Chapter 9: Dust and Taxes

The Chapra Hills aside, the ride to the Sparine peninsula was going to be a long one. We had spent the night with Collar, Sergeant Palanqo and his crew at the Great Slide Inn, enjoying their hospitality one last time, but the following morning we took the road east and left the carriage to follow the road south, back to Demira.

We would ride east until we reached High Uln, the capital city of Uln, the smallest of the Trail Kingdoms, and the most remote, nestled in the corner of the mountains that sprang up out of the Chapra and Redecine hills and ran north. Uln itself was often compared to Lamin in the north, another mountain kingdom. Uln was not so peaceful and orderly as Lamin was reputed to be though. From Uln we would turn north and east and drop out of the mountains and into the plains that swept across the middle of Arbor between the central mountains and the Winter Sea.

It was four days to Uln, and there was supposed to be an inn along the way that we would find, either the second or third day, we were told by the staff at the Great Slide.

The weather as we passed through the Chapra hills the second time was far nicer than the first, and remained fair as we worked our way down out of the hills. Suspecting that the hunting would be better in the hills than it would on the plains, we overnighted our first night at the edges of them and went hunting. If we didn't find the inn before nightfall, we would have our meal. If we did, we might be able to contribute to the inn's evening meal.

I had two methods for cheating when it came to hunting. I could use the gifts and find the minds of those animals nearby, or I could tap into the rock beneath my feet and feel for what was nearby.

I had listened to Dad tell the story many times of shifting the credit to Slider, his horse, claiming the horse had a nose for game. I wasn't going to try that with Trunk, and in the end didn't have to worry about it. We ran into a group of Range Deer and each got in a good shot, taking two nice fat bucks before the rest of them even knew what was happening. We field dressed them and threw them over the backs of Grinder and Sheer and set off on the road east.

"Perhaps we'll get a better sense of what Uln will be like from whoever we talk to at this mythical inn we are supposed to run into." Trunk said.

"Let's hope the inn doesn't share Uln's character, assuming our sources at the Great Slide weren't busy defaming their neighbors without reason."

Winter had moved into spring before we had made our trip to Harecht, and spring here on the plains was already threating to turn into summer, but perhaps it was just warmer and drier here than I had experienced anywhere else.

"The heat and dry air would mean summer where I grew up." I told Trunk. "What will it be like here in the dead of summer?"

"Hot and dusty, I suspect." Trunk answered. "I think these plains might provide a good spring crop if they are farming it, but I doubt that there would be summer farming here. It might do for raising horses or cattle though, if there's water available."

"Hot work." I answered. "Not for me, I think."

We found the inn we had been told about early that afternoon. It was called the Oasis, and indeed the spot it occupied on the plains did seem like such. There was a small bowl in the otherwise flat plain with a spring and a small stand of trees. We saw several other roads coming in from the north and the southeast.

"Welcome to the Oasis. I am Jumble Santro, your host." Jumble was a short, big-bellied man with a completely bald head and a horrible scar on the left side of his face. I decided to get the scar out of the way immediately.

"Nice scar. Are you lucky enough to have a story that matches the spectacular feature, or was it the result of some dull mistake?"

"Ha! Very good! Yes the story is nearly an epic. Maybe you will get to hear it later. What is that I see on the back of your horses?"

"We had a good bit of luck this morning hunting in the hills, and have a couple very nice Range Deer, fat from their spring feeding and ready to grace your fires."

"Excellent." Jumble said. Turning his head he called back through the open door of the inn. "Mock! Net!"

Two men, brothers I had to guess, based on the similarity of their appearance, came running out.

"Grab those two fine deer off the back of these men's horses. We will be having them for evening meal tonight unless the cook objects."

The two men quickly had our game hoisted on their shoulders and were making their way around the inn, headed for a back door or outbuilding I guessed. We had seen several from the top of the bowl.

"Come gentlemen. Leave you horses here and I will have them looked after. Have you had your midday meal?"

"No we were holding off in hopes of finding you first." Trunk told him.

"Wonderful, come in and I will see what the kitchen has for you."

The inn was modest, the commons was obviously designed to give a couple dozen people a place to eat or drink. There was no sign of a stage, or any provisions for entertainment. A dozen or so men occupied two tables near the bar, which appeared to double as the check-in counter. We had our saddlebags with us and were feeling dustier than we were tired, given that it was barely past mid day, so we found a table and ordered a bottle of their best.

The barmaid was definitely nice viewing, and their best was good indeed.

"Good day sirs. I am Spruce. This is the Hollow Hills Scarlet Heart, a classic vintage from the Redecine hills. I won't bore you with more of its pedigree, a taste will do, I think.

A taste indeed. It may well have been the finest wine I'd ever tasted.

"This is superb!" I said enthusiastically. "Who do I have to kill to get a second bottle?"

"This bottle was paid for by those fine deer you brought in. You will need to be paying more for the next bottle than you will for your lodging tonight, if that is a consideration." She said.

"That is a consideration, but not one that will prevent us from enjoying another bottle of this with our evening meal. We will be happy with this one for now I think."

"I did mean we would have it with the evening meal." I said defensively.

"Of course you did. Relax. Here comes a platter of food." Trunk teased.

The midday meal had been a roast fowl of some kind, and we were getting some huge sandwiches made out of the remainders. They were on large slabs of a toasted bread, cracked wheat it appeared, slathered in a dressing and piled high with the bird, greens, tomatoes and onions. There were fried sweet potatoes to go with them, and of course our bottle of Scarlet Heart.

When Spruce came over to offer us dessert of deep-fried apple pastries, we declined, but asked her to save us some for the road tomorrow if she thought there might be none left come morning.

"I am thinking it is time for a short nap, but we missed our workout today because we went hunting instead. Can someone wake us up in a couple of hours, and is there an exercise yard, or someplace out of the way where we can get in some arms training?"

"Of course sir. I'm sure you can use the training pen by the stables. Check with Master Brook at the stable."

"Thank you sweetheart." Trunk said. She had been batting her eyelashes pretty seriously, I suppose. Trunk was just following up on what we both saw as an invitation to flirt at least.

Spruce giggled and looked at the floor, before glancing my way for just a second.

"Oh don't try to draw him out sweetie. He's thinking the same things I am, I guarantee you, but he seems to be saving himself for some mythical woman he has never met." Trunk said in response to her glance.

"Too bad." Spruce said, spinning around and sauntering off with a twitchy, swaying performance that spoke volumes and left me doubting my resolve.

A young man who introduced himself as Tallow took us to our rooms after we checked in at the desk. We were sharing a room in this inn, but at least there were separate beds. The pillows were soft, and the pounding on the door came almost instantly, I thought. Our two hours had gone by that quickly.

"We're pushing it if we can sleep so hard in the middle of the day." I told Trunk on the way down the stairs.

"We'll take it easier once we've reached our destination. It won't be endless hours on horseback and in the hot sun."

"Of course we will." I answered.

Master Brook was glad to see us, and complimented us on our horses. We stopped to give them a good neck rub and an apple we'd grabbed from the common room on the way out.

"Sure, you can use the training pen. Its even free of the usual horse droppings, since we haven't run any horses through it since the last cleaning."

The stable master led us to the pen, and we quickly dropped our gear by the fence, stripping down to our exercise leathers. The sun and the heat would have us drowning in our own sweat if we practiced in our full gear.

"You might want to throw some rancher's salve on if you're going to
be doing that in those outfits. Hang on, I'll find you some."

We worked on getting stretched out and limbered up. Between a day in the saddle and the two hour nap, we needed it. By the time we were feeling more or less normal, Master Brook was back with a small pot of some cool, whitish ointment.

"Put that wherever the sun's going to hit you." He said. We covered our arms, legs, face and neck, helping each other cover the parts that were difficult to reach, and then we began to run through some sword exercises. After a good twenty minutes of that, we moved into some of the sparring drills. Another twenty minutes and we started some true combat sparring. Taking into account our lack of armor, that is. Mid way through, Trunk switched hands and began to attack with his left.

"Dammit Trunk, I still can't get used to that. Where the hell did you pick this trick up?" I said as I retreated from this recently developed wrinkle in his arsenal.

"I don't know Sid, I just saw things differently one day, and wham! The sword starting feeling natural in this hand too. Now I'm just trying to get the muscles on the left arm to match the ones on the right."

I could never beat Trunk with the sword under normal circumstances anyway, so I found myself retreating until finally he'd called the third 'SCORE!'.

We took some water then and realized we'd drawn some observers.

"Oh good! You were here to see me win!" Trunk told them. "We'll switch to the staff now and Sid will do to me what I just did to him with the sword."

Our cloth exercise shirts were soaked with sweat, so we stripped them off and applied a generous coating of the salve to the newly exposed flesh. My Moonstone staff had no equal, to my knowledge, but Trunk had acquired a very fine staff from his Father that featured tips coated in a steel of some kind, but a dark, grainy looking steel that looked more like pig iron, but which was tough as blazes, and dense as all get out. The extra weight on the ends provided both advantages and disadvantages.

The opening forms quickly led into combat forms, and we took turns pulling forms out of our memories and seeing how long it took the other to find it and fall into the rhythm of it. We took a quick break for more water after thirty minutes and then it was time for some true sparring.

"Okay, here's where he's going to kick my ass." Trunk said. He'll have to wear me down first, but it'll happen."

We had Jumble, Spruce and most of the inn's staff watching now, including an old woman in an apron who I took to be the cook. It was a quick glance, and then we were into it. As always, Trunks speed frustrated me at first, as my long reach frustrated him. We spun and danced and now and then spat dust as one or the other of us called 'SCORE!', sending the other to the ground. We went at it harder and faster, laughing, grunting and spitting out an oath here and there.

"Damn you Sid!" Trunk called out near the end, and I took that as my trigger and closed my eyes and launched an attack with just my senses and my training to guide me. Spin, sweep, thrust, spin, feint and sweep and Trunk was on his back and the cool gleaming Moonstone pressed against his throat.

"SCORE!" I called, and stepped back. I opened my eyes then, blinking back the harsh sunlight.

"Something new for me, I think." I said.

"He thinks." Trunk said from the ground, laughing.

The workout required a bath, something more serious than the ladles of cool water we'd dumped on ourselves from the bucket by the stable door.

The evening meal turned out to be a hit. The cook had roast the two deer in a clay box filled with hot sand. The meat had been wrapped in something and stewed in in its own juices and those of the vegetables, spices and even fruits that were used to season it. It came with a pile of fried potato dumplings and toasted nut rolls. Of course we had our second bottle of Scarlet Heart, so it was bliss all around.

Perhaps it was the afternoon nap, but I slept lightly enough to hear Trunk slip from the room in the middle of the night, and again a few hours later when he came back with Spruce's delicate perfume clinging to him.

Morning meal was a cornucopia of fruits and breads, and we left that morning with our bags stuffed with jars of range deer stew and deep fried apple pastries. And two bottles of Scarlet Heart.

The word from Jumble regarding Uln was that it was a dangerous place, but no more dangerous than most large cities in this part of the world. The current king, Bail Hurmol IV, was not someone whose bad side you wanted to get on, but we weren't likely to be running in those circles since we were just passing through.

"You are not gilded or plumed enough to draw the king's attention." He had said with obvious disdain. We took his meaning as we assumed he meant it, but said nothing more on the subject.

The morning started cool and misty, but the sky cleared as the sun rose and we were baking by mid day. We were glad to have garnered a pot of the rancher's salve from Master Brook, and at midday meal we stopped and made judicious use of it.

We made our stop minimal, and ate and drank our midday meal back in the saddle. We hated to do it, but the heat was going to cook our Scarlet Heart in the bottle pretty quickly, so we each drank our bottle for lunch. That was more wine than I was used to at a sitting, and I thought it was probably a good thing we were alone on this open plain, rather than somewhere requiring clear eyes. Oh well, Grinder's eyes were just fine, and he could see the road better than I could anyway.

The second half of our day was a blur of dust and heat and the rhythmic thump of hooves on the dry soil of the road. We hadn't expected to see a place to spend the night, but we had hoped to see some sign of water somewhere along the way, The was high grassland, not desert. We followed the road towards the distant peaks until it was too dark to see the road in front of us. We stopped at last and just moved off the side of the road a few feet. We gave the horses the water that was in bladders built into our saddlebags, and took small sips from our own canteens. The rest of it would have to go to the horses tomorrow afternoon if we hadn't found some relief by then.