Journey Across Jord

by Allan Joyal

  "And yet you are friends with dwarves," Francois pointed out. "I find that hard to believe."

  "We merely did them a favor with no expectation of reward," I replied. "Dwarves are honorable men who expect to be offered respect and trust."

  "He has you there, Francois," a shabbily dressed man sitting at the table next to us shouted. "The dwarves always charge you extra since you tried to provide that shipment of moth eaten cloth."

  "You sell cloth?" I asked Francois.

  "What of it?" Francois asked.

  "I might be in the market for a few yards of simple cloth," I replied.

  Francois glared at me. There was a commotion behind me. It appeared to be centered on the stairway to our rooms. I glanced over my shoulder to see Jeff stomping toward me.

  "You promised that you'd be looking for new clothing for me!" the young man snapped.

  "And you can see an example of why I'm looking for some cloth," I said to Francois. "Jeff here arrived when we did, but we got separated for a while. We found him, but need to renew his clothing."

  Francois was looking at the remnants of Jeff's shirt. "I have never before seen such tight stitching. What spirit performed this? I know no human could be so precise."

  "No spirit," I said. "In our land, men discovered ways to get specially formed sets of gears and pulleys to perform actions repeatedly. The work here was done through that method."

  "Could you do that here?" Francois asked.

  "None of us have the knowledge," I replied. "We know that the techniques exist, but not how to make the devices or to power them. And the fact that we do know of such techniques leaves us out of place in most towns."

  Francois laughed at that. "I heard how that one girl walked into the smithy. She did allow one of the men to negotiate, but she was whispering in his ear the whole time."

  Jeff was standing there just glaring at Francois and me as we continued to talk. "Lydia is hardly a girl," I replied to Francois before turning to look at Jeff. "And Jeff, I'm going to see if there is money in the budget to purchase cloth. I know that Kariy and Aine will be willing to sew something together for you. But you are making a spectacle of yourself down here."

  "I know how to bargain!" the young man spat. "That was part of my duty. I worked in entertainment law, so we had to negotiate contracts and site permits."

  "No one is going to take you seriously," I said calmly. "You don't look like you can afford to pay for anything."

  Francois barked a laugh. "That is certainly true. He looks like an escaped slave."

  I smacked my forehead with an open palm as Jeff took a step back. Francois noticed the action and looked at me. "He isn't ... ."

  "He arrived on Jord the same time I did," I replied. "But we separated into several groups almost immediately. He stayed with another group for a couple days and then it broke up, leaving him with one friend. They traveled for a while, and were near Linktrum when a young man tricked them into walking into a slaver's ambush."

  Francois nodded. "I wish I could do something, but the slavers are powerful. We won't return you to them, but we won't punish them."

  Jeff nodded sadly. "Slavery is still wrong," he said.

  "When nine of every ten people has to work in the fields to feed a city, slavery becomes viable economically," I pointed out. "That's why slavery finally vanished from our home; the improved farming techniques eliminated the need for so many workers."

  Jeff looked surprised, but this time Francois nodded. "That makes entirely too much sense. And if you did that, I can see that your women might be a bit more independent since they would not be at the same disadvantage they are now where it comes to food production."

  I waved to Jeff. "Jeff, please. We plan on staying three nights and for once I don't want the city guard chasing us out of town because we offended someone. I will follow up on purchasing cloth."

  Jeff turned and stomped away. I winced as I heard his feet hit the wooden floor. Francois watched him go and then shook his head. "That is one angry man."

  "He lost more than most of my group when we arrived," I said. "But he did remind me that we are looking for a few lengths of sturdy cloth."

  "Any dye or special weave?" Francois asked.

  "Linen if you have it, otherwise we can work with wool," I replied.

  I do have several lengths of undyed linen. I kept it because the weavers had been careless and the fabric isn't going to wear well. You'll have to replace any clothing made from it before the snow starts falling again," Francois said.

  "Sounds like it hasn't sold for a reason. Would three coppers be a fair price?" I asked.

  "Three! Now I know you are out to cheat this town," Francois replied with a laugh. "Three lengths of good cloth is worth two silvers."

  "Good cloth," I replied as we started bargaining. The noise in the room increased in volume as Francois and I haggled over the delivery of the cloth. We finally settled on a price of six copper.

  Francois got up once we were done bargaining. I removed the coins I needed from my original pouch, removing the remaining coins to transfer them to the pouch with the coins Elrol had provided. He then left, promising that he would have someone deliver the cloth before the evening meal was served.

  Chapter 28: Native Relations

  I headed upstairs after Francois had left. A few people followed him out, but the majority remained in the common room. Maitian rushed around the room talking to people at every table. He offered a cheery wave as I started up the stairs.

  The noise of the common room quieted considerably as I reached the top of the stairs and turned to head down the hallway to the rooms we were renting. I noticed that Aine was sitting on the floor with her back against one of the doorjambs for our rooms. Her eyes were closed, but opened for just a moment as I stepped into the hallway.

  "No one other than members of the group has come up," she said quietly as she closed her eyes again.

  "How can you be sure if you have your eyes closed?" I asked.

  "You can feel every footstep on the stairs," Victoria called out from inside the room. "I suppose a ninja might be able to get in here unnoticed, but the stairs are actually rather secure."

  I nodded. "Well, I don't see Kariy, so I guess I can report we found one good cart, and a second that we'll have to work on to make it useful. The carts come with harness kits and four horses."

  "Four? These carts take two horses to pull?" Victoria asked as I stepped into the room.

  Inside I found Jennifer lying on a bedroll. Her broken arm was securely wrapped with some strips of leather. She had her eyes closed and appeared to be dozing. Jeff sat on another bedroll. He seemed a bit more relaxed than he had been downstairs. Gertrilla was using a strap of some kind to play tug of war with the puppies, while Victoria sat and tried to brush her hair. They were the only ones in the room.

  "I believe each of the carts can be pulled by a single horse. I didn't ask, but I suspect the winter was harsher than normal and the man selling the carts isn't sure he can keep all his horses alive through spring," I replied.

  "Wouldn't that be until spring?" Victoria asked.

  "No," I said. "Spring may be the time the sun comes out and plants start growing again, but the key word there is start. There still is a food shortage during the early part of the spring, and many animals will die. It's worse for a village. In the fall they have plenty thanks to the harvest, but in spring, the animals are all starved after the winter and few plants are putting out fruit or berries. A harsh and early winter can mean people starve in the spring."

  "That doesn't make sense," Jennifer said sleepily. "We've always been told that winter is the bad time."

  "But you can take your harvest and save it," I pointed out. "The problem is that depending on how much you have saved, it might not last until spring. We don't notice it now, but it does have an impact. The story of the Donner party is an interesting example. One family, the Reeds, took care with their supplies, making them last. That family had n
o losses and actually remained intact. They also made multiple attempts to send out a party to get help. The first two were mostly men and failed. The last one had more women than men because the men had been more active and few could still muster the strength. That group succeeded, but would have eight members of the fifteen die, all of the dead were men, the five women who started with the party, all survived."

  "Scary, and I'm not sure how that helps us," Jeff muttered.

  "It's part of how things work. I'm sure that on the farms around here, there will be a hungry time this spring. Some families will see the ill die. If they have a choice, the daughters and wives will be fed a bit more generously, as children will be needed to replace lost hands. It's cynical, but in this kind of economy, it is what they must do to survive."

  "Without the cannibalism," Victoria said with a smirk.

  I just nodded. "Oh, we will be getting some lengths of cloth. I guess they were flawed when woven, so the merchant expects any clothing made from them won't last forever, but ... ."

  "It's something," Victoria said with a nod. "We still need leather so we can get him something to cover his feet. We have miles to go."

  "I'll check with Steve and Lydia about that," I said.

  "About what?" I heard Lydia's voice call out.

  "We need some leather so we can make some kind of shoes for Jeff," I said in reply.

  Lydia walked into the room followed by Hencktor. I carefully looked around. "Where are the others who were with you?" I asked.

  "Heather showed up and told Verval and Corwar she wanted to look for herds," Lydia replied. "The others are with Steve."

  "Just checking," I said. "So how was the trading?"

  "I hate that," Lydia said with a frown. "I thought being an outside sales rep was bad working for Hughes, but here ... . You almost have to casually insult the person you are bargaining with. At least Verval understood and Henck here was a perfect hunk bargainer who never gave away a thing."

  "I just listened to you and tried to keep the price low," Henck said. He was smiling as Lydia gave him a hug.

  "What did we get?" I asked.

  "I don't remember it all," Lydia confessed. "Verval was the one directing what we should get. We purchased several hoes, scythes, sickles, and shovels. He also managed to get some saws and hammers thrown in. The one plow will probably not impress Natalie. Verval wasn't too happy about it. Only the blade is metal, and the rest is supposed to be made from wood. We only got the blade part."

  "It's still quite a bit of metal," I said.

  "True and we got it for a single gold coin. I was amazed how far it went. Verval kept adding to the pile and the smith just smiled," Lydia said.

  "It's winter," Hencktor observed. "And the dwarves will be delivering more metal later today. The smith was looking at a lot of profit. He can purchase more metal and he received a coin he wouldn't normally have this time of year."

  "He seemed to have a nice shop," Lydia challenged. "Why would one coin make a difference?"

  Hencktor took a moment to lean back and look down the hallway. He lowered his head and voice just a touch. "Because this town isn't very prosperous. It's larger than the village you rescued me from, but I can see the signs. Look at the sign for this inn, it hasn't been painted in years. The caravanserai looked nice, but it was empty. Now I can understand seeing fewer merchants, but to have none in permanent residence would indicate that there isn't much money here."

  I shook my head. "I should have seen it too. Although I was thinking if they get regular spring floods they should have great harvests."

  Hencktor seemed ready to say more when there was a loud creak from the stairway. Everyone paused and looked toward the doorway. I could see Aine carefully reach out for the loaded crossbow that was lying against the wall. She did not move it, but her eyes opened and she was watching down the hall.

  Everyone in the room was quiet. We could hear a female voice whispering. "Go on, you said these people showed respect to women."

  "But what if they throw us out?" a young nervous male voice replied. "If Piotr finds out I came here, he'll throw us out."

  "What more will you learn working for him?" the female voice snarled. "That remnant board was your idea, and he only accepted it after you showed him how he could charge for solid wood and pocket the difference. You know you'll never have your own shop here."

  "But will they give me a shop? I don't have much to offer," the male voice said.

  "Oh, depending on your skill, you may have a lot to offer," I called out.

  The two stopped speaking. We waited silently and then the footsteps completed the journey up the stairs. We could hear two people walking down the hallway toward our rooms.

  "Two, young man maybe seventeen, girl looks to be the same age," Aine said quietly. "They don't look related."

  I glanced over at Lydia. My friend winced. "Your call, Ron," she said.

  I waited for the duo to arrive at the doorway. The girl had stepped back and was behind the boy. He paused at the entrance to the room, but stumbled forward.

  He glared back over his shoulder and it was clear that the girl had pushed him. She nodded toward me and the boy turned back around. "I'm sorry to bother you," he began. "I saw you when you were purchasing the cart."

  I recognized him as one of the three who had brought out the cart we had eventually purchased. "Is there a problem with the purchase?" I asked.

  Lydia started coughing into her hand. I noticed that Jeff was shaking his head as the young man looked at me. "No," he said. "But from what little I understood, you are planning on traveling and setting up a new ... outpost?"

  "We do plan on leaving the settled lands and looking for a place we can turn into a home," I said.

  "Oh, you were always like this," the girl snapped. She marched into the room, pushing the boy out of the way. I had to smile. Now that I could see the girl clearly, she was actually a bit smaller than Esme. Despite this, it was obvious she was the dominant partner in the relationship.

  Surprisingly, now that she was standing in the middle of the room, the girl paused as if she was unsure. "You have a question?" I asked.

  "Gerit here tells me that you had two women with you when you purchased the carts," the girl stated.

  "True. I visited the yard with Kariy and Heather. Both are currently involved in other shopping trips," I replied.

  "You don't keep them home?" the girl asked.

  "No, why would he do that?" Victoria responded. "He can't be everywhere at once."

  "But that just isn't done," the boy stammered. "Women are kept in the home or on the farm."

  "And a waste of their brains that can be," I said. "So I'm guessing that you are hoping to join our little expedition."

  "Anything is better than being stuck here," the girl said with a growl. "I want to marry Gerit, but he'll never have the money for a dowry."

  I raised a hand. "I'm not going to be party to taking you from here if your father is against it."

  "My father is dead," the girl said. "My uncle is a drunk who has his own designs for me and if I had not hid when the slavers visited he might have tried to fulfill his designs this year."

  "That takes it out of your hands," Lydia said to me.

  I sighed. "I'm not feeding extra mouths for the three nights we are staying here. But if they want to join, they can show up when we set up to leave and join the expedition."

  The girl smiled. "You will? I mean we can? You aren't just going to sell us off or something?"

  "Him do that?" Jeff spat. "Girl, Ron there is an honorable man. He'll protect you. Heck, the bastard saved my life."

  "My parents were married," I protested.

  "Whatever," Jeff said. "The thing is that you are going to protect anyone you admit to our group. Even if you won't help me find someone."

  "I am not a matchmaker," I said. "That would be wrong on several levels. Anyways, as he said, you can join. I do hope you can bring your clothing and perhaps some tools.
Where we are planning on going, getting replacements for things will be difficult."

  "Try nearly impossible," Lydia said with a snort.

  The duo both nodded, then Gerit spoke. "I should get going. Piotr will be extremely upset if he knows I'm thinking of leaving. We also need to gather our belongings."

  "We don't plan to leave for two more days," I protested as the two backed out of the room and then headed down the hall. The creaking of the floor revealed the quickness of their steps as they rushed to the stairway and headed down into the inn.

  "Nineteen people with us when we leave," I said with a sigh.

  "Probably more," Lydia said. "The smith had one apprentice who seemed too interested in where we might be going."

  Hencktor nodded. "And there were a couple of young men who expressed interest in where we are going. I think we might find a few more approaching us."

  "Why?" Jeff asked. "What can we offer anyone from this town?"

  "A new start," Aine said from her post in the doorway. "Jeff, you are from America, you live with the idea that should you not like your current home, you pull up stakes and move. But in other cultures, that's not an option. They need the village or at least a proxy for it."

  "Proxy? I thought you were a humble shopgirl," I said.

  "No," Victoria interrupted. "I was the shopgirl. However, Aine is right. Back in Liverpool, if you didn't like your situation, moving almost never required having a new career in place. People just move and then look for work. But in a culture like this, that isn't possible. If you don't have something already arranged, you are risking your lives. So people seeking change might approach us and ask if they can join our group."

  "More mouths to feed," I grumbled as footsteps started echoing up the stairs.

  These footsteps moved quickly and a moment later Corwar burst into the room. He had a huge smile on his face. "We found animals."