by Joe Sniezek
“Of course, I didn’t ask you to or want you to chase me. I know you have your orders and you didn’t have much choice in the matter. I guess none of us did,” Wilfer said and the Captain just snorted in derision.
“Where were you taking me, anyway? You might as well tell me. I am going to find out soon enough anyway,” Wilfer said as an afterthought.
“There is an encampment up ahead. A staging ground,” the Captain said.
That wasn’t good. Were they standing just a few miles from an army? The giants should be informed of that, but it was best to keep the conversation moving since the Captain was talking. Eniyan would have to take care of spreading the new information.
“Why were you hunting me?” Wilfer continued with the interrogation.
“You were supposed to go with that girl. If you didn’t, you had to be brought back for evaluation.”
“Evaluation of what?” Wilfer asked, genuinely confused.
“Boy, you really don’t have any idea about what’s going on, do you?”
“Well how about you enlighten me then,” Wilfer said sarcastically.
“You aristocrats have been standing on everybody’s shoulders for too long. We are done carrying you. Either you carry your share of the load or you get left behind,” the Captain said.
“What does that mean? What load? I don’t understand.”
“You get to where you are in life because of who you are and who your parents are. It doesn’t matter whether you are competent, or clever, or hard-working, or even honest. It’s a breeding ground for decadence and decay. Well, Senrig has changed all of that.”
“Senrig? Who is Senrig? I have never heard that name before.”
“Exactly. He is not a man of noble birth. He had the idea to reward the exceptional and capable and to demote the incompetent. Every day strong and hardworking men are lining up to join his ranks,” the Captain said.
“Some warlord thug has usurped the throne? That’s what this is about? A coup?” Wilfer asked.
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand. This isn’t about some power grab. This is about making things better for everyone. Decay has set in and needs to be cut out.”
None of this sounded reasonable to Wilfer but he was here to get information, not to argue. So he continued to gather information, asking, “Where did this ordinary man Senrig come from?”
“He may be a commoner, but he is far from common. He is a man of exceptional skill and wisdom and vision. I first met him as a young soldier. He saw that there were two types of soldiers, those who got ahead by their skill and talent, and those who got ahead by other means. He sought out the talented and brought them together, one by one. Their numbers grew and they show more loyalty to each other than to their commanders. Eventually, there were more of them than not and they decided they didn’t want to bow down to incompetence anymore,” the Captain swelled with pride.
“How did all this escape notice?” Wilfer asked still puzzled.
“You didn’t notice anything, and that fact speaks volumes about you. It means you’re probably not one of us,” the Captain said.
A dark thought occurred to Wilfer, “So everyone is dead then? All the people who used to be in charge? Those were my friends and family.”
“We are not monsters. We want to make the world a better place. Everyone is tested on their talents and abilities. Those found capable are invited to join and will be promoted. Those found lacking are rejected and demoted. We are just putting people where they belong,” the Captain explained.
“The people who are lacking? What of them?”
“They are placed according to their ability. A governor can become a stable-boy if that is all he is able to do. Or if he is found capable and honest, he can continue to serve as governor.”
“And if the governor refuses his new stable-boy position?” Wilfer asked and the Captain just shrugged. Wilfer wondered if this wasn’t as much an evaluation as it was a purge. He doubted he would fare well in this new system. Wilfer considered himself to be quite capable; he got things done, but he was never one to play by the rules or follow orders. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t work well in this new world they are forming. Nor would it work well in San La with Zumi, which is why he rejected her offer.
“So Zumi got me out of the evaluations?” Wilfer asked.
“We are trying to make things better. We want good relations with other lands and increased trade. San La asked for you, if you find a way to be useful over there, then that’s fine with us,” the Captain said.
That seemed to fit with what Zumi said. But why not an official transfer? Why did he wake up in a strange bed? It still didn’t make sense, so he asked the Captain.
“Because you were blind drunk when we found you. We are busy. We can’t arrange everything to accommodate you. That’s the exact sort of thing that has to stop now. We just dumped you in a house to sleep it off. You slipped away, so we had to find you. Only then did we realize you were going to be a problem. There’s no chance you can wander around freely now,” the Captain explained.
It was plausible. He wasn’t thinking quite clearly that morning. And perhaps Eniyan was manipulating him. But perhaps his new prisoner was manipulating him. If there is truly an army assembling nearby, Wilfer couldn’t blame anybody for taking steps for self-preservation.
“And if I return home with you?” Wilfer asked.
“I have no idea. We will have to find something for you to do where we can keep an eye on you. Most likely in the fields or grain mill. There are too many black marks against you now. Fortunately, Senrig does not believe in prisons. He emptied them and the occupants when through the same process as everyone else.”
Wilfer twisted his mouth ruefully at the thought of working in a field. This has done little to change the fact that he cannot return home.
∞∞∞
Eniyan returned and asked Wilfer, “Did you find out what you wanted?”
“Yes, I suppose so. I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand the treachery of men, but I got my answers,” Wilfer said.
“Treachery indeed. Now it is time to talk about strategy and military matters,” Eniyan said as the giants joined them.
“I choose death over betrayal,” the Captain warned them.
“They have a large encampment up the road,” Wilfer told them and the Captain gave him a harsh look.
“How big?” Eniyan asked, showing concern but the giants didn’t seem to be.
“Several legions and more come each day. More than enough to discipline your small fishing village,” the Captain said, jutting his chin defiantly at the giants.
Eniyan said, “That’s many thousand men. You should not antagonize them.”
The giants did not reply. It was not a familiar concept to them. They knew only war and peace. There was nothing in between. The had just concluded a battle and now had peace. Perhaps war would arrive again soon or perhaps peace would remain for a long time.
Eniyan did not want to argue or lecture the giants, so he continued questioning the prisoner. “Why are you here at all? Why bring an army through the gateway? This is an unpleasant place. No place for an army.”
The Captain shrugged. “I’m not the one calling the shots. But why does anyone do anything? Men need a purpose. It is in their nature. With a goal, with a destination, they thrive. Without, they decay.”
“Alright then. What purpose does amassing in this place serve?”
“First, a man gets himself in order. Then gets his household in order. Then he looks to get his community in order. Given enough time and luck, he would seek to get the entire universe in order.”
Eniyan looked at Wilfer with dismay. “So you mean to conquer all the realms, is that it? The typical ambition of every petty warlord, a thirst to become emperor,” he asked the captive.
“You say conquer, we say reform. But yes. We will put all of reality in order, realms both known and unknown, and our ranks will swell as the worthy join our caus
e,” the Captain said with a fiery determination in his eyes.
“I see,” Eniyan said as he pulled Wilfer and the giants aside to talk to them out of earshot. “You have an army of zealots just over the hill, and you’ve attracted their attention. I cannot emphasize the danger enough.”
The giants looked at each other for a moment. At last, Ikvig spoke, acting as their representative, “Okay. Let us agree that they are dangerous.”
Fearing they still did not realize the seriousness of the situation, Eniyan continued, “Each of you took down two men.”
“Easily. Could do four,” one giant boasted.
Eniyan was not convinced of that; there were some special circumstances to their battle. The uniqueness of this place with its shifting distances helped. The magically controlled wasps may not always be available in the future. And Ikvig had an extraordinary many-armed squid on his back. But pointing out their potential future vulnerabilities would not convince them, it would only steel their resolve and make them stubborn.
So Eniyan kept it simple. “Yes, one giant can defeat four men. But there are at least four thousand men up the road. You need a thousand giants. You need to get ready for when they come to your world. And they are coming.”
The giants just smiled with confidence; they felt none of the concern Eniyan had. Ikvig spoke and said, “We understand. Let this man go back to his leaders. He will tell them of our warriors’ fierceness. They will not come. They will reason that we have a thousand giants waiting.”
“If you do that, they will certainly come. They will be right behind you. The may even catch you on your way back home. The risk is too great.” Eniyan was visibly frustrated.
The giants still wore overconfident smiles. “We will inform our elders,” Ikvig said, indicating the conversation was finished.
As the giants walked away, one giant mused, “We may put a guard at the gateway.”
Giants have little interest in horses. They examined them and took whatever equipment and weapons there was to be found, but they did not want the animals themselves. Wilfer thought that a standard sized horse may struggle to carry such a large person. But they could be used as pack animals, although the terrain of their realm was maybe too mountainous for a horse.
Wilfer brought a horse for the Captain. As he was untying the Captain, he said to him, “The giants have a message for your leaders. Tell them of this battle and warn they will defend their land with fierceness.”
The Captain said nothing as he mounted the horse. He looked around for any supplies that he might take with him, such as food, water, equipment, or weapons. There were none. It would have been foolish to rearm the Captain. With no reason to linger, the Captain turned his horse and galloped away without even a second glance over his shoulder.
Eniyan turned to Wilfer and said, “We have to get out of here. Fast.”
Wilfer threw a frightened glance down the road behind the Captain. Then he looked around at their horses and the ones in the distance. “What about the horses?” he asked.
“I’d love to take them all, but a herd of horses is not very stealthy,” Eniyan said.
“Just two then?” Wilfer prompted.
“I don’t think we can take them, but they would be useful. We’re heading up the slope.” Eniyan pointed up the steep hillside. “Let’s see how well they do, and we’ll leave them at the first sign of problems.”
Wilfer nodded in agreement. He grabbed a couple of tree branches and handed one to Eniyan. They were long enough to drag behind the horses. The leaves and small end branches swept the ground behind them. Roughly ten paces from the battle, they started sweeping their tracks. They traveled five hundred paces down the road towards the enemy encampment.
At that point, Eniyan said, “I think they will pass by our turnoff before they realize they need to track us. The ground is dry. A few hours in the sun and our trail should disappear.”
They carefully guided the horses off the road and up the embankment, single file. After they squeezed their way through the brush, only then did they drop the branches they had used to sweep the trail. Wilfer dismounted to be sure he tucked the branches into the bushes to hide them from sight from the road.
The two men climbed the steep slope, picking their way through the rock, brush, and trees. Eniyan was confident they had left no trail.
Far from the road, Wilfer heard a sound behind him. A snapped twig, a pebble slipping, leaves rustling, someone or something was following them. Wilfer looked at Eniyan with alarm. Since their trail had been picked up so easily, there was no sense in hiding so they waited for their tracker to arrive.
Expecting a lonely horse that decided to follow, or a soldier looking for revenge, Wilfer was relieved to see Ikvig’s smiling face break through the bushes.
Nineteen
The sharp limestone underlying the entire hillside irritated the horses’ hooves. After the third time a horse slipped, Eniyan decided to abandon them. They paused in a small clearing and dismounted. Wilfer removed the saddles so the animals would not become snared on a branch. He hid the accessories well under a nearby bush and Ikvig rolled a large rock on top to further obscure them from sight.
Eniyan revived an earlier conversation with Ikvig, “There is a large, formidable army nearby.”
“Yes,” was all Ikvig said.
Wilfer realized that the giants relished the idea of a war. He wanted to confirm that so he asked, “What do you think should be done about that?”
Ikvig reacted with surprise, “Do you want to check it out?” he asked.
“That is one option,” Eniyan said, “The other option is to get as far away from them as possible.”
“And go where, Granberk?” Ikvig frowned.
Wilfer got the impression from Ikvig that he and Eniyan would no longer be welcome there. “Let’s go and see the army,” Wilfer said with a shrug.
Ike, still clutching the giant’s back, wiggled sent Wilfer a mental image of many swirling lights, like a swarm of glowing fish. Wilfer understood and said, “If we go at night, we can get a rough count of the campfires, and the lights should be visible for miles.”
“Up closer to the ridge, we’ll have the advantage of height and excellent visibility,” Eniyan suggested.
“But won’t they have the same idea? I think we should stay below the ridgeline and keep ourselves hidden from both below and above,” Wilfer reasoned.
“Excellent plan, my friend,” Ikvig said clapping Wilfer on the shoulder. And they started hiking up the hillside, carefully choosing their path to remain out of sight.
Eniyan said, “They may no longer be looking for us. They may have assumed we either went with the giants or just ran away. However, we do paint an odd picture, the four of us.”
Wilfer chuckled and added, “Anyone wandering around out here is likely to be stopped and questioned. The closer to their encampment, the more likely an encounter.”
“So best to keep hidden,” Ikvig said, nodding in agreement.
∞∞∞
The group travelled through the night. They rounded an outcropping of rock when Ike mentioned that he could see some extra light in the distance. After a few more paces, the others could see it, as well. Between the branches, they glimpsed the valley opening up before them. At first, Wilfer thought he was seeing a reflection of the stars on the mirror surface of a lake. He gasped when he realized it was not a reflection; the stars they saw were, in truth, campfires.
“Curse it all,” Eniyan spat.
“That is not a few thousand men,” Wilfer said in awe. “That is a few tens of thousands of men.”
Ikvig remained unconcerned and simply said after some quick mental calculations, “Twenty or twenty-five thousand.”
Eniyan had turned pale. He said, “There is no destiny in which this ends well.”
The companions stopped to sit in silence for a while to ponder the ramifications of this new information. Wilfer said hopefully, “There is a story of a great warrior
who instructed each camp to light five fires. When the enemy scout saw those fires, he assumed the army was five times bigger than it was and advised the enemy to retreat in the night. We will check again in the daytime.” Ikvig nodded, familiar with the story. It was a more common story than Wilfer had realized but still held a valuable lesson.
Eniyan perked up and agreed, “Even so, it’s still many men, but maybe things will look better in the morning. They usually do.”
∞∞∞
In the morning, they saw that no extra fires had been lit at night. The numbers were accurate; there were at least twenty thousand well-armed and well-trained men. A steady stream of men was coming through the gateway, which was located close to the center of the camp.
“It seems as if the Fates have stopped smiling on me,” Eniyan said ominously.
“Here we are, looking at an enormous army that nobody knows about yet. What should we do about it? They will overrun anybody in the way. Nobody is forming any sort of defense because they don’t know this is here,” Wilfer said.
“What is there to do? They are from your land, no need to warn your own people. The giants have just been given warning, whether or not they choose to heed it. And you tell me Zumi and her countrymen know and are even involved,” Eniyan replied.
“I suppose. It’s just that I feel the need to do something,” Wilfer moaned.
“The existence of other realms has long been forgotten. We would have difficulty reminding people that they exist. And we would have to do that before we warned of an imminent invasion,” Eniyan said.
“The more we learn, the more cunning their plan seems. They will be unstoppable.”
“One step at a time. The only thing we can do at this moment is to go in for a closer look,” Ikvig said with a shrug.
“Very risky,” Eniyan warned.
“We’ll be careful,” Wilfer said.
∞∞∞
Wilfer and his friends crept close enough to the encampment to hear: men talking, swords ringing out, and horse hooves thudding in practice. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand at attention; he was no longer sure of the wisdom of his plan.