"Aren't we all," Daneh said, rubbing at her belly. "It's odd to know that there's something growing inside of me. I've been awfully tired lately, and I think that's part of it. But, even knowing that half of it is. from them, half of it is from me. And. I cannot find it in me to hate the child unborn."
"So. you're going to keep it?" Rachel asked.
"Well, even if there weren't some very serious dangers involved in getting rid of him or her," Daneh said, "I think the answer is: Yes. I'm going to keep him. Or her. I don't think I could do anything else. It's a child and I can't find it in me to kill a child."
"Okay," Rachel said. "If that's how you feel. I'm a little. intimidated by the whole idea. You know there are risks to you, right?"
"They're risks that women have faced for countless ages," Daneh shrugged. "Just because we were rid of them for a while, doesn't mean I should run away from them. And. neither should you."
"I have to find the right guy," Rachel replied with a frown. "That hasn't happened, yet."
"Herzer is. nice," Daneh said, carefully.
"Herzer is. Herzer," Rachel said with a frown. "And. he's not what I'm looking for. He's a good friend but. just a friend."
"So was your father," Daneh replied. "Until I got over thinking that I had to have something besides a friend. I'm not telling you to throw yourself at Herzer, but don't ignore an opportunity because the person is a 'friend.' "
"Okay, Mom," Rachel replied then paused. "Can I ask a question? And I know it's none of my business but."
"Your father and I are. getting along," Daneh said, frowning slightly. "It has been. difficult. The first time. after was hard. Probably as hard on him as it was on me in a way."
"I'm not sure that I'm up to details about my parent's sex life, Mom," Rachel said in a choked voice. "I'm sorry. I was just wondering if you guys were okay?"
"We're okay, now," Daneh said with a chuckle. "And, I can see we're reaching the end of this little chat. Seriously, talk to me from time to time. I need a friend, too."
"I will, Mom," Rachel said, getting up and going around the desk to give her mother a hug. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? And I'll always be your friend."
* * *
Edmund had just composed himself in his favorite chair when Sheida appeared.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Let's get to it," Edmund said and was immediately, apparently, transported to a large room filled with about ten other members. Some of them he recognized immediately; others were strangers.
"Thank you all for volunteering your time to this," Sheida said, waving her lizard away. The reptile took off from her shoulder and then apparently vanished as it left the zone she was broadcasting. "I think this first meeting should cover general principles of what we're trying to do. I think I'll let Edmund speak to that first. Edmund, please introduce yourself."
"I recognize some of you and others I don't know," Edmund said. "So I'll give my general background. I have what was once referred to as a doctorate in political science and another in military affairs. My specialty is preindustrial societies and militaries. In addition I have been a reenactor for much of my life. I'm currently the mayor of Raven's Mill, which is a growing survivor society in the Shenan Valley. Working under their aegis and agreement I'm here to propose that the original Constitution of Norau be enacted with minimal amendments and with all rights of the citizens kept intact. All rights."
The rest were introduced and most of them were from similar communities although two were working directly with the Council in projects. All agreed, in principle, that the original Constitution be enacted, but all had some reservations.
"Edmund," Sheida said, coming back to him again. "What changes would you enact?"
"The first that I would suggest is a stronger wording of the right to own weapons. That it be added that it is for self-defense, defense of the community and for protection from unconstitutional acts of the government. Furthermore it should be the duty of all citizens of military age to own and show capability of use of weapons."
"I have a strong objection to that," the delegate from Chitao town said, frowning. "We've had homesteads burned out by brigands already. I don't see why they should have weapons or the right to them."
"Are they citizens of the community?" Edmund replied. "Furthermore, it is not their ownership of the weapons that is at fault but the use to which they put them. In the codes section the first portion of the code should be a strong prohibition against illegal use of weapons with strong penalties. But in Raven's Mill we are arming our citizens. They are a strong proponent of the defense of the town. This particular position is what they used to call a 'litmus test' for us. We will not have our citizens disarmed by the government under any circumstances short of active rebellion and then only on an individual basis."
"I support Duke Edmund in this," Mike Spehar, the representative from Westphal said. He was a tall, fair man who had dressed for the meeting in armor. "The most important thing that a preindustrial republic must have is a well-distributed armed class. Failure to have such inevitably leads to the establishment of feudalism.
"I am not a duke anymore, Baron Longleaf," Edmund snapped.
"You are still listed on the Society rolls as such," Spehar said. "And it is that which I propose to amend. Many of the towns are developing from the skills of society members or those associated with them. Many of the towns have already reestablished a meritocratic aristocracy. And some that are holding out against the idea are doing so because of the existing rolls. My proposals fall into that area."
"Mike, you're nuts," Edmund replied. "First you rail against feudalism and then you want to bring in its trappings?"
"We're not just accepting society position gratis in Westphal," Spehar replied. "As I said, a meritocratic-based aristocracy. Instead of a Senate elected by the states or the state legislatures, a House of Lords, so to speak, that would have both hereditary aristocracy and members with lifetime appointments for particular merit. The latter, especially, would represent a true 'higher house' and the hereditary aristocracy could be used to woo those who are avoiding entry due to loss of privilege."
"You're talking about dictatorial warlords like that bastard down in Cartersville," the representative from Chitao snapped. "They're exactly what we want to eliminate!"
"And how would you eliminate them?" Spehar replied with a frown of contempt. "You're planning on disarming your citizens. Are you planning on winning them over by smiling a lot or by selling your daughters?"
"Gentlemen!" Sheida snapped. "Calm down. All right, that is two proposed modifications to the base document. I'm sure there will be more. We will all have a chance to present them and look them over, then we can get down to editing and arguing. For now, we'll just let them be presented. Without commentary."
This is going to be a long night, Edmund thought.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Kane woke Herzer well before dawn with the bad news that he was in charge of making breakfast. Herzer tried not to grumble and wandered out into the predawn darkness. He was presented with the materials and then Kane went back to bed.
Herzer had learned to use flint and steel to start a fire while woodcutting and it only took him ten or twenty tries to get the fire going. The first few that started went back out before he had a solid base and it took six or seven tries to get the tinder going each time. Finally he had a good roaring fire and it was time to start the mush. He lugged a bucket of water from the nearby stream and poured it in the kettle, then set the kettle on the fire while he went to get another bucket. Then he had to figure out how much of the cornmeal would make a good mush. He finally settled that question, by which time the water was starting to boil. He added the meal, which stopped the boil, then went to find more wood.
By the time he got back the concoction had boiled over and put the fire out.
There were a few coals left and he carefully nursed them to start a new fire, then went and got more wood and started all over
again. He finally had a steady fire going, and the mush bubbling, by the time Kane reappeared.
"What'd you put in it besides meal?" Kane asked, taking a spoonful. "That's going to take a long time to cook down."
"I had some trouble," Herzer admitted, as if the wet ashes from the first fire weren't proof enough.
"I'll get some additions," Kane muttered, then wandered back to the building he and Alyssa shared.
When Kane came back he took over the fire and set Herzer to feeding the horses. It was a huge herd and like all horse herds extremely hierarchical. Kane had somewhere obtained a large quantity of hay and Herzer attempted to distribute it by spreading it around, one forkful at a time but that didn't work very well. The senior horses, a group of mares, had finished their share by the time he'd made his tenth trip and were driving the low-rank horses, including his own Diablo, off the piles. He was also getting worried about the health of the horses since the kicking and squealing was not only getting loud but vicious.
"Won't work like that," Alyssa said, walking over to him as he came back with another load. She was yawning and the squealing of the horses had clearly woken her but since he was sweating freely in the early morning cool he wasn't exactly heartbroken.
"With so many of them and all in a group, all you can do is pile it up in one place," she said. "It helps to move it to where they can get at it from every side."
She went into the corral with a halter and returned with one of the Hanarahs that she then hooked up to a small cart. Between the two of them they loaded the cart with hay, then Alyssa drove it into the corral while Herzer fended off the horses that tried to bolt through the gate. Once inside Herzer stood in the back of the cart and forked hay to the horses as Alyssa drove it through the paddock at a slow pace. Along the way she kept up a running commentary about the horses that showed that not only did she know them all by name but their individual quirks and their place in the hierarchy.
By the time they got back, the rest of the riders were up and the mush was done. It was the recipient of some comments.
"Damn, Kane," one of the riders muttered, taking a bite of the mush. "You're not only ugly, you're a damned bad cook. Why'd Alyssa ever marry you?"
"Well I am a bad cook," Kane admitted, with a grin. "But this particular mess is all Herzer's fault. And the reason Alyssa married me had nothing to do with my kitchen skills."
"Wow, Herzer," Alyssa added. "If the way to a woman's heart is through her stomach, you're in big trouble."
Herzer took a bite of the mush and grimaced at the burned taste. "I guess," was all he said.
Hoping that the morning's fiascoes were past him, Herzer finished his food quickly and went looking for his horse.
Diablo seemed less than thrilled to see him and Herzer wondered if playing polo the day before had been a good idea. But he had held back a handful of the cornmeal and it was appreciated, so it was a horse in a much better mood that he led out of the paddock.
He saddled up himself this morning, remembering to get the horse to suck in its gut when he tightened the girth. Horses had a tendency to inhale and "blow themselves up" when the girth was being tightened. That way, as soon as the rider was done, they could let the air out and get some looseness in the girth. Diablo was just about as bad as a "normal" horse on that score but it sort of made sense; wearing a girth was a bit like a corset for a horse.
On the other hand, if the girth wasn't as tight as possible, the saddle would slip off and the rider would find himself lying face down in the dirt.
Herzer got all the straps in place and mounted creakily. All his "riding" muscles had stiffened up and it was positively painful to swing his leg over the horse's back. But once he was up there he started to loosen up and as he moved Diablo around so did the horse. He took him through a few of his paces to get the kinks out then rode back to the camp at an easy canter.
"Raring to go, huh?" Kane asked. He had emerged from the tack shed with some new gear and a long spear.
"Just warming up," Herzer said. "When are the beaters supposed to get here?"
"They started this morning but they have a few miles to beat and they're moving slow. So, say five hours from dawn. But there's going to be stuff running ahead of them. So we need to be in place in another hour or so. But Alyssa and I want to show you a few things and get with everybody to talk about responsibilities."
Herzer dismounted to wait and work on his horse. He pulled the saddle and bridle off, switching the latter for a halter, and gave the horse a thorough currying. The horses were losing their winter undercoat so Diablo especially appreciated that. Then he hunted up a feedbag and some feed; he knew he was going to be using the horse hard today and he didn't want it falling out from low blood sugar.
By the time he was done Kane had saddled his own horse and hooked the odd accoutrements to it. The tack turned out to be a holder for the spear, along with places to hook other weaponry. Kane also brought out a long battle axe and sword to go along with the spear. Herzer mentally changed the word "spear" to "lance" but he really couldn't see the difference.
In the meantime Alyssa had scared up one of the little Arabs and saddled it as well. Her saddle was much more ornate than Kane's but seemed just as functional. On the side of it she hung an odd, rectangular case. Just after Herzer recognized it, correctly, as a case for a recurve bow, she opened it up and removed the bow, which was unstrung. Stringing it turned out to be a major operation and actually took Kane doing most of the work. First she took out a long string, more of a rope, really, with two leather toggle and loop devices on either end and attached them to the opposite ends of the bow. Then as Kane lifted the bow in a curl, sweat almost immediately breaking out on his face, she carefully attached the actual string to the bow and ensured that the limbs were straight. That done Kane slowly let off pressure until the bow was fully strung. Herzer had to wonder, as she removed the stringer, how often she could actually draw the thing, which looked as if it must have a pull of sixty kilos or so.
A few of the older riders had been setting up targets and a few even brought out their own lances and holders. But Alyssa was the only one with a bow.
"Okay, cavalry means fighting from horseback," Kane said. "But most cavalry techniques derived from hunting on horseback and only got converted to killing people later."
"Well, the lance was probably the other way around," Denver Quilliam pointed out. The rider was one of Kane's coterie and while his horse work was only so-so he handled the lance with ease.
"Maybe, maybe not," Kane argued. "There's no clear archaeological record for it and admittedly it seemed to appear after the development of horse cavalry, but."
"Kane," Alyssa said.
"Oh. yeah. well we're going to show you a little about the lance and the horse-bow this morning while we're waiting for the first animal to arrive."
"Are we going to be using lances and bows?" Herzer asked.
"If anyone feels like they can handle them without falling off their horse they can try," Kane said with a laugh.
He started by demonstrating the two ways to hold the lance in a charge. The idea was to hold it lightly in the hand so that you could maintain targeting even on the horse, which was, of course, moving in three dimensions, then at the last moment "clamp down" and drive it into the target. Smaller lances could be used overhand with a throwing motion for similar effects. He drove one of each into the center of the target and then challenged others to copy his actions. Herzer and Denver probably got closest and Herzer had done his turn at a gallop like Kane; Denver had driven his home at a much more sedate canter.
Herzer had gotten very comfortable with riding Diablo. The massive chestnut was not unlike those in his enhanced reality training and was even a tad "smarter." But he still hadn't opened the horse "all the way up." He had seen that blazing gallop the first day and he was still a tad uncomfortable with seeing what it was like to be on his back under those conditions; a slower gallop was still like having a rocket betw
een his legs.
After Kane was done and the lances recovered, Alyssa gave a demonstration with the horse-bow. She first demonstrated firing from a still horse at about seventy-five yards, putting three arrows into the center of the target just about as fast as she could draw and fire. After that she began to canter, putting an arrow into the central area of the target about every five or six seconds, then last she demonstrated the "Parthian shot," turning on her horse as it was galloping away and firing. These last were. more or less in the target area. But Herzer could see how it would be a nasty situation to deal with on a tactical level.
After the demonstrations Kane told them off to their duties. Herzer was going to be one of the "zone riders," in charge of managing a certain section of the main corral. He was supposed to move herd animals out of his sector and to the herding riders, break up dangerous activities, drag off any animals that were killed in his sector and otherwise handle any contingencies. Besides Diablo he would have two more animals to switch off to, an even larger bay gelding called Butch and a bad tempered palomino named Duchess. He'd have to lead them over himself but as long as Duchess was at the rear of the lead he wasn't worried.
John Ringo - Council Wars 01 - There Will Be Dragons Page 41
