Even a week after their fight with the Slithers, Banno seemed bruised, battered, and exhausted. He did little speaking, but kept at Vaenuth’s side as usual. After a quick breakfast meal of nuts and some meats their hunters had cut from the carcasses of antelope and hawks, the caravan got underway. This time it was Hulean who struck up the conversation as they set out on the first leg of the day’s journey.
“Will we actually journey back to meet with those Slithers?” he asked. Vaenuth couldn’t tell if he was speaking incredulously or with excitement. He had seen the bodies. They all had.
She glanced back at him, but couldn’t look for long because of the rising sun at their backs.
Banno looked at her, and then answered, “Of course we will.”
Vae smiled at him, and he looked back ahead of them. She couldn’t tell if he was angry at her about something or just tired and sad. “They saved lives, and have been nothing but kind to us,” she told Hulean.
“Good,” he replied. “They seem like good people.”
He got a raised eyebrow from Tagg. Vaenuth knew that Tagg would never step out of line—he was one of her most loyal followers. But he had no love for Slithers of any kind, and he seemed offended that Hulean appreciated their decision. “…right up until they take a bite of you,” the seasoned warrior muttered beneath his breath.
“Tagg,” Banno said, sternly. The man silenced his mumbling and they continued to ride in silence.
“The way that you run this group,” Hulean said, after riding closer to Vaenuth. “Well, I think I’ll be around for a while.” He didn’t say more than that, and his horse guided him away from her before she could think of a reply.
“Look,” Banno said.
Ahead, the land dipped down from horizon in a wide, but shallow river canyon. Vaenuth could see a variety of mosses against the steely grey water’s edge, scattered, but soft. There were no trees anywhere nearby, and the land didn’t lower into a proper canyon within their view. They’d have to follow the river, small though it was, in the hopes of reaching one of the Logren’s towns. If this even was the Logren.
“This is it,” said Crann, one of their scouts. He cantered up on his brown steed, smiling. They had been riding along the river canyon for two hours already.
“There’s a town?” Vae asked.
Crann nodded. “It’s a big town, not just a little village,” he said. “I didn’t get anywhere near it, but spotted it and headed this way. It’ll be a few hours with the group yet.”
“Lead the way,” Vaenuth said, with a smile.
And a few hours it was. The sun beat down from overhead and the wind blew sand at them, sometimes coating the exterior of their loose robes with piles of dirt. Vaenuth was thankful for the river; the canyon was moist enough not to be effected by the wind. In fact, sometimes the wind blew off the water with a coolness that eased their sweating skin.
Vaenuth was surprised when the town came into view. The river canyon had opened up even wider, with the occasional rock pillar jutting up amidst it. On one side, moss and the occasional tuft of tall grass grew in damp soil, while the other side was a slow moving peat bog, full of rotting greenery deposited from upstream. Ahead, the town rose from the river itself, spanning right across it. The walls were massive squares of rock, turned on their side, jutting up in random directions. Here was a point, there a crevice, all random. No ramparts or look outs, just a slab wall around the town. No buildings were visible from outside, but a few columns of smoke made it clear that someone was working within.
From the edge of the rocky desert terrain ran a wooden boardwalk. On stones or wooden stilts it connected the desert to the town, which raised the five to ten feet from the bottom of the shallow river lowland. Vaenuth had her wagons and a handful of guards wait at the edge of the walkway, while she took Tagg, Banno, Hulean, Pressip and the scout, Crann. Lurro, their map keeper and horse caretaker was already by her side when she dismounted Belmyre and handed him the rains.
Their riding boots thumped off the wood as Banno and she led the way along the boardwalk toward the gate of the town. The gate, it turned out, was an opening created by two angular slabs of rock in the walls; the townsfolk had put a bunch of wooden boards in the opening and a makeshift door.
“Who goes there?” a voice shouted, when they were about halfway across the twenty-foot walk.
Vaenuth stepped ahead, and held out her empty hands, though she couldn’t see anyone yet. “Traders, from Numa’nakres,” she called back. “We have supplies and coin, whichever is more desirable to you.”
“Little use for coin out here,” came the reply from within the town. It was a man’s voice, rough and low pitched. “What supplies?”
“Food, cloth, spice,” she replied. “It has been a long journey and we desire some shelter above all.”
“Of course,” the man replied. “There’s a crate against the outside of the wall. Leave all your weapons in it, and let me know once you have done so.”
They were close enough to hear all of his words now, and Vaenuth nodded. “Very well,” she said. She sent Pressip back to get the caravan. One after another, everyone put their spears, swords, daggers, and bows into the crate. “Pressip and Crann,” she said. “I want you two out here, on guard.”
“We want one man to stay armed,” Vaenuth called. “We don’t know what arms you hold.”
For a while there was no reply, and she suspected they were discussing her terms. “Very well. One sword, that’s all.”
“Tagg, that’s you,” Vae said. He gave her a smile and snatched his sword back out of the chest. Banno gave Vae a sideways look, but didn’t say anything.
Then the door of the town creaked open, and a man that rivaled Banno’s size emerged. His skin was like onyx, and his sword had a white bone handle. The skull tattooed on his chest added to the effect. “I’m Mae,” he said.
“Mae,” Vaenuth said, dryly. It was a light sounding name for such a burly man.
“Yes,” he grunted. “Your name?”
“Vaenuth,” she said, pulling off her veil. She ran one hand through her hair to settle it on the right side of her head. “This is Banno. This is Tagg; he’ll be hanging onto that sword. Just for our safety.”
“Of course. Welcome to our town,” Mae said. He had an odd accent that Vaenuth couldn’t place. Could be they developed their own diction out here, on the edge of the world.
“Does it have a name?” Banno asked.
Mae smiled. His teeth were all half-rotted. “Nothing like that,” he said. “We just call it the town.”
“We’ll call it Logren then,” Vaenuth said.
Mae laughed. “Haven’t heard that word in a long time,” he said. “This way, folks. We’ll show you to some housing you can use. We’ll discuss trade tomorrow. It’s starting to get a little late for my liking.”
Vaenuth nodded and agreed. The big man led her and Tagg through the door. There was a long hallway built out of wood, with openings for spears or arrows, she presumed. Once they cleared that bailey, they entered the rundown main street of the village. Though it may once have been cobbled, a sandy white gravel paved the main way through the town, while the buildings were built out of a bright beige brick. Their architecture was very simple, just small, sturdy, square buildings. It took Vaenuth a moment to realize that more than half of the buildings were empty; they walked past open door, after open door. There were still a few hundred people here, she guessed, but enough lodging for a couple thousand.
“I wonder what happened here,” Tagg muttered.
“Time,” said Hulean. Vaenuth looked back at him and was surprised to see a sad look on his face. He shrugged and smiled, when he saw her eyes.
They parked their wagons near the main street and Lurro kept a couple men to help him care for the horses. Belmyre reached out his face for a scratch as Vaenuth walked by. Hulean was probably right; there was no signs of struggle or disaster in the town. Just empty streets and empty homes.
The caravan got beds and bedrooms to sleep in that night, and kitchens to use in the morning. They got their houses while they stayed in Logren. For Vaenuth, that was a very odd feeling, and she had even more trouble than usual getting to sleep. She had always hated looking at bedroom ceilings. She owned an apartment in Rema, but only used it when she had to. She hadn’t been back there in what felt like eons, and, right now in the small sandy village, it seemed like it was on the other side of the world.