The next morning he was awoken by the noise of activity in the inn. Grumbling to himself, but quietly relieved, he straightened out his clothes and went to order breakfast.
Conversation over sausages and pickled mushrooms revealed that the villagers had no more information than he did. One day travellers had simply stopped arriving, the army folks who cleared the road each winter never turning up.
By now he’d drawn a crowd. The village was small, a hundred people at the very most, and his donkey had been noticed, everyone coincidentally deciding to have breakfast in the inn.
They had been snowed in most of the winter when the help they’d expected hadn’t arrived, but they’d planned to send somebody down to Tole, the small city, and another up to the big city (which he discovered was named Cericil) within the next couple of days.
The boy who’d been slated to walk to Tole expressed relief that it wasn’t him who'd had to make the discovery, but like everyone else present, he was worried about the implications for the village. You didn’t just abandon a settlement of that many people, not without somebody hearing about it. Where would they trade their crops in the summer, where would they buy cloth and books?
It was a worry. What if both cities had fallen, or what if they were to be all conscripted into a war they’d never heard of.
Brickwrath was willing to check it out. He’d come this far, but he didn't have to go alone. Elegantlillies was the name of the woman who had volunteered to check out Cericil, and she was willing to join him.
She was a handsome woman. Much, much taller than him, with a flat chest and a square jaw, she had a look of the military about her, and he was pretty sure she would beat him every time at arm wrestling.
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She hadn’t expected to leave for another couple of days, so he was left to sit in the inn for a while, nursing a surprisingly good beer and chatting with the villager who had stuck around.
Somebody had given birth in the middle of the winter, a bad omen, but between them they had made it work. Somebody else’s cow had taken sick and died, with much debate over the cause.
He asked about the memorial plaques, and discovered the new ones all belonged to a single family. They had lived on the far eastern edge of the territory, and it seemed like they’d perished in some sort of farm accident over the summer. Nobody had found their bodies until a neighbour had visited to borrow an ox at the start of winter.
News was slow to travel, and the village hadn’t heard about it until a couple of weeks ago, when the farmer had finally made it in.
Brickwrath started down into the beer, listening to the quiet conversation around him and glad that he wasn’t the last person alive in the world. Having a travelling companion would also be nice.
-
After some negotiations, the villagers agreed to lend him a horse, in exchange for the donkey. If he never came back, they would return it to his neighbour in a few weeks' time. The village would have been down a horse either way, having already set aside two to send with Elegantlillies and Summerjack.
He patted the donkey before he left, whispering a goodbye into its ear. It had been a good friend to him over the past week, and leaving it behind gave him a strange feeling of guilt.
That done, he pulled himself up onto the horse, and with Elegantlillies (what a mouthful of a name) to his left, together they set off.
-
He glanced over at her, as they rode. She carried a small pistol on her hip, and he wondered again if she had also been in the army. She didn’t let off the strong signals that ex-army normally would, most people you could tell at a glance, but you never knew. They hadn't spent much time together yet.
He had also been offered a gun before they set off, but he felt more comfortable with his machete. He had never had much experience with them, and he would rather trust in his chopping skills.
The journey to the Cericil would take a couple of days, but it was a large city- twice the size of Tole- and they were hopeful that it would still be intact!