Railroad Rising: The Blackpowder Rebellion

by J. P. Wagner

  He dropped the empty pistol back into his boot-top, then took out the other one from his sash. He heard shouting and gunfire from within the Grove and thought, it must be having some effect, even just making them waste their ammunition.

  Carrtog and the first rank of troopers entered the Grove. There was a moment of sheer black darkness, then light returned. Further in amongst the trees and still out of sight they could hear more shouting and clashing of swords. Who’s fighting who? Or have they been deluded into fighting each other?

  He did recall that the spell, as he was casting it now, involved delusions, but the types of delusion were left unspecified.

  There was a feeling about the Grove, a feeling of danger, but not danger to those on this ‘side’ of the spell. He worried briefly about those of his men who might just feel the danger, but not feel that the danger was not for themselves. No, look to your own feelings, don’t worry about everyone else.

  “The Gray Stone!” He shouted, “The Gray Stone for the King!” It was the war-cry of his own estate, Nandycargllwyd, ‘The Brook of the Gray Stone.’

  After a moment he heard Yakor take up the same cry, then the other troopers joined in until it ran among the evergreens.

  Suddenly they were among the enemy, who seemed to be fighting against each other in little groups here and there. He raised a pistol and fired, then drew his sword since they were now at close quarters.

  The delusion seemed to lift off the enemy, though here and there some were still fighting an invisible foe. From the expressions that he saw briefly on their faces, whatever they were fighting was something terrible.

  No more time for looking around, then. He swung his sword, a blow that was barely parried, then another stroke that went home. Many of the enemy had not managed to get themselves mounted, and one of those, a wild-eyed fellow who swung his sword fiercely, came rushing at him from the left.

  Carrtog managed to interpose his own blade, then cut the man down with a backhand blow. Sometimes rebels tried to hide behind trees, but there was always something, the tail of a cloak, a sword sheath, or just a feeling that someone was there, to give them away. The last effect seemed to be a sudden conspiracy of ravens all squawking and diving at the faces of rebels, distracting them at just the right — or wrong — moment.

  The Lord of the Brook of the Gray Stone was satisfied that the Grove of Battle, this time, was far superior to the last time he had used it in battle. At last, they appeared to have dealt with most of the rebels, and Carrtog called out the words that would disperse the Grove.

  Chapter 21

  Carrtog looked around. The trees seemed to have changed their positions, or perhaps there were not quite so many of them as there had been. The ground was covered with bodies, most of them rebels, but no small number of the king’s men as well.

  What remained of the rebels were holding up their hands in surrender, but a few still fought on. Those who continued to fight very rapidly grew less, as many who saw that their comrades were yielding decided to follow suit.

  “Do we take prisoners, Lord?” Asked Commander Cargiodd. “It has not been the custom under General Hartovan.”

  “We will take prisoners,” Carrtog declared. “Otherwise, consider the fate of our own men taken by the rebels.”

  “The king may not be pleased, Lord.”

  “If the king is not pleased, I will explain my thinking to him. Carry on, Commander.”

  #

  “So this endeavor was a success, Lord.”

  Carrtog turned back to see Yakor at his left elbow. “So it would seem. What’s your feeling about prisoners, Yakor?”

  “Your point about the treatment of captives taken by the rebels is a good one, Lord. On the other hand, the king might well see all these people as traitors against his rule and therefore executable out of hand.”

  “So we kill the prisoners we take, and they answer by slaughtering every person of ours who falls into their hands, and in the end the whole North stinks of death, and who is left to till the fields or inhabit the cities, or give praise to the king?”

  Yakor smiled slightly. “I’m not the one you have to convince; he is the one who wears the crown and gives orders to the commanders under him. Are you ready to be so persuasive to him?”

  Carrtog took a deep breath. “If I must, then I will.” He looked around at the battlefield of his first victory, limited as it was. “I’m afraid that is not the quarrel uppermost in my mind.”

  Yakor lifted his eyebrows. “Indeed?”

  “Indeed.” He looked to the sun beginning its descent in the western winter sky. “You haven’t forgotten, have you, about the dispute back home, about who should take the risk of taking the glider up, and a risk it is, no matter how careful we might be about it. I escaped that brangle by riding out here to raid the rebels, and that is no real escape, is it? When we return, it will not have escaped Addy’s attention that I rode out into danger in order to escape discussing a different danger.”

  “I’m not proficient in dealing with women, but the best advice I can give you is to apologize, first, and with sincerity, and go on from there.”

  “You feel I should give up on testing the glider myself?”

  Yakor shrugged. “I don’t believe I can give you useful advice on that. You may have to decide just what is most important and accept the results of that decision.”

  Carrtog frowned. “You’re right, Yakor. It is no easy choice, and I’ll have to deal with it. I just hope I can make a decision and follow through, no matter the cost.”

  #

  They returned to Kilgarhai victorious, though none of them were deluded into thinking that this was a major triumph. It was, however, a win, one that had been achieved under the new general, with the new general taking a major part in the fight — it was certain that the battle would not have been quite so successful if it had not been for his magic.

  Addy was waiting outside the front door of their quarters when Carrtog and Yakor came up.

  Carrtog, fully conscious of being splashed with blood and smelling of horse and gunpowder and other uncomfortable odors, felt very unequal to the discussion he was afraid was coming.

  “Addy, my dear, I’m sorry. I took advantage of a battle to escape a discussion I didn’t want to have. I—”

  “Carrtog, hush! You went off to a fight, which was almost necessary to make sure of your new command. When you first went, I was angry, right enough, thinking that you had only taken advantage of the fight to escape a quarrel. After a bit, though, I realized that, even in the best of circumstances, you would be riding out to battle from time to time, and no matter how much the odds might be in your favor, there was always that chance of one bullet, stray or aimed, or one man with a sword who just might be lucky that day.

  “Because of who you are, there is no way I can keep you safe for certain, and I am just going to have to accept the fact that, along with the wife or lover of the lowliest trooper under your command. I have to accept the fact that you are in danger, and lift my eyes up to the Gods, praying for your safety.”

  She paused. “I’m still not happy with the thought of your taking that glider up, unsafe as we both know it is. But I also know that, if the glider functions as well as you hope it will, it can provide you with information that might just make a coming battle a little less dangerous, setting aside the bad luck that just might go against you or that lowliest trooper on that one day.

  “So perhaps I must grit my teeth and clench my fists when you test the flying machine, and try to convince you to assign it to some other of your men when you’ve made it as safe as you can, just to take one risk out of your hands, leaving you to deal with all the other chances of battle. Can I ask at least that of you?”

  He looked at her face, and knew that, though he had not thought much of the risks of this battle, she had been afraid every moment he had been
away.

  “Yes,” he said, “I think I can promise at least that. I wish I could promise not to take too many or too great risks, but I never know just what might—”

  She stopped him there. “Hush, my dear. We both know what your duty requires of you, and while I can’t promise to be happy every time you ride out, I can at least promise to not send you off with a fearful face. And as for little Aderyn, I”m sure you will be the best father to her in every moment you have with her, and she and I will have to be satisfied with that.”

  “No,” he said. “I will have to be the best father to her and the best husband to you that I can manage, in every moment we have. I know it’s not enough, but I hope it will do.”

  She put her arms around him, dirt and odors and all, and said, “We will make it do, both of us.”

  #

  Life went on. Carrtog had brought up several kegs of nails, as well as various other bits of finishing materials in order to build their house. When the building was near to being done, it was clear that there was a good deal of material left over, including at least one full keg of nails, and another partially full. All of this material Carrtog put out on consignment to local merchants, and, in order not to seem to favor one merchant over another, he divided it among all who were interested. Further, in order not to damage local enterprise, he charged a little more than the going rates. As he told the merchants when making his offers, “I’m already losing money because I’m not charging enough to make up for the costs of shipping these things up from the south. All I want to do is cut back my losses, but if I try to charge what it cost me, no one would buy.”

  The rebels continued to break up sections of track, and the engineers under Carrtog’s command continued to send out parties, carefully guarded, to repair those tracks.

  Carrtog himself tried to work out spells to watch the tracks more carefully, sending out an alarm when anyone first attempted to tamper with them in hopes of cutting down delays in train schedules.

  Finally, one morning the glider was ready for its first test flight. Carrtog had delayed as long as possible, adjusting everything that could be adjusted without taking it off the ground. The newly designed high-pressure steam engine was set up at one end of a long field; the engine’s sole purpose was to rapidly wind a length of rope around a pulley. The rope was attached to the nose of the glider at the far end of the field. At a signal from Carrtog in the pilot’s seat, Gryff would engage the pulley, which would rapidly haul the glider along the field and hopefully get it airborne by at least halfway to the steam engine. At that point, Carrtog would hit the lever to open the hook attached to the rope, and from there he would attempt to find a rising current of air to help him climb further toward the clouds.

  So, on a cool winter morning, he climbed into the pilot’s seat, having first checked that the rope was securely fastened to the hook at the nose of the craft. He looked down the field to where Gryff waited, one gloved hand on the lever that would engage the pulley. Addy was there, too, having forced herself into a state that she was able to believe that the glider would not only go up, but would come down in one piece, bringing her husband back safely. Carrtog raised his hand high, high enough to be sure Gryff could see it, and chopped it down sharply.

  He could see the movement as Gryff pulled the lever, then the rope, already tight, tautened with a jerk, flinging his head back, and the glider was rolling down the field, picking up speed.

  He pulled down on the controls that would make the machine go up, and felt it lift slightly, then a little more, then it suddenly leaped into the air. He slapped a hand down on the lever that released the rope and continued to pull steadily on the controls to keep it going up. Not too much, he warned himself, we don’t want to stall out.

  He used the controls to swing up and to the right, still using his forward momentum to climb, but trying to be careful not to climb too much.

  He eased the controls slightly forward avoiding a stall, which would likely be followed by a sharp dive toward the ground. Suddenly he was climbing again!

  Looking around and up, he saw several birds in the area, wings extended, and going up as well. He was caught in the same rising air current as they, and if he wished, he could probably go much higher.

  He pulled himself back from that thought; the purpose of this day’s flight was merely to make sure that the glider could actually fly, and then get it back down without damage, either to the craft or to himself.

  He eased the controls forward, moving to the left as he did so, sending the machine into a downward spiral. After some careful maneuvering, he was still about twenty feet in the air, approximately over the spot from which he had started.

  He continued to lose height, but he still had considerable speed. He pulled back on the controls, started climbing a bit, and rapidly began to lose speed. He pushed the controls forward again, carefully, so as not to come in nose first, then pulled back. The undercarriage touched the ground, and the sudden jar slammed his head forward to hit the controls, dazing him.

  At this point, all he could do was hold on until the glider rolled to a stop. Blood was running down into his eyes, and he had a moment’s thought for how Addy would greet the sight of him stepping out of the glider, face awash with blood. A moment later, the left-side wheel gave way, and the stump of the undercarriage dug into the ground, slapping him forward again, and swinging the glider sharply around to slide sidewards for a bit, losing its final momentum when the right-hand wheel collapsed.

  The glider tipped rightwards sharply, then lost all momentum and slammed back down on the ground.

  Carrtog sat still for a bit, estimating how badly he himself was injured. Aside from two blows on the forehead, he seemed to be all right, and though the head wound was bleeding badly, as head wounds will, he was mostly unhurt.

  He began to haul himself out of the pilot’s seat. As he did so, he was aware of rushing feet coming toward him. Gryff and Yakor were almost there, with several other servants and guards close behind.

  Addy, encumbered by her skirts, was coming as quickly as she could.

  “Yakor, have you got something I could wrap around my head? I’m sure I look like I’m half-dead, and I don’t want to frighten Addy too badly.”

  Yakor found a scrap of linen and bound it round Carrtog’s head with a leather thong, just as Addy came up, her face white.

  “Carrtog? Are you all right? Shouldn’t you lie down?”

  “No, Addy, I’m fine. I just banged my head, that’s all, and head-wounds always bleed badly. I may have a bruise here and there, but otherwise I’m fine.”

  “You certainly don’t look fine, with blood all over,” she answered, skeptically.

  “Has nobody in your family taken a tumble and banged their head? As I said, head-wounds always bleed ferociously.”

  “I still think you should be lying down, or sitting at least.”

  “When I get off this field, I’ll be glad to sit down. I’d also be grateful for something to drink, a nice cup of wine, for instance.”

  “Yes indeed, we did bring along some wine. All we need is to get you over to where the wine is waiting.”

  “All right. Gryff, would you go look over the glider, see what repairs need to be made before it can go up again?”

  “Yes, Lord.”

  He saw the look on Addy’s face, and knew that she was very close to demanding that he not try to take the glider up again. He turned to Yakor. “It won’t go up again until we’ve done some strengthening of the undercarriage, at the very least. It’s quite the experience, though.”

  “I’m sure it is,” Yakor said, grinning. “I don’t think it’s an experience I wish to try, though.”

  #

  Carrtog made it a point to go out from time to time with the patrols that patrolled the line, at the very least to make himself familiar with the situation that the ordinary troopers
faced day-to-day.

  He also took the opportunity to set up tentative magical ‘watch-posts’ along the line, usually high up in a tree. For this he used a small device attached to a crossbow quarrel which was shot up into a tree-trunk where it could ‘see’ a fair section of the track and the cleared right-of-way.

  They also marked the perimeter of several other farmsteads which were strongly suspected of supplying the rebels. Twice more, parties went out and followed the rebels to their camps.

  He hadn’t accompanied either group, and the first time they didn’t quite catch the rebels by surprise, ending in a hard-fought victory, the insurrectionists dying almost to the last man and the king’s soldiers suffering near fifty per cent casualties. The second time, the rebels had already left the camp, going off in several directions. The magical trail eventually died out, so they had to track by normal means and were only able to track one band to a place were they had been forced to stop to rest. Since the pursuers themselves had broken up into separate parties to follow, they ended up with just a slight numerical advantage over the enemy. In addition, they too were worn out with riding. The battle, therefore, seemed to be a succession of missed sword-strokes and, more unfortunately, missed parries, ending with the surviving rebels heading off into the brush with the surviving troopers too tired and battered to pursue further.

  #

  With the construction of the house finished, Carrtog ordered in a number of bolts of cloth for his servants to make up into clothing for his household, including all the servants and people attached to his house. When that was done, he ended up with several bolts of cloth left over.

  As he had done with the leftover construction materials for his house, he took the cloth and consigned it to local merchants for sale, again being careful not to attempt to undercut the prices of the local suppliers.

  One of the merchants, after having completed the arrangements for the sale of the cloth, commented, “Not that I object to taking your goods for resale, Lord, but it seems you estimated your needs as a little larger than they ended up being.”