For about the tenth time that day Delmus was re-arranging and re-securing their various bundles of goods on Stinky's back, or Pug as Luri called their strange beast of burden.
'Get a beast to carry your things,' Chlo had told them, 'you'll blend in, it'll add to your authenticity.'
So at the market place in Quron they'd bought a Farrag, the standard beast of burden for all self-respecting travellers of the rifts. They'd spent a long time with the best dealer in the town, one recommended by Nurigen and yet the smile on the dealers face as they handed over the gold should have been a warning. For a start Stinky seemed to have one leg shorter than the other three, as he seemed to shake about so much, even on nice even roadways, that all their goods ended up on the floor at least five times a day, and twice that if they were on rough ground.
"He's good to help us blend in." Luri told him every time he suggested selling the creature.
Then there was Stinky's temperament and bad temper. Yes they'd known that all Farrag were known to be large furry creatures that occasionally spat and bit, but theirs seemed to be constantly trying to bite them or spit large quantities of sticky mucus over them. If you were unwise enough to get too close to his rear end, Stinky would try to kick as well. Delmus gave a strap an extra hard pull to get it nice and tight and made Stinky give a pained bellow.
"You're not hurting him are you ?" Luri asked.
They both knew at least thirty local languages and dialects and Delmus took great pride in being able to swear about stinky in all of them. When he'd finished he noticed Luri had wandered off to talk to a few members of the demon caravans who'd been keeping pace with them for days.
Their disguise as wandering demons had worked well, too well. Luri gave her skin an extra sheen to it, so it now had the colour of burnished steel and Delmus had the redish tinge of a high level demon. All done by creams and various spells Luri knew, but the effect was to make them look like two very hard warriors of the rifts. With strange goings on and rumours of missing traders, the caravans had been keeping pace with them; saw them as some kind of protection. A Shelzak demon had tried to steal Stinky, and although Delmus might have turned a blind eye to that, he tried to steal all their supplies too. It had been a fair fight, with Delmus giving him plenty of chances to run, but the Shelzak had been too stupid to realise he was outmatched.
"You made it look too easy." Luri had told him.
The Shelzak had been reduced to a collection of bleeding body parts and their reputation as hard as nails warriors confirmed. There were now a good two dozen demon traders following them to the bazaar at Tandalla on the 5th rift. This meant they couldn't use any means other than walking to travel, so they were seriously behind schedule. No using the rift manipulator to cover thousands of miles across the most barren areas of the rifts, they now had to use only their legs and that meant slow progress. Sikush had told them to take a year or so to reach the Nest and they were still on the pilgrims trail from Quron to Tandalla and they'd been in the rifts for over two years.
