by Billy Wong
"Jaw hurts like it got hit by a sledge, but nothing I'm not used to. What happened? Last thing I remember is hitting my head on wood, but it seems like I got another nice punch too."
"You found part of your old self for a moment and had a brief tussle with Cart-Dragger."
"Was it close?"
"No."
Allen spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "It's expected." He noticed something behinds Lars. "Hey hammer girl, your man is trying to sneak away."
"I'm aware," she said flatly.
Lars turned to see her throw Allen's spear into the back of the fleeing architect's thigh, making him fall on his face. He smacked his forehead.
"What?" Cart-Dragger asked as she strode over to retrieve her prisoner, who spat curses. "I didn't kill him."
"I'll give you that. Still a tad overly violent."
"You guys wore out my injured body by grappling and fighting me and such. So I only had enough energy to throw a spear as opposed to chasing him."
He rolled his eyes. "If you say so."
She hogtied the man with rope borrowed from Lars' pack and hefted him onto the wagon. "Off to jail until we decide on an appropriate punishment, I suppose."
"Maybe you should just ban him from working and let him go with a fine or something? Lengthy imprisonment over a mistake could discourage other workers too."
Cart-Dragger scowled, and Jen pointed out, "There is still that negligence issue if he was indeed drunk while drawing up the plans. But we'll take it into consideration."
They parted ways, the men returning to the inn to finish their lunch. Not long after digging into the now cool food, Lars asked, "What do you think about working for Cart-Dragger? She seems to have a cause we could get behind."
"You ask this right after she beat me up?"
"Do you insist on being petty?"
Allen shrugged. "I suppose it might not be too bad. She save our lives a few times, so I can forgive the beating. Don't know what we'd do for her, though."
"I don't either, but whatever she decides would help her best, I guess. Maybe we can be troubleshooters who take on various tasks as needed, that should be more interesting than sticking to one job where we do the same thing over and over."
"That does sound good, if she'd agree. Let's go talk to her about it."
Lars thought she might be busy dealing with the architect, but they didn't have anything planned for the evening and could just wait if she wasn't available. They made their way to her manor, where the guards allowed them past. When they arrived at her room, Lars' knock on her door was answered by Jen. "If you're looking for Willow, I'm not sure now's a good time."
"Oh, let them in," Cart-Dragger's voice said from within, sounding thick as if she'd been crying. "I'm ridiculously strong enough that I can afford to be seen showing a moment of weakness."
Jen let them inside. They spotted the duchess sitting on her bed with tears on her full cheeks. Not only had she been crying, but she was crying right now. "What's wrong?" Lars asked.
She stared at the floor between her feet. "I know I was wrong to try and kill that architect so hastily. But the thought of him not only harming my people, but setting back our progress by being irresponsible just made me so angry. My dream isn't just to restore this city. It's to restore the world, or at least make a place in it where humanity can live happily again."
"Sounds good to me," Allen said.
Her voice near breaking, Cart-Dragger continued, "But I don't have time..."
"What do you mean?" asked Lars worriedly. "Do you have a fatal illness or something?"
"No. But the goal is so far away, and a person's life is fleeting."
He walked over and ruffled her hair, making her look up in surprise. "You're too young to be thinking like that. Heck, I'm older than you and I don't think that way. Your dream may be lofty, but we humans are the masters of making huge strides. Besides, you're hardly doing this alone. I'm sure you already have plenty of good help, such as Jen here, but we also came to offer you more."
"Do you mean... you want to work for me? I'm glad you appreciate my vision. What skills do you bring to the table? We could always use more warriors, but I'm not sure you'd be content with being guards in peacetime."
"We could do a lot of things. We may not have many specialized skills besides as warriors, but I like to think we're pretty well traveled and adaptable enough for many situations."
"So you basically want to be my 'right hand men' doing whatever the day calls for? Sorry, Jen already fills that role." At his downcast expression, she smiled. "But, you can always be my left hand men."
"Heh, good one." And thus, Lars and Allen became official employees of the Duchess of Galantria.
Chapter 6
Their first assignment was to mediate a dispute between neighbors. Upon arriving at the outskirts area the report came from, Lars and Allen spotted a middle-aged woman with a woodcutting axe in hand arguing with a tall old man behind their houses. Neighbors of both stood watching, but kept their distance. "Get out of the way and let me cut down that tree," the woman was saying, "or I'll cut you down!"
"What's going on?" Allen asked.
"I've warned this old buzzard not to let one of his stupid trees grow into my yard." She pointed at a bunch of tree limbs that extended over the fence under them, giving shade to a spot of earth on her side. A patch of vegetables grew just beyond it. "Now that it's about to cover my garden, I'm going to cut that crap down."
"You can't cut down my pear tree!" the man protested. "Your little patch couldn't grow as much food as the one side of my tree alone."
"And what, would we eat pears all day? Besides, you have more pear trees, you don't need that many."
"I'm not letting you cut down my tree!"
She raised her axe. "Step aside, I'm not warning you again!"
"Um, couldn't you just prune the limbs coming over the fence?" Lars asked. "That would keep everyone's space uninfringed upon without wasting the whole tree."
The arguing pair fell silent. "But I'm not tall enough to reach them, and he won't trim them for me," the woman protested.
"You can't get somebody else to do it?"
"He won't let them! The last time I tried to have someone come over, he began threatening them with his hoe and drove them away."
Lars gave the old man a flustered look. "Really?"
"What right do they or she have to hurt my poor tree? My tree is a living thing, and just because it crosses an arbitrary line she gets to decide whether or not to let it grow as nature intends? I don't accept that."
"Past that line is legally her domain, I assume, and blocking the sun from reaching her vegetables would affect their growth as well. When did she warn you to keep the tree away from her yard?"
"Well after the tree was planted. It was only when she started noticing the branches getting close to the fence that she 'warned' me."
"We should just prune the limbs," Allen said. "No big deal."
Lars wouldn't have thought so either, but the old fellow glared at his neighbor like he'd bear a lifelong grudge should his precious tree be injured. "Maybe, but even though it's pretty big, is there any way the tree can be moved?"
"I hear there are methods known to scholars in the city," the man said, "but there's no room in the yard."
After contemplating it for a moment, he asked, "How would you feel about having the tree moved to a public space? Assuming everything went well it wouldn't be harmed, and everyone would be able to benefit from its fruit."
His expression grew a bit bitter at the thought of giving up the tree. "So I should lose out on what I worked to raise for years?"
"You can keep the tree if you're willing to trim it. But the choices are pruning or moving, so assuming you really don't want to see it hurt..."
"Hmph!" the woman said. "See, justice prevails after all."
"You shouldn't gloat," Lars told her, "considering you aren't totally blameless here. If you'd sought arbitration bef
ore it got to this point, there might be less hard feelings... and work for the movers if that's what decided."
The man spat a glob of saliva onto the woman's side of the fence. "Fine, go ahead and move it. It'll be a waste to have part of my yard unused, but I'd rather that than stunt the tree's potential by crippling it." Crippling sounded a tad overdramatic, but Lars didn't make an issue of it.
"You could plant another type of tree that won't grow as big," Allen said. "Or a vegetable patch."
"Maybe you shouldn't have mentioned that last thing," Lars muttered as the old man's eyes smoldered.
Once they felt the neighbors had mellowed enough not to physically assault each other, Lars and Allen left to arrange for the tree to be moved. "How do you like this job so far?" Lars asked.
"Don't know, we barely started. But seems like it might get boring if most we do is settle low-stake disputes."
"The stakes might not have been that low if we allowed it to progress." He chuckled. "True it probably won't be as 'exciting' as mercenary work, but few jobs are. I'm sure it'll be safer most of the time, at least."
"Yeah, there's that."
Over the next days, they got a taste of other diverse tasks, such as organizing documents, gathering supplies, and checking up on the status of projects. The work seemed varied enough that it couldn't get too stagnant compared to most, which Allen agreed with. Having some degree of authority and being treated with deference were also interesting for a change. They also got to know other important friends of Cart-Dragger such as Russ, the cheerful, overweight yet quick with a shortsword captain of the city guard; Scott, soft-spoken bespectacled overseer of infrastructure repair and improvement; Gene, the somewhat older, aggressive and influential minister of agriculture; and Mindy, the brawny head blacksmith who passed down old stories to the children in her spare time. Jen, it turned out, was responsible for most commerce policy being the daughter of two successful merchants. Aside from their roles in government, all were at least competent fighters—not exactly shocking, because if they hadn't been before they met Cart-Dragger, she had probably "encouraged" them to learn.
After a couple weeks at home, the duchess announced she planned to leave to raise funds as a mercenary again. Nobody was surprised; considering she could probably do the work of several sellsword companies alone, this remained one of the most efficient ways available for Galantria to get money. However, Lars questioned, "Is it really good for the city for its leader to be away most of the time?"
"We're used it," Jen said, "and make do. Besides, the legends of Willow as 'Cart-Dragger' are among the things that inspire us. So money isn't the only thing we get from it."
"It's a hard life for her too," he realized. "Spending all that time away from her home and friends isn't an easy sacrifice."
Jen nodded. "We all look up to her. Sometimes I wish I could walk the same path."
Allen put in, "But then if others could walk with her, she wouldn't be the same Cart-Dragger eh?"
"Yeah. Although you two got a taste, didn't you?"
"We were mostly just witnesses to the carnage," Lars said.
Shortly before she was to leave, Cart-Dragger took them all out drinking. Russ, Scott, Gene, Mindy, and Jen being there, Lars didn't get in as many words with her as he might have liked, but he understood why he wouldn't be treated as special compared to her older friends. Russ and Mindy got along well with him and Allen anyway, as they savored talk of fighting and battle equipment. "It's weird such a big man like you uses a light finesse weapon," Lars commented about Russ.
"He wasn't always a big man," Mindy said. "He used to be a rather slim, nimble fellow before he broke his leg and fell in love with the plate."
Russ snorted. "Broke my leg? That's your fault, you're the one who didn't back me up when Thomas Rax broke it."
"You said you had him!"
"Dammit, you're right." He turned back to Lars. "Anyway, yeah I was trained in my main style before I had my current form. I kind of like it though. I still have pretty fast hands along with more power, and people don't seem to expect that."
"Does your leg bother you?" Allen asked.
"Not much. It still hurts sometimes, but isn't a noticeable problem most days."
"I'm glad. Lucky for you I guess."
"Would you two like me to make you new weapons at a discounted price?" Mindy asked. "Yours are looking a bit old and worn."
Lars examined his nicked and pitted axe. "That's what happens when you swing them at metal-armored giant monsters repeatedly, it seems. Should still last us a while, though. Any special benefits to yours?"
She waggled thick, callused fingers like they were elegant ladylike ones and grinned. "Only the natural ones of being made by the best. And, they'll look more like the rest of ours for the sake of unity."
"What are the 'discounted' prices like?" After she told them, he replied tersely, "We'll... think about it. Did you make Cart-Dragger's weapon?"
"I'd love to take credit for it, but no. She took it from a giant, demonlike stranger who claimed he wanted to 'challenge God' when she was fourteen. In response she asked how he had the right to challenge God if he hadn't even proven he could beat her yet. They fought, she won, and his weapon became her preferred one. The markings with which I decorate our weapons are based on those on it."
"Is that story actually true?" Allen asked.
Russ replied, "Does it match up with what you've seen from her?"
"I suppose it fits."
"Willow was born under a shooting star. Since her soul knew even then that she wanted to be more than a normal human, it reached up and grabbed the star's power, taking it for herself."
Lars raised his brow. "Really? Now that one has to be made up."
After long seconds, Mindy failed to hold back a giggle. "So it is. It's one of the folk tales going around about our Cart-Dragger, though."
He glanced at the duchess laughing as she hugged Jen. The mythic figure didn't look much like one right now, but it was good she retained her humanity socially in spite of her other inhuman attributes. He contrasted her in his mind with Emperor Rouge and his cohorts, the masters of the old empire who had grown to view themselves as above other people and wound up ruining the world. Perhaps she, down to earth and seemingly "normal" in the most fundamental ways, would be the leader to revitalize it.
"Hey Lars," Cart-Dragger shouted, "want to try this new drink Sam made? It tastes so sweet you won't notice the kick, but then it hits you hard!"
"Sure. You shouldn't drink so much you don't feel well when you set out tomorrow, though."
"Me have a hangover? Ha, that's a laugh. I have a liver like a water elemental!"
Later on, she and most of the others had retired for the night, leaving Lars and Allen there. Scott remained too, but appeared to be sleeping with his head on the table. "You going to miss her?" Allen asked.
"Yeah. But she's just doing what she needs to, like us all. Things will likely pick up at work too without her."
They shared a couple more drinks and rose to leave, Allen half carrying Scott along. As they neared the exit, Lars spotted a familiar face sitting in the corner. "Cody, is that you?"
The young merc looked at him. "It is me. I'm surprised you didn't notice me earlier. I would have said hello, but didn't know if I should interrupt when you looked like you were enjoying yourselves so much."
"What are you doing here? Felt like getting away from the mercenary game and relaxing amid the sights of the city?"
He cocked his head. "The rare sights of a city are somewhat intriguing, but no. I'm here on a job, and I suspect more of our fellow sellswords will be soon."
They weren't sellswords anymore, but Lars held back that information for the time being. "What job?" If somebody was hiring for mercenary work in or near the city, Cart-Dragger and the others would want to know.
"You want in, huh? Fine, I'll tell you. Someone is offering good money for large amounts of condutin. Since the old mine around here
is the most well known intact source for condutin, I'd assume everybody will be going there first to find it."
Lars had heard the term before, but couldn't quite remember enough about it. Some kind of metal he thought, but was unable to recall its purpose. "We'll have to discuss this with our new partners. Why mercenaries to pick up a bunch of metal, though? Are you planning to fight the city or whoever owns the mine for it?"
"No, the mine is known to be long abandoned by people. Condutin tends to attract monsters though, hence why whoever goes there will have to be ready for some fighting."
"I see. Well, it's getting late already, so we should go. Good luck with it."
"Good luck? I bet you're planning to tell your cart-dragging friend about this job so you can steal it from everyone else."
If there was something near the city thought to have value Cart-Dragger would probably want to know about it. But Lars asked, "If you thought that, why would you tell us about it?"
"You probably would have found out from somebody else after seeing me anyway." He grinned. "Besides, I'll enjoy the challenge of earning my share with the likes of her around."
They left the inn and went back to the manor. After dropping off Scott in a guest room, Lars turned for their quarters. Allen asked, "Shouldn't we tell Cart-Dragger now? If we delay he might get to the mine before we do."
"He didn't seem like he was in a hurry to leave, and no other mercenaries have arrived yet to our knowledge. If there are bound to be dangerous monsters at the mine, I doubt he's crazy enough to go alone. He'll probably partner up with someone, I bet."
"But the other mercenaries could be skipping the city and just go straight for the mine."
Damn, he was right. In fact sellswords could have already gotten there, though Lars hoped they would be able to beat them to the punch. They went to Cart-Dragger's room and knocked. "Who's waking me up so late?" she demanded groggily from inside. "You'd better have a good reason."
"It's us, Lars and Allen. We just learned of a way we can make money with something already nearby, but if we don't hurry it might soon be gone."