Journey Across Jord

by Allan Joyal

  "We don't keep you here," I said. "But I can't give you any coin. Do you think anyone in town would believe you earned it honestly?"

  "Why wouldn't they!" Jeff shouted.

  Victoria pointed at Jeff. The young man just stared at her. I glanced at the others, who all just looked at him. Finally Al moved to stand next to him. He knelt down and poked Jeff right in the belly button. "What does this do?" he asked pointedly. "Why do we get to see it?"

  Jeff slapped at the hand poking him. "Fine! Then get me some clothing!"

  "We'll check," I said.

  I put away the two money pouches. Jeff was paying too much attention to where I attached them to my belt. The third I carefully opened. I poured out coins until I had two gold and seven silver. I held this handful out to Steve and Lydia. "Take a gold coin and two silvers each."

  They claimed the coins and I returned the last three to my pouch. Then I slipped the pouch strings over a button on the vest. It hung there as I stood up. The room was quiet.

  "Everyone, please be aware that we are visitors to the town. If we aren't careful, we could be run out of town. I'd like to get all three nights of rest in town. Heather, if you and Kariy would like to come with me, I'll be happy to have you around," I said.

  Kariy jumped to her feet with a glad cry. Heather rose more slowly as I turned and started walking to the door.

  I exited the room. In the hallway, I found Jorn carrying a large bucket of water. I pointed into the room I had just left. "Bring it in there," I said.

  The boy ducked his head and walked past me. I headed on down the hallway as several glad cries erupted from the room.

  "He's cute," Heather observed.

  "I'm not going to try to free him from his great uncle," I said. "We have too many other issues to deal with today."

  "And we can't afford to offend the man," Heather said with a nod. "Don't be surprised if the boy ends up with a new outfit though."

  I said nothing as we headed down the stairs. In the main room, we found the innkeeper talking with a couple of teenage boys. The boys stared at Heather and Kariy as we emerged from the stairway.

  "See, there are fine women with this group," the innkeeper said.

  "Let everyone know that we don't participate in that kind of trade," I snarled as I put an arm on Heather's shoulder. "This woman is my wife; the other is our adopted daughter."

  "She's the same age as your wife," the innkeeper said with a scowl.

  "We rescued her from an illegal indenture. The dwarves are still upset to discover that the indenture was forced on the girl within mountains they claim," Heather replied softly.

  The innkeeper looked more closely at my vest. His complexion paled. "They are dwarf friends," he said with a gasp.

  The teenage boys also gasped. One turned to run from the room.

  "Hold!" I commanded, causing the one boy to stumble. "I already said, we don't mind people looking or even coming to talk, but I do ask that everyone be told that we are merely peaceful traders. We have a mission for our merchant group that may take years so we are taking our wives and families. If you do that, I won't be offended."

  "You should have your spear," Heather whispered.

  "In town?" I whispered back. "We'd get thrown out for carrying weapons."

  Heather frowned as the teenagers rushed from the inn. The innkeeper watched them go, as his hands gripped a stained towel. He glanced at me with a look of fear in his eyes.

  I said nothing to him as I nudged Heather toward the entrance to the inn. We headed out with the innkeeper standing in the middle of the room and watching us.

  We walked out into the street. To our left near the walls of the city, I could see several guardsmen standing in the street. They appeared to be lining up under the watch of a senior guardsman. A couple of young children stood off to the side and watched.

  Heather and Kariy paused once we were outside the inn. "Where do we go?" Heather asked.

  I pointed across the street. "Piotr supposedly has a shop next to the caravanserai. Which makes sense when you think about it. The merchants are the most likely to purchase a cart or wagon."

  Kariy giggled. "I'm guessing we go through the gate that has a wagon wheel above it," she said pointing to an open gate.

  "Well, lead on then," I said to Kariy.

  The young woman giggled merrily and then dashed off across the street. She headed directly for a stone archway. The right side of the archway was blocked by a wooden door, but the door on the other side was opened, allowing Kariy to rush through.

  Heather and I followed across the street. I glanced around and could see that there were a large number of people watching us. We were moving quickly so I could not really read facial expressions, but I did see that no one had weapons out.

  We had just reached the opening when a harsh voice rang out. "Who are you? I don't traffic with whores. Leave now!"

  I rushed in to find Kariy standing and looking at a couple of carts lined up in the courtyard hidden by the gate we had just passed through. A heavily muscled man wearing leather pants and a heavy leather apron was standing next to her. He had a rather nasty looking metal knife in his hands.

  "Would you happen to be Piotr?" I asked quickly, trying to distract the man.

  The man glanced at me, but immediately turned back to glare at Kariy. "Whore, I told you to leave!"

  "Excuse me," I said, carefully extending an arm between the man and Kariy. "The young lady is with me, and she's no whore. She just ran ahead."

  "Who are you?" the man demanded, turning his full attention to me. "And why did you bring another whore with you?"

  "My name is Ron, I am the principal for a mission for Daytona Trade. The woman with me is my wife, Heather. The young lady who ran in first is our adopted daughter," I replied.

  "Daughter? She's not a child!" the man said with a snort.

  "No," I agreed. "But when she was young, she was forced into an illegal indenture. I rescued her from that indenture as the fall came to an end. She's still relearning what it means to be free."

  The man looked at me. "If I believed that, why are you in my yard? For that matter, why are you traveling? It's winter; there is no trade to be had."

  "Daytona Trade wants to establish a new outpost," I said. "The goal is for the outpost to be self-sustaining as quickly as possible, so we want to establish it quickly once the snow leaves the lands. If we are going to do that, we must travel during the winter. And that's why we are here. We seem to be acquiring more goods and tools for establishing the outpost, but we now need the ability to move more goods. It was suggested that you might have some carts."

  I nodded towards the two carts Kariy had been looking at. Each was different. One was not much more than a large slab of wood held up by two wheels. There were a few dowels extending upward to offer a bit of a basket, but the construction looked sloppy. The other had four solid wooden wheels. The wheels were small, perhaps thirty inches in diameter, and the cart was low to the ground, but it had a full bed that stretched about four feet wide and six feet long. The one foot sides meant that items would be unlikely to spill when the cart was halted.

  The man glanced back at the two carts we were looking at. "You don't want the two wheeled one," he immediately commented. "It's for carrying hay or wood. The other might work for what you need."

  "How hard will it be to find animals to pull it?" I asked.

  "You can pull it with two horses or donkeys," the man said. "I can provide those if you want."

  "It's a bit small for what we need," I said. "We already have a lot of goods to transport."

  The man looked perplexed. "I do have another cart, but it's another two wheel design."

  "Can we see it?" I asked.

  The man nodded and then turned to look at the building on the far side of the courtyard. I noticed that it had several open archways and beyond them I could see about a dozen people standing and gazing at us. The man paused for a moment as if looking for a specific p
erson.

  "Tranit! Bring out that special cart we built for that merchant out of Baton Seaport," the man commanded.

  He turned back to look at me. "It will probably take a moment. Knowing my apprentices, they were all staring at us rather than working."

  "I can understand that to a point. This must be a slow period for you. The fact that you have visitors probably has them a bit confused," I said.

  "You are going to want full harness sets aren't you?" the man asked.

  "Only if we can agree upon the price," I said. "Our funds are not unlimited, much as I would like them to be."

  "I should have guessed you want it all for nothing," the man said with a snort.

  "No," I replied. "We are willing to pay a fair price. But we do have limited funds and those funds have to not only purchase the cart and the animals to pull it, but we need to set up a complete farm to feed the outpost. I have to watch how much we spend now."

  The man looked mildly annoyed. "I have what you need and no other merchant in town will," he pointed out.

  "True, but this isn't a necessity at the moment. We have the ability to carry everything we currently have acquired to help found our outpost. This cart will be to deal with the additional purchases we hope to make," I replied.

  I watched the cart seller scowl again. He looked over my outfit carefully as we stood in the courtyard. We could hear some shouts coming from the area where his apprentices were working, but he ignored that to scrutinize my outfit. Finally, he turned to look at his workshop. His lungs filled with air, but he released his breath with a sigh as three young men ran forward pulling a two-wheeled cart.

  This cart was a bit like the first one I had looked at, but only in the fact that both had two wheels. The other cart had a patchwork bed, while this one had one that appeared to be made from modern plywood. The new cart also had wooden sections that provided several inches of border for the front and sides of the bed, leaving the rear open. It was wider than either of the other carts we had seen, although it was probably a foot shorter in length.

  "Nice," I said, trying hard to sound somewhat bored. "But how do you keep items from sliding out?"

  The cart seller glared at me. "We have installed hooks," he pointed out. His hand went to one of the hooks embedded in the rear left upright of the cart. "You just tie a rope across and nothing should slide out, even if you are moving uphill. And it's easier to load than other carts."

  "Interesting wood for the bed of the cart," I pointed out.

  "Something I have been working on using some of the mill scraps. My apprentices glue thin remnants together to form a large sheet of wood. It tends to be lighter than a solid bed," the cart seller said with pride in his voice.

  "And I'm guessing you expect the price to cover feeding all your apprentices. Even with a cart that you say you made for another guild," I said.

  "Which they never came for and later said they won't collect or make the final payment on," one of the apprentices supplied helpfully.

  The master cart seller whirled to stare at the trio of apprentices. The three boys all looked back at him with mocking looks on their faces. It was clear the man was not well liked by the boys working in the shop.

  "How much do you think the wood for that one cart cost?" Heather mock whispered into my ear.

  "We just hiked through a valley with a rather nice forest. I'm sure wood is not hard to find," I replied. I noticed that one of the apprentices smiled as the cart seller looked back at me. "And remember, this cart was made from remnants rather than full boards."

  The cart seller looked at me. "You are interested in this cart?" he asked. I could see hope light up his eyes.

  "If we can fit it to our budget and find animals to pull it," I said trying to sound uninterested. "We only have so much money."

  The cart seller looked at me. "You are taking these two women with you across the continent and you want to refuse to purchase a cart to carry goods? Are you such a tyrant as to make them carry everything?"

  "No, he wants to carry everything," Kariy supplied. "He thinks of himself as our protector."

  "Five silver for the cart," I guessed.

  A couple of the apprentices snorted, but the cart seller just shook his head. "The wood alone cost more than that. And then there was hours of work putting it together. Three gold."

  Heather poked me as I shook my head and began the process of bargaining with the merchant. In the end we worked out a price of two gold, but that included a full harness, four horses to pull the cart and the rickety two wheel contraption that we had originally rejected. We agreed to have the carts delivered to the caravanserai later that day. The horses we would pick up on the day we were going to leave.

  I left the cart seller's yard with Kariy and Heather. Heather was clearly fuming as we crossed the street, but waited until we were just outside the inn before turning and slapping me in the face. "You just let that man rob you!" she hissed.

  "Not really," I replied as I rubbed my face. "Sure, I expect the horses we get to be tired and needing a lot of food, but that's why I got the second cart. We can fill it with hay and a couple barrels of oats. I won't put anything we don't want to lose on it, but with a bit of work we can fill it with barrels."

  "Work?" Heather asked.

  "Steve already said two of the sleds are damaged. He pretty much said we'll have to abandon them. We can instead use the wood from them to shore up the one cart and give it a better basket. It will be good practice for Al and perhaps Jeff. We need some people with experience working with wood," I said.

  Heather was standing there glaring at me as Shaylin emerged from the inn. She looked at us standing in the street and waved. "We could see you from the window of the room. Did the trading go well?"

  "I get a feeling the horses we just purchased won't be in great health, but we got two carts and four horses," I said. "We should look for sheep to give the puppies something to do."

  Shaylin clapped her hands together and smiled. I looked up at Heather to see that she was staring over my shoulder. When I turned around, a man wearing a spectacular white and black fur coat walked up. He scowled openly at the presence of Heather and Kariy before marching up to me.

  "I understand that you are part of a trading group," the man hissed. "Why was I not informed of your planned trip?"

  I raised a hand to him before turning to look at Heather. "Heather, grab Corwar and Shaylin. See if you can find any farmers who have extra sheep. We won't make a purchase today, but check pricing."

  "And Corwar is there to gain some experience and be the negotiator. You do realize he's with Lydia so he's probably at the smithy, but I can look for him," Heather replied.

  Heather headed off, leading Shaylin. Kariy nodded silently to me and then slipped back inside the inn. Now I was alone with the unknown man. I lowered my hand and looked him in the eye.

  "We didn't inform you because the group was founded late in the fall, and originally we were going to take a route through the north to get to Saraloncto. We would have never visited your town. Storms and snow forced us to abandon the road we were on and to travel the tunnels under the plains," I explained.

  "A likely story. No group like yours would survive the tunnels," the man scoffed.

  "You can ask Mertiln when he arrives," I said calmly. "We were traveling with him, but the dwarves were planning to take their time and knew we had trade to conduct."

  "Clan Skyve has sent a caravan?" the man asked. He looked up the cliff face fearfully.

  "They know about the slavers," I noted, "and they took the alternate route rather than push through to the main cave up on the cliff face. Anyways, I thought the slavers were several days ahead of us."

  "They are," the man said. "They headed for Rocco Azure two days ago, but it's well known that the dwarves do not like slavers or those who trade with them."

  "I can imagine," I said. "Few people would feel comfortable around slavers. I'm sure your town has lost a few citizens to them
over the years. But that isn't something you are concerned about with Daytona Trade."

  "No," the man said. "My name is Francois. I'm one of the burghers in this town and we'd like to know more about your plans."

  I looked around. We were gathering a bit of an audience in the street. I pointed toward the inn. "Let's sit down in there. Otherwise the street will be blocked by all the people trying to listen in."

  Francois looked around. Several people ducked their heads or looked away when he gazed upon them, but none moved from the circle that was forming around us. "Maitian will like the extra business."

  We turned and headed for the door to the inn. The innkeeper had been standing in the doorway. He scuttled away as we entered. I allowed Francois to choose the table, and he selected one just inside the doorway. We sat down as a horde of people entered and began claiming seats at the other tables.

  Maitian watched the room fill and then hustled over to our table. "Your usual, Francois?" he asked.

  The man nodded and then extended a hand to me. "Just an ale," I said. I realized that I did not have my mug with me. Before I could say anything, Gertrilla ran up and placed it on the table in front of me.

  Francois looked at Gertrilla. The girl blushed fiercely under his scrutiny. Finally she offered a clumsy curtsey and dashed for the stairway.

  "One of yours?" he asked me.

  "She had no prospects at home," I said. "Her parents asked if we would take her with us."

  Francois looked at me. "I had heard you had more women than men in your group."

  "It was never planned that way, but then again, none of us started out planning to found an outpost on Jord," I said.

  "What did you start out planning?" the man asked.

  "Honestly, since the wizard's spell dragged us to Jord, the plan has been to stay alive," I said.

  "Dragged you to Jord?" Francois snapped. I noticed that there were no other conversations going.

  "That is the explanation we have been able to piece together. A wizard was summoned to cast a spell in a village, but failed in his mission. When the village refused to pay, he attempted to summon a creature to punish the village. He was killed in the middle of casting his spell, and we ended up appearing in the mountains above the village," I said.