Robe

Chapter 14

'Dray'. 'Hills'. 'Town'. 'Wagon road'. 'Abode'.

These were some of the nouns Dresden taught Sonic as they made their way along. The horse-things ridden by the Hepsguard were known as 'drays', and as for the 'hills', these almost completely encircled the 'town' that Dresden called 'Hep Duatab' (all the towns were called 'Hep' around here, apparently). The ridgeline was not very imposing, with no one section taller than another and no mountain or highest point of note, except for a section 'Darkward' of the 'Line' where the formation was abruptly cleft, becoming a valley.

The road they were on, the 'wagon road' that ringed the whole of Hep Duatab, had a surface like macadam that was smooth, glass-like, and slightly sticky to walk on. They made the roads with 'pitch', mixing the black, tarry substance with tiny crystals mined from Hep Terin. These crystals apparently provided a type of energy to the wagons that used the road. "This way the wagon road does not tax the drays or the loaded wagons, you see," Dresden told her.

As for the houses they passed – 'abodes' – these were single-story bungalows with smooth walls, colored to suit the preference of the resident: one 'abode' was lavender, another a deep shade of red, and yet another was a brilliant white. They were all topped with flat roofs made of a dark, polished wood that shimmered and gleamed in the Line-light. Some of the residents had come out of their dwellings to watch the entourage pass by, likely alerted by the General and the Hepsguard's galloping drays (which Sonic still preferred to think of as 'horse-things') when they first rushed past to arrest the 'outsiders'... a lifetime ago, when all Sonic had to worry about was Rusty and his mind.

Nothing draws a crowd like a spectacle, Sonic thought. She also knew that after they had passed, many of these entirely human-looking townsfolk, or 'Hepsfolk' as it were, would leave their gates and their gardens behind and follow the group out of sheer curiosity and innate nosiness. Different darn Universe, same darn behavior.

Sonic made a point of repeating all of what Dresden told her to Rusty. The boy, still hypnotized (but recovering), soaked it up like a sponge. While the hypnotic suggestion she had given him was very powerful, its true effect would take hold only after he had slept soundly. For now, Sonic could only hope that when she returned to Earth – and she prayed that time was later rather than sooner – Rusty would be competent enough to ask basic questions and say simple phrases. Things like 'where is the bathroom', and 'please don't kill me'.

She looked Dresden in the eye. "I point, you say."

"It's a good game, right?" Dresden replied. He did not seem to mind at all that they were somewhat on a forced march.

"Not a game," she said, and pointed directly at him. "What are you?"

Dresden seemed slightly taken aback. "What am I? I am Dresden? A... a human?"

Sonic shook her head. "Tell me you."

"Tell me you?"

"Yes."

"Oh, you mean, tell you about myself?"

Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, tell me about your myself?" It was exposition that she was after, with all the verbs, adjectives, prepositions, all the language constructs she needed.

Dresden opened his mouth to speak, then closed it with a snap. "I don't know where to begin," he said eventually. "Although I can tell you we are at Cross-Line Road now. It will lead us to the Castle."