Renegade on Kara, The Great Basin: Chapter 13, Joshua

Roger's dragon egg hatches inside the city causing chaos

Put that dangerous animal outside our walls, came one angry thought. We are not safe with it inside!

Turning toward that thought, the old Ikerid sent back at the sender, The Far-Side stables, is good enough. People will need to work with him on both projects that will not go outside our wall. Both the old Ikerid and the angry one had made a point in seeing to it Roger heard those thoughts.

The old half-bald Ikerid turned back to him and spoke aloud. “These guards will lead you to the stable and all but the mules we will give you will be removed. The construction of your wagon will take place outside that stable. The same person that fed you, will continue to bring you food. You will answer questions asked you about all means of finding or tampering with our bricks and demonstrate it.”

Taking a deep breath, Roger said, “The demonstrations need to be done outside the walls.” Roger thought, then decided to give them a bit of information that they would pick up on when he started helping them. “It is possible for a human to do some magic inside, but they have to use care and can still unravel the spell telling the wall not to treat them as humans doing so. Outside, it is far safer to show you.”

The old Ikerid grunted. “That will be possible. There is a gate not far from that stable. But you only travel under guard.”

**

Roger frowned at where they were putting him. Far-Side stable, name that because it was on the opposite side if the city from the Great Road, wasn’t a full stable like he learned mules in, with only stalls for six mules and nothing else. No tack shed, no feed barrels, no grooming tools or even the normal cleaning tools, just a place that they put animals to keep them out of the way. As he watched, four of the six were taken away.

“Those two will be for your wagon,” the guard snapped at him. “Their caretaker will continue to care for them until you leave. You will stay here,” he said, pointing at an empty stall with his spear.

“I’ll stay here after you have someone clean one out,” Roger countered.

The guard used magic and shoved the shit from inside one stall to the walkway the mule used. “It’s clean. Stay!” he said and spun about.

That ugly brute force spell had cleaned the stall and done damage to it, too, but no one took the guard to task for that. It also left shit and hay to step over to get into it.

The guard took up his guard station outside the stable, glaring at him.

Roger slipped through his shield to find out why that level of hate.

Past that shield, he found a lot of hate. For his family to keep their place in the city, he had been required to leave and spend a tour as a Confederation Legionnaire. Since he had never got past private there, he would never have anything but a wall or street guard job here.

To him, it was all humans’ fault he was stuck in this job.

Roger snickered; it was cunning, and it was ugly. Almost all the guards were in the same boat. Legion training made them among the best soldiers going, but here among their own kind, they were nothing but street guards.

They hated The Confederation, and humans who created it for having it so much it easier in the Legion and everywhere else in The Confederation.

Even though the guards knew one of the city elders’ purposes of the policy was for them to hate The Confederation, it still worked. One and all, they all loved their city and hated humans with a passion.

Hearing the snicker, the guard glared at him again, and Roger withdrew without the guard even knowing someone had slipped inside his innermost shield.

Just in time, too. Eight young Ikerid and one adult pulled a large buckboard to a stop in front of the stable.

The adult turned to him. “I am the master Wagonwright here. I will modify this wagon into a fully covered desert fitted travel wagon. My usual customers are Ikerid, but I can fit one for a human.”

**