Swords for a Dead Lady by Jim Webster

Author:Jim Webster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: murder, mystery, fantasy, epic, detective, crime, vengence, adventure, body, killer, opera, food and drink, Land of the Three Seas
ISBN: 9781849898041
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2015
Published: 2015-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

It was said that you could smell Koggart’s Junction before you could see it, but that probably wasn’t true. What is true is that a day’s ride south of the town the scenery changed. Here the grassland was replaced by plough land; the stubble still waiting for the plough. Nearer the town they came to the first of the great muck heaps. Yallou explained that the town was home to most of the Herding families. In winter these brought their herds close to the town, or even within the town. The town itself consisted of an inner town which was much like any other, and an outer town which was really a large number of walled caravanserais, each of which is either the home of a herding family or a commercial caravanserai, or both.

Given that during the winter, within each caravanserai there were a large number of domestic animals, there was inevitably a large amount of dung. This was hauled out in drays on a regular basis and stored, each family having their own midden. Once the ground dried and was ready for ploughing, the town almost emptied. Every able bodied person was engaged in emptying the family midden onto the family plough land, or in ploughing and sowing. Then, with the grain in the ground and the grass growing, the population headed out with the herds and flocks. By mid-summer the only people one might meet in the outer town were those too old or infirm to spend the summer out with the herds. Then men and women would start coming back for the harvest. Once that was gathered the herds moved back to graze the stubble and to be ready for the great autumn markets.

They were still half an hour south of the town when a patrol picked them up. There were two local lads on probation led by a young half Urlan, Draval, the younger son of a peasant family who had shown some skill at arms and had been trained as a sergeant. Now he was out to burnish his escutcheon and see some of the world, as well as earn a living. Both Rothred and Kirisch knew him slightly, which eased matters and they were accompanied along the road in a friendly enough manner. Rothred casually asked whether there had been any other parties of Urlan or Axlebowkin passing through but Draval hadn’t heard of any.

Yallou was more interested in any changes that had been made since he was last there, and here Draval was forthcoming enough. After the Oiphallarian campaign the Rangers had wanted to push their patrols further east, to keep the remnants of the Scar people at a distance. This needed manpower and the inhabitants of Koggart’s Junction decided they needed someone else to police the area. A Meor watch sergeant called Kloft had led a party of Meor militia to Oiphallarian. As he walked south, Koggart’s Junction had offered him the post of commander of their watch, with the proviso that he had to form a watch to command.

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