Pioneering on Jord

by Allan Joyal

  Verval and Jeff were poling the raft back across the river. Three of the four merchants who had left the riverside were returning. The rest of the raft was covered in barrels and boxes. I turned to look up the slope. “Henck!” I shouted. “We could use help unloading the raft.”

  The three merchants still standing on the beach moved to the side. I could hear movement behind me as I walked down to the riverside. The merchants were relaxed and chatting with each other, as the raft completed its journey and came to a halt on the shore.

  “Don’t bother trying to pull it,” Verval said. “We’re overloaded. We need to unload first.”

  Jeff and I started moving barrels from the raft to the shore. We were working on our second trip when Al led most of our group onto the raft. Al whistled at the number of items to unload.

  I nodded at him. “The raft is sold. I’m thinking we keep it for tonight, and if all goes well, we’ll turn it over tomorrow. Can you lead the unloading, I have to talk to the merchants.”

  “On it,” Al said. I walked over to the merchants. The one who had agreed to trade for the raft smiled. “I only had about half the tools, but if you will meet me at midday tomorrow on the other dock I can have the other items.”

  “Certainly,” I replied.

  The merchant who had traded food for the sled smiled. “I have all the food here. Can I load the sled?”

  “I’d suggest waiting for the sled to be unloaded,” I replied. At that moment I noticed that the forlorn merchant was standing next to four large barrels. I guessed that he was looking at his entire inventory of seeds.

  I moved over by the merchant. “Is this all the seeds you own?” I asked.

  “It’s the last of my stock,” the man admitted. “My family sent me here from Port Regal. I was supposed to develop some new sources for goods, but I’ve had more than a few setbacks. I was hoping to get enough to allow me to catch a ship to the coast. We have an enclave at the mouth of the Elfwall.”

  “How much is the trip?” I asked.

  “Five silver,” the man said.

  I pulled five silver coins from my pouch and pressed them into his hands. “May your trading be profitable,” I said before turning to look at the raft.

  The merchant said nothing as I turned away. I did hear a strangled sob, and then the man moved to join the others who were preparing to ride the raft back to the city.

  Al had brought just about everyone, and the riverbank was soon covered in barrels. He organized Corwar and Piemal to bring down one of the carts. They were soon working to load a cart to take everything up to the camp.

  Verval and Jeff did not stay long. As soon as the raft was unloaded, the one merchant had two porters help him carry the sled onto the raft. The other merchants all boarded and the raft was again launched into the current. Once it was floating away I looked around.

  Heather was walking over to me. She was escorting the man I had seen crying on the beach. “Ron,” she said. “This is Lawus. He’s a widower and as you can see, has three young children. I guess he offended one of the merchants in town and was hoping to escape the man’s anger.”

  “We don’t need any conflicts,” I pointed out.

  “There won’t be any,” Lawus said quietly. “I just have to leave town.”

  “What did you do before?” I asked.

  “We were simple farmers working for Baron Rachton,” Lawus said.

  “We will require that your children learn to read and write at least some,” I said. “And they’ll get asked to help.”

  “I understand,” Lawus said. “And I do have a stash of tools I can bring, but…”

  “Catch the raft after it returns,” I said. “How old are the children?”

  “Haydee is eight, Thom is six, and Jesame is three,” Lawus said.

  I looked at Heather. “Is Oleiana around? She can probably keep these three out of trouble. We’ll definitely have to watch Thom and Jesame, they are a bit young for this.”

  “I can take them up to the camp. If nothing else, Esme can check them. They look healthy, but…” Heather said.

  I nodded. "At least we have a good start. I’d like more food, but I think we have the tools. But it will be a lot of loading.”

  “What’s left?” Heather asked.

  “One gold and less than ten silver,” I replied. “I’d love to spend the gold, but it has to be on food at this point. I think we’ve got all the tools we can handle.”

  “Did I hear you got an anvil?” Heather asked.

  “Yes, but we’ll need to make a forge, and I have no idea how to do that,” I said.

  Lawus perked up. “I’ve seen it done,” he said. “And Thom was working with the Baron’s charcoal maker.”

  “So he knows a little about kilns,” I said with a nod.

  “Actually,” Lawus said. “The Baron’s man would just cover a pile of wood with mud and fire it.”

  “If Thom remembers any of the process, his memory might help a lot. We will need a source of charcoal or coal. We might be able to look at casting iron someday, if we can find a supply.”

  “You want to mine?” Heather asked.

  “I’m hoping Clan Skyve was right, and there are dwarven citadels hiding in the mountains and hills in the East,” I said. “I’d rather trade them food for raw ore. That would allow us to concentrate on things we can do well.”

  Heather shook her head. “You have all the ideas. It really annoys me that just about every time you prove to be correct. That would be the best way to do it, and it would still require that we have a forge.”

  “We’d need one anyways. Horses need shoes, and repairing some things will need to happen quickly. We can’t afford to wait for others to make goods.”

  Heather looked over the water. “The merchants are coming back. I’ll take the children to the camp. Hope all this goes well.”

  “So far it has,” I admitted as I turned to look out over the river. I need to be focused as we finalized the trades I had agreed to.

  Chapter 12: Nighttime Conflicts

  The remainder of the trading that day went surprisingly smoothly. The merchant with the livestock had sent his porter across to explain that he would need until the next day at midday to gather all of the animals and fodder. I nodded and said we would have no issues with waiting to complete the trade. The one merchant who said he had a few casks of seeds turned out to also have several small hanging cauldrons. I ended up paying him four silver coins for everything. He left the riverside smiling and saying that he would let others know that we were honorable in trading.

  A couple of the other trades could not be completed immediately, but all of the merchants assured me that by the next midday they would have all of the goods they had agreed to trade at the docks.

  Verval and Jeff did have to make one last trip to allow Lawus to retrieve his farming tools. The man ran from the dock and returned less than fifteen minutes later. He had four long poles on his left shoulder. Even from across the river I could see the glint of metal on the end of each pole. He also had a huge sack hanging from one pole. The man staggered a little as he made his way down the dock to the raft.

  Jeff and Verval helped him set the package on the deck of the raft and then started poling it into the current. I could see that Lawus attempted to assist, but both Verval and Jeff shook their heads as they pushed the craft into the water.

  I was watching the raft return when I heard the crunch of someone walking up behind me. “I never thought I’d see so much trading in one day,” I heard Krysbain say.

  “We need quite a bit if the settlement is going to succeed,” I said. “And it appears that the trading has been very poor this year.”

  Krysbain snorted. “The merchants complain about the trading every year. They keep saying the taxes are too high and the guard not diligent enough at preventing thieves from stealing stock or ruining merchandise. I never quite believed them.”

  “I’m sure all of those merchants are happy with their
trades,” I said. “The question is if you are happy.”

  “I’m not happy to find out that a woman can best me. I wasn’t the best archer in the guard, but I was considered fairly good. That woman, Lydia is unbelievable. She made shots I thought were impossible.”

  “She’s had a lot of practice,” I said. “I just hope we can replace any bolts she fires.”

  “I know how to do that,” Krysbain said. “Although we don’t have any extra heads. We’ll be limited by that, even if we can recover most of the ones we shoot.”

  “I’ve got a few coin left,” I said. “Tomorrow I can try to get some. We have the raft for one more day.”

  “So what do we do for the rest of the day?” Krysbain asked.

  “Load wagons,” I said with the sigh of long suffering. I could see that many barrels and boxes were still sitting on the shore. Corwar and Piemal had taken one cartload up the ramp, but there was enough lying around to take two more trips before everything would be at our camp. With that in mind I picked up two of the seed casks we had received in the trading and started walking up the trail to the camp.

  When I arrived I found that everyone was busy. Corwar and Piemal had organized a group of girls to help them unload the cart. Meanwhile Gerit and Amalya were looking at the second wagon. Both wagons were still on their sides. Worriedly I walked over to Gerit.

  “I hate to ask,” I began

  “Then don’t,” Amalya said. “I’ve always found that asking a question I don’t want to means I get a bad answer.” The young woman giggled and kissed Gerit on the cheek. “Let me guess, you want to know about the wagons.”

  “We have completed quite a few trades, and we’ll need to start loading,” I said. “I’d like to head out in two days.”

  “Isn’t that earlier than we were planning?” Gerit asked. The young man was lying down and examining one of the wheel races on the second wagon. I noticed that he was holding a small bowl and was dipping his finger into the bowl and then applying something to the race.

  “Yes,” I admitted. “But one of the merchants worried me a bit. I figure I’d rather move than be caught here when someone finally organizes an attack.”

  “You could have allowed me to remove my hood,” Cimbra said from just behind me.

  I whirled. As I did I noticed that Amalya and Kyrsbain both jumped and stared at Cimbra. “How?” Kyrsbain snapped.

  Cimbra giggled girlishly. “One of the skills I was taught. My teachers wanted me to be so quiet that everyone failed to notice me. It’s nice to see that the skill also works on the surface.”

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm my beating heart. “Too well,” I hissed. “The last thing I need is to believe someone infiltrated our group. We don’t have enough members as it is.”

  Krysbain looked at me. “We have more than twenty people in the group right now,” he pointed out. “How can you say we don’t have enough members?”

  “We are about to head out into a wilderness,” I pointed out. “Once we leave the camp, the only skills we’ll have will be what the group has or can learn. We have only about two dozen people starting this journey, and no idea how many will survive the trip.”

  “You expect to lose people?” Krysbain asked.

  “I pray we don’t, but since we started, we have seen two who felt that the uncertainty was too much. They left us for opportunities in towns we passed through. Another ran into a wizard and was cursed, so we left him behind. Six more have died. The original group we had was fourteen people. Now only seven of our original group are still together.”

  Krysbain looked around. “Where did you start?”

  “In the mountains above Linktrum. There is a mining village about three days journey from the city. We took two days to arrive there after the wizard’s spell brought us to Jord,” I replied.

  Krysbain looked surprised. “You have led the group that far?”

  “We needed to find a place to call home,” I said. “Gerit, what’s the news on the wagons?”

  “We need glue,” Gerit replied. “The wagons are in pretty good shape, but I’d like to add some glue to the joists.”

  “We obtained some cauldrons from a peddler. Can you use those to brew up some glue?” I asked.

  “I can,” Gerit said. “Lydia brought me everything else I’d need. It will take until the sun goes down to render the glue and we’ll need to apply it tonight if you want to load the wagons tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow after midday,” I affirmed. “I’d like to start travel in the morning.”

  “I can do that,” Gerit said. “Amalya and I will have the wagons ready in the morning. The glue will still be curing, but there is a mix that sets overnight. It would be better if we could wait though.”

  I nodded as Gerit turned to talk to his wife. She dashed off to talk to Kariy. I looked over at Cimbra who had removed her hood and was using her fingers to add body to her white hair. “Thank you,” she said to me.

  “Oh? I wasn’t aware I had done anything,” I said.

  Cimbra laughed. It was a hearty laugh. When the laughter died out she looked directly at me. “That’s just it. I expected a lot of suspicion from you and your friends. And I’ll admit some members of your group do look at me with a bit of fear, but you just treat me like the rest. I’m trusted to help. You can’t imagine how freeing that feels.”

  “I just hope you can help tonight,” I said. “By now stories of how much we purchased are probably spreading in every tavern in Saraloncto. This encampment will be seen as a prime target for a raid.”

  “We are across the river,” Krysbain said.

  “Like that will stop the drunk and desperate,” I pointed out. “If someone is poor enough, they might try to grab a boat and get over here. I wouldn’t do it, but I’ve known others who would.”

  Krysbain nodded. “You’re right. If you don’t mind, I’ll take a bit of a nap. I don’t have the dark elf’s night vision, but I’m probably capable of stopping any of the city thugs in a fight.”

  “Go ahead,” I said. “I need to check with Esme and then make sure we’ve started organizing all of our goods and animals. We will have a lot of things to move when we start out.”

  I had to wander the camp in search of Esme and Natalie. Neither appeared to be in the camp, and I was starting to worry. My worry only faded when Esme walked out of the grove that was downstream from our camp. She was carrying several bundles of leaves while engaging Shaylin in conversation. The duo noticed me as they cleared the trees.

  Shaylin giggled and then gave me a sloppy salute with her leaf-filled right hand. “Enchantress First Class Shaylin, reporting for duty!” she chirped.

  I looked over at Esme. The coed did not salute, but she stood at attention. “Medic Last Class Esme, ready for orders.”

  I snorted to prevent laughter from billowing forth. “Fine,” I said. “Now that you fine young ladies have seen fit to rejoin the army, perhaps you’d care to explain why you entered the forest area claimed by the elves. It would be very bad form to upset them.”

  Shaylin giggled. “Rowena said we could. Esme and I were talking about herbs and some of the medicines she’d like to make.”

  “I can’t read the language very well,” Esme admitted. “I recognize the words, but the syntax is backwards. The verb seems to always be at the end of the sentence, and the way recipes are written out ends up hopelessly complex. But I could figure out the ingredients so I started to ask Shaylin if she knew any.”

  “I didn’t, but I knew the forest would have some of them. I was explaining this to Esme when Rowena appeared at the edge of the grove. She invited us to gather just a few items,” Shaylin said.

  I turned to look at the grove. “Thank you,” I said firmly.

  The branches of the trees seemed to sway for just a moment. That was the only response so I turned back to Esme. “I guess I should ask how the gathering went.”

  Esme sighed. “I found recipes for a potion that supposedly will stop d
iseases, another for causing sleep, and three for wound reduction. I could only find herbs for the disease one and the weakest of the wound reduction potions.”

  “Yeah, unicorn blood is not easily found,” Shaylin chirped.

  I looked at the young lady. “You’d be the one we’d have to leave out as bait,” I pointed out.

  Shaylin giggled. “I’d turn you into a newt!”

  “I’d get better,” I said firmly causing Esme to giggle. “Now, I guess I should ask if you plan on brewing potions today?”

  “We can’t,” Esme said. “There is a lot of preparation to do first. Why?”

  “We have seven people who joined the group. Three look to between eighteen and twenty. The other four are a widower and his three young children,” I replied.

  “How young?” Esme asked.

  “Eight, six and I think three,” I replied. “And yes, I know the three year old is going to struggle to keep up. I think the six year old won’t have much luck either.”

  “I should check them,” Esme said. “Ron, this means we’ve had nine new people join since we arrived in Saraloncto. Do you expect more?”

  I shook my head. “I hope we’re done. I was talking to Krysbain earlier and realized we have lost half of our original group. I wouldn’t trade away any of the people who have joined, but I’ll admit that people like Piemal and Lenoir aren’t as integrated as we need.”

  “And adding seven more people will only make it worse,” Esme said with a nod. “I had noticed it more with Mary than Lenoir. Mary is more damaged.”

  “She helped move goods from the riverside to the camp,” I said. “And I think she’s still helping organize what we have.”

  “Do we have enough?” Esme asked.

  “I want more, but we got quite a bit. We’ll want to watch for plants we can possibly grow once we arrive. We don’t have as wide a variety as I’d like,” I admitted.