Immortal

by T Nisbet

Chp.11

  Coach’s wife gave each of us a hug and made us promise to visit her again, then went back inside with tears in her eyes. I was oddly touched by her goodbye. It was unbelievable that someone so nice could be married to someone so disgusting. My heart went out to her.

  Carla offered to take the first turn sitting on the wagon seat next to Coach McNally. She was a genius at more than just technology, she was absolutely brilliant at pissing people off. She obviously thought Coach hadn’t had enough yet, and she was undoubtedly prepared to give him some more. I had experienced her dry, sometimes cutting wit many times. Even so, I couldn’t feel sorry for Coach McNally, he was deserving of whatever she might give and more. I heard her ask Coach absently about visiting a payless shoe store as Toby helped her up. McNally started the wagon forward before I could hear his response. Brianna, Ivy, Toby and I laughed quietly as we followed behind the wagon on foot.

  Pursuing a wagon, even one pulled by old plow horses is tiring since the pace is somewhere between a walk and a very slow jog. I didn’t realize how fast it was going to move, and found myself stretching out my stride to keep up. After a few minutes we all got used to it enough to talk normally without getting out of breath.

  The sun rose quickly, lighting the fields, and the variety of homes in the distance. It began to warm up as we walked slightly downhill into a wide valley. The road we were on, if it could be called that, joined up with one larger and obviously more traveled. The sporadic farmhouses of the grasslands gave way to fields packed tightly against one another. Acres of fruit and nut orchards stood between fields of cabbage, lettuce, carrots and onions. The smells varied from field to field. Lazy smoke drifted up from mostly stone farmhouses, both large and small.

  Sometime before noon, we stopped for a rest and a bite to eat in the shade of a walnut orchard that flanked the road on either side. Toby and I passed around the canteens filled with water we’d taken from the brook in the forest. Coach tossed a large hunk of cheese to Toby who caught it and began to pass it around. Carla jumped down, and walked painfully back to the wagon’s tailgate, a satisfied look on her face.

  “Somewhere there’s a tweety bird missing,” Toby said winking at his petite girlfriend.

  “He deserved it, his wife was lovely,” Carla said.

  “She certainly was,” Brianna agreed grinning.

  “Did you harass him the entire time?” I asked, shaking my head and chuckling.

  Carla raised her eyebrow at me as if I should know better. “Who’s next?”

  “Bri,” Ivy said quickly.

  Brianna rolled her eyes. “He’s going to make me ride with him when we get to a town. You go Ivy, I’ll get a...”

  “Brianna! We’ll be entering Lockewood within the hour. You’re with me.” Coach shouted, rummaged through the packs Toby and I had been carrying.

  After a few minutes searching he jumped down from the back of the wagon and walked over to where we sat along the side of the road and handed us two pieces of canvas and two long leather cords each.

  “Wrap those around your sneakers and tie them up,” he said. “We’ll hit the main road into Lockewood in a few minutes. There is sure to be traffic on it. When someone approaches, move to the opposite side of the wagon from him or her and don’t speak, understand? The disguise may work for a casual inspection, but your accents will give us away for sure. We’ll stop outside of the city. I’ll go in alone and get you all traveling boots at a cobblers.”

  “We’re from California. We don’t have accents mate.” Toby argued with an Australian accent.

  Coach glowered at him. “You do here dipshit!

  We did our best to wrap the strips of canvas around our sneakers and to bind them securely with the cords. When we were all finished, Coach inspected our work and grunted his satisfaction. He pointed at the wagon to Brianna. She shrugged at Ivy, and went around the wagon to the front, accepting Coach’s hand up onto the wooden seat.

  Toby and I stowed the canteens in our packs, and we set off once more down the road. Just past an almond orchard, the road we were traveling on met the main road into Lockewood. Coach turned the wagon to the left onto the stone paved road. We hadn’t been on the wide road more than ten minutes when, a pair of riders appeared in the distance on the road in front of us. Toby, Carla, Ivy and I made our way to the side of the wagon nearest an onion field. As they approached I noticed they wore uniforms.

  “Pull your hoods over your heads, and don’t look at them if they stop!” ordered Coach McNally.

  We all pulled the baggy tan hoods over our faces as the riders drew nearer, their horses at the trot.

  As they approached they guided their mounts to a walk. I could see from beneath my baggy hood that they were human. Each man wore a black uniform with a Coat of arms on the chest, a topaz blue cape edged in fur, and held a slim lance couched in a cup attached to their stirrup of their saddle. Pinions of black and blue dressed the shiny metal tips of their lances. Each had a sword at his belt and a shield bearing a similar crest was attached to the back of their saddles.

  I looked down hiding my face as they stopped in front of us. McNally pulled back on the reins and set the wagon brake as they stopped.

  “What do you want?” Coach spat, “I’ve got to get this beer to The Pregnant Wench before supper!”

  I groaned, and glanced out from under my hood. Coach was going to cause yet another scene.

  “Whoa you old codger. Where are your manners?” asked one of the men as they moved their horses forward alongside the wagon. He looked at Brianna and smiled. “Not even an introduction?”

  “I’m McNallus,” Coach growled in response.

  The guard frowned, his eye roaming over us, and then saw the large casks.

  “The brewmeister McNallus?”

  “The same,” Coach sighed impatiently.

  “We should have a sample to make sure he is who he says he is Falch,” said the other guard.

  “We would be remiss indeed if we didn’t,” agreed the man closest to Coach, smiling.

  Coach grumbled and stood up. Lifting aside a flap in front of his tunic, he began to pee towards the guard. The guard cursed and sidestepped his mount into his companion’s mount, trying to get away from the stream of urine.

  “That’s mostly beer, and it’s all you will get for free.” Coach McNally cackled.

  I was stunned. Was he trying to bring trouble?

  “Curses on you, you filthy old goat,” the guard said laying a hand upon the hilt of his sword.

  “Right back at you shit for brains, thinking I’d tap a barrel of my beer so that the two of you could drink while on duty, knowing full well I can’t sell the tapped barrel afterwards.”

  The guard controlled his anger and took his hand off of the hilt of his sword. He sat there regarding Coach McNally with an appraising eye. Then nodded briefly.

  “It’s true then. You are as crotchety as they say,” was all he said, before spurring his mount and continuing down the road, his companion followed, glaring at Coach.

  I breathed a sigh of relief, as did my friends.

  Brianna let him have it.

  “You bastard! You would jeopardize everything for the price of two glasses of beer? Are you absolutely insane? When my father hears about how you’ve handled leading us he will never make you.”

  “Had I appeared weak Lady Brianna, they would have taken advantage of my hospitality, then ridden back to the barracks in town and told all their friends about the free beer. Before we made it another mile there would have twenty or thirty city guards and their friends, all drinking and snooping around. Eventually, one of them would have noticed your clumsily wrapped shoes.”

  Brianna stifled any retort she had been planning, but she didn’t apologize either.

  “They were human,” Carla said, “Just plain old spineless males as far as I could tell.”

  “Watch out, she’s going into feminist mode,” laughed Toby. “It’s so hot!”

&nbs
p; She punched him in the arm as we continued down the road.

  Toby cried out as if in pain, dangling his supposedly wounded appendage. The three of us laughed as he hammed it up.

  “I disagree Carla. It must have taken a great deal of self control not to put one of those lances through McNally’s shriveled old heart,” I said.

  “If he has one,” Toby laughed. “I wonder if we’ll see more elves.”

  “Mother thinks there are as many humans as Fae in this world. That a balance is maintained more or less,” offered Ivy.

  “Hey look!” Carla said, pointing.

  In the distance, the towers and spires of a huge city could be seen above the orchards and fields.

  “Maybe the wizard can give him a heart, Dorothy,” Toby laughed.

  “And you a brain.” Carla shot back.

  I smiled at them, hoping I might find some courage.

  We passed many groups of travelers, but none stopped us or took special notice. All were human. Coach nodded to them all as they neared and then cast his grim visage back onto the road.

  We traveled this way for more than an hour, the city growing in size as we moved closer. My nerves were fried by the time we reached the outskirts of the immense walled city. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but the city was absolutely gigantic. It extended from one side of the valley to the other. The walls were made of stone and at least three-stories high. Despite the height of the walls I could see a vast number of towering buildings and rooftops within.

  There were many wooden buildings outside the walls as if the city had grown passed its confines. Coach pulled the wagon to a halt outside a livery and set the brake once more, climbing down.

  “Guard the beer! I’ll be right back,” he ordered gruffly.

  “Don’t worry Coach, we’ll piss on anyone that gets near,” Toby offered.

  Coach shook his head and set off on foot down the road towards the city.

  Brianna climbed down, rubbing her butt, and joined us. “That’s a pretty big city!”

  “Yeah, and look at those walls. Wonder what they are trying to keep out,” Toby added. “Maybe we should be keeping an eye out for a fifty-foot gorilla.”

  “Well, Coach McNally assured me there was no indoors mall, and forget about finding a McDonalds or Burger King,” Carla snickered.

  “You didn’t!” Brianna giggled.

  Carla grinned. “I did.”

  “Guess we can rule out they are trying to protect a Starbucks,” Toby laughed.

  We all joined in.

  It was more than two hours before Coach returned bearing several fawn skin sacks in one hand.

  “Gucci?” drooled Carla sarcastically. She was relentless.

  Coach ignored her and threw a couple of the sacks at our feet, handing Brianna another. “Put those on, be quick about it,” he growled. “Brianna, back in the wagon.”

  We sorted out the soft leather boots inside the bags and put them on. I was surprised at how similar they were to Uggs. The fluffy wool insides molded to my foot. I put my weight on them and was astounded by how perfectly they seemed to fit my feet. I could have sworn that when I’d first put them on, as I leaned against the back of the wagon, that they had been too big. Toby gathered our shoes and packed them into the top of his backpack in the wagon.

  A man walked by and Carla pointed. He had his pants tucked into the tops of his boots. We followed his example.

  “Remember to keep your mouths shut!” Coach yelled back at us, and the wagon started forward once more.