Agatine (Terres book II)

Chapter Four

Elyn awoke early the next morning and carefully crawled from the heap without awaking the other two. He nodded at the slowly rising sun and rubbed Jojo's shoulder. The camel groaned and rose to his feet, a mammoth creature almost as tall as Elyn was. It always startled him, just how large Jojo could seem when he wanted to.

"Let's get moving," he said as he tightened the cinch around the camel's belly. Jojo groaned, then snorted. Elyn climbed into the driver's seat and flicked the reins. Jojo shook his head, let out a long wheeze, and plodded forward. Elyn glanced behind him. Wren and Rannok were both still asleep, wings sprawled out across the floor of the wagon in a haphazard heap of limbs. He smiled and looked back toward the horizon. He hadn't realized the night before just how close they were to the city. He could see the tips of the spires poking up over the edge of the sky. 

"Come on, Jojo," he said. He flicked the reins down across Jojo's back and the camel picked up a steady lope. He wouldn't be able to keep it up for long, but every second that he did was another second they didn't have to spend out here in the godforsaken desert with the reavers and the diggers and the spiders and ants and snakes. He shuddered.

When he was alone like this, he couldn't stop his thoughts going back to his family. He wondered how his sister was doing, alone with her two children and no man now to keep the house. He doubted his mother, if she was even alive, would ever reopen the shops. Even if the caravan regained some sense of order--which he doubted--it was too much to do by herself, taking care of the little ones when his Shana slept all day because living was too hard. His eyes swelled suddenly and he blinked a few times. 

Jojo's lumbering strides ate up the cracked, brown earth like it was water and before he knew it the spires grew tall like needles out of the earth and the wagon started to squelch in the irrigation tracks dug all around the city. As they went on they deepened until he could see and hear the water flowing through them. Elyn pulled the camel up onto the road and prayed no one had seen. He flipped the cloak up over his head and tried not to draw attention to himself

Small green sprigs gave way to butter yellow corn plants almost as tall as Elyn's wagon. Jojo inclined his head toward them and Elyn snapped the reins and made an admonishing sound with his tongue. The animal groaned and plodded along, slowing his pace a little to sniff at the greenery.

A few more minutes in, the corn plants thinned and sparse fields of cabbages and beets and other plants took their place. Elyn breathed deep and the fragrant smell of plant matter filled his nose. He remembered the days when he'd lived in opaline and he and Shana had mud fights in the irrigation ditches and swam in the river outlets as they flowed out to the sea. Back in the days when she smiled more often than not and didn't look at him like he'd kicked her child every time they locked eyes.

He thought for a moment about waking Wren and Rannok, but the selfish need to have this moment to himself overtook it. They wouldn't appreciate it anyway. They'd lived in villages all their lives, away from the business and the crowds and the irrigation fields. Neither had seen the ocean or smelled its salt air or watched its waves dash upon the rocks when the winds got violent. They'd never swam in the river or watched houses crumble to dust to make way for new ones.

He hadn't realized how much he'd missed it. How much he belonged here. He wanted to jump from the cart and run to the river and laugh and throw mud at his friends, but that could wait until later. They'd need to learn to swim first anyway. A soft smile played across his lips.

He looked to his left and pulled the camel around the soft curve of the city wall, toward the river that fed the irrigation ditches. He could smell damp air and fish. Elyn closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. They'd have to find something to do with the camel. People cropped up like barnacles the closer he got to the docks. They were dressed in thin cloaks that flapped against the spray of water on the wind.

A few rickety boats sat propped up against wooden ramps that barely looked like they'd hold a man's weight. Two men hauled in nets off one of their decks and brought them into shore. They'd dry them on slanted boards that laid open in the sun and then sell them as pet food or as snacks for people, depending on how long they'd been left out for.

A few turned and stared at him as the wagon rolled by, but he turned past them and down the other side of the wall. No one paid him much mind. He was sure traveling wagons were a common enough sight. It was still early enough in the day that not many people stirred, save for the beggars that leaned against the walls of the old buildings, begging for change. 

"Hey!" he shouted to one of the beggars, who turned his ear to Elyn. He was dressed in a ragged tunic and smelled of feces. Elyn didn't get down from the wagon.

"Spare an ingot?" he asked.

Elyn tossed one into his cup. "I need Refuge," he said, though he never thought he'd speak the words. His mother taught them to him ever since they'd arrived at the caravan, in case he ever got in a situation where they needed it. He'd hoped he never would. The beggar pointed down a side street and Elyn pushed Jojo down it. 

Everyone who had ever been to the cities knew of Refuge. It was one of those unspoken societal rules one never questioned even if they disagreed with the whole premise. Refuge meant that not everyone died when people started tearing one another's throats out. It meant those with the fastest wit and the best brains could get by.

They would still need to find jobs and a place to live and shelter, and chances are people would still spit at Rannok and worse at Wren. It made him shudder. At least for the night they'd have a place to put the wagon. They'd probably have to let Jojo go in the end, he was a camel after all and they didn't have a way to take care of him, at least not in the city where they'd have to pay for someone else to stable and feed him. Rannok would be upset but he'd get over it.

The smooth sandstone cobblestones clicked under the wagon's wheels as they exited the side street and entered the other side of the city. The sounds of voices grew louder and louder as he approached a dishearteningly large group of settlers, likely all seeking Refuge as well. 

The area in the middle of the buildings was clear, but as soon as you got off to one side, tents popped up like weeds. They stretched far past the edge of the square and down near the river's beaches. People sat outside sewing and talking and crafting. They emanated an air of hunger and despair and hope that made Elyn's stomach turn into knots. 

He urged Jojo a few final steps and pulled the wagon to a stop in a clear patch behind a building. He stepped down off the stairs and breathed in the salt air. They were still several miles from the ocean, but the smell carried on the breeze.

He loosened Jojo's harness and stepped around the back of the wagon, then opened the flap and shook Wren's foot. She groaned.

"Where are we?" she asked as she sat up and blinked the sleep out of her eyes. Rannok let out a mighty yawn and his eyes widened. Elyn grinned and stared out toward the city square, which was just beginning to fill with people as the morning sun rose. He shook the achy tiredness out of his bones and gestured forward.

"We made it," he said. "And we're not dead."

Wren's face split into a wide smile and she wrapped him in a tight hug. Elyn patted her shoulder and pushed away.

"We need to find food and a place to stay, and something to do with Jojo. I think--"

Elyn froze as he locked eyes with a man walking across the square with a heavy sack across his back. His chiseled jaw bore a beard that grew nearly down to his chest. His square shoulders carried the weight easily. Elyn's heart hammered in his chest and all of a sudden he felt so lightheaded he thought he might faint. Just then the man turned and locked eyes with him, then dropped the sack.

Michael.

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Michael is back! How would you feel if you found someone again like this after having lost them? Share your thoughts in the comments!