Souvenirs From Dead Worlds | ✓

Chapter 11

Kias felt better once he had two feet on soft, reassuringly normal earth and no walls confining him. Sam looked so at home when he was in the shuttle, his hands moving over the controls with confident ease, but Kias didn’t think he’d ever get used to the strange piece of machinery that seemed almost like a living thing at times.

The shuttle was hidden above them now, hovering just above the lush, broad limbed trees. According to Sam it was, anyway. Somehow, it was completely invisible. Kias remembered how it had suddenly appeared in front of him and Sam when they'd been running from the drones when they'd first met. He'd assumed, then, that it had come out of nowhere, but he realised now that it must simply have been invisible like it was now.

Sam tossed Kias a pouch filled with coins as they began picking a path through the undergrowth, and although Kias was unsure what they were worth he was fairly sure the answer was 'a lot'. Reluctantly, Kias handed the bag back to Sam. It was Sam who was playing the role of the wealthy merchant. Kias was to be his servant. To be honest, though, Kias didn't mind at all. As long as they were just pretending, it sounded like it would be fun. Having never had much in the way of money of his own, however, looking at all those shiny coins had been kind of intoxicating.

The city came into view as they cleared the woods, though with the tall stone wall surrounding it they could see only the tops of buildings. It was smaller than Kias’ city had been but appeared to be more densely packed.

"We're going to have to scope out somewhere big enough to land the shuttle inside the city," Sam said as they headed across the grass towards the road that lead into the city. "I don't want to be having to worry about getting out quickly with that wall in the way."

Although there were differences in the architecture already evident from the little they could see, there were aspects of familiarity to Kias which hadn't been present on Sam’s world. As they approached the dirt road leading into the city, Kias breathed in the smell of dust and animals. Life had never been kind to Kias on his own world, but somehow being reminded of it was still a comfort. At least this made sense to him.

#

As they approached the city gates one of the guards called out a greeting. "Walking today?"

It took Sam a moment to muddle out his languages, and then another to pull himself into character. Sam squared his shoulders and stood up taller.

"I should hope I don't look like I've spent all day walking!" Sam responded with good cheer.

"Ha! I don't suppose you do." The man had tanned and freckled skin and ill-fitting armour which clinked together when he moved.

"The boy is from the countryside," Sam explained with a glance at Kias, improvising his story. "I felt he required some time out of the carriage before being confined to the walls of a city."

There were two holes in Sam's story that he could see. The first and most obvious one was that there had been no carriage, and would be no carriage. The second was that Kias was pretty damn pale, calling into question the whole country boy thing. If the guard picked up on either of those things, though, he didn't comment.

Instead he asked, "You've an interesting accent. Where're you from?"

The guard didn't sound suspicious, which was reassuring. Sam was used to this question, as while he could learn languages with ease he was fairly sure any attempts he made at mimicking local accents would be hilarious at best.

Sam answered with his standard response of, "Everywhere, I've travelled all my life." As he walked past, he inclined his head to the guard. "Good day."