Homesteading on Jord

by Allan Joyal

  I looked at Shaylin. “Will your spell travel far enough?”

  The girl nodded. She was frowning. “But I’ve never used it.”

  “You will succeed,” I said calmly. I put a hand on her head and ruffled her hair. “You are a wonderful and intelligent lady. This is something you can do.”

  She smiled, but I could see the fear in her eyes. I looked up at Krysbain. “Do you agree that if they get the initiative they can wipe us out?”

  “Their spears outrange our weapons, and they outnumber us,” Krysbain said with a nod. “We have to keep them from attacking first.”

  “Everyone, listen up,” I called out. “We know that if those monsters attack, they have numbers. We have to make sure they can’t just throw spears at us. Here’s the plan. Shaylin will lead off with a fireball at the center of their line. Hopefully, it will take down at least one mongo and scatter the others. When the fireball hits, we charge. Lydia and Aine will use their crossbows to try to take down any spear throwers who are still standing. Slingers, THE priority is also to take the ones with the spears out before they can throw one. Al, Krysbain, and I will take any standing mongo, everyone else who has to fight in close take the spears, but watch out for any kicks. They wear those strange spiked toe-coverings.”

  “Understood,” Krysbain said. He looked around. “Is everyone clear on their roles?”

  “Shoot the spears,” Lydia said. “We’ll probably have to close, but we can do that.”

  “We’ll take care of our guys,” Corwar said.

  I looked at Shaylin. She smiled at me. “After the fireball, I might be able to cast a couple of magic bolts. Not as powerful, but they’ll hit who I aim at. Should I back up everyone?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Everyone we go on Shaylin’s fireball. Shaylin. On your count.”

  Shaylin turned to face the block of monsters. They were set up so there were three rows of six spear throwers and then the two mongos in the back. They were standing impassively as Shaylin brought her hands together in front of her chest. I could feel a weird thrumming in the air.

  Shaylin started moving her fingers. I was standing at a poor angle to see how her hands were moving, but with each change of position, the thrumming changed tone. At first it was a high pitched whine, but it began getting deeper until it sounded a deep bass rumble.

  Shaylin’s hands stopped moving. The feeling got deeper, and then she raised her right hand and pointed her index finger to the sky. A glow as bright as the sun appeared at her fingertip and started to expand. I had to look away.

  Several others cursed as the glow became more intense. Worriedly, I shielded my eye and looked at our enemies. They were still standing across the field impassively. It seemed like everyone was holding their breath.

  Shaylin’s hand swung down and pointed directly at our enemies. The ball of light released from her finger and streaked directly at their formation. “Charge!” I shouted as it flew ahead.

  I broke into a sprint as the fireball reached the two mongos and exploded in a brilliant flash of light. Shrieks of surprise and pain rang out. Several of the spearmen were tossed aside by the power of the spell. I could not count how many had fallen. Five ran toward us, their spears already arcing toward the sky as they brought their arms forward.

  One of the men crumpled to the ground having never released the spear. The other four finished their casts, and four of the bone tipped spears flew toward us as we charged into battle.

  One of the four standing spear throwers dropped to the ground right after releasing his spear. The right side of his face had caved in just before he dropped. Another reached back to get another spear only to fly backwards several feet when a bolt of purple light impaled his chest.

  The other two were getting ready to throw more spears. Behind me I heard a cry of pain. I tried to run faster to stop the next attack, but realized that I was going to be too late to prevent the next attack.

  I was charging directly at one, when the man dropped the spear and reached for his chest. A wooden shaft protruded from his chest. He looked up at me and then fell. The other remaining spear thrower had paused to pick a target. I was still going to be too late, but an arrow appeared in his left eye.

  “Nice shot!” someone shouted as we kept charging towards the remains of the formation. Most of the creatures were down, but three more spearmen were climbing back to their feet. Another two appeared to be trying to crawl away from the battlefield.

  It looked like the battle was going to prove to be a rout when a mongo stepped out of the clearing smoke. His skin was blackened and cracked, but the massive humanoid lifted his club and charged at us roaring in anger.

  I tried to stop only to have my feet keep going on a slick patch of grass. My torso ended up behind my legs, and I fell on my ass as the mongo gained momentum.

  “Ron!” someone shouted from behind me as I realized the mongo was heading directly at me. “I grabbed my spear and raised it up so that it was set to take the charge. The butt was on the ground as I tried to rise up to a kneeling position quickly.

  I was sure that I was going to be hit when the mongo shook slightly. He seemed to stumble. I noticed that his left shoulder had moved back. It was not much, perhaps just an inch, but it offered me a precious opening, and I dove forward, thrusting my spear at the mongo’s body.

  The spear was ripped from my hands as it tore into the mongo’s abdomen. The creature dropped the great club it had been carrying. It fell onto my right leg. I felt like I had been hit by a truck, but kept the outcry to a gasp as the mongo staggered a few more steps forward before collapsing to the ground.

  The impact of the club left me in too much pain to do more than kneel and watch the rest of the battle play out. Krysbain had dropped his bow and was charging forward with his sword in his hands.

  The remaining charge found no one to fight. The fall of the mongo appeared to scare the surviving spearmen. They turned and ran eastward, dropping their quivers of spears in their haste to escape.

  Heather ran up and put a hand on my shoulder. “Ron! Where are you hurt? How bad is it?”

  “That club fell on my calf,” I said nodding at the weapon.

  “This?” Heather said moving to try to pick it up by the handle. She could not move it from the ground. I watched her as she moved to the body of the club and tried to put two hands under it to lift it. “How much does this weigh?” she asked.

  “Enough that it hurts,” I said as I rubbed my injured calf. Feeling was returning, but most of that was a throbbing pain. Nothing appeared to be broken, and I carefully stood up.

  The instant I put weight on my right leg I nearly collapsed back to the ground. The leg might not be broken, but the leg was definitely going to bruise. Pain ran up and down my leg as I limped over to the dead mongo to retrieve my spear.

  Heather stopped trying to lift the club and looked at me. “Ron?”

  “Nothing feels broken,” I said. “I heard cries of pain behind me. Who got hurt?”

  Heather looked back to where we had formed up to charge. “Al and Lydia are down,” she said.

  “Fuck! How bad?” I asked as I pulled my spear from the mongo’s body. The creature moaned wordlessly and he coughed one time before letting out a long extended breath. He did not breathe again.

  “Aine is putting pressure on Lydia’s shoulder,” Heather said. “At least that’s what it looks like. Al has one of those bone spears in his thigh.”

  I sighed. “Not fatal, and they can recover from those,” I said. “Tell Krysbain to gather up all the spears we can while the herds head to the ford. Have Hencktor and the slingers get to the other side of the ford to make sure it’s safe.”

  “What about you?” Heather asked.

  “I’m going to check Al and Lydia, and then I’ll join them,” I said as I wiped the blade of the spear off on the body of the dead mongo. “Then I’ll cross the ford. I guess the good news is that the candygram worked.”

  Shaylin came running
up. “It worked! It worked!” she shrieked happily.

  “I knew you could do it,” I said as I leaned on the spear to try to take weight off my injured leg. “Can you let Esme and Natalie know we have casualties? We need them to look at Lydia and Al.”

  Shaylin pointed by the wagons. I could see Esme rushing towards Lydia. The young woman was holding one of our packs. “She was watching the fight. She said that she put together an emergency pack for the next time one of us got hurt.”

  “I should see if we can move Lydia,” I mumbled. I tried to take a couple of steps, but was unable to put any weight on my right leg.

  “Shay, help Ron,” Heather said. “I’m going to run some messages for him. He needs to check on Lydia and Al.”

  Shaylin slipped her head under my right arm and put an arm around my waist. “I’ll try,” she chirped as she took most of the weight from my leg onto her shoulders. “Let’s go.”

  With Shaylin’s support, I limped towards where Aine was looking after Lydia. We were still some distance away when Esme knelt down and started looking at the wound. She talked frantically with Aine as we continued to approach. I was about to shout, when I noticed that the tension had left Esme’s shoulders.

  Esme said something to Aine. Aine began working Lydia’s bodice and blouse off the woman’s body. Meanwhile, Esme had set her pack down and pulled a stoppered bottle from the pouch.

  “Hey!” Shaylin said. “I thought we were out of spirits!”

  “Aren’t spirits used in magic?” I asked. “How could we run out?”

  “That bottle has a drink that my father called distilled spirits. It’s potent. Why is Esme carrying it?” Shaylin asked.

  Aine had gotten the cloth off of Lydia’s torso. Esme carefully unstoppered the bottle and poured a small amount of clear liquid over the wound. She used a piece of leather to wipe the wound before adding a few more drops of liquid.

  “She’s cleaning the wound,” I said with a hiss of pain as my right foot kicked a rock. “Infection is a danger, but she’s using those distilled spirits to try to keep any infections from forming.”

  “Can that work?” Shaylin asked as we covered the last few feet. “I’ve heard my father say that without magic healing most wounds will kill someone.”

  “Infections can kill,” I admitted.

  “And we don’t have the good antibiotics from Earth,” Esme said testily. “Right now I have to use alcohol and hope. Natalie thinks she’s found a good recipe for one in one of the alchemy books, but it takes three weeks to brew it.”

  “How is she?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t know how Natalie is?” Lydia chirped through gritted teeth. “She’s still hiding with the wagons. If you mean me, I’ve been better.”

  “Esme?” I asked.

  “It glanced off her collarbone and didn’t penetrate enough for the barbs to get hooked. The wound is superficial, but wide because of the way the spear moved. She’s also got a concussion from the shaft hitting her in the face,” Esme said.

  “We’ll have to put her in a cart,” I said. “The monsters might be back and in greater numbers.”

  “Ron?” Al called out. “What do we do about me?”

  I looked up. Al had managed to limp over to us. The spear had gone through the fleshy part of the thigh and I could see that the tip had passed through completely. Al had a hand on the shaft and was holding it as he stood next to us.

  “Can we remove the shaft, so only the head is a problem?” I asked.

  Al nodded. “We’d need a hammer and probably a flat surface, but I think we can hammer the pins out. Why?”

  “I think if we do that we can push the head on through. Pulling it back through would definitely cause more damage. The other option is to break the barbs and then pull it back, but if we end up with a jagged edge, it might cause more damage or even make it easier for the wound to become infected,” I said.

  Al nodded sadly. “What do I do until then?”

  I took my arm off Shaylin’s shoulders. “Shaylin, help Al back to the first cart. Then work with Natalie to see if we can get the pins to the spearhead out without hurting anything.”

  Shaylin moved over to put a hand on Al’s waist. He frowned, but accepted the young lady’s help as they made their way to the cart.

  Esme put a hand on my left thigh. “You are leaning on your spear. Where did you get hurt and how?”

  “Mongo dropped a club on me while I was lying on the ground,” I said. “It landed on my right calf. I don’t think anything is broken.”

  “Men,” Esme said with a snort. She looked over at Aine. “Let’s take these two back to the cart so I can check them while we are moving. I can see that the herd is already about halfway across.”

  I tried to protest, but Esme put a hand over my mouth. She ignored my protests as she put an arm under my right shoulder and helped me limp to the cart with Aine and Lydia following us.

  Chapter 8: Passing through Sand

  I had said nothing was broken, but by the time Esme got me to the carts, I could no longer put any weight on my right leg. She got me sitting on the cart just before I passed out.

  I woke hours later as the caravan came to a halt for the night. Lydia and Al were lying on the cart next to me. Natalie was watching over us and told me that Hencktor and Victoria were doing their best to keep us moving.

  My leg recovered slowly. I spent most of the next three days riding the cart. Lydia and Al also spent days sitting or lying on the cart as it bounced along.

  Our pace slowed down. It got slower after Piemal got stepped on by one of the cows in the herd, and Joelia was bitten in the arm by one of the mules. Esme and Natalie did all they could to help everyone heal quickly, but the need to keep moving meant that anyone injured was deprived of the rest they needed for a quicker healing.

  The last fight with the mongos appeared to have occurred at the edge of their claimed territory, because we saw no more of their pyramid temples as we continued south across rolling grass covered hills.

  About four days after the fight, a spring storm brought torrential rain. We were in the middle of the plains, so there were no groves of trees that could provide cover. Visibility dropped as the rain continued to fall, and by mid-afternoon we had been forced to camp on a raised bluff. We talked about setting up the tent we had acquired in the wizard's city, but everyone hoped the rain would stop, so we huddled against the wagons and waited out the rain. Jeff and Mary worried about lightning, but we heard no thunder even though the rain continued long into the night.

  The next morning Gertrilla and the rest of the girls needed more than an hour to find every animal from our herd. The rain continued at a slower pace, and everyone was cold and wet. I held a conference with Hencktor and Krysbain, and we decided to resume the march as there was no firewood nearby.

  I was now limping on with the carts as we travelled. Al was still laid up on a cart. The injury to his thigh was healing slowly, and Esme refused to allow him to walk unless it was absolutely necessary. He had asked to be put in the last wagon, so he could watch for anyone following us. Everyone thought it was just to keep busy, but seven days after our fight with the mongos Soldrin scampered up to the front of the caravan.

  “Al sent me,” He said. “He says that there appears to be a large group following us.”

  “Group of what, and did he say how far behind?” I asked as I glanced over my shoulder.

  “He thinks it’s more of those - he called them Aztec Orcs,” Soldrin said with a frown. “I asked him how many, and he said probably a hundred total. But they are just barely visible. I’m not sure how he knows how many.”

  “If they are far behind, he’s guessing based on the fact that he can even see them,” I surmised. I looked around. The rolling hills we had been travelling since we crossed the ford were now largely flat allowing me to see for miles in all directions.

  “Hencktor!” I shouted as I glanced to the east. We could still see mountains, but there was
a visible pass between the two nearest peaks. “Think we can make it through the pass?”

  I noticed that everyone looked to the east. Hencktor did not even respond before Gertrilla had the herd turning. “Keep the animals together,” I heard her shout. “We’ll get in front of the carts.”

  “It should be good,” Hencktor shouted as he started waving for the carts to turn. “And it means we’ll finally be crossing to the other side of the mountains where you said we could find our valley.”

  “Only if our pursuers give up,” I said as I stepped away from the carts. I allowed the first two to complete their turns and begin heading to the east before I looked to the north.

  The still gentle rain made it hard to see. At first I wondered what Al had been worried about, but then I noticed a speck moving across the grasslands at the absolute limit of the visibility. I watched it carefully as the wagons passed me.

  The last cart was passing, and I heard Al call out. “Why are we turning? That will make it easier for them to catch us.”

  “There’s a pass,” I said. “And if they have been pursuing us for a week, they might be slow to notice that we’d turned.”

  “They are probably tracking us,” Al said. “We leave a very visible trail.”

  “True, but that means they won’t likely be cutting across our path. They are miles behind us and they aren’t that fast,” I pointed out. “We might find a way to block the path if we move into the pass. Or we’ll find a high cliff we can ambush them from.”

  “They outnumber us,” Al said worriedly.

  “That was guaranteed,” I pointed out. “But if we are above them, they won’t have much of an ability to fight back.

  Al nodded as he looked back at the speck. I turned to walk alongside the cart. We were walking in silence when Shaylin came running back. “Ron! The ground ahead has turned to sand.”

  “Turned to sand, or we’ve found a patch of sandy ground?” I asked.

  Shaylin looked puzzled. “The ground ahead is sandy. It’s not like the soil we have been passing over.”