^*^*^*^
He lead her out of the ruins, past the leaning hovels that marked the outskirts, into the wastes of desert and sickly shrub. As the last decrepit shanty fell behind her, she began to fancy that there was indeed no Western Settlement: just a lone madman, wandering the deserts in the sometime company of a twelve-year-old boy with binocks. Her pace never slowed. Ka. Always Ka.
It was as if he had read her thoughts. "I've a crawler hidden a ways up the road. Left it to save gas."
'That town back there wasn't the Settlement, then?"
By now she had fallen into step beside Jerent, and he turned to her, the indulgent grin once more lurking in his eyes. "Ye think we'd be that obvious? No, we're hidden quite well away, let me assure you. We keep an eye on that place, though, seeing as the Western Road leads straight through it and all. When travelers come, they come through there. And we're always ready for them."
"Ye won't be ready when Tieburl's men come."
"We'll see."
She cast a glance down the road and could see, hidden away in a stand of scraggly palms, the glint of sun on painted steel. A crawler, then, just as he had said. In surprisingly good condition, too, considering the state most machines had come to in these times. The boy ran the last few yards towards the crawler, and jumped into the back with a cheerful "Wheeee!" Lilith pictured the boy as he would be after Tieburl's men had come through, left dead and forgotten by all but those creatures that would eat his flesh and leave his bones to bleach in the sun. Then she stepped into the crawler and took the seat next to Jerent, who was already behind the wheel. He afforded her the briefest of smiles - not a grin but a smile, and this troubled her for some reason - then started up the ancient beast and pointed them north along the sand-choked road.
The ride was long, and the road had not seen maintenance in perhaps two centuries. The rough jostlings of the vehicle left her unaffected. She had suffered more discomfort than this and nary flinched at the fact. Jerent, for his credit, did not so insult her as to ask to her well-being. They rode amidst a silence broken only by the grumbling of the crawler's engine. Though the sun had long since set, Jerent handled the crawler confidently. Lilith allowed herself to doze off, knowing she'd be instantly awake at the slightest sign of trouble. Not that Jerent would try anything. She knew him too well; and, though he might not be a true gunslinger, he had the honor of one. She'd come to no harm from him.
She awoke as the crawler came to a halt in total blackness. Jerent's voice sounded from her left. "This is where we store the crawlers. We walk from here."
She followed his footsteps across the interior of what must have been a huge building, until suddenly a rectangle of glowing light appeared before her. A doorway, she realized as her hand came up to block her eyes from the glare. Jerent held the door open for the boy. He did not even try to do so for her. He knew she would refuse the courtesy.
The night outside the building was bright, lit by seemingly millions of stars in the sky overhead. The small lantern that the boy had produced from somewhere was entirely unnecessary, but rather than chide him for his wastefulness, Jerent only smiled at the whelp, and motioned him on ahead the dirt path that wound through the sickly stands of palmers. Within a few seconds, the sound of his footsteps had faded under the night noises. She and Jerent continued down the path alone.
They walked steadily for perhaps ten minutes, following the sometimes nearly invisible path that lead through the ever-thickening palmers. Once Jerent stopped for a moment, and turned back to look at her, seeming as though he might speak. But after a searching glance -- one which she returned with her own flat gaze -- he merely turned back to the path.
Just as the path seemed to disappear completely -- even with her gunslinger's senses Lilith could not discern it among the undergrowth -- Jerent pushed the leaves of a particularly stunted palmer aside. "After you, m'dear?", he asked jokingly. He moved through the opening he had created, and Lilith followed, holding the leaves up with the flat of one hand while shading her eyes against the sudden onset of light with the other.
Beyond the stand of trees, a series of huge concrete buildings sprawled, looking ancient but well-kept all the same. Bonfires grouped about the perimeter of the complex burned brightly. Several dozen slightly ragged individuals watched their emergence from the undergrowth.
Jerent turned to her, and laughed when he saw the flat disbelief in her eyes. "Aye, it's the Western Settlement. You're here at last, after a journey of however many miles -- what, three thousand? Four?"
"Somewhere about that number, I wot."
He grinned. "Not what you expected, is it?"
She shook her head slowly, and followed once more as he set off towards one of the smaller buildings. "I expected something much smaller than this, to be sure. What was this place? Military installation?"
"Yeup. Quite a lot of them out here, but this was the only one in near this good condition. Fifteen concrete buildings, still standing solid after all this time." They had reached a metal door set in the wall of the structure, and he turned to face her, one hand on the doorknob. "We've some of the standard wooden hovels in the center of the complex; I'll lay wager that's what you were expecting to see."
"Aye."
He laughed again. "Aye," he repeated, but without mockery. He then opened the door and went inside.