The commander, once he was sure no others would attack, looked at Sam with his mouth open. He shook his head and snapped his mouth shut before opening it again to speak. “I…I’m sorry. I had no idea, though I should have been watching Crendan more closely. He always did take too much joy in the bloodier tasks we were given.” The man looked nervous, as if Sam or the others—who Sam had just noticed were on alert, Rindu and Nalia with their weapons bared, Emerius with an arrow knocked and drawn, Ix on the balls of her feet and ready to pounce—might punish him for the attack. The wolves had their hackles up with teeth bared, and Oro growled softly. The manu bird cocked its head at the people, the same posture it used when begging for food.
Sam flipped the knife to grab the blade then held it out to Wilkes. “It’s not your fault, Commander.” He gestured with the knife until Ru Wilkes took it from him. “Everyone relax. The man responsible for that interruption won’t bother us anymore.” He was proud of the way his voice sounded so calm despite the fact he felt like his bones would shake loose.
The others relaxed marginally. At least, they put their weapons away, but their postures, though seeming relaxed, were like coiled snakes, ready to strike if there were any other “interruptions.”
“As I was saying…” Sam noticed that almost all the soldiers were paying closer attention. In fact, he saw a few slight nods and looks that could only be respect on some faces. It was a start. “My uncle, the Gray Man, did some horrible things. In the end, he realized who he was and what he had done because of the years of torture by the Arzbedim. He told me to use the fortress and all in it to do some good. That’s what I’m trying to do.
“The way I see it, all of you have a choice. I would like it if you would all join the forces of the new government, but I don’t expect that will happen. Some of you may be tired of the violence, tired of living by your skill with weapons, and you may just want to go home. I can respect that. Some of you may want to do your part to make Gythe a more peaceful place to live, and to you we will welcome you and anything you may do to help us be successful. Others may not like either of those choices and may choose another path. That’s fine, too.
“Any who do not actively oppose us, or me, as Crendan here did, can go their own way with no hard feelings. I will transport any who wish to go back to the fortress, either to join us or to leave from there to go elsewhere. Any who wish to stay here or leave from here, that is your choice and we won’t argue with you.
“One thing must be clear, however. The Gray Man is no more. His soldiers are no more. His Collectors are no more. As of right now, your future is in your own hands, your own choice. In a half an hour, I will teleport those who want to go back to the fortress. You have until then to decide if you want to go with us or not. Think about it, discuss it if you want to, but make a decision. Things are moving quickly, and we can’t wait long.”
Sam nodded to Ru Wilkes, turned, and walked toward a clearing they had passed a quarter mile away. Nalia, Rindu, Emerius, and Ix fell into step beside him, the wolves, manu, and Oro flanking them and ranging ahead.
“That was something,” Emerius said. “How did you react so quickly to that knife coming at you?”
“I have no idea,” Sam said, expelling a breath and finally giving in to the fear he’d been tamping down since the attack. He held his hand up, level to the ground, and watched as it shook violently. “It was something with the rohw. I’m glad it happened, but I didn’t do anything consciously. I think I just got really lucky.”
“It is not luck,” Rindu said. “You have become accustomed to holding your rohw out in an aura around you. Your practice has increased your sensitivity so when something encroached upon your space, the energy you held within you reacted. It is much like when someone strikes your knee and your lower leg kicks out. A reflex. It was nicely done, and fortuitous. I sensed the knife in my own aura but was too far to do anything about it.”
“I believe the soldiers will respect you more now,” Nalia said. “They will discuss it amongst themselves and will attribute it to ‘magic’ that you share with your uncle. They have seen incredible things from him and so now expect them of you. I do not believe the next attempt on your life from them will be so simple.”
“Thanks, Nal,” Sam said. “Now I’m going to be nervous someone will try to assassinate me and that my aura may not decide to help me next time.” He sighed. “I may never sleep again.”
They arrived at the meadow and each found a rock or tree to sit on.
“That was a nice speech,” Ix said, probably just to fill the silence.
“Thanks,” Sam said. “I didn’t really know what to say. I know some of the remaining Collectors want nothing more than to go join a group of bandits or to start their own. As Wilkes said, some enjoyed the things Grayson had them do more than they should have. But I hope some will join us. I hope one of them is the commander.”
“He’ll join,” Ix said. “You had him from the start, but the way you reacted to that attack, especially not blaming him, he’s completely yours. Wait and see.”
Sam had learned the meadow where they waited so he could return. When the half hour was up, they went back to the camp. Almost all of the tents had been taken down and packed away. Three remained, obviously people who were not going to return to the fortress with them.
Ru Wilkes met them as they approached. “We are ready,” he said. “Three will not be coming with us. One of those is a Collector who was a local guide, from Shumashin, who will be going back home. The other two will go off somewhere else, I don’t know where. They say they’re done with being soldiers. The rest of us will come back to Whitehall, but only fourteen will join the forces there, including me. The others want to leave from Whitehall to go back home. They’re sick of violence and just want to see their families again.”
Sam nodded. It was a better turnout than he had expected. “That sounds reasonable to me. Are you all packed up and ready to go?”
“We are,” the commander said. “Are you going to use those bell artifacts that the Gray Man used to attack the Zouyim temple?”
Rindu raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t speak.
“No,” Sam said, wondering if he should ask questions. He decided not to, that he could always ask later if necessary. “I am able to teleport groups on my own, sort of like Ix, but her ability is part of her and I use the rohw to do it. It’s something I learned from Grayson—I mean the Gray Man—before he died. Gather everyone around so we can go back to Whitehall—that’s the new name of the fortress—and introduce you to the leader of the new government’s forces.”
Within moments, all those who would be going to Whitehall grouped together in tight, orderly ranks. Sam told them they didn’t need to clasp hands or grab each other’s shoulders as they started to do.
“Okay, it’ll take a minute or two for me to prepare,” he said. “My teleportation is not instantaneous like Ix’s.” He sat down on the ground and as promised, they were all transported to Whitehall within a few minutes.
When it was done and the soldiers looked up toward the keep and the walls of the fortress, they all gasped.
“Now you know why it’s called Whitehall,” Sam said. “I changed the color of the stone so that it wouldn’t be confused with the Gray Man’s fortress. This way, the new government can have a fresh start, not being tied to the history of the place.”
The few men who were leaving to their homes departed immediately. The others milled around until Ru Wilkes brought them to attention. “Do you want me to march them into the keep to meet this general of yours?” he asked Sam.
“No, there’s no need for that. We can just walk in an orderly manner to where he’ll be drilling his soldiers.”
Rindu and Nalia took their leave, as did Skitter, Ix, and Emerius, all promising to be back in front of the stables within half an hour so they could do more traveling with the remainder of the day. The rakkeben and the manu remained in the area awaiting their riders.
/> “Okay,” Sam said. “Let’s get you all settled.”
He led them to Danaba Kemp who was, as he thought, trying to drill and train some of his soldiers. Sam briefly explained the situation and who the soldiers were, highlighting that they had a lot of experience both in battle and in following orders.
Danaba Kemp and Ru Wilkes looked at each other like two cats placed in a small room together. They were both obviously used to command and skilled warriors. They eyed each other silently for a little while before Danaba shrugged and patted the other man on the shoulder.
“I think we could use you as a commander, Wilkes. Does that sound fair to you?”
The big man formed a small smile. “Yes, that would be acceptable.”
“Good, good. Now, come on over here. I’ll tell you about…”
Chapter 22
The two men walked off toward the trainees, and Sam knew things would work out well. As for himself, he had more traveling to do yet, so he went back to the stables and waited for the others to arrive. When they did, he was sitting there petting Shonyb, ready. They circled wide of the Collectors’ camp site in case the men left there were waiting until the next day to leave. There were no hard feelings from Sam’s side about the Collectors not wanting to join with them, but he thought there may be some ill will from those who now had to go and do something else with their lives. They passed within a quarter mile of the camp and didn’t see any movement at all.
“I was thinking,” Sam said to no one in particular, and to everyone there. “We could be traveling faster.”
Ix’s eyes lit up and she opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it and through sheer force of will waited patiently for Sam to continue.
“When we can ride the mounts, we can go at a fair clip, even though the snow makes it slower than if there wasn’t any. When we can’t ride them, though, it’s too slow slogging through the snow and ice, and the snow shoes, while they speed things up, still aren’t very quick. We need skis.”
They all looked at him as if he was speaking a foreign language, except Nalia. She knew what he was talking about. “Explain it to them, Sam.” Her gaze scanned the others. “It is a good idea. You will see.”
“Skis are long wooden boards that you strap to your feet,” he said, but then shook his head. “Hold on.” They would need a practical demonstration. He looked around for something suitable and his eyes fell on a half-buried portion of a fallen tree. Insects had had their way with some of it, almost completely hollowing out the inner wood and leaving a U-shaped section barely thicker than the bark.
Sam dug around the sides of the log skeleton and then put Ahimiro underneath and pried it up. That was enough to loosen it from the soil and the snow, but it was too big yet. Taking a deep breath and pulling in rohw from the environment around him, he struck down sharply on one section of the hollow log. It broke with a crack, leaving him a piece about three feet long with a diameter of a little over two feet. He was easily able to pick it up and move it to a small hill.
Using his staff, he scraped the rotting wood from the inside of the “U” and set it down with the open side up. He pushed it through the snow, making a large furrow. The snow was relatively fresh, so he pushed the log all the way down the hill, hiked up, and pushed it down again. By this time, the snow in the depression he made was getting packed.
“Okay,” he said to them. “Watch this.” He put the log in the track he had made and sat down in it. Then, he pushed off and slid down the hill on his new sled. He didn’t go extremely fast, but fast enough for the wind of his traveling to sting his face.
When he reached the bottom of the hill, he stood up and looked at everyone.
Emerius looked at Ix. “Did he just take fifteen minutes to show us how to make a sled?”
Ix nodded, staring. “I think so. Do you think he’s finally lost it? I mean, Grayson wasn’t too far from being insane himself. Maybe it runs in the family.”
Rindu was standing there, looking calmly at Sam. “Are you trying to illustrate something Sam? If so, we do not understand.”
Sam could feel his face, red hot, hot enough to melt the snow around him. Maybe they would think it was from the cold wind. “I…I didn’t know you had sleds here, otherwise I would have just mentioned it.”
“Of course we have sleds,” Rindu said. “What else would children do in the snow, besides have snowball fights? Do not be ridiculous.”
It’s true, Sam, Skitter sent. Even young hapaki make sleds much like you just made for us.
“All right, all right,” Sam said. “Skis are like a sled, except that they are strapped to your feet and they are long and skinny. With them, you can travel quickly over snow, much like you can when going downhill in a sled. I want to have skis made for all of you so we can use them to travel faster. I have three pairs at Whitehall. Mine, Nalia’s, and my mother’s. We should be able to have a carpenter or a bowyer make some for our use. It’ll speed things up.”
The looks he got ranged from confusion to frustration, but they all agreed or nodded politely. Sam would talk to a craftsman when he got back to the fortress at the end of the day.
For the remainder of the day, Togo Cairn led them toward their ultimate destination. They were making their way inevitably toward the final artifact, but it seemed to Sam that they were inching along at a pace that would take years to arrive. If only they could come up with a better way.
As soon as they returned to Whitehall, he fetched his cross-country skis and took them to Dr. Walt.
“Why are you carrying skis around, Sam?” the scholar said when he looked up from the book he was reading to see who his visitor was.
“I had the idea that we could travel faster if we used skis,” Sam said. “I want to get some made for the others. Hopefully they’ll be quick studies, and we can start moving at a better pace.”
“I see. Yes, that sounds like a good idea.” He looked at Sam quizzically, as if to ask again why he was standing there holding skis.
“I thought that maybe you’d know a craftsman who could make the skis for the others,” Sam said, and he saw understanding on Dr. Walt’s face. “A bowyer sounds like the obvious choice, though a carpenter or cooper might work, too. They would have to work with a smith to get the bindings done, also.”
“Ah, I know just the craftsmen to ask. I can take you to them now. I probably need a break from reading anyway.”
Sam went with him, carrying the skis, and soon he had promises that the work would be started the next morning. Both craftsmen saw no problem in having it done within a week.
“That’s great,” Sam said. “I wasn’t sure how long it would take.” He gave them some rough dimensions based on the size and weight of the party members. The size of the skis would be close enough. They weren’t going to be competing or anything.
With that task done, Sam ate dinner with the others and then went to bed. They would have to suffer through the same slow method of travel for a few more days, but then they would have their skis and be able to go faster.
Four days later, Sam was standing in front of the others, all with their new skis. Well, all but his and Nalia’s. Theirs weren’t new.
“These are cross-country skis,” he told them. “You can use them to go down hills, but they are good for flat ground and even slight uphills as well.” He shushed around the area he had selected for them to practice. It was a little-used corner of one of the courtyards with snow that, even though it was slightly slushy, was not tracked through.
When he stopped, he looked at the others. Nalia was nodding, but she already knew how to use the skis. Rindu looked like he was trying to figure something out. Ix had a disgusted look on her face. Emerius was trying to keep from laughing. Togo Cairn was looking back and forth between Sam’s and his own skis, as if trying to compare them to see if they were the same.
“Okay,” Sam said. “Who wants to go first?” The blank looks he got from them made him want to chuckle. “Come on, it’s not that ha
rd.”
Within an hour, everyone was moving around the area on their skis, some with more finesse than others. All of the party members were fit and had good body control—it was one of the prime requisites for a warrior and not much less so for a wilderness guide—and Sam was pleased that they had picked it up so easily.
He debated whether or not to bring the rakkeben with them. He wanted to let the big wolves rest, but Shonyb looked at him in such a way that he understood she wanted to come. He figured it would be good to have them along, if for nothing else than to use their sense of smell to detect enemies. Given the choice of his litter or a backpack Sam would wear, Skitter, chose to ride on Shonyb. Less than an hour and a half after introducing everyone to their new skis, they were ready to leave.
Sam teleported them to where they had left off the day before. He only had to get up from his cross-legged position and put his skis on and they were off, eating up the miles as they traveled in two lines through the snow.
“This was a good idea, Sam,” Nalia told him as they moved through the forest, which was not as heavily wooded as they had been traveling through. “It feels like we are making progress. Finally.”
Sam smiled at her. “Hopefully we’ll get into a nice rhythm and get to the last artifact in time. I think we’ll need to try out another idea I have, if I remember the maps I once saw of the area we’re going to go through. We’ll see. I think we have a few days yet.”
By the end of the day, Sam could see that everyone else was as tired as he was. The rakkeben didn’t seem to be tired at all from their running alongside the skiers. It was good that they were able to rest while the humans exerted themselves.
“I am going to sleep really well tonight,” he said. The others nodded.
“It is a different motion than I am used to,” Rindu said. “I believe I may be sore when I wake up in the morning. It has been many years since I have been able to say that.”
They continued skiing each day for three more days. The terrain was surprisingly mild. Sam knew they were going through the Canadian Rockies, called the Bongana Range here on Gythe, but they didn’t have to climb high peaks. There was a wide valley that snaked its way through the high mountains, so they rarely had to do any technical climbing.
Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set Page 118
