Chapter XXV
Achilles stared out at his completed vessel. To the average on-looker, it was just another Imperial styled ship, but larger, and without any brash features. His lack of wanting to decorate it was on purpose.
Overly pompous vessels, with large golden figureheads and such, just added unneeded weight and attention. Even though he had been contracted to build such vessels in the past, he hadn't really liked it.
He preferred the beauty in simplicity, while being technically sound underneath. The ship was strong and sturdy, its keel being enchanted as it was laid down, something he had only previously done on the Katariah and an Imperial Galleon, a class of ship this build strongly resembled. It hadn't been cheap, sapping most of the cost of the build, but it would be worth it in the end.
However, that wasn't really what was on his mind. Malthar was, or rather his fate.
Over the last few days, he had felt depressed after dreaming about what could have only been his death. He hadn't had any follow up dreams, and the last few nights had been void of anything other than him being unable to sleep.
Thankfully, the Breton banshee was gone, and Burag was quite reclusive, which suited him fine right now. He just hoped that whatever he had seen, hadn't been what he thought. If it was, then he would never be able to forgive himself.
Achilles had been so certain that this was the path to take, that sending him to Jehanna was necessary to see a conclusion to whatever it was his dreams had been telling him throughout his life.
If this was what it had all been leading up to, then the Gods had betrayed him. All he had wanted was to discover the secret that was being conveyed to him. Instead, it seemed all he had found was misery.
He looked away from his ship and made his way back to the house. The construction workers had suggested that it be launched within the next month. It was mainly because the dry-dock wasn't a permanent feature. It had been constructed specifically for this build, and he knew for a fact it hadn't been built to last. He had calculated the cost, and even for him, such a long-term investment had been too much.
That and the city wouldn't allow it.
Even now, he was receiving letters telling him that next month his taxes on the land would start to increase until the 'eye sore' was gone.
The thing was he couldn't launch. Not until he knew he had a crew, and without Malthar finding the ones in his dreams, there would never be one.
At least not the ones he felt should be in command of her.
It felt like his whole life was unravelling before him. That it was some sick cruel joke.
Only time would tell now. His dreams had once again left him for now, and he was in the dark as to what exactly had happened.
With a deep inhalation of breath, he slowly made his way back inside.
Wren held onto the rocky outcrop a good fifty feet up off the ground She peered ahead, taking mental note of everything she saw, before looking down at the expectant eyes looking up at her.
"See anything?" Tam shouted.
"There is a clearing, and the ground seems to fall away. There's also a definite increase in foliage, trees mainly. I think we might be close to the other-side of the mountain range," she told them in a raised voice.
"Finally," Faldan said with relief. "I thought we were going to die up here."
"You maybe," Brendarr mumbled.
Wren quickly descended, noticing Hides' unpleasant expression.
"You wanna take a look?" she asked the Argonian.
"I trust what you said you saw is accurate," he replied.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Wren asked him. "Because you don't like me for some reason? Is that is?"
"I trust ya," Brendarr said with a warm smile.
Wren looked at him with a frown. "Sure, okay," she replied.
Tam folded her arms. "If you're all done, we should get going. Since you're the one that saw what's ahead, Wren, you lead the way."
"Alright then, everyone follow me."
They moved onwards through the glacier westwards towards what they hoped was High-Rock, not just more border mountains, that had thus far seemed to stretch on for an eternity.
It had been two days since they entered the mountains, and their progress had been hampered by blocked passages, impassably steep inclines and a den of sabre cats, all of which they had been forced to navigate around.
With a little luck, they would be back among civilization soon, away from what had been thus-far, an unpleasant experience.
Unfortunately, their run of bad luck hadn't run out just yet. After moving down a shallow incline, and passing through a crevice, that lay between two rocks, Wren stopped, holding her arm out behind her, gesturing the others to stay back.
"What is it?" Rasha asked as Wren looked down.
"Sheer rock-face," she replied. "I might be able to get down, but I doubt any of you could."
Tam moved beside her, looking down. "That's a pretty steep drop."
Hides pointed. "There's a ledge. If we follow it, we may find a way down."
"I agree," Wren said. "Once we find a way down, then we need to find a road. Then we might be able to get our bearings."
"Let's concentrate on finding a way down, first." Tam said, leading everyone onwards along the ledge.
The further they got, the narrower the ledge got, until they were having to almost shimmy above a rather substantial drop. Luckily though, it began to widen again and soon after the ground met up with the rock face, where they were able to continue on westward through forest, that quickly grew rather dense.
A pack of wolves spied on them, as the large group of ten passed by, deciding it best to leave the travellers from the east alone.
Finally, after wandering through the trees for at least an hour, Tam finally turned to Magoza. "You're from here, do you know where we are?"
"No, but I think we're somewhere south of my stronghold," Magoza replied.
"Where's the city?" Wren asked.
"It's west of our stronghold."
Rasha pointed. "This way is north," she told them. "We go far enough and we should hit the coast."
"Jehanna's on the coast," Magoza told them.
"We head north till we find the coast or a road," Tam said. "Then we should hopefully be able to find the city."
The last few days had gone slow, really slow.
The lights Camlorn was on the dark horizon, and they were glad. Especially Rontag, who's backside was going numb from the hard wooden seat in the back of the wagon.
The few days since leaving Wayrest to continue on their journey had so far involved sleeping, eating, and sitting on the hard wooden seats.
As the wagon pulled to a stop, Rontag climbed out, rubbing his behind, with a disgruntled groan.
"Should be last stop before Daggerfall," Mael told them. "Been really good weather. If it holds, then we go right there, no stops."
Rontag groaned again. "Can't we have at least some stops. The hours sat down are becoming painful."
"Buy a cushion if you want," Mael told him. "I would have them, but they get ruined when it rains. Hey, if you'd have waited a week or so, I would have had the canopy I'm having crafted in Northpoint fitted. Then the cushioned seats are a possibility. Of course my charge goes up forty-five percent. Luxury travel is. Well, a luxury. That's where I'm heading after I drop you all off. To get my wagon upgraded to a proper carriage."
"I wish you luck on that," Valerie said to him, as she climbed down from the cart, followed by Meratur and Durza.
They saw Cassi and Malthar leading their horses into the paddocks, while Mael made his way over to a stable worker, before unhitching his horses, and leading them too into the paddock.
Once that was all taken care of, including the securing of the wagon, they headed into the city.
The closer they got, the more doubts Rontag had in his mind over what not just what seen in his vision, but how much of it he actually remembered correctly.
He supposed doubt was only natural. They were here solely on the fact that a vision he'd had while suffering from poison had been right on a few things. They had essentially traversed half a continent based on a dream.
It was positively mad when he thought about it. Then again they had been driven out of both Winterhold and Solitude because of the Thalmor. They didn't really have anywhere else to go, so they might as well follow what could turn out to be a phantom.
By the Gods' grace though, he hoped it was all real. If not, then he'd feel like an absolute fool.
"This is a good place to rent rooms," Mael told them, pointing to the large building before them. "You have to share rooms, but it's really cheap. Word of warning though, they water down the drinks almost to the point you might as well grab a drink from the well."
Cassi looked at the two Nords. "That ain't gonna be a problem is it?" she asked. "I know how ya Nords like the drink 'n stuff."
"We'll be fine," Valerie assured them. "Won't we Ron?"
"Uh, sure," he said, with a slight shrug.
"Then you go inside," Mael said moving off.
"Where are you going!?" Durza said, as though she was accusing him of something.
"A better place," he replied. "No offence, but I wouldn't be caught dead in there."
"I'll come with you," Malthar said. "I don't like these kind of places myself."
"Ya off then?" Cassi asked her friend. "I mean, how're ya gonna pay fer it, considering ya gave me the gold to look after?"
"You don't want to sleep in a glorified bunkhouse do you?" he asked her.
"Sure, it's good culture, and ya need some culture Mal."
"A decent inn has culture."
"Yeah, if ya like snobs complaining about rich people problems."
Mael raised his hands. "Look, I'm not off to some expensive inn. Just somewhere that isn't this place. B'sides, the guy who owns it hates me, so I can't stay here."
"Why does he hate you?" Meratur questioned.
"Reasons," Mael replied unsatisfactorily. "I'll see you in the morning." He moved off quickly, leaving the others stood in front of the inn.
They went inside, all except Cassi and Malthar. He didn't look too happy about staying here.
She grabbed his hand. "Come on, it's not gonna to be that bad. 'Sides, this time tomorrow, we'll probably be back in Daggerfall."
"In that case, we should stay somewhere nicer," he replied. "If it's only one more night, then we can afford it."
Cassi let go of his hand, and folded her arms with a frown. "Ya feel like yer too good fer this place, don't ya?"
"I am."
"Do ya think yer too good fer me?"
"Of course not, you're being foolish."
"Really? 'Cause I'm not a very wealthy person if ya didn't know. 'Fore I met ya, places like this were where I'd spend most of my nights while I was in a city. Sure, I have more than I did, but still there are plenty of people out there who ain't got it so good. Yer so well-off, ya don't even notice or care that there are people out there that really struggle just to live from day to day."
"It's not my fault there are poor people out there," he said defensively.
"No, but sometimes ya seem oblivious to the plight of others."
"I don't mean to be," he told her. "But how does me not wanting to sleep here mean I hate poor people?"
"I never said ya hated 'em, just oblivious. And as to sleeping here, it'll give ya a little insight, and maybe make ya a little more charitable."
"Fine, I'll spend the night in this wretched place."
"It's not wretched, Mal," Cassi said. "Just a bit more basic. 'Sides ya should learn to save a bit of yer coin. The old man won't be around forever, and from what you've told me, he spent quite a bit of his wealth on that ship. There might not be that much left, and you can't expect it to last long enough fer ya to live comfortably fer the rest of yer life."
Malthat's shoulder's sagged slightly. "That fact has been on my mind as of late. Apart from looking after him, I don't have any real skills. I got an education, but I'm not a scholar, or a writer, or have any real skills in anything else. The war came at a bad time, and my future kind of went on hold."
"Don't worry, you can be my sidekick," Cassi said, half in jest.
"Let's just go inside," Malthar said, feeling rather depressed.
"A road, finally," Rasha said.
It was almost pitch black, or it would have been if Masser and Secunda weren't out in full force tonight. Their surroundings were lit up in the dull light, and despite the fact that the sun had set an hour or so ago, they had opted to push on instead of making camp.
"Okay, we need to figure out which way leads to the city," Tam said, looking up and down the road as they set foot on it.
"That way," Hides said, pointing up the road. "That way is north, and it most likely leads to Jehanna."
"North-east, actually," Wren corrected unnecessarily.
"Any idea how far it is to the city?" Jalia questioned. "It's just that my feet really hurt. We've been on the move for days now."
"I second that," Faldan added. "We should make camp or something."
"It is dark," Kalon said. "We could easily get lost if we're not careful."
"Not that dark," Rasha said.
Faldan pulled a face. "Yeah, but you've got the cat eyes thing going on."
"'Taint that dark," Brendarr said, repeating what Rasha had said only moments earlier. "I can see just fine."
"It's those creepy red eyes," Faldan muttered.
"Maybe we should continue on?" Llandri suggested. "Instead of waffling?"
"Yes," Wren agreed. "Standing here yapping won't get us anywhere any time soon."
"Come on then," Tam said with slight annoyance. "I want to find the city. If we don't, then we'll have to make camp off the road somewhere, and I don't know the area, so I don't know what's likely to jump us and try and eat us."
"I don't either," Magoza said. "Except wolves maybe."
"I don't think we have to worry about them," Wren commented, as they all began to move onward.
Hides glared at her. "Only an idiot doesn't worry about wolves," he commented.
"Only a coward frets over wolves when there are much worse things out there," Wren shot back. "We still have to be observant, but I doubt a pack of wolves will attack such a large group."
"Your doubts don't concern me," Hides said. "Our safety does."
"Shut up, Lizard!" Brendarr snapped at him. "Ya scared of a few wolves, then go home!"
"Can you all just be silent for once?" Tam said, with a heavy sigh. "I'm really starting to get fed up of people not being able to get on with each other. If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything. Stop forcing the rest of us to have to listen to your inane drivel."
Everyone went silent.
Tam smiled. "Perfect, now let's get going."
They continued on, heading northwards in silence.