Ghost in the Yew: Volume One of the Vesteal Series

by Blake Hausladen

  The men were haggard and drawn but stepped with spears up and bows ready. Sahin and Gern gave orders, the spearmen and archers switched places, arrows flew from fresh bows, and the thick formation continued its forward-facing retreat.

  “Behind the Hemari are Urmand’s Hurdu—the Exaltier’s fist. Two full divisions of heavy cavalry, plated in steel, mean as starved lynx, and upon horses stronger than bulls.”

  They let go another barrage and marched another withdrawal, spears held high to protect their retreat. I kicked my horse around to the front of their formation. The sergeants followed, and we harassed them with halting charges and batted at their spears in search of a shoulder. Their spears were heavy but they stayed firm.

  Almost time. Almost.

  We cleared out of the way for another flight of arrows, the range a full ninety paces. Two went wild and the spearmen called out encouragement as their lieutenants ordered another withdrawal.

  “And around the Kaaryon,” I cried, “the provinces of Zoviya stand ever ready to deliver their loyal soldiers to the Exaltier’s flag. Wild mountain men from the west and fur-clad devils from the tundra. As numerous as stalks of wheat, they will come for you. You are outnumbered 10,000 to one. Your blood will be their pudding, and your families will be their slaves.”

  “Call out the range,” Sahin barked over me.

  “One-eighty.”

  “Order—ready,” he growled. “Take aim ... loose.”

  The entire flight struck home, and the feat had them all snarling, while the sergeants continued to scream in their ears, throw rocks, and search for a way through the line.

  “They are there,” I pointed toward the targets they had been sticking arrows in for fifty days. “Men stronger than you. Men meaner than you. Men better than you.”

  They spat and cursed, but as their lieutenant’s orders came, they withdrew again and let go of another deadly barrage. The sergeants made another harassing pass before the spearmen, and every one of them looked ready to sink spears into meat.

  I pointed my horse at the targets, drew my sword, and screamed, “Quick order—charge. At them. At them. Show them your metal. Show them your spears. Show them their death.”

  They let out dry-throated bellows and summoned the strength for it. They raced across the field, their spears held well. They reached their straw foes in a crashing wave, set deep their spears, and tore them to pieces. Wrath and fatigue had them to the point of madness, but the next order I gave was the one upon which I would judge them.

  “Quick order—reform. About face and phalanx forward.”

  They came about with ugly, hateful eyes, but the sergeants jumped to their spots and called the men in by name. They took their places quickly, shoulder to shoulder. They leaned upon each other in the tight formation—their spears braced well and their shields held high.

  Perfection.

  I rode slowly before them. “Men of Enhedu, in three days Urnedi will celebrate. You have earned the right to call yourselves soldiers and to revel with the town. Sahin, they are yours to command.”

  He stepped forward and called, “A cheer for the captain.”

  “Ay-oh. Ay-oh. Ay-oh,” they screamed and banged their spears upon their shields.

  I saluted their tribute and shook away the memories that came. I knew them too well—too well to think of the death they would see.

  After a rest, Sahin ordered the camp dismantled, and I tried to keep my focus on the work. I had been hiding from my memories, but the men were becoming so much like others. Gern eventually led his garrison back to the keep, and the senior Chaukai faded into the town.

  I went to my newly-built store, hoping for distraction, but Urs and his nephews had already called it quits for the day. I was unsure about my choice of business partner, but the reeve was the only man in Urnedi who knew how to keep a ledger. He was also, second only to the prince, the best-known man in Enhedu. The shelves of the wide store were loaded with all the small goods Enhedu’s villages had produced for me, and I found the cellar below equally stocked. My Chaukai silver had gone a long way, and I was certain to sell out when the crowds came for the festival.

  I found the reeve’s note then. One of the boys had accidentally hacked into the flesh above his knee while playing around with one of the new saws. They were headed up to the timber camp to barter for the services of their healer.

  I shook my head. The healer saw someone from Urnedi every couple of days. He was earning too much from us, but inviting a healer to Urnedi was not an option. We would have to build a church for such a man, pay whatever tithes he saw fit to demand, and abide by whatever pronouncements he made for our daily lives. I was sure the Chaukai would also have an opinion on such a man joining us.

  I found that my apartment above was still barren, so I trudged up to my room at the keep and cast myself into its thin cot. I couldn’t get the day out of my head enough to find sleep.

  Worse than the memories of other men I had stood with was the knowledge I was betraying them. I, Leger Mertone, in opposition to an oath I had lived with my whole life, had sworn allegiance to enemies of the Kaaryon. I deserved to be made blind, to be made a woman, and to be fed snow until the minions of hell pulled me down. Such was the curse I had called upon myself if ever I should break my oath. I had seen and ordered it done, but never for such unrepentant, unflinching treason.

  When sleep came, I dreamt of unending cold. I dreamt of hell.

  39

  Matron Dia Esar

  Thell

  “The festival preparations seem to be coming along nicely,” Fana said as I joined her in the back corner of the keep’s storeroom. “How is Barok’s dalmatic turning out?”

  “Very nice,” I replied but without much humor. It was our sixth such meeting, and we were both near tears.

  Fana retrieved a mangor root from our hiding place, broke off the requisite piece for me, and remarked, “Thell and his men returned from Almidi this morning. I hope they were able to find all the supplies.”

  I sighed and said, “You can stop trying so hard.”

  Her weak smile died. She gave her piece of root a sniff, grimaced, and then stuffed it in her pocket. “I’m going to wait until after the festival to take it.”

  “Fana.”

  “You take yours now if you want, but I’m going to pretend for just a few more days that I am not completely useless.”

  We both began to cry, but then she angrily slapped away her tears and muttered, “I’m going to get back to work.”

  I stored mine away in my pocket too, and when I looked back up, she was gone. There was little for me to do but to get back to my day as well. I dried my eyes and found my way out to the stable. Thell was just stepping outside.

  “Afternoon, milady,” he smiled. “Did you miss me?”

  I laughed. “Yes. Quite a bit, actually. How was the trip?”

  “Oh, it was magnificent,” Thell grinned. “Thank you again for thinking to send me along with the lads. I had forgotten how beautiful the mountain road was. Almidi was an utter bore, of course, but its shopkeepers were glad to see us. The Dame will have to manage the glazed pork with a bit less sugar than she wanted, but all the rest we found just fine.”

  From inside the stable Clever whinnied noisily.

  “How’s he doing?” I asked.

  “A bit antsy, milady. As always. You should take him for a ride. Beautiful day for it.”

  “What a wonderful idea,” I replied, not caring at all about the many things I had to do this day. “Come help me saddle him.”

  I found my way around to my huge friend. He turned quick circles when he saw me, and looked ready to jump the rail and nudge me to the ground. With Thell’s help I saddled him and led him outside. I noticed a strange new smell in the air then. It was delightful.

  “Pleasant, yes?” Thell said.

  “What is that?”

  “You can always smell it best when you come out of the stable. The apple trees are in bloom.�
��

  “Apple trees? Where?”

  “Out past the bridge. There is quite a forest of them.”

  “I simply have to see them. Will you show me?”

  He scratched his chin looking like he would refuse, so I asked a second time with one of my brightest smiles.

  “Let me saddle a horse,” he replied.

  He was soon atop Clever’s favorite gray mare, and we rode north through the town. The muddy fields had been transformed into rows of simple buildings, each noisy with families or carpenters. All were simple-looking, two-level structures with living space above and shop space below. Leger’s place was twice the size of the rest and the only building to have a cellar dug—the scoundrel.

  Thell remarked as we rode, “Sahin’s consortium has credentialed more folks from the north than I expected.”

  “See some faces you know?”

  “Not many. I’ve been a long time at Urnedi now and I ... didn’t make too many friends in my younger years. Still, it is nice to see so many here. Feels more like home. Have you had a chance to meet many of them?”

  “All but the miller actually.”

  “I know him,” Thell nodded. “He is well-liked.”

  “Probably even more so once the wheat starts coming in from the villages. Erom is carving him a pair of monstrous millstones, I hear. The labor it will save us will be a boon. The grumpy old fisherman is unhappy with the extra company out by the bridge, though.”

  “He’s not all that bad,” Thell said defensively. “He just prefers to be left alone.”

  I shrugged. I didn’t know the man for that very reason.

  We talked more about Urnedi’s new residents as we started west along the stone road, but mostly of the potter. Her family had been making salt-glazed stoneware from river clay for generations. The single brick kiln Barok had moved for her was to become a row of ten. We were sure to need her labor as much as the miller’s.

  “How are plans for the race coming?” he asked.

  “Very well, as I hear tell of it. Sahin marked out a new course past the pond for the races. The wrestling tournament seems well organized, too. Not much of a competition though, the way everyone talks about Pemini’s brothers.”

  “True, true,” Thell laughed. “After growing up wrestling those monstrous pigs, other men just aren’t much of a challenge. Of the five, my money is on the pair in the garrison.”

  “One of the Almidi swineherds seems like he might give them a run for their money. Some are talking up Erom as well.”

  “Not this year. The mayor begged off to referee.”

  “Why did he do that?”

  “Same reason you haven’t entered the race, I imagine.”

  I had not thought to enter the competition, wanted to suddenly, and had no idea why he thought I shouldn’t.

  “Why is that?” I asked, trying not to sound cross.

  “Well, no good can come from besting those you already have authority over.”

  His answer confused me, and I lost my anger. “Nothing to do with being a woman?”

  “Hardly. Quite a few girls from the villages have entered the race. Sahin’s sister would have won last year if a late fall hadn’t ended the race for her. They were all a bit worried you would enter, quite relieved actually that you did not. With Clever, you’d have made quick work of them.”

  “You sweet old man. Stop that now.”

  “What is this? I’ve never seen you blush before.”

  He looked ready to flatter me some more, but pulled up and waved me quiet.

  We had arrived at the stone bridge. The fisherman stood at its center along the rail. He had a huge net bundled up at his side. He adjusted some lines in his hands, and then with a big swing of his hips and arms, he threw the net. It spun away and spread into a perfect circle before falling into the water far below. He swung his arm around the ropes tied to its edges and pulled the sinking net along the bridge toward us. The strength it took was startling, and I could see why the man demanded he be left alone. One wrong step and he would be pulled over the rail.

  He reached the end of the bridge and walked around and down to the manmade shoreline. He tugged and pulled until the net appeared. It shimmered and sparkled as if he was using some strange magic. Then he rolled the ropes over his shoulder and hauled it up. The shimmering became the thrash of a dozen fish of many sizes.

  Thell made a small gesture of hello. The fisherman nodded in return—the conversation over. We left him to his work and crossed the bridge.

  On the west bank of the river and north of the road was the miller’s place. The broad structure looked nearly complete. The wonderful road that made its way to the villages ran past it, and on the far side of the road, a wide rectangle of trees had been cleared to make way for some barns Barok was particularly excited to see built. In the meantime, however, the space was filled with men and the miller’s rather mysterious contraption.

  I looked to Thell, and he explained, “Gloos is building the wheel he will set into the river. The river’s current will turn the wheel, and the wheel will turn the millstones. See it? It is lying on its side. That’s why they haven’t finished the middle section of the mill. When the wheel’s done, they will carry it across and stand it up.”

  “My, but that is impressive. How did Gloos learn to do that?”

  “Well, there had been quite a bit of a debate about that, actually. His place in the north is built much the same, though far smaller. Some are worried the river will tear the wheel right off its gear post and carry it out to sea.”

  “Could that happen?”

  “Absolutely. Probably kill him and anyone else inside the mill if it happens.”

  “That’s why I haven’t seen him in town much. He must be out here every waking moment trying to get it right.”

  “Yeah, that’s why.”

  We took the time to ride out and say hello. But Gloos, like the fisherman, did not have time for chatter, so we excused ourselves quickly.

  The sweet smell of the apple blossoms got stronger as we started up the slope of the ridge, and it was so much quieter. We stayed silent for a time and enjoyed the ride. I found the tall tree the lynx had been perched in, but there was no sign of the black cat. He must have eaten its residents and moved on.

  “We turn north here,” Thell said at the very top of the ridge. I grimaced at the narrow trail’s condition. It was not one I had tried. Branches reached out along it.

  “How far?”

  “No need to fear this road. Let me show you a trick.” He turned his mare down the trail, flattened himself forward in the saddle, and wrapped one arm over his head. He gave the gray girl a soft kick, and she started down the trail.

  “You do not have to be able to see where you’re going if your horse can find its way.”

  I smiled and copied his device. The trail proved long, almost half the distance to the bridge. The branches pulled at me from time to time, but I kept my head down, and Clever did not mind them thanks to the view he had of the mare.

  “Here we are, milady.”

  I looked up at what seemed the end of the earth.

  We had stopped at the edge of a rocky knoll that fell away onto a cloud of white and pink—a pillow of flowers that filled the air with sweetness. The blossom cloud sloped away, before it leveled off and flowed up a hill until it met the sky. Some of the trees were old-looking and enormous and reached up above the others like wafts of clouds. In other places, though, I was sad to see a pine or maple that had invaded the apple kingdom. At its borders, the forest of Enhedu crowded and pushed. Bees buzzed, and birds chirped.

  “So many flowers.”

  “Each will be an apple,” Thell replied.

  “Every flower? How far back do the trees grow?”

  “All the way over to the other side of those hills. It is very hard to get back there, though. Haven’t tried it since I was Lilly’s age.”

  I dismounted and walked to the edge of the knoll. Just below, one
of the apple trees had only a few flowers.

  “What’s wrong with that one? Is it sick?”

  “It was thick with flowers and apples last year. Poor thing is just tired. It’ll make a fine comeback next year.”

  “What do you do with them all?”

  “Most will be very small and not very good eating. To do it right, you prune most of the buds from a tree so the apples it makes are big and juicy. Doing it for so many trees though—that would be more work than I can imagine.”

  “How come you know so much about the trees?”

  “I have been coming here most of my life. This is where all of our apples come from. We prune a number of trees in the spring and pull down a couple dozen barrels in the fall. We were just finishing the harvest last year when Barok arrived.”

  The smell of the bees’ paradise was almost too sweet. I sighed and set my hands in my pockets where I poked my fingernails into the gritty mangor root.

  Furious, I yanked the evil thing free, and flung it into the weeds.

  Thell missed this as his attention was drawn west. I followed his eyes. The sun, ever an impatient thing, had snuck low in the sky. It was time to go. I glared once down into the weeds before turning back to the unbelievable expanse of pink clouds.

  “Thank you for showing me this place, Thell.”

  “My pleasure, milady. I am honored to have spent time in your company.”

  “Likewise, old man,” I winked. He blushed, which I found utterly charming. I gestured for him to lead the way, and he bowed low in the saddle before starting us home.

  We rode back to find Gloos and the fisherman gone and the town winding down. Before we reached the stable, I noticed that the meeting hall’s roof was almost done. I was as pleased by this as I was the view of the orchard. It would be finished in time for the festival.

  The last days of preparation were gone in a flash. The clothes were finished, the festival grounds cleared, and the kitchen and fire pits made ready. Our guests began to arrive and camp along the stone road, and then the day for it arrived at last.