Chapter 46: Back of Binyon

The bidding was fast and furious and I was happy for Sylus to take care of the pricing. I accepted a large quantity of beast cores plus free travel with Sylus through the gateway, to Menyi. Which sounded as good a place as any it was a long way, out of the delt-954, in fact. Also he had told me it was currently peaceful and neutral to the factions, making it an ideal trading planet. There was also large areas that were unpopulated due to it being mostly a trading point and not being valued resource wise for anything else, other than convenience.

We packed up our things and suffered the weight, in the midday sun, but this time with a less heavy heart.

Menyi, was a bustling city, which worried me and first but I notice and absence of faction members and soldiers of any sort, this was very refreshing to see. The children still stayed close and followed me like little ducklings, Thawain taking the rear, as we walked through the main part of the city.

Sylus said his goodbyes and left us to go into his shop, which was a quite grand affair. After I’d helped him unload most of his wares, this had not been part of our bargain but I thought it a good way to say thank you. It was tradition for him to offer us tea at least but I agreed to take him up on the offer if we passed through this way again.

While the light still held I was determined to find shelter somewhere a bit less pricey. As neither me nor the kids would be fussed about where we slept, but I wanted to not have to trade the beast cores if possible. They were needed for recharging SP and potentially getting a PD for the kids again.

I knew it was stupid, perhaps but being in an alien place, no matter how much of a backwater still made me hypervigulant. I was told there was a town, Weihou, not far out.

I traded one beast core for some local currency, and paid for a cart to take us there. I met and haggled a bit with the owner, a Yein Hoo-Mou. But was in, too much of a hurry to get a good price.

Yein Hoo-Mou, watched open mouthed as our cargo appeared and I loaded it like a giant all you can eat buffet onto his cart, followed by the children. Myself and Thawain would walk behind. He did not happy, but a deal struck was a deal struck.

He just shook his head and said “You think my mules will take more than five steps before they drop dead”.

With which I groaned, kicking myself for being such a smart aleck. I unloaded everything and apologised, profusely. I discarded everything we could except the food we had, squeezing a few things into my PD bag.

Then we set off for real, Yein Hoo-Mou eyeing me suspiciously. I hoped he wouldn’t spread the word of me being a cheat. But thankfully he seemed to relent after jingling the payment in his coin purse.

“You out world-ers are all the same, it seems, full of clever schemes but none of that will help you here, mark my words.” He left it at that. Thawain clipped Cai’s ear before he could stick his tongue out at the guy. He rubbed it but kept quiet, fortunately.

They made it to Weihou without incident. It was quite a distance but the road was well paved and well worn. Weihou, looked enticing to Adam, with its high buttressed houses, winding up onto a hill top. It even had a town wall all the way round. But no guards which he preferred. The city entrance was a bit dilapidated perhaps but was tall enough and declared the town name above the brick archway.

The town was not bustling at all, was it nap time or something. Yein Hoo-Mou, explained if I wanted bustle I had come to the wrong place and that it would be double if I wanted to go back tonight. I assured him that we would be staying the night. He had already told me of an inn that would provide lodging and a hearty meal for a very reasonable price.

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We made our way, along the stone slab paved streets, the locals averted their gazes as we past. But all stopped none the less. Only a small cat approached us, and was pounced upon by some of the littler kids.

The small restaurant proclaimed itself as, fenghuang, apparently the golden phoenix. Which seemed a very audacious name for such a small venue, but still we were not about to look a phoenix, golden or otherwise in the in the mouth. We said our goodbyes to Yein Hoo-Mou who , waved us off ,looking unimpressed.

Piling into the restaurant we were struck by the enticing aroma’s there in. The kids ran and sat at two of the trestle tables within, all were empty.

“Hello, Hello, visitors. Do you all want food? And maybe even lodging, it will be starting to get dark soon and the road is treacherous of the evening. Bandits I hear.” Said Tsaio Ji-Fei in a flurry of activity.

He called into the back, “Yung-Gui, come quick we have grand visitors”

Looking at the children I thought maybe it was the children’s odd attire he was referring to, definitely not my stately undress. As I had little but a leather waistcoat and pants, since I’d sold my armour.

Yung-Gui, presumably rushed in looked surprised then ran back out again, after receiving a nod from her husband.

We stayed the night and the food was quite rich but delicious, many noodle dishes and a sweet soup they called chow-down, or something.

I had took the straw mattress of my bed and laid it on the floor as I could not fit in the bed. I was in heaven, it was the first night sleeping inside for quite some time. And after wedging a blade into the door frame to stop access. We all with a full bellies, fell quickly asleep.

Morning came too quickly, and I half toyed with the idea of staying in Weihou, itself. Maybe I could get a job fetching and carrying or crafting something. But looking at the town in the light of day, I could see that no job here would pay to feed eleven hungry mouths plus two, at least not in the short term. I would have to make it on my own. I just hoped the kids would not complain about eating the beasts hereabouts.

With a little grumbling from the kids, we all set off marching in a scraggly line, with plenty of noodles and some other miscellaneous things like salt. Libby told me to get as many food stuffs as we could from the market, not in quantity but small amounts of each. I humoured her more experiments for Trey no doubt. It was nearing winter and the only thing to stock up on was rice and meat, growing season was long gone.

We paid for the use of a cart, to ferry our stuff to the nearest village where I hoped there would be some uninhabited lodgings as there had been in the town. Even though Menyi, had not been directly in the war, it was tradition for the young to leave to try to join a faction. This left the countryside sparse of people, except the very old and young. It seemed no place had been spared.

Again I felt like a total idiot, as we had only got a few miles on a track leading up hill, when I realised that the path was not just too narrow but to bumpy. Unless I strapped the kids into place on the cart it was likely they would tumble off the side and but injured. So they all had to traipse along, this greatly slowed our pace and increased their dissatisfaction.

When we stopped for a break at what I presumed and hoped was at least half way, I addressed the kids.

“I understand that you are tired but this will hopefully be our last stop for a while. We are heading for a small village, Binyon, which should have a place we can rent or buy to stay in permanently for a time. It will somewhere you can all be safe.” I said, thinking I had been clear enough.

I was surprised to see Ash speak up, “But why are we going to this little backwater village? Is there someone important that lives there?”

“I don’t know anyone there but it should be a safe place to stay. “ I reiterated my point.

Ash hesitated then continued, “Why does it need to be safe? We’ve been everywhere, into a war zone even but you’ve always kept us safe and easily dealt with any dangers.”

“I can’t protect you the way I did in the past…I’ve become ill. When or if I’m well again I hope to be able to protect you again. But until then we need somewhere safe to stay.” I tried with a white lie that was not so far from the truth.

Sela said in a quiet voice, “Your leaving us aren’t you.” at which point, I could see Seria was face pukker as she was about to start crying. Not what I wanted at all.

“It’s the truth ask Thawain” I said thinking he was the only one who could back me up.

Thawain said it was true but all the children just looked at the ground, clearly unconvinced.

I tried a different tact, “Would I have come all the way out here and even sell my armour, if it was just for you?” At this they seemed to deliberate and at least for the moment decided to go along with things, after they shared looks. Thank god for that. I did not need a mutiny on my hands. I just wanted to get them safe. Even if it did mean I’d blown the chance of meeting up with Sam.

I hoped the note I’d left with her would suffice for the time being.