by John Ringo
“Just what in the hell is going on?” Jody asked the clearing, shaking his head.
“Strange days,” Herzer replied.
* * *
The next two days continued much the same. With decent food — the second day there had even been a mess of venison stew with potatoes — and constant work Herzer could feel his already considerable muscles strengthening. His hands healed rapidly but he kept the wrappings of leather on nonetheless. He and Mike between them had felled the giant tree, an oak Jody told them, that had defeated the other teams, and the group had cleared a large area by the third day when they started cutting the wood to make buildings.
The day after Rachel’s visit first Nergui, then Shilan had started to complain to Jody of diverse and mysterious maladies. They were quickly sent to town and returned later with bundles of cloth and odd cloth straps. Jody, after a visit from first Rachel and then Daneh, who looked drawn and tired, had passed the word to the males not to ask questions. But when Courtney had doubled over in the middle of the afternoon Mike wasn’t willing to take “it’s a girl thing” for an answer and the whole subject was brought out into the open. The reactions among the males ranged from bemusement to anger, especially since they were getting the details secondhand from the women. That night when food was brought out, most of the cooks were men from Raven’s Mill, hastily conscripted from various other jobs. Apparently what was happening in the wood-cutting camp was also happening everywhere and from the muttered comments of the males Raven’s Mill was in an uproar. The men, furthermore, were not well-trained cooks. The mush was half burnt and an attempt to cook cornbread in something called a “Dutch Oven” was a disaster.
Deann and Karlyn were apparently suffering from the same maladies, but they had gone back to work almost immediately on doing whatever the women were doing to manage it. Deann mentioned that she was feeling cramps and a certain amount of weakness, but in Karlyn’s case there seemed to be no effect other than the bleeding and not much of that. Courtney, as soon as her cramps passed, was back at work as if nothing had happened as was Shilan. Nergui continued to complain of intense pain and while Jody tended to be unsympathetic, without any way to judge the amount of pain involved there was no way for him to order her back to work.
At the end of the fourth day at the site Herzer came over with his food and sat down with Courtney and Mike. As he did Cruz and Emory wandered over as well.
Courtney looked at him and gave him a wan smile.
“How you doing?” Herzer asked, spooning up a bite of beans. The mixture this night was really good, some sort of meat had been minced fine and added to the beans along with a slightly hot spice.
“Better,” Courtney answered. “The cramps are gone at least.”
“So… this is going to go on for five days?” Herzer asked. “I’m sorry, we’re all pretty curious. If you really don’t want to talk about it…”
“No, it’s okay. It just came as a shock at first. In a way I’m glad we’re out here; I don’t want to think what it was like down in the camps.”
“Ugh,” Mike said, spooning up another bite of the stew and taking a bite of cornbread.
“Basically we bleed all the time, so we have to keep a pad of rough cosilk on.”
“That was those strap things they brought up?” Cruz asked.
“Yeah. We don’t know exactly when it stops. And they say it might get worse than it is this time. Karlyn is hardly bleeding at all and Nergui is like a fountain.”
“Yuck,” Herzer said, looking at the rather red mixture in his bowl doubtfully.
“I had the cramps for about twelve hours. Shilan and Karlyn didn’t get them at all. Deann was just about put out by them. You couldn’t tell by the way she was working but she was. Mine were… pretty bad. I couldn’t work through them; I just wanted to curl up in a ball and put heat on them so they wouldn’t hurt so much.”
“Sorry,” Herzer said.
“Why? There’s nothing you could do,” she replied with a smile. “I don’t know how long it’s going to last; Dr. Daneh says that five days is just an average.”
Emory didn’t talk very much, but he started chuckling now.
“What?” she asked.
“You won’t want to hear it,” he replied in a gravelly voice. “What I was thinking is ‘never trust something that bleeds for five days and doesn’t die.’ ”
“Oh, thank you very much!” Courtney snapped, fire in her eyes.
“Said you wouldn’t like it,” he chuckled.
Herzer and Cruz coughed in their hands while Mike just smiled.
“Thanks so very much,” Courtney said with a frown then shook her head. “Men!”
“What about ’em?” Deann said, sitting down on one of the stumps.
“Can’t live without ’em and there ought to be a bounty,” Courtney replied.
“You’d better think about living without them,” Deann replied. “Unless you want to be carrying around a baby.”
“What’s that mean?” Mike asked, sharply.
“I’m not trying to cut you off from your… friend,” Deann replied just as sharply. “But bleeding means we’re fertile again. Just like the other animals. So if you go making whoopie with Courtney, you’re going to be looking at a baby in nine months.”
“Well…” Mike looked at Courtney who blushed. “We’d… we’ve been thinking that having a child might make sense. But with the replicators gone…”
“That’s the point lover boy,” Deann said. “The replicators ain’t gone. All us women are replicators now. We’re fertile, Mike. We can have babies. That grow in our bodies like some sort of damn parasite!”
“It’s not that bad!” Courtney replied. “I mean… I don’t know. I’m sort of… looking forward to it. I want to see what it’s like.”
“How many times?” Deann asked. “You’re talking about carrying around ten kilos of material in your belly.”
“So? Deann, we’re designed for it! That’s what our bodies are for. Sure, if I had my choice I’d use a replicator. But I don’t have that choice anymore. So…”
“So you’re going to get pregnant?” Deann asked, aghast.
“If it’s a choice of that or giving up guys, yeah,” Courtney said with another blush.
“What a choice,” Herzer said, shaking his head.
“Man, is this stupid war going to screw up everything in our lives?” Cruz snarled.
“Nice pun,” Emory muttered.
“Wha… Oh, shit,” Cruz said and laughed with the others.
Mike reached out with his boot and tapped Herzer on the foot.
“I think you’ve got a visitor,” he said, gesturing over Herzer’s shoulder.
“Hello, Herzer,” Bast said, looking around at the group with a nod. She was carrying her usual panoply of weapons but also had a basket on her back.
“Bast,” Herzer said, reaching towards her.
“Hello, lover boy,” she repeated, swarming up him in a full-body hug. “Let’s take a walk.”
“If you’ll excuse me,” he said to the group.
“I’ll carry your bowl back,” Courtney said with a smile.
“Thanks,” he said as Bast flipped off him and took his hand, leading him into the woods.
* * *
“Are you headed somewhere to take a bath?” Herzer asked. He knew full well that the clothes he was wearing reeked of days of sweat.
“Not yet,” she replied as they passed out of the clearing into the woods. “There will be time later. There’s a full moon tonight.”
“And what does that mean?” he asked as she stopped to pull something from the ground.
“That we can see well enough to take a bath, silly,” she smiled at him, stripping the dirt from the root she had dug up.
“What’s that?”
“Armoracia,” she replied. “Horseradish. It’s a hot spice to be added to food. It also can be used for poultices and to help clear the passages in bronchitis.”
&nbs
p; “This is Rumex,” she said touching another small, spreading plant. She tore off a small leaf and handed it to him. “It’s best when cooked, especially with some pork as seasoning, but it can be eaten raw.”
He nibbled at it and found it at tad bitter but overall quite tasty. He tore off a couple of more leaves and followed after her, feeling very much like a foraging horse.
“Lindera,” she said, touching a small tree. “It can be used for spices or teas. The bark is the best but buds can be dried as well. Betula,” another tree, this one tall and spreading at the top. “It’s found along creek bottoms where you find willows and poplar. Its buds and twigs are pleasant to chew with a spicy taste and the under bark can be used as a sort of chewing gum.”
They wandered on the through darkening woods as Bast pointed out plant after plant. She knew its growing habits, environment, medical and food uses as well as what animals fed upon it. Occasionally they saw small animals that crossed their paths, and she named each and gave its season of growing with barely a glance.
“Bast,” he said finally, well stuffed with the various plants she had shown him were edible. “Is there anything you don’t know?”
“I don’t why humans cannot leave these woods to their own life,” she answered sadly.
He paused beside one of the small creeks that were everywhere along the mountains and looked at her. The sun was down but the moon had yet to crest the mountains across the valley to the east. The light from it was dimly visible over their shoulder but the valley was still in blackness. She was a barely visible shape in the tenebrous black under the spreading trees.
“Bast, have I hurt you by cutting down the trees?” he asked gently.
“Oh, no, I’m not upset with you, Herzer,” she said, coming up to him and stroking his cheek. “Come, it is time to wash.”
She led him to a spring-filled crack in the rocks, just big enough for two. They ended up washing not only themselves but Herzer’s dirt encrusted clothes and spending half the time having water fights as the moon rose in the east. Finally they were both cleaned and Bast extracted the fur roll from the depths of the packbasket. There by the stream she lit a small fire and prepared a light salad of spring greens. By the light of the fire, with the water of the branch to wash it down, they ate the salad and then enjoyed each other until the moon was high in the sky.
Herzer awoke in the early dawn of the morning to a smell of woodsmoke from the embers of the fire and reached to feel for Bast, who was gone. Opening his eyes he looked around but she was nowhere in sight. Only her basket and blanket remained.
By the fire was a note, written on bark with one of the coals.
“Lover I have watched the trees of this valley grow since before the cities were removed. I watched as the valley returned to its natural state and have walked these woods since time immemorial. I have known these trees, nut and branch, since they were born. I can name them and tell you of their life, each and every one.
I can watch them die no longer.
I shall walk far from the homes of men and visit the forests and fields of my life. Perhaps I shall return some day and perhaps not. I never say good bye, only “Esol.” This means “Tomorrow Again.” Remember us as we were.
Bast L’sol Tamel d’San.”
Herzer set the note down after rubbing at the writing idly, then looked around and sighed.
“Great, Bast. Very touching. But I don’t know where I am.”
* * *
For a change, Edmund and Daneh had an evening off at the same time and could eat a simple but, and this was significant, peaceful dinner. Not a snack snatched up between critical operations or a meal supped with arguing council members.
And it was clear to Edmund that they had no idea what to talk about.
“So, how was your day, dear?” Edmund asked, realizing that it was both prosaic and insufficient.
“The usual round of emergency surgeries without anesthetic. I swear, I’m going to have to get all male nurses to hold down the screamers.”
Edmund wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cringe so he stayed silent.
“Jody Dorsett’s going to have to relearn to use an axe,” she added after a moment. “He managed to cut off his left thumb.”
“Ouch!”
“Even in the old days of medicine they would have been able to reattach it. I’ve seen references to something called a ‘nerve graft’ but I have no idea how you’d actually do it. And practicing on someone who is twice your size and writhing in pain is a trifle difficult.” Everything was said in a light tone but he could feel the bitterness going bone deep. And she had barely touched her food.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Maybe when we have some poppies you can start working on anesthetics.”
“What I really need is some decent medical reference works. I’ve been all through your library and everything else everyone had. But the only medical references are either first aid, very oblique and opaque statements or suited to a Middle Ages surgery. And I personally refuse to bring back bloodletting for common colds.”
“Perhaps when Sheida…”
“Yes, ‘when Sheida this,’ ‘when Sheida that.’ I need this stuff now, Edmund! All I need is a smidgen of power, some nannites and the authority. Even a damned elementary textbook! But it has to wait doesn’t it?”
Edmund finally realized that what she was saying was not what she was thinking. “Where are you at?” he asked after a moment. “And don’t tell me about surgery.”
“I’m in a very strange place, Edmund,” she said after a long pause. “I’m thinking that it’s time to go to bed with you. And part of me is saying ‘Yes!’ and part of me is screaming ‘NO!’ And I don’t know which side is courage and which is cowardice. Or even which is right and which is wrong. And I’m tired of nightmares.”
Edmund thought about that for a long time then sighed. “There is a part of me that says ‘Say the yes is right!’ And it’s not even the part that’s south of my expanding waistline.” If I can even remember how, he added mentally. “It’s the part of me that has missed my Daneh for many years. The Daneh that I fell madly in love with at first sight. The part that has missed you, all of you. That wants to hold you in the night and cuddle you and make you all better. But I also know that it’s not going to be that easy. So I’m willing to wait. Be it until you find another or if you can’t decide for the rest of your life. Because I love you, I always have loved you and I always will love you, no matter what road that takes us down.”
* * *
On the afternoon of the sixth day in the woods, Herzer and the rest headed back to Raven’s Mill. It took about two hours to walk to the Via Apallia, passing clearings being opened on both sides of the dirt track, and as they crossed the massive bridge over the Shenan, Herzer was surprised to see that Raven’s Mill had changed even more.
Some of the original log shelters had been torn down, apparently to create an open area near town, and different structures had been put in. At the base of the hill to the east of the town a long, low building had been built and more work was taking place stretching up the hill. In addition, a wooden stockade was under construction. Based on the foundation that was being built it would eventually surround the entire “old town” and stretch up the hill near Talbot’s house. Herzer, looking at it, realized that Edmund’s house was precisely where a citadel or keep would be built and wondered how much of that was coincidence. He doubted that Edmund had designed the stockade to make his house the citadel but it would be very much like the old smith to choose the most defensible position to put in a house.
On reaching the edge of the town their group met two others coming in from the same general jobs. The three groups were stopped at the intersection and gestured to the side by a tall, thin gentleman with gray in his black hair.
“My name’s Phil Sevetson. You didn’t meet me before you set out on the first phase of your familiarization, but I’m in charge of the program. You’ve completed your first week s
uccessfully and the day after tomorrow you will start on the next phase. What that is depends upon which group you are in and the names and designations of the groups were not communicated before you set out,” he added with a frown.
“Who is Herzer Herrick?”
“I am, sir,” Herzer said raising his hand.
“The group that you are with is group A-5. Who is in the group with Herzer, that was just cutting in the west wood with Jody? Please raise a hand.” He nodded as they raised their hands. “You are all group A-5, that is A for Anthony, Five. Any orders or information will be addressed to the group in that manner. That is, if there is a call for all groups to form in a certain area, you will gather with group A-5. Is that clear?” He waited until he got a nod from each then went on.
“Monique McBride? The group with Monique McBride, that was cutting in the west wood under the direction of Mislav Crnkovic, is group A-4. That is A as in Anthony, Four. All the members of A-4 please raise your hands.”
He continued the process with group A-6 and ensured that, yes, they all knew that they were A-6 and would appropriately respond.
“Very well, now that you all know who you are. Much to everyone’s surprise and massive damage to my training schedule, tomorrow has been designated as a day of rest. That means that you do not have to start your next phase tomorrow. Tomorrow you can rest. Just down the street from the town hall is the apprentice building,” he said, pointing. “After we are done here, go there to draw your meal chits. Your overseers are there now making a report. You will be given sufficient meal chits for this evening, tomorrow and Sunday morning. After the morning meal on Sunday and before noon, report to the apprentice hall again for your next assignment. Is this all clear? Are there any questions?”
“They said we’d get money for doing this shit,” Earnon said. “When do we get it?”
“Your supervisors are currently making their preliminary report to the apprentice hall,” Sevetson replied, pursing his lips. “Additional funds above basic subsistence up to a certain maximum are their determination. The maximum is one additional meal chit per week and a bonus for quality and quantity of work of one chit.”