Chapter 22

Long Arm and Steady Hand were only a little concerned as they accompanied Doug and the delegation toward the council hut. They were sure that Doug would protect them if worse came to worst, despite his protestations that there was very little that he would be able to do for them if they were attacked. Doug had really preferred to go in alone, but that would have meant a loss of face, so he had to accept the potential sacrifice of two of his people. At least, the crossbows were cocked and loaded, their hosts could not realize that, especially since they did not even recognize the crossbows as weapons.

Doug and his two guards were ushered into the hut and offered seats of honor at the rear of the hut. Doug sat patiently between his two guards and waited for the locals to take their seats. Doug had warned his two companions not to eat or drink anything that had not been tasted first by one of their hosts; the three guests were going to fake eating or drinking until they were sure that they were not being poisoned.

The first test came with a welcoming drink offered by the leader of the village to Doug. Since Doug could see his host drink several swallows before offering him the cup, Doug drained the cup and pronounced that the taste was excellent. That was the signal for everyone to drink, and they spent a half-hour drinking and talking of inconsequential matters.

Then, to Doug's surprise, Steady Hand began to sing; the song had no words that Doug could understand. There did not appear to be anything wrong with Steady Hand, he just seemed to feel compelled to sing. Shortly afterwards, Long Arm began to chant, and he stood up to dance. Long Arm did not move around much, he just danced in place.

This, of course, made Doug very suspicious, so he decided to go along to see what would happen. Wanting to be a little different, Doug sat at his place and started to recite "Casey at the Bat" in a sing-song rhythm. When he finished that one, he recited "The Cremation of Sam Magee." By this time, both Long Arm and Steady Hand were zonked out, staring off into space, so Doug copied them, except that he stared at the chief of the locals.

When all of the guests appeared to be under the influence of whatever they had drunk, the chief spoke to one of his companions in a language so close to that originally spoken by Doug's People, that he had no trouble understanding it. "It took a long time for the sacred juice to have an effect. Are you sure that it is fully effective now?"

"Oh, yes, test Doug if you like. Pinch him, and he will not feel it. Go ahead, give it a try."

The chief reached over and pinched the flesh on Doug's arm as hard as he could, and Doug did not react. It was Doug's invulnerability and not the drug that had protected him, but the locals did not know that. Doug and his two guards continued to sit in position as if they were totally oblivious to the world around them. As an effect of Doug's strange invulnerability, the drug had not had any effect on him, and Doug filed that fact for future reference.

The chief said, "Now we can find out what these strange creatures that look like men, but act like demons, really want with us. Doug, why are you here in our territory?"

"My people are here to set up peaceful trade between your people and us. We have no desire to fight with you as long as you treat us honorably. We have a reputation of being honest traders who have valuable goods to exchange. We are especially looking for foods that we don't already have. We will be happy to trade manufactured goods for foods that we want. We will also trade other things, such as knowledge. We know many things that no one else knows, and we will be happy to trade this knowledge for things we don't have. That is why we are here."

"We know that you cannot lie while under the influence of the sacred drug, so we believe you. We will discuss trade with you when the drug wears off in two hours. In the meantime, just sit there until you recover."

Doug waited until Long Arm and Steady Hand recovered before he acted normally, again. He asked, "What happened? Why can't I remember the last two hours?"

"That was the effect of the drug in the drink we served you. We were afraid of you and thought that you might be demons in disguise. We drugged you and asked questions. Your answers convinced us that we had nothing to fear from you and that we could gain from trading with you. Are you ready to discuss trade, or do you want to wait?"

Doug figured that this was too good an opportunity to miss, so he began negotiations right then. He did send Long Arm to the caravan to reassure them that nothing bad had happened, but, to be on the safe side, they should maintain their guard until Doug returned to them.

That night, Doug's caravan crew was treated to a great feast, and they did encounter some spices they were not used to, including something that Doug called "peppers." Doug recognized some sort of unleavened bread that was served. He was told that it was a special treat that came from the mountains to the southwest. He was told that it was some sort of grain that was expensive and hard to get, so it was saved for special occasions. Doug asked and was told where to find the people who had the grain to trade; this was the maize that Doug was looking for!

Following the feast, gifts were exchanged. Doug was reluctant to give up the crossbow at this time, but he did present the chief with an atlatl and two spears for it. He also included a practice spear so that the chief would not ruin the hunting weapons while he learned to use it. The atlatl was a stunning gift, and the chief was duly impressed when it was demonstrated.

In exchange for the atlatl, Doug received some peppers of several varieties, plus something that looked a lot like tomatoes. Doug felt that this was a fair exchange if there ever was one, and he promised to send a trade delegation in the following spring. The chief complained about the loss of large game in the area, so Doug told him about domesticating the camel as a food supply. He deliberately held off on telling about using them as draft animals until he knew more about these people. Doug promised to send some breeding stock next spring. The chief said that if the domesticated camels worked out, it would certainly cement their friendly relations forever.

The next day was spent in working out what the locals wanted and what they had to trade in exchange. It turned out that this place could also be a source of sulfur and several other minerals that Flower of Spring was interested in, so the trip was profitable already. The locals were fascinated with all the items made of metal, so there were a large number of potential trade items both ways.

Doug also told the chief about the schools in Doug's Town, and invited him to send some children to study there when he felt comfortable doing so. The chief promised to consider it, but was sure that it would be several years before that could happen.

Doug's caravan left the next morning for the mountains, since he was determined to find the maize before he was forced to turn back. He had directions on how to reach the people with the corn, but those directions were based on somebody traveling on foot. The caravan, with its tractors and trailers had to take a smoother route, so they did have to search out a safe path through the foothills and mountains.

They had brought along some tools and materials in case they had to build a road, but they didn't want to do any more road construction than they had to. On many occasions, they were forced to travel miles around a place that could easily be conquered by a person on foot, but large wheeled vehicles simply had to go around. Doug couldn't say that it was his choice, but he was getting a good indoctrination into travel through rough country. Fortunately, they did not have much farther to go, since they were rapidly approaching the arbitrary limit of 40% fuel usage that Doug had set before they left home.

They had reached the point of having only three more days before they had to turn around when they met the people they were looking for. By this time, the caravan had encountered a total of seven villages, so Doug had a good feel of how to approach the people they met.