Dragons and Destiny

by Candy Rae

  It was hard at first but am getting used to the life. Zawlei is absolutely marvellous and I hope you’ll be able to meet him one day. I think you’ll like each other. I don’t know how your training compares with ours, we do riding and it is hard, even for me and you know how many bells I have spent in the saddle, but riding Zawlei is wonderful. I’m beginning to hang in there (and I mean that literally). We also do sword work which you’ll be doing as well but I think what we learn is different. There are many other classes too, Tactics, Lindish, Geography, First Aid, do you do the same? I presume you do, please write and tell me.

  I’ve also made some friends, actually one of them has a mother at Settlement and has said I can enclose a note (this one) for you and that her mother will send it on to you. Good of her, I haven’t got any coin to pay for the Express. Anyway sis, I’ll have to finish, Toinette has come for the note. I love you lots.

  Take care, love from

  Rilla and Zawlei

  XXX’

  * * * * *

  A tenday later the First Staticum Trainees were at the beginning of a four day ‘exercise’, the first of such excursions that would occur at intervals during their training.

  Accompanied by four non-commissioned officers and under the overall command of Leftenant Hallam, they marched out of the Academie, through Settlement, over Battle Plain (where the Battle of the Alliance had been fought in AL2) and up the hill leading to the forest in open order.

  Hilla had studied the Battle of the Alliance during her tactics classes. To her surprise the battle as taught by the Tactical Training Officer had been subtly different than the story in her history books at school.

  It wasn’t tactics Hilla was concerned with once she and the others reached the woods. The four days were what Leftenant Hallam was calling ‘a toughening up exercise’. They would do everything for themselves, from digging latrines to building shelters, washing, scouting and guarding. If they wanted to eat they would have to catch and cook it. Some of the cadets came from well-to-do families and had never boiled an egg, far less a meal.

  Jen, Hilla’s friend was the granddaughter of one Councillor Durand. Her family owned vast tracts of land in central Argyll and had merchant interest in the islands. There was a long tradition of military service in her family and her two older brothers were serving officers. They had made sure their little sister knew what to expect.

  Jen and Hilla had gravitated towards each other the first day and were now friends of the most inseparable type, Jen’s friendship filling the void left by the absence of Hilla’s sisters.

  As they marched, country boy Dolvin Annson had pointed out the tell-tale signs of a rabbit warren, whispering that last year’s Juvenis had told him.

  “How do we catch them?” Jen whispered back and Dolvin explained, bragging that last summer he had caught a brace of no less than eighteen rabbits.

  “We shalln’t starve with me here,” he declared.

  “Greenfruit,” laughed Hilla, pointing to a bush and bringing down on her head the wrath of Staff Sergeant Taplin who had not given them leave to speak. Greenfruit was a berry-fruit that grew all the year through.

  “I think I’d rather gather roots,” whispered town-bred Paul when Taplin had gone. Dolvin’s graphic descriptions of the methods by which he intended to catch and kill the aforesaid rabbits was turning his stomach.

  “Don’t you think you can do it?” Dolvin teased.

  “I’ll manage,” Paul answered with a gulp, “but don’t ask me to eat them as well.”

  “You’ll go hungry.”

  Jen and Hilla had been allocated to Squad Three who on arrival at the campsite were ordered to dig the refuse trench and the latrines. Squads Four and Five set up the bivouac tents. Squad One was allocated the cook-fire and to begin on the evening meal using the food they had brought with them. Squad Two had guard duty.

  As Hilla helped Paul Farquer and Jen pile up the mud from the latrine pits to one side she grinned at him; a grin of pure enjoyment; real soldiering at last.

  Warrant Officer Taplin inspected the pits and pronounced himself satisfied; a good deep trench he said and went over to inspect the trio who were digging the trench. There he made the pleasing discovery that the sides were already showing distinct signs of caving in.

  Hilla, Paul and Jen left their compeers wilting under Taplin’s withering tongue and headed for the stream to wash. As they had been told often enough, cleanliness was next to godliness in the Garda. A dirty soldier was an inefficient soldier. No trainee would present him or herself at the cook-fire in any state but clean. They were all hungry and no one wanted to be berated like a naughty puppy and so run the risk of missing out on their share of the food.

  She and Jen fell into line, mess-tins at the ready. The smell was tantalising to the hungry trainees, more so than usual because it was coupled with the knowledge that this was the only food they had brought with them from the Academie.

  “Smells good,” said Jen as she accepted her share and went off to find a suitable place to eat. Hilla, Paul and Dolvin joined her.

  “Eat up girls,” the latter said. “Tomorrow you’ll be thanking me for a tasty meal.”

  “Why’s that?” Jen asked.

  “Because,” was his maddening answer.

  “Because?”

  “Because me and Paul here are going to that warren we passed. Who have you been partnered with?”

  “Each other,” grinned Jen, “and me and Hilla bet you three florins that we will bring in as last as much as you if not more.”

  “Done,” laughed Dolvin with an evil grin as he spat on his hand and held it out to Jen for the traditional acceptance of the bet.

  “What are you doing?” hissed Hilla in Jen’s ear. Jen shushed her but Hilla wasn’t happy. “How are we going to manage that?” she whispered, “three florins.” For Hilla this was a great deal of coin.

  “See you later girls,” crowed Dolvin as he left them for the cook-pot hoping to scrounge a second helping.

  “I’ve got it covered,” Jen told Hilla as they ate. “Anyway, it’ll be them who is paying us.”

  “How do you make that out?”

  “We’re Juvenis right? Supposed to use our initiative?”

  “Well … yes,” answered Hilla hungrily spooning stew into her mouth.

  “So,” grinned Jen. “Let Dolvin and Paul spend tomorrow trying to catch their rabbits, we’ll not be wasting out time. Leftenant Hallam said that after morning parade we were to go out in our twos and bring back enough food for two days. None of the instructors are coming with us, right?”

  “Ok.”

  “So I’ve made arrangements for some suitable edibles to be placed in a suitable place by certain people.”

  “Isn’t that cheating?”

  “Technically speaking I suppose it is but there’s cheating and cheating. We are going to use our wits. Anyway, you put the initial idea into my head. Don’t forget, my brothers have been through this. They told me what was what. Apart from that one rabbit warren that Dolvin was talking about there’s little other live meat around here. Perhaps a vuz hole or two but not much else. It’s too close to Settlement. Granted, wild roots grow in abundance and fruit too but I want something decent and Leftenant Hallam has made it abundantly clear that if we only being in fruit and vegetables we will be marked down so I made plans. Last day off I went into town and spoke to one of the fishmongers there. In a net, hidden under the waterfall, you remember Hilla, where we came that first free day?”

  Hilla nodded.

  “Are a large number of tranet waiting for us to ‘catch’. There was no point in going to a game shop. Leftenant Hallam would be suspicious if we brought to him, soaking wet and dead for over a day, rabbit or vuz. Fish is the thing. It won’t arouse suspicion.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Wanted to surprise you.”

  Jen’s plan panned out much as she had worked it out, at least at the beginning.

  H
illa and Jen were heard discussing how they were going to bait a trap at a vuz hole by Dolvin and Paul who smirked at each other as they went through the trees on their way to the warren.

  Alas for Jen’s devious planning she had forgotten that her elder brother had been a Juvenis the same year as Leftenant Hallam and he had an indecently long memory. Also this wouldn’t be the first time that Juvenis had tried to bend the rules. He watched Jen and Hila leave on their food foraging expedition with a speculative look. He had a few words with the Sergeants then followed them.

  Keeping behind the cover of the trees he watched and listened.

  Carrying satchels and using their knives, Jen and Hilla first located and dug out some roots of the whitebush, being careful to take only so much so as not to damage the plant beyond the replenishment level. They found a ripe greenfruit bush and he heard them talking as they marked the spot for the return journey.

  Robain nodded with approval. They were using their brains. Ripe greenfruit didn’t carry well and deciding to collect the fruit on their return journey was a sensible move. Years ago he and Jen’s brother had picked theirs on the way out and the resultant mess in his satchel he didn’t want to remember. It had smelt of rotting greenfruit juice for days.

  He continued to follow them and realised the two girls were heading for the river, not a surprise to Robain who had rather thought they might.

  He heard noises made by the others in the area and nearly stumbled over one who was seated at the entrance to a rabbit warren, hands open, as if expecting a rabbit would conveniently leap out into them. He had not been paying attention during the lectures. The lad hadn’t realised that the warren was a disused one. Robain saw no signs of any fresh droppings. There might be a small family of the little vuz using the abandoned tunnels but their disposition was even more timid than that of the rabbits and they would be hidden deep inside, too afraid to risk even a peek.

  Robain rather thought that this lad and his partner would be returning to the campsite empty-handed or with only vegetables in their satchels. He hoped that they wouldn’t pick any pison berries (they looked very like the greenfruit) and which were ultra poisonous. Perhaps these two town-bred lads had been paying attention to that part of the lecture at least.

  Robain backed away unseen.

  He lost the girls for a while but found them again after he realised they had doubled back, following the river bank, towards the campsite. He sighted them standing beside a large grass-covered mound. He hid behind a tree and listened.

  “It should be here,” Jen said. “When I asked them if they could do it they said that the basket would be here under the water, in a deep bit some three spear-lengths down-water of the mound. Jen was standing on the bank, a frown of concentration on her pretty face. Hilla was waist deep in the water fumbling around with her arms.

  Clever, thought Robain, wonder who thought this up? They’ve taken steps to make sure they bring in a good crop of food. Well, Robain couldn’t fault them for that. The thought of days and nights with little to eat but roots and fruit didn’t thrill him overmuch either. What was hidden under the water?

  “Got him,” said Hilla at that point, “Come in Jen and help me lift it out, it’s bigger than I thought it would be.”

  Robain heard the splash that was Jen then various grunts and exclamations as the girls struggled getting the object out and on to the bank.

  “How many are there?” he heard Jen ask.

  “The basket is full,” Hilla answered, “urgh, they’re all wriggling about.”

  “That’s what I ordered silly,” was Jen’s complacent reply. “There would be no point if they were dead. They have to be fresh or Leftenant Hallam and the others won’t believe we’ve just caught the blighters. He’s not stupid and fish begin to smell as soon as they’ve been killed.”

  Robain could have stood there behind his tree and watched them try to deal with the writhing mass of fish for the next bell or two but he couldn’t resist the temptation.

  He emerged from his hiding place, clapping his hands together. “Thanks for the plaudits ladies,” he called and had the satisfaction of seeing both girls jump in guilty fright. “I hope someone has had the presence of mind to prepare a set of fishing lines else I’m afraid you’ll have a great deal of bother explaining just how you caught them,” he added in a conversational manner.

  A red faced Jen brought out a tangled bundle of lines from her satchel and held them out to Robain.

  “I did,” she stuttered while Hilla stood there, vuz-struck at being found out.

  “You got lines too?” asked an interested Robain.

  Hilla shook her head.

  “So whose idea was it?”

  “Mine,” said the two together.

  Robain chuckled. “I suppose Mander told you?” he asked of Jen.

  “He told me about the exercise,” confessed Jen and her hand came up to her mouth, “oh.”

  “Did he tell you who was his accomplice in crime?”

  “Er, he might have mentioned it.”

  “And who was that?”

  “You sir. Mander said you hid a half brace of rabbits and took them back to camp.”

  “Did he say what happened next?” asked Robain.

  Hilla felt like screaming. Why doesn’t he just start shouting at us and get the row over with?

  “Your officer realised what you had done sir,” Jen answered, “Mander said it was because the rabbits were so obviously very dead and couldn’t have been caught that day.”

  “Then?”

  “You were punished. The rabbits were still edible and everyone got some except for you and Mander.”

  “That’s why you decided on fish?”

  “Yes sir, it wasn’t Hilla. Last day off I went into town looking for a fish trapper and persuaded him to leave the fish here.”

  “Persuaded?”

  “Paid,” Jen corrected.

  “The first idea to hide edibles was mine though,” confessed Hilla who was not going to let Jen take all the blame. “I mentioned my idea to Jen though I didn’t think of the fish. I didn’t do anything only because I couldn’t think of what.”

  Robain nodded.

  “Whilst I cannot ignore what you have done,” said Robain, trying to put on a severe face and failing miserably, “I must applaud your initiative. You realise what the aim of this exercise is?”

  “To teach us how to live of the land,” answered Hilla.

  “Not exactly. We know that there isn’t a lot of game around here. The exercise is designed to make you hungry, to bring home to you that fact that soldiering is not a bed of roses and that you and the men and women under your command might have to live and fight on empty bellies.”

  Both girls looked distraught and ashamed. Jen stared at her wet boots. Hilla however, was thinking. She looked him straight in the eye and asked, “what are you going to do sir? I mean, do we put them back?”

  “Oh, I don’t think so Juvenis Talansdochter. You and your partner have gone to so much trouble it would be a shame to put all your hard work to waste.”

  “Yes sir,” Hilla answered, hopes rising.

  “So this is what you will do,” Robain ordered, with hidden glee though the two didn’t notice it. “I will sit here and watch as you remove the fish, one by one from the basket, kill them and gut them.”

  “I thought…” began Jen.

  “That if you brought that basket back to camp that your year mates would be so relieved at getting some decent food they would do the messy bit?”

  “Yes,” admitted Jen.

  “You thought wrong. I’ll keep quiet about your little plan but only on the condition you do the killing, gutting and cleaning. Now begin.”

  Robain watched with a grin as with a shudder of revulsion Hilla put a reluctant hand inside the seething basket and brought out one of the smaller specimens.

  “Lay it on that flat stone over there,” Robain instructed. “Hit it hard behind the eyes with your knif
e handle.”

  Hilla did that, so hard that the head split apart from the body which splattered its innards over her wet trousers.

  “Gads.”

  Robain laughed.

  Jen had been right, Leftenant Robain Hallam was attracted to Juvenis Hilla Talansdochter. He didn’t want to alienate her. So with a patience born of his interest he talked the two girls through the preparation of the basketful of fish, mostly containing tranet and lungtail but also some thirty of the little red pilli fish which Robain decreed after de-heading should be left as they were.

  “They’re very tasty roasted in their skins and their bones are so small they’re almost impossible to fillet out raw,” he informed them.

  After they had finished both Jen and Hilla were dirty and smelly and so re-entered the water to try and get the worst of the scales and smell off their clothes (with moderate success).

  Then came the hilarious task of getting the fish back to the campsite. A shamefaced Jen admitted that she hadn’t thought about how they were going to accomplish this.

  “We could take them back in the basket,” suggested Jen but the look Hilla gave her was too withering for words.

  “And tell them just how we ‘caught’ the fish? If we use the basket they’ll know. How many fishermen’s’ baskets would you expect to find out here?”

  Hilla glanced at Robain who was listening to this with great amusement. He however, felt that this was their problem. He did have a solution but decided to wait to see if they could find it on their own.

  It was Hilla who solved the conundrum.

  “I’ll climb up and get some leaves from that allst tree,” she said. “We can wrap the fish up in them.”

  “It might work,” said a doubtful Jen.

  “Course it’ll work,” said Hilla, “what do you think sir?”

  “That’s what I’d do,” grinned Robain. “Tell you what, you get on with it and I’ll get on with doing my tour to see how everyone else is getting on.”

  “And Sir, Leftenant Hallam,” said Hilla, greatly emboldened by this, “em, er, are you going to tell?”

  Robain laughed. “No I’m not, although I should. I believe your initiative should be rewarded, at least this time. Besides, I like fish.” He settled his kepi on his head.