loud enough for her and Kern to hear.” Just be careful all right?” With that he kicked his heels into the beasts side, spurring him on to the caravan. Following suit, Jade hoped this wouldn’t turn into a show down because in this heat she wasn’t feeling like doing much.
The smiling woman looked friendly enough she supposed, with gentle wrinkles at her eyes and mouth that gave her the impression that she did indeed smile a lot. Her dark skin was a testament to harsh desert life.
“Ho there travelers, what brings so far into the Burning Sands?” She asked, a trace of suspicion in her inquiring words. The men still had not taken their eyes off them, nor their hands off their weapons.
Marion as always spoke up as the party leader, which Jade was just fine with him doing so. She had no desire to speak to them, in her mood she would probably just make matters worse for them.
“We’re trying to get to Sargin. We’ve come all the way from Elsif City looking for a friend of ours who said he’d be here.”
“Ah. Well lad Sargin’s gates of been closed off to strangers for some time now, have you not heard?”
From under the hood of his turban Jade could see his brows draw together in thought. She herself was curious too, why would such a large city do that? Strange.
“No, milady. I had not heard this. This is most troubling, we’ve come a long way for him. Is there no way the guard would let us in?”
The woman chuckled, a warm hearty sound. “They would let you into the prison if you try to walk right up there and ask them. I suppose you three have just run into a bit of luck then running into us. We’re a small merchant band who comes into the desert every so often to look for wild herbs that grow in some of the small oasis’s around here. You could ride in the caravan with us to get into the city if you like. Now be of a mind that I’m only doing this because you have two ladies with you and the desert is no place for them without a proper guard.
Jade felt like laughing at that, the old woman doubting his abilities. She bet that his pride had to sting just a little bit. If it did though he gave no sign of it, exactly the opposite actually. Nodding his head in agreement, he said. “Then you see how dire our situation is that we would come unprepared through the desert.
“All right then. Tie up your beasts to the back and hop in. Mind your feet though we don’t need our merchandise trampled on.” The old woman motioned to the young men that it all was well.
Chapter 4
As Jade was dismounting she thought of how lucky it really was they had run into these people. There wasn’t enough water to turn back around and trek back to the other side of the desert from where they had came from. Not that she thought Marion would have done this anyway, he would have recklessly forced his way into the city to look for this run away frost blight for some woman he didn’t even know.
Tying the reigns of her beast to some pegs that were on the back of the wagon, she dusted some sand off of her clothes. Climbing up into the wagon, she made sure to move gently around to find a spot to sit, careful not to step on anything. Looking up from her feet she noticed that the two women were staring at her in awe.
Arching a brow at them, she just tucked her hood a little lower and hunkered down in her corner by the entrance of the caravan. After a moment Kern was next clamoring in with a little too much energy for her liking, then Marion. The wood creaked at his extra weight and they huddled together and giggled. When he sat down with his back turned to everyone, staring