Lacking much else to do while Orwyn sorted out his trade route to Beorne, I assisted him with shopping and hauling goods. Faraton lacked specialties for trade, but Orwyn planned to pick up large quantities of basics and wind through the countryside, offloading goods difficult to get in the more remote communities.

  Of course, that also meant we would be arriving in Beorne about three weeks later than originally thought, but we had no real rush. Orwyn insisted on paying us for escorting him, and milling about the area for longer increased the likelihood of us running into Varys and his gang, so it worked out well enough for us.

  While Orwyn was contacting various merchants, warehouses, and producers for goods, Damien was dealing with the logistics of moving the goods. Orwyn did not run a large trading company with its own resources; instead, he went from place to place, renting and hiring the goods and people he needed when the opportunity presented itself. Damien was dealing with much of that on this trip, finding carts and drivers and horxen for the journey. He and Orwyn would discuss resource levels and costs in the morning, get ready during the day, and review in the evening. They were already reasonably far into this process when I met them, so they only needed to repeat a few more days to finalize their inventory.

  When we finally set out it was with six wagons laden with a variety of goods, but mostly linens, cookware, and tools. Orwyn always included some fun items - knickknacks, snacks, toys - but the bulk of his money was made selling people what they needed.

  We proceeded south for only a few miles before we turned off onto a dirt road that barely qualified as a road, then we turned off from there along a path I couldn't identify as such. There we found a small collection of farmhouses, not even enough to call a hamlet, and while the adults needed little the kids enjoyed spending their allowance on candy and chocolates.

  Orwyn treated these trips differently than he did trips geared towards major trade routes. He had a map marking out all the farmsteads he could learn about in the area, and he navigated between them even if there was no clear road. Damien did an excellent job of picking out carts geared towards the rougher terrain, and the horxen he favoured were able to drag the weight through even the swampiest of sections without trouble.

  It was interesting to talk with him about the decisions he made during his planning. Horxen with a classical cart worked better for him than a grav cart due to the weight limitations. The smaller farmsteads built his customer network in a way that actually improved his sales significantly in major cities, and his varied goods depending on the route maintained a wide provider network able to find nearly anything.

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  What we saw of Orwyn turned out to be only a small portion of his business. He took special requests, he dealt in curios, he traded information, he made money in almost any way he could. He was what I imagined the self-proclaimed God of Greed Fremen was in his younger years.

  The straight path from Faraton to Beorne would have taken us about a week to walk, or a few days by gorse, or a few hours if a powered grav sled happened to be available, which there was not. Because of our winding route, visiting a few hamlets and farmhouses a day, we were instead taking more than three weeks to reach the city.

  As we roamed the countryside we occasionally crossed over the main road, and it was on the tenth day where that crossing point had a group of bandits waiting for us. They were Varys' subordinates, low-ranking members of the Blood Bandits out to see what they could steal for their boss.

  They didn't even get to finish making their threat. One of them stepped forward, saying something about letting them get what they want from our wagons, and then his head rolled off of his shoulders on to the ground. Drifter was in the middle of the group, and their panic as they shouted and drew their weapons was nothing if not comedic. After he killed a few more with minimal resistance the bandits started fleeing, recognizing they were outclassed, and Drifter let them go.

  I never ended up counting how many bandits there were in that group, but they seemed to outnumber our group. I assume it was twenty or so, with about fifteen fleeing in the end.

  A few days later we came across another group of bandits, although this group seemed to have interacted with the survivors of the first. When they realized who we were they let us pass without issue.

  We ran into a third group the next day - making me rather concerned about the security of the average person in Beornia - and they fled shortly after they came within sight.

  Drifter talked to Orwyn and I that evening. "We'll run into Varys tomorrow." Neither of us knew how he came to that conclusion. "The last group of bandits was scouting. Smaller group, fewer weapons, not ready for robbery. They were looking for us."

  Orwyn looked at his carts, at this point mostly empty of important goods but still enough that losing them would be a major hit to his wallet. And that was just if the bandits let us go; loss of life was also a major risk. "How do we prepare? Can we avoid him? Hunting down Varys for your bounty is one thing; being hunted by the Blood Bandits is a different level of danger for us."

  I shrugged. "Do we need to prepare? We have Drifter."

  Drifter was on the same page. "We just need to be wary. They aren't a threat."

  Orwyn, for his part, was not entirely convinced, but even Borin agreed with our assessment. He was left with no better option than to trust that Drifter could protect us. It was easy enough for me, who had been saved by him already, and easy enough for Borin, who had seen the skill gap between Drifter and a normal man, but for Orwyn it would remain a difficult leap of faith for another day.