Savlation's Dawn by Joe Jackson

Author:Joe Jackson [Jackson, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2017-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

*~*~*~*

The Silver Blades spent the following day and night in Tingus, and then took to the road. Aeligos decided it would be best to travel to Dune first and see if they could find a caravan headed into the desert. He knew little of desert travel other than the obvious, and was concerned that his human charges would be less prepared for the moisture-sucking heat. He further had a nagging worry about sandstorms and such, and knew a caravan would be better prepared for such an event.

Just as the innkeeper told him, it took them three days to reach the city of Dune by following the road out of Tingus. The bay was on their right the entire time, and they took the northern fork when the road split from its path into the heart of the desert. The farms extended for miles and miles outside of the port city, and once they passed the edges of the cultivated lands they found wide expanses of grazelands for livestock. The landscape only began to change once they drew within a day’s travel of Dune, where the plains began to give way to a dry, rocky and sandy expanse.

Dune itself was barely a city. It was a transition and stopping place for caravans and travelers more than anything else, and was comprised of a good mix of humans, shakna-rir, and terra-rir. It was smaller but busier than Tingus, with structures built of adobe and sandstone, and painted white or left the natural color. There were numerous wells throughout, which suggested a large amount of water far beneath its sands and rock, and there were vegetable gardens and even a few fruit trees. The Silver Blades expected a fairly barren city but found a jewel instead, and were pleased to find that the terra-rir population held no sympathies for Gaswell or his crusade.

The Silver Blades remained in Dune for only a couple of days before they were able to accompany a caravan headed into the heart of the desert empire, on its way with trade goods from Northport and the continent of Dannumore to the north. Using Typhonix’ status as a demonhunter, they signed on as guards but asked for no pay, which got them easily approved. The caravan left the city without delay once dawn broke on the third day, and soon the group was on its way to Kulthon.

Aeligos wasn’t sure what to expect from the shakna-rir queen. The desert peoples tended to be militaristic and even a bit warlike at times, but the fact that they had not made any move to counter Gaswell’s threat left him to wonder. He’d hoped that the young shakna-rir woman he’d met in Tingus would be able to tell him more, but neither she nor Ieyok was able to tell him anything he didn’t already know. Something about the whole situation struck him as quite odd, and he wondered if it was just his experience with Seril’s tactics during the Apocalypse that made Gaswell’s more patient approach seem out of place.

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