by Zack Finley
Argon found Allo and gave her a quick cuddle before joining me. I watched Allo scurry back to the youngling table.
“Allo is having a great time,” sent Argon as she slid into the seat beside me, critically examining the food choices on my plate. I pushed it her way, knowing I had a large breakfast and she only had an energy bar.
“We’ve never had an ‘all-hands’ meeting before, how is it going to work?” she sent, as she began demolishing the food on my plate. “I can’t get over how many people we’ve added.”
“We’ll see what Tobron has in mind,” I offered, snatching a tidbit from the plate.
The head table was filling up, and the conversations were getting louder and louder as the ambient noise level rose.
All that stopped as Tobron and Inoa made a grand entrance. Argon assured me Tobron had planned his entrance for maximum effect. The smug look he sent my way suggested she was right.
Tobron sat beside me. Inoa just looked amused as she settled in next to her mate.
“Let this first all-hands meeting of the Duchy of Toffad’s Keep come to order,” boomed Tobron, startling me with his volume.
“Sometime tomorrow we should clear the last obstacle preventing us from moving into Toffad’s Keep. Our initial plan was to load everyone up at once and move everyone in as fast as possible. It is possible we have allowed our impatience with the delays and our eagerness to begin building our future to set an unnecessarily risky course.” Tobron paused as he looked around. At first, I thought it was for dramatic effect, but after looking over the audience, I saw he had all of their attention.
“Duke Steve has asked me to scale back our initial move to the Keep. He prefers to make the move in two steps. The first group will be the pathfinders. They will prepare the way for the rest of our family to join us in safety.” There was some disappointed chatter from the crowd. It silenced quickly as people strained to hear the rest of Tobron’s pronouncement.
“The exterminator promises we will find no glappner presence in our warehouses during our inspection tomorrow morning. Argon and the acolytes of Goddess Avia will purify the only known area of spiritual concern in the Keep at dawn tomorrow,” said Tobron.
“In hindsight, perhaps we should have had a small contingent living and working in the Keep while waiting for these last issues to be resolved. We have many brave citizens who would have volunteered to be part of such a group. We chose not to do so until the known hazards were neutralized.”
“Our Duchy Guards are brave and skilled in battle. We just don’t have enough of them yet to adequately protect all of our citizens. The existing shield ward provides great protection for threats from outside the walls, but right now it also prevents our mages on assignment elsewhere from teleporting directly to a problem inside the Keep.” Tobron turned to me and said, “Duke Steve would like to say a few words.”
I considered kicking Tobron under the table, but too many people would have spotted it.
“Today as I was watching a group of younglings playing with our fla, Allo, I had a feeling of concern. Not about them playing with Allo but about the pending move. I have learned not to ignore these special feelings. When I do, bad things happen. I would rather delay our move than put any of you, but especially the younglings, in unnecessary danger. Once I told Tobron we weren’t going to move the younglings tomorrow, I immediately felt better.” I looked over at the youngling table, every child was totally ignoring me. They were much more interested in Allo.
“That caused me to think about why I had that feeling. I concluded there must be something we haven’t seen inside Toffad’s Keep that would be dangerous to younglings. Such a danger could also harm other vulnerable members of our community.”
“I was reminded it is better not to put all of our eggs in one basket. I’d like the most battle-ready citizens to accompany Argon and me to our new residence in Toffad’s Keep tomorrow. We will be the pathfinders. We will seek out and eliminate dangers to our younglings before they join us in the Keep.” I turned to Tobron. “Is there anything else you want to say?”
That was a signal for everyone to begin talking to their neighbor. Tobron let it go on for a few heartbeats.
“Citizens,” all talking stopped abruptly. “We will be providing new staging details for you in the coming hours. The Duchy Guard, Duchy Militia, able-bodied farmers, foresters, blacksmiths, cooks, and animal handlers will be among the first called up,” Tobron said.
“Single parents, anyone with mobility or serious health problems, and those who care for younglings will be the last called up. We will also need some of the guard and militia to remain at HQ and our Klee warehouse.”
One man stood up when Tobron sat down. “Duke Steve,” he shouted.
All conversations in the room stopped as we all stared at the new speaker.
“When we signed up we expected there to be fighting in our future. I swore I would defend the Duchy. I want to be in the Keep. There are a lot of us willing to fight,” the man sat down, suddenly embarrassed.
I told Tobron I had this one.
“I expect many of us will fight for the Duchy and some of us may die. That said, I’d be a terrible leader if someone dies because I failed to take basic steps to prevent it. No one signed up to have their lives wasted. I welcome you to come in the first wave with Argon and me. We will clear the path to allow our most vulnerable to follow us safely.”
Whether he was satisfied or not became irrelevant as the crowd erupted in cheers.
◆◆◆
Chapter 3
Tobron had some of us stay behind as the crowd dispersed. After only a few moments only nine remained at the head table. Of the top partners, only Alba and Cleon were absent. Marfo and her mate Jord, Clive and Loma, and Capt. Malek completed the party.
“Alba will remain at HQ but will be charged up and ready to ‘port to the Keep as needed,” Tobron began. “Several retired battlemages have agreed to stay at HQ until further notice. They aren’t Duchy citizens, but they are good reliable fighters. Cleon has assigned Erik and four Duchy Guards to remain at HQ for at least the first day. They are meeting now with our retired battlemages to coordinate responsibilities for HQ defense. Alba has the trigger words that can lockdown HQ should that become necessary.” At the sharp looks of concern around the table, Tobron held his hand up to stop comment.
“None of us has received any intel that Klee HQ is at risk. But with most of our warriors at the Keep, we would be remiss not to close the back door, tight. If something does happen, the lockdown should provide time for our battlemages to return and deal with the problem. Most of Marfo’s communication hub will remain at HQ. They will help Alba with HQ defense, especially if we need Alba to help us at the Keep with casualties. Alba has the hospital area set up in HQ. Everyone should target that area for our emergency combat teleports. Alba has several small bedrooms set up in the HQ hospital.” Tobron looked around the table and seeing no disagreement he continued.
“All the rest of our mages will be in the pathfinder group. Jord, please emphasize to our apprentices they must keep a solid reserve of force magic to allow them to teleport to HQ if things get hairy. Cleon has been working with all of our new recruits on basic combat support. While I know they have assignments, they are to report to him once they are done for the day or earlier if we declare an emergency. In the event of an emergency, Inoa will take the combat lead.” There were nods all around.
“Let’s be clear. There will be an emergency. Count on it and do not let your guard down. Do not allow your people to let their guard down. Encourage your people to report anything that feels off. Everyone works in pairs while inside the Keep, at least for the foreseeable future. Emphasize to our mundanes that we want them to use their com-cards to report anything unusual to our communications hub. I have always been concerned that while we killed all the death cultists, we did not root out all of their sources of power. After being bottled up for 50 years who knows what evil might lurk within ou
r Keep. Our immediate job is to cleanse the place and make it safe for our younglings.”
With that warning, Tobron turned to Marfo. “Marfo, make sure Ellte knows who is in the Keep and where they are. To help that we will implement our combat communications spell that Inoa and others have been working on. I wanted to test it before using it in combat, but we need it now. The spell will allow Ellte to track where every Duchy citizen is within the Keep. She also has mapped key teleport spots throughout the keep so she can direct help to our people promptly.”
“Capt. Malek will keep the Malan tied to the Keep’s dock, ready to evacuate any who need it. Depending on the threat it will provide a safe place for our people to rest or escape to. We will keep as many ships as needed to accommodate our entire group of pathfinders.” Capt. Malek nodded in agreement.
“It may be a little crowded,” Malek said, “But, my men will keep everyone safe.”
“I have Goddess Avia’s promise to assist if we find any more unclean areas which need cleansing,” Argon added. “We will complete the death pyre cleansing at dawn tomorrow. Avia’s acolytes have agreed to remain at the Keep until the next day, in case the power of the current site has masked another. It is possible the god worshipped by the death cult will be angered by the cleansing.”
“Since we won’t be bringing as many people, can we bring more animals and supplies?” I asked.
“It is going to be difficult,” said Tobron. “With the glappner infestation, we haven’t been able to refurbish any of the Keep’s warehouse cart system. I don’t think the seawater used by the exterminator has helped matters any. Clive has put up some temporary warehouses just inside the main Keep. I’m reluctant to put important supplies in the main warehouses until we’ve cleaned them up and are convinced the glappner mess is behind us. How fast we can bring in supplies will be limited by the number of barntas and drivers we have available. We have had quite a bit of interest from drivers in Losan and Augun to join the Duchy, but our demand for barntas has sucked the Klee inventory empty of the beasts. We may have to ship barntas and handlers from Augun or Losan. I assure you none of the ship captains we’ve contacted is very interested in converting their ships for such duty.”
Capt. Malek stood up. “I had to buy a ship in Augun. It’s being converted for livestock transport. But it won’t be ready to leave for several days. The entire ship’s company quit in protest, so we are hiring a new crew. The first shipment will involve mainly barntas and basas, but I imagine we’ll be shipping jarma and other livestock in future voyages. Some of our farmers will help transport the animals so that should help. We may also have to buy a barge to transport livestock from the outlying regions in Klee. I want things to settle down some in Losan before we look there.”
I still wasn’t sure what farm animals were common on Jaloa and was glad to leave it in my team’s hands.
“We now have three main teleport sites to get to the Keep,” Inoa said. “One is the original mage guild location. The foresters have persuaded the trees to vacate a reasonable roadway into the Keep from there. The second is on the docks. We haven’t opened the dock portcullis yet, so until we do you will have to use the doorway to enter. The third is near the field entrance. Our farmers and foresters have replanted orchards and several fields. They continue preparing others for planting. We are concentrating first on those areas within the guild ward. I’d recommend not using the port entrance until we have an all-clear on the glappner situation. Ellte will send out a notice when that entrance is considered safe.”
“What are we doing for food for the first few days at the Keep,” I asked.
“We have a similar food court set up in the new building,” Tobron said. “What we don’t have are supplies. It will take at least a day for us to be able to feed everyone. Expect energy bars for tomorrow morning and noon. By dinner time we will ‘port in several vats of stew so everyone has a hot meal. We can keep doing that until our supply chain is worked out. Since we have a lot fewer people going, it should make it a lot easier to keep everyone fed. Until we get our farms up and producing food, we will need to get used to limited food choices.”
“How bad is the food situation?” I asked.
“Not great, but no one will go hungry unless they are picky,” Marfo responded. “I’ve contracted directly with about 40 farms around Klee for all the fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk, and meat they produce. I am working on the logistics of transporting it to the Keep. Our purchases have actually raised food prices in Klee. We’ve already got shipments of grain, dried vegetables, and preserved fruit arriving from Losan. As soon as we get the Keep open, those shipments will go directly there. King Ruton deeded us a lot of territory around the Keep so we should become self-sufficient on most things but that only works after we get the seeds in the ground and can harvest them.”
“I guess that means we need to get Argon’s village recruits here sooner rather than later?” I asked.
“The sooner, the better in my book,” replied Tobron. “Many of them have younglings though. So, we need to banish whatever monsters are lurking in the Keep.”
Argon had monitored my conversation with Tobron but saw no need to comment.
“What can Argon and I do to help get things moving along for the rest of the day?” I asked.
“We have several farmers eager to get started,” said Cleon. “They just need teleports and protection.”
“Where should they meet us?” Argon asked.
“Here is good, I’ll have Ellte contact them. They are slated to be in the pathfinder group so if they can get an early start that will be good,” Tobron got the vacant look I’d come to associate with mind speak. “Perga is the leader of this group. He has been to the Keep and knows where his team is assigned.”
Clive, Capt. Malek, Marfo and Jord excused themselves and teleported out.
“Loma, has anyone tried harvesting magic from mundanes?” I asked. “From what I’ve seen they lack storage capacity but has anyone thought to tap them for magic? If storage is the main problem, maybe our batteries can help them out.”
“Steve, you come up with the weirdest ideas,” Loma answered. “But some turn out surprisingly well. I’ll put a harvesting amulet on a few of our mundane apprentices and see if something happens. On our other project, we’ve now grown two crystals to the size I can experiment with. I should have preliminary results on them before we head to the Keep.”
“I think you should stay behind at HQ to work on the batteries and not be part of the pathfinder group. Talk with Tobron, but I don’t know of any more important project going on,” I said.
“You could be right. I’ve had Clive build me a lab at the Keep, but all my active projects are here. I’ll talk with Clive and Tobron, but I suspect I’ll be staying here—at least at night,” she said. I could hear her mental sigh.
Argon nudged me. “Don’t you think you should get your weapons and put your armor on before we go to the Keep?”
“Yup,” I said kissing her quickly as I trotted out the door. Allo and the younglings were nowhere to be seen. “Do you think Allo will be okay to stay here without us for a few days?” I sent.
“She is thrilled to be with the younglings. As long as they are here, she will be happy,” Argon replied.
While I was dressing for battle, I put some energy bars and cookies into my pouch, just in case.
By the time I got back to the food court, a few men and women carrying tools were gathered around Argon. No one was wearing Duchy livery, all were in heavy-duty work clothes. Clearly, battle dress was for special occasions not work.
“Steve, this is Perga,” Argon introduced us. I nodded in the approved manner. “These are his two lieutenants Nimba and Yarl.” She then went on to introduce the other 20 people who had gathered.
“You take the first batch, and I’ll follow you,” she said. “You can be the pack mule, and I’ll be the overwatch.” This made sense as I had a lot more force magic than she did.
Perg
a and Nimba wanted to go in the first group, so I had them join arms with three others for the initial teleport.
Cleon had chosen the teleport location well. It was within a few feet of the ward wall and was completely clear of obstructions. I ushered my five farmers through the wall. They headed purposefully toward an area that looked no different to me than any others. I listened as Perga gave instructions.
“I’m on my way,” sent Argon.
“We are clear,” I replied in kind. “You might see what our magic can do to help move this farming stuff along. We can conjure dirt and burn dead plants if that will help.”
Argon arrived with her bunch. “I’ll see what we can do to help. Yarl has everyone assembled for you in the food court. Once we have everyone, it will be pretty boring if we can’t do anything but guard them.”
It took only two more trips to get everyone to the Keep. They expressed surprised we could teleport so many at once.
Perga’s team was from the Flom area of Augun. They were captured and enslaved by the raiders. They were aware of the part Argon, and I played in their release, but none had actually met us until now.
Argon, Perga, and Nimba were still having an intense discussion when I arrived with the last batch of farmers, including Yarl. Perga called for Yarl to join them and I followed her over to the leader group.
The farmers had brought their tools. No one could fault their enthusiasm as they began assaulting the dormant fields, clearing off dead plants, and raking the soil.
I left Argon to her discussion and walked the perimeter, examining the area for potential threats. I spotted Cleon’s bunch nearer the Keep walls and noticed one of the Duchy Guard was trotting over to visit us. I assumed Ellte had notified them of our arrival.
I waited at the perimeter to talk with the guard. I was pleased to see him breathing steadily despite the run. He saluted and introduced himself as Corporal Jenks. Jenks had been accompanying the farmers from the first and so far, had seen nothing more hazardous than several frack nests. Fracks were fierce stinging insects. A swarm could kill a man or even a basas. He said two of his farmers had a way with fracks and offered to send them over to us if needed. I suggested they identify themselves to Ellte so she could dispatch them.