My thanks first of all to Penny, for her help, her kindness and her creation, into which waters I tentatively dip my toes.
Also to Julia who has guided me faithfully.

Mistakes are, however, down to my account, not theirs.

This is dedicated to all those fans of Anmar who wondered what the Einnlanders did.

What happened to Princess Eriana once she came ashore

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Disclaimer:

The original characters and plot of this story are the property of the author. No infringement of pre-existing copyright is intended.
This story is copyright © 2015 Di Wonder. All rights reserved.

It uses some of the associated characters and situations that arise from the world called ‘Anmar’ created by Penny Lane, whose stories
are also copyright © 2010 - 2018 Penny Lane. All rights reserved.

It should be mentioned that certain scenes, first mentioned in Penny Lane's "Somewhere Else Entirely", have been copied from that work verbatim, and only the names changed here to represent the same events from a different point of view. This has been done with Penny Lane's kind permission.

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Gylfi slid backwards across the bloody ground and fetched up with his back against the wooden palings they had so recently erected, his legs stretched out on the ground in front of him. His shoulder ached immensely from the recoil he had barely controlled when he fired that dreadful gun thing and blew away that section of the attackers.

Attackers who seemed to have withdrawn, at last.

An immense weariness enveloped him then, which was only to be expected. He focussed his eyes on his feet, just for something to concentrate upon.

He frowned at a new gash in his right boot, and then he smiled as he remembered how he got the old one.

The smile twisted into his normally serious face, and his mind flashed back to the beginning of this phase of his life.

Well, maybe not the beginning, for that would mean thinking too much and in too much detail about the old country and the rifts and arguments that led to the hasty departure of the Visund. This was the ship that left Einnland with the Princess so many moons ago, the one that crashed to shore on the Plif coastline. It was named after one of the ships in the ancient Sagas from the Homeland that were still told and retold.

~o~O~o~

«Land ho! Larboard quarter.»

We all looked in that direction, but visibility was limited. The steersman leant on his sweep and the bows swung ponderously towards what we all hoped was a beach. A gently sloped, shallow beach. If we could not locate an inlet. The storm was in danger of sending us beneath the waves and we needed a landfall as soon as possible.

Going slightly across the turbulent waves was far less comfortable, but we all knew we needed to beach our craft soon, for the storm had sprung a few planks and the bailers were losing their battle, making it ever more difficult for us to row. The mast and sail had long since disappeared.

«Cease oars … reverse oars … now row backwards for your very lives … on command … and … one … two … three … four … one … two … three … four … put your … backs in … to it … whoresons … one … two … three … four … harder … bastards … really … try … harder … whoresons … three … four ...»

Then came chaos.

Wulf and Ragnar were the leading rowers on our side. They struck their blades on some unseen underwater obstacle and the great sweeps shattered. Poor Wulf's chest was crushed by the inboard end of the oar, but Ragnar had the sense to flatten himself before the same fate could overtake him.

But in doing so, he let go of his oar and that meant that it was entangled in the next man's. And so the larboard side oars were thrown into confusion.

«Ship oars!»

With so little control, it was more than something of a surprise that we managed to come to land with less damage.

The leadsman in the prow, Goran, spotted a narrow channel and indicated it. The steersman reacted quickly and just managed to get the front to drive into that vik, aided by a larger wave than usual under the stern. Three quarters of the Visund at least gained the tenuous security of that thin strip of water before the prow drove hard into a sandbank or something. The leadsman was catapulted overboard and landed head first in whatever was there, with sufficient force to snap his neck.

Not that we knew that at the time, we were all busy picking ourselves up from where the jarring halt had deposited us.

It was delicate for me since the Princess herself had been rowing in front of me, well behind me, but we were seated facing the stern of course, and she landed atop of where I was uncomfortably lying on the broken thwart, splinters digging into my back despite the thickness of the furs I was wearing. She was half-turned and, as she struggled to get to her feet again, her left breast was thrust into my pinned hand. Before I could even react, the figure of Lars appeared and plucked her upwards and upright. It was kind of him to then do the same for me.

The next while was very uncomfortable with the after part of the ship still being storm-tossed, whilst the forepart was firmly grounded. Ominous noises of strained wooden ribs, planks and gunwales were a regular accompaniment to the many conversations and shouted orders and demands that ensued. However, the tide reached its top height and, with a great sucking noise, the bow lifted free of the cloying material and we were once more afloat, and again shipping water!

The storm raged for a little while longer but eventually blew itself out, and the motion became easier as the tide receded, leaving us finally fully embedded in the shore, if shore is the right word for the marshy ground we found all around us. The hull lurched as the water ran out from under us and we had to get used to life lived at an angle. At the height of the storm, out at sea, we had had to lighten the ship as much as possible and most of our metal objects were consigned to the angry waves – we retained some of our axes as they would be useful tools for repairs should we ever survive this, but nearly all our weapons and most of our shields were gone. Which made us very uncomfortable lest the natives proved hostile. At least our short spears had been held back from the greedy depths.

Many of us had been injured; some, like myself, with only minor cuts and grazes, several with more severe sprains and six of us with broken bones. It is still remarkable to me that only three of us died – Wulf, Goran and Klaas.

That made a round dozen who had died since we left Einnland, the most important of those being the owner, and Captain, named Balrik. He however had been swept overboard along with the original steersman and two of his three lieutenants, when that rogue wave swept inboard at the stern end in the first storm we encountered. The waves had also taken the Captain's wife and daughter and their maids, as well as another male member of the crew. The Captain had been Lars' liege lord and he transferred his fealty to the Princess on the day after the Captain met his unfortunate end.

Now we were joined (shall we say) to land, it took a while for Adin, the cook, to find his box of dry tinder; but once that was accomplished it was not long before we had some fires going and water warmed for drinks as well as treatments.

The Princess eventually gave us the inevitable speech, which started with the words: «Welcome to your new home!»

After that 'talk', which most of us ignored since she was obviously in a foul mood, awnings were rigged and some shelters were constructed, giving at least a semblance of comfort. Already, the experienced shipwrights were examining the hull and, if not actually making some repairs then at least noting where they would be required. There were some standing on sturdy wooden platforms outside of the ship, platforms made from some of the broken rowing benches and other easily lifted material. Adin organised some half a dozen of us to help with food preparation. Little Alrik, our stowaway, worked tirelessly in this period, and never failed to have his infectious and cheeky grin on display.

~o~O~o~

As soon as dawn broke the following morning, one of the only two surviving praams was launched and four men rowed away towards the rising sun to explore the coast in that direction. That way was chosen since it was into both wind and sea, and would thus be easier to return from. The sea, however, was still angry, so the job of rowing the tiny boat was made quite difficult. Nevertheless, they slowly disappeared from our sight.

But not before the Princess had shouted at one or other of her maids at least three times, and at several of us. We had grown used to her temper tantrums and took it all with, as we say, a slurp of salt water. The poor unfortunates who were the recipients of her tongue took a little longer to come to terms with it than the rest of us did. She only realised our displeasure when once she started in, unreasonably we all thought, on poor little Alrik. I suppose, now I think of it, that it was really surprising that we ALL felt the need to protect the youngster.

During that first complete day, a lot was done to make the hull more sea-worthy, just enough to get to a port nearby, if any such place existed. However, the praam returned with a big negative which would mean they would then have to try in the opposite direction in the morning. The Princess shouted at the boatmen, as if it was their fault there was no village or anything off to the east.

Finally, we settled down to an uncomfortable night.

~o~O~o~

It was on that second day, after the departure of the praam, that we heard a hail, and saw, maybe eight dozen strides inland, a wagon pulled by a very strange animal. The animal was almost frightening in its looks, and yet it stood there placidly enough, seemingly surveying us as it waited patiently.

I heard the Princess mutter to herself: «So that's a dranak!»

None of us had yet managed to find our way to that part of the marsh, but the two men on the wagon indicated that they had brought some foodstuffs for us, and they started carrying it along a twisty trail that petered out only a stone's throw from us away. They went back and forth from the wagon, creating a pile of stuff for us on several tufts of more solid ground, whilst a party, led by Gullbrand and using the mighty muscles of the larger men, Fritjof and Tor, that's Tor the son of Anders, created a wooden walkway from tuft to tuft, finally arriving at the more solid part the men had indicated to us.

Their appearance managed to calm Her Highness a little, but her temper was never far from re-erupting; this fiery temper was something that we warriors approved of, and yet we underlings cringed at – for that is what we were to her, in these circumstances, just underlings that she could snarl and snap at, and order us about with no consideration.

A direct line from us to the wagon was, as I said, around a hundred strides, but by the time one had negotiated the marsh, then it was more like three times that for any of us to reach that spot. But by then the path had been demonstrated to us all, so the Princess wanted to know why we were so incompetent that we had not found it yet.

Once the way was found to be usable, and, I have to acknowledge, once Her Highness was sure that we were all as comfortable as we could be, then the Princess, along with Lars, Gullbrand and her maids, made their way to the wagon, whereupon it became apparent that Gullbrand could speak sufficient of the local tongue to make himself understood. As was normal, for they were indeed our leaders, they made their way, making use of the wagon, to make representations to the local headman. I noticed that little Alrik was almost in tears as the party slowly disappeared, but he rallied well and, with a certain obvious brittleness to his smile, he once again settled down to help as much as he could.

~o~O~o~

As a result of all this, we spent the next days moving the Visund to the small fishing port down the coast to the west. Our ship was too large for the port itself, in that its presence inside the sea walls would have blocked any other movements of any other boats, but there was a sloped gravel beach not too far away, where we managed to drag the Visund up above the tideline, using smoothed tree trunks as rollers. We were pleased to see the tree trunks as we had begun to doubt there were sturdy wood supplies for our needs.

The working boats back in Einnland, called snekke, are all three strides wide and a dozen strides long, so we Einnlanders use a dozen strides as a basic length for most everything. A rost is about one thousand strides, which we refer to as eighty-four dozen strides, or even seven dozens of a dozen strides. The name rost actually means 'rest' which was roughly the distance a squad of soldiers would march before taking a break. At sea however, distances are slightly different. A vik is the name we give an inlet, as I think I might have already mentioned, and we learnt that the locals seemed to call these creeks or small bays; lost in the centuries that have passed since, there must have been a vik found somewhere which was nearly a rost long, so the sea equivalent of a rost is called a vika. The plural of a rost is rostir, and the plural of a vika is, for some strange reason, also vika.

The road distance we moved must have been around two rostir, certainly more than just one, but due to shallows helpfully pointed out by the locals, the sea journey was around half as long again, say about three vika.

It was funny trying to explain to the locals in the next weeks why we had two words for much the same distance. Despite living from fishing, they didn't appreciate the difference between land distances and sea distances, and our language differences meant that we were all very confused at the end of it!

Little Alrik was obviously pleased to see the party of five once again, and some of his nervousness disappeared. I don't think I was the only one to notice that, but I suspect that I might have been the only one to have noticed some heavy eye messaging between him and Geska, one of her Highness' so-called maids. I say maids but in all reality they were actually more like slaves!

This made we wonder a little about just how Little Alrik managed to get on the ship before we departed. There seemed to be something between Geska and him, but then I shrugged it off, thinking maybe they had struck up a friendship during the voyage. We had made the open water, driven hard by our full sail, when this little figure was found cowering below one of the rowing thwarts. There came a short, almost girl-like scream as he was hauled out of his hiding place and dragged to the Captain.

«Well?»

«My … er … name, Lord is …. er … Alrik.»

«And what do you think you might achieve by stowing away on MY ship?»

«Er … if it please, Lord … I wanted to see some of the world rather than just this home city of ours.»

«How old are you, boy?»

«Why, I'm er ... I'm ...» his eyes were darting everywhere so we all knew he was about to lie. «I'm eleven, Lord.»

The Captain fixed him with a steely glare. «How old?»

His shoulders slumped, and, in a small voice, he added: «Just turned ten, Lord!»

We were all surprised at that, for he looked much younger.

It being impossible to turn round, there were only two options for the Captain.

«Can you swim, boy?»

«No, Lord.»

«Then I am forced to accept you in my crew. Otherwise, I would have had you thrown overboard to swim ashore!»

And so we had a new ship's boy. We gave him the title of Ship's Wicktrimmer.

~o~O~o~

Once the Visund was relatively safe, then the five of them - the Princess, her maids, Gullbrand and Lars - all departed once more, apparently to meet the ruler of this desolate and poor country. The local headman had sent word of our presence to the capital, which we later discovered was called Simbek. The Princess also took with her nearly a quarter of our number, since it was obvious that the village was too poor to support us all.

Again, Little Alrik was sent into sadness by this departure without him. But in the days that followed, our little Wicktrimmer proved almost invaluable, doing all the little jobs that no-one else wanted to do, even slopping out the latrine barrels. He became a firm favourite of us all, even if he did cringe away from the louder and more hearty of us, and winced whenever one of us might unthinkingly thump him on the shoulder, in that most manly of gestures.

Another storm rolled in after a while, followed by a calm and then another, even greater, storm. This last one set back our repairs somewhat, as it damaged the prow on the larboard side. But without the royal temper, even this storm seemed more endurable.

We picked up a little of the local language in those seemingly unending days and weeks when we worked on the ship as best as we were able; Little Alrik putting many of us to shame in the speed of development.

Some of us helped the local fishermen occasionally for which they were grateful, and we felt we were contributing something, even if just a little. However, we all were mostly unimpressed by the populace; there were no real warriors amongst them at all. But, as mentioned, they were grateful of our help and we did what we could not to place too great a strain upon their resources.

That unimpression changed a little some ten or so days later, when a file of soldiers appeared, having been sent to convey a message to us that the Princess' group had moved on to the neighbouring, and apparently much richer country. But still these soldiers were not that much, we all felt – like their fellow countrymen, they seemed soft to us, more organised and better equipped than their landsmen, but still somewhat soft. We felt that one good charge of our Einnlander forces, they would fold and melt away.

The usual laborious process of verbal communication was as tiresome as had become normal to both sides, however, we managed to eventually understand most of what they were trying to tell us. Amongst the information they gave us, they did mention that some of our number were still in Simbek, the Princess having travelled on in the party of only five. With no more solid information, we began to feel somewhat abandoned by our leaders, but we reminded ourselves that the oaths we had given, also worked in reverse. Little Alrik took it particularly badly at first.

Life soon settled into work, help the locals and try to fill the evenings, all the while waiting for some word. We got drunk sometimes, there were the odd arguments and fights with the locals, who made sure their women were very UNavailable, but life drifted on. We did what we could to ease the burden on the village.

Little Alrik found a useful thing to do by learning to care for our clothing and now, twice every week, he went off with a dray of washing to the village and brought it back in the evening.

Until Gullbrand reappeared one day, with no advanced warning.

~o~O~o~

« … and so it has been arranged. Some of you will have to stay here, ten or a dozen of you. Something like that anyway, to get the Visund fully sea-worthy for use in the Spring. For most of the rest, there will be a fight!»

A ragged cheer rose from our bored throats, and we felt, at long last, the familiar stirring in our blood and bones.

«How will we decide who goes and who stays?»

«We need warriors, so the fittest and strongest must needs travel with me. Unless there is a pressing reason. Are there any pressing reasons for any of you to stay? The most experienced shipwrights will have to stay, of course. It is unlikely that our vessel will be used as normal in the future, but it may prove useful in our new country of Palarand, and Her Highness wishes it to be moved there once the weather improves.»

He looked around at us, and received no reply to his query.

«Very well. I need a responsible person to remain, one to be the Captain of this group. Any volunteers?»

Again, his query was met with silence.

«Very well,» he said once more, «then I shall decide. Let me see, now ...»

After a short, very pensive pause, he continued.

«Just to make it easier for us, but also on grounds of suitability, then one of the Tors shall remain here as Captain.»

There was a ripple of laughter, since we had no fewer than four men aboard called Tor, though one was little more than the ship's boy, the official one that is.

«I shall split the Tors two and two. Magnus' son shall remain here in charge, and Gunnar's son shall remain also. Hakon's and Anders' sons shall accompany me.»

Both those selected to stay looked disappointed, as would any man. But it actually made sense, we quietly acknowledged to ourselves; the ship's boy, Gunnar's son, would be too young for the task in front of us - and the man selected to be in charge, Magnus' son, was a good choice as leader, and still had his arm bandaged from injuries sustained when we crashed ashore. Gullbrand and he had a long conversation before they split apart.

What surprised us all was that Little Alrik came with us. But that too made sense in a way – the boy had been kitted out in local clothing since he was growing and none of us had any furs to spare. He was also the better amongst us with the local language – not that he was anywhere near perfect mind you – and he forcibly made a point for himself saying that he would be a natural asset by being the gofor for the party, thus lessening the exposure of our force to any prying locals.

It was obvious that Gullbrand was torn, but in the end he saw the advantages were larger than the disadvantages, so he allowed the youngster to come along.

Those who had been selected took what few possessions we had and boarded the wagons, heading first for Simbek where we were to pick up our colleagues. We picked our way over bumpy and rutted tracks, winding in and out of various boggy patches and the never straight by-way was probably twice as long as it would have been had we been able to travel directly.

We had three nights there since their year's end celebrations involved an overall feast day for everyone. In one way it was frustrating since we wanted to get on, and yet this glimpse into local traditions made many of us thoughtful. There was a stirring of our thoughts and feelings when we experienced their traditional New Year Song.

It was unlike our usual Jul celebrations but still held on the longest night. I missed the huge bonfire that we had back in Einnland on 'Yule Day' as I have now learnt the Palarandis would call it, had they had any knowledge of it. That day was, for some reason I haven't yet discovered, a feast day when only the most necessary people were on duty. Gullbrand had brought with him some Geld, some of which had been used to provide supplies for our saviour village, and the rest for us to enjoy ourselves. We nearly all did, as I believe there were only two or three of us the next day who still had a clear head; Little Alrik, of course, being one.

So, on the first working day of their New Year, we all assembled once more in a quite sparsely used grassy park area on the south side of the town - amidst much backslapping and crude banter, and wincing as sore heads reacted to too much noise. Most of the few locals looked at us askance, gathered there in our furs so unlike their own clothing. But I'd bet we were a lot warmer than they were; indeed I saw several of the locals shivering as they stood about observing us. Little Alrik had jumped up on the wagon already, as if frightened he might be abandoned here.

Gullbrand took a head count, nodded to himself and then gave a signal; it was time for us to travel on.

And so it was that two dozen and two of us climbed aboard the wagons that had arrived with Gullbrand and some so far unintroduced companions.

We set off on another journey into an unknown future.

~o~O~o~

The first thing that shocked us all was the road.

From Simbek we were travelling along a road that was better than any we had ever seen in all our lives. The roads leading into Simbek had been more what we were used to, but these leading away from there were a shock to us.

They were well built, well maintained and, it appeared, well directed. This one appeared to be as straight as a crossbow bolt. Gullbrand told us that nearly all the main trade routes were of a similar standard. Once again we had to reassess this strange place in which we found ourselves. And, on top of that, we had to accept that Gullbrand's mounted companions were apparently wagon guards, there to protect us. These soft foreigners were there to protect US?

We soon came to a junction and there we turned left, Gullbrand explaining that the road that continued straight ahead led to the main sea port of Plif, a port we might have discovered had we kept afloat for another turn or two of the sandglass on the day our voyage came to an end.

This new road was also straight – also as straight as a sword. It was heading, we were told, just a little west of south. It was about a dozen strides wide, maybe just a tiny bit more. Nevertheless, it was more than enough for wagons travelling in opposite directions to pass with ease.

Time went by as we chatted with each other, mostly speculating about what was in store for us.

By and by, we crossed a river that was little more than a stream really, and we halted there briefly.

This was the border between Plif and Palarand; to be more precise, apparently, between Plif and the region of Palarand known as Kendeven.

There were various low-voiced conversations with the officer, or maybe just leader, of the guards and then we were waved on our way. Gullbrand was mounted on a frayen, as were the others who accompanied him. At least frayen were familiar to us. Something this new country had not changed. The men were, I'm sure I have already explained, apparently wagon guards, a fact that caused a lot of private amusement amongst us. They would be about as much help in a battle as a shattered oar would be of help while rowing.

Not at all too far after the border crossing, we passed a very strange tower which had ten or so arms festooned from various spars.

«What is that?»

«I know not. Maybe Gullbrand can tell us when he next comes within earshot.»

«Look, there are men in a sort of hut there, and one has a strange tube held up to what seems to be his eye!»

We saw several others of these towers on our journey, but none of us could find any reason as to what they were for. We never saw any activity at any of them as we passed, so we assumed that they were being kept secret from us, we being outlanders after all.

«Ah, Gullbrand. What be those towers we pass every so often?»

«They call them 'Semaphore Towers'. They are used for passing messages. With that system, our hosts can pass a message from one side of their country and back within a day! And their country is ten times the size of Einnland.»

We were all shocked as the significance of that settled into our brains.

«Now we are just about half way on our day's journey and will shortly be stopping for some refreshment. We would prefer that the fewest possible people see you on this journey and thus shall park the wagons close to a door. Please try to make yourselves visible for as short a time as possible as you go from one to the other.»

Not long after that, we pulled off the road and, as warned, we were ushered quickly from the wagons into a back room of a near-deserted house, with several outbuildings.

It was this action that made us realise just how serious an undertaking this all was. The house it seemed was a permanent kitchen and had sleeping chambers that contained many beds, something else strange to us as we try to conserve heat in Einnland and so sleep in enclosed areas. There were also wash-houses and toilet facilities. We were told that there was one of these houses just about every fifty to ninety dozen strides along these wonderful roads.

This relatively sudden demonstration of the importance our hosts gave to us made the entire enterprise far more solemn than it had been. And the secrecy they were surrounding us with.

We all became quite serious.

This in turn, after the lunch break and when we were once more rolling along the road, led to serious discussions about how we came to be there. Gullbrand had told us that we were about half way through our day's journey, so there turned out to be plenty of time for us to discuss such matters.

At least half of us had been sworn to the Princess' service and the rest were made up of members of Balrik's crew who had agreed to flee the country with us. Not all his crew wished to cut their ties, despite the general dissatisfaction with the King. But we, who were closer to the Princess, were all agreed that the King's choice of husband for her was singularly inappropriate and the match would have been a disaster for both of the younger ones involved.

It was always going to be difficult to find a husband for the haughty and fiery Princess, but to choose such a pathetic specimen was more than ill-handled, it was an insult. She would have lost all her Royal privileges and become nothing but a chattel to a man who had no warrior's work, was just a merchant, had virtually no influence at court and who wasn't even strong enough to pick up a normal man's sword, let alone bear a shield and an axe at the same time. Some found him valuable in a commercial sense, but we soldiers judged a man by his weapons ability. We found him wanting.

It was obvious the King wanted no difficulties for his chosen successor, his son by one of his mistresses. No citizen actually liked the woman too well, nor did they have any fondness for the bastard the King favoured. This marriage decision of the King's was a clear attempt to make sure that his daughter and her line would be no threat to those plans.

She hastily made plans to escape and we all descended, fully equipped, on the Visund. Her Highness had travelled there in disguise, as had her maids, and there was a loud gasp from Balrik's crew when she cast off her coverings and stood proudly before everyone. Naturally, everyone's attention was on the Princess, except for some of us. Balrik had taken some loyal crew members to one side, and these had slipped all the lines except the final pair, and were busy preparing the sail to be hoisted whilst the Captain made a surprising announcement.

«Men, we are sailing away. I have, as you can see, my own wife and daughter here and we are leaving Einnland forever. I have pledged myself and my family to Princess Eriana and this vessel is her means of escape from her father's cruel rule. We know there are other countries out there beyond the horizon. We intend to make for the Great Valley, where we hope to start a new life. If you journey with us, you will be most welcome, but I cannot just sail away with everyone on board. Some of you may have reason to stay. So anyone who wishes to stay should disembark now. Be aware that those travelling with us will be travelling into exile. I doubt not that the King shall make sure that your disloyalty will be punished should you ever return here. By death, as he will call you traitors. You may choose to stay, and I shall give you Geld to help out for your losses when we go. But you have to make up your minds IMMEDIATELY. We can delay no longer and must sail before the King has a chance to stop us. So, ask yourself now, and answer swiftly. Go or stay aboard?»

He stood by the gangplank and handed out some coins to those who chose not to voyage with us.

I watched as one of the first of those ran down the dockside shouting and waving his arms. Obviously this one was warning the authorities. I thought that the Captain waited just too long before casting off, but he tried to keep his word and waited until the last who chose to go ashore had done so. We cleared the harbour even as a pursuit ship was making ready behind us.

We all decided that we would commit ourselves to the Princess and she confirmed she would commit herself to us.

~o~O~o~

We reconfirmed that commitment amongst ourselves as the wagon plodded its way towards dusk.

That night, we again overnighted in some secrecy, in a large and warm straw-filled barn on the outskirts of the main town of Kendeven, a town called apparently Kendovor.

The secrecy had its disadvantages as we could not say that the food provided us was of a high quality, and the bedding was so sparse we slept in our furs. The secrecy meant that we had no servants and we had to make do for ourselves. The little help we had were obviously not used to the task of serving hungry men, so we knew they were temporary staff sworn to secrecy themselves. Little Alrik did what he could, but we were still left wanting in many ways.

«Is this all we get?» we moaned as we saw our meagre breakfasts. «And that stench in the privy is repulsive!»

«It's just temporary. Things will be better from tonight. You will reach your new, but again temporary home tonight. You will be there some weeks so will be able to settle in for a while.»

Thus it was that we scrambled once more aboard our cramped wagons, grateful this time for the wagon's waxed-cloth roofing that kept the worst of the weather out. For the weather was not nice. Cold sleet never is.

«My Lord Gullbrand, might you ask one of those wagon guards of what substance their mantles are made, that they reject the wet so thoroughly? Our furs are good for most winds and snows, but not for rains and sleets.»

He laughed a little wryly before replying: «I need not ask, Vynil, for I already know. When first the Princess and I left you behind and travelled to Simbek, the Duke of Plif was very proud of his country's contributions to all the other nations in these parts. There grows in Plif abundant quantities of a sort of reed from which a waxy substance is obtained. That wax is used to coat their coats, if you will. It is a top covering that eventually wears away, so the mantles need recoating from time to time. Good for Plif's exports, eh? And, since the arrival of Milady Garia in Palarand, then Plif's marsh reeds are also producing increased quantities of income in the form of reedlets, with which people write on her new-fangled paper.»

«Thank you, My Lord. Do so many people here read and write then? And who is My Lady Garia, did you say?»

«Oh you will be meeting her soon enough. You all will. And I wager you will be shocked,» he said laughingly.

«But who is this woman, My Lord?»

«I will say no more – I warn you now, I will not be drawn further on this subject!»

«Very well, My Lord. Thank you.”»

«You're welcome. Now I must more fully inform you of the arrangements Her Highness has made, the full deal if you like … »

~o~O~o~

«In here!» we heard Her Highness calling. «This way!»

We scrambled out of the wagons and ran through the rain to the door where we could see the Princess was waiting for us. There were some other people there too, but we were all intrigued by an obvious and yet subtle difference in our Princess' stance and demeanour. We were followed, less hurriedly, by Gullbrand and the wagon guards – their coverings did not require them to scurry as we did.

Our attention was dragged swiftly to the Princess' companions though when Gullbrand went up to a man there and said: "Greetings, Your Majesty, Your Highness, My Lady. I have brought you twenty-six men from Plif. What is your pleasure?" Our local speech was just good enough to understand the major thrust of his statement. But there followed some brief exchange which we could not hear, nor probably understand, even if we could make out the words.

Just then, the Princess started issuing orders and we filed off in the direction she told us to, following two men of the welcoming committee who both had an air of command; one was the man Gullbrand had addressed as 'Your Majesty'.

We had all surveyed that welcoming party and took particular notice of two women at one side – both were pretty, but that may have been made better since most of us had lacked female company for many a night now. The shorter of the two was a tiny girl really, but both women were regarding us in a most calculating way. My Lord Gullbrand was standing next to them and treating both, yes, even the girl, with a strange amount of deference, as the three of them muttered to themselves. The short girl had some strange device on her back, two angled handles sticking up above her shoulder level, but we could only see her from the front so had no idea of what might be on her other side.
I glanced back as we made our way through various buildings, and saw the two women following with Gullbrand. Our way was twisting hither and there, before a final dash through the rain to a barn-like building, lit with many lanterns, brought us to what was obviously our assembly area for the evening. The open doors gave more light to the proceedings as we gathered before some crates upon which the welcomers all climbed, again those two women joining them. We all gasped a little, and murmured to our neighbours, because the short girl we could now see more clearly was carrying a pair of what looked like swords arranged on her back. She still seemed to be studying us closely, and I wasn't the only one who appreciated that there was a commanding presence about her that made us realise suddenly that she was probably older than she seemed.

«Men! Welcome to your new home of Palarand. You are all well after your journey?»

I think we were all shocked!

Our Princess had never before expressed any thoughts for our feelings, and we hastily switched our attention back to her, remarking to each other that she had changed in some indefinable way. We all replied to her affirmatively, the words forced out of us by the surprise. Our mutterings were stopped when she opened her mouth again.

«I'm pleased to hear that. Now, listen! This man, as you might guess,» she gestured, «is King Robanar of Palarand. It is he who has graciously consented to provide you a new home. No, wait! In Palarand they do not do things the way we were accustomed to do them in Einnland. For now, a simple bow will suffice, as you are yet only guests in his realm.»

There was a shuffling of feet and then we made a ragged bow to this Robanar.

«Gullbrand has told you,» the Princess continued, «of the bargain I made with His Majesty. This does not commit any one of you to follow me but I know that many of you have a desire for further adventure. There will be a chance for fighting and glory and we are promised spoils if we are successful. It will mean a long trek through mountains and an attack on a fortress in winter. All weapons, clothing, food and transport will be provided by His Majesty. In return you will become freemen of Palarand with honor to your names.

«The King fights a war against another country far away, we may choose to take further part in that but there will be no command from him nor from me to do so. Those who do not think they can join us on our adventure may remain here with no stain on their character. I know some of you are seamen and not of a kind to walk mountains, no one will blame you should you choose another path. In Palarand, I have learned, there is work waiting for as many men who can be found to do it. What say you?»

The roar we used to answer caused the two other women particularly to wince. Even though we were tired, we wanted to demonstrate to the Princess our willingness to follow her.

«So, before the King will chance you with weapons in his realm you must make an oath to him. Once that is done I will introduce the others here to you and tell you what you may expect in the weeks to come.»

We nodded to show that we understood her point, and she turned to the others on the cases, where there were a few short conversations.
Then the Princess turned to us, saying: «To show that I trust King Robanar, and that he has trust in me, I shall give my own oath to him so that you may witness. After that, he will take your oaths, this girl with the swords will translate for the King.»

That was a shock! This tiny girl could speak our tongue, but was obviously not an Einnlander! A few more muttered remarks amongst us followed on after THAT!

Then the Princess herself came down to our level, and bent her leg as she swore fealty to this new King. The girl, speaking with a strange accent, but nevertheless with clear words, kept us informed as to what was said – she then led us, in our own tongue AND in translation for the King, through our own swearing of the oaths. We understood when the King told us to rise, but this girl also translated that command for us. There was much said amongst us at these developments.

But even more was to come.

«I won't keep you long,» the Princess then said, once more up on one of the crates. «I know you are all tired, wet, hungry... and most of you definitely need to wash! This man,» she indicated the other man we had followed along with the King, «is the Captain of His Majesty's Palace Guard. Both the King and the City have armsmen and there are other bodies of men-at-arms in Palarand too. He will be in charge of any training you might need before we set off.»

Vynil grunted and called out: «We don't need training!»

The Princess actually grinned at that! «Oh, yes you do! I would not believe it myself without seeing it, but the ways of war in Palarand are very different than the kind of brawl we are used to in Einnland. You must also learn some of the local tongue, that you may obtain food and drink in the future, at the very least. Besides, you will all need to learn how to ride and I am told that will take most of the time before we can leave.»

«So what?» another man said, contemptuously. «I don't need to be shown how to swing a sword or an axe. What can these soft people teach us? That little girl, she can't possibly be of any use with those silly swords she bears. If all the King's men are like her, we'll all be a laughing stock.»

Lars stepped in front of the crates. «Torvin, you are a bigger fool than I remembered you to be. This little girl, as you call her, is a killer. She does not even need to use those swords on her back but when she tested me with them, I could not even touch her.»

That statement produced a dead silence in the barn. Every single one of us now focussed on the girl.

«I must introduce you to Lady Garia, Baroness Blackstone,» the Princess told us, trying to hide a smirk.

A number of us gasped. This was the Lady Garia we had been told about! Again we looked at her.

Again we looked back to our Princess when she started speaking again.

«Lars is right, you do not want to make her your enemy, Torvin, but if you become her friend, she will teach you things you have never imagined possible. She is to be married to the King's son Prince Keren, who is presently on a diplomatic mission for his father. See that you mind your manners around his betrothed. Oh, and remember she can speak our tongue fluently, so mind your words.»

I could see there would be some confusion to come with two Princesses present.

Princess Eriana now changed subjects. «Naturally, when I arrived in Palarand, I was taken immediately to the Palace and I have resided there ever since.»

This was more like the old arrogant Princess we had always known and there were a few grunts of «Typical» and the like, but we also acknowledged that a Princess ought to reside in a Palace, really. Her next statement however changed the mood considerably.

«Now that I have my countrymen around me, however, I intend to move to this mansion to be among you. I will share your food, your drink, your exercises and your lessons, my people.» She grinned at our upturned faces, most now showing approval. «I regret that I shall not be sharing your beds, but I can assure you that the King intends to provide you company of the kind you desire.»

That produced another roar.

«Residing with me will be two women from the Palace Guard, who will join us on our adventure. These are volunteers who will help us on our journey through countries beyond Palarand. They are not to be considered as your playthings! They are both trained swordswomen who I have sparred with myself. Leave them alone or you will feel the edge of their blades.»

She turned and beckoned up onto the crates two of the guards, who we now saw to be female.

«This one is named Danisa and this is Heldra. They are not to be considered as my maids, but naturally we will help each other as women must do from time to time. They are not to be treated as servants of the party either but as comrades in arms, since that is what they will be. Do not expect them to do your cooking or washing for you! Give them an Einnlander's welcome, boys!»

There was another immense roar, as we raised our weaponless fists into the air. We looked speculatively at Danisa and Heldra but with respect. Everyone there knew that we would have a difficult period of adjustment ahead but we could see that both these female warriors understood the risks and both were committed to the venture.

Was it my fancy, or did that Heldra hold my gaze for a little longer than usual?

«I cannot join you today,» Princess Eriana was saying, «since I have a duty in the Palace tonight. Both Gullbrand and Lars will remain to see you all settled in and I will join you tomorrow morning. With me then will be Captain Merek,» she indicated the Captain of the King's guard, «and Master Haflin, the King's Master-at-Arms.

«Now, there is hot water waiting for any who must bathe... and I expect you all to have bathed by the time I return!» Her gaze was stern, her hands on her hips. «I know you have been lazing around, drinking beer and chasing women while I have been away but it is now time for us to work, to earn our place in our new country. Am I understood?»

There was another roar. We understood our Princess, and we actually approved of this new and improved version and I for one could see already that we were going to make a good fighting unit.

«Done. Salute your new King and then you may go and find yourself places to make your beds.»

There was another fist-raised roar and we turned to follow Gullbrand and Lars, who ushered us out through the barn doors. It was then that we discovered our short spears had been impounded lest we failed to make our oaths. For they were issued back to us.

~o~O~o~

That next morning was a little embarrassing, to say the least.

Most of us had fallen asleep fairly quickly, warm food, ale and a natural relaxation as we found a comfortable billet all being contributory factors.

So when Gullbrand and Lars stirred us and told us to bathe, it was a great shock. I was one of the first to be roused, and I suddenly realised that this washing was going to be obligatory, so I might as well grab the hot water first. This was a good move on my part.

But as I scrambled into the water, I saw my furs being taken away somewhere. I realised with a shock that the robber was that Heldra woman! She had a twinkle in her eye as she went off, holding my clothing at arms length in front of her. I was sure that if she had a third hand, she would have been pinching her nose as she marched away, her body curved away from the clothing.

It was a good bath, actually, only three others of my companions joining me, and they were as amazed as I had been when their clothing was taken away.

When it came time to get out again, there were warmed towels to dry ourselves on and some local clothing was provided. The clothing was strange, at first, but we all felt better for smelling clean, even more so when we eventually returned to our companions to take some breakfast. We realised what we had been like when we got closer to the others. Yes, the smell was both rank and strong. The four of us took our meal in a far corner.

From there, we could see Little Alrik supervising some locals in how to wash and care for our furs, so we relaxed somewhat from a care we hadn't actually realised we had.

Lars and Gullbrand had given up trying to get the others to wash, and were walking around looking angry and yet amused at the same time. Most of the others were oblivious of that fact, and my curiosity was picqued.

It wasn't too long until it was satisfied.

«Good morning, countrymen!»

We all looked up at our Princess in amazement. She was cheerful! We had been mustered out in the yard, in the cold morning air.

«I see that some of you chose to listen to me last evening. And most of you didn't. Those who are bathed, please come over here.»

What was this? Please? I think that single word got everyone's attention more rapidly than anything else could have done.

We went over to where she indicated and then were amazed as a grinning Lars and Gullbrand, with some locals, brought out some wooden chests. They were followed by some more locals carrying buckets.

The others were made to strip naked, there in the middle of the yard, with the women looking on!

And we had to pour cold water over them! The first batch were shiveringly washed and then dried and clothed before they did the same to the next batch. Her Highness was enjoying this, as were the two guardswomen, but they kept their faces neutral as much as possible. Now I was no longer required, I could relax and study them more closely. I liked what I saw in that Helga girl, or whatever her name was.

It was at this moment that that other young girl reappeared, the noble one with the funny name and the swords, with her servants and some others, one a huge mountain of a man. We warriors all forgot everything else as we studied this giant. Her Highness jumped off the crate she had been using and bounded over to them, speaking in their tongue – of which we understood some words but not the sense. The Giant bowed to her and she bowed back! We all went over to where they were, even the naked ones.

«This man is called Haflin. He is King Robanar's Master at Arms,» Her Highness informed us. «He will assess each of you and then we shall determine how best to use your strengths - and find out your weaknesses.»

She looked at the expressions on our faces, and got very serious. «You may not believe you have any weaknesses, but I know better, having seen His Majesty's men - and Lady Garia there - at training. Believe me, we all have much to learn from these people.» She clapped her hands. «Now, let's clean ourselves up while these good folk stable their frayen!»

We who were dressed remained in the courtyard, together with that Danisa and that Heldra. I found myself close to the latter who smiled at me.

The Princess chatted to the other group when they returned from the stabling, and suddenly the talk got serious. The words ended when the young noble girl with her swords crossed on her back was asked something and replied: “I am.”

There was a pause and then they chatted amongst themselves as my, our, now redressed companions wandered out to join us all. When they were finally all gathered, Her Highness said: «Lady Garia will demonstrate that she can defend herself with swords, despite her small size. Who wishes to provide a test? I warn you all, these contests are not intended to provide injury to any, merely to prove a point, though if you desire to fall flat on your faces I will not stop you.»

There was a burst of laughter from us but nothing but seriousness from all the others. We became quiet.

Finally one of us was actually brave enough to step forward. Eirik was not the largest of us, but also not the smallest, and I breathed out as I realised that this was probably the best solution to a tricky situation. If a large man had done so, then the tiny girl would have had no hope. If the smallest man had stepped forward, then that might have been considered an insult.

«Highness, I find this claim hard to believe. I will test her. What blade can I use?»

A short discussion in local language with the man Merek followed and a barrel of training swords was carried out of the barn. Eirik selected a sword and faced Garia, while the rest of us formed a rough circle around them, interested to see how quickly Eirik would despatch her. The poor man had to be careful though, for it would not do to injure her. He would obviously have to hold back. Eirik faced up to her.

And the Lady Garia had made no move to unsheathe her supposed swords.

«My Lady, do you not draw your blades?»

«You haven't attacked me yet,» she replied, which forced a burst of laughter from us. My, this girl had balls, as we say.

Puzzled, Eirik pushed his sword point forward, and then, since there was no response, swiftly swung it up and down again as he lunged forward. My Lady skipped back out of the way and her hands went to her shoulders. The swords came out and we saw they were indeed steel blades. But she held the points down in front of her.

Eirik tried another hack but this time the sparks flew from a defensive X. We gasped.

«Look how thin those blades are!» I heard one of us say.

«True, but they appear strong enough to withstand Eirik's blow,» said Stine.

The contest continued as Eirik found himself unable to get through the unusual defense but was himself stabbed, lightly, twice in return.
Finally she trapped his blade underneath and pulled it from his grasp to clatter on the flagstones of the yard. She raised her blades together in front of her face in salute before lowering them.

We were all in shock.

«Anyone else want to try?»

No one was yet recovered from our surprise so it was a while before, of course, a larger one of us went forward. I had been about to do so, but Heldra grabbed my forearm and shook her head slightly. In the end it was Tor who stepped out.

«Eirik is not so strong among us. I will try. Perhaps you will tire eventually.»

«And what would you prove?» this woman asked. «That a large man has more stamina than a small woman? You don't need swords for that. Besides, by then you would be dead. These swords are my practice pair. If I had been using my battle swords, Eirik would be dead by now, since the tips of those are sharpened and will even go through leather armour. I only have to hit you once.»

Several of us suddenly realized that hack-and-slash wasn't the only way to kill someone with a sword and expressions became thoughtful.

Tor bowed to her. «The situation is not what I thought at first, My Lady. I will test you with a sword, nevertheless. I would not be a man if I did not wish to try myself against those blades.»

«As you wish. Find yourself a sword.»

Tor was much harder to get around, as he had seen what Eirik had done and adjusted his tactics accordingly. In the end it made no difference to the result, although SHE touched him only once, on the thigh.

Again, he bowed and lowered his sword.

«My Lady, I am Tor, Ander's son. I am honored to have crossed blades with you. If you have need of men to fight at your side, I will answer your call.»

Our Princess laughed at that, a genuine laugh we could tell, but then she gave us all a strong reminder of our oaths: «Hey! What about me? Will you fight by my side?»

Tor waved a free hand dismissively and grinned at the Princess. «Highness, we do that all the time. With respect, this little one is different. She is to be Queen of Palarand? She is worthy of following, as your father was not.»

The Princess cast a glance of approval at the Lady Garia. «I cannot disagree, Tor. But she will not be leading this adventure.»

«Do not concern yourself, Highness. When we are needed, there we will be. So. Who else would try their hand against the defence that may not be passed?»

Ragnar is as big as Lars but considerably hairier. He stepped forward.

«I do not care to entertain myself against such a young - and beautiful - woman, Highness. I want to try my steel against him.»

I was shocked that I had forgotten about the man mountain, SHE had so influenced my thinking for the past moments of time that even the mountain had faded from my 'sight'.

I saw a smile break out on the mountain’s face, and he said something before striding off into the barn, returning a little later with his own scabbarded sword.

He pointed at the barrel, saying something which needed no translation.

Ragnar went there and finally selected his weapon. He swung it about experimentally and grunted in satisfaction. We all took a pace back to allow these two giants some more space.

There was a clash of steel and a spray of sparks as their blades met. The two made several tentative attacks to determine the other's abilities before settling to the hard business of grinding each other down.

We often gasped as increasingly heavy blows were attempted and parried. Broadsword fighting is not a thing of beauty and the two merely slugged it out, moving swiftly on their feet whenever they had the chance. Eventually the mountain's superior experience began to tell and he landed two touches on Ragnar's torso before our man stood back and lowered his sword.

«Highness, tell him I submit. Had we been fighting for real, I would be bleeding at his feet after that second poke. I am satisfied.»

The Princess clapped her hands. «It is enough. Let us go into the barn out of the wind.»

She turned and spoke to the others, finishing her words with a strange grin that we couldn't decipher.

Inside the barn a thin layer of straw had been spread to cover the entire floor. SHE stood in the middle with the other women while the rest spread themselves around the walls. The big double doors were left wide open to admit as much light as possible.

A few brief words were exchanged amongst the women, and then SHE looked around and selected one of the local soldiers to come to her and who then saluted her respectfully in their strange way of thumping their chests. They had a quick conversation; I think she called him Tallik. They chatted briefly and the man looked worried somehow. He certainly voiced some objection as we could all tell from his tone.
We were all stunned when SHE did something at her front and slipped out of the harness holding her blades. She took out a knife from the back of one of her boots, as the man she had selected was also discarding all his weaponry.

But not as stunned as we were when the woman who was obviously her maid stepped forward and aided her to remove her skirt!

Nice legs!

Tallik was taking this seriously and so we watched attentively as he rushed this Lady Garia, hands ready to grasp.

But she sent him sailing smoothly overhead to land on his back behind her!

What? What had we just seen? Or not seen, to be accurate?

Tallik got up and tried again, so SHE chose a slightly different action and sent him sprawling in another direction.

After some further throws SHE stood and put her hands on her hips, addressing us all.

«That's what I can do,» she said. «Anyone fancy their chances?»

«He's only a boy,» someone objected. «How does that fancy wrestling work against a real man?»

«Come out here and find out,» the Lady Garia challenged.

The Princess added, «Don't make the mistake that this is just for fun, men. Lady Garia has, so I am told, destroyed the knee joint of a man as large as Captain Merek while defeating him in a bout of honour and she has killed at least two others using this combat method. You must take this as seriously as you do your sword work.»

It was Fritjof who had objected and he now stood forward, a hand removing his belt and the knife on it. We were all held in her thrall for a moment as she didn't even look worried. By all the Gods, this was a warrior woman to be respected!

«I am Fritjof,» he said. «I will try this new way of fighting, though I am not happy to be doing it with a woman. I will not harm you, My Lady?»

«It's possible you could do so by accident,» the Lady Garia conceded. «Don't make the mistake of thinking I fight like a woman, though. I don't. Neither do the men or women of the Palace Guard who I have trained.» She smiled at him. «Just think of me as small and dangerous.»

Fritjof discovered that even getting a good grip on Garia was almost impossible. Time and again he found himself on the floor of the barn with her boot against his throat or some other vulnerable place.

We were all bewildered.

«My Lady, I did not believe that such combat was possible,» he said as he stood yet again. «You would teach us this magic?»

«I can't, unfortunately. There just won't be enough time before you have to leave. This match was really just to prove a point, and that is that although you all consider yourself seasoned warriors, which you are, there are other ways of fighting you people don't know about yet. The job of Master Haflin and Captain Merek is to prepare you so that you can face Valley men-at-arms who do know some of this stuff. Presently only the men of Palarand know about unarmed combat, and when you all get back from wherever you're going I'll be delighted to teach you what I know.»

«I will be sure to return, My Lady. Any warrior would want to know more, having tasted these new things.»

Her Highness interrupted by clapping her hands. «Any more foolishness? Good. You all know the task which is ahead of us. Let me not hear any grumbling when these fine men ask us to do things we will find strange.»

There was a subdued, but nevertheless heartfelt murmur of agreement.

~o~O~o~

The next morning, when the Lady Garia arrived, we were in a rear field throwing axes at a target which had been left out the previous day. Needless to say there was not much left of it after a while but it was good exercise to warm up our muscles and really get in the swing of things.

We then did some exercises which felt like some sort of slow dance but with definite aggression in it. This was totally strange to us to control our fighting and at first we found this Tie Tschi stuff very very useless, but a few days later we started to understand the benefits.

A large number of frayen appeared just after lunch, so we understood that we would probably be doing something with those quite soon, which proved correct. But this strange young girl confused us all when she tried to explain that the animals were not to be blindly forced to do things but should be coaxed, should be treated as a comrade. Again this was totally against all our instincts and I could see My Lady getting quite impatient with us. Her face showed it in terms of tightened lines but her body demeanour did not. It was a splendid display of control, which was one of the most powerful lessons we had in those early days, a lesson that was without words and without emphasis.

But to get back to the frayen. We struggled with her words and it was only when she let out a long sigh that we finally dropped our scepticism.
«All right, you lot of doubters. Just stand still and watch. Maybe this way you will understand what I have been trying to say all afternoon!»
She then signalled one of her soldiers who simply opened one of the stable doors.

«Snep! Come!”»

We stood again amazed as one of the frayen walked out of the stable and up to her. She nuzzled it back for a little minute and then she climbed aboard his back and showed us what she could do in conjunction with the beast. We were all FAR more enthusiastic after seeing that demonstration, I can tell you.

A little later, a breathless messenger appeared, dressed in what we now knew to be Palace colours, and I'm sure I caught a flicker of fear cross My Lady's face which was rapidly replaced by an abundance of joy. She and her party made a hasty departure after that.

Our day of training ended with a demonstration, necessarily slow, of how to fall. That sounds stupid really, but was a necessity if we were to understand My Lady's art of what she called unarmed combat.

~o~O~o~

«No, no. From more in the back of the throat. Um. Growl more. er.. Grrr. Like that...»

«Gerd eeffenniggg.»

«Good evening.»

«Gerd eeverniggg.»

«One word at a time!» I said holding up one finger. «Good. Good. Good. Good.»

«Gerd. Gerd ...»

«No! Good. Good. Good. Good.»

«Goot. Goot. Goo...»

I smiled. «Better! Not 't' though – 'd'. Good. Good. GooDDDDD.»

«Good.»

Her face lit up when I showed her she had got it right. She then said it a dozen times straight off. By the end of which she was almost accent-free.

«Evening.»

«Eeferniggg.»

«blah blah ING. An 'n' before the 'g'.»

And so our language lessons went on.

We were all, slowly, picking up each others tongues and we knew that it was necessary in case of emergencies whilst fighting, but Heldra and I seemed to have clicked somehow and it was a lot more fun for me. And I believe for her.

And then one night we, well …. erm …. did it together. Horizontal language lessons seem to be the best way to pick up a language. That first night, mind you, we had little conversation. In our haste to climb into the hayloft above the deserted barn, I failed to see a scythe that had been left leaning against the foot of the ladder. I was lucky that only my boot was gashed. I scarce noticed it at the time, but I can recall every second of what happened once we got up there. … I believe I shall always smile at that recollection.

One day we were introduced to the King's son, the Lady Garia's intended. We all thought him a fine looking young man, with that important air of command about him. His name was Keren.

The days we spent mostly learning to ride, but also some of the basics of that unarmed combat stuff. We learnt to appreciate the benefits of Tai Chi. We worked out with swords, and after a couple of weeks, that mountain of a man arrived with some battle weapons. It seemed he was the man in charge of all arms, so Gullbrand had a special request or two for him which we could all see he found really interesting.

Sword work, axe work, unarmed combat, riding and frayen care, the Tai Chi as I had learnt now it was written, language, reading, writing and numbering filled our days and we all became much fitter, stronger and with more stamina than we had ever thought possible, as well as better educated. And we all developed a relationship with our animals and with our team, which we had split up into small groups, so group ties became stronger, within the team ties.

One thing that we discovered in those days was that the Lady Garia had once referred to us as 'Vikings' and it took a lot of trouble to put that right, made more difficult by imprecise translations and so on. On one of her almost daily visits, I managed to briefly mention it and she apologised for it.

The word víking derives from the feminine vík, meaning "creek, inlet, small bay". The Old Norse feminine noun víking refers to an expedition overseas, in that the seafarers would go and explore (and raid) far-off coastlines, preferably remote and undefended, in other words go and find an inlet somewhere. In the ancient tongue, it was used as in fara í víking, "to go on an expedition". So to hear that this tiny Princess had referred to us as Vikings was funny, as there is no, and never has been, a race of people called that.

«Be careful of that one, Garia. He's a rampant sex maniac. Why, when we crashed our ship onto the Plif shore, he even took the opportunity to grope my breast. And I understand he has been forging closer ties between our peoples. Eh, Gylfi?”»

I had not imagined that I could ever blush again since I was a young lad, but it seems that that was something else for me to surprised about. This training estate certainly opened my eyes to many more things than I had anticipated.

Not the least of them, we were all shocked into deep sobriety by the demonstration of those things they called 'guns'. We were very thoughtful for a long while after we saw that demonstration of destruction. We were all VERY attentive when the Lady Garia gave us instruction on how to minimise our damage when faced with these horrendous weapons.

The Lady Garia was very impressed with our short spear skills, weapons she called 'javelins' in her tongue.

And so the daily routines filled us but, as must I suppose be inevitable, we were impatient to get on with our task. So we all cheered on the day we received news that we would be departing this temporary home on the morrow.

~o~O~o~

The weather overnight had been rough, with hail followed by sleet and a short fall of snow followed by rain and wind which washed most of the snow away, leaving icy mud and sludge.

The wagons stood unoccupied in the courtyard of this Kallend estate, since everyone was in the warm and dry of the largest barn. There was applause from us already in there when the Prince, with My Lady and the Guard Captain entered. The Haflin mountain had arrived earlier as had someone named Jaxen who it seemed was a Wagonmaster. My Lady and he had a short conversation before she looked round at each and every one of us. Those who were travelling had now changed back into clothing that resembled that which we had been wearing when we arrived, but which was now considerable cleaner and less smelly! And we had swords, fine weapons, one for each of us.

In the wagons already were our daggers, short bows, axes, crossbows and 'javelins', all except the last provided by that Haflin and all of such high standard our old weapons would have looked shabby when held next to them.

Her Highness, our leader, had had her clothing adapted to the local designs, and she had across her back, fastened to a baldric, her sword.

By now, we could better understand the local language so we murmured our approval when Her Highness spoke for us all, saying: "Thank you all for what you have done for my people, Keren, Garia, Captain. Not forgetting Master Haflin! Without you we would be just refugees on a desolate shore. Now we must depart, the days of winter are short and we have a long way to travel."

She switched to Norse. «Men! Show these fine people our appreciation for what they have done for us!»

We gave out a huge roar and held our fists up high, there being too little room to wave our swords.

Lars replied for the all of us: "Highness, My Lady, to fight, for this we thank."

My Lady Garia smiled at us, individually somehow and also as a group. «It was just an idea I had. Now you all take care, hear? The Yodans may not be as big and strong as you men are but they are very determined.»

«My Lady, we will, we must return for your marriage.» The Princess then turned to us. «Get your beasts, I will be with you shortly.»

Most of us then left the barn and went to find our frayen, leaving the Palarandis, Her Highness and a handful of our companions there, standing around and apparently chatting. Heldra and I were the last to leave and I heard Her Highness explain to the Palarandis how she had chosen the final team, Heldra later explaining the bits I had got wrong.

"I have chosen who is to go and these are those who, for whatever reason, would stay behind," the Princess explained to those gathered around her. "Sigsten and Vidrik will go to Garia, Sigsten to work with Milsy." She smiled. "I understand there are similarities between fixing a ship's rigging and fitting wires to poles. He will be good at that, I deem. Continuing, Vidrik desires to become an armsman for Garia. Olof and Kjellmund will join the Palace Guard, although it is likely that one or both might end up tending Master Haflin's forges. Little Alrik will stay with Gullbrand as a manservant, though he will formally belong to the palace. Jorl, Tor – that's Hakon's son - and Folke, Orm and Knut will remain at the estate. It seems that the skills which a sailor knows may be of great use to the masons who build this new place of learning."

I was about to leave the barn when something in Her Highness' voice made me turn back to look at the group there. The Princess' shoulders had slumped. "As you all know Gullbrand will not be traveling with me. His counsel ever since we came to this land has been careful and honest." An apologetic smile. "And, I admit, I did not follow it sometimes! I am not the person I was then, and for that I have to thank Garia." The smile faded. "That is also the reason, of course, that drove my two maids away. Now I must make amends by leading my people on this adventure. Captain Merek, I have all the maps and I will follow your advice as best as I can. Now, if you will excuse me."

Her Highness plainly did not want a big departure scene and she walked out from between them without another word. Heldra and I scurried on ahead to find our own beasts. The others followed more slowly, walking around the side of the barn to the temporary awnings which had sheltered their riding beasts. There, Gullbrand stood holding the reins of Her Highness' frayen. She surprised me when she briefly hugged him before swiftly mounting and, with a nod to those watching, rode around the other end of the barn and out of their sight, where she told me off for dallying.

The last wagoneer clucked and the dranakh in the shafts briefly bleated before turning to the way out. Along the road, we had all waited for everyone to appear. Once they had done so, Her Highness raised an arm and waved it forward.

The expedition moved off, heading towards the large town. My Lady had slowly worked her way past the train, slowly because she had a guard of four men around her at all times. She reached our Princess and I could just hear their conversation. I mentally thanked Heldra for her comprehensive lessons as I could understand nearly all that was said.

"You don't like goodbyes, I take it."

"Hah! Considering the last one I made, you understand me well, Garia."

"But here you're not running away from your father, you're heading off on an adventure." the Lady Garia looked around to make sure the Prince was not in earshot. "An adventure I would definitely wish to be part of, if I could."

I realised with a shock that this little Lady Garia was jealous of us. My mind started racing as the implications of that flooded in. Every time I though I had one understood, another hit me.

Our Princess gave her a look of sympathy. "I understand, Garia, what you must be feeling. You are too much of a treasure for the King - our King - to let you fall into any danger. I wonder that he let you ride here today."

"As you say. Fortunately I know from experience that I can depend on all our men if there's any trouble. There's such a thing as being too important, I guess. Still, it is the wrong time of the year for going out much so I'm just busying myself with all the plans and gadgets I've already started going."

"And you have yet a wedding to prepare for," Eriana added with a smile. "I must admit to a certain envy that you may spend some bells in the Wardrobe, considering fine materials and trimmings. Do you yet have a design?"

"I've decided to go for something traditional to Palarand. What women wear on Earth to get married can vary from the completely covered to the almost-naked, I'm afraid, so I decided it would be best to leave well alone." The Lady Garia considered. "Do you think you'll be back in time for the wedding?"

Eriana shrugged. "The fortune of war, Garia, as you must know. If the Gods permit us to take this fortress, then we must learn what state the war has reached in those distant lands and set our own plans accordingly. I would wish to be back, of course, but I cannot give my word."
"Understood. It's hard sending people off when you know they are heading into danger."

The Princess grinned. "With these few lusty men - and two good woman warriors, besides - at my side, we do not fear danger, Garia."

"Perhaps not, but if you want to be at that wedding you'll take care of yourself, hear?"

Eriana touched a finger to her forehead. "As you command, My Lady."

They rode along in companionable silence until the walls of the old city loomed ahead. Jaxen reined in beside them.

"Highness, Milady, our ways part here, I regret to say. We will turn right, to avoid the city streets, while you must needs return to the palace."

"So. Farewell Eriana, Jaxen. We'll meet together again in the Spring, I guess."

The Prince, Captain Merek and also Gullbrand joined the Lady Garia at the side of the road as our wagons turned at the junction and headed around the city walls, bound for the Brikant road.

There was no waving.

~o~O~o~

The wagons held us back. We could have made better time had we been alone, but then we would not have had all our weapons, nor food for us and the beasts, so we all plodded along. The excellent roads were mostly unused at the moment so we saw few other travellers. Our journey was looking to get dark when we crossed an ancient stone bridge, with some more modern repairs to parts of it. The bridge took us over a wide river, but many of us could not understand the fuss about this river, for there was no discernible current in it, it all seemed placid and boring somehow.

The Princess asked that Jaxen about it, and he laughed.

Heldra told me later more accurately what they had said.
“Your Highness, that's not the river! That USED to be the river. This is nowadays just a giant lake we call the Crescent Lake. A canal at the north end, well north-east to be exact, allows access to shipping who can then navigate without strong currents to a canal just over there, behind those distant trees, which connects to the river. See them, about four or five marks distant? By using the lake and the canals, the upstream traffic can save nearly two days travelling time, and a day for the downstream traffic. And it is the foundation of Palarandi fortunes, when it comes down to it. Every so often, they open all the canal gates at each end, and let the water flow, to prevent it getting foul. That is nowadays so much easier to arrange as the Semaphore System gives a far better communication from one end to the other.”

“So where is the river then?”

“There to the south of where we are standing. There is a great loop down there, so it arrives from a basic southerly direction, and leaves in a mostly western direction, but it wiggles around a bit so my directions are not exact. It is down there where the line of trees following the canal meets that other line of trees. Almost as far as we can see today.

“The Trade Route splits here, the left fork there crossing the canal and heading over to the side of the Great Valley, where you can go up the Valley floor hugging its edge towards Plif, or go up the Valley wall and across the mountains from there to Moxgo. It was up there that we found Milady Garia. Now, as I said, we could normally see the Valley wall from here, but this dreadful weather has blocked us from doing so. All that's down the left fork. However, we will be taking the right fork, but not until the morning. That cluster of buildings over there is our overnight stop. It would be pointless to forge on today. We have a river crossing on the morrow, and a meeting with some others, so we gain nothing by pressing on for the last bell of light today. Time for us all to rest and get warm again.”

~o~O~o~

The next night we again stopped just after crossing a waterway, but this time we were able actually to see for the very first time the powerful river which we crossed on ferries. THIS gave us a flavour of the size and power of the Sirrel river, and an understanding into the thoughts and beliefs of these Valley dwellers. There were several ferries, but it still took some time for all of us to get to the far bank, and the new country of Brugan. We were fascinated by the ferries themselves, they appeared to be TWO hulls held together by a platform between them. We had prided ourselves on our knowledge of ships, but we had never seen such an arrangement before. This was something else that made us think deeply.

Our journey on that second day had had us skirting round another large town which Jaxen called Brikant, and it was there that we saw a functioning one of those strange Semaphore Towers. It was clicking and clacking away in an almost startling fashion. Another wagon joined us just after we had passed the city, and when we got to the roadhouse that night, not far after the river crossing, there were another two wagons waiting for us.

After our supper, Jaxen came to our separate room along with another man we had seen on the road with us. He also had been mounted on a frayen, and was obviously someone with a degree of authority.

Jaxen called us all together and used Her Highness as his mouthpiece: «Well done today, all of you. We have progressed well. Tomorrow we must needs make an early start, and we must force the pace a little. At around the middle of the day, I shall leave you. This man here with me is called Tiller. He is the Wagonmaster that will lead this caravan to Pradens. He has been fully briefed and supplied, so he deserves the respect of all. I hand over now to him to make himself known. In order to maintain a low profile, I shall take my leave of you now, lest I give something away to prying eyes on the morrow. I salute you and wish you all good fortune. May your Gods be with you!»

We were about to give him a rousing cheer, when the Princess quickly showed us not to. Unwarranted attention was to be avoided. We did each take the time to shake his hand, and clasp him to our breasts.

Once the leave-taking was over, the man Tiller stood before us. He had a good attitude and an authoritative tone. First impressions were therefore good.

«Good evening all. It is an honour to meet you. I am ignorant of the full details of your journeys, but I know only that many arrangements for you have already been made. We have one wagon stacked with what appears to me to be supplies for beasts and another with both normal and strange supplies for humans. At one point, once we have crossed into the Kingdom of Shald, the human supply wagon is going to break a wheel. It will have to be abandoned at the road side. I think it needs to be a wheel, since we can take the 'broken' wheel with us, and pick up the wagon again on our return. It is least likely to have been stolen if it has no wheel on one side!

«The beasts' supplies shall be stacked under the 'stricken' wagon if protection for them is required, and your party will be left there to do whatever it is you have been training for. It is anticipated that the splitting up shall take place in the early to mid-afternoon, to enable us to distance ourselves before we stop for the night. But I must now give you a warning regarding the morrow. We have a huge number of vehicles, beasts and men and there may well be a degree of confusion. Nevertheless, we who shall take the Therel Vale route shall be under some time pressure in order to achieve all that we need to do. I warn you that I shall be forcing the pace throughout the day.»

«As shall I during the first part,» added Jaxen, translated by Her Highness, somewhat unnecessarily, since we all understood his simple statement.

So it was with a far greater convoy that we continued in the morning. Indeed, another two convoys attached themselves to us to create a snake that almost filled the road from one roadhouse to the next as we rolled on! That Jaxen man made sure we were the last of the wagons, so that we were seen by the smallest number of people, and yet he also had two wagons right at the front of the column, so he was forever riding up and down the length. Some of us were allowed to ride frayen as well, but only if we were wearing the local clothes. Under the wet weather coverings (which we found to be excellent) no-one would have been able to discern our 'foreigness'!

It seemed to me, and several others in our party, that he was forcing the pace more than just a little and we found out why - not long after our stomachs had been telling us that they felt our throats had been cut!

At the start of this day, we had again changed the direction of our travel, this time heading just slightly west of north from our roadhouse, which had been again positioned at a fork in the roads. Behind us, at a half day's travel roughly, was apparently the town of Brugan, the same name as the country we were now travelling through. The route we were following was a well-used Trade Route leading to a major town called Dekarran, which was back in Palarand but across the mighty river from Palarand City. Apparently, the route we had travelled was the major route between the two towns of Palarand when the weather shut the usual ferry. Nearly four days of wagon travel! No wonder that distant ferry was considered vital.

Just as we were beginning to think it would soon be time to eat, the road swung quite sharply to the right, leading us this time the other side of north. Soon after that we crossed a quite large subsidiary river and were told that, strictly speaking, we had now passed back into Palarand, but the border post was another mark or so further down the road, since the other Trade Road joined this one very shortly. And it would be stupid to pass into one country and then pass back into the other within minutes.

Almost immediately after this, that other Trade Route angled sharply off to our left and our monster convoy split there; the lead wagons, two from the middle and ours taking this new route, all the rest keeping straight on towards this far-off Dekarran place. We could tell afterwards that it was obvious in one way which were the wagons in our party. Each had at least half a dozen frayen trailing them on leading reins, whilst the others had none or just a few. Jaxen was conspicuous to our eyes as he made no eye contact with any of us. And so our suddenly seemingly small caravan split away from the others with little or no fanfare, taking this new Trade Route. We could see no heightening of interest in any of the others and so we felt that we had done the split with little unusual activity to draw unwanted eyes.

The new road climbed quite steeply from that point. The slope, the terrain and the river all combined to make this strange arrangement of roads and borders seem quite natural. We crossed the subsidiary river once more, using a sturdy bridge as the waters tumbled and jumbled quite far below us.

A little way further on, the road described a huge curve and this came as a shock to us. We had all unknowingly got used to the roads being arrow-straight from point to point. Back home, of course, our roads and tracks wandered about here and there, but we had got used to the Palarandi directness. Ah! I can no longer refer to it as «Back home», can I? Palarand is now home.

The weather relented whilst we were lunching in a roadhouse on the outside of that first great curve. Again Tiller was hurrying us as he glanced at the weather outside. It seemed to us that he was even more urgent after he had a conversation with Her Highness. So we were quite quickly back on the road, having to wait just a little for the women to use the facilities. When we continued, nearly all the cloud and mist had blown away in the stiff breeze and for the first time ever, we were afforded views of the Great Valley, our elevation helping us take in tantalising glimpses of the Valley floor, those views restricted by the walls of this side valley we were climbing up.

There were a few more turns and twists in the road, much tighter curves, as it criss-crossed the side valley, and crissed and crossed the tumbling river. At one that swung sharply to the right, there was a large flat area, large enough for all our wagons and beasts. We know that because that's what Tiller did, pulling everyone off the road, but waving the purely goods wagons onwards, the wagons that were not actually involved with our final mission. He called out something to the wagoneer at the front, had a quick chat to the senior guard and then returned to us.

Also using Her Highness to translate, we received some startling information.

«Men, and you ladies. We have been hurrying today because I suspected we might get this opportunity. I shall send all the wagons on to our overnight stop, with the guards, and all who wish can come with me and Her Highness on a side trip. This man here is a local and will guide us. We need to hurry in order to do this before dark, but we feel it will help in your education.»

He threw out one hand and indicated the side of the valley we were in. «Up there, at the shoulder we can plainly see, we can climb up that track there, go a few marks across country, and gain a view of the entire Great Valley. At that shoulder we shall technically pass into another country, one called Smordan, but there are no border posts hereabout, there being no residents around those jumbled rocks.

«The countryside and terrain we shall pass through is likely to be very similar to that which you shall encounter later, after we part company, so it will be a good introduction for you all. For our return journey later today, we can then use our same track back for a little way, followed by other tracks to get to our overnight after crossing the crestline to get back into Brugan. If we leave now, we will have time to do all this, but only just. I repeat, we have to go NOW. All who are interested need to be mounted. All others will have to travel with the wagons.»

There was a big kerfuffle as everyone not already mounted rushed to get their frayen saddled and to scramble up onto their backs. The three women, who had been riding already, slipped off their animals and quickly disappeared behind a large rock, reappearing far sooner than any of us expected.

That ride was quite exciting, as we followed bare tracks and skirted large rocks and crossed many little streams. There was almost no vegetation up here and no flat land available to till, so we understood why it was so deserted. Tiller kept the pace up to an extent that some of us felt was becoming nearly foolhardy.

The view from that vantage point was worth it. At last, we could all put into perspective the geography and the names. From up there we could even see part of the Crescent Lake. We gasped as we saw just how enormous it really was. We took in the great bends in the river and understood why the countries were as they were.

Then came the mad scramble to get back. The guide certainly earned his coin then!

The most awkward part was getting across the crestline which took us back into the upland portion of Brugan. There was a short but steep slope where we could see some rocks had cracked off and tumbled down on the Brugan side. We dismounted for that piece and it was difficult footing for both us and the beasts; however, it was less than two dozen strides – until we got to the real problem. A pile of scree maybe three dozen strides wide that we had to negotiate. For the first half of us, it was really quite difficult, with many breath-holding slides occurring, but, for those following, quite a lot of the loose stuff had shifted and by the time we were all down, there was a distinct path plainly visible.

Not that the visibility was any more any good, the clouds had rolled back in and now it was beginning to snow really quite heavily. The light was most gloomy and many of us wondered how we were to continue over difficult terrain with darkness looming.

Then Tiller's planning came to the fore; actually we found later that it was probably Jaxen's planning, but it was Tiller who carried it out. He had with him samples of something he called a 'Beam Lantern'. Something else for us to be astounded about. These showed us the passage some dozen and more strides ahead of the leading man, and the track was wide enough for us to ride two abreast, so the leading riders had one of these special lanterns each. With them leading the way, and with every other rider in the tail holding an ordinary lamp, we found our way far more easily than any of us had expected.

Furthermore, Tiller, or maybe Jaxen, had arranged for our overnight accommodation to be in a quite remote farm about halfway between where we crossed the crestline and the small town that was down there on this upper valley floor, a town which seemed to salute the river as it poured powerfully over the lip into the side valley we had followed most of the way up. Both the river, which we learned was called the Therel, and the Trade Route went through the middle of this town, somewhat unsurprisingly called Therelis.

We went to sleep quite late that night as we all chatted about what we had seen. Our muscles had certainly had a good work out.
Our fourth day was quite boring actually. We awoke, we got ourselves ready, Tai Chi, breakfast and then we departed. It took a fair while to negotiate round Therelis and regain the Trade Route, after which we laboured our way uphill once more. At first the road was still curvy; after a long curved stretch that took us several hundreds of strides above where we had been earlier as we negotiated a steeper part of this Vale, we stopped for the midday meal.

Again Her Highness acted as interpreter when Tiller told us in our break that: «As you may have noticed, roadhouses are fewer and farther between up here. I know this was a later than usual break, but to have stopped below the steeper bit would have meant more strain for the animals to start again. This means we can have a shorter afternoon travel. We have two choices, to continue for a bell and then stop, or to continue for just over two before stopping. I recommend the latter, as we will have an easier day tomorrow if we do that, but our schedule will allow the former. It will mean a longer day tomorrow, but I repeat, it is something we could do. What say you all?»

We decided upon travelling the longer distance today. Tiller sent two men on ahead, on frayen back of course, to warn the roadhouse, and half of us went with them, Heldra, Danisa and Her Highness amongst us. Thus we overnighted further up the Vale, where the roads had once again returned to the straight versions between point and point. The weather had turned into some mixture of rain and snow, which Heldra told me was called 'sleet' in Palarandi, so we were quite wet and miserable by the time we pulled into the roadhouse. It was no longer so necessary to maintain the slight degree of secrecy, so we were more open when we arrived, and somehow Heldra and I were assigned a room to ourselves. The Princess had a twinkle in her eye as she turned away and Danisa looked at us as with a grin when she turned to go with Her Highness.

We awoke and had a good breakfast considering the roadhouse operators would not have expected such a large party at this time of year. There was a certain amount of teasing that Heldra and I had to endure but we were happy enough to be able to let it wash over us. After our usual start to the day, we left that roadhouse later than we were used to, but it was still quite early. Again, Tiller despatched those who wanted to to ride ahead to the agreed lunch stop. We ALL went this time.

Indeed we had already eaten by the time the wagons arrived, so Tiller gave us directions to the overnight stop and sent us on our way again. We were of course lightly armed so as not to be suspicious, but our full armoury was under the supplies in the wagon. We were therefore not presenting a very warlike appearance and were far more acceptable that way.

Tiller's words were once again conveyed via the Princess: «I am aware that we could actually quite easily make the next roadhouse our overnight stop, but that would make the following day's timings awkward. We need to be seen to leave this part of Brugan at a normal time, have our early lunch just on the pass itself, for it all to work to plan. We will explain our apparent lack of progress today as a wagon problem, which will then give us also a good excuse for the wagons to be so far behind the riders. It also sets up our story for when we part company, that the wagon had to be abandoned.»

So that is what we did; we all rode up to the designated roadhouse - who were a little disconcerted to see travellers. It wasn't the best one we had ever been in and we found ourselves doing some of the maintenance there as we awaited the wagons. The family head had been taken ill and was very weak, so a normal welcome was beyond their capabilities. They did assure us though that the illness was not serious enough for someone to be despatched downvale for help.

We were all aware that this would be our last night in relative comfort for a considerable time, and we made the most of the facilities on offer, feeding, washing and some clothing cleaning. The roadhouse were grateful for the business and for our help; thus it was all smiles upon our departure. Not all of us were mounted that time, as we needed some of us to check over all our equipment before we parted company later that afternoon.

The lunch stop was in a roadhouse right at the top of the pass, on the col itself, with, we supposed, excellent views to either side. But the clouds were thick there and there was a light covering of snow too. A bored group of three border guards welcomed us to Shald in general and the Nardenis Vale in particular; we explained we were passing through to a destination further inland.

And that was it. They showed no further interest in us at all, other than remarking that we were quite early to be lunching. Our explanation that we had a distance to go was accepted naturally and without suspicion.

We ate, used the facilities and pressed on, downhill now. We dropped below the clouds and had a first view of the southern crestline, which had us all searching for the least awkward crossing place. A sharp bend to the right heralded a quite steep pitch on the road but we scarce noticed it, our attention being so much on that crestline. Could we find a feasible crossing point? If not, then our mission was over before it had started.

The crestline was above an increasingly steep slope as we dropped further into Nardenis Vale, and the waterway flowing down that vale was growing steadily larger and more powerful. Then we spotted a possibility. Not a probability, but a possibility. There was a further bend to the right just ahead, and we could see no-one behind us. So we 'broke' the wagon, leaving it propped on a rock, and we transferred everything from our supply wagons, which would go on without us, for we could not take them with us across such rough country.

There was a silent wave to and from the others who were travelling on along the Trade Route and then we were alone, our mission now resting upon our own efforts.

~o~O~o~

Gylfi's eyes suddenly opened and a spurt of panic shot through him.
«How can I sleep in the middle of a battle?» he berated himself.

He started to reach for his sword when he saw Stine leaning down next to him.

«Relax, Gylfi, old friend. You have done your work. The Yodans are in retreat.»

«But who are these new uniforms?»

«Hush now brother! We are in control. Sleep now.»

So Gylfi shut his eyes once more, and his thoughts drifted back to the cross-country journey they had made to the fort and the subsequent events ...

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