The creature who had opened the door for them, a member of their own race, was dressed in plain but tidy cloth, and had a hand held out expectantly. The iron rod was passed over to it, and they conversed with it for a while, at one time bringing out the pendant to illustrate a point. The one who had been waiting in the room, a guard or gatekeeper, pointed at the curtained off area and departed, gently closing the door behind him.
Behind the curtains there were ragged piles of cloth and animal skins in a small room with no window. Pottery containers of food and water stood neatly in one corner, into the other they tossed their packs. There was a switch from which a pair of wires lead up to the light in the ceiling; one of them flicked the switch, plunging the room into darkness whilst the rest settled down to sleep on the heaps of cloth.
Their sleep was disturbed by shouting from the other side of the partition. Instead of the night's darkness the curtain was bright with natural light, enough of which passed through it for them to see easily. With sighs and yawns they slowly hauled themselves out of sleep and pushed themselves to their feet, helping themselves to the food and water from the pottery bowls.
In the main room early morning sunlight was pouring through the window, and already the air was hot. The horizon over the sea met the sky in indistinct haze, shimmering nervously.
A group of half a dozen was waiting for the freshly awakened, awaiting their appearance, standing between the window uprights out of the sun. When the curtain was pushed back they clapped their hands briefly and retired to the tiers. The four took up positions around the table.
Everyone present in the room spoke briefly, then the metal rod from the niche outside the door was placed in the middle of the table. Each member of the group which had discovered the corpse spoke at length, in turn, uninterrupted by anyone else. When they had finished the pendant was brought forward and placed on the table, in front of the rod.
One after another the half dozen came down from the tiers to examine the disc, some just looking at it, others picking it up and shaking it about. They retired back to their standing places, to further discussion. Voices rose and fell for some while, and at times several were raised in heated argument. The shadows moved slowly across the room.
The debate was broken by a sharp cry. All turned to look at the one who had spoken it. The crier pointed at two of the assembly, one of those on the tiers and the one who had removed the disc from the body. They clapped in acknowledgement, and immediately departed the room.
These two met again outside, in the gap between the walls. The discoverer was leading two of the beasts they had been using the previous day, one tethered to the other by a long rope. The second was loaded with baggage; they scrambled up onto the first.
Instead of returning to the desert they turned left, at first picking their way through the tumbled hills, but gradually descending towards sea level. Before long they were down on a wide beach, and the animals lumbered up into a steady trot.
This pace was kept up solidly, despite the burning heat. The broken rocks on their left remained a barrier to the interior, on the right the ocean heaved, wavetops flashing in the sun as it followed its path around in the sky.
With the sun now straight ahead, and the temperature nearing its peak, both animals and riders were starting to feel the strain. They halted, and all drank from the ocean near at hand, an unwise idea for a human being but a sound one for creatures able to deal with the salinity.
After they had refreshed themselves they left the open beach and took shelter from the sun in the rocks, eating provisions from the packs on the second animal. They rested only shortly before continuing.
For several days this routine was repeated, always travelling during the day despite the easy path of the beach and the cool of the night, whilst the sea on their right and the hills on their left marched onwards. At length the rocky heights began to loose their definition, merging into a more undulating countryside. Sparse vegetation covered them and insect-like creatures began to buzz around, irritating both beast and rider.
After a day's journey away from the rocks the coast started to curve away to the right, to the east. Stopping only to fill skin bottles from the sea, they left it behind and passed up a shallow valley that continued in their direction.
The valley was straight, and gradually rose away from the shore. Stunted bushes were all over it, but not so close together so as to impede progress. Occasionally small creatures scuttled out of the way of the travellers into the shade and protection of these dry, spiky plants.
At last the valley opened onto a plateau, overlooking both the now distant sea and desert. The sea shone as a silvery gleam, but a blur in the desert marked another sandstorm. Ahead the plants looked greener; there was another shimmer near the horizon.
Sunset found them only a short way advanced on the plateau. Without the shelter of the rocks in which to sleep they erected small earth-coloured tents, becoming almost invisible as darkness fell. When it did there was still a dim glow in the air ahead of them.
The next morning they began in a different fashion than before, walking instead of trotting. One of the pair removed a pair of optical binoculars from a pack and constantly scanned the barren scene whilst the other guided their mounts.
They progressed, though. The ground sloped very slightly downwards ahead of them, affording something of a view in their direction of travel, now revealing the glimmer to be a large lake. As they closed on it a large cluster of buildings on the shore became apparent, around them were fields, their browned crops not that distinguishable from the surrounding land.
A couple of miles from the buildings the humanoid with the binoculars barked suddenly. Its startled companion pulled the beasts to a halt, asking urgent questions. The binoculars were passed over. Emerging from the town, and rapidly closing on them, were small dust clouds, flung up from the wheels of a group of vehicles.
Chapter 2 - Passing the Burden
Standing to pull a curtain across the narrow slit of a window, Sura Elleran dropped back onto a chair to continue watching the video without the sunlight glaring on the screen hanging on the wall. The lounge appeared tatty to an outsider, a threadbare carpet on the floor, covered in dust, plain and battered furniture standing here and there, but luxuries were uncommon here.
Sura knew Qudira well, and had no illusions about the attractiveness of the place. The desert she lived on the edge of covered vast areas of this continent; the others were much the same. Patches of jungle, a relic of a more fertile past, were scattered across the higher latitudes, and where they climbed the Farbreak Mountain range were replaced with a more open, temperate climate. There the spectacular landscape of the mountains was enhanced by the exotic flora, and during the brief stable period in the planet's political history a much-welcomed tourist trade had began to emerge.
Now the world was officially listed as being in a state of anarchy. Communities were mostly isolated, contact between them usually consisted of raids for supplies. Many of the desert settlements were originally mining towns, but most of the industry had left or been destroyed within a hundred years of them being up.
There was also indigenous intelligent life present, a primitive humanoid form. Understandably resentful of the impact of humanity on their homeworld, but fearful of it as well, they kept to themselves most of the time. Occasionally they were known to attack lone travellers or to try to play one settlement off against another, less frequently they turned up to barter for goods in return for their mildly infamous "nasty juice". The humans mostly ignored them, more concerned with the problems caused by others of their own species.