Free The Wine of Dreams by Brian Craig - (ebook by Undead) Page B

the cart with you.”
    When Godrich joined them, Reinmar asked whether his father knew about the
sergeant’s orders, but it was the sergeant who answered. “He is perfectly
agreeable,” Vaedecker assured him—and Godrich confirmed it with a discreetly
sullen nod.
    Gottfried came out of the shop a few minutes later to bid them all farewell,
and he made a show of thanking Vaedecker for lending his services to the party.
“These are troubled times,” he said, blithely overlooking the fact that the only
symptom of trouble so far visible in Eilhart had been von Spurzheim’s arrival,
“and I shall feel much better knowing that Reinmar has a seasoned soldier with
him. The combination of Godrich’s wisdom, Sigurd’s strength and your fighting
skill should ensure his safe return and the profitability of the expedition.”
    “I shall do my very best,” the soldier promised, “to ensure that the journey
is as profitable as anyone could hope.”
    Not until the cart was loaded and Godrich had the whip in his fist did
Gottfried hand over the purse containing the coins which Reinmar was to use in
purchasing new stock. “Remember,” he said. “Be patient and clever in striking
your bargains. Try not to seem so hard as to cause resentment, but always bear
it in mind that we have an effective monopoly. Maintain an appearance of
generosity—but make sure that it is only an appearance.”
    “I shall do my best,” Reinmar promised. “If anyone tries to take advantage of
my youth and inexperience, I’ll tell them that I’m so terrified of my father
that I dare not offer them a penny more than the meanest figure I can calculate,
lest I be flogged within an inch of my life when I return with a wagon half full
and an empty purse. They will easily believe it, will they not?”
    “They will,” Gottfried assured him—but his smile was not as broad as it
should have been. “Good luck, my son, and come back safe.”
    Ordinarily, Reinmar would have chattered away to Godrich and Sigurd as the
cart rolled out of town, but the presence of the sergeant was a powerful
inhibiting factor. The only topic of conversation within the town that morning
would be the arrest of Albrecht Wieland and its likely import, but that was not
something that could be safely discussed in front of Vaedecker and Reinmar was
not sufficiently desperate to cast about for a harmless substitute.
    The road on which they left town was a good one, but their progress was
slowed somewhat by the fact that there was considerable traffic in the other
direction. Although it was the day before the principal market day, the flow of
everyday produce like eggs and milk was swelled by the movement of heavier produce in preparation for the weekly orgy of buying and selling. The further
they drew away from the town, in fact, the more traffic of that kind they
encountered and the narrower the road became. Theirs was the uphill route, which
made their progress even more difficult.
    At first, they followed the course of the river, which flowed relatively
smoothly for a league or so above Eilhart pool, even though it was not
considered navigable by cargo-boats. There were plenty of rowboats on the water,
and flat-bottomed ferries bringing carters and foot-travellers from the further
bank, where the tracks were less comfortable. When they came to the first
confluence of the Schilder with one of its lesser streams, they swung away
south-westwards and the way became steeper. The peaks of the Grey Mountains were
visible even in Eilhart, although the intervening hills supported the bleak
horizon with a rich band of green, but the further they went into the forested
slopes the more grey became visible from every ridge, and the true mass of the
mountains became far easier to judge.
    By midday they had left the best farmlands behind, having progressed into
drier land better suited to vines than to grain or root vegetables. In the
depths of winter, Reinmar knew,