Tak

The Borderlands - Part 4

     They arrived at the market town on the third day after leaving their homestead, on the evening before the first day of market. They had been making good time and might have arrived two hours earlier, allowing them to pick a better spot, but while crossing a narrow gulch where a river had once run they'd broken a wheel on a rock and Tak's parents had used up the rest of the morning fitting the spare.

     "Will it cost much to repair?" asked Tak's mother anxiously as her husband strapped the broken wheel to the side of the wagon.

     "It won't be cheap," he replied gruffly, knowing what they were all thinking. A spare wheel for each wagon was one of the life or death essentials they had to have. Paying for the repair would eat heavily into the spare cash they'd set aside for luxuries. It would all depend on what the wheelwright demanded for the job.

     "You're a good haggler," his mother said confidently. "You'll get it done good and cheap."

     "I'll do my damndest," his father had replied. "I'm supposed to be the provider for this family and it's about time I began providing."

     Their mood lifted as they got their first glimpse of the market town, though. The yellow sun was just touching the horizon, although the red sun was still high in the sky, and Tak's father was driving the horses to greater speed, not wanting to spend another night out in the open. The town's gates would close the moment night fell, the borderlands being far too dangerous to take the risk of leaving them open, and if they arrived late they would have to wait outside while those inside picked out all the best offers and bargains. Tak's father watched the sinking sun with a greater and greater feeling of urgency, therefore, but then he shouted, bringing his slumbering children back to full wakefulness with a start. "We're here!" he cried, pointing. "Look!"

     Even the baby was infected by the excitement they all felt when they saw the walled town ahead of them, and he gurgled happily in Laira's arms. The encircling wall of quarried stone was fifteen feet high, with a wide walkway along the top along which men in leather armour patrolled. Behind it they saw the upper storeys of tall buildings of red brick and grey tile. This was a favourite spot for sholog raids, hungry for the riches within. Far more than could be found in the cabins of the surrounding homesteads, and although there hadn't been any trouble for several years now the guards remained ever vigilant, aware that Jalla was the only human habitation within fifty miles capable of putting up a defence. In the event of a sholog incursion, all the homesteaders in the area would head for the safety of its walls and every able bodied man would aid in its defence until reinforcements could be called from Ammerfast, the nearest border fort. This had last happened when Tak was only a baby, and he had no memory of it.

     "It's so huge!" he said excitedly, staring ahead as they approached. "Look how big it is!"

     He expected his father to give an equally excited reply, but instead he just looked guilty and ashamed. Years in the future, Tak would remember and understand. During his army days his father had journeyed all over the known world from coast from coast and had seen most of the great cities of humanity, including Yinnfarsia the Golden and great Hath-Talor with its three towers of marble, obsidian and gold. He saw the market town for what it was. A few dozen buildings huddled together for mutual protection in a hostile land. The excitement of his children as they were overwhelmed by the size of the market town had made him shrink with shame, therefore. They had seen nothing of the world. They deserved better than to spend the rest of their lives in trudgery and toil, coaxing stubborn crops out of the hard, barren land. There were wonders out there. Wonders that he would have dearly loved to share with them. The crystal fountains of Festria. The perfumed gardens of Jug-Ja-Rahla. The harbours of Agromay where tall masted ships set sail to all the cities of the Iron Coast. It must have broken his heart, future Tak had realised, to think that his children might live their whole lives thinking that the world ended at the dusty horizon.