Crossroads

By Ann Stratton

Magda does not want this city boy that Armin gives her, but it’s take him in or leave him to starve in the open country. On her way to Crossroads, she finds out just how important he is to the balance of power between the cities themselves when her caravan is attacked by a city security force. But her troubles are not over when she does make it to the safety of Crossroads itself, not for her, not for the city boy, and not for her youngest daughter. Magda must negotiate her way between world politics, teenage rebellion, and the upset of everything she’s been taught to believe in, and find an entirely new definition of family in the process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ann Stratton
• Release date: May 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310695728

Ann Stratton

Ann Stratton started writing at age thirteen with the usual results. After a long stint in fan fiction, honing her skills, she hopes she has gotten better since then. She lives in Southeastern Arizona, trying to juggle all her varied interests. 

Book preview

Crossroads

The Smashwords Edition

Ann Stratton

A Blind Woman Production publication

Copyright © 2015 Ann Stratton

Smashwords License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. It may not be resold or given away. If you would like to share this ebook, please purchase an additional copy for each person with whom you want to share it. If you're reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction, a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance or similarity to any actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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Credits

Cover illustration courtesy of Meyer Stratton

Editing and formatting by Ann Stratton

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Crossroads

Magda of Ferrin did not want this boy Armin of Pothrin brought to her. She’d raised her own children already and taking in this city boy would waste time and resources she couldn’t afford. She had her own concerns to deal with and a business to run.

Armin had turned up here in the Twin Star tribe village campground with the city boy on a tow rope and expected her to take him off his hands, just like that. City people generally were pretty useless anyway and she didn’t expect an underage boy to be any different. She had no use for anyone who couldn’t be bothered to pay his own way. The three dependents she was transporting for Tengerin clan were enough, and they weren’t even hers. She did not need a castaway of uncertain provenance and certainly didn’t have the time or resources to determine his worth, if any.

The boy in question sat by Magda’s fire, wrists tied, huddled in apprehension, fear, and misery. City men were marked by their pale and fair coloring and this boy was no different than any other Magda had seen. City men rarely left their enclosed cities, and certainly not alone. What was he doing out here?

This city boy was a pitiful mess indeed and Armin was determined that Magda should take him in, which was why she was standing there arguing with him. He certainly wanted a lot for this stranger he’d found, even if he did want to get rid of him. A free ranger didn’t like ties or burdens, and a city boy was certainly both.

Finally, Magda threw up her hands. Oh, you’ll be driving me to poverty with prices like that! Her protests were only perfunctory; it’s always better to let one’s vendor think he was getting the best of the bargain.

Armin snorted, squinting his deep yellow eyes at her. Hah. Better be getting him marked and quick. Someone is wanting him, and it is not you and me.

Oh? There is something you are not telling me? Magda led the way across the campground to her daughter Annalise’s wagon where she was keeping all her trade goods until Annalise took possession. She kicked Grey, one of the dependents she was transporting for Tengerin clan, up out of the shade of a small shelter as she passed. Grey was nearest, so he could climb around in the wagon at her direction.

Yah. That boy does not have training, food, weapons, won’t talk. That boy is not just exiled, I am thinking. Saw city people tracks last full moon, didn’t recognize them, but I am not recognizing that one either. Armin jerked his thumb at the huddled stranger, now resting his head on his drawn up knees. City people are not coming out this far unless they have reason. That one is the only reason I am seeing for six moons. Be you marking him now, city people will not be having a claim on that one.

Be you wanting me to dispute with city people? No way! All deals are off! Be you taking that boy right back where you got him!

Can’t be taking the deal back. We are shaking on it. You are going to Crossroads, be there in a couple days. Even city people are recognizing Crossroads law. They will not touch that one there.

Yes, but they will be following me there, be making a try before we get there, then what? Slash is the only one I am having for defense! None of these ones can handle a fork without I am telling them how!

Let the hrsen get a good sniff of him. They’ll fight for him. That raptor of Annalise’s is a good watcher. Look, be you complaining or be you getting me my trade goods? Armin drew himself up to his full height and looked down at Magda sternly. I am not waiting for you or anybody.

Magda ground her teeth and bellowed at Grey, who had been loitering by the door of the wagon, waiting to see how the argument turned out. Despite Grey’s dragging his feet, he soon piled Armin’s trade goods next to the free ranger’s pack and he began stuffing them in with a Trader’s efficiency.

Be you staying for food, spending the night with us? Magda offered hopefully. They’d known each other a long time, and as the years rolled on, they liked each other’s company more. Magda was getting to an age where permanent company in her bunk sounded better and better. Annalise isn’t here to cook, but Limmer won’t be burning food too badly if I am watching him close. The wagon keeps the dew off and the heat in pretty good.

Armin flattered her with a speculative look, stroking his magnificently black and white beard, luxuriantly grown out over his travels. Magda looked back at him with an inviting smile. Hard work and travel kept her thinner than a man might like, but she was still as straight and handsome as when she made her first baby, long dead now of disease. Her short cropped dark hair had little white in it, something she was proud of, and the sun had only seasoned her skin over the years.

That is an offer I would be trading for, he said after considering carefully, but I can’t be staying. I am tending to business. Don’t want city people to be knowing who found their boy.

I would be making you a good trade. How are you catching that one anyway?

That boy stole food right off my fire, like he was home. Can’t be having that. Armin gave Magda’s new property one last look, shouldered his pack and turned away. The Mother’s Blessing on you.

And on you, she said and watched him walk away. He exchanged salutes with the lead Chi’in hunter and the ‘eveth herders camped on the other perimeter before stepping out onto the main road.

Be you marking that city boy now? Grey asked hopefully, still a dependent himself and resentful of it, but not inclined to buy himself out either.

Yah, but you won’t be helping. Be you stoking up the fire and then be you and Barn keeping the watch. This is Trader business, not anybody else’s. Be you getting that?

Grey sulked. He kicked his toe into the dirt and grumbled, but he went off to do as he was told.

Magda went into her own wagon and found her tattoo kit. While Grey built up the fire, she sharpened her knife, ground ink, and mixed it with a bit of healing salve. She dabbed up cleanser onto a clean rag and scrubbed the city boy’s face while he tried to squirm away from her.

When she was ready, she made sure Barn and Grey were on the edge of their campsite to shoo away curious onlookers and paying attention. Most of the campground was empty, but there were others there, the Chi’in hunting party and the ‘eveth herders, and this was Trader business, not for the casual sightseer. Limmer knelt down behind the city boy, who stiffened up in alarm, and got a headlock on him, pinning him with his knees and holding him still.

Magda wiped off her knife with a rag soaked in hot water. The city boy saw her coming and tried to throw himself out of Limmer’s grip, though Limmer held him with professional ease. Keeping her hand steady, Magda cut her clan mark into the boy’s left cheekbone, smearing ink and salve mixture deep into the wound and covering it over with clean salve. Wiping her knife again, she cut his new status mark on the right. When Limmer let go of his head, the city boy collapsed in a heap, sobbing. Out on the perimeter, Grey told someone to go away, despite their protests.

As she cleaned her knife to put it away, Magda considered her new property. In handling him, she had revised her estimate of his age upward; his skin was as soft and fine as a child’s and his beard stubble not shaven enough yet to become harsh. But then again, city people didn’t age like normal people; he could very well have been Grey’s age and still look like a youth. His hair had been shaved at his exile and was growing back into soft sandy brown fuzz. His eyes were a pale sky blue, wide and dark with fear and pain, his face snub nosed and long jawed. He was not especially tall, being shorter than Limmer, but well made and proportioned for his height, if somewhat underweight.

Some careful breeding had gone into making him. What was he doing out here so far from home? What did the city people want with him? Magda thought she heard him muttering and leaned closer to hear. She didn’t recognize the language he spoke, but it seemed he was saying the same thing over and over again, as if it were a mantra against the unknown.

Oh, you are talking, then, Magda said to him and he promptly shut up, looking at her with wide tear wet eyes. Be you having a name, city boy?

The city boy set his jaw and squeezed his eyes shut, denying her presence. Magda shrugged. Be that way, then. Limmer, where is that food!

Wrapped in a blanket and bowl of porridge in hand, Magda sat on a bench by the fire and contemplated her options. Limmer, be you seeing anybody like that? She pointed her spoon at the city boy, sitting on the ground opposite her, practically folded in half.

Limmer glanced over and thought before speaking. He is a city boy. But what is he doing here? City people are not coming out of their cities very often. They are not liking it here. They are thinking we are savages. I am thinking they are afraid, but they are paying well for food and hides and ores. What are you doing with that boy?

I am not sure yet. I am wondering why is city after him? What is he doing? Thumbing his nose at the mayor? If a city mayor was as uppity as Magda had heard, then a mere disrespectful gesture was a hanging offense.

There was movement outside the ring of firelight and a raptor stepped into the light with a bundle in his arms. Everyone flinched as he approached Magda shyly, arm fans and crest flattened in submission, and abased himself at her feet. Trilling in the base of his throat, he offered her his bundle, the haunches and shoulder of a pronghorn wrapped in the carelessly skinned hide. Annalise had finally convinced him to save the hides of his kills, but couldn’t seem to get through to him that the hides needed to be as intact as possible.

Magda trilled back at him and ran her fingernails along the base of his crest before accepting the meat. Pleased that his pack mother had accepted his kill, the raptor sidled backward and hunkered down by the fire to groom himself. The terrible talons of his hands, capable of disemboweling prey twice their owner’s size, now turned to the domestic task of tidying and ordering his plumage.

Shivering, Limmer refused to take his eyes off the creature by the fire. Magda, I don’t know why you are letting that monster stay around here. Be you killing it or driving it away.

Slash? He is Annalise’s pet killer, not mine. He is accepting me because I am the leader of Annalise’s sorority. He is putting up with you and Grey and Barn because he thinks you are like hrsen. Better not be getting any ideas, Limmer. He can be tracking just about anything that walks on this earth.

He is a monster, Magda.

He is the best watchman I know, Limmer. Be leaving him alone. Here. Be tending to this. Magda handed over the wrapped pronghorn meat. Slash watched carefully, eyes glowing in the firelight, as Limmer carried the package away. Alert, he muttered worriedly.

Magda got up and scratched his crest. He purred, turning his head for more. It is all right, Slash. I said he could take it away. Be you coming here.

Slash studied the city boy’s huddled body carefully. The city boy cringed and tried to pull away, gagging in the dreadful wash of meat eater breath as Slash sniffed the bloody marks cut into his face. He licked at the crusted blood, thoughtfully. He tested the bindings that held the boy, not pulling very hard, though his talons could have cut through the ropes easily.

When he had finished his examination, Slash turned to Magda and made the noise that she had come to understand meant food.

No, Slash, this one is not food. This one is like hrsen. Be you watching this one like hrsen. Magda reached down and patted the boy’s shoulder. This one, hrsen.

Slash thought about this, studying her with one bright golden eye and then the other. Hrs’n, he said. He could imitate human voices and words if he wanted to, but neither Magda nor Annalise were quite sure he understood the noises he made.

Yes, hrsen. She stroked the broad feathery fan of his nearest forearm. Be you watching him. Nobody is hurting him, like hrsen. Be you watching him.

Hrs’n. Slash studied his new charge. He sniffed the boy again, raking his talons through the boy’s hair, making him start and whimper, still not sure what Magda was asking him to do. He walked around the two humans a couple of times, thinking about it, then made his decision, hunkering down by the boy’s side. Watsch, he said in Annalise’s voice.

Yes, be you watching him. Magda went and found a blanket and laid it over the city boy. Slash began