The City that Time forgot

by Patrick McClafferty

  “Ahhh. Good.” Lyndra nodded sagely. “Can we expect many more of those… earthquakes?”

  Gareth glanced at the furiously blushing Chiu. “I certainly hope so.” Lyndra sighed. “I have the watch. Thank you.” He glanced up at the smudge of city on the darkening horizon. “You and Chiu have the best eyes aboard. I’ll need the two of you up front as we pass Blajurgh.”

  Lyndra’s eyes widened. “You’re not planning on stopping?”

  “Nope.” He replied flatly. “We can make much better time to Phila running with both the river and the wind than we could by horse or camel.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing.” Lyndra said in a dubious tone.

  “I do too.”

  Chapter 2

  THE SPRAY

  Both Chiu and Lyndra had identical looks of radiant bliss on their faces, probably from the thought of upcoming hot baths, as the four entered the courtyard of the Caravanserai of the Seven Sisters. Like the establishment in Xoln, the courtyard of the Seven Sisters was a massive enclosure, draped with flowering vines, bright flowers in air that was filled with the songs of birds and the sweet smell of jasmine. Water murmured in a soothing voice from an ornate alabaster fountain. A familiar young porter came out of the stables that lined one side to assist them. No more than thirteen, he wore a loosely wrapped yellow turban around his head, and he approached Gareth with a smile of recognition on his young face. “It is most good to see you again my Lord.” He said, bowing slightly. “But where are your camels?”

  Gareth smiled in return. “We came by boat, Ahmed, all the way from the Lake of Shadows, and beyond.”

  The boy’s eyes opened very wide. “All die who travel the Lake of Shadows.” The boy swallowed.

  Gareth touched the boy’s shoulder. “It is indeed a dangerous place, but we are here, as you can see.”

  “Then you will be traveling with the caravan of Baasim Fadel that leaves in two days?” Ahmed sounded envious.

  “If they have room… yes.” He handed the boy a copper coin. “Is your father here today?”

  The boy bowed graciously as he accepted the coin. “Thank you, my Lord. My father is inside.”

  “Thank you, Ahmed.” Gareth turned for the inn. He had spent three tours with the marines in the Middle East but this, he chuckled to himself, was like stepping back into The Arabian Nights, and Ahmed could easily have been mistaken for young Ali Baba. There was certainly magic enough in the air around here.

  “Salaam alaykum my friend.” Gareth smiled at the startled man behind the counter. “Peace be upon you.”

  Munsif Hafeez was a thin olive skinned man with dark eyes and graying curly hair, who spoke very softly and just happened to be Ahmed’s father. His eyes sparkled and he gave Gareth a low bow. “Wa 'alaykum salaam. And also, with you.” Munsif replied.

  “Your son grows in size and in wisdom every time I see him.” Gareth commented, and the innkeeper glowed with pleasure. “And how are your daughters?”

  The innkeeper rolled his eyes dramatically. “They grow in beauty and grace daily, as well as their minds. They drive their poor father to distraction.”

  “You must be very proud.”

  Munsif gave him a level serious look. “I am the richest man in the world.”

  Gareth frowned. “You have not mentioned you wife. She must be a great lady also.”

  The innkeeper’s face lit. “I will be sure to mention that to Naqiyya, Shareefa, Raihaana, Hadiyya, and Jameela.”

  Gareth blinked. “Five wives?” He asked in shock, and then shook his head. “Do you have three rooms?”

  Munsif’s smile was wan. “We do. Will you be departing with the caravan?”

  “If we can.” Gareth replied with a grimace. “We still need camels and places in the caravan.”

  The innkeeper looked thoughtful. “Well… it might be arranged, but it will be costly to get camels this quickly.”

  Gareth put his hand in his pocket and withdrew a fat golden coin, one of several he had acquired from a potential assassin on the cold journey to Zuebrihn. He set it on the scarred counter before the innkeeper, and watched the color slowly drain from Munsif’s face.

  The stunned man reached out a single finger and touched the coin reverently. “Is this real?” He asked, staring at the strange aspect etched on the face of the coin.

  “It is.”

  “But… I could buy a new inn with this… a palace.”

  Gareth touched the man’s hand. “Buy a good education for your children. I can already see that you are a good father.”

  Munsif nodded, slowly picking up the coin and giving the face etched there a long look. “Whose face is on this coin?”

  “Some foreign king or other.” Gareth returned simply. “The gold still spends.”

  Munsif nodded sagely. “It does at that, my friend. You are exceedingly lucky in your travels.”

  Gareth rolled his eyes. “I had some help along the way. You might have heard of Athena?”

  “I have indeed heard of that one. You worship her?” The question was intense.

  “I serve her. There is a difference. She did a service for me and I owe her my life. I repay my debts.”

  “It must be a great thing you are doing, then.” Munsif smiled as he pocketed the coin.

  “I have to save the lives of everyone on the world.” Gareth replied; his face expressionless. “Including yours my friend.”

  The innkeeper chuckled as he reached beneath the counter for the keys, and stopped as he caught the expression on Gareth’s face. “You’re serious!”

  “As death.” Gareth said in a low voice. “Our rooms?”

  Munsif set three keys on the counter with a shaking hand. “Dinner is an hour after sundown.”

  Gareth picked up the keys and his rucksack and slung it over his shoulder. “Thank you Munsif.”

  Munsif Hafeez stood behind the bar for a long time, staring at the retreating back of his guest.

  ~~~

  Gareth snapped the reins. “Hut, hut, hut.” The camel grunted once and began to move, accelerating somewhat to catch up with the rear of the caravan which was, unsurprisingly, their assigned position. Overcast and cold, with the sun not yet up, the morning air bore that peculiar dusty scent of unshed snow. Lyndra, and Wokeg rode beside him, on animals that were every bit as recalcitrant as his. Gareth wrinkled his nose. The smell at the rear of the caravan could sometimes be overpowering, and he missed sitting at the tiller of the Athena.

  While he and Chiu had the ability to speak mind to mind, he had worked out an easily remembered series of hand signals, thanks to his time in the marines, to communicate with his other two companions. Simple things like: go, take cover, come closer, take position right or left and the most important communique of all, attack imminent from (direction). Now they rode at a relaxed gait, Chiu watching their backtrail from above as she circled lazily, her comings and goings hidden by the dust of the camels.

  There are two pairs of Ups flanking the column. Her voice didn’t sound particularly concerned. Gareth glanced to his right, noting the two creatures that ran there, sliding in and out of cover. Three legged pack creatures, Ups could travel in groups of up to a hundred. Their teeth were razor sharp, but their greatest weapon was their single front leg. An Ups would rear up on its two hind legs and strike with the single front hoof. The blow would kill a man, crushing his ribs or his skull. Bumping along in his saddle, Gareth found the sight of the Ups a discouraging relief from the depressing sights in the Shattered Plains. While he knew that Eldenworld was a world filled with the ruins of ancient civilizations, in no place was it brought to light as well as the Shattered Plains. For league after league, piles and mountains of ruins sat scattered one on the other, ruin piled on ruin until they looked like the humped backs of buried giants. Some of those mountains ran red when it rained, with a thick cloying blood-like sludge that came from rusting beams and girders. The only growth was twisted clumps of thorny yellow/green bushes that grew w
ith sporadic abandon throughout the debris. The clinging ochre dust that blew in the endless wind was the only constant. Above his head the hawk suddenly swooped. You’d better get ready. There are two dozen Ups coming at you from the ruins.

  Perfect! Gareth replied sourly. You’d better get down here. We’ll need your crossbow.

  Coming! The red-shouldered hawk dove into a masking cloud of dust, and suddenly Chiu was sitting in her own saddle, fumbling for her crossbow. Gareth shot her a grin as he made several sharp gestures in the air. From either side Lyndra and Wokeg moved closer. As Gareth cranked back the loading arm on his crossbow he wished, not for the first time, that he could simply use the Colt. Raising the weapon, he fired a bolt in one smooth motion, striking the Alpha Male in the throat. The creature stumbled and fell as the Ups beside it snapped at a shaft that had cut a long furrow in its single forward shoulder. With a snarl and gleaming fangs, it leapt forward. Gareth heard Chiu swear, when the charging Ups stumbled, a feathered shaft protruding from its side. Lyndra was stringing her second arrow when a massive arm shot out, catching another attacking creature by the throat. Gareth heard the Ups’ thin squeal of pain, and then the crunch of crushing bones. Wokeg casually tossed the body back to the rest of the pack, who were busy tearing apart the body of the former leader. Gareth swiveled in his saddle to face forward and made a hand sign above his head meaning; we should go now. The camels bounced as they all hurried to catch the rapidly departing caravan.

  Raiders attacked three days later, in the dead of night, with the rumble of thunder in the distance. Out of sight of the rest of the caravan, Gareth didn’t hesitate to use the Colt this time, and with the assistance of Chiu on the crossbow, they were able to take out ten of the fifty raiders before they were even aware of what was happening. After that Gareth holstered his pistol and sat back to watch. With both Chiu and Lyndra in their wolf forms, and Wokeg in his ogre shape, the remaining thirty raiders suddenly decided that attacking this particular caravan wasn’t such a good idea. Gareth could hear the moans of their wounded as their companions disappeared back into the night.

  The next day the light snow in the morning changed to a chill soaking rain by noon and back to freezing rain by nightfall. At the end of a long day on the trail, the only ones who seemed to be comfortable in the entire caravan were the odd foursome at the very end who had managed, somehow, to erect a low cover that kept the rain from their fire, and provided them with some shelter. Where they’d gotten dry wood was anyone’s guess.

  Gareth and company realized they were arriving at the city of Xoln from the smell of dead fish and overfull chamber pots that finally overwhelmed the stench of camels. They’d stayed at the Lion of the Plains before, and Gareth thought it was a decent enough inn, although not on par with the Seven Sisters in Phila. Located at some distance from the bustling noisy pier, and at the beginning of the Caravan Route, the major redeeming grace was the fact that the inn had hot baths. High and vaulted ceilings graced the main room, and the ever-present fire crackling in the stone hearth filled one entire wall. Heavy slotted shutters in thick tawny colored walls were closed to block the chill winds that blew down from the north in the winter, and as a result, reduced the light in the room to a ruddy twilight glow. Substantial tables were scattered about the room and showed many years of harsh use, but they were clean and the oil lamps on each sparkled in the firelight. Dropping his rucksack at his feet, he arranged for rooms while Chiu sold the camels. In this part of the world selling camels was usually considered men’s work but sometimes, Chiu explained, a pretty smiling girl could do even better.

  Gareth gave a small guilty start as he glanced down at the pile of bones on his plate. The lamb chops had been excellent, and he hadn’t realized that he’d been so hungry. Leaning back and sipping his glass of sweet red local wine, he noticed that the piles of bare bones on the other plates were as large as his, while the pile on Wokeg’s plate was simply… ludicrous.

  “So, what now?” Chiu murmured, taking a small drink of her hot tea.

  Gareth stared into the fire crackling in the hearth. “Since we left here, we’ve been on the road for better than eight months. With a little luck, Captain Evvos will be waiting in port. The innkeeper didn’t have any messages waiting for us.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” She leaned closer. “What are YOU going to do?”

  Gareth set his wine glass down, and pulled out his pipe, making a process of filling and lighting it. Soon a curl of fragrant blue smoke was heading toward the ceiling. “I’d like to tell you that I’m going to do this or that, but I don’t know. After the fiasco with the Eye, I’m about ready to ask Athena to send me back to my own time. I don’t know where to go, and neither do you. Even if I knew where to go, how the bloody hell am I supposed to blow up the moon?” He shook his head. “Give me a break.”

  “But, I thought that we were a team. I thought that we were going to be… married. As my father said when we saw him last, it’s expected of a familiar and her partner.”

  Gareth shut his eyes. “Find someone normal. Get married and have a long and fruitful life. Forget me.” His voice was bitter.

  Chiu’s sapphire eyes had turned hard. “Oh waaaaaa!” Chiu mimicked one of Gareth’s favorite expressions in a scathing voice. “For the first thing I love you and I am not going to give you up that easily. The only way I would willingly leave you is if you told me, to my face, that you didn’t love me.” Gareth opened his mouth, but the words stuck in his throat, and he knew that he couldn’t lie to her face. He said nothing. “If I did choose to leave you,” She said more softly. “what sort of a future would I have, knowing that my children, or their children would all die in just a few short years?”

  “Scheiße!” Gareth cursed under his breath. “I can’t do it again.” He looked up at her. “I’ll go this far; I won’t say no, but I won’t say yes. I need time to think about it.”

  Chiu sighed. “That’s fair enough, but I’ll tell you this; if you leave, I’m coming with you, wherever you go.” Gareth chuckled, picturing Chiu in a bikini walking in the sand at Venice Beach. Still chuckling, he opened the door to his mind and let Chiu see what he saw in his imagination. He heard her gasp. What is this place? She gasped in his mind. And what is this outfit you picture me almost in. I might as well be naked!

  The place is called Venice Beach, near where I lived, and all the beautiful people go there to swim. You have on a swimming suit called a bikini.

  They actually swim in these?

  Gareth laughed. Not really. The most attractive women walk around in these and let the young men ogle. If you were to go there, in a bikini, the vain starlets would learn what true beauty is all about.

  In his mind Chiu reached down and touched the small tie on the string bikini. Tell me. Would you ogle me if I were to wear one of these?

  At the very least. Gareth returned, blushing.

  Gareth sat up straighter in his seat as the carriage clattered down the cobblestone street toward the wharf. The sun stood just over the eastern horizon, and the puddles alongside the road were skimmed with glistening ice. Shop owners were just opening their doors, but already the scents of pies and breads mingled with the standard harbor smells. “That’s the Spray!” He shouted in an excited voice. “I’d know the set of her rigging anywhere.”

  Chiu squinted her eyes and frowned. “You should tell the coachman to hurry. It looks as though they’re making ready to sail.”

  Gareth touched the coachman’s back, and as he turned whispered a few words to him. The man popped his whip and the horse broke into a canter. Turning back, Gareth noticed men in the Spray’s rigging, loosening the sails.

  Captain Duras Evvos was facing away from the boarding ramp as they arrived, his angry voice carrying across the docks like oil sliding across the surface of a pond. The first mate, a heavyset man with a scar running down his left cheek made to stop them from boarding, but hesitated, his eyes going wide. Gareth put his finger to his lips. The first
mate’s face split into a wide grin, a truly horrible sight, as he turned to the captain.

  “Capin’?” He said, touching Captain Evvos on the shoulder. “There be some people here wantin’ to talk to ye.” The shouting captain ignored him. “It’s the owner of the Spray, Sir.”

  That got the captain’s attention, and Evvos spun, his eyes wide. “Gareth!” He shouted in the man’s ear as he gave Gareth a rib-cracking bear hug. “And Miss Chiu, and Miss Lyndra too. I thought ye were all dead.” He shot Wokeg, in his human shape, a frown.

  “The stories were greatly exaggerated. We are somewhat harder to kill than that.”

  Evvos turned and began barking rapid-fire orders. “Where are your things?” He asked, turning back to Gareth.

  Gareth pointed to the small pile of backpacks and weapons. “That’s it. We sold our camels, camping gear, and boat.” He gave Evvos a slow wink. “Speaking of sales, how are things going?”

  Evvos rolled his eyes. “You are a rich man, Mister Gareth. There is a bag of gold in the owner’s cabin for spending money. The rest, several hundredweight, are in a bank in Puasheehchester.”

  Gareth frowned. “You were supposed to have a steamship by now to replace the Spray.”

  Evvos gave a deep chuckle. “The Senator was having some trouble getting the government to cough up the seed money for development. The boat was half done.”

  “The government?” Gareth growled. “I gave him money specifically for the new steamship.”

  Evvos’ grin widened. “He wouldn’t take it. Said the government owed you.”

  Gareth turned and glared at Chiu. “Your father is a stubborn man!”

  “Remind you of someone?” She replied sweetly.

  Gareth’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Yeah… his daughter.”

  Evvos coughed politely. “If you will take yer things below, we’ll shove off. We have a full load for Oseothan.” He looked at the four companions, and frowned. “How do you want to arrange things, below decks?”