Frays in the Weave

Departure, part one

Karia groaned. Not because he was saddle sore any longer. Eightdays of endless riding had taken care of that. This time he groaned because he remembered aching in muscles he'd forgotten he had.

He knew how to ride. Every nobleman learned, but he had never sat a horse for days at end. That the horses had only been half trained didn't make it any better. A suitable lesson in obedience. The very words of old Ricah. Suitable my arse! And literally so, he recalled when the horse nervously sidestepped a non-existent threat and reminded him that not all parts of his body had healed from those first aching, awful days.

There were advantages to being mounted though. He ruefully admitted that as he passed a column of marching infantry.

To Gaz, they were headed for Gaz.

Someone had arrived at the broken gates of Belgera only a day after outworlder weapons almost tore the capital apart. Someone with promises and demands.

I wonder which the council valued the most, the promises or the demands. If they can scrape together a full city watch of armed men I'll be surprised.

And now the city was all but disarmed and the caravan he'd been assigned to escorted by an army.

Karia cursed whatever god had gifted the council with an evil sense of humour and rode on. With some luck he'd learn who had interceded on his behalf, and his sworn men. No execution. A years worth of unpaid escort duty instead. Well, he was unpaid. Twenty sworn men would receive their due when they returned, from his personal allowance of course. In reality it translated into being expelled in disgrace for life. What a gherin spawned way of repaying someone for saving their capital!

But the sun shone, the wind flew brisk and clear in his face and he was young yet. Life was irresistible and he couldn't stay sour for long. Not his way and had never been. With some luck he would get a word or two with the captain from Ri Khi. The very female captain, and pleasant to look at as well. That she had refused his earlier attempts, frankly and with a laugh, bothered him not the least. He wanted pleasant talk, not a warm body.

Still what an idiot that master merchant must be. Winning a prize like her and then vanish from the city and leave her behind.

***

Major Heinrich Goldberger, TADAT, flicked on the scanner. From infra-red to ultraviolet. No, nothing out of the normal. Nothing, at least, that could be seen by means of federation technology. Here on Otherworld there were ways of hiding things that no scanner could reveal. Both aliens, and he could call them nothing but aliens, had showed him how the mind could be suggested to pay no heed to what was there. Heinrich drew a deep breath. That the giant ape and the beautiful, oh so beautiful, woman with the golden eyes shared professions was still a riddle to him.

Heinrich growled, flicked the scanners off and raised his visor. He didn't need any enhancers to see the endless train of primitive wagons slowly making their way to Keen, the far away nation where he could make contact with the launch port again. Primitive or not, the wagon train was an awesome sight anyway. Five hundred wagons drawn by horses, mules, oxen and a few by enormous six legged lizards he'd been told were tamed and safe. They had better be, Heinrich thought grimly. At over three meters in height and close to double that in length they looked like dinosaurs, dinosaurs shimmering in metallic blue and red. If he got caught under one of them it would crush him, body walker or not. The exoskeleton armour was not designed to handle having a cargo container thrown at it.