Frays In The Weave 9 Departure: 1

He knew how to ride. Every n.o.bleman learned, but he had never sat a horse for days at end. That the horses had only been half trained didn't make it any better. A suitable lesson in obedience. The very words of old Ricah. Suitable my a.r.s.e! And literally so, he recalled when the horse nervously sidestepped a non-existent threat and reminded him that not all parts of his body had healed from those first aching, awful days.

There were advantages to being mounted though. He ruefully admitted that as he pa.s.sed a column of marching infantry.

To Gaz, they were headed for Gaz.

Someone had arrived at the broken gates of Belgera only a day after outworlder weapons almost tore the capital apart. Someone with promises and demands.

I wonder which the council valued the most, the promises or the demands. If they can sc.r.a.pe together a full city watch of armed men I'll be surprised.

And now the city was all but disarmed and the caravan he'd been a.s.signed to escorted by an army.

Karia cursed whatever G.o.d had gifted the council with an evil sense of humour and rode on. With some luck he'd learn who had interceded on his behalf, and his sworn men. No execution. A year's worth of unpaid escort duty instead. Well, he was unpaid. Twenty sworn men would receive their due when they returned, from his personal allowance of course. In reality it translated into being expelled in disgrace for life. What a gherin sp.a.w.ned way of repaying someone for saving their capital!

But the sun shone, the wind flew brisk and clear in his face and he was young yet. Life was irresistible and he couldn't stay sour for long. Not his way and had never been. With some luck he would get a word or two with the captain from Ri Khi. The very female captain, and pleasant to look at as well. That she had refused his earlier attempts, frankly and with a laugh, bothered him not the least. He wanted pleasant talk, not a warm body.

Still what an idiot that master merchant must be. Winning a prize like her and then vanish from the city and leave her behind.

#

Major Heinrich Goldberger, TADAT, flicked on the scanner. From infrred to ultraviolet. No, nothing out of the normal. Nothing, at least, that could be seen by means of federation technology. Here on Otherworld there were ways of hiding things that no scanner could reveal. Both aliens, and he could call them nothing but aliens, had showed him how the mind could be suggested to pay no heed to what was there. Heinrich drew a deep breath. That the giant ape and the beautiful, oh so beautiful, woman with the golden eyes shared professions was still a riddle to him.

Heinrich growled, flicked the scanners off and raised his visor. He didn't need any enhancers to see the endless train of primitive wagons slowly making their way to Keen, the far away nation where he could make contact with the launch port again. Primitive or not, the wagon train was an awesome sight anyway. Five hundred wagons drawn by horses, mules, oxen and a few by enormous six legged lizards he'd been told were tamed and safe. They had better be, Heinrich thought grimly. At over three meters in height and close to double that in length they looked like dinosaurs, dinosaurs shimmering in metallic blue and red. If he got caught under one of them it would crush him, body walker or not. The exoskeleton armour was not designed to handle having a cargo container thrown at it.

Heinrich willed himself into motion and hydraulic engines carried him on reinforced legs along the caravan. At least he could run faster than any of the monsters. He and his six men were the only ones who could make the distance between rear-guard and vanguard in decent time, and so they'd become couriers more than anything else. By now only a few of the horses shied from the sound of the body walker as he pa.s.sed them by. Heinrich chuckled. It had been different when they left Belgera, the capital of Braka, a few weeks earlier. Hundreds of horses stampeding with unhappy merchants running to catch them. An entire regiment of cavalry roaring with laughter while at the same time barely managing to keep their uneasy horses under control. Luckily no one had been hurt.

Heinrich ran on in the afternoon sun throwing light and melting snow on the fields. They were leaving Braka behind them and soon they'd be in unclaimed, more dangerous territory. He doubted the amount of danger though. The cavalry regiment rode in small groups all around the caravan. Infantry, two regiments or close to fifteen hundred men had joined them on their way here and now marched in columns closer to the wagons.

The most human looking alien, Neritan Hwain, had told him this was going to be a military operation as well as a trading expedition. A small neighbouring nation had committed some kind of atrocity and were to be punished. The caravan contained over three thousand barrels of poisonous minerals. Whatever else the hard faced inhabitants here were they were thorough. They intended to permanently wipe out a small town, and no matter what Heinrich thought about it it wasn't his decision to make. The planned operation struck a memory in him, but never the diligent student he only remembered it was part of his own history, not what part.

He increased his speed to a rumbling trot, fast enough to quickly leave any horse behind. h.e.l.l, fast enough to leave anyone but the hairy ape behind. She, because he'd come to know it was a she, had an amazing stamina, and to top it off she shared his practical view on life. Apart from her looks she could as well have been anyone of the hard-working miners in the belt, rigid sense of honour aside of course. Heinrich wondered about that. Apparently it was her own people who were to bear the brunt of the coming onslaught, but he'd never once heard her complain.

He shook his head, helmet swirling to adjust for his movements, and continued. Half an hour more and he'd reach the vanguard where Colonel Trindai de Laiden was usually to be found.