained, passing Valentine's binoculars back. His odor lingered on them, but Valentine pressed the sockets to his eyes anyway-after a critter inspection. "Legworms move in small herds; I've never seen over a dozen together. They pull up the sod with their mouths. They eat everything, leaf, stem, and root, and of course mice and voles and whatnot that get pulled up, then they crap it out the other end more or less constantly. The waste is pretty sweet fertilizer, and their digestive system isn't all that thorough, quantity over quality, so in the wormcast there's a lot of seeds, living roots, stuff that comes back. It grows extra lush and you get these little walls of vegetation."
"They don't mess with big trees," Valentine observed.
Price pointed at a thick oak. "They'll climb up and take some low branches. That's why some of these trees look a bit like umbrellas."
"Those trails will lead us to them, if we find fresher leavings," Ahn-Kha said.
"Sure," Price said. "Except with legworm tracks it's hard to tell which direction they're going. If you're lucky you'll come across a partially digested sapling. The way the branches get pressed down makes it like feathers in an arrow, only reversed."
Valentine wondered if it would be like Nebraska, with different "brands" sharing the same area. "How do they feel about trespassers?"
"Depends if they can make a profit off you," Price said.
* * * *
They cut fresh worm sign two days later. After picking at the less-digested branches and shrubs, everyone agreed that the wide end of the cone was heading northeast.
"Five worms," Price said, counting the tracks. "Two big on the outside, three lesser in."
"Legworms mate in pairs?" Ahn-Kha asked.
"No, more like big orgies in the winter. Seriously," Price said, as Valentine raised an eybrow. "A legworm dogpile's a sight to see."
"What are we looking to get out of a bunch of worm-herders?" Duvalier asked.
Price whistled for Bee. "This is their land. I want permission to cross it. If we're lucky, they might bargain us up a mount."
"We don't have much to offer," Duvalier said.
"Your body is already spoken for," Price said.
"I've got some strong soap in my bag," she said. "Use it and I'll keep up my end."
"I thought humans made love face-to-face," Ahn-Kha said. Valentine wasn't sure he'd heard right until he looked at his friend. Even Price knew him well enough by now to know that one ear up, one ear out meant he was joking.
Catching up to the legworms wasn't as easy as having a clear trail made it sound. When moving without eating, a legworm goes at a pace faster than a horse's walk, similar to the Tennessee walking horse's famous six to twelve miles per hour run-walk. According to Price, they could pull up turf at a good three miles an hour, a typical walk for a human. A human on a sidewalk who isn't loaded down with pack and gun.
So they moved as fast as they could through the warm fall day, sweating and swearing at each new hill. Price and Valentine decided the course was arcing somewhat northerly, so they took a chance and tried to cut across the chord of the arc.
They never picked up the trail again. Other riders found them.
Bee pointed them out first. She dropped down on her haunches and let out a blue jay-like cry, pointing at a tree-topped hill. It took Valentine a moment to recognize what he saw. The legworm's pale yellow color was surprisingly effective camouflage in the shade of a stand of elms and oaks. Two figures sat astride it, probably human.
"Everyone wait here," Price said.
"Feels too much like a standoff," Valentine said. "Why not all go?"
"If you like, but as strangers we've got to approach unarmed." He unslung his Kalashnikov, held it up over his head, then placed it on the ground. He made a motion toward Bee and she sat next to his gun.
"Feel like showing off your famous charm school repertoire?" Valentine asked Duvalier. Behind them, Ahn-Kha kept a hand on Jimi the mule's halter.
"No. If there's a problem I like to disappear fast without anyone getting a good look at me."
"I shall stay back as well," Ahn-Kha said.
Valentine placed his U-gun on the grassy ground and set the pistol on top of it. He had to jog to catch up with Price.
