by Eric Ugland
I let him poke Skeld.
They both glared at me.
"All right dudes," I said. “What's wrong?"
"You left us here when you went on your quest," Skeld said.
"That's it?" I asked. "I thought I did something terrible."
"You did do something terrible," Ragnar spat out. "We are meant to be part of you. Part of what you do, part of your legend. When you leave us behind, when you leave us out of the knowledge of what you are doing. Then you treat us as little more than common servants."
"You guys aren't servants," I said.
"We know," Skeld replied. "We are your hirð, we are something more. We know your truth, as you know everything about us. And so we expect to be treated as such."
I looked from furry face to furry face, and I had to hide my confusion. I didn't really understand why they were so upset. Why this mattered so much to them. And how it was a big deal.
"I mean, are you upset because you wanted to go?"
"We are upset—“
"I can speak for myself," Ragnar interrupted Skeld to say. "I am upset because I want to know what is happening in this holding, and with my duke. I am not a casual guard who holds the gate and counts wagons as they come through. I am your hirðman."
"As am I," Skeld said. "And going off on your own made it very likely you would perish. Our lives are tied to yours, and if you end your life because you are doing something stupid, we are the ones who will pay the price.”
“Do you realize what happens to us when you die?” Ragnar asked, getting to his feet and glaring at me. “We lose everything we have gained following you.”
“And we are left bereft of anything we have worked for, for we gave our lives away to follow you.”
I opened my mouth a few times, but there was really nothing there. I didn’t know what to say. The whole hirð thing was definitely more than I had realized. There were some real consequences to it that I’d really kind of ignored because, in a way, they didn’t apply to me. As the focal point of the hirð, I really just got the good bits. But these two really did need to worry about what might happen should I die. Or get bored. Or anything. They tied their lives to mine, and realistically, had little to no say in what was going to happen. And I had, more or less, just treated them like guards. I needed someone to watch the village at night, so I had the lutra do it. And they were calling me on my bullshit. Which, you know, good for them. Someone needed to.
“I’m sorry, guys,” I said. “I just wasn’t thinking. Thing is, you guys are all that we’ve got right now, security wise.”
Skeld nodded, but Ragnar didn’t seem as quickly mollified.
“Someone has to sit back here to guard the homefront,” I continued. “Especially at night. And you two are the only ones I trust to do that.”
“So we’re indispensable,” Ragnar said.
“Of course. This place doesn’t work without you two.”
“See,” Ragnar said, looking over at Skeld, “we’re not just guards. We’re important guards.”
I gave Ragnar a look.
“We cool?” I asked.
There was a pause, then some smiles.
“It is important to us you acknowledge who we are and what we do,” Skeld said. “And that we will be back to questing with you soon.”
“As soon as I can get you guys back out there with me, but I’m not exactly heading out into anything exciting. I’m just, you know, trying to make this place work.”
“It smells in here,” Ragnar said.
“Yeah, I’m quite fucking aware of that,” I said. “Especially right now.”
Someone was shouting outside, calling for me.
“Okay, well,” I said, “this has been joyful, but I think you need to sleep some more, and apparently I have somewhere I need to be.”
Chapter Fourteen
I jogged across our glorified camp and went around the still-not-quite-functional gate to see Conall the woch holding a hammer in two of his hands and daggers in the other two, ready to attack a man and a woman who stood at the entrance to the tunnel, their hands held up.
“What’s all this?” I asked.
Nathalie, fully decked out in her armor, stood on the far side of the couple, her sword out and ready to go.
“They just came through the tunnel,” she said.
“Not exactly a crime is it?” the man said. “Just exploring.”
“Did they make any, like aggressive actions?” I asked. “Steal anything?”
“No and no,” Nathalie said.
“Then let’s disarm ourselves and welcome our guests.”
Conall lowered his weapons, or, well, his tools I suppose. He basically just hopped back to work building the stone base of the tower.
Nathalie slid her sword back in its sheathe and stood at attention, clearly not willing to accept that these two new people were just innocent travelers.
“Hi,” I said, “welcome to Coggeshall.”
“Is that what this place is called?” the woman asked in reply. She was striking to look at, with dark hair that had just a tiny wave to it, and pale skin. Her eyes were a vibrant blue, and her lips were in an almost perfect and perpetual pout.
“Yeah,” I said, walking up to the two, “it is called that. Our little place to call home.”
“Is it just the gate, or...” the woman said, her eyes laughing as she smiled.
“Not a ton,” I said, “but you’re welcome to take a peek, have a bite to eat, rest, that sort of thing.”
The woman put her arm in mine, and then gestured for me to lead her in.
“My brother and I are quite tired after our journey,” she said.
“Oh?” I asked, starting to walk, “where did you come from?”
She looked over at the man she’d come with, her brother, and he smiled.
“The south,” he said. “A little village called Chossion. My brother, our brother, he is the oldest, and when our parents passed this winter, he received the farm. We were, well, our eldest brother was not willing to keep the family together, so we, uh, we decided to leave.”
“Family trouble,” I replied. “Tough. Why here?”
“Carolene heard tales of Osterstadt, that there were more jobs than there are goblins in the Windriver Mountains.”
“I was wrong,” Carolene said with a smile.
“Osterstadt is a strange place,” I said.
We came around the gate/wall combo, and I showed them our spread.
The siblings did not appear impressed. Which, you know, can’t exactly blame them.
“It is, uh, rustic,” Carolene finally said.
“Work in progress,” I said. “We’ve only been here, like, two weeks? And we focused pretty much exclusively on the tunnel.”
“That tunnel is quite the feat,” the brother said.
“You’re Carolene,” I said to the girl, “but I didn’t catch your brother’s name.”
“Baldwin,” he said with a slight nod of his head, “Baldwin Caillot.”
“Well, Baldwin and Carolene Caillot, I am Montana, and welcome to Coggeshall.”
“Montana?” Carolene said, “that is an unusual name. Where do you hail from?”
“Well to the east, and far to the north.”
“Outside the empire?”
“Indeed it was. But I’m an Imperial citizen now. You know, in case you’re wondering.”
Carolene smiled at me.
Things were starting to get going, construction wise. Logs had been put up against the rampart nearly halfway around. There were quite a few people, all working pretty happily, using the draft animals to haul the logs in place. Then, once in place, they’d cut points on the logs while standing on the ramparts. The dirt and log walls weren’t anywhere close to the security of the stone walls we’d built around our gate, but it was something. There was a definite sense of defense coming along. And, you could certainly see the scope of the place we hoped to build. The open space, largely level, encompassed
several acres. And we had a barn. And a stinky longhouse. And a big open kitchen where someone was working on something that might someday become an oven.
The big surprise, to me at least, was that even though it was only midday, Lee’s Team IR had gotten the basics of both the sawmill and the smithy down. There were stone foundations on either side, an anvil in place on the smithy side, and the underpinnings of the huge saw needed for the saw mill. Beyond that, I could see a waterwheel turning in the river, rotating a shaft through the rampart. We had power.
Feeling a mite peckish, I led my tour in the general direction of the kitchen, hoping there might be something in the new oven, ready to come out. I was really jonesing for some fresh bread. The siblings followed.
"Are you guys looking for somewhere to live?" I asked. "Or just, like exploring?"
"We thought we were going to live in Osterstadt, but—“
"Didn't exactly meet your expectations?”
"Signing my life away to someone else?" Baldwin said. “Might as well join the Legion. At least they would give me a pension if I survived my contract.”
“I don’t think lot of people catch that when they sign the contracts."
"It is very unscrupulous.”
"I thought it was a good idea," Carolene said. “My brother here had to explain that housing did not come with the job, that we still paid for it."
"They do find a way to get you," I said.
“I think it is but a clever way to get around the Imperial ban on slavery,” Baldwin said.
"To answer you," Carolene said, shooting a pointed look at her brother, "I think we are searching for a place to call home, but I cannot say for certain we are ready to give up that search."
"I see. Visitors to Coggeshall, then."
"My sister can speak for herself," Baldwin said. "I, for one, would relish a safe haven in this empire right now."
"Do you have, say, a profession or some skill you could bring to the party?" I asked.
"I could be a guard, perhaps something along those lines. I trained as a swordsman—“
"He planned to be an adventurer," Carolene said with a smug smile.
"What is the third son of a barely landed noble to do?" Baldwin replied, holding his hands out. "I thought it might be the only career open for me. And now, without weapons of my own or any sort of support from my family, I cannot even say that is a possible future. So, Montana, if you have need of a swordsman here, someone trained to fight, then I would certainly be willing to consider making Coggeshall my home."
"I know we could use more guards," I said. "I want to say this place is totally safe, but that's just not the world we live in, is it?"
Baldwin smiled, wan, like he knew the truth of the matter, "Sadly, no."
"I suppose I ought to say a little about myself," Carolene said. “I fear I do not have the obvious skills my brother has. I am not quite as practiced with the sword, but—”
“Do not listen to her,” Baldwin interrupted. “She tries to be humble, but Carolene is an accomplished archer.”
“Only on targets,” she said, shaking her head and perhaps even blushing. “I never have hunted or, well, shot at something living.”
“As far as I’m concerned,” I said, “I think we value the willingness to work hard more than exactly what you’re able to do. Besides, if there’s something that interests you, might as well learn about it here.”
“Are you the man in charge?” Carolene asked.
“I, uh,” I stammered, all of a sudden wondering how to answer that question. Sure, I was, you know, on paper. And, nominally. I was the noble who owned all this land. It was my holding. But I didn’t want to admit it. I felt like these people were being forthright, being themselves, and they weren’t afraid of me. And part of me felt like that would all change if they found out I was a duke.
“Sort of, but not really,” I said. “There’s this guy Nikolai, he’s in charge. I’m more of a friend of his. So that’s how I made it in.”
“And what do you do here?”
“Fish,” I said. Which was somewhat true. I had been shunted out of my job by Lanfrank, so technically I could go off and fish. “Speaking of, I maybe should be doing that. If you want to drop your things off somewhere, I can take you to Nathalie, our head of security, and she can, well, see where she can fit you into our guard scheme.”
Carolene looked to Baldwin, I think wanting to put the brakes on a little. But Baldwin was all smiles, nodding vigorously.
“That would be excellent. Thank you,” Baldwin said.
Chapter Fifteen
I hiked away from the village with my fishing pole and supplies. Fritz lumbered along next to me, having grown tired of the work he’d been doing. Tarryn, for his part, had been roped into working, so I figured this was a fair trade. Fritz could be my unnecessary bodyguard for a spell. While I wanted to invite Ragnar and Skeld, they were still our main night guards, and had switched to an almost entirely nocturnal existence. I could still see the village — well, the walls around the village. I could watch the logs get put up, and, if necessary, I could run over and help. And I could see our brand-new water wheel turn as the river flowed along.
We found a fantastic little spot, with a slight waterfall, some big rocks, and a large tree hanging over a nearly perfect seat. The river below the small fall formed a beautiful pool, deep and blue and delightful.
I sat down and dropped my line in the water.
Fritz found a large sunny spot on the far side of the tree, and dropped down on his belly. The snoring started in a heartbeat. There was definitely something oddly soothing about the noise.
I leaned back against the tree, keeping one eye on my line, half-hoping the fish wouldn’t be biting. I mean, it was the middle of the afternoon. Obviously it wasn’t the ideal time to fish — if you were hoping to actually catch fish. But if you wanted to relax, it was pretty perfect.
Just as I was failing to keep both eyes open, something snatched at the worm on the end of my line. It held for a moment, but then it snapped.
I looked at the rod.
And then I threw it to the ground.
It was the first rod I got, the one I’d received with my starting kit. It felt more sporting to use that. The super rod from Mister Paul just seemed like cheating. Functionally unbreakable line, snazzy blue color. What fish could resist that? I tied on a hook, but didn’t bother with bait — I just dropped the new line in the water, and then I leaned back against the tree, closed both eyes, and enjoyed feeling the dappled sun dance across my face.
Obviously I fell asleep. There was no way around it. It was just so warm and comfy.
I woke with a start.
It was still light out, the sun still hung high in the sky. I looked around, trying to figure out why I’d woken. The river ran on, loud enough to drown out any real noise. The work continued apace on the wall. Actually, it looked like it had sped up some — the short section along the river had been completed, and they were most of the way down the single long section. Fritz still snoozed away in the sunlight, oblivious to everything, including the two song birds that sat on the pseudo-shark-fin-looking thing poking up from his back.
I didn’t have any dreams bouncing around in my memories; it had just been a quaint afternoon schnoo. I wasn’t thinking about anything, really. Even before the nap, I’d mostly been focused on not thinking about things, so I was confused.
But there was a nagging feeling. This sense that someone, or something, was watching me.
I scanned the environment around me. Nothing. But then I stopped myself, and forced thinking to happen. I needed to be smarter, and that started now.
If I was going to watch someone, obviously I wouldn’t do it from the same side of the river. I’d be on the other side. That’d give me a physical barrier to be safe in case the something I was watching woke up.
So I peered across the river.
It wasn’t easy to see through the heavy forest. It hadn’t been cu
t back in any fashion, and the perpetual access to water meant the vegetation had grown exceptionally thick over time. Nothing stuck out to me, nothing indicated even the slightest bit of civilization or a being watching me. Could it be an animal of some kind? A predator?
Then I saw it.
Two eyes blinked.
It was more luck than anything else — I just happened to glance at the right spot at the right time. I made sure to keep looking around like I hadn’t noticed anything. I swept my head back and forth as if I couldn’t find what I was looking for, and then, hardest of all, I forced myself to shake my head as if I was crazy.
I reeled my line in, all relaxed like, and tossed it out again, letting the hook plonk into the pool below. Then I leaned back and closed my eyes.
Then, real subtle-like, I reached out with my tremorsense. Which was definitely a challenge. The river played some real havoc with it, since all the water provided a slew of vibrations. It took a minute before I could pinpoint where the creature stood.
I opened my eyes the barest amount, just peeking through my eyelashes.
A creature was watching me. Now that it thought I was sleeping again, I could see it take a more aggressive approach to looking around. It definitely gave some attention to Fritz. Also some to the walls, but it seemed more curious about me and Fritz than the town and our defenses. Which gave me a slight sense of comfort.
I didn’t know what to do though. Did I need to pop up and attack the creature? What exactly was this thing? Did it have aggressive intentions? It wasn’t a goblin of any kind, I could tell that right off. It had a snout and clawed fingers. And I thought I caught a glimpse of scales. A lizard of some kind, perhaps?
A chittering rang out across the river, something I’d heard a few times, but just ascribed to the nature sounds. I thought it a bird of some kind, but maybe it wasn’t. I had a feeling it was some form of non-language communication. Otherwise, I’d have gotten some notification for having learned the language. Unless, you know, the river’s noise was interfering just enough that I couldn’t make out the individual words.
