It is very nearly dark by the time they reach the town. The ferryman has already headed for home, but Alex now has no intention of crossing until the morning in any event. The first of the two inns on this side of the river have only one room available, but they are lucky at the second. Again there are only three rooms available, but this suits their needs perfectly.

While they settled in and washed up before supper, Peta wandered off to have a quiet word at the town’s guard-house. “I know the captain here. We trained and worked together. I’ll let him know about our little delay.”

“Can you get him to dispose of the horses?” Alex asks as he washes. “I don’t want to take them with us and haven’t time to try and sell them.”

“I’ll see what he can do. Anything to report back to the castle – apart from the report I’ve already written?”

“No, I don’t think so. As long as the King knows we’re safe so far and that we might be being targeted, I think it’s best to keep it short.”

“I’ll be back shortly, then,” Peta tells him and closes the door to their room behind himself softly. Alex listens to his footsteps as they head down the passage and off down the stairs.

The inn is a small one, but quite well appointed and comfortable. Again, the six of them have a table to themselves. Unsure of how long Peta will actually be, Alex suggests that they start to eat without him. There’s a fine leg of mutton and fresh vegetables that should be eaten hot.

While four of them eat slowly and quietly, Jamie sits and stares at an empty plate, a vague expression of distaste on his features.

Peta returns just as Alex is starting on the apple pie, but Jamie is still sitting and gazing at an empty plate as Peta cuts himself a slab of mutton. Peta looks at Alex and shrugs in Jamie’s direction.

“You should eat something, Jamie,” Alex suggests softly. “However much you might feel that you cannot, you will need to eat.”

“There was so much blood,” Jamie manages to whisper softly. “So much blood. It’s all I can see, eyes open or closed.”

“Violent death is, by its very nature, extremely unpleasant. It would be a fine world if one was never exposed to such a sight. I’m sorry that you had to see it.”

“It all happened so quickly. I didn’t even have a chance to react. All of you, even Cato, knew what was going to happen, but I didn’t. We stopped to speak to some travellers and the next moment they were all dead.”

“Yes, I think I understand. Let us try and explain what we saw that you did not.”

“Yes, teach me how to see what you see. It looks like a skill that I’m going to need to learn.”

“Firstly, meeting people on the road is not unusual and all sorts of people travel with their own reasons for doing so. Still it is worth taking a moment to look at how they are travelling, rather than thinking directly about where they are going to or why they choose to do so.”

“Yes. Four men on horseback.”

“Good. Looking closer, however there was much more to see. Four men on horseback, saddled for speed. Four men on horseback without a substantial amount of baggage or packs. Four men with swords.”

“Oh…”

“Now, as we approached, Brion began to draw the pack-horses to one side, allowing space for us to pass. They stayed in a line across our path, forcing us to stop. We could have still stood to pass the time of day, side by side, but they made that impossible.”

“They wished to make us stop?”

“Just so. Taking into consideration both their lack of baggage and their deliberate attempt to block us made the whole thing a little suspicious. I don’t think that Cato saw all of this, but he sensed something about them.”

“That’s right, Jamie,” Cato tells him. He has been listening to Alex’s explanation and nodding occasionally. “The four of them just looked a little on edge. The leader, the one who did the talking, kept looking at the others, as if either needing their reassurance or giving his own confidence to them. Then, when he spoke, he wasn’t even trying to be polite, despite Alex’s still quite genial greeting.”

“So, what you are saying is that it was just a lot of little things that made you all suspicious of their motives. Adding it all together was enough to make you all cautious?”

“Well, I’m always cautious,” Alex tells him with a smile. “It is my job, after all. More to the point, I’m always trying to be more observant than I appear. You’ve watched me riding along, chatting with the rest of you like I have no care. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but on the road, you usually have a little time to see what is ahead.”

“It’s so senseless. They died for a purse of gold?”

“When you get right down to it,” Garvan tells him from across the table. “That is technically true for four of the men at this table. We have taken our pay and accept the risks. Whether military like us or for hire like Alex, the pay is for the same reason.”

“What you need to realize, Jamie, is that they made the choice themselves,” Alex continues gently. “I even gave them the chance to just ride on past. If they had done so, they would still be alive.”

“You knew they would not do so?”

“By that point, I was probably pretty sure how things would go, as were they. But also, by that point, we were all ready for them.”

“Except me…”

“Yes, except you. This time.”

“You think there will be other times? This will happen again?”

“I’m afraid so. You need to be resilient. I’m not going to tell you to toughen up, that’s not the answer. Tomorrow, on the other side of the river, ride with me at the front. As we go along, I will describe what I see as we travel. Watch, listen and learn.”

“Okay, Alex. Listening and learning I am good at. I will ride along with you and try.”

“Now, if you don’t want what is now cold mutton, at least have some of this apple pie. It’s really good.”

 

By the time they were ready to cross the river, Jamie seemed much better than he had the previous evening. Two town guards had come by early in the morning and taken the four horses away and Alex had left Cato to pay the bill while he checked their supplies and the pack horses. They’d probably have their first few days without an inn before getting to the border.

The ferry is just pulling into the far bank when they arrive at the short jetty. There appears to be a long line of wagons waiting to come over, but the ferry can only manage two at a time. On this side, they are the only waiting customers and should easily fit on the ferry together.

“Cato, why are there four ropes across the river?” Jamie asks after they all dismount and stand on the bank close to the jetty but out of the way of incoming traffic. The ferry is on the other side, difficult to study.

“Well, they need at least two. One attached to the ferry through sliding pulleys and another to haul upon. The others are spare. If one breaks – and they do break – it’s good to have an easy way to carry a fresh line across.”

“It seems – simplistic? Why not use some sort of winch to pull it across?”

“A very good question. Mostly it is a matter of logistics and cost. The ferry keeps the master and half-a-dozen men or more in hard but honest work. The price of passage across the river is enough to see they all get paid throughout the year. Winches would need horses, mules or donkeys and they would still need to be tended. Then, maintaining reliable winches pulling always wet ropes would only add to the expense. The iron would rust easily, gears need greasing, endless maintenance. It’s just not worth it.”

“Is the river as deep as it looks?”

“Yes, but not so much that a bridge couldn’t be built. It’s just not a priority. It would be an interesting design exercise. It has been spoken about, but not seriously. The river serves a defensive purpose as well as an obstacle to trade.”

There is noise and commotion as the ferry returns, dropping the wooden ramp down onto the jetty and pulling lines taught. The two goods wagons, each four-wheeled and six-horse, pull forward one at a time from their side-by-side positions. It takes all the power of those six draught horses to get the load moving on the short but steep track up the riverbank.

Three men, shirtless in the early sun, step off behind them to be replaced by three more. The relieved crew move off to sit in the shade of a large oak where there’s a table with a cold pitcher and some mugs.

“Are you gentlemen travelling together?” The ferry master asks as he approaches the group.

“Yes. Six men and nine horses in total,” Cato tells him.

“One gold, if you please, Sir.”

Cato digs into his pocket and Brion leads the pack-horses down onto the ferry. Garvan has grabbed the reins of Brion’s horse to lead as well as his own. Within just a few moments, the rest of them are aboard and the wooden ramp is being raised.

“The three crew-men make a few swift pulls on the ropes and then let the current drag the barge away from the bank and into the middle of the river.

“See,” Cato tells Jamie as the two of them watch the men at their ease. “They let the current do the work until they get half way. If the ropes were too tight, they would snap. They make good use of that slackness. Then they will haul against that current to get to the far bank. Sure enough, just at the mid-point of the crossing and perhaps fifteen yards below the point of the jetties, the three men begin to pull, muscles rippling in massive shoulders and arms.

It is clearly their living, as they are all equally well-built and their muscles pop and ripple as they strain to pull in perfect time. The master, aiding their passage with a simple rudder in the middle of the barge calls each pull loudly and clearly.

After little more than a handful of minutes they are on the far bank and the ferry is loading the next two wagons to head back across. “There’s much one-way traffic today. That will make the ferry master testy if he can’t get return fares. I bet he hates wasting a trip,” Cato chuckles.

Unsurprisingly, the town on this side of the river is much the same as the half they have just left. Long gone are the buildings of stone and the slate roofs of the city. Here, as it has been for much of the journey so far, timber frames, pale plaster and reed-thatched roofs are the norm.

For some distance ahead, there seems to be almost endless farmland. There are one or two different crops being grown and there also seem to be many more cattle than closer to the capital.

Just a couple of miles out of town and the great river makes a slow turn to the south-west while the road continues in a more directly westerly direction. Jamie has done as suggested and is riding at the front with Alex beside him. “Say goodbye to the river, Jamie. We’ll not see it again apart from a few bubbling tributaries in the mountains.”

“It’s the last reminder of home,” Jamie tells him. “I’ve studied the maps as best I can. We’ll take two days to get to the border?”

“Yes, if we travel quickly. The border post is at the high pass of Berak. There are inns there on both sides of the border. We’ll stop there for the night, no matter how long we take to get there.”

“Forgive my ignorance, but are there formalities at the border?”

“Yes and no. Anyone is allowed to cross in either direction. Both countries keep a ledger and count people in and out, but don’t even ask names. Benteria charges a tax for every horse or wagon, though. Sometimes they even force traders to open their cargos, but that is rare.”

As they travel along, chatting away amongst themselves, Alex points out each thing that catches his well-trained eye. A broken branch on a roadside bush. A broken wagon-wheel discard in the ditch. The point where the road narrows between two great trees. Nothing seems to escape his gaze and Jamie is soon overwhelmed.

“While I look to afar, you’re concentrating on the close-by, reading every detail, but also not. It’s a skill that must be learned only with time?”

“Yes. The closer the danger the more dangerous it is. What’s happening a mile away matters little so I scan ahead and to the sides only infrequently. I merely wish to see what’s ahead, not react to it.”

“And what about the people. They are, after all, the danger in this.”

“Indeed. I try to identify their origin and purpose from as far out as possible. A train of wagons is easy to understand, but a lone rider or a small group is much more difficult to measure.”

A group is approaching, two men on horseback leading a pair of four-horse wagons, each with a rider and a second man. There are four more riders bringing up the rear of the short column.

“A merchant from Salicia, probably on his way home. I recognise his clothing as much as anything. The quality of the cloth looks good but not ostentatious and the other is clearly a guard, like myself.”

“It is simple when you point out the obvious. Even I recognise the cut of a Salician tunic.”

“That is a good beginning. As it happens, I know the guard well. We will stop and greet him.”

As the two groups draw closer, recognition becomes apparent from the other party and a few words are exchanged between the guard and his master. Sure enough, they draw to a stop as Alex and the others approach.

“Heading home, Pilar,” Alex asks when they stop. This time Jamie notices that they have stopped alongside one another, not in a way that might block the road for either party. They are clearly treating one-another as equals.

“Indeed, my friend. A few days in Tanis and then south for home. And yourself?”

“West, possibly to Eridan. My master seeks trade for some new goods.” Alex nods in a way that makes it clear that Cato is the master. How are the roads?”

“Busy enough and, in Benteria at least, rutted and rough enough to knock out your teeth, as always. What about the road to Evora and on to Tanis?”

“The roads are good, but the ferry master is as grumpy as ever. There were many wagons waiting to cross this morning. You may have a wait.”

“We’ll stay on this side and cross in the morning.”

“Well, we will continue and let you get to Elvora before night. We had a little trouble in the forest to the east, but they’ll not trouble the road anymore.” Alex shrugs his shoulders as if it’s no big deal and Pilar manages a resigned smile and a nod of appreciation.

“Have a good journey, Alex.”

“You too, Pilar. Please give my regards to Bemis when you are passing through Sulis.”

“I will, my friend. It’s been too long since you last visited any town in Salicia or Sulis. I’ve been gone for some weeks, but he was well last time I saw him.”

“Perhaps I will get to visit soon. Fare well.”