The next day, Denziu was ready to make good on that promissory note. Ready, and terrified. Losing all of zir savings was, zie reflected, properly ruinous. Did that mean it would be safe to give them to Choave? Zie had packed zir flying wagon with treasure. Never had zie thought zie would be carrying such a precious cargo just to spend it all in one place.
Losing that chest would be so ruinous, surely Baggil wouldn’t claim it. So would zie be able to safely carry a chest full of zir savings from Nidrio to Tekagol? Yet conventional sense was fighting with the superstition of the Tekagoli Luck Charm. Surely something, somehow, would go wrong.
Baggil, the seer of Tekagol, the land god who promised dragons a greater average safety through the means of petty mishap… As with all of the land gods, Baggil was certainly real. Denziu shoved away the thought that the Tekagoli Luck Charm might be superstition.
If anything, it was simply an initial misfortune that Choave had asked for so much money. It had made Denziu feel sick to hear it and zie’d felt sick again packing stored coin into chests and bags to bring to Choave, but it was still a petty misfortune. A share in the caravan was a value that would grow with the success of the caravan. It was worth more than the savings Denziu had kept in zir house in Nidrio.
For a minute, Denziu hesitated over the bin of Tekagoli luck charms. Zie plucked one out and discovered that zie’d bought a bin of little amulets with Tekagoli slogans on them.
"Baggil Loves You, Trust in Fate," was the legend on one of the charms. "Baggil Loves You" was on one side, and "Trust in Fate" was on the other. If zie kept that advice, zie'd just fly there. Yet zie struggled to be willing to, zir faith not so given to the whims of the omniscient. Zie was fairly desperate to keep zir savings, though zie didn't wish to break zir promise to the caravan.
What could go wrong? Bad weather upsetting zir wagon? The day was clear. Banditry? Impossible in Nidrio, improbable in Denxalue, a painful risk in Relny if dragons knew what zie was carrying. Yet they would not! No, no. Banditry could be avoided by simply flying. Denziu would be quickly through the area and need go nowhere risky.
Making zirself close up the laden wagon, Denziu took to the sky outside of zir little stone house in Nidrio. Zie departed without the wagon.
Zie flew back to Tekagol, looking down on the spreading blanket of water-tolerant crops, the farms and wetlands plating the land of Tekagol between clusters of small buildings, looking for the familiar sight of Taltios' livestock farm. Zie flew without purse or pack, carrying nothing to be lost, save the Tekagoli Luck charm worn around zir neck. When zie got there to knock on Taltios' door, zir tail was knotting with anxiety. The patio that had seemed so beautiful when zie first discussed seeking Baggil's Blessing was lost to zir eyes.
Taltios' eyes took in Denziu's pose in an instant, and the farmergon shook zir head. "You ought to trust in Baggil more," zie said.
"What? Are you sure?" Denziu asked, surprised at receiving such an instant prescription.
"No, I'm not, but you've already decided to take on that trust. You'll have to tell me what's wrong. I'll go get a bowl of cider for each of us, just sit down on the patio and I'll be right back." That was Taltios.
Returning only moments later with a bowl of Shaleara cider in each hand, Taltios set the bowls on the table and looked to Denziu, prompting words with a worried glance. To this Denziu said, "I've been asked, I mean, I've agreed to... I've agreed to finance a tenth of the caravan with nearly all of my savings."
Taltios' fins flared in surprise. "Really? That's an unusual decision for a novice," zie said.
"I know, but... But I already signed a promissory note. I don't want to look like my words are useless," Denziu said, wringing zir hands again. The cider bowl smelled ambrosial, but zir stomach was in a knot. Zie couldn't try it.
Taltios thought for a few breaths, silently considering what to say, then said, "I think 'trust in Baggil' is the right thing here. Is there something wrong with the promise you've made?"
"Yes, yes there is!" said Denziu, and then flinched back. "Sorry. Sorry to exclaim. I have to make good on the promise with coin. That means I have to transmit a large amount of coin from Nidrio to Tekagol. It will all fit on my wagon, but I'm worried that something will happen along the way. Do you think we can-" and here Denziu revealed that zie had come to Tekagol with a plan in mind "-get the entire family to come with me to the mustering point? I'll have a treasure chest of gold to hand over to the merchantgon."
"Ah, I see," said Taltios with a nod. "You're worried about the Relny overflight."
"Denxalue as well. I can dodge Relny, but I can't exactly get to Tekagol without leaving Nidrio," Denziu said, and with a sigh zie finally picked up the bowl of Shaleara cider to try a sip of it. It was, of course, excellent. Taltios didn't make it zirself, but doubtless zie knew exactly who did. The tart yet zesty flavour would’ve been refreshing on a better day. Today zie could only sip it.
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"You shouldn't worry about Denxalue," Taltios said with a frown. "I believe Lauvera really loves you, and in any case Mom got us all pledges of protection from her. If you just avoid flying over Relny, I think you should be safe..." Zir frown was of concentration now, and doubtless zie was imagining the land seen from the air. That was where Denziu's mind was, at least.
"So you really think I should just trust in Baggil?" Denziu said, with a tilt of zir head.
Taltios nodded and said, "Yeah. Go ask Mom, I bet she'll say the same thing."
So Denziu, who was 74 (and yet ever-young at a perpetual 24), but who had never been farther from home than Daubsyid (where there was much good clay for selling), flew anxiously to the home of zir mother in Nidrio. "Do you think I'll be safe delivering my savings to the caravan?" zie asked, and was enfolded in a hug by silver-scaled Praoziu.
"Yes, goodness yes. You shouldn't worry at all, Denziu. Baggil's promise is true. If you lose that money, it will be because you will have a better future someday without it. Those charms will protect your health most," she said, and her strength in that hug was a gentle mountain.
So Denziu flew a precious cargo to the mustering point through rain and blustering wind to give it away.
The mustering was a bad place to meet dragons. Everyone was too busy. The weather was too miserable. For a vrash or swaivshon, it would've been a challenging flight to get there through that rudely shoving wind; for a vashael with an amicus breeze, it was still surprisingly fatiguing.
All the difficulty made it obvious why the caravan had a pre-mustering meet-and-greet event at the cafe.
Surprisingly, Denziu didn't even cause a stir alighting at the mustering ground with a floating wagon in tow. Choave said with a dismissive 'hah' that it was a luxury that would never pay off, and that was all. Maybe buying in at a tenth had made Denziu look willing to splash out recklessly with money! Choave must have thought it was purchased!
It was not. Denziu's flying wagon was a gift from Praoziu, who had wanted Denziu to not be discouraged by trading in a good as low-margin and laborious as the soil itself. Now it would see Denziu across a great distance without having to struggle with the weight of zir belongings.
“Ho there, Choave!” called Denziu. “I’ve an account to reconcile. This chest,” and here Denziu heaved a chest containing fifty years of savings towards Choave, “contains the amount I promised for buying a caravan share.”
Being a vrash and thus quadrupedal, Choave couldn’t carry the chest, but beckoned with a tip of his head towards another wagon that Denziu could set the chest upon. The two of them stood with their heads under the wagon’s sailcloth roof as Denziu opened the chest. Choave was duly impressed at the bounty of coins, and trusted Denziu without any such thing as counting it on the spot, sitting up then to fish from one of his pouches a prepared scroll-tube. This he handed to Denziu. “Don’t open this very often,” he said. “This is the record of your caravan share purchase.”
So Denziu converted zir savings into one very expensive piece of paper. Zie stashed the scroll-tube away in a pouch zie wore on zir body.
As Denziu went back to zir own wagon, the red-brown izerah (Ekis of Tonturaseer) waved to Denziu with some excitement and pulled up alongside. "We've got something they ought to envy!" shouted the izerah as she approached. She pounded on the tongue of her flying wagon.
"We do, but why do you have a flying wagon?" asked Denziu. Ekis had mentioned at the brunch that she had one, but it was something of a surprise acquisition for a flightless izerah.
"Because I can't pull a laden wagon alone and I'd rather skip the draft animals!" said Ekis, who seemed keen to speak loudly even when she was standing next to Denziu and the excuse of the weather had declined with proximity. "I'm smaller than a vashael or a vrash!" she added. That was a rather obvious thing.
The whole caravan was "skipping the draft animals". The vrash and vashael merchantgons all pulled their own wagons in efficiency's name. The only exception, Oghai the Absent, turned out to be another izerah who lived semi-permanently in a passenger carriage pulled by one of the caravaneers; Ekis said he was a financier who had been rolling over a heavy stake in the caravan itself while tending to investments across the length of the trade route. Oghai was both their largest shareholder and a trusted loyal friend.
A train of local wagons met them at the mustering point with large wooden casks to hand over. Denziu's wagon couldn’t carry any after the eight painted grain storage pots and their protective wrappings, but everyone else filled their wagons. That every space was full was zir own first gift to the caravan, zie thought proudly: with the addition of zir buy-in, they had enough working capital to fill their entire carrying capacity with the expensive cider.
By ordering they had fallen into line seemingly arbitrary, save that Choave and Kishka were walking at the front of the caravan, while Sharisen and Honom were walking at the back. These had moved to their places first and were the only ones who seemed assigned to them, whereafter they had waited for the others to step in between them.
The other four ranks seemed determined arbitrarily. The second rank was taken up by Lorma and Mosdrao. The third rank was Denziu and Ekis. The fourth rank were Chatulerin and Omrezen. The fifth rank contained Orachu and Lorvaza. Choave hadn’t even commented, but had marked their positioning in the log as though it were entirely natural. Denziu fetched out zir journal and lev-i-quill to record them much as Choave had recorded them.
There had been no negotiation of their marching order, but Ekis had sort of glommed to Denziu during the mustering, so they ended up departing together.
When they were all lined up, loaded, and ready to go, Choave stood at the front of the caravan and stepped through a kind of ritual dance, with twisting vortices of shadow dripping from his body to the ground and then bleeding upwards from the ground over the limbs of the caravanners, Ekis and Oghai excepted. That sense of invulnerability, strength, and freedom of motion which Denziu had experienced at the cafe settled into Denziu again.
They were soon underway. Tekagol’s roads were really quite fine. Zie wondered if the vrash-pulled wagons at the front were making them even smoother. And then, because Denziu had an active mind and had never been in quite this situation before, zie wondered if there were even a single road-building team in Theoma. Vrash could change the nature of the ground with every step! A team of vrash caravaneers would be capable of building a road just by journeying.
It was a possible origin of some of the roads in Theoma, but the roads through zir beloved Denxalue were made of great fitted stone pieces that had been buried deep to reach solid ground. It didn't always work. The roads in Denxalue were still sunken and mired in some places, as seemed to please Lauvera's swampy aesthetics.