Chapter 14

The first trading caravan was mostly a proof-of-concept trip, but this caravan was a pure money making endeavor. As such, the caravan was going out by the same route, but it was coming back by a different road. The first trip had lasted only about a week, but this one might run as long as a month. The weather might play a part in setting the length of the trip, but Homer also had some discretion as to what route to follow. The only limitation on Homer's choices would be that he had to take into consideration his trailing escort led by Wolgar. However, I had enough confidence in both of them to let them make the ultimate decisions. Homer had to learn sometime, and this was a good time.

The caravan was greeted at that first town with at least as much enthusiasm as on the previous trip. It was not that the wine from the first trip was all used up, but that this trip proved that the trading caravan had not been a fluke. Another wagon was emptied of its wine, and the stock was replaced by wool and linen cloth. Homer again assured the merchants and town fathers that he expected the trading caravan to become a regular thing, but he could not be very sure of the schedule at this point.

They spent a day in the town and left the next morning. This was the section of road where they had met the bandits on the previous trip, and nobody was sure what would happen this time. Homer hoped for peace, but Wolgar hoped for a bandit attack so that his men would have something to quell their boredom.

Nothing happened that night, but the situation changed when the caravan stopped for its noon break. The wagons were drawn into a box formation around a water source, and the cooking fires were also inside the box. Wolgar had his men stop about three-quarters of a mile away for their noon break. The caravan camp was kept under observation by four of Wolgar's scouts, so he could quickly get the word if there was an attack.

As it happened, the scouts were not needed. The men of the caravan had just finished eating and were cleaning up in preparation for continuing the journey when they were suddenly subjected to a rain of arrows coming in from the west. The attack was a complete surprise, and a number of the wagon drivers were wounded by the shower of arrows. Nobody was killed, but there were some painful wounds inflicted by the arrows.

Fortunately, by the purest stroke of luck, none of Homer's security men were struck by falling arrows, but there were some close calls. This time, there was no doubt where the guards would have to report to, first. Everybody grabbed up his weapons and rushed to the wall of wagons on the western side of the box. Exploding bolts were fired at the bandits, but they didn't seem to make much difference, short of to the person hit by the bolt.

The bandits were sufficiently bunched so that Homer launched a hand grenade into their midst. Now, that got their attention! Homer had tossed in a second one of the grenades before the first had even landed, so the explosions were close together. The noise was loud enough that it was heard in Wolgar's camp, and his men immediately mounted up to join in the fight.

The two grenade explosions broke the back of the bandits' attack, but there were still plenty of unwounded bandits milling around when Wolgar's men got there. Thus, the Olgars on horseback had enough bandits to chase to make life interesting for a few minutes. It took around 10-15 minutes to wipe out all of the bandit gang, and there was enough charging around for the horsemen that the boredom was ended on a resounding note.

All of the Olgars were now happy to have been involved in a fight at last. There were a few wounded, but no fatalities. All in all, it was a very pleasant diversion!

On the other hand, Homer had to come up with a solution to a serious question. What was he going to do about his wounded men? Six of the men were wounded seriously enough that they would be bedridden for one or two weeks. Having them stay with the caravan was going to painful for them, and it was going to make all kinds of problems for Homer.

The best compromise that Homer could come up with was to put them up in the next town, Balnor, until the caravan could pick them up on its return to Oricantha. Homer commandeered six riders from Wolgar's troops to replace the injured drivers. Everybody had already had some experience with driving a wagon, so it was not a big deal for the men to change jobs. There was considerable prestige associated with being a driver with the caravan, so the men were not unhappy at being chosen for that job. The caravan was late getting to Balnor, but Homer was able to get all of his wounded men into care before he went to bed that night.

The next day was spent in trade, and wine and cloth were traded for completed clothes, especially a very sturdy boot that the people of Balnor were famous for. This, too, was a profitable stop for the caravan, and everybody was getting rich from the trade.

They encountered some rain an hour or so after leaving Balnor, but it slowed the caravan only a little. They arrived in Spalor only a little later than they had expected, but there was no big problem. They traded away almost all of the cloth they had with them, both the wool and the linen, and some of the boots. About half of the wine went, too, so there was no problem in releasing the six wagons that Homer had promised to the locals on his previous trip. In exchange for this, they took on all of the salted or smoked fish that they could find room for in the reduced number of available wagons.

Everybody in the caravan had a good time on their day off in Spalor, and the local brothel had its busiest day of business since it had been in operation. Some of the Olgars drank a bit too much and some spent too much time in the brothel, but everybody was ready to leave when Homer called them to assemble. Yes, there were a few bad hangovers, but nothing that the men were not capable of fighting through. A hangover from wine was not nearly as bad as a hangover from fermented mare's milk, so the Olgars were able to tough it out.

Homer had decided to visit another fishing village, Cooglet, about 20 miles down the shore line. The local merchants had assured him that he could probably sell more wine there and probably get rid of some of the clothes and boots still burdening the caravan. Cooglet specialized in eels, so Homer would find some variety in his fish. Homer had never heard of an eel, but he was game to try practically anything once.

The caravan was annoyed by even more rain before they got to Cooglet, but they had been warned of it, so they just gritted their teeth and lived through the wet. One of the wagon drivers had a brainstorm and took a rejected wool blanket (it had been dyed an unlucky color for a fisherman) and cut a slit in the middle so that he could drape it over his head. He was pleased at how his improvised rain shield had kept him warm and a lot drier than his friends. Of course, he had to rub in the brilliance of his idea at supper that night. The next morning, every man had a blanket to use as a raincoat. That cut back on the items left for trade, but Homer figured that the boost in morale was well worth the expense. Unfortunately, the supply of wool blankets was virtually wiped out by the time all of the men in Wolgar's troop were also fitted with the raincoats. The wool raincoat had another advantage that was not discovered until the next major fight with bandits who were using sabers.

The merchants of Cooglet were very happy to get the wine, but were low on salted eel. However, they had been visited recently by a ship that had been carrying bronze ingots. They had traded the ingots for salted eels and sailed away before the merchants of Cooglet had realized that they, collectively, had a hell of a lot more bronze than they would ever find a use for. Homer didn't know what he could do with that much bronze, either, but he decided to speculate. Homer didn't know what he would do with that much bronze, but he hoped that I would have a good suggestion when he got back to Johnshome with it if he didn't find a customer along the way.

The Olgars didn't have much use for bronze, except for their sabers and cooking pots and pans. Nevertheless, bronze was very valuable, and Homer should be able to turn a profit somewhere with it. Anyway, he took all that he could get and hoped that he was not making a stupid mistake!