Heart of Dorkness

Scourge Twenty-Seven - Castaneda

I catch my first glimpse of the city as an orange glow in the sky ahead. It’s not hard to see it, not with the low clouds above, framed by a few glimmers of star light.

The carts rattle and bang, the same as always but it feels as if they’re a lot louder now that it’s dark out. The sound carries strangely at night, and I can easily imagine there being eyes watching us pass from within the woods.

Well, alright, there probably are eyes watching us in the woods. I’ve sent out some of my little friends to gather some monsters, and I have the impression that there’s a good number of them trailing after us.

If we’re ambushed again, I want to make sure it’s entirely one-sided once the monsters come out.

“This is actually kind of nice,” Felix says. She’s walking along next to me, almost skipping across the ground with her arms folded behind her head. “It’s cool, you know?” She puckers her lips and breathes out a faint plume of pale vapours that dissipate almost immediately.

I glance away with a huff. “You’re just saying that because your feet don’t hurt,” I say.

“Yours still hurt?”

“Well, no, I’m sending dark magic to them. It’s making them all hard, but it doesn’t hurt. It’s annoying to focus on that and walking and looking around at the same time though.”

Felix grins. “Good practice then,” she says.

I smack her shoulder and she laughs as she ducks away.

The caravan is a little island of flickering orange-red in a sea of blacks and dark blues. The moon isn’t full tonight, but it is up above us, a quarter moon, with some of the rocky bits floating around it glowing white too.

Esme is sitting on the back of the cart that I’d come to think of as ‘ours’ and Bianca’s keeping pace with Felix and I, though she is a few steps back.

“I hope that’s Castaneda’s Stop over there,” I say. I can’t make out too much of the city ahead. There are walls all around it, and the land on this side of the city seems like it’s all been turned into farmland. There are a few fences that I guess are for animals, and plenty of... I guess that might be wheat?

I barely know anything about farmable plants, certainly not enough to guess what they are in near-darkness.

“That’s it, yes,” Bianca says. “It’s a flourishing little place right now.”

“It looks about the same size as Vizeda,” I say. I’m not entirely sure if that’s accurate, but at a guess I’m not too far off the mark. The walls are about the same size, with the same look to them too, towers sprouting up every fifty or so metres and a big gatehouse at the end of the road.

“I think it’s still quite a bit smaller,” Bianca says. “You’ll see once we’re inside, the houses aren't packed in as densely.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” I say. “I don’t recall seeing this place on the map.”

“It’s technically not a city yet,” Bianca says. “At least, not according to the laws pertaining to such things. For the Republic to recognize a city it needs to be ruled by one of the great families. Castaneda’s Stop is run by one of the minor families who haven’t been recognized yet.”

“That’s a lot of yets,” Felix says.

“I suppose so. This used to be barely more than an inn and a tiny fort, like a few of the places we passed already.”

“It looks like more than just that now,” I say.

Bianca chuckles. “Yes, well, the location is pretty good. This is a crossroads. Continue east and the road splits two ways, towards the capital and towards Algecante. Go south and you’re heading on the main road to Nafpakri.”

“And back where we came is Vizeda,” Felix says. “Sounds like an obvious place for a city, yeah.”

“More or less. I don’t know if there’s anything in the region to support a full-sized city. It can’t thrive on trade alone, I don’t think. But the Castaneda are a clever family. I heard that they’ve been hiring smiths and breeding horses. They also build carriages and carts here.”

I nod. “All stuff that traders need, I bet. Yeah, that is pretty clever.”

We continue down the path towards the city. I can tell that some guards notice us coming because there are lights bobbing around the gatehouse.

Esteban barks a few orders back, and Teo jogs ahead of the caravan and to the gate while we all come to a slow stop. Suddenly not-walking is... strange. My legs feel like they should keep going, but there’s just no energy left in them. It’s a weird, contradictory feeling.

“I think we should find an inn,” I say. “A nice one. With soft beds.”

“And baths,” Felix adds.

“A quiet one,” Esme sighs.

“Um, one who isn’t too expensive?” Bianca tries.

I hold back a giggle for just a moment before it squeaks out. Felix, never one to pass up the chance to laugh, joins in, of course.

I can’t hear what Teo says to the guards, but it’s enough to convince them that we’re not trouble. The gate rumbles open and soon we’re all entering Castaneda’s Stop.

The inside of the walls leads immediately onto the city. No grand kill-box or inner walls. The city looks nice though, with pretty homes all along the street, each given a bit of room for some gardens and maybe a tree here or there. The roads are wide too, at least the main thoroughfare cutting down the middle.

I don’t even notice Teo coming up behind us I’m so distracted. “Girls,” he says. “I think this is where we part ways. We have the last of our cargo to unload, but after that, we’re done.”

“You’re going to leave tonight?” I ask.

“Walking so late into the evening was a risk already. Doing it again would be foolhardy. Besides, the animals need sleep and... well, so do the rest of us.” Teo grimaces as he reaches into a purse by his hip. He fishes out a few coins, then hands one out to me. “We didn’t have any sort of contract, so I don’t see the point in formalities. Here’s your pay. Thank you.”

“Uh, thank you,” I say as I take the coin and flip it around. One silver, with an engraving of a castle with seven flags on one side and someone’s face on the other. I watch Teo give the others their coins while I pocket mine. “That was... fun, I guess.”

Teo chuckles. “I suppose it was memorable, at least. You know, I hired you mostly on a whim. Bandits won’t attack a caravan with more people on it, and cultivators can be worth their weight in trouble. I didn’t expect ambushes and undead.”

“I don’t think people usually expect ambushes, that’s kind of how they work,” Esme says.

Teo nods. “I suppose so. Anyway, it was nice working with you. Interesting. I hope you stay safe. These are, well, these are interesting times.”

“Cursed to live in interesting times,” Bianca says with the low tones of someone quoting something.

“Things aren’t that bad,” I say. “It’s just one cult of idiots running around and making a mess of things. We’ll get to the bottom of it.”

“You mean the proper authorities will get to the bottom of it,” Teo says very carefully.

I nod. “Yeah, of course. Anyway, it was a neat experience.” I extend a hand to shake and Teo takes it. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know if there’s a good inn around here?”

Teo gestures to a building not too far off. “That’s the Lame Horse, it’s... well, it’s inexpensive. We usually stay there. The nicest inn is in the city square. It’s called Castaneda’s.”

“Same as the city?”

“Same name. They charge a premium though. You can expect to pay a silver a night, easily.”

“Well then, I guess you just paid us our first night’s stay. Thanks a bunch Teo, we’ll maybe run into each other again one day!”

Teo looks a bit conflicted at that before he runs off back to the caravan.

We pick up our stuff, and then, with a stifled yawn, I start towards the centre of the city.

“Are we going to that fancy inn?” Felix asks.

“That’s the idea. I hardly spent any gold on this trip, you know. Using some for some nice lodgings wouldn’t hurt.”

“And what about tomorrow?” Esme asks.

I consider it. There’s a lot of stuff left to do. We need to learn more about that temple that’s been destroyed. This place is a lot closer, so maybe there are rumours we can pick up about it. Esme still needs to head over to that cache to pick up clues about it, and I’m guessing that Bianca isn’t just following us for fun. She’s been nice company, but I bet there’s something she wants.

That’s not to mention all the trouble with Altum and his little cultists. I’d need to be pretty blind not to see that something fishy is going on, and I’d need to be a lot more reserved than I am not to stick my nose in it.

So, basically, there’s a lot of stuff I could use tomorrow for.

“How about we just sleep all day?” I decide.

***