Journey Across Jord

by Allan Joyal

  Al had managed to get the cart turned around. We started moving back towards the town square. The streets still seemed eerily deserted as we backtracked through the town toward the road.

  "I think I realized something was wrong when I noticed the town had no walls," I said. "That generally only happens if the town doesn't expect attacks."

  "But this is a prosperous town," Al pointed out. "The water supply isn't great, but otherwise the valley appears to be perfect for farming. Add that it's on a trade road and I could see some baron wanting the land."

  "Exactly, and the fact that it hasn't suggests ..." I said, allowing my answer to trail off.

  Jeff gasped. "You think they are allied with slavers and such?"

  "Keep your voice down before you speak thoughts like that," I hissed. "We don't know how the villagers will react."

  "But this is a major trade route," Jeff protested.

  "No, this is the alternate route. The main route would have been to go direct to Baton Seaport. And remember, Purahomp has been seeing merchant visits decline, which suggests that the route is not as profitable as it should be," I pointed out.

  "Because of ... ?" Jeff asked as we entered the courtyard. There were a couple of men standing in front of a door that appeared to lead to a pub. They sneered at us as we turned the cart to head towards the road.

  Al tried to coax a bit more speed from the mule pulling the cart. I stayed by the rear of the cart and watched for evidence of anyone following us. The walk through the town was tense. No children played in the street. The situation had grown almost intolerable when a girl of about twelve years ran up. She had a bundle of sticks in her hand.

  "Jeff, take the branches and put them in the cart," I said as the girl approached. "Al, is the road clear?"

  The girl thrust the branches into Jeff's arms and then took off running. She kept moving forward, passing Al on the road before cutting to the right and disappearing into the fields.

  There was a moment of silence and then Al spoke. "Well, other than the girl, yes, the road is clear."

  "See if the mule will trot," I said. "We need to shake the dust of this town from our boots."

  "Want me to run ahead and tell the others to break camp?" Jeff asked.

  "No," I said. "The animals need some rest. We will have to plan to leave at dawn though. And we'll keep watch all night."

  "Damn," Al moaned. "I was going to propose to Aine tonight."

  "You propose to Aine every night," Jeff complained.

  "Sure," Al said. "Because she's so loving when she says yes."

  Al and I laughed as we hurried down the road to the grove Lenoir had found. As we walked, we kept an eye on the road behind us, watching for anyone following us.

  Chapter 32: Onward To Saraloncto

  The camp proved to be nearly two miles past the town. Al and I were starting to question if we were heading the correct direction when Lenoir emerged from behind a thick hedge.

  "Turn here," she told us.

  We followed her lead through a narrow opening in the hedge. Tree branches overhung the path. At one point, the mule balked at a moving branch. Jeff and I held the branch still while Al coaxed the frightened beast to move forward. We traveled about fifty yards through the passage before it opened up into a small circular meadow.

  The ground was mostly dirt, although a few tufts of grass could be seen. The flock of sheep was arrayed in one section of the circle. The two puppies watched them and kept them from moving towards the entrance.

  Al brought the cart all the way in and then lead the mule in a tight circle to turn the cart around. Kariy and Steve both walked up to me as I watched the rest of the group take a look at our cargo.

  "What did we get?" Steve asked.

  "Some hay and oats, as well as some travel food. We should definitely check the barrels of travel food carefully. The merchant we were dealing with wasn't very nice," I stated.

  Steve nodded. "Lenoir mentioned that she saw a few of the slaves being abused. She actually passed up a couple of closer camps because she wasn't confident we would be safe."

  "Good plan," I said. "We still need to have guards all night. I also think we should be moving at first light. I know it's early, but I'd rather leave early unnecessarily than have that merchant decide to see if we'd make good slaves. On that note, how is the girl?"

  "She'll recover," Kariy said. "Lydia is with her, but you should probably talk to her."

  I nodded. Kariy gently touched my arm. "Be gentle, she's been hurt. I'll go see what we got in the barrels. Perhaps some of it can be in tonight's stew."

  Kariy walked over to the cart. I looked around and found Lydia and Victoria kneeling next to a huddled figure. With a loud whistle to let them know I was coming, I walked over to join my friends. They started to comfort the figure.

  "Don't worry," I heard Lydia say. "We promise you won't hear anything bad."

  "But I'm alone," the girl whimpered.

  "With us?" I said mildly sarcastically. "I know sometimes I walk alone, but this group is always looking to talk."

  "You are our leader," Victoria replied acidly. "Of course we want to talk to you. You decide where we go and what we do."

  "I do?" I asked. "I always thought that Heather made the important decisions."

  Lydia giggled. "Mary, Ron here is being silly. He really does lead us though, and he is right, you are not alone."

  "But, I'm not from this place," Mary whimpered.

  "If Lydia and Victoria havsn't already told you, most of us aren't either. I was on the Daytona elevator with Lydia," I said.

  "And I was on the Liverpool lift," Victoria interrupted. "Trust an American to use the wrong name for something so simple."

  Mary giggled but then put her arms around her knees. "I was on the New York elevator. I was going to visit my mother at her work. But now she'll never know what happened to me."

  I sighed. "We all are suffering through that," I said. "Steve, Lydia and I all worked for the same company along with two others who were on the Daytona elevator. My boss lost his entire sales team as well as his son when the magic spell brought us here."

  "Why can't it send us back home?" Mary wailed.

  "Because it was an uncontrolled burst of magic that occurred when a dragon killed a wizard who was in the middle of casting some kind of summoning spell," Lydia said. "Or at least that's what we were told. Now, Ron paid a princely sum to free you. Do you at least want to try?"

  "Want?" Mary said. "I want a latte. I want to see my mother. I want to close my eyes, open them and see the New York skyline."

  "Hard to do from inside New York," I murmured.

  "You know what I mean!" Mary said, lifting her head and glaring at me. "I want my home, but I can't have that, so I must try I guess. At least you treat me better than the slavers or that merchant did."

  "Mary, our goal is to make a new home," I said. "It will include a place for everyone."

  Mary leaned back and sat up straighter. I had to hold in a gasp. Early I had only noticed the fact that she was wearing a sports bra. Now that she was sitting directly in front of me I realized that the bra was not just for show. Mary noticed my gaze and shook her head.

  "You don't seem to have any spare tops for me. I actually wasn't wearing this when we appeared here, but it was in my purse. I managed to keep it when the slavers grabbed me. It helped a lot when I was working in the fields," she said bitterly.

  "I promise you that no one will touch you unless you wish it," I said firmly. "We have several unattached ladies with the group at the moment."

  Mary looked at me in surprise. "But didn't you pay for me?" she asked.

  "That was just to get you away from the overseer," I said. "The only expectation I have for you is that you will be happy and help us as we travel."

  Mary stood up and threw her arms around me. "I can do that!" she said enthusiastically.

  "Another conquest?" Heather said from behind me. "Ron, one of these days we'll fix y
our habit of rescuing every damsel in distress."

  "Not today," I said. "And we should see about a camp guard schedule."

  "Already done," Heather said. "Food first, and then we are on the last shift before dawn. Everyone figures you'll probably start packing up the camp."

  "Sorry," I said as Mary let me go. "So dinner?"

  "Almost done," Heather said. "Kariy did throw out the contents of one of the barrels you brought from the town. She said it was rancid. The barrel is in good shape though. She's going to clean it before she sleeps tonight."

  "Hopefully not where we have to smell it," I observed. "Let's go see about the food."

  We wandered over by the campfire. Kariy smiled at us as we approached. Heather was holding my arm so I slowly scanned the campsite.

  Shaylin, Jennifer, Gertrilla, Yveney and Corwar were sitting together. I could see that they were using sticks to draw something in a small area of unmelted snow. From the way Shaylin was leading the discussion, I guessed it was a reading lesson.

  Gorm, Gerit, Hencktor, Amalya, and surprisingly Lenoir were sitting together and talking. Jeff came over to join them and the group happily allowed him to join in. The young American seemed a bit uncomfortable talking with the natives of Jord, but they welcomed him in.

  Steve and Al were chatting with Natalie and Esme. They were going over some of the packages we kept on the sled.

  "Oh, I was going to ask. Why did you ask for some of the cut branches? Jeff pointed them out and said you had asked for them," Heather asked.

  "It's unlikely we can make it work, but I'm thinking we can try planting them. Sometimes a cutting can be coaxed into growing again, and vines are a plant that usually is willing to grow. If it works, we'll have grapevines and that would offer another source of fruit and perhaps alcohol," I replied.

  "Alcohol?" Heather gasped. "Are you suggesting that we drink?"

  "Remember we don't have all the chemicals used to purify water. Drinking alcoholic beverages was common in human history partly because the process of fermentation tends to kill off any bacteria or parasites. It's actually safer than the water we can find."

  Heather paused for a moment. "I forgot about that," she said. "I remember my parents talked quite a bit about how they met while working for the Peace Corps and how the village they worked in had water you couldn't drink safely."

  "Yes," I said. "I expect we will be able to do some things to keep the water clean, but it might not happen immediately."

  "I see that Mary appears to be recovering," Heather said.

  "Mary and Lenoir," I said. "Both of those ladies have had some traumatic experiences. Jeff also needs to recover, I had hoped having him with me in town would help, but statements from the merchant in Rockspire didn't help."

  "At least he's sitting with the others," Heather said.

  "He clearly feels alone," I said. "Our original group bonded thanks to how things worked out the first few nights. That includes Hencktor and Kariy. Aine and the kids bonded with us when we had those nights in the tent. Verval and Corwar took longer, but Corwar clearly adores Shay and Geri and Verval fell into Victoria and Jennifer's web."

  "Mostly Jennifer's," Heather said. "But he's also a decent man. I feel sorry for his former fiancée. What little Verval has been willing to say about his home village suggests that she's going to have a miserable life."

  "We can try to bring them into the group in the future. I don't want to spend extra time here," I said.

  "Well, we have extra time tonight," Heather said with a giggle as she dragged me over to a dark area of the clearing. My blond lover made it clear she wanted to enjoy time private time before we returned to worrying about the journey.

  The rest of the night was pleasant. Kariy had come up with a surprisingly hearty stew. We also had some biscuits from one of the barrels delivered by the merchant. Kariy said that they were low quality and would have to be tossed in days if we did not eat them.

  After that we rested. I had agreed to a guard schedule with Steve that had Heather and me on the final dawn watch so my lover and I returned to our quiet spot to sleep in each other's arms.

  We were awaked by Gorm. As he pulled me to my feet he whispered in my ear. "I snuck out to the road. There were torches on the road earlier. They did not advance this far, but it looks like the merchant was looking for us. I also heard a rider leaving, heading towards Purahomp."

  "Damn," I said. "Get some sleep. I'll get the carts set up so we can hook up the horses and go."

  Gorm shook his head. "I'll help. Lenoir is seeing if she can get close enough to Rockspire to hear if they've found us."

  "She's taking a huge risk," I said. "I wish she hadn't done that."

  Gorm nodded. "I never thought she was like that. She always seemed unwilling to be close to others."

  "We have that effect," Heather said as she sat up. My lover had removed her blouse to sleep. She displayed no shyness as she found the blouse and pulled it over her head.

  Gorm looked at me and smiled. "Your wife is beautiful."

  "She is special," I said. "Meanwhile, let's get the carts ready. We're going to be waking everyone shortly.

  Gorm and I started working to pull the carts into line near the passage through the hedge. We had the two carts in position and were working on the sled when Lenoir ran up.

  She frantically waved to both of us. "They are organizing a bunch of men in town. It looked like they were armed with clubs and nets."

  "Slaver party," I said. "Did it look like they knew where we are?"

  "They know which direction we went, but I don't think they know exactly where we are. I guess there are a couple caves that I didn't see they think we might be hiding in," Lenoir said. "At least I heard a comment about caves."

  "Could also be our dwarven vests," I pointed out. "Heather, Lenoir, wake everyone, but do it quietly. We need to be on the road in five."

  "Five what?" Gorm said as I grabbed the sled and heaved it into position without his help. The contents made a loud banging sound as I set the sled down.

  I raced over to the mules and selected one. I was starting to lead it to the first cart when Gertrilla ran up. "The sheep are getting panicky! What's up?" she asked.

  "Rockspire is about to send a group of men to try to capture us," I said. "We need to go, get the flock ready. But this time stay next to us, at least for a while. If you get too far ahead, there might be problems."

  Steve ran up. "Heather just told me," he said. "I'll get with Henck, Aine and Lydia. We'll play rearguard."

  I got the mule in position in front of the cart and then struggled to hook him into the harness. I was still trying to secure it when Amalya ran up. "I've got it," she said. "Get the spear and check the road."

  The other cart already had a mule standing in the harness, and I could see Gerit stepping away from the sled as a horse stood in front of it. Shaylin ran over and handed me the spear so I crept to the edge of the hedge and looked towards Rockspire.

  Our camp was about two miles away from the town, but I could still see a large circle of light forming. As I watched, the circle started to unwind, slowly becoming a snake headed in our direction.

  "Damn, they are on their way," I called out. "Let's go."

  Yveney walked up to me. She turned to face the passage and held her shepherd's crook parallel to the ground. I wondered about that. The flock came up and turned to their left as they got close to her, stepping out onto the road. Many of them seemed barely awake but I could see the puppies playfully nipping at any that tried to stop.

  As soon as the flock passed, there was a rush of people. Gertrilla, Shaylin, Corwar and Jennifer quickly joined Yveney in guiding the flock. Al ran over to me carrying one of the axes we kept.

  "The carts are moving," he said. "You should get moving so we can scout the road. There might be an ambush ahead."

  "I doubt it, but I'll do that," I said as I took one last look back. The snake of light had turned away from the road. It was hard
to see, but it looked like it was following the cliff face as it headed towards us.

  "They know they are visible from the road," Al commented. "They must think they can stay hidden if they follow the cliff."

  "Hopefully they are on foot, and the route will be slower than the road," I said as the first cart emerged from the passage. Amalya was next to the mule and coaxing it to move faster. I held my right arm out. Al pressed his forearm against mine and then I darted off to stay ahead of the cart as we started down the road.

  The sun had not appeared on the horizon when we started moving, although there was a glow to the east that suggested that dawn was imminent. We traveled directly towards this glow, following a road we could barely make out. Victoria kept me informed about sightings of the snake of light behind us.

  The snake had paused several times and in two cases formed a giant circle before closing in. It kept heading east, following us through the dawn. Only when the sun was completely visible in the eastern sky could Aine confirm that the group had turned back. By that time they were more than three miles behind us, and all that could be seen was a black speak against the horizon, but it faded away as we crossed over a small rise and left the valley.

  None of us felt safe. Aine and Lydia did unstring the crossbows that they had been carrying, but both kept the weapons in their hands as Kariy finally began bringing bowls of cold stew to each of us. We ate in rotation while we walked, so that armed people were constantly patrolling.

  As the day progressed, I ended up walking next to each of the newer members. Gerit and Amalya had nothing but happy things to say. Amalya had been the most vocal of the duo during her time walking with me.

  "I can't believe this," she said enthusiastically.

  "That we are running away from potential slavers?" I asked.

  "No," Amalya said, "that you and the others have been so welcoming. Gerit and I weren't sure what might happen, only that we needed to leave Purahomp."

  "I'm surprised you wanted to leave your home," I replied.

  "We had to," Amalya said. "My uncle was never going to allow me to marry Gerit. And Gerit was not receiving proper credit for his work. After all, the nice cart you purchased was all Gerit's work."