Journey Across Jord

by Allan Joyal

  "Good plan," Lydia admitted. "So who will be heading out to the merchants and tavern tonight?"

  I looked over at Henck, who shook his head. "Not me or Kariy," he said. "And from what I've seen, Heather wants to stay and work on her cooking."

  "It would be nice," Heather said. "Unless you insist that I join you Ron."

  "No," I responded. "You'll have many opportunities for later visits. So that means it will be Steve, Lydia, Jennifer, Al, and me? Oh, and Lisa so she can start looking for a wandering bard to work with."

  "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I know you don't want me to leave, and I will miss all of you, but I just don't want to try to cross the rest of the continent to head into uninhabited wilderness."

  Lydia walked over to the former secretary and hugged her. She reached around the woman and patted her on her head. "We understand. You have a skill that opens an opportunity for you. It's not one we can join in on though. Lisa, we'll miss you, but you must do what's right for you."

  Lisa sniffled one last time, but put her arms around Lydia and returned the hug. They held each other for several minutes while the rest of us looked on.

  "Right," Steve said. "I don't know the time, but I'm sure the merchants are now open. Shall we actually head out and see what might be available rather than talk about it?"

  I pointed to the door. "Let's get going. Henck, protect our belongings while we are out."

  I joined Steve by the door. Al and Jennifer quickly ran over to join us. Lydia turned in Lisa's arms and started toward the rest of us. Lisa clung to her for a moment, but then released her and started to follow to the door. When they arrived, Steve reached out and opened the door.

  "Let's stay together today," Steve suggested. "We don't know this city yet. Ron, am I correct that we aren't taking weapons?"

  "Knives only," I affirmed. "Linktrum had rather strict rules against weapon use in town. I have to believe that this city's rules are harsher. After all, the wizards won't want to have to face a swordsman."

  Henck walked up to me and placed a knife in my hand. "Steve and Lydia already have theirs," he told me. "I remember you gave yours to Heather long ago."

  "Thanks," I said. "Well people, time for us to head out to explore."

  Steve just shook his head as he led our group through the doorway. I allowed the others to step through ahead of me, and then after waving to Heather and Kariy, I followed through the doorway as we went off in search of a merchant.

  Chapter 3 – Everything has a Price

  A pathway existed through the snow. The first part had been melted by the two demons, after that we were stepping through knee-deep snow. The wet snow quickly turned into slush that soaked our boots. I could hear Jennifer cursing as her skirts slowly became waterlogged. She stumbled several times until Al offered her his arm to steady her.

  "Wow, another reason that women preferred to be with men," Jennifer said. "I'm not wearing three levels of petticoat, but long skirts are difficult to walk in once they get wet. Having Al help makes a huge difference."

  "And once we find a new home, you'll insist on wearing pants," Al moaned. "I can see it coming now."

  Jennifer giggled as we reached the wall enclosing the lot our dwelling stood on. The gate was closed, but once Steve touched it, swung open as if moved by unseen hands. "Actually, I like how the skirts make Lydia and Heather look. I'm sure they make me look nice as well. I understand why they are no longer popular back on Earth, but I'm starting to like them."

  We passed through the open gate and found ourselves on an empty street. Large snowdrifts dotted the street and piled up on the sides of buildings. Steve guided us around several drifts before stopping to look around. "Which way?" he asked.

  I looked up and could see the walls to the city off to our right. "The apprentice said that we'd find the merchants near the gates to the city. So I would say we should go to the right."

  Steve smiled and then pointed in the direction of the main gates. "Very well, we march that way."

  "I'd rather walk if you don't mind," Lydia said. "Or perhaps even stroll. Marching just sounds so … formal."

  Her remarks inspired giggles from Jennifer and Lisa. Steve did not respond, but began walking off in the direction he had pointed. Al scrambled over a pile of snow to join him. Instead of following immediately, I looked back at the gate to the home we were using. It had closed again, and there was a very faint glow coming from the bars. I hoped that would not have an effect on us when we returned and then picked up my feet to follow the others through the streets.

  We had not discussed where to go beyond saying we should look at talking to some merchants. I worried a bit about what we might find. Snow from the four-day storm lay in huge drifts that rose up above our heads. The paths we could find tended to require that we walk knee deep in loose snow that soaked our clothing and chilled our bodies.

  It soon became clear that it was impossible to walk in a straight line. Steve led us in a winding path that tried to go around the deeper drifts and paths. We spent much of our time walking near one side of the street. I soon recognized a few of the buildings from our first walk through the city, but the doors of the buildings were shut, and Steve kept us moving forward.

  The drifts had been growing bigger as we neared the city walls. It was no longer possible to see the first two floors of the buildings on the far side of the street unless a path had been worn through the piled snow and ice that blocked the streets. Steve had found a rather straight path, and we could see the gates of the city ahead. He sped up slightly, and the others joined in. I was about to start running when there was a loud screech to my right.

  I stopped and turned to find that a rather husky man was pushing open a door. The man was carrying a wooden implement that looked like a cross between a shovel and a broom. As I stood there, he cleared the ground around the door and then began clearing a path through the snow to where I was standing.

  "Be a bit warmer inside," he told me. "And the wizards probably won't clear the streets just yet. They like to wait for after the third storm. They say it's to protect the streets."

  I looked over the man. He was wearing a clean outfit. The pants were made of leather and appeared to hang loosely around his waist. He had on a white shirt made from a thick material. Over all of that he was wearing a heavy leather apron.

  "What would I find inside?" I asked.

  "Are you new to this city?" the man responded.

  "Yes," I said, figuring that it was useless to lie. "My friends and I arrived just ahead of the storm. We had some business with the wizards."

  The man nodded. "Bad time to arrive. But that's your business. Inside is my business; I am Relway, provider of tools and sundries to the townsfolk. Come inside and see what I have. I dare say you could use some better clothing."

  The man turned away and headed into the building. I stood in the snow for a moment and then followed him inside.

  "Close the door as you enter," Relway called out. "Does no good to have a fire going if all the hot air escapes."

  "You might try hanging a heavy fur," I suggested as I pulled the door closed. "It would show to the city that you are open, but can still keep the warm air inside. Well most of it."

  I blinked in the dim light that filled the room. The chamber was bigger than the one we were sharing just up the street. In the center of the room, a large fire circle contained a pile of glowing embers that provided heat and smoke to the room. Along the walls were more of the Arabic style lamps, providing flickering light and their own dense smoke. I stood at the doorway, gazing upon the room as Relway stared at me.

  "I never thought of that," he said quietly. "Where did you come up with the idea?"

  I shrugged as I stepped deeper into the room. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I could now see racks and tables cluttered with all kinds of goods. "I've seen a similar setup used in other establishments," I said quietly as I moved towards a table that had a number of metal hand tools.

&n
bsp; "What are you looking for, young man?" Relway asked me.

  I shrugged again as I gazed upon the tools on the table. I could see several that looked like double-headed hammers. The idea of picking one up was tempting, but I moved on, scanning at a nearby rack that held several shovels and brooms. "To be honest, most of what I seek today is information. The wizards were unable to help solve the problem I came with, so my group has to develop a new solution."

  "You have to what?" Relway snapped. "Man, you sound like one of those wizards, using all those complex words and phrases. Basically, you got nothing from them and now need help."

  I had moved past the rack and found the corner I was approaching was covered in small barrels. They were stacked in pyramids. One of the barrels in each pyramid would be open, showing the contents. I could see nails in one. Another appeared to have small metal buttons. I had no idea what they might be and continued to walk around the store.

  "Sorry," I said quietly. "Actually my friends and I plan on being our own help. We just need to obtain the right materials and information."

  "What are you going to do?" Relway asked. "Jump on some magic carpet and fly home?"

  "We only wish," I heard Lydia say from the doorway. "Ron, what brought you in here? Everyone nearly panicked when we realized you were no longer following us."

  Relway turned to glaze at Lydia. I could see his eyes scan her figure up and down. He seemed perplexed by what he saw. "What trollop is this to speak that way to you?" he asked. "I have never seen such an outfit. Although it some ways it's much like what you are wearing."

  I took a closer look at Lydia's outfit. She was wearing one of the long skirts we had obtained in Linktrum, but was wearing the professional blouse she was wearing when we arrived in Jord. The white cotton was now stained in several places, and the left sleeve had a long gash that we had been unable to mend. Lydia was not wearing a hairnet, allowing her hair to tumble down to her shoulders. She was not wearing a corset, and when she turned toward me the bounce of her breasts made it clear she was not wearing a bra.

  Thinking about her outfit got me to look briefly at what I was wearing. I had on one of the heavy shirts we had obtained in Linktrum but had worn my professional pants. Like Lydia's blouse, the fabric of my pants had never been designed to handle days of hiking across wilderness. The bottom two inches of both legs were covered in dark brown mud and the fabric covering my knees was starting to fray. I immediately wondered why Relway risked talking to me.

  "Lydia is a friend of mine," I admitted. "A miscast wizard's spell dragged us from our homes and pulled us to Jord. That's why we traveled here. We had hoped the wizards might send us home."

  "Not likely," Relway said with a snort. "Not unless they stood to profit from it."

  I shrugged. "Well, to answer the other part of your question, Lydia is no trollop. Back where we came from, she works for a merchant house, and her contributions were highly valued. That's actually one problem we found once we arrived in Jord."

  Relway snorted. "Found that everyone ignores women, did you? Yeah, I know about that. Have four daughters, and two of them would be far more capable than any of my sons, but they'll never get a chance."

  "I would think a woman could handle the trade," I said cautiously.

  "Handle it sure," Relway said. "But the problem is getting men to respect them. If you've met any wizards, I'm sure you noticed. It turns out that the magic wizards use is found in both men and women, but there hasn't been a woman on the council since the empire fell."

  Lydia and I looked at each other. "Where are the others?" I asked.

  She pointed out the door. "Lisa heard faint music from across the street. They were going to check out there. I came looking for you."

  I nodded. "Well, we can look around. So far most of what I'm seeing would be better for use in a town though. I like the hammers, and I did see kegs of nails."

  "What are you looking for?" Relway asked.

  "It's a long story," I said slowly.

  Relway laughed. "On a day like today you might be the only people willing to risk the snow. The city folk here hate getting their skirts wet. We have plenty of time."

  I risked a look over at Lydia. She had an amused smile on her face. As I tried to read her mood she winked.

  "Can we sit down while we talk?" I asked.

  Relway laughed. "Just sit by the fire. I'll be right back." The man turned and walked out of sight behind one of the many racks in the far corner of the room.

  I stood there for a moment and then walked over to the fire pit. When I arrived and took a closer look, I realized it was raised about two feet above the floor and had a ring of flat stones surrounding the coals. I placed a hand on one of the stones. It was comfortably warm to the touch. Lydia had made her own way to the pit and after gathering her skirt in front of her, sat down with her back to the fire.

  "Oh, that's nice," she said as she leaned a little towards the fire.

  "Careful, don't get burned," I said as I sat down.

  Lydia laughed. "I'll be fine. So you said you found a keg of nails? How would that help us?"

  I shrugged. "If we are going to build a house, nails can be used in many ways. Although if we go with a log cabin structure we'd only need nails if we put in a wooden floor."

  "Why wouldn't we?" Lydia asked. We could hear the merchant moving some items in the corner. It was clear he was trying to be quiet and listen to us.

  "It might be difficult to cut boards," I pointed out. "Think about what you know of historical buildings back home. If they are more than two hundred years old the floors are either stone or dirt. We probably won't find nice even boards we can use for flooring."

  "Damn," Lydia replied. "Sleeping on the cold stone we are using now is rough. I wake up aching all over."

  "Me too," I admitted. "It's like the cold of the stone seeps into your muscles while you sleep."

  I was going to say more, but there was a sound to our right. We turned to look and found a young woman walking toward the fire pit. She had three logs in her arms.

  As she approached, I looked more closely at her. Her outfit consisted of a dark blue blouse of the same heavy fabric as the shirt I was wearing. The cloth hung very loosely over her chest, but the way it billowed suggested that the girl was fully developed. The looseness of the blouse ended where it was tucked into a heavy blue skirt that hung to the floor. Two belts hung around her hips. On one I could see a tankard hanging from a string. The other belt went through loops in the skirt and had a knife hanging from the right side. Her face had dark smudges on it, obscuring her cheekbones. At first I thought her hair was black and cut short, but as she got closer to the glow from the coals I realized she was wearing a black hairnet over brown hair.

  "Ron," Lydia whispered in my ear. "You have that hottie Heather waiting for you. No slobbering over random girls."

  I choked back a laugh and turned back to look at Lydia. "Do you have any ideas on what we should get?" I asked.

  Lydia's mouth opened. Just to our right the girl dropped the logs into the stone border for the fire pit. She then carefully inserted one into the coals, moving it around and stirring the flames. The heat radiating from the pit increased as new flames began to devour the log. Once she was sure that the first log was burning, the girl set the other two on top of it and then turned and walked away.

  Lydia leaned forward to look around me and watch the girl walk away. "Damn, that's a nice ass," she whispered.

  "Lydia!" I said, trying to hold back a laugh.

  Lydia straightened up immediately. "A second crossbow," she said. "I think we should get a second crossbow and lots more arrows."

  "Most people call them bolts," Relway observed as he emerged from the shadows. He was carrying a contraption built from leather and wood. He walked up to us until he was about six feet away and then bent down. The wooden contraption opened up as four circular dowels came to rest on the floor in two X patterns. This spread out a piece of leather between th
e dowels. Relway lightly kicked one of the dowels and then sat down on the leather. I heard the dowels groan, but the device acted as a chair, leaving Relway sitting just a bit lower than we were.

  "What do you mean?" Lydia asked.

  "Crossbow arrows," Relway said. "If you have a dwarven crossbow, they call what you use bolts. Dwarves don't have a lot of wood underground so they use metal for their arrows. Why would you want one?"

  "It's easier to learn to use," I pointed out. "And in Lydia's case, she learned to shoot using one, and can probably teach others. I didn't realize they were only made by dwarves."

  "Oh humans make them," Relway said. "But they really are best for use in sieges. Bows load faster. I could probably get you a good crossbow and maybe two hundred bolts. Would cost a lot though."

  "I'm sure it wouldn't be too expensive," I countered. "You admitted that they aren't all that popular. But I'm sure the wizards have collected a few over the centuries. What good would it do them?"

  "You are a rogue and a cad, just like I thought when you defended this trollop here," Relway said with a smile. "You'd steal the food from my babies and leave them to starve just for a toy."

  "If that was one of your children," I pointed towards the door the girl had walked through, "I'd say that they are quite healthy. She seemed to be the picture of health, you should be proud."

  "Thank you," Relway said absently. A look of confusion passed across his face in the flickering light. "Wait! Weren't we bargaining for a crossbow? How did my daughter get mentioned?"

  "Well, someone came and added to the fire," I said, pointing over my shoulder. "I thought it was your daughter. As for bargaining, I wasn't aware we had reached that point."

  Relway shook his head. "I guess I did start the bargaining quickly. You might be my only sale today. Probably my only customers."

  "I'm sorry about that," I replied. "The truth is that right now we really just want to get an idea of what will be available. Our current plans are to leave the city before the snow melts and then travel until we find a good place to settle."