Earl had been working in a mine on Estale, perhaps the world where Tormyle
had thrown him, and had by considerable privation managed to save a low berth passage to Ourelle and to gather a small stash of chorismite crystals.In the Ourellian city of
Sargone, he sold these to Akon Batik, a vaguely malevolent but wealthy aging gem trader.Batik asked unsuccessfully if Earl would consider some dangerous employment and, when Earl declined, belatedly gave Earl directions to the Kladour house of knowledge where Earl intended to engage in his routine search for Earth clues.
MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
Earl’s directions led him to a back street where robbers probably waited, but before he reached it, he saw three toughs accosting a man and a young boy.Dumarest disposed of the toughs but was injured in he process.He awoke in a makeshift clinic on a farm looked after by the boy’s mother Makgar.Makgar lived on the farm with the eight year old boy, Jondelle, his step-father Elray and some people called the Hegelt, gentle, timid people who were apparently the earliest settlers of Ourelle.Earl recovered and developed a deep mutual fondness for Jondelle who wanted to learn knife throwing.Earl started to teach Jondelle, but was interrupted by the pacifist Elray.Irritated, Earl left to walk the rural countryside, and when he returned, he heard Makgar and Elray fighting about him.Coming into the house, he announced he would leave the next day.
That night he could not sleep.Instinct told him there was danger.He went out and found Magkar returning from delivering one of the Hegelt babies.They walked and as they were discussing whether Earl should leave or stay, a raid hit the farm.The raiders wore bizarre costumes, paint and armour like post-apocalyptic Australian road warriors.They burned everything.Earl sent Magkar around the house for Jondelle while he created a distraction.Though successful killing some of the raiders, he couldn’t save Magkar when she was discovered and mortally wounded.The boy was taken.Earl promised Magkar to rescue him.
Earl offered Akon Batik money for information.Aton sent him to Tambolt, a small time operator on Batik’s payroll.With Tambolt, Earl got a stranded traveller named Jasken to raise some men.He also hired Preleret to have someone at his back in case of mutiny.Earl planned to raid Melgven from whence the raiders came.Melgven was far to the south and surrounded by a ring of mountains impassable except by raft.Melgven had a high radiation and a mutation caused by that had rendered the Melgvenians hereditarily insane and violent to varying degrees.
Earl secured some of the lost Melgven weapons, handed the farm to the Church of the Universal Brotherhood in trust for Jondelle, and tying the men to the raft had them jump walk their way south.The men were mutinous but Earl was hard on them and they continued.Earl ferried them in groups with the baggage over the mountains.At a way station, a huge voracious insect killed a couple of the men before Earl shot it.Arriving in Melgven the next day, Earl managed to charm a Melgven leader Tars Boras so they were allowed to stay as traders in the “House of the Hanging Man”.The first afternoon, Earl stole out through a window in the roof.In the street he was accosted by insane Melgvens and began to dodge them by acting more insanely violent himself.He was spotted by Neema, a jewel trader (the Melgven’s main product was gems) who had gotten stranded in Melgven when the man she travelled with had gotten hung (Hence “House of the Hanging Man”).She enticed Earl into her palanquin and got him past the ravening mobs to her house.There she did what all Earl’s bad girl types do.She also told Earl that Tambolt had sold her their goods hoping to make a quick profit and run, leaving Earl.He also learned that a man with four Charnians (Ourellians apparently of East Asian origin) had come to raise a raiding party.Two of the Charnians were left as hostages who had been put in the gem mines so Earl and Jasken posing as mining inspectors went to the mines and found the one survivor.He told them about their leader, Heeg Euluch.
Earl’s group and Neema escaped after midnight.They had almost reached the mountains when they were spotted.They downed the first Melgven raft.The second they downed over the mountains but only Tambolt, Neema, Preleret and Earl survived.Earl took them to the Charnian valley, left Neema to be healed and took his men to find Jondelle who was in a pleasure palace called the Sumba.Earl killed Euluch, rescued Jondelle, and paid his men from some of Neema’s jewels.He learned Akon Batik had organized the kidnapping, but, refreshingly, did not kill him.The Church had found Jondelle’s grandparents on Veido.Jondelle’s parents had died in an accident.Unborn Jondelle had special empathy inducing genes and was placed in Makgar, as surrogate mother, and she had fled to Ourelle to keep him.In thanks for Jondelle’s rescue, the grandfather took the unprecedented step of subtly intimating to Earl he was of the Original People and that Earth circled a G-type star in the 7th decan.Earl sadly parted from Jondelle and continued on his way.