Sorcery - 11

The walk to Basil was punctuated by frequent traffic. The road became significantly busier the closer they came to Basil. There were plenty of east and west running roads that joined up north of Cedar Village that supplied an almost unending flow of horses, carriages, and passengers. The road widened to accommodate the additional traffic, but a few times Nancey and Nicole were forced to step aside while others passed them.

The woods gave way to vast farms as they approached the city. Massive irrigation systems provided water to impressively large crop fields. Nicole had never seen so many crop fields. The outer edges of the fields were dotted with wind mills and various out-buildings. Some of the mills were driven by water-fed wheels or even livestock, she imagined they could have been grain or even felting mills or other manner of basic industry.

Nancey gestured to a row of short, squat buildings with open roofs, "That's where they grow the lilies."

Nicole instantly became more suspicious of the carts that were leading into and out of the rows. Nancey commented again, "When we get into the city, try to look like less of a tourist." Nicole rolled her eyes and attempted to look bored.

They entered the city through a wide set of gates that looked to be more for show than function. Nancey seemed to know where she was going, so Nicole fell in step behind her for most of their journey through the streets. The streets were paved with smooth cobblestones. It was a simple pattern, but the vast sprawl of the city made it an impressive feat of masonry and stonework. Older parts of the city featured worn grooves. The grooves gave the center of the road a raised appearance that formed two lanes of traffic and left a sort of elevated foot path on either side for pedestrians. The pedestrians, however, seemed to ignore the demarcation, as well as the rickshaws, carts, and buggies, choosing to cross whenever the latter slowed down enough that they could slip between them.

Nancey was quick to lead them away from the main road upon which they entered the city and worked her way towards an increasingly older looking section of the city. There were occasional uniformed men and women that patrolled the newer looking streets, but they didn't so much as look at Nancey or Nicole.

After countless seemingly arbitrary twists and turns through the city, Nicole had lost all sense of direction and given in to just blindly following Nancey. Nicole began to notice patterns in the movement of people around her. There were some who kept looking up at the buildings and stopped on busy street corners, and then there were those who always seemed to be in a hurry. They didn't look up, they seldom met the faces of those around them, but no one was overtly rude.

Nicole had imagined that such a populated place would have been louder with conversations, and there was a certain bustle of conversation amongst the hustle, but for the most part, people just kept to themselves.

Eventually they came to a stop and Nancey paused to dig the remaining food from Jack's place out of the backpack. Nancey spoke calmly, "Don't react, but it seems we're being followed."

"By whom?" Nicole nonchalantly glanced around, but there was no way she could tell one random face from the next, so she had no idea who might be following them. As far as she was concerned, the same twenty people could have been walking circles around the block they were standing on and she'd have been none the wiser.

"If we're lucky, it's someone I was hoping to see." Nancy continued to speak calmly while she re-fastened the pack. "Fancy a bite?" She passed a bit of cheese and bread to Nicole. "We could be lucky. If we were unlucky they'd probably have tried to stop us already."

As Nicole finished the last of her cheese and bread, she asked, "So, now what?"

"I guess we should just get to our destination that much quicker." And with that they both took a few pulls from their water flasks and then crossed the street. They entered a store front that smelled of parchment and old books.

"Welcome, Ladies! Might I help you find something? Looking for a field guide? Or perhaps something more urban?" A slightly balding, older gentlemen with a bushy white mustache and bifocals stood just inside the doorway with a genuine smile, eager to help them.

"Perhaps," replied Nancey, "I'm preparing to journey South and I was hoping to find a field guide that might cover both fowl and foliage?"

The old man's mustache twitched as he considered her request, and then replied, "Yes, I might have something that could help you there. Will you be journeying beyond the good kingdom or are you looking for something in a further region?"

"Well, what's the furthest region you carry, perhaps I might be convinced to journey there."

"Well, I suppose that would be Aris or perhaps Laven? Though this time of year, you might want to avoid the rainfall in Laven. But if you're squeamish about the weather, I don't suppose you'd want to travel to Aris either, fierce storms brew there."

"Well, perhaps I should reconsider my destination." Nicole had no idea where these places were and no idea why Nancey would want to go there.

"Perhaps," he agreed. "Is there anything else I could help you with?" He asked, hopefully.

"Mm, not today. Thank you for your help." Nancey turned and left the building, Nicole trailed after her.

"So, that was-" Nicole began to ask a question, but Nancey cut her off immediately.

"An unfortunate turn of events, but what are you going to do? We'll see what the next shop has to offer." Nancey was so keen to interrupt with such a non-committal response that Nicole assumed the conversation that just took place in the book store had nothing to do with what was actually spoken and was somehow related to them being followed.