by John Olsen
To Gavin, it made sense. Crude wax molds could only hold so much detail, and that was how Tover obtained the pattern Ned used to mark the crystals. It was dumb luck that it had worked. “Go ahead and try to match the simple marks on your first stone. If you can make them a lot faster, it will be a huge win for us. We can use them as fast as you can make them.”
In only a few hours, the tinker sent word he had his first crystal pair ready to test. Gavin picked it up from the tinker before he began another round of tours of the castle compound.
A gate guard, Otis, had a half-wolf named Ruffian he had controlled before with a crystal for training. It was an easy choice to put the guard on the list, and Gavin handed the new crystal pair to the man.
Otis dropped the master crystal around his neck and put the slave crystal onto Ruffian. “They look pretty rough.”
Gavin shrugged. “I know the crystals don’t look like much, but give it a try.”
“As you wish, sir.” He held his hand cupped over the crystal as it rested against his chest. “It’s warming. It’s a little different than I remember, but feels about right. I’ll run Ruffian through some paces and report back to you later.”
“Remember, with these crystals you’re not just serving as a guard. You are one of our front-line defenders. We will count on you. All of us.” Gavin waved his arm to indicate all the people in the courtyard and beyond.
“Yes, sir!” The guard straightened his spine and saluted. It was clear the man meant to look serious, but a grin crept into his expression.
Gavin kept a careful accounting of those who could use the crystals he was having made. Most would go to family dogs, which would work to their advantage. Animals that didn’t need to be tied up or caged were the most useful, and they would make a good addition to night patrols on the road. One crystal was assigned to train an ill-mannered ox to draw a wagon. Saleena could move the crystal if they found a better war animal, one not needed as a beast of burden.
Travel was one of the biggest challenges of mobile crystal use, and why they still had a slight chance running in front of the approaching army. The carnivores preferred as war animals required a great deal of food, and had to hunt along the way or be provided large stores of meat from ice wagons.
In addition, those who controlled animals had to either make up their travel time by moving in steps alternating with their animal, or they had to be packed into wagons to travel near the animals as they controlled them. There was no easy way to get an army through enemy territory with any real speed unless you could ride the animal while in a trance, and only the Riland Cavalry were crazy enough to try that trick. The larger wild animals didn’t always take well to training to be docile and follow along on a leash while not being controlled. They were, after all, bred and trained for violence. The most dangerous were often held in cages on wagons, but they were still limited to the pace of their slowest forces.
It was a dangerous assumption, but Gavin counted on the incoming army being slow as his people learned their way through organizing an evacuation and moving with maximum speed on their own.
He was near the main gate when he overheard a conversation between two men hauling sacks up onto a wagon. “I hear he threatened to have a bear eat the whole council. That’s why they work together now. They’s all scared of him.”
The second man chimed in. “He’s let Tover take charge of moving everyone. Don’t know if I should be relieved or insulted. Maybe both. I ain’t a cow, but Tover knows his travel.”
The first man said, “The new baron’s got dozens of crystals out of the vault. We’ll have an army of war animals in no time to protect us.”
It seemed every time he came around a corner, he heard something new the people claimed he had said or done.
Gavin walked between the two men without a word, followed by Jase who accompanied him on his walk to check on preparations for the evacuation. What could he say? If he corrected every wild rumor, he’d get nothing else done.
All he wanted was to get people out of the way of the advancing northern army. Once he got the people to a defensible spot, they would be safe.
He needed a simple task to distract him from the challenges he was up against. Perhaps it would let him ignore all the rumors and gossip from people who believed he was a hero out to save everyone from everything, or a tyrant who would feed them to beasts. With simplicity in mind, he checked on the granary wagons, and to see what progress Willem had made with the crystals.
The wagons held sacks of grain and barrels of ale, yet the granary wasn’t empty yet. Gavin grabbed one of the men hauling supplies. “What’s the slowdown with loading the grain?”
The man gave him a quick bow. “We can’t get more wagons and teams, sir. The grain is never moved all at once like this.”
Gavin considered the amount of grain left, and the population within easy reach of the castle. “I have an idea. Jase, please send for Master Draken.”
Jase nodded and flagged down a runner as Gavin walked to Willem’s small room. After a quick knock, he opened the door to find Saleena sitting next to the bed where Willem lay, obviously in a trance. A stab of jealousy ran through him when he saw them together, even though they trained with the crystals at his request. Willem was a bit young for courting at sixteen years, having not hit his full growth yet, but it wasn’t much of a balm to Gavin’s unexpected wish to cancel the boy’s training. He turned to Saleena and said, “Are you able to get both the training and the cattle taken care of? Your father is spending a lot of his time herding people now.”
Saleena picked up Willem’s hand and gave it a small slap, at which his eyes fluttered open. She said, “The cattle are ready, so I came here. We’re working on getting him back out of the connection to the cats without as much effort. He’s about got it. Willem’s a natural. He was. . . Is everything all right, Gavin?”
Gavin rubbed his hands through his hair. “Everything’s fine. I came to check on the grain transfer.” He reached over to help Willem up. Jealous or not, his feelings weren’t Willem’s fault.
Saleena asked, “What have you learned from your cats? The learning goes both ways. You can train them to do things even when you’re not controlling them, and they can teach you how to make the best use of them.”
Willem’s face brightened with a wide smile. “I already knew they worked together when they hunted, but it’s a whole different thing to experience it with them. It surprised me to see how much they notice but don’t go after. There are a lot of rats and mice they weren’t bothering outside of the storage areas.”
Gavin glanced around for the cats but didn’t see them.
Willem said, “They’re eating some of their catch for the day.” He shuffled his feet and continued, “Sir, thank you for the bread. It’s the first full loaf I’ve seen in a long time.”
The statement piqued Gavin’s curiosity. “Why is it you haven’t taken your meals with the other servants?”
“It’s by your father’s orders, sir. I got here two years back after a disease took all but me on the farm. Once I knew I wasn’t going to die with them, I made my way here and set up a deal with the Baron. I’d use my cats to keep pests down, and he would let me have this room. He said as long as I cost him nothing, I could stay on as the rat catcher. The four of us have kept ourselves fed ever since, with a few morsels tossed in from the other servants now and again.”
Willem walked to where a stone had been removed from the wall and snapped his fingers. All three cats emerged from the hole to rub against his legs and purr. “Sir, you’ll need someone to keep prairie mice out of the food as we travel. I can do that for you if you like.”
“I’ve invested a lot in you, Willem. I’ve got you training with Saleena. You can do the rat catching as part of your training if you like, but the crystals are more important. You’ll also be eating with the other servants going forward.”
Gavin wondered what convinced him to trust Willem. He was sure his father would call
it a foolish decision and misplaced loyalty. Perhaps the contrast with his father’s methods drove him to trust Willem out of sheer stubbornness, but there was much more to it. He needed people who cared about animals and who understood them if he was to make the best use of the crystals he had. Discovering how Willem could use the higher quality crystals as a set, with proper training, was a boon.
Willem said, “If you say so, sir.”
Gavin said, “Don’t worry. You’re paying your way.”
Draken called out from the hallway. “Sir, are you in here?”
Gavin gave Willem a solid pat on the shoulder, somewhat harder than necessary, and spoke up as he walked through the door into the hall. “Right here. I had something I wanted to hear your opinion on. Willem and Saleena, you might as well listen in, since this isn’t any great secret. We’ve filled up all the sacks and barrels from the granary and have a lot of grain and beans left in silos and bins too big to move. My idea is to distribute the load and have families each carry part of the leftover food. Can we make the idea work?”
Draken clasped his hands and rubbed his thumbs together as his dark eyes studied the ceiling. “Yes, we might be able to distribute most of the food. We’ll need to give the people a reason to load themselves down, or they’ll take no more than a token amount to move quickly.”
Willem raised a timid hand up waist-high, but it was enough for Gavin to notice. “Yes?”
“Any food left behind will spoil from rats or bugs within a few weeks if nobody’s here to care for it. It will go bad faster if water gets to it. If the families are anything like Ma was, they’ll hate the idea of wasting the food, especially if you give it to them to keep for themselves.” Willem glanced back at his bed. “Ma taught me to never waste anything. Said she’d learned it from the Priests of Order, and it was a sign of respect to both God and nature.”
Gavin followed Willem’s glance and for the first time noticed the dozens of tiny pelts stitched together to form his blankets. “I’d say you’ve done your ma proud. Your idea might work to help convince people to carry the load. The people will be cooking and caring for themselves as we travel, since we can’t do that centrally very well. Since it would rot or go to the enemy otherwise, I think we should give the grain to whoever can carry it. Master Draken?”
“I’ll admit you have a point this time. This is the only way I see to save and use the food. We can spread the word, if it pleases you, sir.”
Gavin appreciated Draken’s efforts to be civil given the change in their relationship from student-teacher to ruler-adviser, yet he still pointed out Gavin’s shortfalls. Their changing relationship worked most of the time, but Gavin knew it grated on Draken and was difficult for him.
It was clear Draken was more comfortable making decisions than following orders from Gavin. Gavin needed Draken’s skills and experience, but didn’t always know how best to go about making use of him. Gavin’s skills lay in high-level strategic moves like choosing to distribute the food, and not in details of how to get it done.
Gavin scuffed his feet on the dusty floor as he and Draken left the granary and walked the hall. “You know, it does please me for you to spread the word, but that’s not the point here. I’ve noticed over the past few days how little I would know to do, and how badly things would go without you. Your eye for detail is critical here. I would make a horrible mess of things in a hurry, or be nothing but a useless figurehead without all the help I’ve received. What I’m trying to do is say thank you, Master Draken.”
Draken let out a single bark of laughter. “Don’t thank me, sir. We haven’t done anything hard yet.”
A short time later, Master Quincy approached Gavin in his chambers. “What’s this I hear about giving away the grain? Resources are power, and giving it to the peasants won’t do anything for you, or for me.”
Gavin gave him a level look. “I’m not doing it for you or me. We have no more room, and anything we leave will go to the enemy. I would be happy to hear any alternate plans you may have. If you have nothing to propose, then I recommend you load up as much as you can carry, no cost and tax-free. We’ll need to ruin any grain we leave behind.”
Master Quincy seemed surprised, as if his greatest complaints had become an opportunity. “Right. I see your point. I hadn’t been filled in on the whole situation.”
The silos were empty within an hour, with Master Quincy taking whatever wasn’t loaded up by individuals and families before he got to it. Where he found the wagon space was a mystery. Goods were as much of a power base as information, and Master Quincy knew his goods.
* * *
Gavin watched as the wagons and families formed up on the road, joined by the outliers who had spent a few hours to harvest what they could. Smoke drifted on the air. It held a different tang than the smoke of a fireplace, easily identified as burned crops. Tears washed clean paths down the sooty faces of the men and women who abandoned their farms, doing what they must in order to keep their crops out of enemy hands.
Their burden rested on his shoulders like a sodden cloak. Gavin felt the weight of his decision and hoped he was right to follow the plan they had devised. No other choice made sense, despite his misgivings.
They would pick up stragglers as they marched to the south, but he had never managed such a group. He relied on Tover’s skills to get people to where they needed to be on the road, while the other council members took care of all the non-travel details of the evacuation such as supplies, security, and sanitation. It was too much for Gavin to keep track of on his own.
Tover made messengers of some young children ranging from ten to fourteen years old from the farming families. They shuttled messages and instructions to wagons and families. It was often a competition between the boys and girls to see who could get a job done the fastest. The parallels to how Tover used his dog Runner were there for anyone to see, but for the children, it was a great game and kept them busy and out of trouble.
Wagons were full. Carts were full. Even packs on the backs of many villagers were full. There was little space for people beyond the very young, the old, and the crippled to ride. If they needed to travel while more than a couple people were in a trance controlling animals, things would slow down and become more difficult. They would have to limit their crystal training to the evenings.
Gavin had somehow transitioned from dodging training at every opportunity to scheduling training for others. But, in all the confusion, he still avoided his personal training. The difference now was that he didn’t have the time, and Draken had also been too busy to force the issue. It didn’t take martial skill to move people to safety, and the people were Gavin’s top priority.
He waved to Willem, who waved back as he followed along beside one of the grain wagons with the cats trailing around and behind him under his watchful eye.
All the horses were equipped to haul supplies rather than people. As long as they had anyone walking, the walkers would determine everyone’s speed. There was no point in anyone riding unless they couldn’t walk. There would be a lot of sore feet and blisters after the first day.
It surprised Gavin to see Draken with the she-wolf across his shoulders. Gavin had forgotten the wolf was still building up her stamina as she healed from the injury that had kept her from the king’s disastrous council. Draken set her down to walk, and even run, for short stretches, but she still needed to rest her paws. Gavin mentally added Draken to his list of people who could be trusted to care what happened to their crystal-trained animals.
Their path took them due south on the best-maintained road in the barony. While not cobbled like the castle paths, it was built for heavy use by wagons. Plains filled with dry brown grass and occasional low bushes spread before them and to the west, while sparse trees dropped their fall leaves onto the rolling hills to the east in a slow dance to winter. The smell of dust and animals dominated the caravan of wagons.
The day progressed well until mid-afternoon when Draken let the she-wolf d
own to walk beside him as he patrolled the line. Gavin was a few wagons back behind the granary supplies when he saw the wolf perk up at the sight of the cats and crouch down in hunting mode. He was too far away to do more than shout a warning. “Willem! The wolf!”
Willem crumpled at the side of the road, dropping instantly into a trance. The cats formed a defensive line to support each other and took turns yowling and lunging with claws and teeth to keep the wolf distracted and unsure of her targets. The cats could have fled to safety among the wagons, but Willem’s training had all been about hunting, not running.
Gavin ran to them, searching for Draken in the crowd, finally spotting him two wagons farther up. Draken turned as the wolf let out a growl, her legs bunching up for a lunge.
Draken leaped out of the wagon’s path and dropped to the ground in a roll as he assumed control of the wolf. She leaped at the center cat with her maw of sharp teeth open, but skidded to a stop just inches from Doom Bringer. The cat, under Willem’s control, swatted the wolf on the nose with claws out, drawing deep scratches across sensitive skin. The wolf backed off from its fighting stance with a yelp. The cats hissed as they retreated together to watch the threat from a safe distance.
As soon as Gavin reached them, he looked from the cats to the wolf and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think to warn you about each other. Is this something you can fix?”
The wolf cocked her head, and the cats sat. It was possible to completely override what an animal would do instinctively, but training and control worked much better when the animal wanted what you wanted. The wolf took slow, careful steps and settled down to sit right in front of the cats with her chin on her front paws as she licked her sore nose.
After a few moments, the cats wandered back several paces, then broke and ran. Willem stirred, and then stood to massage his shoulder where he had landed on a rock. He glared at Draken who was still sprawled on the ground.
Gavin took hold of the wolf’s collar, and Draken also sat up, displaying a scratch across his forehead from his rough landing. Tover had taken up a guard position over Draken as he collapsed. He had jumped in to help, not knowing the reason behind the sudden drop into a trance. Tover helped Draken stand.
