Pioneering on Jord

by Allan Joyal

  “Why keep the pouch there?” the merchant asked.

  “Harder to cut the strings and steal it,” I pointed out as Heather slipped the pouch under my vest. The coins had shifted and the pouch pressed against my chest uncomfortably. I watched the merchant as he looked over the coins.

  “I should demand more,” the merchant admitted. “But you are right about how long this roll has sat. I do have a few spindles of matching thread, but no needles. If this is acceptable, I’ll accept your bargain.”

  He snatched a coin from my hand and thrust the roll of cloth and a small bag at me. The end unwound and started to drag on the ground. Jeff saw this and grabbed the roll, carefully rolling it back up and holding it tightly to his chest.

  Seeing that the transaction was complete the merchant turned away and started scanning the crowd. Heather nudged me to move away from the stall, and we started walking with the crowd.

  “Why am I carrying the roll?” Jeff asked.

  I pointed several other men walking through the market. Each one was following a well-dressed merchant. The men had large baskets on their heads. “With the outfit you have, you don’t look like a merchant, but you will work as a porter, even if you don’t have a basket.”

  “Porter?” Jeff asked.

  “You must not have read the “Thousand and One Nights” tales. A porter was a hired man who carried goods for merchants or nobles when they visited the marketplace,” I said.

  Jeff frowned for a moment, but then nodded. “I guess it makes sense. But you realize none of those men is following a woman.”

  “Heather is just guiding us. I have to admit I would have never approached that one merchant, and that fabric looks closer to denim than anything else I’ve seen,” I said. “It should be quite durable.”

  “It’s a lot heavier than I expected,” Jeff said. “I thought the fabric would be thin and fragile.”

  “Remember that they don’t have the luxury of owning multiple outfits,” Heather said. “Everything has to be made by hand, so cloth is quite expensive. An outfit that lasts only a few days would be unacceptable.”

  “Good point,” I said as we began heading towards a stall that had a crowd of people around it. Heather had an intense look on her face as we struggled to get to the front of the crowd.

  “Victoria pointed that out to me,” Heather said. “Now see if we can get this merchant’s attention.”

  “What is he selling?” I asked.

  Heather pointed up at the awning. I could see several hard sausages hanging from a bar. It was set far enough back that a thief would have to reach past the merchants manning the table at the front of the stall. “Dinner?”

  I laughed for a moment. “And tomorrow’s meal and perhaps a few others.” I pushed a couple of gossiping men out of the way and leaned on the table.

  One of the merchants moved in front of me. “Hands off the table,” he growled. “And what gives you the right to shove customers out of the way?”

  “I’m sure you want my money,” I said calmly. “Those two did not seem to want your attention.”

  “They were waiting,” the man said disdainfully at me. “Are you saying you can’t wait?”

  I shrugged. “I could. But I am supposed to meet friends before the sun reaches its zenith, so I would rather make the transaction now. There is a lot more we need to purchase.”

  One of the two men I had pushed snorted. “Sure, you probably plan on purchasing just a single link for yourself and then rushing off.”

  “Actually not,” I replied scornfully. “I belong to a group planning on beginning a journey that will be measured in moons rather than days. Today, I’m in the market to make preliminary contacts with merchants who might be able to provide the provisions and tools we wish to take with us.”

  “Oh you are a teller of tales now?” his companion said sarcastically. “You come in with no belt pouch. How can you purchase these goods?”

  I revealed the coin in my hand as I reached for the cord around my neck with my empty hand and pulled the pouch from its resting place against my chest. Once it was no longer covered by the vest I grabbed it with my right hand. I did not remove it from my neck as I used my left hand to open it up and slip two fingers inside.

  I had to feel around for a moment before I found one of the smaller coins in the pouch. It felt spongy in my hand. Careful to avoid dumping the rest of the pouch I extracted the coin. There was a sparkle of yellow and light as the coin caught the sunlight.

  “Gold?” the merchant asked. “How much do you expect for that?”

  “Who did you steal that from?” one of the men I had pushed growled. I palmed the coin in my left hand as I tugged on the pouch with my right to close it. The instant it was closed tight I thrust it back under the vest.

  “I did not steal it,” I said as I dropped my hand to the knife on my belt. “I am a merchant for a trade group that has paid its dues for this year. You offend me, sir.”

  The man scowled, but his friend tugged on his shirt. The two turned to face each other. They were whispering as I turned to look at the merchant for the sausage stall.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “While your wares do look to be exactly what I am looking for, I can’t purchase them today. The altercation has left me too angry.”

  “But sir!” the merchant complained. “I had nothing to do with those men!” I could see avarice in his eyes as he watched my left hand closely.

  I took my hand from my knife and put my hands together. It was a simple process to move the coin to my right hand. When I returned my right hand to my knife, I slipped the coin into a small pouch built into the strap holding the knife to my belt. Behind me Jeff coughed as I continued to look at the merchant.

  “I understand you had nothing to do with the men,” I said. “But that does not change the fact that the incident has cost me time I don’t have to spare. If you are truly interested, my group has a camp across the river. We’ll be there for the next three days and would welcome a visit.”

  I turned away from the man and pushed my way back through the crowd. The people parted from me as I stomped away.

  I had crossed through the traffic when Heather grabbed me. “Slow down!” she pleaded. “Jeff is struggling to get through the crowd. He doesn’t have a basket so people don’t recognize that he’s with us.”

  “Sorry,” I said. “And I’ll apologize to Jeff when he gets through the crowd.”

  “Don’t do that,” Jeff said as he stepped around the last few people. “Seriously, what just happened surprised and impressed me.”

  “I acted like a pompous and arrogant jerk,” I said. “And I might have seriously offended the merchant.”

  “I think he’s more worried about losing that coin you flashed,” Jeff said. “The other two men are probably still running.”

  “Running?” I asked.

  “You keep forgetting the vest you wear,” Heather said. “That was part of what the men were whispering about. The second man realized it was made by dwarves, and then you flashed a gold coin.”

  “Which we got from Elrol the elf,” I pointed out. “And I only have a couple gold coins left, but I thought it might be wise to trade for the right sausages. If they have been smoked properly they will last longer than most meats.”

  “I think you could have purchased all he brought and gotten change,” Jeff said. “Those sausages were going five links for a copper.”

  I nodded. “Well, what next?”

  “Livestock,” Heather said. “And then… oh, excuse me.”

  Heather had stopped talking because a young man had walked up and put a hand on her arm. The man was wearing clean, but tattered linen clothing. The cloth might have been dyed blue at one point, but time and sunlight had faded it to a rather non-descript gray. The man had a few bruises on his face and arms, and his brown hair had a couple of matted spots that appeared to have blood dried into them.

  “Is your group willing to accept additional people?” he
asked.

  Heather looked at me helplessly. “Son?” I asked. “Could you not put your hands on my wife?”

  The man released Heather. He whirled to look at me. “Sorry,” he gasped. “I only heard that there was a woman who was part of a group planning on travelling far from Saraloncto. I have reason to want to leave this city.”

  “We are still purchasing provisions and tools,” I said. “And it’s going to be a one-way journey we won’t be returning for years.”

  The man smiled. I noticed that the bruises on his face included two black eyes, and his nose showed signs of being broken multiple times. “I have nothing to return to,” he said.

  “We also can’t afford to just allow someone to join,” I pointed out. “Anyone who joins becomes someone we have to feed. Unless a new person brings skills that can help us and goods that we can use on the journey, I have to admit we will be very reluctant to add them to the group.”

  The man frowned. “I do have some goods, but not much. Morandy has seized much of my inheritance. At most I can bring a good riding horse, my bow and sword, and perhaps some good travel food.”

  “You have no tools?” I asked.

  “My family has served in the city guard for generations,” the young man said. “But Morandy was passed over for promotion in favor of my father. He never forgave the men who elected my father and worked to ruin them. Once they were no longer there he killed my father in a duel.”

  “Ouch,” Heather muttered.

  I nodded. “I guess I can understand you wanting to get out of town. I can’t say yes today though. We still have to see about the provisions and tools. I’m not refusing, only saying we need to get to know you and to know what you can bring.”

  The man seemed to shrink. “I guess I can live with that. And I might be able to help with tools. It’s just….”

  He paused. Jeff reached out and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You’ll be taking a huge risk if you leave with us and are afraid that it will leave you in a worse place than you are now. We understand. The best I can recommend would be to meet us at the docks when the sun is at its highest point of the day. We’ll be returning to our camp, and you can get a better idea of what we are like.”

  The man nodded one more time and then seemed to fade back into the crowd. We tried to follow his movements, but the press of people quickly blocked out view of him. Once he was out of sight Heather shivered.

  “I’m not supposed to be the one he touches,” Heather said. “And the amount of bruises on that young man was frightening.”

  “Someone is beating him up on a regular basis,” I said. “The truth is that if he has any skill with a bow and sword he might be valuable just for that. No one we have spoken with can tell us if the plains we will be crossing will be uninhabited.”

  “I thought they were empty,” Jeff said.

  “Of humans,” Heather said. “The story we’ve heard is that there was a great empire that spanned the whole continent, but that it fell in a great magic civil war. Once it was shattered orcs and goblins poured out of the mountains and wiped out any human living East of the Elfwall River. In the more than a thousand years since that time, no one has attempted to return.”

  “So the orcs might be there?” Jeff asked worriedly.

  “The dwarves are pretty positive they won’t be. I guess orcs are more thugs and thieves than the type to build cities. Once the humans were wiped out, there was no easy food. The orcs would have left or died of famine eventually. The goblins might still be around in some of the thicker forests, but they are not creatures of the plains,” I said.

  Jeff smiled. “So it might be almost completely unclaimed.”

  “That is the hope,” I said. “And the few tales we have come across say the land was very fertile, so if Natalie can remember enough about farming, we should be able to feed everyone.”

  “It will be better if we get more livestock,” Heather said. “And I can hear sheep and chickens off that way.” She pointed in the direction she had been looking since before the young man had interrupted us.

  Jeff laughed and started walking. Heather grabbed him and held him for just a moment. “Behind me,” she reminded him before stomping off into the crowd.

  Watching Jeff scamper to keep up with Heather brought laughter to my lips. I had to pause for a moment to collect my breath before I could start to fight my way through the crowd that swarmed the marketplace. I only managed to get about a dozen steps into the crowd when I felt a hand at my belt.

  I whirled around looking for the owner of the hand. I found myself looking at a girl of perhaps nine years. She was wearing a torn dress that might have been white once based on the color around the shoulders, but was black from the waist down. Her brown hair fell in a straight wave almost to her thighs, but the tangles and burrs visible in it made it clear that no comb or brush had touched it in some time. The girl seemed pathetic and small in the milling crowd.

  Instinctively I used my hands to sweep the girl into my arms. She fought for a moment, but when I used my left hand to lift her legs into the air while using my right arm to support her back she froze.

  “I have to catch up to my friends,” I said. “And I don’t have any food on me, but I think we can provide some if you are patient. Am I right you don’t have any parents?”

  The girl stared at me as I made my way through the crowd. With her in my arms I realized that she desperately needed a bath.

  I was beginning to think the girl was not able to hear when she nodded. “My family died two years ago in the spring floods,” she whispered.

  I had no answer to that, but tried to offer a clumsy hug with my right arm. She stopped her weak attempts to escape my arms and threw both of her arms around my neck. With her not fighting I was able to scan the crowds. I had lost sight of Heather and Jeff, but then I noticed a green tube of some kind being waved in the air. It took only a moment to realize that I was looking at the fabric we had purchased earlier.

  The crowds seemed to move away from me as I headed toward the tube. A couple of the more richly dressed men glared at me, and once two bodyguards made a wall with their bodies to keep me away from one citizen. The guard's stone faces watched me as I made my way through the crowds.

  Finally, I emerged from the main press to see Jeff waving the tube and looking to my right and into the crowd. “Where is he?” he asked.

  Heather was looking in the same direction he was. “I thought he was right behind me,” she said. “And trying to find him in that crowd will be impossible.”

  I walked up until I was only a few feet away. Neither Heather nor Jeff turned. They were still scanning the crowd. “What are you looking for?” I asked devilishly.

  The girl in my arms squirmed a little. It appeared she was trying to get a better look at Jeff. My friends still did not turn. “We have a friend who is still in the crowd,” Jeff said. “We don’t want to talk to the merchants without him.”

  “I doubt the merchants are going to be able to help you with your friend,” I said.

  The girl turned to look at me. I noticed a sly smile appear on her face. “Who are these people daddy?” she asked sweetly.

  Jeff turned enough to look over his shoulder. I noticed he looked at the girl and immediately turned back to scan the crowd.

  Heather turned to look at the girl. My lover had a confused look in her face and then looked directly at me. “Ron!” she exclaimed. “How? And who is this girl?”

  “She appeared in the crowd,” I said as Jeff turned. “All I know is her parents died two years ago. Based on the condition of her dress and hair, I get a feeling she’s had no family or home since then.”

  “But how can she live?” Jeff asked.

  “Probably on scraps from the taverns and what she could beg from the merchants,” I said. “There are enough stories about packs of orphans in old cities to believe she could survive. It’s not a good life, and I’m a bit surprised she hasn’t tried to escape from me.” />
  “Why?” Heather asked. “I mean we all know you’d never hurt a fly.”

  “Really? Then it wasn’t me yesterday when we had that unpleasantness near Crayolyn Falls,” I responded.

  “You’ve killed someone daddy?” the girl asked.

  Jeff snorted. “How many times will you adopt someone?” he asked. “I mean I’ve hear Kariy call you daddy a couple times. Shay and Ger both love you and do what they can to make you happy. Gerit looks up to you like a big brother. Aine treats you like an uncle. Even Mary sees you as her protector.”

  “I’m just a man like any other,” I replied.

  “No you’re not,” Heather said. “Ron, you have a gentle spirit. I see the others respond to it. You still have steel in your spine, but you don’t hurt friends, and you will always try to protect them. Somehow this girl can sense that.”

  “So we’re taking her with us?” Jeff asked. “I thought we needed boys, not girls.”

  “We can allow her to decide,” I said. “Meanwhile, I thought we were going to look at livestock.”

  Heather pointed over her shoulder. I noticed that there were a series of corrals lined up along the market place. The merchants from the two nearest were gazing at us with considerable interest. One had sheep wandering in the corral behind him. The other had stacks of cages beside him. From the noise it sounded like he had a large number of chickens.

  Chapter 7: Does Market Day Ever End?

  I looked at the merchants for a moment and then looked at the girl in my arms. “If I set you down are you going to run away?” I asked

  The girl just stared at me for a moment. She looked over her shoulder at Heather and Jeff. Her right arm left my neck, and she rubbed her chin. Finally she shook her head.

  I smiled and set the girl down. The instant her feet were on the ground she moved to hide behind Heather. While she was running, I checked the pouch from around my neck. The girl had not disturbed the cord, and the pouch was still under my vest.

  Heather smiled at the girl. “We’ll keep you safe,” she said. “What’s your name?”