Creative Commons – The Plainsrunner – Chapter Thirteen

Announcement

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Everything changes now for Sage. Please let me know in the comments whether you’re enjoying this. And subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

rjb

Chapter Thirteen – The City

Street was right. It was most of a day to the city.

Sage spent the night in the shelter, where she had her first good sleep in a month. The shelter was secure. It was solidly built and would keep out the most persistent night stalkers. It was backed against the bank, with a good view of the broad valley. The roof was snug and the interior was protected from the elements, even the coastal rains. It was a relief to sleep lying down for a change, and she even closed her side eyes that night.

She had the place to herself, her only company being insects and some small insectivores. She told the little animals, “Don’t worry. If you don’t bother me, I won’t bother you.” Then she turned and removed her panniers, standing them on a low shelf that was obviously built for that purpose. It was long enough to hold all the panniers of a whole trading party, like the one she’d just met. There was also a rope strung up for hanging blankets, which she used.

In a back corner, below a set of cupboards, was a water trough with a pump standing over it. She walked over and had a good drink, finding the water cool and clean. There was a basin next to the trough, which could be plugged and filled for ablutions. She used it immediately, washing her face and her ears and other parts that hadn’t had a good cleaning in far too long. The floor there was gravel and the water she splashed on it sank in and disappeared. As she was toweling dry, she walked over to the window in the front of the shelter, raised the shutters and looked down. There she saw her water trickling down and away.

She left the shutters open and went back to see what was in the cupboards. She found a small stock of non-perishable foods. Some grain in sealed canisters. Smoked and salted meat wrapped in fabric and hanging on hooks. Dried fruit and vegetables. Even some hard crackers. She was tempted, after so long on a limited and sometimes disgusting diet, to gorge herself. She didn’t, though. She had her own food and she didn’t need to eat any of this stuff. It was obviously left here by the traders for themselves. It might even serve as emergency provisions for someone in need. She felt it would be wrong to take this food, especially since she had nothing that was good enough to replace it.

When it was time to eat, Sage choked down the last of her day runner haunch, then followed it with some left over fish to try to cover the taste. It didn’t completely work. She had some roots and some shriveled berries, and followed it with some savory leaves and stalks that she liked to have to finish her meal. She noticed that she was still alert and wary while she ate, even though she was safe inside this shelter. She didn’t stop, though. It wouldn’t do to let down her guard too soon. “You’re not there yet,” she told herself. Then she went to the cupboard and helped herself to some of the dried fruit. “Just a taste,” she said.

After eating she stood by the window and watched the daylight fade and the night settle in. She looked at the stars for a while, then closed the shutters and prepared for sleep. She didn’t bother lighting her torch, or any of the ones there, but just let the darkness fill the hut. Her last thoughts before drifting off were of the city. Tomorrow she would be there, and this was her last night out on the land. In a way, that made her more nervous than the prospect of being alone, even against the many dangers out here.

When she left in the morning, Sage left behind her torch and the coil of fuel she’d made from the dead flier. She didn’t have any food good enough to leave them, but maybe the torch and fuel would be adequate payment for her use of their shelter. She didn’t think she’d be needing the torch anyway. Surely they would have plenty of torches in the city.

Her walk that day was uneventful. She followed the road, which was packed earth at first, but some kind of stony substance for the last few kilometers. She saw no day runners, and there were no day fliers, but that didn’t mean she relaxed her vigilance, nor did she put her spear in its sheath. She wasn’t going to come all this way only to be killed this close to her goal.

When the Sun was low in the western sky, Sage stood looking at the tall buildings on the other side of the river channel in front of her. Between the bridge and the big towers was a large, ramshackle cluster of smaller buildings. Now she could identify the source of the smell that had been growing stronger for the last two hours.

She sheathed her spear and walked slowly across the bridge, looking at the warren of shacks on the other side. Most of them had smoke coming out of them, either from a makeshift chimney, or simply from a hole in the roof. She guessed they were probably cooking their evening meal. This smoky, stinking scene stretched away to both her left and right, crowded in between the river and the big buildings about half a kilometer away. Looking down over the side of the bridge at the fouled water of the river, she could tell that these people were using it for sewage and garbage disposal.

That was confirmed when she stepped off the other end of the bridge and saw an open sewer running beside the road and emptying directly into the water. She stopped walking. With her eyes roving over the squalor, she asked herself if she wanted to go in there. If this is what the city was like, then maybe everybody was right to say it was evil. Maybe she would be better off staying out on the land, taking her chances with all its dangers. Maybe she’d die, but at least it would be a clean death. Not wallowing in this filth among people who didn’t know how to live.

She looked up at the tall buildings again. Might it be better in there? She shook her head. Probably just more people, she thought, making more filth. She stood there for a long time, thinking. She looked over her shoulder, back along the road through the broad valley. In the distance the land rose and she knew the plains were up there, with grass and sentinel trees. She could do it. She could find a place to live, maybe on the river. The water was clean up there. She could build a shelter so she didn’t have to sleep with her eyes open. She wouldn’t be spending all day walking, so she wouldn’t have to worry about the fliers. There would be fish. She would have plenty to eat. She could do it.

She turned back and looked at the city. She knew she didn’t want to live in the foul mess right in front of her, but she realized that she didn’t know anything about the part beyond. She nodded her head and started her feet moving. She’d check it out. If she didn’t like it, she could always leave. But if she left without finding out, after coming all this way, she knew she would always wonder about it.

As she was walking on the hard road through the slum, Sage realized that her feet hurt. She’d walked a thousand kilometers across the plain without any pain, but after a few hours on this stony surface they were starting to hurt. She snorted and kept going. If she decided to stay, then she’d have to get used to it. If she decided to leave, then she would soon be back in the shortgrass prairie again, where her feet wouldn’t hurt.

She tried not to look as she passed between the shacks. She didn’t want to embarrass these people by staring, but she couldn’t stop her prey eyes from seeing. There were a few people out in the late afternoon light, walking somewhere in one of the small, haphazard lanes. Roads, she reminded herself. No, streets. Street said roads in the city were streets. So, a few people in the narrow, crooked streets, going somewhere or just standing there. Those who noticed her just glanced and looked away, uninterested. Except the children. If they saw her, they stopped whatever they were doing and stared at her, their dirty faces open with curiosity, until she passed from their sight.

In the time it took her to get from the bridge to the first of the big buildings, the Sun set. As she stepped between the walls on either side of the street, it seemed to suddenly become twilight. Slower now, more cautiously, she moved up the street, deeper into what felt like its gloom. Her eyes adjusted and she could soon see properly again, but the feeling didn’t go away. Her right hand came down to rest on the hilt of her knife, and her left hand flexed, anticipating the shaft of her spear.

She went a hundred meters without seeing anyone. The street continued straight. She’d passed two cross streets that led away left and right, and was just approaching another when she heard a stealthy sound behind her.

She spun, her knife in her hand and her spear coming out of its sheath, and saw two people. She let out her breath and relaxed a little. It wasn’t a predator.