Fletcher

by P. S. Power

  Tired and miserable, if dry, Anders still forced himself to try and find food as they went. At past noon, he even had to climb down from Chestnut, string his bow and carefully try to take several deer. It was different, this time, since he set his arrows, three of them, to freeze the world in an area that was very large, for him. Five paces across in a circle. One of the three arrows he fired got three deer at one time.

  Seeing that had ten foot-soldiers run over to help him get those in, even though they were going to have to be thawed and bled that evening before they could be cooked.

  It took fast walking for the men to carry the animals to the lead wagons. At the same time, he stopped and collected some more greens and a small bag full of early tree nuts. They were edible, according to the book he’d read on such things. Normally they were dried or roasted, which would be something he did that night, he decided. There weren’t enough to really share with everyone.

  That was simply what would be happening with most of the things he collected or caught. The deer worked out really well that way, though the hunting method had been strange enough that some might feel it was cheating. To his mind it was. He hadn’t taken the beasts using great skill or technique, just a trick that no animal would be able to defeat.

  Which was still going to have to happen. Each night for the last two, the Prince and Captain had sat together by the fire, speaking of how to stretch the food stores. The men could hunt, of course, if they wanted to stop and give them the time to do it. Moving at a fast pace which was what they were trying for at the moment, even if it was a step down from a forced march, meant not having the foot stop walking for too long when possible.

  The heavy horse soldiers could fight of course and hunting was a sport for many of them. The problem there was that they had to make sure to keep their horses fed as well. Several of the food wagons had horse grain in them, which was going to run out, if they couldn’t find a place to graze the horses. The plan was to push for another day and a half, stopping on the shore of a large lake, near the border. It would give them protection on one side as well as an ample supply of fish and animals in the area to hunt. That last would need to be done carefully, since it was possibly to overhunt the land in a small area. On the good side, they didn't have tens of thousands of men to feed. That would have been a lot harder.

  Most of the time, from the talk going on, the men were given basic rations and told to make due or find more for themselves. What they were managing so far was nicer than soldiers in the field normally got. The high ones, like Captains and Generals, they ate pretty well, at least in comparison. Magic users, too, he didn’t doubt.

  That night, after all the preparations and practice was finished, the horses brushed, watered and given grain for the night, he was called on again, to go and listen to what Master Tolan collected as to information. This day it was far more complete than even a few days before.

  “The scout leader is named… Morlan Dayce. He’s been in this region, on the border for over ten years. He has good relations with people in the area, on both sides. His second in command is called Quenna. A woman… One who has skills similar to my own. Not as practiced. There are no other magic users with them, just a group of five people. All on lightly loaded horse. They know that we are coming.”

  The voice was smooth sounding, nearly whispered. After that, which was committed to memory, each word placed in the hallway of Anders’s mind carefully, the elder man started to speak again.

  “Their force is larger than ours. I cannot count the number. At least four times the men. Fewer horses. There is… A gap in what I can see. Something hidden. Most likely by magic. That could be more people, magic users or a weapon. The feeling is of… A weapon. Something powerful, whatever it is.”

  This went on for about half an hour, before the Master Wizard shook himself and looked at the others there. Finally, he landed on Anders.

  “Did I say anything of note or use, Master Brolly?”

  The whole thing was repeated, very close to being word for word. No one there said anything about it, though the Captain nodded at him, near the end.

  “That’s what you said to us. I can’t love the news about the size of their force. Also, nothing about our advanced scouts was in there. We sent fifty men, all on horse. No message has been sent or has reached us at this point.” The words were a little grim. So was the long glance at the Prince. “We need to send a message back and seek reinforcement. Knowing that we need aid and trying for it now is better than doing it later, after half our men are dead.”

  Prince Alpert nodded.

  “Send three men, on horse. I don’t want to risk them being stopped on the way back. They only have to move to the Sennoc outpost for that. From there they can put a message with the fast riders. Given that… We should travel tomorrow to the encampment location and build some fortifications if possible. If they have a Wizard as well, then we can’t risk this woman leading them to us before we’re ready. A force that large, with nearly eight hundred to a thousand men in it… That means they’re planning more than stealing a few cows and pigs.”

  The words understated the danger, though the Captain didn't have any sort of better idea or plan in mind. What he did do, at the end, was look over at Anders.

  “We could send the boy back. For that matter we can send the Prince back as well. There’s no service in dying out here. Not for the likes of you. The rest of us can hold here, at the base location, until you get back with more aid.”

  The words were bland, as if that kind of thing was how the world was supposed to really work. The Prince and the strange boy that had no business being there would be sent off, well before the danger ever took place.

  Alpert actually grinned at the man.

  “My Mother had a vision that is forcing Anders Brolly to come with us on this journey. I won’t leave him here alone, just to save myself some discomfort. Besides, like it or not, I’m in command here. We’ll send those riders. Three of them. Have them move out as soon as they safely can.”

  There was no rebuke in the words, though the Captain hopped up and walked away, moving quickly enough. It was almost at a jog. That left three of them there, near the fire. It was warm, but the insects had come out, biting at them. Especially on the back of their necks. Even where they didn’t bite, it felt like they were crawling on his flesh, anywhere that was exposed.

  Prince Alpert made a low noise, a frustrated sounding thing.

  “My Father forced me to swear that I’d get you to the forward base, instead of sending you back, Anders. That had been my first plan. Having you ride with us for a way, then sending you back. That would fulfill the vision of my Mother, at least as far as what she actually saw. This is no place for a boy.”

  The words were familiar. Rather than dwell on things or the man’s obvious discomfort, Anders tried to think about what had been said again. The new information coming in.

  “Master Tolan, you mentioned something being hidden. Would it be possible to go over where that is, by finding the area around it? We have maps…” That might not be a thing that was possible at all.

  Rather than tell him about the limitations of his magic, the man nodded.

  “That might work! I can’t draw and work at the same time… What I can do is point at a map while in a trance. That’s hardly exacting…”

  Laughing a bit, the Prince took a deep breath.

  “Perhaps not. Still knowing where a thing like that might well aid us later. We should work on that. Tomorrow, as soon as we make camp. We’ll want to draw our own map of the area first. We can copy it from the other maps. That way we won’t be spoiling anything by writing on it. I can do that part. We’ll want some kind of table for that.”

  More plans were made, over the next hour, as darkness fell.

  That night they didn’t have any rain to bother them. Just insects. The things were annoying, and some bit. That was all though. A bit of itching was far preferable to dying in a massive thunderstorm,
at least to his way of thinking. Try as he might, he couldn’t work out a simple spell that would protect them from the crawling and flying things which plagued them.

  The best idea anyone had was the Captain, who figured that if they could sit close enough to the fire, the heat and smoke would drive the things away. That didn’t work, as far as Anders could determine. At least the annoying buzzing in his ears kept happening all night long. Until the very early morning.

  It was hard and meant eating in the saddle but they rode out as soon as they had enough light to see the road. Moving as fast as the soldiers could walk, they covered more ground that day than they had been, by a good bit. They also got in to the right location, near the big lake, which was named Sapphire, for its blue waters, with only a bit of time for them to make camp.

  Scrambling, since he hadn’t seen anything to hunt that day and couldn’t risk slowing them down to collect plants, Anders worked on getting firewood and the camp set up, while the soldiers set up a low wall around their location, made of wooden posts, stakes and rocks that were collected from the area. That gave them a space which was smaller than they had been using most nights. The horses were in a fenced area, which went up rather efficiently. Each man had to find three posts, dig his own hole for them and set the thing in it upright. Then rope was used to bind the things together and set the boundary. The horses still had to be tied up, inside the thing, since a smart horse could just step through the ropes and escape.

  Then, as the cooking fires were started, Anders moved to the lake and tried to find a spot where the fish were visible. When they came to the surface to feed, at least the ones close enough to him, he used his new fishing hand gesture, with two knuckles up, and pulled them to himself. Over and over again. It didn’t work every time, by any means. For every four he tried to bring in only one actually had a fish at the end of the motion.

  Still, that gave him a large canvas sack filled with the things before it got way too dark. Those got carried, awkwardly, over to the cooks. The sack was hard to hold by the top, making his fingers hurt horribly as the heavy thing kept attempting to slip from his grasp. When that happened, which it did four times, he had to stop and pick fish back up.

  The thing was settled near the cooks, one of whom walked over and stared inside the thing.

  “Not bad, seeing how we got in late like we did. Do you think you can take a deer or maybe a boar tomorrow? I saw sign that there are some in the area. That would be a nice change for the men. More of those bitters, as well, if any are in the area. Master Cook was mentioning that the men haven’t been all bound up on this trip. That normally starts about this time. Greens help with that, if the men will eat them. If not, then we get to beat them for not doing it, so it works for me, either way.”

  Nodding, Anders tried to seem positive about the idea. There was a lot of greenery in the area. Then there had been the entire ride. It wasn’t all forest. Just a lot of it. That meant there would be edible plants in the area, given the time of year.

  “I’ll try to scout some of that out.” He walked away then, since the man was clearly busy. If nothing else he had fish to clean.

  He had a fire going for Master Tolan, as well as Prince Alpert. Near that second one, a makeshift table, made of a flat rock about two and a half feet across, which was angled on one side and round on the other edge of the flat piece, being set on some rough-cut logs to give it more height. Those were stacked two good sized logs high, crossing each other, with stakes being pounded into the ground in order to hold the whole thing in place. A few more log sections were brought over to act as chairs. A saw that had been in the wagon, a big thing that took two large men to use, was put into play cutting it all into the right shapes.

  They lost light before they were truly finished.

  The Prince didn't waste any time, making up the map that he’d promised, then setting the Master Wizard to finding different things. The location of the troops was the first thing they tried to find, not their secret weapon, whatever it was.

  They did that as well, then tried to find out their food and water situation, as well as the health of the men and how many of those there were, exactly. In the end, once Master Tolan was able to sit up, mainly out of his trance, Prince Alpert looked at their army Captain and grimaced.

  “They have us five to one, not four to one. Some kind of weapon that they’re bothering to hide as well. Over here, about ten miles away from us. The main body of troops is closer, being about here.”

  A firm finger pointed at the locations that had been drawn to indicate where Tolan had pointed with his eyes closed. That part was eerie. The man knew exactly where the paper was and where to point, each and every time. With his eyes closed the whole time.

  Hearing the lovely news, Captain Horner simply nodded.

  “We have some time, at a guess. In the morning we need to make sure we can defend our position here, no matter what. Then we need to come up with a plan. Holding them here or at a place of our choosing, getting them to chase us into an ambush or attacking them first.”

  The words had a finality to them, as if those were the only things that might really work.

  Anders had to consider that running away might work as well. Even if it wasn’t very brave sounding.

  Chapter twenty-two

  There was an odd feeling to the camp the next morning when everyone started working for the day. Instead of hunkering down, getting ready to fight, the orders had the men out collecting full sized trees from the area, in order to build a real, if small, fort by the vast lake.

  That part was also different than Anders had expected. When the Prince and their army Captain mentioned being on the edge of a lake for defensive reasons, he’d thought that it might be an impressive body of water. Large but only in the fashion that a big pond might be. A thing that could be swum in, if you had that talent. Anders could manage it, while Farad found the very idea daunting to even think on. Looking across the body of water and not seeing the other side, lacking that skill seemed an oversight, suddenly.

  No one expected him to help that much with the wood gathering work. In fact, after making certain that Master Tolan had his breakfast, the other men, Prince Alpert, the Captain and Tolan, all suggested he go off and find something to do, for entertainment. A thing that wasn’t really happening out where they were. Rather than pout or get into a sullen mood over it, which was what Anders’s natural inclination was, he simply waved to Master Tolan.

  When the gentleman looked up, his face clean shaved and still as wrinkled, if not as tired seeming as the day before, there was a sparkle in the gray colored eyes.

  “Yes, Master Brolly?”

  “I was wondering if you can, and will, use your powers to find animals? For food. That might be beneath you.” Or a thing that he simply couldn’t do at all, since that sort of thing wasn’t that important, most of the time.

  The words got a mildly annoyed look, then closed eyes and a left hand pointed off to the right.

  “Over… There. About… call it half a mile to three quarters of that. A large herd of elk. Larger animals than you’ve been taking.”

  It was useful to know, since it meant he wasn’t likely to carry anything back on his own, if he killed something of that size. On the other hand, if he could get one or two, that might be several days of eating for the men there. The problem was that everyone else there was too busy doing real work, needing to defend the area from attack that could come in some days.

  The threats were further away, across the water of the lake, which was ten miles of water that would have to be gone around to reach them. Even if they sent scouts in for it, which they would eventually. So far, that hadn’t been a thing that their Wizard had mentioned as happening. Going out into the woods to find food was a risk. Not a huge one as of yet, given that. Which didn't mean he might not be in danger from other, more natural forces. Bears or even the elk he was aiming for could kill him.

  “I’ll go and look. I… Maybe I c
an work a way to get the meat back? I’m not dragging it, if the things are full grown.” Elk were huge, compared to deer. About the size of a horse, he thought. Not one of the big war horses perhaps but Chestnut might not be able to carry that much weight, even if he butchered the thing in the field. He’d been shown how to bleed animals but not that.

  Time was on his side, however, if he wanted to come up with a spell that would allow him to carry the meat. Depak Sona had managed to float once, during an attack. Dropping as if he weighed almost nothing. An elk that was as light as a feather might be manageable for him, even if the effort was great otherwise.

  Getting his bows, ten arrows and heading off in the right direction, he considered what would be needed as he walked. An animal that large would require bleeding, since freezing them first, then thawing them to get the blood out, while it had worked, didn’t leave the meat very tasty. No one had complained about it, since a full belly was still a full belly. It had been gamey though, on a level that made it hard to eat enough of it.

  To that end he needed to have arrows that would kill at a distance, in case he missed, while only doing enough to stop the animals and make them lifeless, instead of using an area of ice to do the same thing. It would still need to trigger on contact, then find the target, exploding at the right spot to make that happen, each time.

  The trees were mainly the kind that would lose their leaves come the fall. Yew was of that sort, as well as oak and birch. It might be possible, given that, to collect wands for arrow and bolt making. It was clear to him that he’d need to keep himself busy, if boredom wasn’t going to overtake his mind, over the next days or even weeks, while they waited for the enemy to come toward them. No one particularly wanted to fight, given how much of a disadvantage they were at.