Outlanders

Chapter 19: Gathering

At a secluded dock, a strange ship pulled in and extended its gangplank. Qasikay stepped onto solid ground with the outlanders, each of whom carried what riches they could hold.

"It's empty," said Eva. "Just like you said, Caldus."

"The girl's a marvel," said Astrapi.

"I know this place well," Caldus replied. "No one will look for us here."

"I will guard the ship," said Qasikay. "Find mercenaries, and I will find more ships to carry them."

"Give us two months," said Zoltána, "and you'll have your army."

After one last meal over a crackling fire, they parted ways.

* * *

Days later, in a tavern in the north, Leif sat down heavily in front of the bar, panting lightly.

"Good evening," said the barkeep, a human woman with thin blond hair and smart blue eyes. "It's a surprise to see another lupine already."

"Evening," said Leif absently. He handed over a few coins. "Mead, please. And can I have it in a bowl?"

"Of course."

The barkeep handed over a shallow bowl. As Leif took it, his ears shot up. "Wait," he said, "did you say 'another lupine?' When was the last one here?"

"Just yesterday morning."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"Why do you want to know?" asked the barkeep, eyes narrowing.

"Hold on a moment." Leif dug something from one of his pouches. "This is why."

Leif handed over a paper that looked like a handwritten bounty poster. Unfurling it, the barkeep found a square of dense writing that summarized the war between the factory bosses and some people called the Inti. It finished with a call for mercenaries. As Leif quietly lapped at his mead, the barkeep read the entire notice without batting an eye.

"You seek to recruit the lupine girl?" she said, lowering the paper.

"Not exactly," said Leif, "I'm hoping to get this message to my home in the northern mountains. But there are two problems. Firstly, none of us read back up north. Secondly... well, I'm not allowed to go back there anymore. I need someone else to deliver that message in person."

"I'm sure there are plenty of people willing to do that, so long as you sweeten the deal with a few coins."

"I'm sure they would too, but there's a certain impact to sending one of my own that a human just wouldn't carry. I think you already know this, but we don't leave the mountains very much at all, and we almost never come back. When we do, it's only for reasons like this."

Nodding, the barkeep handed back the paper and said, "That girl said she was heading for the floodlands. I think she wanted to be a sailor. When she was here, she seemed like the sort who'd make a journey for something like this, but you never know."

"Thanks," said Leif. He set down the emptied bowl. "I have to go."

* * *

Caldus trudged through an immaculately paved stone street, feeling small for the first time in years. On either side of her, ribbed marble columns rose before the fastidious geometry of palatial houses. Citizens marched in and out of their gaping doorways, counting money, scribbling on parchment and bantering.

In the middle of the road ahead, a Textile Town magnate, unmistakable in his scruffy suit and ragged black beard, listened to a local senator. A swarm of slaves waited on the two, sweeping the street ahead and shooing away the traffic.