The Road Sharks by Clint Hollingsworth Page A

matrimonial structure he was always a little careful to be circumspect in his flirting. Alice Ann was squirming her way onto his lap and Horace had to shoo her off so they could conduct their business.
    “I’ll gladly trade you a full bin of apples for them rifles, Eli, though how you’re gonna get ‘em up to Yama no Matsu is beyond me. Certainly ya cain’t carry that many up there on the Terror, even if ya was to leave this lovely young eatin’ machine here with us.” Horace looked over at Ghost Wind fondly.
    “You’re not going to believe this, Horace, but Tengu found a matched pair of draft horses, I think actual Clydesdales. He has a wagon now that we can bring down here and do some proper trading, not just these pieces and bits we’re always exchanging back and forth.”
    “Where is the hell didja find draft horses, much less a wagon to hitch ‘em too? Such things weren’t that common in the Beforetime.”
    Eli’s face darkened, “We found them on a patrol. The original owners had run afoul of the Road Sharks.”
    “Surprised they left the horses alive.”
    “The horses were smarter than the owners.”
    Looking up, Ghost Wind wiped her mouth and said, “Who are these Road Sharks? Are there really so many that everyone is afraid? Can you not drive them out of the area?”
    “That’s a lot easier said than done, Miss Ghost Wind,” Horace said. “You only rarely catch ‘em in small bunches like today. Usually it’s twenty or thirty at a time, and I got ta tell ya, they are a mean bunch. Most folks don’t want to attract their attention, ‘cept maybe Eli here.”
    “We can’t seem to coordinate a big enough group effort to drive off or exterminate the vermin,” Eli said, looking pointedly at Horace.
    “Now don’t start. Dammit, Eli, me and my people ain’t fighters. We just stick to what we know, farmin’ and defending these walls. Anything else would most likely be the end of this place.”
    “And so, they just get a little stronger every year.”
    Both men were silent for a moment. Horace looked at Eli, “That’s why I wished you’da just taken them boys outside the wall outta the picture. The less men ol’ Shell has, the less power he has.”
    A sharp reply came to Eli’s tongue, but he swallowed it.
    “Horace, there’s some days when killing others, even when they deserve it, just sits poorly on a man’s mind.”
    “Well, hope that high-minded liberal idealism don’t come back to bite ya in the ass, Eli.”
    “Yep.”
    “Oh dearie me,” Horace said, and Eli looked where the big man’s gaze fell, “It appears to me your Miss Ghost Wind is talkin’ to Marilee. Kinda wish that could’a waited…”
    Eli stifled a laugh, watching Ghost Wind’s eyes suddenly go as big as saucers. “Well, let’s be honest, Horace. There’s no one here who will talk as frankly about your mating setup than Marilee.”
    “Yeah,” Horace sighed sadly, “I know.”
    ****
    “You have more than one husband!? Two men?” Ghost Wind said, her provincial morals deeply stung.
    Marilee looked at her with mild amusement. “I would never be so thoughtless, girl! The ratio of strapping men to women here is almost three to one. I would never be so rude as to only love two men.”
    It took Ghost Wind a moment to absorb the implications of this, but when she did, her eyes, already quite opened, grew even wider. From the age of eight, she had been trained by the tracker scouts of the Clan of the Hawk and she had not had a lot of romantic interaction other than occasional flirting and kissing with the male apprentices.  
    Then Axyl had come along and besotted her with “romance.” He had been her first and only lover, and his betrayal left her not even wanting to think of the sexual interactions between men and women. But now her curiosity wouldn’t let her drop the subject.
    Marilee could see the young woman calculating in her head, and waited for the inevitable questions.
    “But,” Ghost Wind