by C. Litka
02
I woke up with feathers in my face. I may've heard the morning gong, but being neither a student nor an active Laezan, I had ignored it and went back to sleep. The dragons had apparently wandered in after that and, finding a kindred spirit, joined me on the pallet.
'Time to get up. The day is wasting away.'
They stirred, growled softly, and settled in again.
'I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry,' I said, pushing them away. 'I'm off to find the kitchen in this joint.'
That got them awake and eager quick enough. I splashed some water on my face, found some dust-free clothes in my kit and the three of us set out in search of food. We found the nearly deserted common room where the faint aroma of food still lingered. Clearly we were late risers. Still there was one of the senior students reading a book at one of the long tables, who rose to greet us as we entered.
'I am JimDe,' he said, after we had bowed our greeting. 'Bright-eyed Sparrow Scholar asked me to be your guide for the day. Your companions are participating in the Order's customary rituals and will join us at the mid-round meal. Now, if you are hungry?'
The dragons growled.
'We are,' I said with a smile.
He smiled as well, 'Then follow me and we'll see what we can find in the kitchen. After that, I can take you to see Teacher AnDervi about your transportation to Marsh Waters.'
It was a plan we followed. The dragons drifted off after the meal, and I followed JimDe to the office of Teacher AnDervi, a middle aged woman of the yellow-sashed Outer Order, who was the business manager of the community.
After greeting me, and some polite conversation, she outlined the terms and the base cost of transportation to Marsh Waters. I was able to pay her with my paper money - glad to be rid of it. Coins and credits I knew. Paper money, well, I guess it worked, but I did not completely trust it.
'In addition to this amount, you'll be expected to provide two meals a round for the crew of four, and a room for them to sleep in at each stage of the journey. It is eight or nine stages to Marsh Waters, usually about 30 rounds in total.' she said. 'That price varies depending on where you stop and what you order.
'Some of our travelers prefer to pay a flat fee up front. Others pay as they go by simply including the crew in with their own meals and lodging. The co-op agency provides crews who are used to our ways so you can do as you see fit.'
The messenger - one of the senior students, who tried, unsuccessfully, to conceal his delight in being selected to escape the routine of classes for a ride to the city on a tall lopemount - stood waiting for us outside.
AnDervi handed him the satchel. He lifted its strap over his head, tucked it under one of his vests, and button it to secure it.
'Deliver it and come directly back,' she said, giving him a stern look that his happiness easily deflected.
'Yes, Teacher. Directly to the agency and back,' he said, as seriously as he could contrive to sound and leaped to the back of the lopemount. He waited for her to nod, and with that, was off - lopemount and boy free to follow the open road.
For the rest of the first watch, JimDe showed me around Orchard Hill. Like its Saraime counterparts, it consisted of fields and the namesake orchards which were worked by the community's lay workers, students, and Laezans. There was a small village-fortress for the community workers and a large boarding school for the students, both lay and Laezan. Like the Saraime communities, its school was a university, focused on science, medicine, the law and governance, open to all, but designed to fill positions of power and influence within the government and sciences, with people familiar with the philosophical and ethical elements of the Way of Laeza.
JimDe, though eager to show me about the sprawling community, was even more eager to hear about where I and my companions came from and how we had arrived here. I answered them with the story we had decided upon on Daffa Island - the truth, save that everything happened within the Pela. My island and Cimmadar both lay a thousand rounds away. Politics, storms, and misfortune had brought us here. I talked freely of the Saraime, the Temtres, the Outer Islands, and vaguely of my home island, save that I commanded a trading ship that was eventually caught up in Cimmadar politics. The Pela is so vast that our unknown islands were easily accepted as fact.
In the community's library, JimDe showed me the great wall map of Windvera and a chart or a "road map" of Long Street and our course to Marsh Waters. The great map was hand drawn, but clearly the work of a scientific survey, likely from the air. It looked as precise and detailed as any printed map I'd seen in the Saraime. I engaged the neural link to my com-link and recorded it so that I could retrieve the exact memory of it, if needed.
The road map was pictorial. With the vague bright spot in the sky nearly overhead on this side of Windvera, it is hard to use it for navigation unless you have a good eye and clear weather. So without a rising and setting sun, and no magnetic field to measure, navigation is by stone league markers, villages, and distinctive landmarks. These landmarks, like the shape of a mountain peak, or the arrangement of fortress peaks, waterfalls and the like, had been drawn along the margin of the road map of Long Street, complete with bearings from points on the road. I input this map as well, but because it could not translate the written descriptions, the map was of somewhat limited value. And could not be shared with my companions.
'Do you think I might be able to make a small copy of this map to take along with me?' I asked JimDe.
'I'm sure that can be arranged. One of my friends is studying cartography. However, Long Street and the road to Marsh Waters is a well traveled way. Your carriage crew will know the route.'
'I am sure they do. However, I'm here because unexpected and unfortunate things happen,' I laughed. 'Seeing that I'm unable to read your language, I'd feel more comfortable if I had a map along that I could read, should yet another unexpected event force us off course.' Hopefully I wasn't tempting the fates of the Pela.
He smiled and nodded, 'I will see to it. I know MiKa will enjoy the opportunity to put his skills into service for you.'
I ate the mid-round meal in the great common room with JimDe and my companions, including the dragons who always turned up when there was food to be had. The Laezan disinclination for rules was evident in the common room since it was loud and cheerful - the youngest contingent just on the verge of throwing buns at each other. I suspect the more restrained and dignified senior students around us used their pull to sit at our table and respectfully questioned us as we ate. After the meal, the students, including JimDe, filed off to classes, leaving Py, Naylea and me free to spend the long "afternoon" to wander idly about Orchard Hill's fields, orchards, woods, and the small tey garden. Here I had a chance to talk to the tey master. I had often talked to the cha growers on Belbania, so we could talk shop while she brewed a pot of freshly processed leaves for us.
'The air and soil here at Orchard Hill can produce no more than a pleasant cup,' she explained with a sigh. 'You need to be high in the steep hills - and on the other side of the Middle Sea to produce tey of quality. My little garden produces little more than what we can consume here. But some of my students go on to communities high in the hills and to other side where tey grows slower. They send me packets of the tey they help produce. I try not to envy them.'
It was, however, a very pleasant cup, all the more so for being fresh, and I assured her so, saying I had tasted many cups far less worthy.
'How do you find the Order here? I can see no differences here from what I experienced on Daeri, but you would see much more,' I asked as we walked back to the main buildings.
Py shook his head. 'All the essentials are the same. Local names, exercises and tasks are done in a slightly different order than I am used to, but no greater variance than I might expect between the communities back home. It is almost like being home.'
Naylea smiled as well. 'My little brother travels far, but his heart never leaves home.'
'I am at home wh
erever I travel,' he replied, 'when in the company of good friends.'
Passing the village, we caught sight and heard the laughter of the dragons and the shouts and laughter of the children as they frolicked with the children of the village. Simla dragons are very strange dragons.