by Aimee Gross
Annora carried the eggs and milk, and I went in to corral some help in carrying the heavy things to the cellar. We found Virda and Morie braiding loaves on the kitchen table.
And no one else at home at all.
CHAPTER 20
Annora called after me when I banged out of the back door. “Oh, please wait, Judian! You don’t know they took him away to be rid of him. Wils would have told Virda something, surely!”
They had left none of the snow shoes, and taken Gevarr on the sled, apparently. Fine, look for me at your backs, I thought grimly, and set off staggering in the sled track. Wieser and Gargle joined me, but I sent Wieser back. Annora stood on the stoop where I pointed. “Wieser, you must stay. Nobody is home but the women. What if the soldiers come again?” She wagged at me, and turned for home with the bounding, leaping way that made her look like a shaggy horse jumping hedgerows. Annora lifted a hand, in acknowledgment that I would not be dissuaded, I guessed.
I floundered on, thoughts pumping as furiously as my heart. What could Wils be thinking, not waiting for me? Why drag him so far into the wilderness to kill him, if that was what they were about? Had Gevarr been obstinate when Wils questioned him? Or, worse, said something about Annora to enrage Wils? By gods’ teeth, this was hard going. Was Gevarr already murdered? To think I had once considered murdering him myself, and now I prayed to all the gods I would be in time to save him.
Gargle flew ahead from one treetop to the next. He swooped to my shoulder when I struggled to the top of a ridge.
“Don’t peck!” I panted, when he seemed to be choosing a place to poke his beak. “Do you mean you see them?” He squawked in my ear and took wing again. As I crested the ridge I saw four men pulling a fifth, who was sitting upright, praise gods for good fortune. They were having a job dragging him up slope. I was faster coming down to them, found Wils first and shoved him hard in the chest.
“What madness is this? I’m not gone an hour and you’re leaving Virda and Morie alone to chase off into the woods?”
Wils shoved me back, but lost his balance and fell sideways onto Gevarr.
“Somebody grab him by the scruff of the neck, will you?” Wils said to his mates.
“If you think you can catch me.” I glared at them all. None of them reached for me, so I turned again on Wils. “Tell me what’s happening right now!”
“Gevarr led us to a cache the invaders left. You’re a bit full of yourself since you’ve been on your own,” Wils snarled, trying to shift an arm under himself to rise.
“I haven’t been on my own, have I? I’ve been hauling your wife and sister around the mountain trying to keep us all alive. Towing Gevarr around in the cold is only going to set him back. And what did you all have to come for? Where is Cobbel?” For I noted now he was the one not among the party.
The others said nothing, but opened their cloaks to show arrows, knives and swords tucked about their persons; the weapons from the cache they had been led to, I surmised. Wils regained his footing, with a solicitous push from Gevarr, whose mouth was twitching.
“Shut it, Judian. This doesn’t involve you,” Wils said harshly.
I had plenty to say about that, and drew breath to begin, but Gevarr said, “Not prudent to be out here shouting.” He looked about him at the drifting snow. “I think if Merced had an army of boys like Judian, things might have gone another way.”
Perk laughed, and got a look from under Wils’s brows that could have scorched a plank.
“Yah, they have some fierce boy warriors in these parts, I’ve heard,” Beckta said, lips twisting. “I’ve never seen anybody get close enough to strike you first blow, Wils,” he continued with exaggerated innocence.
Wils cast his eyes skywards, and the two hauling on Gevarr’s sled took up the rope again. I fell in behind, and we toiled uphill.
“Are you all right? Have you gotten too cold?” I asked Gevarr.
“You sound like somebody’s mother. Hot stone,” he nodded toward his feet, then held up his wool-swathed hands, “and baked whole squash. I’ve been coddled, in truth.”
Did having more weapons do any good if you had no more hands to wield them? I remembered thinking I was happy to hand all my responsibilities over to Wils now he had returned. Believing he’d be better at it than he was proving to be … I schemed to find him alone and prise his plans from him. He must have something in mind besides hanging about the farm with his lot of men through winter solstice. Beckta had said Wils recruited them for couriers. I would find out about that. Perhaps Cobbel was on such an errand now, and they didn’t like to say in front of Gevarr.
As usual when I returned from anywhere of late, Virda and Annora were frantic and Morie wasn’t sure what the fuss was about, but was pleased to whine as her contribution. Murr, grown lean and leggy now, found the charged atmosphere ideal for stalking people’s feet and pouncing on their skirts, and so stirred the pot of distress that attended our arrival.
“Glad to be home?” I overheard Gevarr say in Wils’s ear as my brother helped him to his pallet. I only barely caught the remark, since everyone else chattered at us in high female voices that made my head squeeze.
Just as Wils bellowed “Enough!” the other three men came in. They had hidden the scavenged weaponry somewhere outside, I gathered. Next, Wils pointed at me and then at the ceiling.
I headed up the stairs and heard Wils trying to put Annora off from coming along. “Oh, no. At least you must be kept from fratricide,” she said as she swept past him to follow me. We three faced each other in the watery winter light slanting into the bedroom.
Wils opened his mouth but I spoke first. “Where’s Cobbel? Gone on a courier errand?”
It appeared this wasn’t the start Wils expected. “Gevarr warned me you don’t miss much. I told him not to tell me about my own brother, and he predicted I’d underestimate you to my peril.” Wils sat on the bed. “I was trying to let Gevarr think Cobbel stayed home with Virda and Morie, until you came plowing up to announce the women were left alone. Did you really think we took Gevarr out to kill him?”
“I thought you might. He’s too valuable, as you have discovered in time. He’s not told nearly all he knows, no matter how much he gave you when you questioned him. Did he tell you about the mages?”
He had not, evidently, so I did. “That’s the only reason their plan to use the northwest pass worked. Virda thinks the sorcerers came from across the sea to help Keltane delay the snow and keep the pass open. I’ve never heard of any skilled with weather-working who come from Keltane or Merced.”
“You’ve not heard of many things, being only twelve.”
“Have you heard of any?” I said, stung.
He shook his head. “I sent Cobbel to deliver a message to any of our troops he can find in the cliffs above Bale Harbour.”
I thought it more likely he would find some Keltanese troops there. “Did you know Annora can send messages with hawks, and direct the birds where to deliver them by magic?” I might have sprouted another nose, the way he looked at me. “Wouldn’t it be better to put your messages in code and send them by animal courier, than risk your men each time?”
His head swiveled to Annora, who said eagerly, “I will just need a bit of something that comes from where I’m sending the bird, so I can feed that to them with the proper spell.”
“Have I come to the right house?” Wils wondered aloud.
“We may not be able to fight in a battle, but we can fight in other ways. You don’t have to do this work alone,” she told him.
“Apparently not, what with you two suborning enemy soldiers for the greater glory of Merced. Gevarr told us their scouts chased a boy in the forest one day. He thinks that must have been you. Was it?”
“Likely, yah. You see? Gevarr never told me he knew of that or suspected it was me.” Had I forgotten to mention that incident when I told Wils our story? “Does Cobbel know his way? It’s far to walk in this heavy weather.”
“I put him
up on Dink and gave him one of Da’s maps. He has a good sense of direction, better than most.”
“Send me along next time. I have Wieser and Gargle to aid with direction, and also with avoiding enemy troops.”
“So I should send my younger brother out into hostile territory?”
“A boy traveling is less likely to attract notice than a soldier-age man, I think.”
“I think you can count on Judian, at least until we work out the ways I can help,” Annora suggested, taking his hand. He never actually said yes, but allowed her to pull him to his feet. She walked us back belowstairs to the fireside and gave us hot drinks. Beckta, Miskin and Perk had stowed the smithy’s gifts I left standing out when I took off after them. Each of them gave me a grin, I think glad to see me reappear without blacked eyes or swollen, cuffed ears.
Virda gazed out the back window, waiting for the braided bread to finish proofing. “Just look, will you? Gods’ teeth and toenails, the spring melt is going to be havoc this year. I never remember seeing such snows. It’s blowing up again.”
I sent a wish for Dink to make it home safe with Cobbel astride, and sipped my mug. Morie came and climbed on my lap with one of her books Annora had made for her, rediscovered on the hearth. It was the tale of the dancing rabbits, and I read it to her, thinking all the while of how to help Wils and keep us all safe, as well.
CHAPTER 21
Wils ultimately agreed to send me along with Perk on the next search for Mercedian troops. Luckless Cobbel had returned from the first trip saying he heard the army was disbanded and everyone who served now considered outlaws, since King Aerelon ruled us all. Wils and the other men pored over codes they might devise. Perk and I were charged with making contact. Failing that, I was to collect bark or brush that Annora could use for her sending spells. She called owls and hawks to visit us daily, and got them used to being fed by her and gentled to handling so she could tie on messages. Beckta and Miskin, especially, watched her and marveled. Few did magic where they came from. We kept Gevarr from observing any of it. He was another one who missed nothing and had a shrewd mind.
But, Perk and I proved to have no better luck than Cobbel. We traveled east at least once a week until mud season, and then the way turned impassable, as Virda predicted. Wils decided we would scavenge and barter for enough lumber to rebuild the barn, and stay home for a time. Dink kept well enough in the lean-to Wils and the men made out of the scorched lumber from the barn ruin, but Wils wanted to give the impression we were occupied with farming by getting more stock. A few chickens and geese, maybe some goats. Not enough to attract Keltanese scavengers, though. Chicks and goslings were in short supply, he found, and no one would part with a goat if they had so far kept it from the enemy troops. Our part of Merced seemed locked away behind doors, with folk suspicious and fearful. I could not blame them.
Virda wanted to return to her place, but Wils and Annora argued it was not safe for a woman alone. She worried that the mothers-in-waiting could not find her. Miskin, Beckta and Perk were dispatched with me to collect all her remaining goods, and post a notice that those needing a midwife should seek her at the Lebannen place.
Wils sent us less frequently, but could not rest for too long without us searching the cliffs for any of our troops in hiding. One rainy night when Perk and I returned from our wanderings on the soaked cliffs above the harbour town, I was out-of-sorts and wet to the skin. I went to Wils wringing out my tunic hem, and asked him, “I don’t see that much difference between life as a Mercedian and life as a Keltanese. Tell me why we are spending all this effort to try to get rid of the invaders now they are entrenched? The soldiers haven’t been back to take more of our food. The villagers say transport goes a pace whenever the road is passable. We have our farm. Why doesn’t everyone surrender and Da come home?”
“You don’t know anything about politics.”
“And you do?”
“I heard plenty along the road west and at Fort Hasseron. Merced is, or was, ruled by the Council of Elders, with representatives from all the provinces. We had many freedoms, to make our living and choose to move here or there as we pleased. We owned our farm. We traveled to trade our goods and get the things we could not make for ourselves. That is not the way Keltane is governed.”
“What do they do? Gevarr says he came to northern Keltane when he wanted to be a soldier, after growing up in the south.”
“In Keltane the King owns everything. Not just the land, but the game and the crops. He can give our farm to some lord who does him a favor, and we have to stay and work, owned by the King. Not free men.”
“That is just ridiculous. Not our house—the King owns it? The hay we scythe and stack is the King’s hay?”
“I couldn’t believe it either. You’d think the Keltanese would be begging us to invade them and govern them our way.” He shook his head. “But that’s why we have to find what’s left of our army, and resist the occupation.”
“I think the Keltanese are clever enough to make sure there isn’t army left to find. We’re probably better off trying to recruit a new, secret army. The one we had was sparse and disorganized, according to the fieldmaster who came here.”
“How are we going to find new soldiers?”
“Right now we’re not finding the old ones. I can look for boys my age to carry out tasks for us. They attract less notice, I keep telling you. Ticker and Tarn from the village have done a fine job of keeping supplies out of the occupation’s stores.”
“All right, true enough. I’m worried about more than that, though. The fort cannot be abandoned, or we lose all hope of controlling the pass. And the siege has gone on for so long. I must make plans to get fresh supplies to them, maybe through our escape route. Even if I can get supplies, I have no wagons or horses, and how do I smuggle goods in plain sight along the trade road?” He let out a frustrated growl, and began to pace.
“Unless we let Keltane load the wagons and send them down the road for us, then we supplant their drivers along the way in some remote stretch, and take the goods on to our own destination.”
“You,” he said with relish, “have developed a devious mind. Where are Da’s maps of the western territory?”
We put our heads together by the fire, and worked long into the night. Eventually, my clothes dried, still on me. Perk and the others gathered around us, looking for good spots to stage an ambush in the hinterlands. At last it felt as if we could do something meaningful to strike a blow against the invaders.
###
Annora found enough leather to fashion some boots for Gevarr, and he began to help with chores. He got about well enough, I supposed, but his long convalescence had left him out of condition, and he fatigued easily. Annora set him tasks in the garden, preparing for planting and clearing away old vines. He was leaning on his hoe when I went out to fetch water one morning.
“I’m no farmer,” he said ruefully. “I’d be better suited to hunting for the table.”
“I don’t think Wils is going to hand you a weapon any day soon. What did you do before you were a soldier?”
“My family were tanners. You use more furs in this climate. We did smooth leathers, in the south. My older brother went into the business with our father, but I couldn’t stand the stink of it. And, my father and I didn’t get on.”
“Just the one brother?”
“No.” He chopped a bit with the hoe at a stubborn root. “No, I had a younger brother, a late-in-life child for my mother. One of those who don’t have … all the wits they should. He was sweet-natured, though. It fell to me to keep care of him most of the time. My mother helped along at the tannery.”
I put my bucket down. “So you are the middle child, too?”
He flashed white teeth. “Aye, pushed from both sides, aren’t we? Anyway, my younger brother had a weak heart, and took ill with River Fever one spring. After he died, I packed up and went for a soldier. My father spat on the ground at my heels. I’ve never been back.”
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When I stood there not knowing what to say, he grinned again. “You’ll be getting no further revelations from me today. Why I tell you such things is a puzzle. Did you ever think of a posting as an apostate?”
“What, me?” I scoffed. “You just have a loose tongue, now you’ve given up soldiering.”
###
I worked every night to convince Wils to send me with Wieser to Bale Harbour. I wanted to see how the cargo arrived and was routed away west, who watched the inventory and assigned the wagons and drivers. Whether guards accompanied the shipments on the way.
“Information is power, it’s all about getting information, and who has the information we need. We’ve had months of rumor and false tales. If Merced had a working way to communicate crucial information, we wouldn’t be conquered now!”
“Be that as it may, and I don’t say you’re wrong, it is a separate issue from me sending my younger brother into only gods know what danger. You don’t know your way around the harbor.”
“I know my way well,” came Virda’s sturdy voice. “I’ve traveled there many times, what with my husband and sons setting sail over the years.”
“Now, that is madness. Send a boy and a woman into the enemy camp.” Wils clenched his fists.
“My friend Guthy runs a boarding house there for sailors waiting ashore for their next berth,” Virda continued, shaking out her cloth after wiping dishes.
We ate in shifts, since we numbered so many and a lot of our crockery had been smashed by the soldiers. Wils and I were arguing while awaiting our turn.
“Your friend Guthy likely has a house full of Keltanese soldiers, by now. Do not look at me like that, Annora. I know you think Judian can do anything, but how are you going to feel if they go down there and never come back? And you never know what befalls them?” Wils accepted a bowl and spoon from his now solemn-faced wife.
