061 – Bridges, Barges, and Local Politics

Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 80

This has been some vacation. Hike across the continent in one direction, only to reverse course once we get to the first stop. In the meantime the people with the real prize are running in a third direction. I have been doing some math - give or take, Caspian and I are in excess of 1500 miles since we started, and maybe more than that.

The last week has been nothing but rolling prairie. Open range for large herds, a few areas of fenced or walled farmlands, occasional stands of trees around pools on the streams that give shape to the land. A few towns here and there, though mostly little bigger than villages, where people congregate punctuated by irrigation and sanitation canals and pools. Most of the houses and barns are like those I saw in the Jemed Highlands – dug-out structures with sod or thatched roofs sticking out of the side of the tallest local hill. Caspian says that there are three such large expanses across the north half of this continent.

On one hand the boredom has given Rox and Caspian more time to practice her magic. Some things she is apparently very good at – others she is not. I have been practicing my sword as I could. Being astride is not conducive to that much, though.

We encountered some of the local racism: one town completely shunned Rox, and us for our affiliation with her. They would not even explain why.

The village we left this morning said we have two more days before we get to the mountains on the horizon. All the streams we cross flow increasingly to the east, and south. Caspian said there is a large river to cross before those mountains

The traffic brought them to their turn at the city gate after seeing it on the horizon for an hour. The way the hills rolled, the hill the road climbed after the gate was the only thing at their level that they could see beyond the gate. Little more than a couple of thatched dug-outs with uncut stone columns flanking the road; the gate was guarded by a handful of armed clerks.

At the top of the hill, the city beyond spread across the flood plane that flanked the side of a river that Steven judged to be comparable to the Missouri or any other large continental river.

Rox agreed, as she urged her horse forward, taking the lead.

The river valley itself was several miles wide. The river worked its way south in a leisurely pace, though not always in uniform fashion. The city was mostly wood framed structures, with some masonry here and there; cobbles lined the streets, boardwalks the sides. The hill they descended into the valley looked to Steven like a military creation, to defend the city from direct attack from the plains. Said hill stretched north and south, while the lay of the land was more flowing. The city spread north and south along the flood plane of the river as well with identifiable streets and districts. There were no bridges across the river, the cross traffic appearing to be all boats. Traffic was also plying up and down the length of the river.

On the far side the city appeared to be equal counterpart to this side.

Rox turned to Caspian as they came to the outer ranks of structures.

“Why are there no bridges across the river? It does not look to be more than several hundred yards across at some of the narrow points.”

Caspian shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you for sure. I can think of three reasons, outside of ‘politics.’ First, they lack the funds, materials and skills to build the bridges. Second, the ground is not able to support a stable bridge, which can be built for reasonable cost. Third, they cannot build a bridge sufficient for the larger boats to cross under.”

Rox nodded. “For politics, I guess the most quickly available answer is the shore workers raising a fuss about being put out of work.”

Steven tossed his two cents into the conversation. “Or any other group raising a fuss about costs. Or there has never been a military need for a bridge here.”

The main road quickly passed through the residential outskirts into the markets, warehouses, and dockyards. Here they were directly taken aboard a ferry barge. The traffic was such that they did not wait long before the barge cast off and started across the river. Pole men and oar men propelled the barge across the river.

Once unloaded, Caspian turned them aside from the main road on this side and into a market. “As we discussed, it is time to resupply.”

Rox looked at Steven. “It seems that all we are doing so far is traveling, and buying more supplies.”

Steven looked around. “Would you rather get in a fight? Or have some lovable street urchin make off with all your money? How about find a cave to crawl around in and find some mad creature with a magic ring?” As he said this, Steven remembered how an unguarded moment in a prior village had resulted in loosing a bit of money.

“On the other hand, neither of us knows exactly where we are going, or speaks any language that we can trust to get us all the way there. Already the people we are among are speaking a different language that what we were among two weeks ago.”

Rox had noticed. Caspian had slipped into a language that the Caplan’s had heard among the caravaner's they had mixed with. She meant to bring it up to Caspian, but had not got around to it, yet. It was time to do so.

They caught up to where Caspian was dismounted and bargaining to temporarily leave the horses and mules. He turned to them.

“We can leave the animals here, and go get the food we need, and be on our way in no time.” Caspian handed his reins to a woman at the paddock, and stood aside, waiting.

Steven dismounted and pulled the lead from the back of his saddle, and with the reins for his horse gave both animals to a young man. Rox followed suit, as Steven turned to her mule and pulled the bag with the money from it.

One of the first instances of advanced magic Caspian had shown Rox was disguising the bag. It did not clink; it looked like it was stuffed with clothes from the outside, and weighed as much as a laundry bag.

Rox stepped to Steven’s side, with the bag between them, and they followed Caspian into the market. Unlike some of the people on the plains, these took little notice of the Caplan’s. Then they saw them: about half a dozen very tall figures. These all had dark hair that hung down, were head and shoulders taller than Steven, nearly twice as tall as the shorter locals, and had darker skin tones. As the groups plied the market, they noticed and appraised Rox and Steven, but passed on without any making any kind of issue.

Steven noticed and called something to Rox’s attention later. Their cloaks looked to have nylon inner linings, and they wore webbing belts instead of leather. Two wore swords, one a single, the other a pair of long and short. The swords had a subtle ‘s’-curve to them that reminded Steven of Japanese swords, but with the handle curved against the direction of the blade. The group moved on and was not seen again, but as Steven spared the attention to watch, he noticed that the locals treated the tall figures as no more remarkable than each other.

Rox stopped a wandering minstrel and tried to communicate. Unfortunately the language barrier prevented anything useful. Caspian stepped in using the Traders Cant and translated Rox’s question about the commonality of elves in the city. The minstrel replied that tall elves were unusual, but common enough. The shorter underground elves were truly rare, but not unheard of, particularly around the slaver’s section.

With their shopping finished, they returned to the paddock where they had left their animals, loaded their supplies onto the mules, checked everything else back over, and with everything ready saddled up and headed out. Caspian rode to the back of the column, to watch that nothing was removed as they rode out. Nothing happened, though there was one attempt at steeling a bag of vegetables. Caspian smacked the hands with his staff, probably breaking a bone or two, and then dropped a few coins onto the boy’s arms as he clutched at his hurt hand.

They climbed the east side of the river valley and up onto the flats between the river and the foot hills. Leaving the city gates behind, the road headed south east across the foot hills. The next day they followed it up a river canyon into the mountains.

Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 84

Two days of climbing canyons, back into the high valleys.

On other subjects, Caspian has been teaching us the Merchant’s Cant, by magic and otherwise.

Rox took her turn making dinner in the pot, as the men put the rest of the camp together. Once camp was set, they turned to slaughtering another deer. This time Caspian watched, instructing as needed, as Steven worked his way through the process. A handful of the meat was given to Rox for the evening meal. The hide was set out for stretching and tanning, as the rest was sorted and put in a pit for burial, or wrapped for travel.

The dinner conversation turned to how much farther. Rox asked the direct question to Caspian. 

Caspian looked at the sky; Rox felt him cast a spell of some kind. Steven and Rox both continued eating. Then the spell came back, and Caspian returned to them.

“I sense we are a little over half way, straight line. Most of our travel now is going to be working our way through this and the connected mountain ranges into elf-country. We are done with the plains.”

Steven picked up his journal and paged through it, counting days. “We are some thirty days along. About 25 miles as an average, gives us about . . . “

Rox answered first. “750 plus miles. I would say about 650 of those moving away from the coast. And you say that we are about half way there?  So, another month of mountain travel. You once said Shalaia is a mountain city. I suppose this will help up to get acclimated to the altitude.”

Steven put his journal aside. “This time on top of the two months of time to get to Veradale. This is some summer vacation for the kids. Is there any way we can go faster?”

Caspian looked at the couple looking at him. He sighed.

“Yes, I can teleport, as I have previously said. But I cannot do so safely to the elf city, without a target to land on. I neglected to consider that I would want one when I was last there. I do not have the detailed scanning abilities that The Sorceress in Veradale has. Also the general area and the city we are going to in particular have protective spells that prevent me from finding anything in the area that I could use as a target. I could scan the area between here and there and try a few jumps, but that is dangerous to do, and I am not willing to risk your lives, let alone these animals with wild jumps. Therefore, without help from their end, we are left with getting there the traditional way.”

Rox deadpanned the end of the conversation. “I am guessing that is deliberate on their part. And that means another month on the road. There is a bug in your food.”

Steven and Caspian both checked their plates, and Steven flicked a chunk of vegetable out of his food into the fire.

Caspian put in the last word. “At least it’s summer time. Last time I was in the general area, it was still snow packed.”