The wizards chalice, p.15
The Wizard's Chalice, page 15
part #2 of Gags & Pepper: Protection Agents Series
“Naneera?” Gags asked.
“A small city. About the size that Terzian would build for his tribe before he seized my treasure,” Honian said.
“Are they hostile?” Pepper asked.
Soxus shrugged. “No. Naneera is a trading center, and Terzian wasn’t hostile until this morning.”
Honian nodded.
“We have no money on us,” Mexius said.
“Speak for yourself,” Honian said as he removed his boots and pulled out strips with gold coins.
Soxus said, “My coins aren’t golden, but I have enough to buy horses and supplies for our ride to Basheer.
Gags and Pepper looked at each other and laughed. “It looks like Mexius will have to sleep in a stable.”
Mexius glared at Gags as the other chuckled.
“We have to make it to Naneera first,” Honian said. “We have no food or water.”
“Water we have,” Gags said. “I am a magician and know the spell for water.”
“They don’t call these the dry lands for nothing,” Soxus said.
“There is water everywhere,” Gags said. “It will take more magic to extract it from the air.”
“You are a better magician than I,” Honian said. “Soxus knows the spell but can barely make enough for himself.”
“I am not much better, but a little is better than none,” Gags said.
“Don’t look at me,” Mexius said, very irritated from the look on his face.
Soxus laughed. “We should be leaving. I suggest we head toward Basheer for a few miles before turning toward Naneera.”
Gags nodded. That was what he would do. He felt they had a chance, but there was so much unknown that their options were still slim. They had three or four days of walking in the dry lands. Gags doubted the dry lands were as benign as they looked. He hoped Soxus had spent a lot of time outside Basheer.
~
“Closer!” Honian said as Mexius lagged behind the other four, “or we may have to leave you out here!”
Mexius sat down in the dirt. It wasn’t the first time that Mexius had stopped their progress. He had demanded Gags make more water for him in the morning. Gags didn’t know how much magic he could do before he was out of energy. His clothes were hanging on his diminished frame.
Soxus found a cluster of rocks and sat down, unwinding his headdress as he looked up at the clouds. Honian walked over. “A windstorm?”
Soxus nodded. “It is too still for anything else. This is as good as anywhere to set up the tarp.”
Gags heard them and walked over. He carried the remains of the wrapped-up tarp on his back. “Do you want me to take this off?”
Honian sighed. “This might be as dangerous as meeting Terzian’s scouts,” the merchant said. “A dry lands windstorm can pick up anything on the surface and throw it at us.”
“I’ve seen people with their skin a myriad of cuts when they’ve been caught. These rocks will provide a little protection and give us a good anchor for our tarp,” Soxus said.
“We are going to stay here for a while, Mexius,” Gags yelled at the obstinate client.
“What can I do?” Pepper said.
“Get Mexius over here. We are going to have to hunker down during a windstorm, according to Soxus,” Gags said.
Gags helped Soxus and Honian anchor the tarp to the rocks. They had to roll two large boulders and use the grommets in the tarp to tie the covering down. That would work much better than any stakes they could improvise out of the brittle branches of the desert foliage.
“We will have to lie down when the wind starts,” Soxus said. “The storms generally last a few hours.”
“I have to be underneath that for hours?” Mexius said.
“Or your skin can be cut to ribbons, and who knows where you’ll end up,” Soxus said. He waved his hand around. “You take shelter in the rocks or you are at the mercy of the wind.”
“What do the tribes do?” Pepper asked.
“The Feybeer use tents shaped like domes. The stakes are at least two feet deep, and even the animals take shelter. The horses are let go. Sometimes they stay close, and sometimes they don’t.”
“And if you are caught out like us?”
Honian shrugged. “You do what we will do; hunker down as best you can.”
Soxus nodded. “I’ve had horses smart enough to lay down in the dirt. You can’t make a horse do that, but if a horse will, it will almost certainly survive. It all depends on the storm.”
Gags looked up into the sky. It had taken on a greenish-gray look with swirls underneath.
“Do the windstorms spawn tornadoes?” Gags asked.
Honian looked at Soxus and nodded. “Sometimes. But tornadoes touch down on small areas compared to the wind’s destruction.
Pepper’s robe flapped, and Gags felt a gust of wind. “It is starting?”
Soxus nodded. “Underneath the tarp. As long as we don’t get touched by a tornado, we should survive.”
“And if anyone is tracking us, they will have to do the same,” Pepper said.
Mexius grumbled, but he was the first under the tarp. In a moment, all of them lay side by side. All except Mexius were on their backs. Mexius covered his head with his arms, and the wind began to play fitfully with the tarp.
It began to roll and snap in minutes, but the tie downs were secure and working. The wind howled, and bits of rock, twigs, and branches began to brush against the canvas. Mexius groaned from time to time, but Gags settled in to relish nature at a moment of violence.
Rain began to spatter on the tarp, and soon they were all soaked and sore from big drops of driven rain hitting the tarp and hitting them simultaneously. Lightning lit the air. Gags counted the space between the lightning strikes, but soon the thunder turned into one long massive sound. They had to put their hands over their ears for a while, and then the lightning moved away, but a new kind of howls assaulted them.
“Tornado!” Soxus yelled to be heard over the roar.
The ground began to shake, and the debris started to make tiny tears in the tarp. Just when Gags thought the tarp would be ripped out of the rocks, the sound diminished and then stopped. Another round of lightning kept them huddled together, but eventually, that ended, and the wind died.
“The worst is over,” Honian said, “I hope.”
“Great,” Mexius said sarcastically.
Gags blinked at the light on the tarp. “The sun is out.”
Pepper crawled out from underneath the tarp, covered with mud like all must have been. “Look at this!”
They all slithered out and looked at the myriad shafts of sunlight breaking out of the canopy of clouds. Pepper stood on the rocks and pointed. Gags joined him and saw a winding pathway through the scrub brush. It must have been fifty paces wide and started fifty paces away. It was as if a god had scoured the land where the pathway was.
“Tornado,” Soxus said. “It must have moved over our heads before it touched down. If we move quickly, we might find a few edible animals that didn’t make it.”
Even Mexius joined in as they walked through the stunted vegetation. Honian shouted, and they met Soxus standing over a heaving antelope; its two front legs were broken. Soxus leaned over and cut its throat.
“Let’s get a fire started,” Honian said.
Gags quickly began searching for broken branches. There was no shortage of firewood, and the soil was already drying in the sun. He walked past a bush and saw a bloody leg sticking out. A man, almost naked, lay dead. His skin was covered in cuts, but like the antelope, he must have been thrown out of the tornado. His body looked broken, but amazingly, his headdress was still on his head, and the badge looked familiar, but Gags wasn’t sure. Gags pulled it off and realized it was pinned to the man’s hair. He saved the pins and took the headdress with an armful of wood to where a thin column of smoke rose into the still air.
“Our dinner wasn’t the only thing to perish,” Gags said. He tossed the headdress to Honian. This was pinned to his head.” Gags dropped the pins into Honian’s hand. “Is the badge from Terzian’s tribe?”
“Soxus?”
Honian’s chief guard looked at the badge and then at the pins. “I will help you bury him. He is a personal guard to Terzian. The pins are a gift from their chief, and they should be returned.”
Honian tossed the headdress to Mexius. “A souvenir,” he said.
Mexius shrunk from the strip of cloth.
“I’ll take it,” Pepper said.
“Can Honian watch the meat while we take care of the body? I doubt if Mexius and Pepper can do anything but burn it.”
“I will,” Honian said.
Gags located the body. Soxus nodded, made a salute, and bowed.
“What was that?”
“A show of respect in the old manner,” Soxus said. “I know this man. I had thought of us as friends, but that can change instantly, can’t it?”
Gags nodded. “Everything can change. Do we just bury him?”
Soxus grimaced. “Warriors are to be put on pyres, but we don’t have time. The animals will find his body, anyway. By burying him, it delays the inevitable and shows him respect.”
The generally hard soil had softened from the deluge. Gags drew water from the moist air so they could wash the body. Soxus said there was a ritual, even though the grave was muddy. They laid the man to rest, and Gags duplicated Soxus’s salute.
Soxus sighed as they walked back to turn the meat stripped from the antelope just before it was going to burn. He looked at Honian. “You have earned the first choice of the meat.” He turned to Gags. “It is an old Feybeerian hunting tradition.”
“Because he is your leader?”
Honian had to grin and shake his head. “No, because I found our dinner.”
Fortified with a large strip of meat, Gags could provide enough water for everyone and was given more food as a reward. “I’ve had enough to do some protection with magic. Last night would have been easier if I had all my power.”
“You can stop a tornado?” Mexius said in wonder.
“No, I can shield us from water and some of the wind. Probably not all of it last night,” Gags said, noticing Honian’s smile at Mexius’s question.
“Shall we be off?” Soxus asked. “I’d rather not stay so close to the burial or where we ate our meal.”
Chapter Eighteen
~
Finally, a bump in the far landscape became a city wall with a few buildings poking higher than the wall. The antelope meat meal was two days previous, and their hunger reduced their pace as Naneera grew larger on the horizon. They came across a road, more of a cleared track through the dry land brush and joined a few others traveling to the little city.
“You have been traveling the southwest?” a woman asked, driving a wagon with two adolescent children sitting with her.
“We have,” Honian said. “Our wagon broke down, and it has been a long trek.”
The woman laughed. “True Feybeerians,” but then she looked closer. “Three Perians survived? They have passed a trial.”
“Our journey isn’t done,” Soxus said.
The woman nodded. “I would give you a ride, but as you can see, my wagon is full.”
“I’ll sit anywhere if you let me ride with you,” Mexius said.
She laughed along with her children. “For you asking in such a way, it will cost you.”
“I have some coins,” Mexius said.
“Then you can meet your friends at the city gate,” the woman stretched out her hand, and Mexius put two gold coins on it. Her eyes grew. “One of my children can ride on our load. For that, you can sit up front.”
Gags watched Mexius scramble aboard. The man didn’t look back as the wagon moved ahead of them.
“He didn’t pass the trial,” Soxus said with a sour face.
“Doesn’t he have any redeeming qualities?” Pepper asked.
“Mexius was able to get Portia to marry him, but it was some time ago,” Gags said, shaking his head.
“I’d rather walk than leave my fellow travelers, after all we’ve been through,” Pepper said.
Honian laughed. “And so you shall!”
They shambled toward the end and stood on unsteady feet at the entrance to the city.
“Business?” a guard asked.
“We seek a meal—” Honian said.
“Or two,” Gags said, interrupting the merchant.
“And transportation to Basheer. Our wagon lost its horses in the storm, and we’ve been forced to walk a few days to Naneera,” Honian said, finishing his reply.
“Then go on in,” the other guard said.
“Were you with the Perian riding with a Feybeerian family?” the other guard said.
“Yes, we expected to meet him here,” Gags said.
“He told us he will be in a restaurant waiting for you.”
“Did he tell you which one?” Pepper asked.
“We only have one who will serve foreigners. It is by the chieftain’s palace. He’s got to be there or wandering around on the streets of Naneera,” the guard said, waving them through.
“Anybody been here before?” Gags asked.
“Soxus and I both have. We have a small transport office in Naneera. We can get clean clothes and a good night’s rest before departing for Basheer in the morning,” Honian said.
“I was hoping you would say something like that,” Pepper said.
Naneera wasn’t much more extensive than Karkle Cross in Gags’ mind, and Karkle Cross was far from being a city, but a walled town in the dry lands was a city to the Feybeer. There were patches of pavement, but most of the streets were hard-packed earth. Luckily, street vendors were sprinkled around Naneera rather than clustered at a market.
Gags took advantage and carried around a sack, munching his way to the city’s center where they would pick up Mexius and proceed to Honian’s outpost. They reached the town square. It was paved in rough cobbles with a few trees poking out of bare patches in the pavement, but Mexius was nowhere to be seen.
“To the restaurant,” Honian said.
Gags had no idea where the place was, so he dawdled behind, continuing to snack as they walked. He was farther back than he thought, so Gags was about to hustle ahead when he saw movement in a narrow alley. Gags stopped and recognized the moan coming from the shadows. He ran to Mexius, who was holding onto his head.
“They…” Mexius moaned again.
Whoever grabbed him had almost stripped him of his clothes. His boots were gone, along with his headdress and the fake badge.
“Who did this?”
“Do you think I know?” Mexius said through clenched teeth. “I’ve never been here before. Get me up.”
Mexius lifted his hands and grunted as Gags got his client upright.
“Naneera isn’t like Basheer or Veilport,” Gags said.
“Or Artport, if you stay away from certain areas. I was on the main square and pulled into this filthy alley. People walking by stopped to look, but my assailants kept saying ‘Perian,’ Then they nodded and went on their way.”
Mexius began to walk more steadily by the time they exited the alley. Gags noted Pepper waving in the distance. Gags pointed down toward Mexius.
“Are you well enough to eat?” Gags asked.
“I’m aching from bruises that will undoubtedly appear, but my stomach is as empty as yours.”
Gags laughed. “Mine is not quite empty.”
They reached the others. Honian winced as he saw Mexius’s face. “You should have known,” the merchant said.
“You should have told me,” Mexius said with ill humor.
Honian closed his eyes and raised his eyebrows to dismiss Mexius’s accusation. “A good meal and a night in a proper room will help.” Honian opened the door. “This is the restaurant for foreigners.”
Mexius looked the front over. “I thought the woman had lied and sicced her tribe on me.”
“She might have alerted others, but she didn’t lie,” Soxus said. “Let’s go inside.”
Honian looked closely at Gags as they sat down. “Are you still hungry?”
Gags gave Honian a broad grin. “I’m always hungry. That is the way of magicians.”
“I’m a magician,” Honian said.
“And are you hungry?”
Honian shook his head and grunted. “Obviously. I’m not as powerful as you, Gags.”
~
Basheer Trading and Transport in Naneera wasn’t a large operation. There wasn’t a scheduled conveyance to Basheer for another week, but with Honian in charge, a special run was quickly arranged.
“You’ll have to sit in the back of a box wagon,” Honian said. “But it will have some amenities.”
Gags wondered what the amenities were, but it didn’t matter. He would rather ride than walk. At least they had retained their weapons, and Pepper hadn’t lost his jeweled dagger.
The box wagon was a palace on wheels compared to the wagon that brought Gags to the magicians army four years previous. The benches were padded. There were windows with shutters and drawers beneath their benches that carried food, drink, and supplies. Honian admitted he had ordered it fitted out and had his people work through the night.
After a good night’s sleep and fresh robes and new boots, they all looked refreshed except for the purpling bruises on Mexius’s face.
“Why didn’t we take something like this to Rezzura?” Mexius said in an antagonistic voice.
“There isn’t a direct road. We would have been bouncing around inside,” Soxus said. “Didn’t you notice our supply wagons?”
“Why should I do that?” Mexius said.
Soxus shook his head and didn’t reply.
“Are we in danger from Terzian’s tribe?” Pepper asked.
Honian sighed. “Maybe, but we are in a caravan of ten wagons and twenty riders. If Terzian raids this far out of his tribe’s territory, he will find it is a mistake. Besides, I sent him a little package with the badge and hairpins of his guard with the note that I would let his behavior pass, but if he crosses me again, I will never forgive him. Letters explaining what happened have gone to most tribal leaders, including all the city tribes.”
