Her usual sensual and alluring voice was all innocence now with a touch of breathlessness that Ean often heard from the less intelligent girls in his village. The personality she had taken on matched her appearance, and even Ean had trouble keeping in mind that there was a Yulari underneath her illusion. He did his best to keep his face straight as she continued.
"We were traveling, and my brother got us lost in the forest to the south." Of course she would stick to that story. "We luckily made it out and found our way to the road."
"An unfortunate story," the man replied. "But thankfully you are only a three-days walk from the capitol. If you are short on supplies, I can happily trade you enough to get you there." He paused for a moment to scratch at his beard. "For the right price, of course."
"We have what I would assume are enough supplies in terms of food," Azalea said, her eyes wandering to the sky as she spoke. She really was playing up the part of a vapid hick. "But no money. What we really could use is a ride so we could rest our tired feet."
"A ride would be more expensive than the supplies, I'm afraid, lass, and you've already said you have no money. I can't see how you could go about paying for a ride on one of my wagons."
Ean watched as something about Azalea...changed. It was hard to pinpoint exactly. It wasn't anything in her appearance or the way she spoke. It was as if the air around her grew thicker, but even that wasn't a proper description of what he noticed.
"I'm sure a trader as rich and powerful as you, someone in charge of such a large group, could handle carrying us along without payment," Azalea said softly, her gaze lowering. To Ean's amazement, the man slowly began to nod as he scratched at his beard.
"I suppose for a few days journey, money wouldn't be necessary." The man's voice had changed now too. It was still rough, but the words seemed more drawn out as he spoke, like he was struggling to get them out. "You have your own supplies as you said, after all, so you won't be costing me anything. I'm sure some room can be made amongst some of the workers."
"Oh, that's ever so kind of you, but we couldn't accept your hospitality without offering you something." Placing a hand on Ean's back, Ean couldn't help but cringe as that smirk appeared on Azalea's face for an instant before disappearing. "My brother will be happy to pay you back by providing free labor. Wouldn't you, Ean?"
Ean nodded dumbly although in his mind he pictured himself throttling her.
"Well, we can always use shovelers to keep the offal from the horses and bulls off the road. The temples take great pride in their roads, and it's a trader's responsibility to keep those roads clean of their own wastes."
"That sounds like an excellent job for my brother."
"Think nothing of it," the man said and then gave a shake of his head. Whatever had changed about Azalea was suddenly gone. When the man spoke again, his voice had returned to its normal speed. "My name is Trait, Trait Deepdweller, of the Deepdweller Hawkpurses."
The way he said the last part made it sound important, but Ean and Azalea just looked at him with confused expressions as they each took his hand in turn.
"Don't tell me you've never heard of the Deepdweller Hawkpurses?"
Azalea looked at Ean and he shook his head.
"No," Azalea said.
"Unbelievable! Everyone knows the Deepdweller family name. Especially since we are Hawkpurses."
"Hawkpurses?" Ean asked.
"You mean to tell me you don't even know what a Hawkpurse is? You truly must be from a tiny village." Waving at a man on one of the wagons, Trait turned back to address them. "Hawkpurses are families specifically chosen by the god, Drenks...you do know who Drenks is, yes?"
Azalea started to shake her head no, but Ean jumped in. "Yes, of course, Drenks the god of Wine and Fortune. We are familiar with the gods of course."
"As I was saying, we are one of a few families chosen by Drenks to control some aspect of trade in the land. My family is in charge of all of the major mining operations throughout Ven Khilada."
"Ven Khilada?" This was something new to Ean.
"Lad, don't tell me you've never even been taught the name of the land you live in. What village did you say you two were from?"
"Rottwealth," Ean replied without thinking, then immediately regretted it.
"Rottwealth?! And they let you out of there?"
"Of course they did, why wouldn't we be able to leave?" And the real question Ean wanted to know was why everyone outside of Rottwealth had such strange opinions about his home to begin with. But instead of asking, he waited for answer to the question he had asked.
"Not much really to say anyway, most people know very little about Rottwealth. More rumors and guesses than actual facts."
"Well, why don't you tell me what rumors you believe and what you think to be facts, and I'll tell you if you're right or not."
"Tell you what, let me get my caravan settled in for the night, the two of you settled in as well, and then we can talk about your home as we sit around a fire and have something decent to eat. Sound good?"
"Sure, that sounds great."
As the man walked away, shouting orders and waving his hands about, Azalea muttered under her breath.
"Next time you tell me to take the lead, let me take the lead. When he started talking about your village, it looked like you had the wind knocked out of you. As long as he is letting us hitch a ride, who cares what he thinks about Rottwealth. You almost ruined all of my hard work."
"You're hard work? What exactly did you do to him? I saw the air about you change and then all of the sudden he was much more agreeable."
"You could see that? Very curious."
"You didn't answer the question."
"Oh, well that was just one of my little tricks. It helps me keep my victims," she paused, raising her hands quickly as Ean's face darkened. "I mean, my unknowing participants, calm and more compliant. It's how I got your two little friends to just sit there why I tried to feed, although you put a stop to that."
"How many other 'little tricks' do you... oofff!"
A sudden shove from the Yulari sent him tumbling backwards off the road and onto the ground.
"Sorry, brother, but the wagons were moving, and I didn't want you to get run over. Here," she extended a hand to him. "Let me help you up."
Looking at the hand as if it was a poisonous snake, Ean ignored it and pushed himself up. The action earned him a girlish laugh from the Yulari as she turned her attention to the parked caravan.
The six covered wagons left the road to form a tight circle in the middle of the meadow. As more wagons bumbled past them, they formed a concentric circle around the original six. Ean saw that what he had thought were gray balls in those wagons were actually rocks polished smooth. Other wagons contained rock slabs that were a bright white color or grey stone slabs that reminded Ean of larger versions of the stone blocks that made up the first floor of Old Cleff's house. Those wagons made up a third circle around the other two, but they weren't the last of the wagons.
The final four covered wagons finished off the large caravan, each one painted a brilliant yellow color and had large wooden steps coming off the back. Those wagons parked off to the west side of the outer circle. A few men filled out of the back of them, but it was what followed those men that made Ean's eyes widen in surprise.
People made of stone, as in dark gray boulders twice as tall as any man, stepped down from the wagon. Their heads were square blocks disproportionately small compared to their massive torsos. Small blue gems like topaz served as their eyes. When they walked, their joints made sounds like two slabs grating together, and all of their movements were rigid. The strength went out of his legs just to look at them. Once off the wagons, the stone men stopped in front of the human ones and stood still.
Seeing their rigid movements, Ean immediately thought back to the huge creature in the Rensen sawmill and the conversation he had had with the girl, Paige, about the creature. Vilathos, she had called them. He vaguely rec
alled her saying that the one in her village was one of a kind. These smaller versions must be more common place by the reaction of those around him. The workers moved around them just as calmly as they did the wagons.
As the members of the wagon train finished setting up their camp, Ean watched with rapt fascination as the Vilathos worked. Their task seemed to be setting up the thick wooden tent poles. Using their fists like hammers, they drove them into the ground as easily as a baker might stick a toothpick into a cake. Ean couldn't fathom that kind of strength.
A hand on his shoulder made him jump. Trait laughed and introduced the burly mustachioed man beside him. "This here is Gaiden Pul. He's a good man. I've asked him to help you and your sister get set up for the night."
"Pleasure," Gaiden said in a dry tone. "This way, please."
Gaiden began walking off in a different direction than Trait. When it was clear he wasn't going to slow down for them, Ean and Azalea hurried after him. They weaved quickly in-between wagons and tents as they moved. Tents had been set up on the outside of the wagons, as well as in between the two separate rings, with the workers' tents sitting outside the ring of open wagons and in-between the open and covered wagons. People of higher standing in the caravan seemed to have their tents all the way in the middle. A tent was waiting between the first and second ring of wagons.
"Here we are," Gaiden said, standing in front of a brown tent. It was bigger than any tent Ean had seen in Rottwealth, its peak sitting tall enough that Ean would barely have to duck to enter. Peering inside, he was pleased to see that a brown canvas lining divided the tent into two separate rooms.
"If that is all," Gaiden continued, "feel free to join any of the fires that the workers build in this area. I will ask you, though, not to enter the inner circle of wagons. That area is for Master Deepdweller, his caravan supervisors, and his guards."
"But Trait said that--"
Gaiden raised a hand, effectively silencing Ean. "First of all, you will call him by his title, Master Deepdweller or Sir Deepdweller. Second, Master Deepdweller is much too busy to spend time 'chatting' with whatever riff-raff we come upon in the road. Just consider yourselves lucky that he was gracious enough to offer you a ride to the capitol in the first place."
"Riff-raff!" Ean had never been called that before. "Hold on a second. Master Deepdweller said he would speak to me about--"
Gaiden cut him off with a cough. "Camp will be broken at first light, whether you're ready or not. You may ride in any of the open wagons as long as you do not bother the drivers. I suggest you try to meet one tonight so you know which wagon you will be riding tomorrow. Someone will fetch you when you are scheduled to work. Good evening."
Without waiting for a response, the man walked away, heading past the inner wagons and disappearing around one of the much larger tents inside. Ean took a few steps to go after him, but before he could even utter a word, a large man stepped out in front of him.
"You will turn around now." the burly man said, crossing his arms across an incredibly broad chest. His head was entirely bare of any hair but had plenty of scars all over it. The look he gave Ean made him stop dead in his tracks and quickly turn around. Ean cringed as the man laughed at his back as he slunk away. It looked like he wasn't going to get any answers about Rottwealth from Trait after all.
"You could have used some of your tricks there on that fool," Ean growled at Azalea. "I really wanted to talk to... hey, what's wrong with you?"
Azalea was standing straight, her eyes closed and her body swaying slightly back and forth. She wore a broad smile that seemed to lighten her face, or the illusion of the face she was currently showing. Ean touched her lightly on the arm, and getting no response, gave her a little shake as well.
"Wha..." she finally mumbled, her eyes remaining closed. "Go away. I need a second."
She shoved Ean away with one hand. Azalea had returned to her swaying, little shivers running down her body. All Ean could do was wait for the Yulari to return to her senses, which thankfully did not take much longer. When Azalea finally broke from her trance, her eyes were only half open. She wore a lazy grin on her face, similar to the one Zin wore after a night of stuffing himself with mice and rats. She took a step towards Ean, stumbled a bit and deciding against further steps, decided instead to stand in place.
"Oh, this caravan is wonderful," she purred, hugging her arms around her body. "So many emotions, many of them dark and hidden. Jealousy, hate, anger, resentment. They all taste exquisite. I've never been around this many people before... mmmmm...." Her eyes closed again, and Ean wasn't positive but he thought he saw a bit of drool escape the corner of her mouth.
"Azalea, focus a minute. You've been around people before? How?"
"Shhh...." Before he knew it, Azalea was right in front of him, placing a finger on his lips. "Don't ruin my fun with pointless questions. Just be happy that I'm feeding without killing anyone."
She had a point, and Ean decided against pressing the issue. After a moment, her finger slid from his lip and her hand dropped to her side. She began to sway, further and further to each side. Ean stood awkwardly next to her. He shrugged at a worker passing by who shot them a strange look.
"She is just tired. We've been on the road a while," Ean said, but the man didn't seem to care. Instead he picked up his pace and disappeared around the side of a wagon. Growing frustrated, Ean placed a hand on Azalea's shoulder and carefully gave her another shake. He tensed his body just in case she sent another shove his way.
Instead, Azalea collapsed into his arms, her body going limp. An occasional shiver ran up her body but other than that, she remained limp against him. Lifting her gently, Ean got her high enough so that he could get a look at her face. Sure enough, that lazy grin had widened. And the drool coming out of her mouth was easy to see this close. Barely awake and in her human form, Azalea almost looked innocent. Maybe she wasn't as bad as he feared. After all, she was feeding without killing. That was a step in the right direction. Unless of course she was simply feeding this way because it was convenient.
"Even mostly asleep, little one," she said, her words slurred and cutting through his thoughts, "I will not kiss you. So get the thought out of your head..." Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him close and lay her head down on his shoulder. "Now be a good boy and help me to our tent. I want to take a nap."
With a sigh, Ean half led, half dragged Azalea the couple of steps to their tent. Getting her down and inside was a bit more trouble, as she offered absolutely no help. Even with a cool breeze blowing through the campsite, Ean was sweating from the effort by the time he stood back up and tied the tent loosely closed. Looking around, Ean realized he would be on his own for a time while Azalea slept off her...feeding.
TAKING ONE LAST LOOK at the now snoring Azalea, Ean left the tent and walked out of the inner ring between the wagons. He was shocked to see how fast the workers had gotten fires going and were enjoying the evening. Some fires had one or two people gathered around them, those in the smaller groups focused on smoking a pipe or carving a chunk of wood. Others contained larger groups, with men singing, already deep into drink, or playing at some kind of dice game. All of the fires had cooking pots over them, creating a mixture of smells around the camp that made Ean's stomach growl.
Not accustomed to meeting new people, Ean tried the smaller fires first. He hoped they would be a bit more inviting then the larger groups. Instead, all he found were people that either gave him a cold stare as he approached or flat out ignored him until he left. One even went as far as to take out a knife and start to sharpen it while glaring at him until he walked away.
Ean found just as little friendliness at the first couple of larger groups he tried. The men playing at dice were quick to welcome him, until they found out he had no money. Then they laughed at him and sent him on his way. Those purely drinking usually had mixed reactions, with none of them being pleasant. Most grumbled at him and told him to find his own stuff to dri
nk. Not wanting to have a repeat of his one bad night in Rensen, Ean tried to explain he wasn't interested in their drinks, but this only brought about more laughter and some choice words about his age and what he could be doing instead.
The whole experience was embarrassing, especially when a group would watch him go off to a different campfire and then laugh loudly as they saw him being turned away again. This continued until the sun had completely disappeared behind the mountains and the first moon was covering the camp with its green light. Ean was about to give up for the night when he noticed a man with a mug in one hand wave him over with the other one. Ean watched the man a few moments, not sure whether he was being genuine or wanted to join in the fun of messing with him, until the man started to frown. Not wanting to insult the only person that had shown him anything but a cold shoulder or ridicule, Ean hastily moved over to the man's campfire.
There were four other men sitting around the camp fire as Ean approached, and the man that had waved him over pointed to an open spot on the ground as he took a swig from his mug. Two of the men give him curt but friendly nods as he sat between them, while a third man offered him a drink. Ean was about to refuse until he saw that all that the mug contained was water.
"Thanks," he said, taking the mug and immediately draining half of it. As soon as the water touched his lips he realized how thirsty he had been.
"Not a problem." The man that spoke wasn't the one that had given him the mug but was instead the one that had waved him over. "We can spare a little food as well if you're hungry."
"Yes, thank you. I would appreciate it." Ean took a closer look at the man as he took another drink and saw nothing but openness on his clean, shaven face. For some reason, Ean found the positive attitude as slightly off putting. He knew it was just his own insecurities, but after a night of being ridiculed, he was finding it hard to accept someone being nice to him.
"Well," the friendly man said. "I guess introductions are in order. My name is Wil Asbury. The two on each side of ya are my brothers; the one sitting on your right is Lyde while the one on your left is Phil. This one," he said, waving over at the man that had given Ean the mug, "is trying his best to get us fired from this job."
Descent Into Darkness (Book 2) Page 5
