by T J Trapp
He had no idea where he was, or what world he was on. He didn’t understand this place where people and beasts attacked with little provocation and fought viciously to the death. The gore of the headless nomad leader flashed through his mind, unbidden. Alec was aware that even more fundamental than sorting out his feelings for Erin and Sarah, he needed to figure out how to survive in this world.
Erin broke into his reverie. “What is our next step?” she asked.
“Take you home,” Alec answered, tersely. “How do we get to your home?”
“My home is ten days towards morning,” said Erin. “Also, I have a confession.”
“What is that?” he asked.
“When I recovered my rings from the Gryg camp, I took enough coins to pay for my father’s goods, plus some. We have coins if we need them.” Erin pulled out the bundle of coins she had taken and showed them to Alec.
She unwrapped the two rings. “These are very special,” she said. “They have been in my family for five hundred years. This ring is mine,” she said, and she put it on her finger.
Alec asked, “May I look at it?”
Erin handed him the second ring. “They are alike,” she said.
Alec looked at the ring and then focused, collecting a small amount of dark energy, and pushed it towards the ring. Suddenly the ring sparked, and he almost dropped it. Then he tried to pull dark energy through the ring. He slipped the ring on his finger; it fit perfectly. Interesting, he thought. The rings were somehow connected to the dark energy that was all around him.
He could suddenly sense Erin looking at him in shock. I heard your thought, she thought to him.
Alec looked at her and thought, I can hear you also.
Erin stood wide-eyed, still staring at him. “Mother said my grandmother and grandfather could sense each other’s thoughts. Mother could never learn how to do it. Grandmother died young, before she had a chance to finish teaching Mother. I never knew her. Mother said Grandmother could do many more things with her ring – my ring – than Mother could ever do with hers. How did you make the ring do it?”
Alec looked at the ring for a long time. “I think the ring is a very sophisticated version of a medallion. Except it uses negative dark energy instead of positive dark energy. Negative dark energy is like antimatter. The universe has a balance of the two kinds of dark energy.” Alec sensed the frustration in Erin’s mind. “Oh, sorry. The details don’t matter. You should be able to use your ring like I use my medallion.”
“How do you make your medallion work?”
“I use a mental focus. I focus my mind. Try it.”
Erin tried to focus, and nothing happened. Alec could sense her frustration.
Let me guide you, he thought.
Alec focused and pulled energy from the ring through Erin.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “The world is so much brighter! I can sense you and your feelings. I can feel a flock of bounders over the hill. I can even sense the ground creatures and prairie skarns looking at us.”
Alec released his focus. Try to do it without me, he thought.
Erin laughed. “Now that I know what to do, it is easy. Almost like it is natural, and I should have always been able to do this. This sense of the world is how my mother described my grandmother’s vision.”
Alec took the ring off to give it back to Erin. She shook her head and pushed it back to him.
“Please wear it because I think we may need to communicate before we finish this journey. The only other person I ever allowed to wear this ring was Leonder.” She looked at Alec shyly. “But I could never sense his thoughts, nor he mine, even though we tried many times. You are much like him in many ways, and he would want you to wear it.”
Alec looked at the ring, and then put it back on his finger. Immediately he had a sense of Erin’s presence – a comforting feeling.
✽✽✽
Erin led Alec back to the battle site to see if there was anything worth taking. The area was starting to smell. Besides the dead nomads, there were three dead trogus. Scavengers had come during the night and ripped flesh from the bones of both trogus and nomads. Erin and Alec retrieved the trogus panniers, rummaged through them, and found a bit of food, a small knapsack for Erin, a blanket, a knife, and a couple of pots that were worth taking. The rest they left behind. Then they started walking through the Grassland towards morning.
Their days fell into a pattern. Alec was not accustomed to multi-day hikes and looked forward to the point in late afternoon when Erin suggested they find a campsite. Erin was skilled at locating a good nook for a camp amid the large clumps of grass. They had not had any more encounters with the hyra or other predators. Erin could sense everything around them, so they had avoided several encounters with wild trogus.
They developed an efficient camp routine. Erin set up camp while Alec went out hunting. Small game was abundant, but Alec found the little antelope-bounders the easiest to catch, as well as tasty. When he found one, he used a rock and a dash of dark energy to take it down and then bring it back. One night, Alec volunteered to cook and tried his hand at it, but the small carcass turned into a mess, charred on the outside and raw on the inside. With a gale of laughter, Erin pushed him aside and took over. The result was edible, barely, and their unspoken agreement after that was for Erin to cook and Alec to hunt. After their meal, as the five moons traversed the sky, they had time to talk, or sit quietly and listen to the noises of the Grasslands.
It was on one of those late afternoons that Alec had cleared his mind sufficiently to let his scientific inquisitiveness come to the fore. What can I do with the local energy, Alec thought. So much stronger here than at home. So far, he had heated items, pushed them, converted them from one thing to another, and somehow in the heat of battle concentrated enough energy to slow time. What else can I do? Alec decided to experiment. One of the first things he had learned in graduate school was how to make crystals. He took a rock and focused. The rock quivered, then with a dull popping noise converted into an emerald the size of his fist. Showy, but not useful.
“Nice,” Erin said, somewhat impressed.
Then Alec took off his medallion and tried to feel the energy. He could detect the energy swirling around. Focus. It was hard. There was only a trickle, not the torrent that he felt with his medallion. Still, he managed to convert a small pebble into a small emerald.
“Nice, but not so much as the first,” said Erin.
Every night, Alec and Erin would curl up together for warmth. Alec felt guilty about sleeping with Erin; he worried about his relationship with Sarah and didn’t want to violate her trust. However, he found Erin more and more desirable, and she seemed to feel the same about him. Even so, Erin respected his boundaries and they did not cross that uncertain line that separates friends from lovers.
Their trek across the Grasslands was not easy. The days were the same, walking cross-country through a sea of shimmering gray-green grass and rolling hills. Sometimes scudding clouds would race overhead, and a light rain would fall, enough to give them drinking water for a few days. Erin knew which of the dark bushes had edible berries and which of the low understory plants had edible roots or fruit, giving some variety to their diet of wild game.
The long grass had saw-like edges that could make painful cuts. The spongy rolling ground was full of rocks and protrusions. Alec had been wearing a T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and tennis shoes at the Lab when he was transported to this place – not the best clothes for this kind of travel. His shoes were starting to look and feel worn, and his jeans had lots of small tears from the grass. His shirt stunk.
Erin was even worse off. She had started the journey with her slave-tunic and the scavenged clothes of the nomads – the nomad’s clothes were made for riding, not walking. Her pants were filthy. Her moccasins were not designed for the rocky soil. Twice they had ripped. Both times Alec had done a crude repair job that didn’t hold up. She was proceeding without complaint, but he could see everything
was wearing on her.
After the fourth day of walking through what seemed to Alec to be endless prairielands, they came to a rough path. “We will follow this route,” said Erin, pointing.
5 – The Inn
After a day walking along the path, they saw a small village tucked between the hills of the Grasslands.
“Do you know where we are?” asked Alec.
“I’ve never been to this village,” she answered. “But every village has an inn. We should stay there. It will be warm, and they will have food.” She smiled. “Tomorrow we can equip ourselves for the rest of our journey to Theland.” With that thought, her gait picked up.
Okay, thought Alec. When they were wearing the rings, they didn’t need to speak aloud to each other since they could feel each other’s thoughts.
“Village inns can be dangerous places,” Erin said, “especially for women, but we need to be there, or the local merchants won’t deal with us.” Alec could sense her apprehension.
“Is there any place else to stay?” he asked.
“Probably not, but if we are together, we should be all right. Inns are almost all the same. They will have a big common room to feed the travelers and for the locals to use as a gathering place. They will serve some food, usually stew, and have ale, wine, and probably something special like purple mushrooms, if you like to get high.
“They will have a few sleeping rooms – usually five or six – besides the common room. We want one of the sleeping rooms instead of sleeping in the common room, because any woman in the common room is considered available, and I don’t want that. Besides, there will be several inn-ladies working the common room.”
“‘Inn-ladies?’ You mean, like ‘servers’?”
“You might call them that, but I think in your language that is not the right word. Women who let men use their bodies, for sex.”
“Oh.”
“The innkeeper gives them food and a place to sleep as well as a small share of what they earn from the men. Most of the inn-ladies are older – working an inn is one of the few options available for them if they do not have a consort or family to depend on. The local men might bring in their women if they need coins, or they might trade a few days of their wife’s or daughter’s time in exchange for a night of drinking and gaming. That’s why you might see a few younger women. And some men – well, some men just prefer very young girls.”
That’s disgusting, Alec thought. Women here don’t sound very well treated.
They aren’t, she thought, then spoke aloud. “Places like Gott and the Grasslands treat their cattle and trogus much better than their women. Theland is not like that. In Theland, a woman is her own person. Women can be soldiers, own property, handle coins, go to school – things that are not allowed in these other places. It’s a better place for women. Most other places do not even allow women to learn to swing a sword or hold a spear.”
But you can’t choose you own consort, thought Alec to himself.
✽✽✽
The village was small and dirty. Animal waste and trash littered the street side. The late-day light cast long shadows over everything. Only a few people were out, and they looked around cautiously before they scurried from place to place.
“We will have to bargain for the cost of our lodging,” Erin said and handed him a few coins. “I can’t be seen with coins. Here, only men can negotiate prices or pay coins.”
“I would be perfectly happy if you did that,” Alec said.
No – that is not the custom, Erin thought to him. A quick tutorial on coins and prices left Alec at least marginally conversant in proper currency and bargaining etiquette. Their plan was simple. Alec would negotiate, and Erin would hold his arm and let him sense her opinion. Act as if you have only a few coins, she admonished. It will reduce the chance for mischief.
The inn was near the crossroads in the center of the village. They found the door facing a side street – Alec had to duck his head to clear the low frame – and went in. The innkeeper appeared from behind a curtain, looked them over, and quickly decided Alec wasn’t worth a second look but that Erin might be.
“A room for two nights,” Alec said.
“I have space in the common room for three small coins a night. I can let you both stay free if you let me sell her for both nights. I can use another inn-lady this time of year.”
Alec shook his head. “No. We want a sleeping room.”
“Two gold coins,” said the innkeeper.
Alec felt a tight grip on his arm and sensed Erin’s opinion. “We are poor travelers and just need a place to sleep, not a palace with servants,” Alec said.
The banter went back and forth for a few moments as they argued over price. When Erin was satisfied with the innkeeper’s price, Alec agreed and took a few coins from an almost-empty coin purse, looking sorrowfully at each one.
The innkeeper pointed to their room, up narrow rickety stairs. It was small but appeared serviceable. Erin pulled out the bag of coins from her pack. “I need somewhere to leave this. The innkeeper will rummage through our room while we are eating.”
Alec thought for a minute. Focus. Dark energy swirled. A cavity appeared in the rough-hewn planks of the floor, and Erin stuffed the coin bag into it. Focus. The cavity closed and looked like the rest of the floor.
A wash basin stood on a side table with an ewer of water, so they could clean up a bit. Alec gingerly patted down his week-old beard. He had never before grown out his beard and wondered what it looked like; he had not seen a clean-shaven man since he had arrived in this world and felt that with a beard he would be less conspicuous. Erin undid her knotted hair and combed it out as best she could with her fingers.
“That’s better,” she said.
Alec nodded. “Your hair looks nice.”
They went downstairs to the large common-room for supper. The meal was a stew, heavily spiced (Probably to conceal the state of the meat, thought Alec), but an improvement from their fare of the last few days.
There were a surprising number of people in the common room, more than Alec would have expected based on the small number of people he had seen moving about the streets. Most of the men wore the loose dusky drab tan clothes of the Grasslanders; a few wore dark blue or dirty white. At some of the tables a woman or two sat drinking beer, each hidden behind a man, but Alec noticed a few women who did not seem to be with anyone.
Who are those women? he thought to Erin.
They are inn-ladies, she thought back.
There were six or eight of them milling about the room, smiling at the men or dutifully sitting on a wooden bench to the side of the dining tables, one idly chewing on a root. One was taller than the others, with dark hair; the others were older, shorter than Erin, and plump. They were all dressed in a similar manner: a loose knee-length robe, open in the front, leaving little to the imagination; some in bright colors, some dull. Each had a heavy belt around her lower abdomen, fastened with a lock. As Alec watched, a man rose from the table, finished his last swill of beer, wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, and took hold of the taller inn-lady by her arm. The man waved at the innkeeper to gain his attention. The innkeeper ambled over; the man handed him a few coins and the innkeeper unlocked the heavy belt and removed it, allowing the inn-lady’s loose robe to fall freely open. Alec was startled to note that the inn-lady was wearing nothing underneath the robe. The inn-lady smiled at the man, wrapped her arm firmly around his stout waist, and led him towards the common sleeping-room.
I don’t see any kids running around the inn. What happens if an inn-lady get pregnant? Alec thought.
Usually they don’t, Erin answered. If you chew on the jinja root, it will keep you from pupping. If they become heavy with a pup, it is bad for them. The innkeeper probably will throw them out, and they starve.
Whew! thought Alec, and left the rest of his stew uneaten.
As Alec and Erin stood up to return to their room, a rugged-looking heavy-set man put his hand on
Alec’s arm.
“You’re passing through our village? Join us for a little game of cards,” the man said, obviously a regular at this inn.
“Not tonight,” Alec said, “We have been traveling and are very tired.”
“Then tomorrow night,” said the stranger.
“Maybe,” said Alec. He pulled away and went up the stairs with Erin to their room.
✽✽✽
The next morning started with bright sun shining through the cracks in the shutters. Alec wasn’t convinced the crude inn bed was better than sleeping on the fresh grass. I am taller than this bed is long, he thought. Erin was anxious to start the day. The first step was breakfast in the common room. It was a porridge that was oddly seasoned. A very bitter drink went with it that must have been the local equivalent of coffee.
“First things first,” said Erin.
“What is that?”
“Clothes!” she said, and smiled.
A short distance away, they found a tailor shop on the main square, with a cobbler next door. The usual order of business was to make clothes to specification for customers to return later to collect, but the seamstress did have a small supply of clothing that was already made. After a couple of minutes of mutual gesturing, with Alec trying to describe what they wanted and negotiate prices, the seamstress gave up on him, and Erin took the lead. Then things went quickly. They found several items that were very serviceable and worked well for Erin. Alec was outfitted with two sets of local clothes. The trousers were heavier and looser than his jeans but reasonably comfortable. The undergarments were heavier and rougher than he was used to; he could tell that he was going to miss the wonders of microfiber boxers, but at least these clothes were not filthy and torn. At the cobbler’s shop, Alec found a good pair of boots to be picked up tomorrow. Erin also found a set of boots and then insisted on a second pair also.
The town also had a bathhouse, and Erin and Alec were at last able to bathe in the lukewarm common bath. Not as nice as my shower at home, but still a relief, Alec thought to himself.