by John Booth
“That is generous of you,” Grilt said appreciatively, “and very trusting.”
“Should I have reason not to trust you?” Daniel asked, staring into Grilt’s eyes.
“You have no reason not to trust me. I owe you my life and I take my debts seriously.”
Grilt offered his hand out to Daniel and the men gripped each other firmly.
“Then you shall have no reason to fear me… or Jalia,”
19. Making Camp
Daniel took off the bags on Ferd and grunted as he felt their weight. Though the bags were long, there did not appear to be much in them, so their heaviness was surprising. A quick feel cloth of the bag confirmed Daniel’s suspicions of what lay within. This raised an important question, why?
“I will take those bags,” Hadon said self-importantly from behind Daniel, surprising him. For all his size and weight, Hadon Mallow could be light on his feet when he wanted. Daniel was annoyed by his own lack of attention in letting him get so close. It was becoming a habit.
“You are more than welcome to them.” Daniel dropped the bags to the ground causing a metallic clink. “If you don’t mind me saying so, you are a very unusual party of traders to be traveling these lands.”
Hadon looked taken aback at Daniel comment. He looked around at his fellow travelers seeing nothing unusual about them. “Why would you think that?”
Daniel patted Ferd on the back causing his donkey to turn and bare his teeth in friendly warning. Daniel grinned and pushed the donkey’s head back, rubbing his ears as he did so.
“These three donkeys have been in my possession from the first day my brother and I took to the road. Three donkeys were all we could afford in those days, and I have built up trains of nine or ten in the years since. I left all but these in Modan because we wanted to travel light. I left them with a young woman I would trust with my life,” Daniel paused as if he had just answered Hadon’s question.
“I don’t see your point,” Hadon confessed.
“There were nine of you in this party and alive this morning, twelve of you, if you were to count your guards. You have the look of those who have become wealthy. Yet you only have thirteen donkeys with you, and that’s counting my three. What you carry with you certainly has value enough to make it worthwhile for one or two of you to risk a journey to Slarn, but hardly so many.”
“Have you looked in our bags?” The contents of those bags were supposed to be a closely guarded secret.
“I have no need. They all have the same look, and one feel of Ferd’s bag was enough to tell me what you carry. You are carrying sword blanks.”
Sword blanks were half-finished blades of swords. A craftsman would bind the blade to a hilt, grind its edges sharp and then adjust it until a finger placed on the blade just beyond the hilt would balance the sword. Jobbing blacksmiths produced blanks, having the skill for that, but not the skills to finish the blades.
Hadon smiled as though he had just won a point. “Not blanks, they are finished blades. All they need is binding to a hilt and minimal balancing. They have already been worked by craftsmen. Since you are so knowledgeable, would you hazard a guess as to just how many we carry?”
Daniel shrugged, “At a guess, I would say three hundred, perhaps a few more or less.”
Hadon was surprised at the accuracy of Daniel’s guess. “You are only slightly out in your estimate. We carry three hundred and sixty blades with us.”
“No wonder you needed to buy my donkeys at Sweetwater. I’m surprised that yours did not end up lame under the weight.”
“The dealer in Telmar assured us that ten donkeys would be enough, and we only discovered the problem at the end of our first day on the road” Hadon complained. “Why would he lie to us like that?”
“I expect that he only had ten donkeys to sell,” Daniel shrugged of shoulders.
“As you suspect, being a trader between the cities is not my profession. I would like to lease your donkeys as far as Boathaven. I will not need them beyond that point.”
“You think we are going to Boathaven with you?”
“If you want to meet up with Lady Sorn to recover your remaining possessions, you will have to. You might as well travel with us and earn coin for your trouble.”
“Tell me why you are taking these blades to Slarn, and I might consider it,” Daniel replied.
“I will answer your questions if you will answer mine.”
Daniel noted the resolution in Hadon’s eyes. His son, Tonas had wandered over and was listening with interest. Daniel shrugged and Hadon took this as a sign of agreement.
“Rumors say that you and your woman staged the revolution in Brinan and stole all the Associations gold. Are those rumors true?”
Daniel laughed. “There was no revolution in Brinan. The rightful rulers simply took their city from the brigands who had seized it. Jalia and I helped them, that much is true. As for the gold…”
Daniel paused and saw Hadon and Tonas lean forward as though they were about to learn some great secret. “I understand that the Association had so much gold that it would require five hundred donkeys to move it. Jalia has deep pockets when it comes to treasure, but they aren’t that deep.”
Both men sighed in disappointment. ‘Such is the lure of gold’, Daniel thought.
“You are correct in assuming that this shipment wouldn’t pay our way,” Hadon admitted reluctantly. “We are a group of speculators who are taking a much bigger order of blades to Slarn. It was all supposed to go by sailing boat to Boathaven, as were we. When the cargo was loaded, it turned out that the vessel could not carry all the weight. Therefore we are traveling overland with the remainder of our cargo.”
“Surely, even a city as big as Slarn has no need of so many swords?”
“Slarn is in the middle of a civil war,” Hadon said without adding further explanation. “Your woman apparently has a lot of gold on her. How did she come by it?”
“Have you looked at the coins she gave to your guards?” Hadon and Tonas both nodded. “Then you know they are from different parts of Jalon. If any of you gentlemen play cards, I’m sure that Jalia will show you how she acquires her money.”
“Are you suggesting we shouldn’t play against her?” Tonas asked, surprising his father who had not noticed that he had been listening in.
“Fade is a game as much about skill as it is about luck,” Daniel answered. “Do you regard yourself as skillful players?”
“We are good enough,” Hadon said, gesturing towards the other members of his party. “No slip of a girl is good enough to win against all of us.”
Daniel lowered his head in a bow of apparent agreement. ‘That’s what they all say.’ It was wisest to say no more, as Jalia would be furious if he ended up scaring these men.
“Is Lady Sorn your customer?” Daniel asked.
“She would like to think so,” Tonas blurted out. His father scowled at his indiscretion, but said nothing to modify it.
“Jalia has been in the forest a long time and it’s practically dark,” Tonas continued. “Aren’t you worried that she and the girl are lost?”
As that this was outside the game of questions and answers Daniel had been playing with Tonas’s father, Daniel grinned as he answered him. “In Jalia’s eyes, if she can’t find her way back, it is because we have got ourselves lost, not her. She will return when she is ready.”
“But why did they go in the first place?” Tonas continued. “Are they looking for more thieves?”
“Why don’t you ask her yourself.” Daniel pointed to the edge of the camp where Jalia and Hala had appeared. He began to walk towards them.
“We have not agreed the lease of your donkeys,” Hadon pointed out.
“I will discuss it with Jalia and let you know,” Daniel said without turning around.
Jalia’s pale face was split in two by a wide smile and gleaming teeth. The campfire’s light lit her complexion. Her blue eyes looked black as coals in the firelight as did
her long dark brown hair. She held high her catch from the forest in her left hand. Typically for Jalia, her right hand rested gently against the hilt of her throwing knife, just in case.
“It looks like we are having duck tonight,” Daniel said as he identified the birds Jalia held by their broken necks.
“I have brought mushrooms and other vegetables,” Hala said loudly, just so everyone in the camp would know what she had been doing. She had the crop cupped in the front of her skirt. Daniel saw Hala walked very carefully and drew his own conclusion as to why they had been in the forest.
“Well then, we have enough food to share with the camp,” Daniel announced as loudly as Hala. “If you men like the idea of duck stew tonight, that is.”
There were murmurs of approval from the traders. They were still subdued after the death of their three friends.
“I shall do the cooking for all,” Daniel announced and nobody objected. “Can you lend me your pots and pans? I am a bit short of them to cater for so many.” Grilt and Wilf Denger started rummaging in their bags for their pots.
Once the birds and vegetables were prepared and the stew was cooking in various pots arranged around the fire, Daniel walked over to where Hala stood stiffly by the donkeys.
“I have a lotion that will ease the pain,” he said so quietly that no one else would hear.
“Is it that obvious?” Hala asked. In the firelight, it was impossible to see her face blush red, but Daniel guessed that it had.
“No, you have masked your pain well. I doubt any of our traveling companions’ suspect what has happened.”
“I thank you then,” Hala said softly, “For your thoughtfulness and kindness.”
“I understand why you followed us with the horses. I would have done the same at your age.”
Hala gave a bitter laugh, “You could have explained that to Jalia.”
“Jalia knows it too. But she wants you to stay alive. You have to learn to do the hard things because being with us is probably the most dangerous place you could ever be. We attract trouble the way honey attracts bears.”
Daniel woke to the sounds of Jalia sneaking stealthily towards him. Several of their new traveling companions walked past Daniel during the night and he only half awoke, becoming just wakeful enough to ensure they were not coming too close. However, the slight crack of pebble sliding against pebble brought him to instant wakefulness.
The sun had already risen above the trees and Daniel was surprised that he hadn’t woken earlier. Jalia had obviously been up for some time, because she was wearing her boots and was, in fact, just pulling back her foot in preparation to giving him a good kick. As Jalia kicked, Daniel rolled. Jalia staggered, caught off balance as her foot shot into the air unimpeded by the body she had anticipated.
“And good morning to you, my love,” Daniel said with satisfaction.
“So you are two-timing your donkey already,” Jalia retorted as she narrowly avoided the embarrassment of falling on to her exquisitely shaped posterior. “Typical of a man; if you were to ask me. You have overslept. Hala is up and ready to go.”
“I take it that you have saddled your horse and packed your bags then?” Daniel asked, knowing full well that Jalia always waited for him to saddle her horse.
“Packed my bags,” Jalia said, sticking her tongue out at Daniel. “I have a groom to get my horse ready, though he is getting lazy of late.” Jalia turned away, heading back towards where her pack awaited her. She stopped and turned towards Daniel as she remembered something.
“Hadon Mallow offered me a good price to use our donkeys until we get to Boathaven and I have accepted,” Jalia told Daniel airily. “So don’t forget to load their packs. Can’t have his grace missing a few swords can we?”
“He told you about the swords?” Daniel asked in astonishment. Hadon appeared horrified when Daniel had deduced what was hidden in the bags.
Jalia faced Daniel, standing with legs apart, hands on hips and frowned at him. “All those mysterious heavy bags, did you honestly think that I wouldn’t look?”
Daniel grinned as his world slotted back into focus with a thump. There were some things could guarantee about Jalia. “Why do some of the people call Hadon ‘his grace’?”
“He was the elected leader of Fir before the Association took over.” Fir was one of the seven islands that made up the city of Telmar. The city practiced a peculiar custom called democracy before the Association came. “It’s some kind of courtesy title apparently. It didn’t make him any better a card player.”
Daniel had gone to sleep long before the others finished their card game the night before. Jalia had been playing unusually cautiously when he last looked, only slightly up on her initial pot.
“Do we still have any friends in camp?” Daniel asked and Jalia rewarded him with a broad smile.
“I didn’t win much last night,” she answered cheerily. “I even lost on some hands.”
“Are you ill?” Daniel asked half seriously. It wasn’t so much her not winning that worried him, but her cheerfulness over such an outcome was a little frightening.
“They were cagey with their bets. Apparently, some idiot told them I was good at Fade. We’ve got days on the road with them and I plan to take all their money. I just have to persuade them they have a chance of winning first.” Jalia spun on her heels and headed across the camp.
Daniel grinned. That was the Jalia he knew and loved. He wasn’t sure these experienced businessmen would be as easy to fleece as she thought, but if anybody could do it, it would be her.
When they approached the river’s edge, the party saw that the journey across was not going to be as easy as they imagined. The river was three hundred feet wide at this point and the water was flowing about as fast as Daniel had ever seen water flow. It would have been impossible to swim across.
From a distance, the broken segment of the bridge in the water looked intact and the water only a couple of inches deep. So it was, at the banks. However, the bridge sank down towards the middle of the river and had cracked in two at its center. It would be necessary to wade across.
“The donkeys can’t swim with their packs on and they’ll drown if they get swept off the roadway wearing them,” Daniel explained to Hadon and Tonas who were looking at the fast moving water in alarm. “We need to walk the bags across. Then we bring the donkeys and the horses.”
“That will take all day,” Hadon complained.
“I can’t see any other choice,” Grilt said. Grilt had walked up as Daniel was talking. “The other side looks like another good place for an ambush. It would be best if Tel and I went ahead and scouted around while you bring over the goods.”
That sounded like an excellent plan to Daniel, but Hadon was having none of it. “Two fewer hands will mean somebody has to do four crossings. I want you to carrying the bags with the rest of us. There aren’t enough travelers on this road to warrant two groups of robbers.”
Grilt gave Daniel a shake of his head which Daniel acknowledged. Hadon made a good point, but it was only a debating point. Grilt’s plan would have given them protection against the unexpected.
“You can forget it, Daniel,” Jalia said as soon as he mentioned the possibility of her carrying one of the bags of swords. “They aren’t my property.”
“You offered my donkeys to them quickly enough.”
“And you came with that, as the muscle. I shall supervise your efforts.”
Daniel and Grilt decided to ‘test the water’ by being the first to cross. The donkeys were happy to be unloaded barely before they had left camp, and wandered around looking for succulent grasses to nibble. Daniel and Grilt each carried one of the heavy packs as they made their way onto the submerged surface of the bridge.
Daniel was not surprised that the water was icy cold. It would have been just too helpful for it to have been warm. At first, the water came up to their ankles and the going was easy. As they approached the center of the river, the water rushed past at th
e height of their groins. Hadon had been insistent that they keep the bags out of the water, but that proved impossible. Daniel let his bag drop into the flow when the ache in his arms became unbearable.
Grilt grinned anddid the same. “I swear that I just heard a man’s scream from the shore,” he said.
“Can you see how deep it gets?” Daniel asked. The water had been clear when it was less than a foot deep, but out in the centre it was an opaque green and nothing was visible. He put a foot forward and staggered backwards as it encountered nothing but water below.
“Perhaps it is shallower at the upstream edge?” Grilt suggested.
“It’s worth a try,” Daniel agreed and they started staggering upstream against the force of the water.
Grilt’s guess turned out to be a good one. The water stayed at groin level as they progressed across on the forward edge of the roadway.
“That is such a relief,” Daniel said as they collapsed on the far bank. They let the sun warm them before they got up and waved the other men to come forward and across the river.
There were twenty six packs and only ten men to carry them, Jalia and Hala refusing to take part. Getting back across the river was easier without the packs, but still just as cold. It was several hours before Daniel strung the thirteen donkeys in a train with Ferd in the lead, and walked them across the river.
Without Ferd’s absolute trust in Daniel, there would have been a catastrophe on the way across. One of the donkeys in the middle of train stumbled and Ferd’s honking calls to the other donkeys kept them braced while the fallen donkey managed to find his feet.
Jalia walked across the river last with their horses in tow behind her. Hala sat nervously atop Blaze in the middle and worried that if Blaze slipped they would be washed away. The water came higher on Jalia’s smaller frame and she cursed fluently as it reached her money belt and soaked into it. Waterlogged leather is twice as heavy as when dry. Her money belt was packed with individual pieces of gold in little pockets, and even though the belt was made of the finest calf skin, those pockets were soon carrying a lot of water.