Now that we have extra time, we can do more training. We can all get fitter and stronger. I can have our trainee mages practice in the mine…away from charging items and we can set up a plan to fool anyone watching from outside the valley as well.
Thord, Goditha and Harald have made sure the entrance above the village is properly plugged. Gradually we change the watch at the lookout. Astrid has Darkspeech words my wife doesn’t. She calls it a maskirovka. The people that came from outside Mousehole appear less and less often. The ones who are seen outside on watch and hunting, with someone watching over them from the lookout, are all the ones who will be staying behind.
Between them, Theodora and Norbert have made new spears for Astrid, Bryony and Stefan. They are broad-bladed hunting spears with a cross-piece like Astrid and Bryony are used to, ones that will have a better effect on anything that is just a skeleton, than the type that Stefan normally uses, with a narrow blade, which are meant for use mainly against cavalry, or by it.
Theo-dear is getting used to this making of magical weapons, and Norbert is even starting to show her how to work the metal. They will have time to make a sabre for Anahita, a scimitar for Aziz, who is very pleased, as well as the two new shortswords for Basil.
Basil looked at them and immediately went and got two new scabbards. “I will take these, but they are shortswords, they are small. I am taking my old ones as well.” The old ones were strapped to his legs while the new ones took their old position for his high cross draw. My wife and I don’t need new ones. We have good blades and should not be in the front row of a fight anyway.
My Princess’ last few days will be best spent making wands. I have been doing that, and a few other things, all along and we now have several bundles of wands, each bundle in their own pouch. I plan on using them freely…I remember the skeletons that attacked us on the way north to Evilhalt in a time that seems so long ago…this time it could be even worse.
Astrid
27th November, the Feast Day of Saint Fergus
Aziz was baptised three days before his wedding. Our priest is delighted that he can do it today. After all, Saint Fergus is the patron saint of the ‘greenskins’, the general and sometimes derogatory name of the Kharl races and so probably of grey-skins as well.
After the religious solemnity of the baptism, the men’s party for the marriage is to be held on the same night. Aziz has told Verily of Hobgoblin wedding customs and she has insisted on it being then. The men, and of course Goditha, discovered why when they arrived. Aine had been hard at work and none of them were capable of doing much work the next day, to the annoyance of us wives. Even Christopher and Theodule are more than a trifle indisposed.
I don’t blame Verily for shunning her birthplace and insisting on wearing what Hobgoblins do when getting married. It is just a surprise what that meant for me. “Are you sure?” The couple both nodded, so I have agreed to make it, and to wear it. Now that I am committed, I will make the wedding clothes all by myself and secretly to maintain the surprise. I have to admit that the fun bit was telling Theodora.
Christopher
30th November, the Feast Day of Saint Andrew
Surely this day marks our last marriage for a while. I wish it were more auspicious a day to have one, given its nature, but even I can draw nothing from the feast day of the patron of fishermen, however hard I try.
The groom is arriving to the sound of drums. Kãhina even hurried to make a special one to play on this occasion after Aziz had described it. I wish that she had not. It is very large, and it sits on a stand high above the floor beside me and the end, at the same height as her head, is being hit with two padded sticks. It is very loud beside me. It sounds like one would think the heart-beat of a dragon would sound like close up.
Basil is the groomsman. The two are wearing just a short leather kilt and sandals. Aziz was looking even larger dressed almost in just his greyish skin and, for the first time really, most people can see that Basil’s skin does have similar patches, green not grey, that show his ancestry. Both have marks painted on their bodies with ash and clay.
Now the door opens, and it seems the bride is coming. There is no change in the music. Astrid, as the maid of honour, is at the door. I am glad they warned me. She is dressed the same as the men, but wearing her rubies and, from her broad smile, her ancestry can also be seen.
The bride is the only fully human member of the wedding group. She also has just the kilt and sandals. Her jewellery is an ancient and ornate necklace of jet, a lace of stones a hand wide, one which matches her black hair and shows well against her pale skin. It seems that Theodora really wants to make her point with…her husband. She is giving the bride away dressed the same way as the rest of the party, but she has the jewelled collar of her favourite dress around her neck.
Outwardly she may appear calm but, as her confessor I know that she has never before appeared in public wearing so little. All three also bear painted marks that, I am told, said to any who could read them that they came in peace as wedding party. All three, as a point of pride, are staying dressed the same for all of the night as well.
Theodora has told me that, when they return, all of the children and, if they wanted to, the adults will also be taught at least Darkspeech of the Darkreach languages. If they were going to end up with traders coming past, people will be better off talking to them in their own tongue and, after all, her daughter should be able to speak to her great-great-great grandfather if they took her to see him. She had been sure that Basil, at least, will agree with her and Astrid has been loudly complaining for some time on the subject.
Rani
35th November
It did not take long for him to be accepted. The children love him. Aziz is walking around the village, followed by all five of the children. Suddenly he turns and raises his hands and roars and they all run off with shrieks and giggles, to return and follow him again. I just wish this game hadn’t led to a new fashion among them…leather kilts.
Fear came up to Rani and demanded her own. “But dear, it wouldn’t be right for a little girl.”
“But Presbytera Bianca wears one and so do Anahita and Kãhina and Astrid, and even Teacher Ruth wears one when she is running and throwing things and mummy Theodora wore one to the wedding, and so I should be able to as well,” She says this with all of the conviction a child with logic that they know is unassailable can muster.
A sharp look towards Theodora. She has the effrontery to be amused at me even while she stays silent…she is laughing at me inside. I can see it in her twinkling eyes. Damn her twinkling golden eyes. They change shade with her mood and I can read them easier than I can most faces now. Rani gave in to the request. Soon, if it was warm enough, all of the little girls ran around in them. Children seem to be very hard on clothing. At least this way it saves on material. We can always easily get more leather. Cloth we are short on.
Rani
31st December
Finally, all was ready, and they could not delay their departure any longer. The horses were to be left behind and they would walk, despite the objections of the Khitan. Riding would only gain them an extra day of travel, and they would either have to leave someone outside to look after the horses, or let them wander outside, prey to any of the many possible unknown dangers of mountain predators.
We need to leave Sajãh in charge of the Mice, but Eleanor in charge of defending them. Everyone who is being left behind has to agree to obey these two and, if we do not return, to accept their decisions as to whether to stay in the village or to go. The herd cannot be taken up to the top meadow until we return, so as to keep the much smaller number of people together.
They decided to go in the early evening, just after the watcher had come in from the lookout. Bilqĩs, who was the best observer of those staying behind, was given this special outside watch. “There is no sign of movement on the roads or in
the forest below, no smoke…nothing at all. It is all just as it almost always is.”
Parminder spoke up. “I tried very hard and listened to the mind of an eagle soaring above us and what I could see from her eyes showed the hills around us and there were no people and no sign of fires except from the Bear Folk of the south. Again, there was nothing unusual.”
Sajãh
Sajãh faced Theodora and Basil. She looked at them. What do they want me for? “If we do not come back in two months you must take these,” the Princess is the one that speaks as she hands me something…letters? “And get them to Darkreach. You will be rewarded and it will not bring you ill. Mine is about Fear.”
Sajãh looked down. They are all sealed with strange devices imprinted in wax and have writing on them. I have a little Darkspeech and one says ‘Hrothnog.’ It is written in a different and more elegant hand to the other two and has a simple seal. Of the other two, the first has ‘His Imperial Majesty, Hrothnog’ written on it, and the other says ‘Strategos Panterius—Intelligence’. The first is from Theodora, the others from Basil.
Basil then spoke, “You must hand these to any Darkreach merchant, or even better to an officer at Mouthguard. Mine must be delivered by your hand or by Eleanor. She should be able to get there safely. I can tell you what mine are about. The Strategos, and that means he is a general, is my superior. I must tell him if I am dead, so that he can tell my family. The other—well, if we fail, then the Emperor will succeed, and he needs to do that to keep you safe.”
Sajãh looked at their serious faces. I know how capable these people are and how well equipped and prepared they are, and yet they think that failure is a real possibility. She shuddered at that. “I will do this. Good luck. We will pray for you and may Allah, the Merciful, the Just, bless your task.”
Chapter IV
Astrid
31st December
We are leaving into the cool of a quiet and overcast spring night…a nice night for hunting. The only sounds audible are the little ones, the insects and the night birds, the soft ‘ttcch’ made by hoppers when they are talking to each other, and the near-as-soft thumping noise of them landing when they move about.
I can feel no touch on my charm that would tell me that someone is looking for magic, so given the darkness, we might be leaving unseen. The smells around me are simply the damp small smells of the forest night.
This time I am not the only one in the lead. I have charge of Bryony and Aziz and we run ahead…as often off the path as on, running through the fairly clear understorey and stopping to stoop in a little clump to look at possible signs that other people might be around. I have missed this. While we stay around a hundred paces ahead of the rest, I need to remember to keep one of us just in sight of the main group as we have fun exploring ahead.
The others stay on the roadway in a tight bunch and keep slowly moving down this path. Theodora has said that she hoped that her charm showing the empty trail might provide protection for the main group. If we are seen at all, we could well be a hunting party out for some night sport. Bryony and I have only bows and spears, and Aziz has a bow, so we look like we are hunters and, we are trying to look for tracks when we stop, so we are acting a lot like hunters.
This is a path that we have traversed once before on our way to Mousehole, and many times while out hunting, but it is springtime now, not autumn or winter. We move along the path as it follows the contours and meanders on the flanks of the mountains. To the right is the occasional small cliff.
The valleys are full of an upper storey of tall red cedars, myrtle-beech, and celery-top pines, with their long straight trunks and a rounded clump of their odd leaves at the top. Under them are the Blackwoods, then shorter wattles and other plants. I can smell some even at night. There are rivulets running down from the flanks of the hills behind, the area around the water crowded with the tall trunks of ferns and lush carpets of moss.
Sometimes I hear or see a waterfall. Higher up on the slopes are the giant gums, over a hundred paces tall, which provide a top canopy over the Blackwoods and smaller gums, and the occasional broad-leaved conifer and slightly smaller myrtle beeches. On the ridges grow the groves of the smaller beeches, just starting to re-grow their leaves after winter. Although there is none between the trees, in the larger clearings in the valleys, the grasses are lush and prolific.
Around us are the wildlife of the night: the small deer and rock hoppers in little groups, and a number of other small hopping creatures in ones or twos. Sometimes a bandicoot or other little creature scuttled away from them, quickly trying to lose itself in the night. There is no sign that anything else sentient stirred. It would be fun to be actually hunting tonight…although I suppose that, in a way, we are.
A gentle breeze is coming up from the south-west; there is just a hint of warmth in it. According to Dharmal’s diary, we have two days of travel to the north before we can find the path into the mountains that he used.
Towards the end of that night they came upon an old campsite that they had used on their way south. It is showing signs of further use…the bandits and the Darkreach traders at least. Astrid went back to the main group.
“Do you want to use the campsite or stay away from it?” she asked Rani.
“We had best stay away. The first thing someone scouting the area will look at are the campsites. Can you find us an area off the trail near water with a cliff behind it?”
“Only every half hour,” replied Astrid. I know that I have said it to Basil, and I may have even said it out in public, but some people spend far too much time in towns and not enough in the wild. How can Rani not have noticed this? “We will stop at the next.” She went back to the lead group to give them instructions.
Bryony stayed near the track and the other two veered off to the right to find a campsite along their path. True to her word it wasn’t long, in fact just in the next valley that she gave Bryony the signal and she, in turn, began signalling to the main group and pointing to the right. The daylight is growing.
Astrid was stopped in a small flat area that was covered in an aromatic grass. The rivulet is around forty paces away and, after the flat patch, the grass runs down a small slope to meet it. Behind the flat area is a small cliff of around two hands of paces high that runs, with lower patches, for some way in each direction. Good campsite.
“Aziz is checking the top of this cliff, but we have seen no sign of people in this area. You can just see the track from here so, as we keep watch, we should see if we have followers. I will head back now and cover the tracks that you herd of giant lizards will have left behind you.” She turned to Basil: “Darling, I would love some breakfast when I get back,” and was off.
Astrid
32nd December
During the day, the vigilance of the watches was rewarded with the sight of parrots and colourful rosellas and many other small birds flying among the trees. The parrots and rosellas made the day vibrant with their plumage and their cries. More quietly, small yellow-winged honey-eaters sought out the newly appearing flowers of spring. Raucous wattle-birds mixed seeking flowers with mating flights, dancing around in the air as display and challenge.
Above them all, in the clear sky, were the rare sightings of a huge wedge-tailed eagle or a smaller hawk. Some small lizards moved on the cliff behind them as the day warmed up. The only larger creatures were a small, and very surprised, group of goats who came down around the cliff, obviously to a favoured watering hole, to discover a group of travellers. Their lack of immediate reaction showed that even hunters were rare in the area.
Bryony strolled over to Astrid as they shared the first watch. “Have you looked at what we are sleeping on?”
“Not really, I know little of these southern plants.”
“We need to come back here when this is over.” She bent down and pointed. “This grass is Lying Miriam. You can make a
nice little poison to smear on blades from its roots. It is more painful than fatal, but still. And this,” she pointed at another tall grass with sharp looking leaves, “is Sweet Ali. Dry and shred fine its roots, and you can make a lovely tisane. It not only is nice to drink, but it makes a curative potion if it is gathered at the right time of year. That is the herbal scent that we can smell.
“You could harvest a good bit of these from just this little meadow and make a fair bit of money in a town. Those goats probably come here not just for the water, but also for the Sweet Ali. The roots of that probably help keep them all healthy. I wonder what other things have flourished around our valley undiscovered in the last hundred years. We need to look.” She is looking around…calculating. “Our Princesses are women of the cities. I wonder if they have even thought how far the rule of our village should run.”
“In Wolfneck, we claimed a day’s walk beyond our furthest hamlets as ours and keep an interest for a week beyond that. Our Rangers patrol out to there and check what happens. I have spent time with them. In summer, we use our canoes or run and in winter we use our skis.”
“If the mages pay no attention to the outside, then I will suggest to them that they allow us to do the same. A week, down, will put us near your Swamp, and the Bear-people, if what I have been told is right.” Bryony nodded. “A week up should put us near the Darkreach gap, I think, and below some of their hill forts. Behind us is the old land of the Dwarves, and south of there lies the Caliphate. I think that, as we start to climb, we might see Lake Erave in the distance to the west. I think that sets our limits.”
“I will want to settle down and have a place to raise a family. Basil and I may visit his family, but I don’t want to see mine. Although there is someone that we do want to see in Wolfneck, we don’t want to see him for long, we just want a couple of things from him,” I guess that I should not grin like that. “And we want to start our own family soon.”
Clearing the Web Page 3