Railroad Rising: The Blackpowder Rebellion

by J. P. Wagner

  “I’m going to do some shopping. Well, actually, I’m going to put some more things up for sale.”

  “What is it this time? I don’t recall your having ordered anything from the south that you have an excess of.”

  “No, I haven’t ordered anything from the south, this is something I’ve produced myself.”

  #

  The storekeeper was a stout man, very good-humored, with a ruff of gray hair surrounding a bare crown.

  “Good day to you, Lord Carrtog!” he said. “Have you come to sell me some of your surplus goods again?”

  “Not this time, Storekeeper Carfwyn. This time it is something I have developed myself.” Carrtog motioned for Yakor to set down the armload he’d been carrying. “You may have noticed the glider that I and my men have been building? This is a material that I created specifically for its construction.”

  “You mean to sell me lumber, Lord?”

  Carrtog smiled. “Not mere lumber, Storekeeper. You see, one of my tutors in magic was a man who was interested in plant-magic. Not only healing herbs, but ways to make those herbs more effective and various ways of processing plants to make them serve various purposes.

  “This material here is made from a slurry of certain plants, mashed in water, then poured into forms and solidified both by drying and the use of special spells. This leaves one with material that is strong and is light, but not so light as to be blown away in a high wind.

  “It can be cut with a saw, fastened together with nails, and takes a coat of paint, if you want. It will probably last longer than wood, though of course I haven’t had the time to actually test its duration.

  “It can be produced in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, from studs for wall-framing to sheets to make the walls themselves, or even, if you wish, round poles for making fences. I suggest that I supply you with a number of what you would guess would be most desirable forms, with the suggestion that customers tell you what they would prefer. I promise that I will attempt to make whatever form they desire, with the proviso that extreme lengths or widths might be more difficult, and thus more costly.

  “What do you say to that?”

  The Storekeeper’s face took on a doubtful expression, an expression that Carrtog recognized not as rejection, but more as the ‘bargaining face.’ “Well,” he began slowly, “There is first the question of magic, Lord. You understand that many people will be loath to build anything that depends so heavily on magic. For many, there will be the fear that magic, a power they understand only vaguely, will suddenly fail, leaving their house fallen down around their ears.”

  Carrtog spread his hands, palms upward. “I’m sure you can deal with most such questions. Point out that I have used this material extensively in building the glider that you will have seen flying around, here and there. Since I am willing to trust the lives of my men and myself to this work, surely they can trust it for building.”

  The Shopkeeper still looked doubtful. “Still, Lord, there will be those who will be cautious, at least until they see some other using the material. I would not want to ask too high a price, for fear of adding cost to the reasons not to buy.”

  “I, on the other hand, would not be willing to give the stuff away; after all, I did invest a lot of time into its development.”

  “True enough, Lord, but I think it might be risky, for the both of us, to set a price here and now. If none of my customers are willing to pay that price, then it will sit here, taking up space, no matter how much you assure me of its quality. Would you be willing, Lord, to leave it with me, and trust me to get the best price I can get for it?”

  Carrtog had dealt with Carfwyn and had heard others telling of their own dealings with the man sufficiently often to be willing to trust the Storekeeper, so he held out his hand and they clasped hands over the agreement.

  When they went back out into the streets again, Yakor said, “Seems to me you’re putting a good deal of trust in the man, him being one of the people who object to the king’s rule, and by extension, have little regard for you, being the representative of the king in this area.”

  “True enough, but Carfwyn is a businessman, and I am a customer who often has a good deal of money to spend. Will he want to cheat me and lose the money I might spend in his store in future?”

  “So you’ve taken thought of every eventuality, have you?”

  “Not necessarily every eventuality, but all that I could come up with. If the fates toss something at me that I haven’t thought of, that’s the time when I try to think fast and act faster. Now, shall we go see whether or not our glider has returned?”

  #

  In fact, it had not yet returned. The pilot’s instructions had been to keep the field in sight and to try to get back to the field before he lost too much altitude. In an emergency, he was to pick any open stretch of road or field of sufficient length and come down there.

  He had both a communicating device and a locating device, so they would be able to find him even if he crashed and was unable to tell them where he had come down.

  It was now somewhat past the time when he was expected back and everyone was scanning the skies anxiously. Carrtog was sure he felt at least as anxious as any other, though he tried hard not to show it.

  Suddenly his communicator buzzed. He had discovered somewhat earlier that the blinking light was fine if the device was on a table in a dimly-lit house, but not so fine if the device was in a pouch or saddle-bag. He had been holding the thing in his hand for the last half-hour; even so, the sound caught him by surprise.

  “Lord, I’m coming down. I’m landing on the road about ten miles south of town. I’ll try to call you when I’m down.” The communicator went silent.

  Carrtog forced himself to say no more than, “I hear you, Pilot.”

  The man was going to be too busy to listen to any advice he might have, let alone any scolding for not coming back sooner.

  He turned to Yakor.

  “Get out a couple of wagons. Load in a lot of tools and bring along a full troop. We’ll have to dismantle the glider, at least partially, in order to bring it back, and I wouldn’t like to have a bunch of rebels jump us in the middle of things.”

  “Yes, Sir! I’ll take care of it.” He turned and began calling out orders.

  Carrtog sent a man off to see to getting his own equipment organized for the march, after which he stood or sat, working hard at pretending not to be anxiously waiting for Brachgwyn to call.

  When the man still hadn’t called, nor answered when Carrtog called him, and a good half-hour had passed, Carrtog got hold of Yakor and said, “Bring along someone who can deal with wounds and broken bones.”

  Yakor gave him a look. “Already done, sir.”

  “Of course.” Carrtog felt himself redden slightly.

  Finally they were on the road with Gryff at the reins of a team of horses, the locater close beside him. Carrtog rode in the seat next to Gryff, his own mount being led by Yakor close behind.

  The locater showed the glider as down somewhere off to the left, but since everyone knew that the road curved to the left they held to the road. If they went round the curve and the locater still pointed off to the left, they would have to make a decision.

  They finished rounding the curve, and Carrtog noticed that the locater still pointed slightly left. Gryff looked at him. “What should I do now, Lord?”

  “Keep going on the road, until it points directly leftward, then we stop and start looking for ways to get off the road in that direction.”

  “Yes, Lord.”

  As it happened, though, they saw the glider shortly thereafter, its right wing sheared off by a tree. Brachgwyn was leaning against it, looking a little dazed. He pushed himself upright when they approached.

  “Sorry, Lord, I misjudged the length of the straight patch of the road, and ended up breaking the g
lider against this tree. In the collision, my communicator went overboard, and I wasn’t steady enough on my feet to go look for it. I’m sorry about the glider, Lord.”

  “The glider can be repaired, or in the worst case, rebuilt. How are you?”

  “Oh, I’m fine, Lord. Just took a bit of a jar, that’s all. Give me a night’s rest, and I’ll be ready to fly again, if you’ll allow me, Lord.”

  “I’ll allow it, for certain, so long as this mishap hasn’t put you off flying.”

  “Oh, not at all, Lord!” Brachgwyn was smiling. “I’ll just be more careful to judge the length of my landing field and the speed I’m coming in at, that’s all.”

  Carrtog returned the smile. “Good. While I’ll always be glad to see my pilots safe, I’d prefer not to have to rebuild the craft too often.”

  The crew were already at work disassembling the glider and preparing to stow it on the wagons they had brought along. The fellow who knew about wounds and broken bones waited patiently for Carrtog to be through talking to Brachgwyn so he could examine the man for breaks and bruises.

  “Well, Yakor, we got out of that one all right.”

  “Yes, we did. And that young madman is quite willing to go flying again, just determined not to come down so hard the next time.”

  “But as you said, he is willing to go up again.”

  “Is there not perhaps some magical thing you can do to keep them from breaking bones if they make some sort of misjudgment? For depend on it, they will indeed make misjudgments from time to time.”

  Carrtog brought his head up sharply. “Nothing that comes to mind immediately. I’d thought that my improvements to the fuselage would be sufficient. Just because these young madmen, as you call them, are willing to take all kinds of risks is no reason not to try to limit those risks. Thank you, Yakor, for the notion.”

  #

  Carrtog put the egg into the wooden chest, then closed and latched the chest. Drawing a wheel-lock pistol from his sash, he pointed in skyward and spoke an incantation, then squeezed the trigger.

  He replaced the pistol, picked up the chest with both hands, then tossed it into the air. He watched it tumble, then hit the ground on one corner, and roll to one side.

  He strode forward, noticing that Addy, Gryff, and Yakor were right beside him, apparently as anxious as Carrtog himself to see the results of the experiment.

  He righted the chest, unfastened the latch, and opened it. The egg sat in its place, unbroken. He heard the others cheering, just as they might have if the chest had been a crashed glider, and the egg its unharmed pilot.

  Addy had her arm around his waist. “It worked, my dear, it worked! You’ve just made flying much safer.”

  “I can certainly hope so, my most very dear. Before I can say that for certain, though, I will have to test the spell to see if it can protect a full-sized man. And no, that does not mean intentionally crashing the glider just to test the spell.”

  #

  Two weeks later, they were busy reassembling the glider when Parmavon came rushing in. “Lord! We’ve found them!”

  Carrtog looked up. They were rebuilding altogether the wing and the fuselage where that wing connected to it, a job that required tedious exactitude.

  “Who have you found, Parmavon?”

  “The rebels, Lord! A Gods-lost great camp of them, Lord!”

  “Well-done! Let’s go have a look at the bowl, then we’ll see if they’re close enough to make a run at them.”

  He looked around at the group and called, “Gryff.”

  The young man looked up. “Lord?”

  “One of our hunter-balloons has spotted a rebel camp. You carry on here, while I go see what’s needed to deal with that. I don’t expect I’ll be done before day’s end, so you’ll have to take care of locking up here. Can you manage?”

  “Yes, Lord!”

  He turned back to Parmavon. “I assume you managed to hold on to the final picture, along with the direction and distance?”

  “Of course, Lord.”

  Parmavon led the way back to the shed where the balloon-control stations were set up. The scrying-bowl still showed a still picture of a camp in the woods, a scatter of tents, with men caught in the act of walking to and fro among them. Beside the bowl was a sheet of paper and several sticks of charcoal, while on the sheet of paper was a list of directions: So many miles this way, so many miles that way, and so on.

  “Good.” Carrtog announced. He wrote briefly with a charcoal stick on the sheet of paper, picked it up, and turned to one of the ubiquitous young boys who hung around the various places where Carrtog’s people were working. “Take this to Commander Cargiodd. Tell him I want him to organize a raid here. He’s to find me here if he has any questions.”

  “Yes, Lord!” Taking the paper, the boy dashed off.

  Yakor spoke at Carrtog’s elbow. “Are you sure he won’t just lose that somewhere, or at least go tell someone who has a contact with the rebels?”

  Carrtog laughed. “Watching Gods, not that one! His father is one of the balloon-controllers. That means he’s pretty much on the outside in this town. And no, he won’t try to use this information to put himself on the inside, because it would take too long to find someone who’d talk to him for long enough for him to explain how important this information is. And by that time I’d start wondering why I hadn’t heard from Commander Cargiodd, so I’d be looking for him. And as I said, his father is one of the balloon-controllers; that gives him some status among the boys he already knows. He won’t jeopardize that.”

  Yakor gave a brief nod.

  Carrtog summoned one of his pages. “Go on back to my quarters and ask the servants to set out my field gear. The commander may wish me to come along with him on this little jaunt.”

  “Yes, Lord.” The page set off at once.

  Carrtog said, “I’ll just stay here a little longer in case the commander wants to find me, then I’ll go back and get dressed.”

  “Good. If you’re deciding to come along, he won’t want to be waiting long.” Yakor was already in field clothing, including sword and at least one pistol visible.

  After a little longer, Carrtog and Yakor set off toward his quarters, leaving instructions to the commander if he came or sent messengers to the balloon-controllers’ shed.

  Carrtog was dressed and going out the door when the commander drew up on his own horse with a small group of troopers as guard. “You wish to come along on this venture, Lord?”

  “Unless you’d strongly prefer not to have me, and even than I would like to hear some good reasons, Commander.”

  The commander’s mouth took on a sour expression. “I really don’t want to be the man in charge of a venture in which my commanding officer gets killed, but I don’t suppose you consider that a good reason, Lord.”

  “Not at all, Commander. I assure you I have no intention of getting myself killed in this undertaking; I don’t suppose that satisfies you at all.”

  Commander Cargiodd said nothing, but his expression said a good deal about young commanders who had all sorts of ideas, but who could just possibly be more trouble than they were worth.

  Addy also came out to see them off, carrying Aderyn wrapped against the cool spring air. “Come back safely, my dear,” she told him.

  “Don’t fret too much, dear. We’ll be back as soon as may be.”

  Even as he swung up onto his horse, though, he knew that she would fret all the time he was gone, and he felt himself a fool for giving her reassurances that were nothing but wasted breath. Who knew what wild shot, what chance sword-blow, might hit when he least expected it.

  “You’re sure these rebels will still be there when we get there, Lord? That’s some distance away.”

  “I can guarantee nothing, Commander. If they spotted the balloon and guessed what it meant, they might well pac
k up and leave immediately. On the other hand, they might decide to delay leaving long enough that we get there before they disperse, or perhaps in enough time afterward to track them before they’ve gone too far.”

  They started down the south-west road at a fair pace, though a pace which allowed for supply-carts behind. The rebel encampment was some distance away and would require a day and a half to two days to reach, thus they were required to forage as they went or take supplies with them. Trying to catch highly mobile rebels required fast movement on the part of the royal troops, so foraging was not feasible.

  The first part of the trip went quickly since the road was in decent shape. The next part, along a trail that crossed the main road, went a little less quickly, and when the trail degenerated to a mere track, speed was near impossible.

  “I’d suggest, Lord, that the main force continue on at the best speed we can make, and let the supply carts come up behind as best they can. We can leave a small force with them in case the rebels go after them. It may be hard on the people with the supply-carts, but it will give us the best chance to catch the rebels in their camp.”

  Carrtog nodded. “Give the necessary orders, Commander.”

  As they came nearer to the rebels’ position — though still more than a day away — Carrtog spoke to the commander. “It’s impossible to render a force this size invisible, but I can make our scouts harder to see. I’d suggest I do that when we start tomorrow’s march. It won’t be a great advantage, but it will give us a bit of an edge. What do you say?”

  “I was never taught this fancy ‘now it is, now it isn’t’ stuff, but if you think it’ll give us any help, go ahead. When it comes down to the battle itself, will you be able to do that Battle Grove thing?”

  Carrtog looked up at the sky; the clouds were in a pattern resembling a cooked fish. “’Mackerel sky means snow nearby,’” he quoted. “The snow itself isn’t a problem, but if there’s any wind along with it, the Grove of Battle may be more of a hindrance than a help. We’ll see. If I can’t use the Grove, there may be other tricks I can use in our aid.”