Sarah stabbed her pole into the soft mud and hopped over the tiny rill streaming over the earthen road teeming with people coming and going. After leaving the homey village of Tal, Anne had taken the lead and was striding ahead with her poles clicking and clacking on the rock-studded road. Sarah looked back at Frank and Jack. The two of them were strung out on the road behind her. But it was Frank who held her gaze the longest. His hunched shoulders and lumbering gait tugged at her. He’d been quiet all through their lunch in Tal, which he ate very little of, and when she’d asked him if he was okay, he’d just smiled and nodded.
Sarah shook her head, sighed and retreated into her thoughts. Chief among them was the landside in Mankha. Over the last few days she’d been dogged with an unsettli
