by John Olsen
“I’m Lindy Keeper, the owner of the Dragon’s Plate since the departing of my dear husband five years gone.”
He cocked his head. “The owner? Wouldn’t the property go to your oldest son at your husband’s death?” The laws were clear about inheritance, but local exceptions always popped up.
“We’ve run the place as a family since the war, when the last owner never came back. My son’s still in training and learning to run an inn. I guess it’s going vacant again now with the evacuation. Nobody local presses the ownership issue with me if they want to stop by for drinks and not have them watered, if you know what I mean.” She gave him a sly grin. A bell chimed in the main room, and she laughed and walked back out, clearly the ruler of the roost.
* * *
The council met in the Dragon’s Plate as the sun dipped below the western horizon. Gavin had to keep the meeting short, while still giving the reeve and his men an incentive to support the evacuation. The more warning people had, the better they could prepare.
Reeve Baker was skeptical of Draken’s description of the enemy army, even with the enhanced information from Adrian’s advance crew. He also questioned what he had heard about Gavin. “The stories about you seem highly unlikely. They say you personally killed bandits who were accompanied by a war animal, and are a master at gathering intelligence. I hear rumors you are training people to use an army of crystal-controlled war animals. I see no evidence of any of these things.”
Gavin shook his head. “Your skepticism is warranted, but I’m not here to convince you I’m a worthy leader. I’m here to save your town from destruction. Your only real chance is to prepare tonight and leave with us in the morning.”
Reeve Baker smirked. “It’s clear you’re far too young to remember the last war. I was part of it. I saw how it worked. An army doesn’t work the way you describe when they’re out to take land. They’ll consolidate as they go to expand their borders.”
Gavin stood his ground. “And if they’re not out to take land? You’ve heard the reports on what they’re doing. They’re on the way, and you are in their path. The facts speak for themselves. It is your lives in the balance, and you are gambling on information years out of date.”
The reeve’s primary assistant spoke up hesitantly. “We can help to spread the news, but as the reeve said, there are those who don’t want to evacuate. We won’t get everyone. Caben Rockwile wouldn’t leave his land if they burned his farm to the ground around him. There are a few other stubborn folks out on the surrounding farms.”
The reeve glared at his assistant, clearly incensed at what he saw as a betrayal.
Draken directed his attention to the assistant. “I’ve seen this army. Everyone who stays will die, or wish they had. We must do what we can to convince people, but we leave tomorrow as Baron Stoutheart said, or we will lose too much of our lead. Time is tight enough as it is.”
Reeve Baker’s face grew red. “You’ll address me when it comes to my town! You’re all loons if you think we’ll be overrun this far south.”
Draken stood, slowly turned to Gavin and asked in a low, calm voice full of ice, “May I?”
Gavin nodded, not sure what Draken had in mind. All he knew was that Draken showed all the signs of erupting like a volcano beneath his calm exterior.
Draken turned to Reeve Baker and slammed a fist onto the table, causing plates to rattle. “Your town? This isn’t your town. You rule at the good will of the baron. This baron seated before you now. If you can’t get it through your head that you face destruction, we’ll talk to whoever will save the baron’s people. We have no time to waste on debate with you.”
The reeve stood. “Barons come and go, but my family has lived here for generations. We’re not going anywhere.”
Lindy swept in with a tray of drinks and wove her way around the table, interrupting the tension. She handed one to Reeve Baker. “So much conversation must leave you all parched.” The drinks were timely and cooled tempers as the meeting continued.
To Gavin it felt odd to have Draken stand up to support him. More than that, Draken had defended him and gone on the offensive. The experience of sharing the same view was new, but they had to work as a team to save as many people as they could. Still, there were differences. He considered the threats of further punishment Draken offered and rejected them. He would not be that kind of a ruler.
Messengers entered and exited through the next hour, and glasses were regularly topped off. At Lindy’s earlier hint about watered drinks, Gavin had made a special request for her to keep everyone’s heads clear, but suspected she gave Reeve Baker something stronger than normal instead. Lindy was there to hear their discussions but seemed to be completely ignored by the reeve and his men. Gavin made a mental note of how Lindy and Saleena held whispered conversations at the far end of the table. Saleena’s practical nature made sure information reached those who needed it.
One sticking point in the discussions was that the evacuation was not moving quickly enough. They were slow to start each day and too disorganized when they camped at night. People regularly lost anything they hadn’t packed and taken care of themselves. Common camp resources got mingled with personal items or misplaced and took too long to find.
The reeve glared in stony silence all through their discussions.
With no improvements proposed, Gavin moved on to cover other topics, and asked, “Saleena, how is the crystal training program going?”
Saleena stood. “The new crystals are helping, but the crafting takes a great deal of time. The tinker can only work on them in the evenings. We have a couple of veterans with experience using a crystal and a list of people to train, but only two known war-trained animals.”
Reeve Baker slapped his hands down on the table. “You have a cattle herder as Travel Master of your evacuation. You have peasant children using crystals under a young, inexperienced Crystal Mistress. Yes, a woman as your crystal trainer!” He jabbed a finger at Saleena. “You’re flouting both law and convention. You may have some people convinced, but I’ll have none of it.” He stood so fast his chair tipped over, and he stormed out of the room which was left in a dead silence.
Draken moved to stand, but Gavin put a hand on his arm to keep him in place.
The reeve’s assistant cleared his throat and stood, careful to scoot his chair back slowly. “I’ll see to it that everyone learns of the danger. Those we convince to leave will have everything prepared by midmorning. My apologies for the reeve’s disrespect.”
Gavin asked, “Will Reeve Baker cause you problems?” He wanted to avoid Draken’s more drastic measures with the reeve, but would do what he had to.
“I don’t know what sort of baron you will be, but I know Reeve Baker. I don’t plan on seeing him again. I’m coming with you in the morning along with everyone I can convince.”
Choices became easy when the alternatives led to death or captivity. It was a great motivator to live in fear of destruction. If only Reeve Baker had felt that fear, rather than placing so much value on his misconceived notions.
The meeting broke up, and Gavin walked back to the camp with the others. People were going to die, and it was up to him to save as many as he could. He was unlikely to get any sleep tonight between the preparations still to be made, and everyone’s need for command decisions on a host of things. He was glad the reeve’s assistant would handle at least part of the supervision as the people of the town packed.
His goal was to keep everyone safe, but the group he was responsible for grew daily. Was Draken right about punishing Reeve Baker? Would it save more people to make an example of him?
He said to Draken, “As baron, I can threaten them, and make people come with us. I could lock up the reeve to prevent him from poisoning the attitude of the locals. There are so many things I could do if we had time, but we don’t. Was I wrong? Did I need to do more than offer and encourage?”
“You did well. I disagree with some of your choices, but they are you
rs to make. Me? I’d clap him in irons and parade him through town. You don’t work that way. You earn the hearts of the people, and they choose to follow you. Those who stay will see the consequences quickly enough. You made your choice, and the results are yours to own. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Such praise from Draken was a shock. Their relationship still had rough edges, but they shared a new level of mutual trust despite their differences.
“You think more people will die because I didn’t arrest the reeve.” Gavin was haunted by the thoughts of all those who would stay. People he had not convinced.
Draken nodded. “But this is who you are, offering a hand up instead of a slap down. You may be right that your way is best. Either way, it’s important we leave in the morning, or we will throw away the lives of the refugees right along with those who don’t want to be saved. War is harsh and cruel, and much of it is out of our hands. Whether good or bad, consequences have a way of finding us once we’ve made our choices.”
“I hate to think there’s nothing more I can do. I have to give them every chance I can.”
Draken said, “You already have.”
As Gavin navigated through the last few tents and wagons near his private camp, he found Adrian walking beside him. He’d begun to get used to his spy master’s appearances and disappearances. Gavin glanced over his shoulder at the town. “I assume you heard we won’t get them all. What can we do about those who stay behind? Did you say something about preparing a greeting for the army? Give me something positive. I need some good news.”
“Sir, I’ll have to check on supplies, but I think I can cost them a day or two here and create a chance for the holdouts to leave. The army has pillaged everything you left behind at the castle by now. Too bad I wasn’t there when you left or I’d have cost them as much as a week with all that fine architecture to work with. Ah, well. No use trying to rewrite the past.”
“Draken says I don’t have time to do any more for the people who stay behind. Do what you can for them.”
Adrian smiled. “Right, then. For tonight, I’ll need three empty wagons, shovels, canvas, rope, some fish hooks, and a couple salted hams.” He rubbed his hands together with glee. “This will be fun. A couple of my men will spread out to visit side villages just like the men I sent from the camp, so be ready to take in even more stragglers as you come across them. They’ll be told to camp alongside the main road and migrate to the capital on their own at their best speed.”
It sounded like a disaster in the making.
* * *
Only three-quarters of Greenvale joined the evacuation caravan, but those who came were well-organized. Gavin walked the road to see how soon they could leave. Before long, he came across Tover berating a wagon team who couldn’t find their assigned oxen. “You lost them? They have bells on and were tied out to graze! How do you lose two large beasts wearing bells?”
The wagon driver scuffed his feet and looked around as if hoping to spot some way of escaping the reprimand. “I looked where your errand boys took them. They weren’t there.”
Tover gave Gavin a shrug. “Sorry, good sir. We’re a little behind schedule this morning, but we’ll be on our way as soon as we track down a couple of loose . . . ends.”
There had to be a better way. Gavin hurried to the far side of the camp to visit the locals, who were ready and eager to move. He approached a man as he tied a tarp over a cart while his wife tracked their four small children. “Good morning! Fine looking children you’ve got there. How is it you can be ready with young ones to distract you? In fact, everyone from Greenvale is chomping at the bit to be on our way.” He looked at the children and wished, for a moment, he’d had a family like theirs with two parents, and siblings near his age.
The man’s wife smiled and pointed up the road at Lindy Keeper who had a small line of people waiting for her attention. “Those who need it have help.” Gavin watched from a distance as Lindy listened to a man who was clearly upset. After a great deal of pointing and waving from the man, Lindy waved another man over and spoke a few words to him and pointed back at the upset man. The two men spoke for a few moments, then nodded and headed off together, allowing Lindy to give her undivided attention to the next person in the queue.
“What’s she doing?”
The woman with the children said, “She knows everyone in town because they all either trade with her or spend time at the Dragon’s Plate. She talks to everyone endlessly. Whenever one person needs something, she knows who to go to or where they can find what they need.”
The husband cinched the last knot on his tarp and glanced at the worn leather breastplate Gavin wore. It was easier to wear than to find a place on a cart to store it.
“You’re Baron Stoutheart, aren’t you? I mean, sir. I recognize you from the stories.” The man gave a short nod of respect.
Again, with the stories. If he had a way to make the gossips and storytellers stop, Gavin would do it in a heartbeat. “Yes, I am. And don’t believe everything you hear in those stories.” He noticed Lindy had only a few people waiting for her now. “I’m sorry, I need to go. Thank you for your help.” Gavin trotted up the road with a wave back to the man and his family.
As Gavin was almost out of earshot, he heard the man say to his wife, “See, he talked to us like a regular person does. I think we’re right to follow him, despite what Caben and the reeve said about staying.”
Gavin hoped the man was right about following him. It would tear his heart out to see those children come to harm.
He hurried along and caught Lindy’s attention by waving. She waved back and walked to meet him halfway after signaling her petitioners to give her a few moments. “What can I do for you this morning, sir?”
“I hear you’re the one who knows where everything is and where it needs to be. We have a couple of missing oxen.”
She turned to scan the crowd. “Chase! I have a quick errand for you.”
Gavin recognized her son from the inn. He’d manned the kitchen while Lindy served food and drinks at the meeting.
“Go check with the Potts family. They’ve been up and back down the whole line this morning chasing their wayward son. If they’ve seen a couple of loose oxen, find the beasts and send them over to the Travel Master.” She glanced back at Gavin. “Wasn’t his name Tover?”
Gavin nodded, mystified. “How did you know Tover was searching for the oxen?”
She smiled. “If it has to do with getting people going this morning, he’ll know who lost them, and where the oxen go.” Chase ran off on his search.
“There’s one more thing if you have a moment.”
“Of course, sir.”
“My sources tell me you’re the reason the Greenvale folks are on task and ready to go.”
She waved her hand as if to dismiss the idea. “They don’t need me to help them get ready. I only tell people how to get things from where they are to where they need to be.”
Like the sun rising over the trees to the east, Gavin had a moment of clarity where several pieces of information made sense when viewed together.
“You’re a widow, right? Was your husband a military man during the last war?”
She placed her hands on her heart in remembrance. “Aye. He made it through the war, unlike a lot of others. I lost him later to a fever.”
“I’m going to guess he was a supply chain master, and you followed along behind the front lines as part of the supply chain.”
She gave him a cautious nod. “Well, now. It seems you’re the one pulling information out of thin air today, sir. You’ve got the truth of it.”
Gavin suppressed a grin, having guessed in one try. He suspected her husband’s success during the old war was due to Lindy’s natural skills. “Tover’s good at keeping people moving, but we have a hard time starting up in the morning like you heard last night. Please take a look at things and meet with him this evening to see what can be improved. I’ll tell him to expect you.”
“I’d be glad to help in any way I can.”
Chase returned, out of breath, and reported. “The Potts family didn’t see any stray animals. Sorry.”
By the time Gavin got back to Tover, two of Saleena’s cattle were yoked up as makeshift replacements.
“What happened?”
Tover waved him closer. “They were killed. We found their bells where the boys staked them out. Runner tracked them over that close hill and found them with their throats cut, good sir. The enemy got an advance scout past us, or someone in town hates us. Thank goodness it wasn’t a war animal that attacked. One war animal can cause a lot of damage in a hurry. We have to abandon them. You can’t trust meat killed by the enemy.”
“Thanks for keeping it quiet. I’ll tell Captain Zachary we need more night patrols, and we’ll put the animals closer together at night with a watchman. We can’t afford to lose the animals we use to haul our supplies.”
Gavin failed where he didn’t even know he was being tested. He would improve, to guard his people more closely and protect them from future attacks. He was still reacting rather than acting. He knew the dangers of that from even his simple level of combat training. He had to control the situation and act rather than let the challenges dictate his actions.
There was only one logical course of action. “We need to use our patrols to catch whoever did this if they keep following us. They caught us unaware once. I’d be a fool to let them get away with it twice. We can call on Runner and Ruffian for some tracking.” Even though he felt the responsibility and ownership of the problem, Gavin knew he wouldn’t be the one hunting this cattle killer.
One of Tover’s young messenger girls ran up to say the tail of the line was ready to go. The competence of the people around Gavin far outstripped his meager skills in many areas, and he was grateful for those who shared his goal to keep the people moving and safe.
A moment later, a boy showed up to report the head of the line was ready as well. The boy glanced at the girl and made a mean face at her as the girl smiled and twirled her skirts. He’d lost the race. Gavin knew both the smug success of the girl and the pretend animosity of the boy. They reminded him of Saleena and himself where games were always a contest.