The Caravan Road Read Free

dark-haired woman awaited him.
    The battle room had earned its name from the tapestry that hung upon its wall, a fanciful depiction of what a mountain weaver imagined a battlefield would look like, with orderly rows of soldiers in precise formations facing one another.  The weaver had never experienced or witnessed a battle, Alec knew.  The reality of battle was chaos – fluid situations, dynamic conditions, shifting positions and unpredictable surroundings.  Alec had lived through multiple wars, and their battlefields all had that one thing in common – whether it was the Dominion, the lacertii, the Michian empire or Avonellene’s own armies, there was never any way to stick to a plan or stay in an expected formation once the battle began.
    He shifted his attention from the tapestry to Carmive, a long-time patient and neighbor.  Alec had begun tending her ills when she was just a girl.  He had seen her grow up, he had seen her wedding, and he had tended to the health of her own children, who were nearly adults themselves now.  She looked healthy to Alec’s eye, and he instinctively used his Healer vision to examine her as well while he pushed the door shut behind his back.  There was no evidence of injury or illness, as Marcus had indicated.  Alec wondered what local issue had arisen that would prompt Carmive to come see him; while some of the neighbors tried to draw Alec into every local dispute that arose, Carmive was not one of those.  Alec had repeatedly avoided becoming entangled in the disputes which he believed people should learn to solve on their own, disappointing many who lived in the region, but he had never heard any such request from Carmive, until now.
    Carmive rose from her chair.  Alec held out a hand to greet her, then sat in the companion chair as Carmive took her seat again.  “It’s nice to see you this morning.  Is your family well?” Alec asked.  It was still just mid-morning, and Carmive’s homestead was over an hour’s journey to the western valley that rested below the ridgetop caravan route.  She had apparently left her home immediately after breakfast; whatever the issue was, Alec concluded it would be important to her, but not something so urgent that Carmive had felt the need to leave before breakfast.
    “They’re all well,” Carmive replied in a warm voice, glad to open the conversation with such an easy topic.
    “And how are your crops looking?” he knew that Carmive’s husband devoted more of his time to crops than to livestock, only raising a small herd of swine and a few cattle to supply meat for his own family, and relying on several fields of grain and vegetables that were scattered along a small river valley below the ridge that the caravan road followed.
    “Well, the late frost hurt our orchard, but everything else is going to bounce back,” Carmive answered assuredly.
    Alec sat in silence, waiting for her to open the real conversation.   He’d checked on two topics that didn’t seem to trouble her, so now it was time to wait patiently and let her open up the issue that was on her mind.
    “I’m sorry to trouble a great man such as yourself,” she began humbly just seconds later.
    “You’re no trouble, and I’m not a great man, just a neighbor,” Alec tried to put her at ease.
    “Oh, but y ou are!” Carmive protested, “and you’re always so willing to help us all.
    “That’s why I thought I should ask for your advice, and maybe your help,” she picked up the thread of her purpose for visiting.  “Jasen’s grandfather has passed away out west in Oolitan; we got word from a message that was delivered on the last caravan that came through.
    “There’re some affairs that need to be settled up.  Jasen’s his only heir, so we need to send someone to sell his home,” she explained.  “We have it in mind to go ourselves, but we’re nervous about leaving the farm for the weeks it’ll take to get there and deal with everything and then