Chapter 13
Ben's heart was light as he and Isika rode the horses hard down an unknown road, fields of flowering plants stretching to the horizon on either side. He and Isika had stopped to talk to a farmer half a day-ride back, and he told them that in another month, the plants would be heavy with beans. The old farmer, who had sweet, sad music within him, wore a heavy work tunic and a sturdy ser wrapped around his wrinkled forehead. He had forked piles of grass out of his weeds for their horses to eat. Then he shared nut-filled loaves of bread with Isika and Ben. Almost all the other houses they passed had poison walls, and Isika had asked the man how he kept the poison away, and whether it was always this bad.
He looked at them, his eyes bright in his dark face, then shrugged and smile
