Onslaught

CHAPTER ONE It was harvest time in the Duchy of Bostia, in the nationless jungle to its north and west, and in the Kingdom of Skragland to its northeast. Harvest time, when the great merchantmen of the fleets of far Arpalonia's many countries filled the freeport of New Bally so that it was said a man could walk the length and breadth of Bostia Bay by simply stepping from ship to ship. The streets and inns, the taverns and brothels of the freeport were flooded with boisterous gaiety and unrestrained laughter. Seamen of scores of nations from the two continents assailed the eyes with the riot of colors of their national costumes, and assaulted the ears with the babble of their tongues. The shopkeepers and innkeepers, the serving maids and whores, the brothel mistresses and gamblers as well, ignored the assaults on their senses and reveled in the money they made from men too long at sea. Even the City Guard stood back and let their visitors party hard, intervening only when life was threatened or property wantonly destroyed. The silos and granaries and dockside sheds of New Bally were filled to overflowing at harvest time. Mountains of burlap sacks swollen with grain, vegetables, and fruit loomed near the docks, where farmers who reached the port too late to store their crops elsewhere hoped to sell them before the rains came and brought rot. Foreign traders climbed those mountains, prowled the peripheries of the silos and granaries, poked and probed the sacks and piles of grain and produce under the sheds, squeezed the fruit, rapped on the melons and gourds, seeking the best of the foodstuffs. Traders' magicians oversaw the loading of the foodstuffs into the ships warded holds, where they would be protected from further ripening and the resultant rot during the sea voyage to their destinations. At harvest time the craftsmen and artisans of the Kondive Islands, across the Turquoise Sea from the great trading port, brought their wares to New Bally to trade. They had jewelry of gold, silver, brass, and gemstones aplenty. Tapestries and rugs were rolled or hung or stacked high for leafing through. Local merchants stalked up and down the docks, inspecting the goods bought by the merchantmen. Sandal- and zebra- and other exotic woods from the farthest reaches of Arpalonia were there for sculptors and cabinet makers. Myrrh and frankincense came from even farther reaches, for lovers and the pious. Iron farm implements from far northern Ewsarcan for the farmers. Weapons of hunting and warfare from near every nation that hunted or foughtwhich meant from near everywherefor warriors and hunters. Some few shipmasters offered slaves privately to selected buyers; privately, for slavery was taboo in most nations, and the slave traders could find themselves turned upon by their seamen if the seamen knew the nature of the cargo these captains had borne in hidden holds accessible only through their cabins. Breeding bulls and hogs and horses were presented for sale to ranchers and herdsmen who wished to improve their stock. Lions and tigers and bears were sold for hunting or other, less speakable, sport. Camels and impala and elephants and serpents were offered to zoos or to private collectors, for more exotic purposes than the sellers cared to inquire about. The annual orgy of trading among the merchants, tradesmen, artisans, farmers, and herders lasted one week, during which most seamen enjoyed a different kind of orgy in the inns and shops and taverns and brothels of the freeport. During that week, those who boughtand their employees and the seamen as well as local stevedoresspent several arduous days loading and shifting and moving and lading until the ships' holds were filled, the stores stocked, the animals herded away, andperhaps most importantthe money counted. More than half of the magicians recently released fSherman, David is the author of 'Onslaught' with ISBN 9780345443748 and ISBN 0345443748.