by P. S. Power
They could hunt and gather along the way, and buy things in towns, but the Princess was also bringing enough food for all of them to get to the far command base, with extra left over for the wagons that would be going on to the Modroc capital of Billeth.
Anders had blinked when he heard the name spoken out loud. He’d seen it on the maps, of course, having memorized everything on the second continent, since it might come up as being needed, including a very fine, if slightly old, map of that city, with every street marked and each building labeled with an indicator of what was housed there. Or what had been, once upon a time, some two hundred years before. It had likely changed a lot in that time, of course. Things did that, if you weren’t paying attention.
When Sweyn had mentioned the place by name, it being her childhood home, it had caught in his mind. After all, Farad had once been the Sulat there. Their Founder of legend, in fact. And Farad Ibn Istel, as a child, had a pet dog of that name. Anders hadn’t mentioned that, since it was obviously a place that was nearly sacred to the people of Modroc. The hub of its social community, and seat of power.
Suggesting it was named after a furry brown-haired mutt might not go over well. Even if it should have. Billeth had been a very good dog, after all.
Still as they’d ridden, Salina had requested that they improve the roads the whole way, where it was needed, so that the carriages wouldn’t be on too bumpy of a path. Also, they used magic to create inns and buildings as they traveled, including way stations and fountains that were fed by springs and water towers, if the terrain allowed for it, so that travelers were never too far from a clean source of the substance for themselves and their animals.
Anders did end up doing about half the work, but Salina did her share, and pressed Lissa to come up with decorations and even whole buildings constantly. Eltha was pressed into work, but by Anders, since that was his job. The others were as well, if to a lesser degree. Sweyn was the only one truly given careful treatment that way. It might have seemed mean, but Anders didn’t care if Erold or Eltha huffed their day away, sweating and moaning at the hard work they were doing.
Sweyn was pregnant and while that didn’t mean invalid, it seemed harsh to press her to that same level, constantly. Not that she got out of practice. Every third day the building of the inn or an out structure was put on her shoulders, for instance. It took her about six hours to do the work, which meant ending early for the day when that happened, and going to bed well after dark, but no one complained about the time they were losing.
Anders patted Juniper on the neck. The girl horse was easily in her mid-twenties, which was a good age for a horse to live, generally. She looked no more than three however. Small, but without the signs of age that should have been there. She was also well fed and in good health, having lived for a year with the pampered ponies and horses of Sula Darian. The grooms had, clearly, not neglected her at all.
“I think that’s the base, up there a bit. We’ve made decent time, really.” It hadn’t been fast, but they weren’t rushing to war or market, either. Salina had decided that making fifteen miles per day was fine enough progress, given the work that was being done.
Twice they’d stopped for several days, and made wonderful towns, near interesting features of the landscape. Places where Anders wouldn’t have minded living himself, if it had been an option, or was in the future. They were just left empty, with word being passed that the first people there would have ownership.
Basically, making whoever got into place first wealthy, if they made the right choices in the coming years.
When they got to the fairly humble seeming camp, a place that Anders had constructed himself, over a year before, he grimaced.
“Well! I could have done more on this, couldn’t I? I didn’t even make a wall...”
Princess Lissa, groaned, grinning at the same time.
“I’ll start on that, first thing? Or... We should ask about that? I was told that we were under General Sendra, once we got here.”
That seemed correct to Anders, so he nodded.
“At least you two are. Not that I don’t want to speak to her as well. To go over the plans for the bridge? I roughly know the river, but there might be places where it would work better for her, as far as being guarded goes.”
Salina waved the words away.
“This way, then? We should repair our clothing, to make an impression. What would a warrior expect from us, Prince Anders?”
He shrugged.
“General Sendra, specifically? Something plain, that shows you’re ready to work? Robes, since you’re here for magic, but something boring. Brown, or black. The kind with trousers, so that you can actually ride horses and help with any ditch digging that might be needed. Be prepared for that, both of you.” He didn’t let his face break into a grin, even if he was jesting at the moment. That would spoil the effect. “You might well be set tasks without magic being allowed, so that you know first-hand what soldiers have to face that way. It’s a big portion of why you’re here, so no whining about it, when you have to heal blisters on your palms and sooth sore muscles each night.”
Salina wrinkled her nose in disgust of the idea, but she sighed and nodded.
“That does sound likely. We’ll do it. Somehow. So, here...” She muttered for a while, picking the outfit she wanted. It was a bit too pretty at first, being brown, but with clever stitchwork in a slightly darker brown, to show her skill and talent that way.
Lissa just put herself in something plain, without the bit of extra.
They were stopped at the main gate, which was just the road into the base, since, as he’d mentioned, there was no wall there. Some of the new camps had them, but this one had been the second or third he’d worked on and that part hadn’t been mentioned to him until a little over half of them had been constructed.
The guards there looked at the coaches, noticed Anders, Salina and Lissa on horseback, with ten guards behind them, obviously men from the palace, and smiled, in a rather friendly fashion.
“Hold, if it pleases you, high ones!”
Apparently, they did please, since they came to a stop. That was only polite, after all. The man, who was probably not much older than Anders, by perhaps five years or so, cleared his throat.
“This is a military base, is... That where you wanted to go? On a pilgrimage to see the new river? It was created by the magic of Prince Andros, from the northlands. A mighty individual, to be certain! There is a small camping area, to the south, if you wish that, instead of this place?”
Anders started to speak, when Salina did it instead. She was, after all, the person in charge.
“We might get to see that, but I fear we, some of us, came to work. I’m Princess Salina, here to see General Sendra? This is Princess Lissa. This other lady is Eltha Tennet, who is to marry Prince Naveed, the current Heir, in nine months. There are some others here, but no one to worry about.” She grinned, as if she were slighting him on purpose.
Instead of protecting him from being noticed. Anders was fine with it, either way, really.
It had taken him time to understand that the name he’d been called, Andros, wasn’t a mistake. Even the men there probably knew that his real name was at least something else, if not the strange and foreign sounding Anders. Adding the last bit was basically suggesting that he was a warrior. That or he had pretensions of being such a person.
It had been given to him early on, the first time they’d met, by Nedros, his uncle. Probably as a way to poke fun at him, for some reason. The feeling, if he had it right, was a bit like calling a small child his Majesty, when they acted self-important.
Only, the gate guard there probably didn’t know who he was to mock him that way. Which probably meant that he was just another Prince who bothered with war and such things, to their minds. That wasn’t too far off, so he wasn’t going to bother correcting anyone over it.
The guard nodded, smiling still, and turned to the other man, who had a tin whistle
on a tan string around his neck. He gave three sharp blows, followed by five more, and ending with two long blasts. That, with a look at Eltha, was ended with a third long blast.
Anders thought he got the basic idea.
Three short probably meant that people had come. Not the obvious things, like relief soldiers or goods in a caravan, which were probably the most common things. So travelers, or guests, would be indicated in the first part. The base didn’t erupt into battle, at least, so it was something along those lines and had to be the first thing, in case the rest couldn’t be heard over the fighting, if it came.
The five in the middle would be the number of wagons, horses or people. It probably meant many, or something close to that, rather than five. They had more wagons and carriages than that, and close to fifty people traveling with them.
The three long blasts didn’t make perfect sense, except that the man had clearly added one for Eltha. Seeming as if he didn’t know if he should or not. She was going to be a princess there though, and there had been two other long sounds. With Salina having only introduced herself and Lissa, otherwise. So those meant they had a number of dignitaries there. A lot more than just that, but Salina had been careful not to scream about the Modroc having come.
Which was wise, given where they were.
They were met, about ten minutes of sitting on their horses, and in the carriage, later, by General Sendra, who looked healthy and well cared for, compared to the last time he’d seen her, though still hard, and with a large nose, long face and hard eyes with some wrinkles around them, and hair that had been recently shorn off on the top of her head.
There were several other men and one woman, with her, all in the blue uniforms of officers in that land. Practical things with trousers, even for the women. Instead of barking at them, which had been how he’d sort of expected to be met, the woman smiled.
“So, I recognize some of you. Who’s in the carriages? Some of the people in the wagons seem... Different.”
Salina nodded.
“We have Princess Sweyn of the Modroc, and Prince Erold of Istlan, Clarissa Sett, the Illusionist and some craftsmen from Modroc. They’re going to visit, since Princess Sweyn is with child. This lady behind me is Eltha Tennet. She’s marrying Naveed, in some months, you’ve heard of that?”
The older woman, who was too old to be a child of Darian, gave a nod.
“I was sent a message about that, using fast riders. Also that I was being sent Princess Salina and Princess Lissa to abuse for some months? My brother mentioned slavery and hard labor?” Her face didn’t move at all, even if it was clear she was rippling with laughter, inside. It poured off of her, affecting the magical structure of the world, almost as if a spell.
It got Anders to smile, at least.
“Truly, that’s only partially correct, General.”
The woman scowled at him, but again, it didn’t seem to be what she was feeling, inside.
“Oh? How so, Prince Andros?”
The guards and even the other command staff there all stared at him, suddenly, as if he were important or something. It was nice to see, if not what the reality of the situation was. After all, he wasn’t the one there to be impressive. The girls were.
“They’re here as Apprentice Great Ones, not princesses. The rules for that are... Rather different.” He gave a wicked smile then. “For instance, they won’t whine, complain or throw fits. Then, if they do the wrong thing, you don’t have to yell at them, or scold. They are required, by oath, to fix any mistake as well as they are able, instantly.”
He shrugged then.
“The rest sounds right. For real. They both need to be pushed constantly, as far as magic. I was thinking a defensive wall for this place and new water and sewage structures, as a start? At the same time, they need the basic training of a soldier, and to at least see the tasks of every position possible, so they know, first-hand the hardships of such things.”
The woman was clearly fighting laughter, though it didn’t show externally at all. It was almost as if she thought that Anders had been making light of them, for his own reasons.
“Oh, and what will you be getting up to, as they sweat and suffer all day, drilling and learning to fight from horseback?”
He shrugged, holding Juniper’s reins in his left hand.
“Oh, playing and doing pretty things with magic, to entertain some people.” He waved, toward the river. “After I put in the new guard complex and a bridge over the river. I have the plans, to run by you, on that? Both sides will have the ability to destroy the bridge, and garrisons, to protect their lands from invasion. Small garrisons.”
That got a real seeming frown.
“I’ve had some word on that, as well. Not who was doing the work for us. Come this way. We have one of the command houses set aside for guests. Some of you will be in the empty barracks. Do we just have these two sleep in a ditch, do you think, Andros?”
“No? Not on a military base like this. Your men might try to take advantage of them. Just a word... They’ll die if they try that, too firmly.”
One of the men, another General, who had the last name Eta and looked a lot like Depak Sona, with a similar mustache, frowned.
“You’ll kill them?”
Anders snorted.
“Me? I doubt that I’d be able to save them, in time. Here...” Anders looked around, found a large boulder, that was probably larger than he should try to lift with magic and pointed at it.
“Lissa. Make it explode.”
The girl, on horseback, turned, aimed her right fist and opened it, just as Anders put up a shield, to protect them from the hand sized rocks that would have probably killed half of the people outside of the carriages there. Those fell with thuds for about ten seconds. It took work to protect them all, and enough scrambling that he was half panicked for a bit.
Then he smiled, coldly.
“Salina is a combat veteran, having helped to take Yanse, for Istlan, in the last campaign. She had to kill several hundred people for that, so... There. I’m not saying that the men will be punished for bad behavior, just that I wouldn’t expect them to survive it, if they tried. In the wrong way, at least. I’d definitely suggest they start with flowers and kind words.”
He wasn’t that worried about the topic, but it was important for that kind of thing to be out front.
Instead of acting worried, the men and women there all...
Stomped their feet and hooted.
“Finally! We get to have them for building, you say? Training, first, but... They’re good, or is that the only trick they have? Explosions and building?”
He shook his head.
“Oh, no. Really, they can’t do everything, but feel free to ask it of them and see what they can manage? They’re Apprentice Great Ones. So, much can be expected. Healing, daily communications with the capital, building structures, roads, water towers, digging ditches. Illusion and other things. Including repairing wagons, carts and to a lesser extent, weapons. We haven’t really worked that last one, but if they’re shown what is needed, I have no doubt they can learn, quickly. Also wizardry, of course.”
General Sendra clapped.
“Fine. Captain Sorra, set them to their paces. As if raw recruits. Half the day on magical duties, half in military training. You two... Obey and do not question.”
Captain Sorra, the woman there, who had a nice scar on her face, on the left side, grinned. It wasn’t polite.
“Off the horses. We need better clothing. Robes...” She shook her head, but didn’t let them change. The two Princesses were, instead, set to running. The Captain did it with them, traveling to the other side of the base, for some reason.
The General snorted.
“So, do you think they’ll escape before they learn anything, or simply demand better treatment?”
Anders had to maneuver Juniper to get the reins of the now abandoned horses. When he had those, he shook his head.
“Neither. They’re
both serious about this. They also need command level training, so they understand what’s needed for that. In case a war comes. We should move the carriages and wagons, so that we aren’t blocking the road.” Not that anyone was coming in behind them, as of yet. There was a cart, being pulled by what seemed like a donkey, in the distance, however. Well behind them.
Sendra waved.
“This way, fourth house along officer’s row. You know where that is?”
He did, having put them there. Along with the numbers on them. It was the same basic layout in each of the camps, if they had the fancy houses at all. Some of them only had barracks and kitchens, as well as barns and bathhouses.
It meant moving to the front, but Sendra and the others followed along with him, which meant that everyone was at the correct place some minutes later.
Then they all started to get out. The General greeted each of them, including the craftsmen and artists, as well as Duma Sett. Even the palace guards got waved at, in certain cases.
“Now, like I said earlier, some of you will have to be in the empty barracks. We have a building free, so you won’t have to share with strangers. We’re putting the important people up in the house here?” She winked, which was for Anders, for some reason.
He could see that one. He’d actually met her before, after all.
“Princess Sweyn and Prince Erold, since they can share a room without it being untoward, being married. Duma Sett and Eltha. The guards on rotation. I’ll sleep in the barracks. We need to see to things in the morning. The bridge and all that? Then we, the people going to Billeth, need to be heading out, I think. Unless you have specific work for me here?”
That got a headshake.
“Not really.” Leaning in, the tall woman whispered. “Unless you need us to make something up?”
He shook his head.
“Not that. Good then. If I may have a word, with you and your people, about the building project? When you have time, of course.”
That, a good time for such things, seemed to be after the evening meal. A matter that the General figured would be far too simple for the people who had come. Anders doubted that really. They’d had fine enough food on the road, but what the military was going to be serving at their base would be good enough that there would be something to eat that everyone would be fine enough with to not turn their nose up at.