Omnixius
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4-17 Allies in odd places
🕑 Added 2019-12-06 20:03:05 +0000 UTC
Jessivel followed a soldier who met him at the door through the farmhouse to a large room near the back. Here stood a desk, some chairs, and a few tables. Two men sat at one of the tables writing letters while two more men leaned over the desk at one another.
One was a barrel-chested man in a blue coat with a golden sash over his right shoulder. He had a dark beard that ringed his face and hung down but in an inch. The other was a man with short blond hair in the silver plate of Astikar. The two were arguing when the man leading him stopped just inside the door.
“Jessivel Lord Seeker of the order of Astikar,” he announced.
Both men looked to regard him as he paced into the room with a face of anger.
“And what do you want?” the bearded man behind the desk barked.
“I want to know why the women put in your care are in such bad conditions?” Jessivel asked as he approached.
The bearded man rolled his eyes and tossed his head back in annoyance as Captain Sallins turned to address him.
“I have been after that answer for two days,” Sallins insisted. “He refuses to make any effort to improve their conditions.”
“I don't have the means to improve their condition. I am only here to guard the camp, support and supplies have to come from the duke.”
Jessivel nodded as he arrived beside captain Sallins.
“I have a host of captives, and I was told this location could safely hold them in good care,” Jessivel said calmly. “This camp can't hold even half of what it has in poor care. I want to know why.”
The bearded man lifted a hand and pointed it directly at Jessivel.
“Now, you listen here,” he began. “I have heard enough about the conditions and size of the camp. I was told to put them in an empty field and keep them suppressed. That they have that barn and the shed is already a violation of my orders. As for how many people the camp can hold, I have orders to double it!”
“Whose orders?” Jessivel asked as he leaned over the table.
“Your own bloody Father Abbots!” the man shouted.
“Preposterous!” Captain Sallins spat. “This is no way to show mercy!”
The man reached into a drawer of his desk and drew out a piece of ornate paper. He slammed it on the desk and pushed it over for both men to read. “Read it yourselves and then get out of my office! You priests operate with the blessing of the local government; you do not supersede it!”
Jessivel looked down and immediately saw the seal of Astikar pressed into red wax. He pulled the orders closer with his fingertips and read through the paper with deepening concern.
“This has to be a fake,” Sallins said in an angry voice.
“I doubt it,” Jessivel said as he got to the line that said containing the women was of primary concern. No instructions for food or care were included, only keeping them warded and in place.
“No man of our faith would make such a demand!” Sallins argued.
Jessivel tapped the paper and looked up at Sallins. “Then perhaps he isn’t of our faith.”
Sallins practically stumbled as of the words were a charging horse.
“You speak sacrilege!”
“I speak the truth,” Jessivel said. “The question is, are you brave enough to hear it?”
“What are you getting at?” Sallins demanded.
Jessivel locked his eyes to reply.
“That the Father Abbot is behaving in a manner unfit of our order. This camp and the people detained in it are proof of that. His mad obsession with Gersius and his insistence on the raven guard should have alerted us all weeks ago.
“The Father Abbot is the appointed head of our order!” Sallins barked. “He is the closest to Astikar himself! He speaks the truth of our faith to the faithful.
“Then why is he lying about Gersius?” Jessivel demanded.
“How dare you accuse him of lying!”
“You think I am lying?” Jessivel laughed. “I stood face to face with Gersius just a few weeks ago and delivered the Father Abbots orders to him. Orders which I might mention I have a copy. I was told to send him to Whiteford to speak to the Father Abbot and update him on the state of his mission. He begged me to deliver a letter for him instead so he could go on to Calathen. He said he had hope for the war and could not delay. I had to argue with him to force him to Whiteford.”
Sallins looked at Jessivel with a stunned expression and worked his mouth silently.
Jessivel reached into his side pouch and pulled out a folded letter. He opened it and placed it on the desk next to the one from Captain Barns.
“Look closely and see they are the same paper with the same seal, and then read what my orders say.”
Captain Sallins trembled with rage as he bent over to read the paper. The bearded Captain barns did the same, and both men went silent.
“Gersius attacking Whiteford is a lie?” Sallins finally asked.
Jessivel nodded. “All of it is.”
“But? But why?” Sallins asked.
Jessivel shook his head. “I have been hoping to run down Gersius and find out. I suspect he and the Father Abbot are the only two who know.”
The bearded man slammed a fist on the desk bringing both men’s attention back to him.
“I don't care what your bloody orders were, mine are to hold these women here, and I am doing it better than I was instructed.”
“Captain Barns,” Jessivel began. “Do you have no pity for the women out there?”
“I told you I already did more than I was supposed to,” he repeated.
Jessivel shook his head. “You are holding them at the request of a liar who is punishing them for what they know.”
“I don't answer to your Father Abbot, I answer to my duke, and he has already been paid. He wants the women held, so the money keeps coming.”
“So the women who bless your harvests and families suffer to line a greedy duke's pocket?” Jessivel asked.
“What do you want me to do about it?” he insisted. “If I say no, I will end up someplace worse, and a man more suited to the task will be appointed.”
Jessivel knew he was telling the truth. This man was caught in the conflict like all the others. He was already bending his orders to try and give the women some comfort. If he pushed too far, he would likely be in a cell while a man with more sadistic tastes took over.
“What can we do?” Sallins asked.
“You can’t do anything,” Captain Barns said. “Unless you want to betray your order and anger the duke.”
Jessivel began to pace as he considered his options.
“How loyal are your men Captain Barns?”
“My men?” Captain Barns laughed. “You are thinking of doing something foolish, and your worried my men will put up a fight.”
“Won't they?” Jessivel asked, turning to face him.
Captain barns leaned back and folded his arms.
“Jeremy, go into the yard and order any of the guards you find in here, now!”
One of the men at the table replied with a “Yes My Lord,” and ran out of the room.
Jessivel felt nervous and reached for the handle of his sword. He caught Captain Sallins doing the same as Barns glowered at them.
“Stay your weapons. There will be no bloodshed here. I only want to make a point, one you seem incapable of understanding.”
Jessivel tensed with his hand over the hilt of his sword as men began to file in.
“Line up along the wall,” Barns commanded as the men kept coming. Once a dozen of them were inside, Barns ordered Jeremy to join them.
“I want every man who has a wife held in one of these camps to step forward,” he said.
Jessivel watched as half their number stepped up. Sallins shook his head and mumbled something, but the only word he caught was disgraceful.
“Now, which one of you is happy about the current situation?” Captain Barns asked.
Not a man said a word as most of them looked down. Captain barns walked the line nodding, and then when finished, he turned to Jessivel.
“They take women from here and hold them in camps elsewhere,” he said. We get the women from there, so there is no risk of a husband being assigned to guard his own wife.”
“How do you live with yourselves?” Sallins asked.
“Don't take that attitude with us,” Captain Barns replied. “I was given this divines forsaken assignment and the men whose wives were taken. They do their job well, and their wives stay safe.”
“So your wives are being used to keep you in line,” Jessivel surmised.
One of the men standing along the wall broke his silence and replied.
“They have some of our daughters, too,” he replied.
“Those of you who have daughters being held step forward,” Jessivel said.
Sallins spat when all but one man joined the line.
“They are all being blackmailed!” Sallins roared. “This isn’t the way of Astikar!”
“Calm yourself,” Jessivel said with a wave of his hand.
“I will not stand for this!” Sallins replied. “I will not see the honor of my faith, so tarnished!”
Jessivel walked up to the line of men and went to the man standing in the back who hadn’t moved yet.
“Are you being coerced in some way?”
“They have my sister,” he replied.
“outrageous!” Sallins roared.
“Step up where you belong,” Jessivel said with a shake of his head.
“We have to do something!” Sallins shouted.
“We are going to do something,” Jessivel replied. “We are going to help the only man who put an end to this madness.”
“Who?” Sallins asked.
Jessivel turned on Sallins with a smile. “We’re going to help Gersius.”
Sallins let out an exasperated sigh. “Help him do what?”
“He means to march through the Golden Gate and claim the title of Dragon Knight and then Emperor of the second Dragon Empire,” Jessivel said with finality. “He also plans to supplant the Father Abbot with another.”
“Who?” Sallins asked.
Jessivel shook his head. “They won't tell me yet,”
Sallins through up his arms. “Even our combined men and every person in this camp joined Gersius; he would never reach the walls of the city.”
“Gersius is building an army.”
“So is Dellain!” Sallins spat.
The room was quiet as Captain Sallins took his turn pacing. “I took this assignment to get away from Calathen. I couldn’t stand to see what was happening.”
“What are you talking about?” Jessivel asked.
Sallins paused in his pacing to look back to Jessivel. “The Father Abbot has given the raven guard free authority to recruit. They are scouring the land looking for worthy men in every prison, dungeon, and brothel. They are also hiring mercenaries and recruiting conscripts to form their own militias.”
Jessivel knew the raven guard was recruiting, but he wasn't sure of the scope of it. His last reports had them in the low hundreds. To hear the dire tone of Sallin's voice, he feared for the worst.
“How big are they now?”
“Thousands!” Sallins said. “The Father Abbot claims it’s to help in the war with the Doan. The kings refuse to pull any more soldiers off the fortifications to the west. So he used that as a pretense to raise a private army of his own. They are all stationed in and around Calathen, turning the city into even more of a fortress.”
Jessivel felt a dark chill run up his spine to hear such words. Gersius was a master tactician and a grand thinker, but nobody had ever breached the walls, and never had the city been so defended. Jessivel looked around the room at the dire faces of the men and then turned to Captain Barns.
“Do the men in the other camp feel like your men do?”
“I am sure of it,” the man replied.
Jessivel thought feverishly as he pondered his next decision.
“Do you trust all the people in your camp?”
The man laughed. “You can trust my men, but don’t turn your back on the weavers. They don’t answer to me at all, and they don’t much care for the women.”
“What are you planning?” Sallins asked.
“We ask for volunteers among the women to stay behind and make it appear the camp is running as intended while we march off with the bulk of them.”
“March them where?” Sallins asked. “I was upset at the care they were receiving here. How are we going to care for them on a march?”
“We will trust in Astikar to show us the way,” Jessivel replied.
“And what am I supposed to tell the weavers?” Captain Barns asked.
Jessivel thought about it a moment. If the weavers were working for somebody else, there was no telling who was going to hear of it.”
“You tell them the truth. Tell them we put up a fuss about the condition of the camp. We demanded that you relinquish some of the women so we could take them to a less crowded one.”
“And how are you going to move so many women without it looking suspicious?”
Jessivel smiled. “Your men are going to help.”
The bearded man looked at him with a frown on his face.
“It is the only way,” Jessivel said. “We march from here to whatever camp has this areas women. We will hide the bulk of them and approach the camp in the same fashion. Then with any luck, we can walk out with that camp's women and restore these men to their loved ones.”
A few men in the line made choking noises, and Jessivel noted a tear. Captain Barns shook his head and let out a deep sigh.
You do know where this camp is?” Jessivel asked.
“I do,” Captain Barns said with a shake of his head. “I hope your plan works, or these men are going to be looking for new wives.”
Jessivel smiled at that remark. “Let’s make a show of it, shall we?”
Barns nodded, and they headed for the door.
“How long has he been in there?” Ayawa asked.
“Twenty minutes,” Tavis said.
“I don’t like the fact that they called the guard from the yard inside,” Herris added.
They watched the distant farmhouse, and the door suddenly burst open.
“I told you I want all your priests out of my camp!” a bearded man yelled as he stormed out of the door.
“And I told you I represent the Father Abbot himself. I am taking enough of the women with me to reduce your camp to tolerable levels!” Jessivel shouted back.
“Be ready,” Ayawa whispered to Two Crows and the others. “This doesn’t look like it’s going well.”
Two Crows nodded and stepped back into the others as Jessivel and the man argued.
“I will have my men take this camp by force if I have to!” Jessivel shouted. “Captain Sallins will follow my lead, and your camp will burn!”
The bearded man looked like he was ready to strike Jessivel, and guards began to file out behind him.
“Fine! Take the women, but my men are escorting them to the next camp!”
“He did it?” Tavis said with a sigh of relief.
“He’s done nothing if those men escort them,” Ayawa added.
“So long as we're not spilling blood over this, I'm happy,” Herris replied.
“Maybe not now, but what happens when those guards learn were not going to another camp?” Ayawa asked.
Herris had no answer as the shouting went on.
Jessivel went to say something more, but the man threw up a hand. “Enough, I am sick of you priests and your meddling. You want to play the virtuous hero take them. Let's see if you can do any better!”
Jessivel turned and went to his horse, silently untying it before riding it back to the line.
“The camp is going to cooperate with us and help us liberate the women.”
“You call that cooperation?” Herris asked.
“What are you going to do about the guards?” Ayawa asked as well.
“They are secretly helping us,” Jessivel said.
“How in the name of the earth mother did you manage that?” Ayawa asked.
“No time to explain,” he said with a glance over his shoulder. “Were not getting all the women, just enough to reduce the camp to a safe number.”
“Which means most of them,” Tavis said.
“two dozen will stay behind,” Jessivel replied.
“What happened to liberating them all?” Ayawa asked.
“I learned the truth, and the levels to which the Father Abbot will stoop.”
“I didn’t think you could see that far down,” Tavis said.
Jessivel shot him a disapproving glance and turned his horse around.
“Pass this down the line. They are going to tied and gag the women properly. And they are going to be escorted by two hundred of the men from this camp. These men are going to be volunteers who are here to help us. Nobody is to try and free any of the women until we are well away.”
“What?” Ayawa said.
“I need you to trust me,” Jessivel said. “I will explain it all when we are away.”
“Why can’t you explain it now?” she asked.
“We can’t trust the weavers,” Jessivel said in a whisper. “They do not work for the captain of the guard here. They are a special assignment from somewhere even he doesn’t know.”
“So, this is a show to make them think you forced his hand?” Tavis asked.
Jessivel smiled for a change. “Precisely.”
The word was passed down the line, and men marched into the enclosure with rope and gags. It took longer than expected, but two hundred men lined up on the road with a hundred and twenty-two bound women and seven men.
“Get out of my camp!” Captain Barns yelled as Jessivel formed the line. “You won't find better accommodations in the next one. You will be back here in a week!”
Jessivel gave the man a cold stare as he kicked his horse into motion and led the formation away. Slowly they walked down the road leaving the camp behind. They met up with Captain Sallins on the other side, and he was grateful to see he had fifty more light infantry and two priests.
Captain Sallins added his men to the sides of the formation in two lines to make it appear to be heavily guarded as he rode beside the others upfront.
Jessivel marched them for nearly three hours before turning to Ayawa and the others.
“I want to turn them loose, but I need a way to make it appear they are still bound.”
“What for?” Tavis asked.
“We are likely to run into other patrols and formations moving east. I don’t want to have to explain why none of my captives are bound.”
Ayawa nodded and used a hand signal to call up Two Crows.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“We're going to free the women. I need you and the tribe's people to take their ropes and make fake knots with them. If we meet any other patrols, we want them to think they are still bound.”
Two Crows nodded and turned to his people marching in the center of the line. He barked orders in his native tongue, and his people moved back to begin loosening the women.
“Now, can you tell us what happened?” Ayawa demanded.
Jessivel shook his head as he put his fingers to his temple.
“Sacrilege is what happened,” Captain Sallins spat.
“At east captain,” Jessivel said. “We accomplished a miracle.”
“To what end?” Sallins asked. “How are you going to feed this army? How are you going to march them in bad weather, across rough roads in their house slippers?”
“We will solve those problems as we meet them,” Jessivel said.
“Will one of you tell us what happened?” Ayawa barked.
Jessivel went over the details explaining how the men guarding the camp were blackmailed. So long as they took care of the women here, their loved ones were safe someplace else.”
“I actually feel sick,” Herris said. “And ashamed to wear this armor.”
Sallins groaned to hear such a remark about Astikar and shook his head in frustration.
“All we can do is right the wrongs we cross,” Jessivel said. “We have no other course of action.”
“Our problems will only get worse when free the others,” Sallins replied.
“Others?” Ayawa snapped. “What others?”
Jessivel let out a sigh. “I promised to march us to another camp. I will make the same deal there with the captain.”
“You hope,” Sallins interrupted.
Jessivel shot him a glare and continued. “The women we just liberated belong to the guards of the next camp. They are guarding the women that belong to men here. I plan to use that to coerce them into letting us take the bulk of those women and some guards.”
“You want to make a trade?”
“Not exactly,” Jessivel said. “We will hide our women outside the camp, and we will march in with a small group of prisoners like we did here. I will make the same argument to the captain of the guard there and see if I can't arrange the same deal. With any luck, I will unite a large portion of his women with their husbands here, and take some of his men to unite them with the wives we already have.”
“So, you want to unite the husbands and wives from both camps?” Ayawa asked.
Jessivel nodded. “For mercie's sake, I will bring them back together.”
“And they will die on the march down the road,” Sallins added.
“Do you have a better plan?” Jessivel asked.
“I only see the logistics of it. My men can give up tents and a little food, but that will only go so far.”
Jessivel turned and looked directly at Gedris. “How quickly can your women grow food?”
She was struck by the sudden focus on her as all eyes turned to regard her.
“We can bring a tree to fruit in a minute. A healthy crop can be blessed and brought to bear in a month. If we started from seeds, we would need a little longer.”
“We don’t have a month,” Sallins said.
“There is no way to do it faster?” Jessivel asked.”
“The farther along the crop is already, the faster we can make it grow. You can use our blessed water to make a single plant grow instantly, or a field in less than an hour.”
“And that’s all you can do?”
“The only other way to do it would be to link and do a joined blessing.”
Jessivel nodded. Astikar had such blessings. The priests would stand in precise positions to create a ring or a star pattern around the center of the blessing. In this way, the energy of the blessing combined to form something much more powerful. It had few uses in the order of Astikar outside of healing, but Gersius was once rumored to have formed a massive circle of protection from one.
“Do we have enough women to do such a blessing and grow enough food to fee them?” Jessivel asked.
“It only takes twelve women to form a basic circle,” Gedris said. “But we will need a larger one if you want food grown in hours.”
“So, we have enough then?”
Gedris nodded. “We have enough for three circles, but it will exhaust them to channel so much power.”
“Let’s hope we can grow enough food that way then,” Jessivel said.
“But we need seeds,” Gedris said. “If we don't have something to plant, all were going to be growing is weeds and grass.”
“Wait, You do that already with your blessing that entangles people?” Tavis said.
“This is a special blessing designed to do just that,” Gedris said. “It caused brambles and vines to appear. It is useless for growing food. To do that, we need good seed stock and a different prayer.
Jessivel leaned up in his horse and looked around. Up and down the road were farms and farmhouses.
“I believe I know how to resolve that problem,” he said.
Men were sent to every farm as they passed imploring the people there to share in any seed stores. By nightfall, they had bags and small jars of seeds of every variety from country gardens for miles around.
They made camp in an empty field well off the road, and men were posted to guard the perimeter as the women gathered to turn soil and plant seeds. An hour later, they circled the plots in geometric rings, with forty-eight women in each pattern. Together they sang, and green light began to flow between them. Each pattern was three rings, and the power flowed around them in circles. The ground before them blossomed forth with plants reaching skyward and coming to fruit in minutes.
“I have never seen this done before,” Tavis said.
“I haven’t either,” Jessivel said. “There is little cause for it in our order.”
“Gersius wanted to do something like this to heal his dragon,” Ayawa said. “But the Father Abbot had other plans.”
Jessivel wanted to vomit to think of what happened in Whiteford. Captain Sallins nearly did when Ayawa recounted the tale for him as they rode.
Thunder rolled overhead as green rays reached down from the night sky, blessing the ground as the song ended.
“Ulustrah has answered them,” Jessivel said as he looked on.
“Ulustrah must be venomously angry,” Ayawa said.”But at least she responds.”
“What is Astikar doing, though? Tavis asked. “It's like he has no power to act.”
“The divines are not allowed to intervene directly,” Jessivel said.
“Why not?” Tavis asked. “Gersius says the same thing, but even he questions why Astikar has done nothing.”
Jessivel shrugged. “I don’t know. I only know what has been preached for as far back as I remember. The fate of the world lies in the hands of men, the divines can bless our efforts, but they can’t block our path.”
“Tell that to his dragon,” Ayawa said with a smirk. “She doesn’t think much of the divines.”
“Right now, I am not sure I do either,” Jessivel said with a hint of pain in his voice. “But I have to trust this is happening for a reason.” He let the thought go and turned to face Tavis. “Did you get a good look at that ward?”
Tavis tipped his hat up so he could meet the man's eyes. “
“I got more than that. The arrogant fool that was in charge of it gave me a tour to brag about it.”
“So, you understand it then?”
Tavis shook his head. “I understand we have another enemy of great power.”
Jessivel didn't know what to make of the comment, so Tavis filled him in on the details. He explained the divine elements of the weave and how he knew of no way to make them. He also explained the runes that came from the dragon statue in Calathen. He then explained how all this was done by a single woman named Carrigara.
“Wait? Carrigara?” Jessivel asked. “You are sure that was her name?”
“I am very sure,” Tavis replied.
“What of it?” Ayawa asked.
Jessivel shook his head. “I know there was a Carrigara in Calathen. She was there as some kind of envoy to the father abbot with two others. A tall man with dark hair and copper skin, and a second woman with brightly colored skirts.”
“Did you meet her?” Tavis asked.
“No, I didn’t meet any of them, and I have gotten all my accounts second hand. They met with a private council of the Father Abbot. I am sure that was one of the names.”
“When did this happen?” Ayawa asked.
“When Gersius was making his petition to go on his quest,” Jessivel said. “The whole order was in an uproar over it. The Father Abbot looked like he was going to deny it. He stalled for a day of contemplation when he had no choice. Captain Sallins even made a public rebuke over the foolishness of thinking about something that could not be denied.”
“So she was there from the beginning,” Tavis said.
“I have never heard of her,” Ayawa said. “How did you hear about it?”
Jessivel smiled. “I deal with information brokers and spies to find my quarry. I have eyes and ears all over the city and the surrounding countryside.”
“And you knew nothing of the Father Abbots activities?” Ayawa asked.
Jessivel shook his head. “There are those I do not dare scrutinize. A stranger of great importance entering the city I will hear about. When the path leads the Father Abbot, I look elsewhere.”
“So she was in the city speaking with the Father Abbot in private,” Tavis said.
“There was a plan in place long before Gersius even made his demand,” Ayawa pointed out.
“But what plan?” Tavis replied.
“It doesn't matter now,” Jessivel said. “His plan has gone awry, and he is grasping with an ever tighter grip to get control back. The best we can do now is ensure he doesn't get a firm hold.”
Ayawa paced angrily around him as she pondered all this information.
“We have to get this to Gersius!” she hissed. “He needs to know all we have learned.”
“We will move after we visit the next camp,” Jessivel said.
“At a snail's pace,” Ayawa said. “Sallins is right; most of these women are in simple shoes and clothes. They can't go on a forced march.”
“We will do the best we can,” Jessivel said.
“And meanwhile Gersius doesn’t know the Raven Guard is swelling in numbers, or that men are being blackmailed to stand against him by having their wives held captive. He doesn’t know these plans against him were started long before he even left the city. He is walking into this blind!”
“I am sure he has scouts of his own,” Jessivel said. “He is probably learning of these things as we are.”
“Let’s hope your right,” Ayawa said. “Were all too deep into this to turn back now.”
Comments
I have five sample chapters of Heather written. I am struggling to pick a solid direction for the story that gives it more substance and starts a long ranging story arc. I want to say this Tuesday, but I don’t want to promise that. I need to do an audio log where I talk about Heather and what is really making this hard. In fact, I may do that now.
BlackFire13th
Heather when?
WhiteRabbit
Father Abbots -> 's “outrageous!” Sallins roared. -> Outrageous At east captain-> least mercie's-> mercy's Abbots activities-> 's leads the Father Abbot -> to the your right-> you're
