Author: M G Kizzia

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 5 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

De Metz and Bertrand carried Quentin, arms around his shoulders and waist.  He hopped on one leg and then the other.  Both hurt, though he did not imagine either was broken.  They brought him into the barn where a cow bellowed at them.  They ignored the cow and found a place where Quentin could lie down, making a kind of cot out of a bin, using plenty of straw for bedding.

Joan came in followed by three of her personal guard—men who hovered over her to protect her and would not leave her alone no matter how much they were threatened.  The cow bellowed again, and Joan responded.  “Which of you knows how to milk a cow or must I do it myself?” she asked.  One of the men volunteered, so she said “Good,” followed rapidly by, “You stupid idiot,” as she turned on Quentin.  “Now you have finally given yourself away.  Some of my men know, including Bertrand and de Metz, but now the whole English army knows.  You will never be able to go back to England, to your wife and family.  What possessed you to do something so foolish?”

“It was a lovely young girl I once found standing in a meadow.  Angel said I had to watch over her and take care of her until her time arrived.”  Joan’s face contorted and she rushed forward to kneel by his makeshift cot.  She threw her face down to cry on his chest.  “There.  There,” Quentin said, patting her gently on her back.  “I’m an old man, the grandfather you never had, I think.  And you are the most courageous young woman in the history of ever.”

Joan lifted her head.  “You are not allowed to die before me,” she ordered in a tone of voice as strong as she could muster.

“Not dying,” he said and lifted both hands like he surrendered.  “Just banged up here, and here, and there.”  He ended by pointing at his chest and Joan quicky lifted her arms and looked at him.  The two smiled for each other.

“I love you so much,” Joan said.

“And I love you, more than you can know.  But you have no business worrying about one old soldier.  You have ordered the withdrawl, and there are many soldiers that need to see you.  Show them you are not afraid, even if you are.”

“Fear is a foolish master.  Trust God instead and leave your life in his hands, as he will.”  Joan and Quentin said the phrase together as Joan stood up.  She turned her face away as she heard from the cow.  “Gentle.  Obviously, the cow has not been milked in a couple of days.  You must be gentle.”

“Yes Johanne,” the man said, and Joan nodded to the man, to De Metz and Bertrand, and last of all to Quentin, and she told him, “I will hold my banner high.  The men falling back will see me, that I am not afraid of sixty-thousand Burgundians.  They will see me and take courage.”  She took her banner from the man who held it and stepped outside to where another man held her horse.  She mounted and walked her horse to the road, followed by a dozen men.  Every soldier who made it to the road would see her as they passed by.

Quentin mumbled.  “Six thousand, not sixty thousand.”  He spoke up to Bertrand.  “I have to teach that girl her numbers.”  He shouted.  “De Metz stay here.  Now, that is an order.”

“But…”

“She is in no danger,” Quentin said.  “She is just showing herself to the troops, that is all.  When it starts to get dark, she will be back and we will leave this place before the Burgundians get here,” and he thought, I hope.  “Meanwhile, leave her alone.  Bertrand, why don’t you fetch the horses.  They can join Henrietta, our cow in enjoying the hay left scattered about.”

“Yes.  What do you think happened to the family?” de Metz asked as Bertrand went out to bring in their three horses.

“I think they got scared off when the English set up their outpost.  They probably count the farm as lost, but I can see the English never came here.”

“How so?”

Quentin smiled at the obviousness of the answer.  “The cow.  What army group would leave a prime bit of beef walking around untouched?”

“Oh, of course,” de Metz nodded and also smiled at the obvious answer.

“Lord,” the soldier with a bucket of milk looked at de Metz, Bertrand in the doorway, and finally at Quentin.  “What should I do with the milk?”

“Take it to the cook,” Quentin said without hesitation.  “He can boil the beef in it, or if he wants to get fancy, he can make a cream gravy, whatever he thinks best.  Just make sure Joan and the soldiers with her get some supper.”

The soldier looked at Bertrand, but Bertrand simply underlined Quentin’s place in the grand scheme of things.  “You hear what the lord said.  Just don’t spill it.”

De Metz shook his head.  “We could use a commander like you.”

“Bah,” Quentin said as he laid his head down and decided a good rest might be for the best.  “I’ve been ordering soldiers around since Agincourt.  Even Bedford jumps when I get riled, and my red hair gets the better of me.”

“You consider yourself like her grandfather?” Bertrand had to ask about the word Quentin used.

“Near enough,” he said.  “I’m fifty-six years old, a stonecutter by trade.  I cut my teeth building Westminster Cathedral.  Both Henry V and Charles VI said I was made of stone, unmovable.  As far as I know, that was the only thing those two sovereigns ever agreed on.”

“I bet you could tell some great stories,” de Metz said with a look at Bertrand who seemed to nod.

“You bet.  And I might even tell you one if you let me rest my eyes for a bit.  Bertrand, send a couple of men down the road to see if there is anything coming that we should know about.  Then come back here.  I need you both to be here when I wake up.”  He did not explain why he needed them, but at that point, they did not question the order.

###

Jules and his men took the front.  In fact, he brought thirty men to the front.  After the German roadblock, they were not inclined to take chances with their Liege Lord.  Lionel and the travelers still led the procession, and talked liberally, but hurried as best as they could.  Their little army skipped lunch.  Katie warned Lionel that tired and hungry soldiers did not fight as well, but Decker pointed out that the enemy was withdrawing from a battle and would likely be tired and hungry as well.

“And even if it is an orderly withdraw and not the result of a defeat, the common soldiers will feel like they have been defeated,” he said.  “Any pull back from an engagement can feel that way even if it is not true.  It is not good for their morale.”

About an hour before sundown, Elder Stow’s alarm went off.  He set the alarm on his scanner to give warning before they stumbled into another roadblock.  Jules stopped his men on hearing the sound, and he came back to the group.  Jobarie and his troop of foot soldiers and archers walked on the heels of the travelers since the roadblock.  He came jogging up to hear what was being planned.

Elder Stow had his holograph pulled up to show the area.  Decker said, “Here.  There is a dirt path the locals probably call a road.  It goes right to the farm and the big barn I saw from above.  The enemy appear to be concentrated on the Paris Road to block any army like ours from interfering with the withdraw.  They don’t imagine an approaching army would be interested in a farm set back from the road, but that appears to be the funnel all the escaping troops are going through.”

“So, the troops holding the road are about a thousand feet from the funnel,” Lockhart said.

“About eight hundred feet,” Katie said.  “And here?”

“Another farm road,” Elder Stow named it.

“It is just where we stopped,” Jules said.  “I was just looking at it when the alarm went off.”

Katie nodded.  “I recommend Jules take his horse soldiers down the farm road.  They can hurry and get back to the Paris Road behind the enemy.  By then, the foot soldiers should be here and ready to charge the front.  The enemy appears to have horses, but they are dismounted and in the trees.  The horses are probably there for a quick getaway, which they will not be able to do if our horsemen are coming up behind them.”

Lionel grinned.  “We will catch them napping.”

“Colonel?”  Katie turned to her superior officer.

“Basically good, Major,” Decker said.  “But I think we need to ride down the first road, here, and take the farm that is acting like a funnel.  That will keep any stragglers pulling back from the battle from stumbling into our position, or the horsemen we send around to the rear.”

“Decker?” Nanette asked whose side he was on to be helping the Burgundians so much.  But Decker shook his head and seemed to understand her concern.

“I am not on anybody’s side.  I’m just trying to minimize casualties if I can.  I’m not saying we ambush the retreating soldiers.  Just maybe encourage them to take a wide loop around to avoid running into the action and turn a skirmish into a real battle.”

“I’ll send the point men with you,” Jules said.

“No,” Lionel insisted.  “You need all your men for the encircling move.  I’ll take Jobarie and his archers.  They are the right ones to turn any retreating Armagnacs and keep them from interfering in your battle.”

“Are you going with us?” Katie asked.

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Lionel said with a genuine smile.

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 4 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Most of Lionel’s army was made up of conscripts.  He had two hundred soldier-looking men on horseback, only a few of whom were knights, like his captains.  The rest of his army consisted of some seven hundred merchants and farmers.  Some were freemen, but some were serfs or indentured servants, or slaves paid to serve in the place of their freemen owners.  Lionel said most were acceptable archers, having to hunt when the winters got long and lean, but they were not much good in a melee.  About four of the five hundred had pikes, but the rest had shields and swords or just long knives.  The horsemen in the rear, and those near the center front and the center back behind the ox-drawn wagons encouraged the conscripts to keep up, but even so, they strung out for a mile or more down the road.

Toward the beginning of the third day out front where the travelers and Lionel trotted along well ahead of the others, they found the road blocked by troops from the Holy Roman Empire.  Katie sensed the enemy from a distance, and Nanette stopped to put out her hand to try and read the disposition of the troops.

“They are with the French, set out to hold the Paris Road while the French army is attacking the main Burgundian outpost.”  She frowned.  “That is about all I see, except the Germans are not trying to hide.  They are hoping they don’t have to fight, that anyone coming down the road will back away or go around.”

Lionel put Jobaire and the company of men directly behind them on alert, with strict orders to keep up, but then he insisted the travelers, and himself, continue to lead the procession.    When they got near the roadblock, which they saw at a good distance, they found some hidden archers with arrows—probably warning arrows sent in their direction.  They had to scurry for cover.  Lionel watched from behind the bushes to see how the travelers handled themselves.  No doubt, he expected great things.  He looked a little disappointed when Lockhart explained.

“Normally, I would go out with a white flag and talk to whoever is in charge.  I would explain that we are mere pilgrims from Sweden and further east, traveling with a couple of Africans, and we have no interest in their war, we are not taking sides, and we pose them no threat.”

“How would that work?” Lionel asked.

“It has not worked yet,” Katie admitted.

“I can’t remember even one time it worked,” Lockhart agreed.  “And I tried lots of different variations.”

“My father,” Elder Stow came up holding his scanner.  He pulled up a holographic projection of the enemy positions.  It showed the enemy as yellow dots and included blue dots for the Burgundian conscripts that were closest. The travelers were in red.

“We have some sneaking up on our position. There…” Elder Stow turned and pointed.

“Someone did not get the memo about not fighting,” Lockhart said.

“Tony.” Decker called.  Their horses and Ghost were already tied off, so Decker and Tony scooted off to disappear in the bushes.

“Germans?” Nanette asked, and Lionel nodded.  “Lincoln,” she called.  “Jobaire is captain-sergeant of the front group.  We will hurry them.”

Lincoln nodded to agree.  He did not mind the errand if it took him further away from the fighting.

Katie interrupted.  “I recommend the little ridge here,” she said, pointing to Elder Stow’s picture that showed a small rise on the other side of the road.  She turned her head and squinted. “You can’t quite see it from here.”

“I see the hologram,” Lincoln said, and he and Nanette rode back toward the first company of men.

Katie got out her binoculars and it hardly took a second to pinpoint what she was after. “I think I see the commander, or at least the one that appears to be shouting out orders.”  She handed the binoculars to Lockhart and got out her rifle and scope.  Lockhart looked equally briefly before he handed the binoculars to Lionel.  Lionel looked and gawked, as Katie fired.  Lionel saw the man fall.

Gunfire began from the side.  It did not take long before a dozen soldiers ran back to their own lines at the roadblock.  Tony’s voice came over the wristwatch radio.  “All clear.”

“Roger,” Katie responded before she turned her head.  One of the men who tried to sneak up on their flank got close.  He came around a tree, but Katie did not get surprised, so the others looked as well.  Lockhart blasted the man with his shotgun.  The man slammed back into the tree and collapsed.  Lionel let out a shout at the noise.  It was not exactly a scream, but he held his chest, like his heart started beating extra fast.

Arrows began to fly from the ridge area.  It made the German’s work difficult, but they managed to remove the blockage to make a wide opening on the road.  Katie spoke.  “I smell cavalry.”  The Germans had about a hundred men on horseback, and while they could not ride more than two abreast through the gap in the roadblock, they came on fast.

Katie saw Nanette stand on what she figured was the ridge she had seen in the holograph.  Nanette had her wand and threw her hands forward, sharply.  Dozens of rocks, stones, fallen tree branches and the like raced forward at bullet speed.  She struck and put down ten or fifteen horses and horsemen all at once before some of the bigger stones crashed into the roadblock itself.

“Screen is up,” Elder Stow said, as Decker and Tony returned.

“Brace yourselves,” Katie yelled, and Elder Stow only glanced at the horsemen before he set his screen device against the base of a tree.

“Decker wall?” Decker asked, wondering if he could shoot the horses while the horsemen would be completely blocked from getting at them.

“Yes,” Elder Stow said, as he braced for impact.  Some twenty-five horses ran smack into the screens, and the horses behind could hardly stop.  It could not have been worse to charge straight into a brick wall, but the screens were invisible so the travelers could see the devastation.  All the front horses had to be put down, and plenty of the ones who came behind as well.  Some of the Germans also died on impact, and many more were killed, crushed, or died of their broken bodies within a short time.  Surprisingly, Decker did not kill that many.

All the Germans that could, some helping friends who were not wounded so badly, ran away at all speed.  The roadblock got abandoned.  Some Germans screamed as they ran away, and Jules and his little troop could not blame them.  Most of Jules’ little troop cleaned out the hidden archers, but one seemed preoccupied with praying, especially when the German cavalry charged.  Jules himself kept repeating.  “I believe you.  I believe you.  I believe every word of it…”

Lionel just smiled and nodded.  He laughed out loud when Elder Stow and Suki rose into the sky.  They said they would make sure the Germans were gone from the road.  Lionel gulped when Elder Stow and Sukki went invisible.  Katie reminded Lockhart.

“She still has the disc Elder Stow tuned for her.”

“Oh,” Lockhart nodded, to say he remembered now that she mentioned it.

Decker got Lionel’s attention even as Katie was about to say the same thing.  “You need to let the main army know, your Lord Jean or his second, about the Germans blocking the road.  They need to know many escaped, so we have to assume the French now know we are coming.”

“French?” Lionel said.  “We are the French, but I know what you mean.”  He went down to the road where his front third of horsemen hurried to arrive.  He would select some to ride and warn Liebulf.  Hopefully, they would have a way of informing Lord Jean de Luxembourg.  Then he made the ones in front wait while word went down the train of his army and they tightened up the ranks.  From here on, stragglers would be whipped.

By the time Elder Stow and Sukki returned, Decker was much higher in the sky, taken up by his eagle totem, spying out the enemy.  Elder Stow reported the Germans went off the road on a trail, headed north.  He suggested they sent men rushing down the trail, like maybe there were other French soldiers around that they needed to warn.  Decker reported on the French, though Lionel insisted the Burgundians were the true French and these others were the Armagnac faction with Charles.  Decker said they immediately started to withdraw from their attack on the English outpost that watched where the Paris Road and the road to Rouen divided.  The Paris Road they were on eventually went south of Compiegne while the Rouen Road went north.  He said, “The Armagnacians, or whatever, are gathering in front of us and moving up the Paris Road, back toward the city, or maybe to a fortress.  Some appear to have stopped by a farmhouse, about half-a-day from here.  It looks mostly like a big barn.  I guess about two hundred men.  They must be the rear guard.  They will probably wait until the end of the day to let the army get out before they hurry to join the others.”

Lionel nodded and spoke frankly as he judged the sun.  “We should get there tonight, but if we hurry, we may reach that place before sundown.  You said half-a-day distance?  Maybe we will catch them napping, do you think?”

Decker agreed.  “The rest of not-the-only-French army will probably finish their withdraw in the evening, twilight, seeing how armies travel in these days.  Maybe we can time it right.”

Katie looked at Decker.  “Colonel,” she said, not sounding happy, but she did not say anything more.  She imagined what was going to happen.

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 3 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Lord Jean de Luxemburg greeted Lionel gruffly with the phrase, “You’re lucky.”  He explained.  “DuBary is due to arrive this afternoon with a thousand Flemish, so you are not the last one.”  Lionel said that was good to know, and he wanted to also know where Lord Jean wanted them in the marching order.  It was a practical question and would determine where his men would set their camp.

“Stick to the Paris Road.  I want you on the flank in case any of those Charles sympathizers in Champagne decide to come up and help the traitors at Compiegne.  If the Armagnac faction sends a force from the city or the fortresses around, I expect you to hold them long enough for the rest of us to reach the main Burgundian camp.”

“Do we have any reliable information about what we may be facing?” Lionel asked.  It seemed a natural question since his group would be exposed.

“We do not,” Lord Jean responded. “That is why as soon as DuBary arrives, I will be taking two hundred ahead up the road to Rouen to survey the area and look for weaknesses in Bedford’s and Philip’s lines that we may have to reinforce.  We may have to move up on sudden notice, so be prepared.”

“Lord.”  Lionel gave a slight bow.  “And in our rear?  I understand many towns from Troyes to Reims have come out for Charles.”

“Soissons has come out for Philip and the Burgundian cause.  They repulsed the advances of the Maid, so our immediate concern is your flank, not the rear.”

A bishop who stood quietly that whole time, interrupted.  “I believe Soissons is more afraid of retribution, being surrounded by English and Burgundian territory.  Who knows where their actual sympathies lie?”

Lord Jean grunted and suggested he might tell DuBary to guard the rear, just in case.  Katie, who stood beside Lockhart, a couple of steps behind Lionel, wondered why the bishop would sew distrust in the circumstances.  Soissons declared for the Burgundians.  Why suggest they might not be sincere, unless the bishop was secretly working for the French?  She listened as Lord Jean frowned and spoke.

“My guest is Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais.  He just returned from England with the young Henry VI.  Henry is at Rouen where Bedford hopes to declare him King of England and France, in accord with the Treaty of Troyes.”  Lord Jean shook his head like he was not sure if that would help or hurt the cause against Charles.  He shrugged a bit.  He came across as a man who made his choice.  He allied with the English, and there was no turning back.

“Good to meet you,” the bishop said, and stared at Lockhart and Katie.  The rest of the travelers stayed with the captains and Lionel’s army on the road, but Katie, Lockhart, and Captain Jules accompanied Lionel to meet with Lord Jean.  Lionel got the message and introduced his companions.

“Robert and Katherine Lockhart.  They are German and Swedish and are with a group of Slavic pilgrims headed toward Paris.  They have two black Africans with them as well—good Christians, not Muslims, I assure you.  I found them at Wandomme and let them travel with my men.  They had no idea what they were walking into.  I thought it my Christian duty to bring them safely, at least as far as I was going.”

“Good to meet you,” Katie said.

“God morgen alle,” Lockhart said, having struggled to find the right way to say good morning in mostly German to properly confuse things.

“God?” Lord Jean asked.

“Sorry,” Lockhart said.  “Guten is German.  God is Swedish.  I sometimes mingle them the way my people back home speak.”

Lord Jean shrugged with his eyebrows and turned away to holler.  “Liebulf!”  He said more softly.  “My second. He will bring the main body of troops while I survey the area ahead.  Liebulf.”  He walked off yelling.

“Good to make your acquaintance.” Bishop Cauchon tried to smile and step up, but everyone saw something crooked in that smile.

“And you,” Lionel said.  “But right now, I need to set my camp for the night.  Perhaps we will catch up later.  Come friends.”  As they headed off, they all kept looking back, like they were waiting to be out of earshot.  Lionel spoke first.  “Something wrong about that Bishop.  Jules?”

The captain spoke softly.  “It is not my place to judge a cleric, but just to look at him, I felt something dark. Do you know what I mean, dark?”

“Creepy,” Lockhart explained it with his own word and looked at Katie.

Katie walked quietly for a moment while she sorted the feeling she got from the man.  “Masters,” she said at last.  “Or demons, but I am beginning to think they are the same thing.”

People quieted when they reached their army from Wendomme.  They got busy.  Lionel divided his horse soldiers into three groups.  He had three captains.  One group served as a rear guard.  One served behind the center of the strung-out line where they put the wagons that carried all their supplies.  Lionel did not want the wagon to form their own train where they might drag out behind for miles.  One served near the front, but behind a group of veteran foot soldiers.

Roughly half of Lionel’s foot soldiers were either veterans or members of various night watches that served a few of the larger villages and couple of towns in his area.  These were men who knew enough to stick together and keep up with the army.  He tried to sprinkle them throughout the train where they could encourage the young and untried men to keep up.  Some of the green ones might otherwise have been tempted to string out like men on a Sunday stroll, and get there eventually.

At the front, he had a company of his best veterans under a captain-sergeant Jobarie.  They set the pace for the whole army, and while they did not exactly march in well trained lines, they at least looked something like soldiers.  At the very front, of course, Lionel, Captain Jules, and a dozen of the best horse soldiers rode.  They served as the point guard and protected their Liege Lord.  Lionel insisted the travelers ride with him.  He did not expect they would run into any trouble, and in fact, he spoke otherwise.

“If the forces of Charles set a trap on the Paris Road, they will let the point guard pass them by and wait to spring their trap on the actual army.  It is the way it is done.  A trap is not very good if you surprise a dozen men and let the army escape, or at least be forewarned.”

“Good to know,” Lincoln said.  “You know, we could help with the wagons.”  He pointed back toward the center of the train, but people ignored his suggestion.

Once the people got shifted around so they camped where they needed to be for the morning, it was mid-afternoon, and fires were already being lit for the night.  Jobarie came up with a dozen more men who would supplement the horse soldiers in keeping the night watch.  One man even admitted it was what he would be doing back home.  Jobarie went back to stay with his men, and the dozen horse soldiers, on foot, escorted the cooks from the wagons to the front, so they could prepare a feast for Lord Lionel and his guests.

Naturally, that was when Bishop Cauchon showed up with a “Hello friends,” that put Katie’s nerves on edge.  Nanette took one look at the man and blanched.  Something about him, his personality or something, felt wrong.  Lionel immediately came roaring up.

“No, no,” he yelled.  “We have been charged to guard the flank and move out front.  I don’t have men to waste providing an escort for your grace.  The road behind us is clear, but if you follow, it will have to be at your own risk, and at your own expense.  I have barely enough to feed this army and for these travelers I have agreed to escort.  There isn’t anything extra.”

One of the priests that rode with the bishop leaned over and whispered in the bishop’s ear.  The bishop pushed the man away and spoke out loud.  “Yes, I see the two Africans, but the rest look normal enough, including the blonde I met earlier.”  He smiled for Katie who did not smile back.  “I must say, though I am disappointed. I expected something more exotic, like maybe red hair, or something strange.”

“Well?” Lionel pushed forward in the face of the horses. “What is it going to be?  Will you go back to Lord Jean, or shall we escort you to the end of the line?”

“Calm yourself, Lord Lionel.  We are headed back to my diocese of Beauvais now that Charles’ army has passed by.  I thank you for clearing the Paris Road for us. I just wanted to stop and say hello before we set out.  We have a few hours and will make it to the village I can’t remember the name of by nightfall.”  He turned to Lockhart.  “You are headed to Paris, and where will you go from there?”

Katie and Nanette both covered Lincoln’s mouth as Lockhart spoke.  “Saint Martin’s, and then maybe toward Rome.”

“I see,” Bishop Cauchon smiled, but the look on his face said he knew Lockhart was not telling the whole truth.  “Too bad you will miss seeing how the siege of Compiegne turns out.”

“I am sure we will hear about it,” Katie responded.

Bishop Cauchon let out that wicked smile again and turned his horse to the road.  “Good luck in your journey, travelers or pilgrims as you may be.”  He started down the road followed by a handful of priests and clerics and another handful of soldiers.  When he was out of range, Katie finally opened up.

“Servant of the Masters.”

“A bishop of Christ?” Captain Jules felt the wrongness in the man but looked surprised all the same.

“He knows who we are,” Decker said.

“He mentioned red hair, like maybe he expected to see Boston and maybe some little ones in the camp,” Lockhart said.

“He called us travelers,” Sukki pointed out, but Lionel made her pause.

“I used the word travelers instead of pilgrims,” he said.  “I am sorry for that.”

“He appears to be demon possessed,” Nanette said, and shivered.

Captain Jules repeated himself.  “A bishop of Christ?”

One of the captains rode up with a report.  “I have the scouts ready to go out all along the line first thing in the morning.  Hopefully, we won’t be surprised by anyone sneaking up on our flank.  Um, do you know a bishop and his clerics stopped and talked with Jobarie?”

Lockhart’s and Lionel’s eyes met, and both showed the same suspicion.  Katie interrupted their thoughts before they could speak.

“Bishop Cauchon is the one who will try Johanne for heresy, for the English.  Of course, they will condemn her and kill her.  Years later the church will recognize its terrible mistake and the improper nature of the whole trial.  They will declare Johanne a saint.”

“Saint Joan,” Tony said.  “But that is the future we should not be talking about.  Sorry to burden you with that.  You should not say anything about that, ever.”

Lionel and Jules simply looked at each other.

************************

MONDAY

The travelers head into a  war zone where they are forced to choose one side or the other. Don’t miss it. Happy Reading

*

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 2 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The travelers arrived at an army camp just outside a small village.  Lord Lionel dismounted and excused himself for a few minutes while various soldiers came to him and asked what they should do.  The travelers also dismounted.  The soldiers did not bother them, so Lockhart took that moment to turn on Lincoln.  “Joan of Arc?”

“She gets captured this month by…”  He pointed at Lionel but did not say anything out loud.  “She is a prisoner of the Burgundians for a time before she gets sold to the English to be tried for heresy.  Burned at the stake.”

“Stop,” Lockhart said.  “Just don’t say anything more.  Just keep your mouth closed unless it is something we need to know in private…”

Lord Lionel returned.  “Sorry.  My poor excuse for an army.  We will be joining my Lord Jean de Luxembourg, and then move to reinforce the army that has Compiegne under siege.  With luck, the city will be taken shortly.  You may find Johanne there.  There are rumors that she has come to defend the city.”

“Sukki?” Lockhart asked.  Both Sukki and Katie pointed in the direction they would head.

Lionel nodded.  “The Paris Road.  You might as well travel with us since that is the way we are going.  Eh?”  He stopped speaking when Sukki got Lockhart’s attention.

“The Kairos has moved out of the big city and is headed in our direction.”

“If they came from Paris, he is with English or Burgundian troops,” Katie said.  Lincoln shook his head but kept his mouth closed, like he might have gotten the message, for once.

“We, that is Lord Jean and I are with the Burgundians, who are with the English, in case you did not know,” Lionel said.  “I would appreciate you traveling with us.  We get an hour of contact with the enemy, but all the rest of the time, days and weeks, is traveling and waiting for something to happen.  It is very boring.”

“I don’t know,” Lockhart said.  “Armies tend to move pretty slow.”

“A week is all,” the man said.  “You could tell me about Charlemagne and about your travels.  I would be most interested.  And we may stay out front and let the army follow, so no other ears need to hear.”

Katie looked at Lockhart, but he only shrugged.

“We are in a war zone,” Decker pointed out.  “Traveling with the army will be much safer.”  Lockhart did not disagree.

###

In the evening, they set their tents next to Lionel’s big tent.  The travelers, Lionel and his captains had their own campfire, but they let Lord Lionel’s men work overtime to feed everyone.  Lionel insisted.  Lionel’s three captains for his horse soldiers camped with them, but they seemed nice.  No one told the captains on that first night that the stories they told around the campfire were true stories.  They tried to humanize the stories as much as they could, but it was often not possible.

Lionel had a hard time believing in elves, dwarfs, fairies, and the like.  His captains, however, and one in particular more than made up for his skepticism.  The man’s eyes got big every time they got mentioned.

Lionel, on the other hand, surprisingly had no trouble believing in space aliens, or the Masters trying to change history by introducing things like guns and gunpowder before their time.  He knew about cannon, and at least could imagine handheld rifles.

“As for the other,” Lionel said.  “I look at the stars at night and cannot imagine they serve no purpose.  I have imagined God is very practical.  You say they are suns very far away, and they have earths as well.  I see no reason to disbelieve you, or to think that the people on those earths would have to be exactly like us.  No offence to Decker or Nanette, but the first time I saw a black African, I thought surely this man was from another world. I suppose if God can make such variety on this earth, there may be infinite variety out among the stars.”

“There are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy,” Tony said.

Of course, they all believed in witches and the like.  It fit with their worldview.

“I believe your Johanne is a witch,” one captain said.  “She has power to twist the minds of men so they become afraid and run away when they might fight and win.”

“No such thing,” Elder Stow said. The Burgundians all respected the elder man like an elder statesman.

Decker spoke up.  “As I understand it, she is a virgin, pure and holy.  She is uneducated, poor, and no doubt innocent.  I heard she refuses to draw her sword against her enemy.  She just stands in the front line, waving her banner for all to see.  Honestly, she sounds more like a mascot than a general.  Like a living banner, and the French see the courage of this child willing to stand up for what she believes.  I imagine they are inspired by that, and maybe find some courage in themselves.”

The men nodded some, and Lionel said, “You may be right about that,” but one captain chose to be stubborn.

“She dresses like a man.  That’s unnatural.”

Katie let out her exasperated voice.  “She dresses like any other soldier when she goes into battle.  How would you expect her to dress?  In a bright pink frilly dress so she stands out, an easy target for enemy archers and with no protection at all?

“That wouldn’t be a bad choice,” the man said, and he smiled at that point like he knew he was just being ornery.

Lionel thought to change the subject.  “Charlemagne,” he said.  They had stuck to stories from the deep past, some of which Nanette and Tony did not even know because they happened before those two joined the travelers, but they figured it was safer to stick to ancient history.  Lionel wanted to hear something more contemporary, so he asked about Charlemagne, which Lockhart once mentioned.  Lockhart and Katie looked at each other, and the rest of the travelers were good to keep their mouths closed.  Without a word between them, Lockhart spoke.

“Fair enough.  But it is late, and the story is long.  We can save it for tomorrow.  Give you something to look forward to.”

Lionel agreed.

The next day, the travelers got the impression that Lionel kept slowing things down.  He admitted as much when they camped for the night.  “We will meet up with Lord Jean de Luxembourg and the rest of the army in the morning, and I did not want to miss the Charlemagne stories.”

“Fair enough,” Lockhart said, and he began the story when Decker first saw the ape-aliens in the woods.  Decker and the others only added a little here and there.  Lockhart, of course, had to explain about the guns again.  The Burgundians had their cannon, but they had a hard time imagining guns reduced to a size where a man could carry them around.  One captain said he saw such guns during the crusade against the Hussites.  He called them pistala and said they were still heavy.  They sat on tripods and were very inefficient to load and fire.  Of course, the travelers did not show the guns they carried around.

Lockhart also had to explain about what he called ray guns.  That was a bit more difficult, but he got a lantern out of one of the packs Ghost carried and showed them the general idea.  “This is just light,” he said.  “But when heat is added to the light, it makes for a very powerful weapon.”  The Burgundians were amazed enough by the lantern itself, and one of the captains finally had a thought.

“You are not making up these stories, are you?”

“Hush,” Lionel said.  “I want to hear about Charlemagne.”

The Charlemagne part of Genevieve’s story might have disappointed the listeners, but by then they had to tell the whole saga of the Apes versus the Flesh Eaters, and that took them through Elgar, Kirstie, and Yasmina.  When they reached the end of that story, one captain said he would have nightmares about those Flesh Eaters.  Lionel had another thought.

“Tell me about this Kairos.  I have the impression that it is not just a title passed down to son or daughter.”

“No,” Katie said.  “She is someone not to be talked about.  She was counted among the ancient gods but was not immortal. In fact, she claims to feel all the pain and suffering of death but is never allowed to die.  She keeps getting reborn, to do whatever work awaits her in her new life, maybe on the other side of the world.”

“He in this life,” Lincoln said quietly.

Katie nodded.  “He is charged with keeping history on track, to make sure it turns out the way it has been written.  The Masters we have mentioned are his most vicious enemies.  But the feeling I get is most often he stays in the background.  He tries not to be noticed.  It would make his work so much more difficult, so he is not to be talked about.”

“He is an instrument of the Most-High God who is working his purposes out through us, sinners though we are,” Nanette added.  “At least that is how I think of her, or him.”

“And through yourselves,” Lionel concluded.  “Don’t underestimate the work you do under the hand of the Almighty.”

“And you, too,” Lockhart added.  “Each in our own time and in our own way.”

“But what is the right way?” Lionel asked.  It sounded like a rhetorical question he had asked many times.

“We live by faith, not by sight,” Lockhart responded.

Lionel nodded at that, but he needed to ask one more question.  “The Kairos is not Johanne, the Maid?”  Everyone shook their heads.

“Him,” Lincoln repeated, and for once did not give his name.

“But I am sure he is near,” Katie said.

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 1 of 6

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After 1374 A.D. Northern France

Kairos lifetime 112: Quentin, the Highlander

Recording …

The travelers came through the time gate on to a country estate of some sort.  They moved quickly down the long driveway to the dirt road that led into the village.

“Did anyone see us?” Sukki asked.  She sounded worried about what might happen if someone saw them.

“I saw the gardener at that early hour,” Nanette said. “He just waved.”

“I imagine most of the house is still asleep.  The servants may be out back fixing breakfast,” Katie said and got out her amulet, so Sukki got hers out to compare.

“I think we are okay,” Lockhart said.   “So which way?  Lincoln, any idea where we are?”

Lincoln already had the database out and tried to read it.  “England?  Flanders?  France?  Not Scotland I think, though we may be in the low country.”

“Good to have options,” Lockhart joked.

Elder Stow frowned as he stared hard at his scanner.  It showed the area for several miles around, including roads and habitations, like the estate house and the nearby village, but he did not recognize the area.  He thought to expand the search grid, but he saw no particular landmarks he could name.

Tony tugged on the lead for the mule, like Ghost suddenly decided running was not part of his job description.  Decker was the only one who noticed they had a visitor, and he only had to clear his throat once to get everyone’s attention.

“You are at Wandomme,” the man said and pointed to the big house.  “I am Lord Lionel of Wandomme, where you arrived out of nowhere, and you did not even allow me the chance to invite you inside.”  The man smiled like he said that as a joke.

“Lockhart,” Lockhart said and tried to return the smile.  “My wife, Katie.”  They were not often caught in the open like that.  Then again, Lockhart imagined the man posed no threat.  Otherwise, Nanette might have picked up the bad vibes, and Katie’s elect radar would have gone off.

“Lovely to meet you,” the man said, tipping his hat, and offering another thought.  “I was riding.  I find an early morning ride most invigorating.  It sets me right for the whole day.  But then I saw your hole to another place in the middle of my lawn.  I thought you must be angels.  I hurried, but now I see that you are merely human, unless you are cleverly disguised angels.”

“Human,” Lincoln raised his hand, but hardly took his eyes from the database.

“We are all human here,” Katie said, and she proceeded to introduce everyone, carefully pointing out that Decker and Nanette were African, and saying Elder Stow and his daughter Sukki were Slavic, an idea they got in the last time zone.  “Robert and I are German and Swedish.  Lincoln works for Robert.  Tony is Italian and works mostly for Decker.”

“Indeed,” Lionel said. “But the question is, where did you come from?  You came out of a hole that appeared on my front lawn.  I am concerned, if you are not angels cleverly disguised, then are you witches or demons?”

“Nothing of the kind,” Katie said.  She looked at Lockhart while Lockhart looked once around the group.  It was his decision, but no one appeared to object to the idea of being honest.

“Strictly human.  Remember?” Lincoln raised his hand, his nose still in the database.

Lockhart spoke.  “We came directly from just outside Milan, Italy.  The year was 1347, just before the plague swept through Europe and killed half the population in some places.  We jumped forward in time by going through a time gate.  Hopefully we missed the worst of it.”

The man went pale.  “Plague is not something that people want to hear about, at least polite people,” Lionel said.  “But then tell me.  Where are you headed?”

“Lincoln?”  Lockhart asked.

“Aragon and Castille.  Somewhere between 1437 and 1499.”  Lincoln looked up at Lord Lionel.  “We don’t normally talk about our journey and especially about the future.  Future knowledge can be very dangerous in the wrong hands.”

“We are like pilgrims,” Lockhart said.  “Except our journey is through time not just across land and sea.  We travel from one time gate to the next.  They are normally about four or five hundred miles apart.  We are trying to get back to the year 2010, or whatever year it is when we get there.”

“We got company,” Decker interrupted.  A dozen soldiers on horseback came up the road.  Lord Lionel held up his hand.  The soldiers saw and dutifully stopped twenty yards away.

“So, you are from the future, originally.” Lionel said.  “But you don’t know exactly where the next stop is on your journey.”

“We know the general time frame, but not the exact date until we arrive,” Katie said.

“What year is this?” Lincoln asked.

“1430,” Lionel answered.  “Spring.  Early May, I believe.”

Lincoln wanted to say something, but Katie, Tony, and Nanette, all gave him hard stares, so he held his tongue.

“We went into the past on a rescue mission,” Lockhart explained.  “We succeeded, but then we feared we would be stuck in the past forever.”

“God always makes a way, if you trust him and follow after him,” Nanette said.

“Yes,” Lionel said.  “And your way seems so hard to believe.  I would not believe a word of it if I did not see you appear out of nowhere in my front yard.  Come.  Go my way for a bit.  I have so many questions.”

“Katie?” Lockhart asked without spelling it out.  She pointed in the direction of the soldiers, so the travelers went with the man.

The dirt road was not well kept, but wide enough to ride three or four abreast.  Lionel squeezed between Lockhart and Katie so he could ask his questions.  Decker, Nanette, and Lincoln followed.  Sukki, Elder Stow, and Tony with Ghost brought up the rear.  The soldiers divided so half led the way and half followed behind.

Lionel started right away with more questions, and Lockhart and Katie did their best to tell what they felt was safe.

“I heard the bells, you know,” Lionel said.  “It lends further credence to your Milan story.”

“The bells of the Basilica San Lorenzo Maggiore,” Katie said.  “They ring the bells at sunrise.”

Lionel nodded before he asked a serious question.  “So, something I don’t understand.  Why is the Lord taking you home in such short hops?  Why not just bring you home all at once?”

“Because there is something we must do in each time zone, as we call them,” Lockhart said.  “Everyone needs to do the work assigned to them.”

“We have an advantage over Abraham,” Katie said, dredging up the reference from her Sunday School days.  “We know where we are going.”

Nanette leaned forward and added some additional thoughts.  “David was anointed twenty years before he wore the crown.  The people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness making an eleven-day journey from Egypt to the promised land.”

“What work could the Lord possibly require of you folks?”

“I could tell you how we saved Charlemagne’s life,” Lockhart responded.  “Have you heard the stories about Robin Hood or King Arthur?”

“I see…” Lionel had to think.  “I guess the question becomes, why are you here at this time?  Are you on the English side or the French side?  And if the French side, do you support Charles and the Armagnacs or the Burgundians?”

“No side,” Katie said, plainly.  “We are not here to take sides unless the Lord says otherwise.  Usually, it is a person or two we have to protect, or someone we have to stop from doing whatever evil thing they have planned.”

“In this place,” Lincoln interrupted from behind.  “Joan of Arc is the name that keeps coming up.”  Nanette immediately hit Lincoln in the arm, the way Alexis used to hit him to get him to shut his mouth.

Lord Lionel shook his head.  “Joan d’Arc is what the English call her.  Johanne de Bar is who she is.  An illiterate peasant girl.  The Maid of Orleans, she is sometimes called.  Who would have thought such a one could cause so much trouble and death?”

Katie looked over at Lockhart, who looked at her with questions.  Lockhart might not have the history at his fingertips, but he heard of Joan of Arc and understood she was one of the good guys.  Nanette hit Lincoln in the arm again just on general principle.

Avalon 9.0 Pestilence, part 6 of 6

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That evening, Babara and Malore did not come down to supper.  Prudenza wondered if they had taken ill, but Francesa assured her they were fine.  “Babara is very old.  No telling how old.  And the young one is her only support.  I will take some food upstairs.  They will not go without.”

“Fine,” Prudenza said, but paused when Francesa stiffened.

“Yes.  Yes,” Francesa said, seemingly to the air.  “I will send Divitia up right away.”  Francesa smiled for Prudenza and stepped to the door to call Divitia.  She and Sancta were playing in the snow with the dogs.  She got ready to say something, but Sancta came to the door first.  On seeing Prudenza, Sancta turned to her.

“Mother.  Divitia does not feel well.”

Divitia came in holding her tummy.  Francesa did not blink.  “Divitia.  You must take this upstairs immediately.”

“Now wait,” Prudenza interrupted.  “She is not well.”  She reached for the girl but someone in her head said, Wait!  Prudenza did not fight it.  She traded places with the Nameless god, one of her lives that she spoke with earlier.  That is, Prudenza went to some safe place utterly beyond this world, and Nameless came through time from the deep past to stand in her place.  He came dressed in the ancient armor of the Kairos with the sword Wyrd at his back and the long blade Defender across the small of his back.  Yet, he kept up a glamour of Prudenza, so no one was the wiser.  He looked and sounded like Prudenza.  It was a simple thing for a god to do.  He learned how from his Mother Frya, the Asgardian goddess of love, war, and magic.

Nameless immediately noticed a spiritual string connecting Divitia to something else, a string Prudenza would have gotten tangled up in.  He cut that string.  Divitia fainted and Sancta got down on the floor with her friend.  A cry came from overhead, and a forty-year-old woman came staggering to the stairs and part way down.  She shouted.

“Kairos.  You have no power in this life.  I made sure.  I saw when you came inside.”

Nameless knew who it was and in Prudenza’s voice, he named the woman.  “Malore.”

“I should have feasted on you yesterday.  But Babara was reaching the end of her strength.  I could not risk losing her before I had a new child in place.  Now, I will feast on Divitia for the next twenty years.  She will age, and I will stay young forever.”

“That is not going to happen,” Nameless said.

Malore laughed as she aged a little more.  “You have no power.  Mine is the power of the goddess Frigg, the queen of the gods herself.  I will crush you and I will feed.”

“No,” he said.  He saw tendrils of power snake out from Malore’s hands and reach for Divitia, but he put an Elder Stow-like screen around the girl and around Sancta so the witch’s power could not reach them.  Malore screamed.

“What power do you have to defy Aesgard?  Even now the men of the mountain are coming to kill you.  The gods have all gone over to the other side.  I will feast and live and you will die.”

“No,” Nameless said again, and as he dropped the glamour of Prudenza, he let out a touch of his glory and said simply, “I am Aesgard.”  Tedesca and Carlo came to the kitchen door and had to look away.  Francesa dropped her jaw before she closed her eyes, completely free now from the witch’s control.  Sancta looked at Divitia who became bathed in the healing light of eternity.  Malore screamed louder than before.

Nameless reached out his hand and the amulet and rings vacated Malore and appeared in his hands.  The witch began to age rapidly, and still she screamed.  She surpassed a hundred before her skin began to peel back and show the bones.  In the end, she collapsed into a pile of dust to be swept out the door.

Nameless prepared to return to his own time and let Prudenza come home, but he heard gunfire outside and though it would not hurt to see.  He quickly sent the amulet and rings to Avalon where they could be locked away for safe keeping, and where no mortal could ever get them again.  Then he vanished from the Haus and appeared on the mountainside between the travelers and the mountain men, being careful to stay invisible for the moment and watch.

Nanette and Dagnanus were in a magical duel.  Nameless had no doubt Nanette would win that one.  Her magic had great potential.  His magic was small.  The mountain men had some bows and were mostly hunters, but they could hardly get close enough through the hail of bullets put out by the travelers.  He saw the dwarfs sneaking around to come up behind the mountain men with their axes sharpened.  Too bad they would have to be disappointed.  He also saw Elder Stow with his weapon and Sukki with the power she carried inside her.  They looked ready to fly overhead and bake the poor mountain men.  Too bad.  But at least Nameless knew Elder Stow and Sukki, unlike the dwarfs, would not be disappointed at being prevented from carrying out their plans.

Nameless became visible as he waved his hand and said, “Stop.”  Everything on the mountainside stopped, even the birds in flight and the bullets half-way to their target.  He first set the mountain men free of their compulsion to kill and told them to go home to their wives and families, which they were more than willing to do.  With their chief gone and the compulsion of Dagnanus lifted, some wondered what they were doing there in the first place.

“Sorry for your losses,” Nameless said, as he waved his hand again and all the bullets spent in that area gathered together.  He sent them all to Avalon, to his island in the sea of eternity that held all the things misplaced in time that he found and removed from the Earth.  It made a regular museum.  Then he set the travelers free so they could watch as he called Dagnanus to face him.  He took Dagnanus’ magic away and the man fell to his knees.

“Please, Lord.  The Masters are torturing my future life.”

Nameless nodded, waved his hand again and Dagnanus went away to be replaced by a man who looked similar but not exactly the same.  The man cried and folded his hands as in prayer.  Nameless killed him painlessly and sent him back into the future so Dagnanus could come home.  Dagnanus cried, just like his other life, and Nameless spoke softly.

“If I let you go home, will you be good and stay away from the pope and the first men of the renaissance?”

“Yes, Lord.  I promise. I will be good.  You will see…”  Nameless waved and the man vanished.

“Where is home?” Katie wondered out loud as she and Lockhart stepped up to see.

“He really has a home in Pisa, and a family, so not everything he said was a lie.  Sadly, Pisa is due for demolition by the plague if it has not already begun.”  Nameless smiled for the couple but shouted to be sure he was heard.  “Dwarfs, go home.  The war is over.  And take that stinky, ugly ogre with you.”  He let the birds fly again, the animals run, and the plants blow in the cold breeze of the first of November.  Then he let Prudenza come home to her own time and place.  She also began to weep and hugged Lockhart, and hugged Katie.  She made a special point of hugging Sukki but said nothing about missing Boston.

###

Prudenza sat on a chair and waved to the travelers as they headed off in the morning.  She did not want to hurry them, but they wanted to get to the other side of the mountains before the winter truly came.  The early snowfall was just a brief indication of what was to come.

Prudenza told them if the gate was in or around Milan, it should remain there.  She and her family and friends were headed off the main road.  The village nestled in a hollow between two peaks stood eight miles away.  Francesa arranged for them to take an empty house to winter.  She said it was her old family home, but all three sisters had their own houses now and the house sat empty.  Prudenza said, “Thank you,” but Francesa said, “No, I thank you.”

Sancta came up, holding her puppy, Rosso.  The two girl puppies, Blu and Verde would be staying at the way station.  Sancta wanted her mother’s attention, but Prudenza’s mind was wandering.

“We will stay in the village until spring, late March or early May.  Then we will find my brother and my son and come back this way as soon as we can.  But in any case, the time gate location should remain stable for some time.”

“You know, the plague will dog you in France, if it doesn’t get ahead of you,” Katie said.

“Yes, I know.  There is no escaping it.  It is like the Masters.  They seem to be everywhere trying to change history to their liking.”  She sighed.  “But in this case, at least I know what we are facing now, and I can take some precautions against this pestilence.  You are lucky.  According to Lincoln, Milan is one of the few areas in all of Europe that is not impacted by the pestilence or is minimally impacted.”

“And you?  Will you be all right?”

“We will be fine.  This is where I live, remember?  You are the people who belong in 2010, or whatever year it is by the time you get back there.”  Prudenza smiled and Katie nodded.  “Meanwhile, I understand some alpine villages escape the plague as well.  I don’t know if where we are going is one of them, but it is better than nothing.”

Prudenza let go of her thoughts and hugged her daughter, and the puppy.  “Now, what is it?”

“Divitia,” Sancta said.  “I like her well enough, but she won’t stop talking.  I can’t get a word in.”

Prudenza laughed as Tedesca came to sit with her.  They watched the travelers vanish in the distance.  Then Tedesca unloaded.

“The Nameless.  Will he help us?  And Nina.  Must she be gone?”  Tedesca did not know how to say what she wanted to ask.

“The ancient gods have gone away, and no.  Nina is gone to us in this world.  Even for the gods there were two rules.  Rule one is people die.  Rule two is even the gods are not allowed to change rule one.”  Prudenza found the tears in her eyes as she thought of the millions that would die.  Tedesca and Sancta joined her in a good cry.

***********************

MONDAY Episode 9.1 Johanne

The travelers find themselves in northern France and the name that keeps coming up is Joan of Arc. Until then, Happy Reading

*

Avalon 9.0 Pestilence, part 5 of 6

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Prudenza stood in the doorway and watched the snow fall.  They were not going anywhere in the snow.  In fact, she began to think they might have to find a place where they could wait out the winter.  She did not second guess her decision to leave Genoa when they did.  Staying there until spring only risked everyone being infected with the plague, as Doctor Mishka called the pestilence.

Carlo came up behind her and peeked over her shoulder.  “We are a day away, below the pass.  Augustinus does not recommend the pass in the snow.  You know, I have some money Nina and I were saving for the little one…”

“No,” Prudenza said too fast.  “Thank you.  Not yet.”  She felt bad about being a burden to anyone, even her brother-in-law, but she had very limited funds.  With her uncle’s help, she paid off her father’s debts, but it did not leave her with much.  Tedesca helped, and when her Uncle Bertolo died, Aunt Bellaflore brought some money with her.  They would make do.

Carlo patted her on the shoulder and headed back to the kitchen.  Prudenza smiled for him and noticed the crone Babara and her girl Malore were by the fireplace, looking unmoved from the day before.  Something about those two really bothered Prudenza, but she could not put her finger on the issue.  Again, she shrugged it off and returned her eyes to the snow.

Prudenza searched through every lifetime she could reach at that point. She remembered Sir John of the Hill, the Norman knight who helped William be the conqueror.  He said he knew nothing about diseases and that was it.  Taira no Hideko, the O’Hide of the Taira clan in the days of the first shogun.  She knew something about healing.  She taught as much to her pupils, geishas and ninjas alike, but the plague was beyond her small abilities.  Prudenza imagined Hideko lowering her eyes to her folded hands in front of her, and she smiled to think she had once been so humble.  Prudenza admitted she had a fiery temper at times and wondered if she should have been a redhead rather than blonde.  She decided being Italian was enough.  She continued.

Helen de Lovetot, another blonde, and platinum at that, was the younger sister of Matilda de Lovetot who inherited all the land and titles and all that rot from their father, William.  Helen only got her priest, Father Tucker, alias Friar Tuck.  But with him, she got Robin and Little John, Maid Marian, and the rest, including Milch, the miller’s son.  She had plenty of adventures but had nothing to contribute about the plague.  Then Sung-Ao said he was a shipbuilder; the same excuse he gave Kublai Khan when the Mongols finally overran the Southern Sung.  He made a pretty good guide for Marco Polo but said the closest he had to `a cure-all was chicken soup.  He said Prudenza should ask the good doctor for help.

But she did that already, she complained.

Everyone else she talked to refused to be helpful.  The Princess, the Storyteller, Alice, and the Captain all said she had no business attempting to change history, no matter how horrible it might be.  Diogenes even admitted to dying of the plague in early summer, 323 B. C., he and Alexander the Great.  Of course, Diogenes traded places back then with the Nameless god who played the pied piper and drowned all the rats in the Euphrates, so the plague outbreak that threatened Babylon got nipped in the bud.  She had no such help, unless…

Aha! Prudenza thought, but Nameless thought first to her.  “Far be it from me to contradict the good Doctor Mishka.”

Prudenza pouted.  Not even her most future lifetimes, the aliens Martok and Gallena would help her, and Gallena was a doctor of a sort.  She was an exobiologist who specialized in human beings from Earth.

“Listen,” Mishka spoke into her head.  “History says the plague kills millions in Europe.  That truth must not be changed.  It lays the groundwork for the Renaissance and for the beginning of true science, the enlightenment and on to the modern day.”

Prudenza protested.  “But what if Sancta or Tedesca, or someone I love and feel close to gets sick.  They may die.”

“They may,” Mishka responded for everyone.  “That is just life, and something we have to deal with in every lifetime.”

Prudenza felt as if her heart started breaking already, but she came suddenly out of her introspection as Babara moved and Malore stood.

###

In the morning, the snow had stopped falling, and a thorough check showed that the travelers had an undisturbed night.  They had more to climb to get up to the top of the pass, but they imagined it would not take them too long now that it had stopped snowing.

They started out like they had been traveling, with Decker and Elder Stow staying close or riding with the group along the narrow mountain road.  Only Lincoln said something significant that morning.  Tony wondered where the brigands had gotten to and Lincoln added, “And Dagnanus, the sorcerer.”

About mid-morning, Sukki rode back from the point.  She stopped twenty feet from the others and pulled out the amulet that pointed to the next time gate.  She had to study it and squint some just to see the map. Boston showed her how to zoom in and zoom out, but that feature did not especially clarify what she was seeing.  Lockhart and Katie stopped when they reached her, and Lockhart spoke.

“Something up ahead?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” Sukki answered.  “I think the Kairos stopped moving if I am reading this right.”  She looked worried, but Katie smiled for her, so she smiled.

“You will get the hang of it,” Katie said.  “It took Boston a long time to figure out what all the dots and symbols mean.  My prototype amulet is not nearly as sophisticated—not so many dots and symbols—but I am still learning how to read mine.”

Sukki nodded and put the amulet back under her shirt where it could hang hidden from the world.  “Over the little rise, the trail starts going downhill again.”

Lincoln came up from behind.  “Good.  This wind is biting cold, and there is plenty of snow up here for the end of October.”

“Halloween,” Lockhart said as he checked the back of the group.  Decker and Elder Stow had moved in from the wings.  Decker pushed in to ride beside Nanette.  Elder Stow brought up the rear beside Tony who led Ghost the mule on a long lead.  He turned front in time to hear a loud shout from overhead.  They heard the ground rumble, and while Katie looked up at the mountainside, Lincoln yelled.

“Avalanche!”  Everyone but Lincoln looked up.  “Move uphill to that little cliffside.  Everybody. Put your backs to the cliff.”

They all heard the Rumble, Rumble and did not have to be told twice.  Fortunately, they had been through enough terrors in their journey, so no one panicked.  Unfortunately, everyone felt the need to talk at once.

“This isn’t just snow collapsing.”

“What was that shout?”

“No time to set the screens.”

“The whole side of the mountain is falling.”

“I can’t stop that much,” Nanette yelled.

Sukki screamed so no one heard Lockhart.  “Where is a good dwarf home when you need one?”  He was not a fan of the little spirits of the Earth.  They creeped him out, as he said.  But he could deal with it when he had to, and to his surprise, a small head appeared to pop right out of the rocks in the cliff face.

“Right here,” the head said.  “I suppose you can come in.”

A cave entrance appeared in the middle of the rocks and the travelers pushed in.  Seconds later, the snow, earth, and rocks covered the hole.  Even up against the cliff, they would have been crushed.  The travelers were temporarily in the dark, but the dwarf that saved them soon lit a torch.

“Gonna take some work to clear that out,” the dwarf said.  “Name’s Radmiser.  I don’t like human beings, but you folks are different, I suppose.  Where is that red headed string bean?”

“Boston had to go home,” Katie said.  “Her father-in-law is dying.”

Radmiser nodded.  “I had one of those once.  Now all I got is a wife.”  He made a stinky face.  “Well, come on.  Prudenza is not far.  I’ll take you, but be warned, the tunnels big enough for your horses will take us through a Troll Haus.”

“How much do they charge?” Decker asked, even while the words were forming on Lockhart’s lips.

“Just a pinky finger, and a horse.  Trolls don’t get enough horsemeat.”  Radmiser glanced at the travelers to see how his lie got received.  Seeing as they did not bat an eye, he admitted, “But I imagine in this case they might not require the price, seeing as the Kairos is so close and all.”

The travelers had all gotten down, and Lockhart indicated the dwarf should lead the way.

“There is one more thing, so you know.  There are a couple of wicked witches at the house where the Kairos is staying.  Be on your guard.”

“Understood,” Lockhart said.  “We just left a sorcerer behind us.”

Katie interrupted.  “I bet he was the one who shouted, and maybe with a little magic started the avalanche.”

“Quite possible, Missy Elect,” Radmiser said to her.  “He is a poor excuse for a wizard, not a sorcerer by any means, but he is a bad one.  I’ll give you that.”

Avalon 9.0 Pestilence, part 4 of 6

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The travelers bought the young nobleman wine, explained about being pilgrims headed toward Rome, and said they would be leaving in the morning.  They basically lied their way out of being arrested.  They said the man must have mistaken them for someone else.

“Are you English?” the young man asked.  “Are you Celtic, from Bretagne? Your French is very good.”

“German,” Lockhart said quickly.  “From around Basel.”  It was the only thing he could think to say.

“And Scandinavian,” Katie said, and clarified.  “Mostly Swedish.”

“I have some French in me,” Lincoln said.  “On my mother’s side.”

“Italian,” Tony raised his hand.  “From south of Rome.”

“Africa,” Decker said.  “Not Muslim.”  He gave Nanette a small kiss.  “We find Europe fascinating and different than expected.”

Everyone looked at Elder Stow, but he was prepared.  “My daughter and I are from far in the east.  It is a good land with plenty of snow.”

“Slavic?” the man asked, and Elder Stow nodded.  Slavic was close enough, though he really wanted to say he lived thousands of light years not miles away.

“We found Elder Stow in Jericho,” Lincoln remembered.  “He and his daughter were separated, but we found her all the way over on the coast, in Gaza.  We rescued her.  She might have been killed.”

“So, you have been to the holy land.”  The young man nodded and spoke in English.  “The man said you were English.”

Elder Stow, Sukki, Nanette, and Tony all recognized the change in the language, but Nanette and Tony in particular, were not as practiced in switching their tongues when confronted with two languages, so they kept silent.  Lincoln looked at Lockhart and said nothing for a change.  Decker kept silent and nibbled on the remains of his supper.  Lockhart looked at Katie and dredged up a few words in German from all the way back in Genevive’s day.  “What words are these?”  He did not do the best acting job.

“English,” Katie told Lockhart in English like she was explaining.  She turned back to the man and answered him in French, the local tongue, which in that time zone came most naturally to the travelers.  “Our understanding of English is limited since we have had no reason to learn it.”

“I see,” the young noble said and finally sipped his wine.  He made a face, like it was not the best wine he tasted.  “The man must have been mistaken.”  He stood.  “All the same, if you are leaving first thing in the morning, that would be best.”  He gave a slight bow, turned, and marched out, his soldiers following.  The travelers all breathed and sat quietly for a time.

Four days later, having made good progress in the French countryside, the travelers began to climb into the foothills of the alps.  The road stayed good, and they found villages all along the way where they could stop for the night.  No one bothered them, though Katie swore they were being followed.  Nanette closed her eyes, held out her hand, and tried to focus back on the trail.  She did that several times over those days but could not bring anything into her mind for sure.  She could only confirm Katie’s feeling that they were being followed, and shrug.

When they moved up into the foothills, they came across their first way station.  All along the main ways through the alps there were stations roughly every fifteen to twenty miles.  Many were built by the Romans as places where travelers could stop and get a meal and a bed for the night.  They were Hauses, Hostels, or Hospitals, as in hospitality places.  Some were Toll Hauses, though the taking of tolls from the merchants who mostly traveled the roads was frowned upon.  At the first one the travelers came to they found an old man looking for help over the mountains.

“There are thieves in the mountains, and in a month the snows will come and make the passes impossible for travelers.  Please.  I heard there is a great sickness in Genoa, and it has spread to Pisa.  I am worried about my family.  Please.  I left my train some days ago.  They will make the trip to the low countries and return in the spring, hopefully with a profit, but I must see to the safety of my family.”

“We are not inclined to travel with strangers,” Katie said.  She looked at Nanette and Lincoln, both of whom thought the man looked like the old man who sat alone by the fireplace in Lyon, but the others did not see it.

“Do you have a name?” Lockhart asked.

“Dagnanus,” the man said.  “I am a simple merchant from Pisa where the grapes grow thick.  I bring Tuscan wine to the world, and even to the French who only think they know how to make wine.  Ha…”  He scoffed.  “But please.  I have been over the mountains many times.  I know the way, and the ways to avoid, but I will not make it alone, and the weather is turning.  I must go to save my family, but I need help.”

Lockhart stared at Lincoln and Nanette who he later told they had to keep one eye on the man, but he spoke.  “Dagnanus.  We leave in the morning right after breakfast. Be up and ready if you want to go with us.”

“I will.  I will go and pack my few things right now.  Thank you.  Thank you.” The man hurried up the stairs.

“He is spritely for an old man,” Katie remarked.

“Dagnabit,” Decker said through whatever he was chewing on.  He looked like he wanted to spit, but he held it back while Nanette smiled.

Two days later, well up into the mountains, some friends of Dagnanus blocked the road and surrounded the travelers.  Everyone stopped moving, but only Lincoln said anything.

“I knew it.”

Dagnanus moved ahead and got down from his horse next to the leader of the group.  His appearance changed as he moved, like the man wore a glamour that whole time, which told the others he had magic of some sort at his fingertips.  He proved to be the man Nanette saw in the street, and she almost echoed Lincoln’s I knew it comment.  Then Dagnanus said something that surprised everyone, and at the same time, did not surprise anyone.

“The Travelers from Avalon, as promised.”

“Good,” the brigand leader grunted.  “Malore and her old lady Babara have the Kairos in sight.  If we can kill her at an inopportune time and stop her rebirths, then all we need to do is remove these annoyances traveling through time and the future can be shaped the way the Masters want.”

“I am to serve,” Dagnanus said, but Elder Stow spoke at the same time.

“There.  I have put up Decker Screens all around us.  You may fire when ready.”

“Good,” Decker said.  He pulled his rifle and began to shoot the ones that might have ended up inside the screens.  The others reacted more slowly, except Nanette, who got mad.  She whipped out her wand and caught Dagnanus and the brigand leader in her own magic.  She lifted them two feet off the ground so they could not run away, and she growled at them.  She studied the face of the brigand leader even as Lincoln shot the man.  When they turned to Dagnanus, however, they saw that he escaped somehow.

The confrontation did not take long.  The brigands quickly hurried away.  Several arrows came in their direction and bounced off Elder Stows screens, but then everything went quiet.

“We have to hurry,” Lockhart said.  “Ready?  Is Ghost ready?”

“Ready,” Tony said, and he pulled the mule in close.

“Okay, Elder Stow.  Cut the screens.  Everybody ride.”

They hurried as well as they could.  It was all uphill, so a strain for the horses, but no more arrows came in their direction, and they soon got out of range.  They left ten dead men behind them, including the brigand leader.  There were still ten or more out there in the woods, and Dagnanus.  Nanette refused to curse to think of it, so Lincoln cursed for her.

“He may have taken us off the main road without us realizing it,” Katie said, as soon as they got about a mile away and slowed to let the horses catch their breath in the cold.  They saw some early snow in the area.

“My mother,” Elder Stow responded to Katie’s concern as he pushed forward.  “I was thinking the same thing, but I see in my scanner that this path soon returns to the main path.  I can hardly call it a road.”

“Good thing we ditched the wagon,” Lincoln said.

Lockhart nodded.  “Decker and Elder Stow, stay in close.  Sukki, you have the point.”

“Yes boss,” Sukki said, echoing the response Boston would have given, and she pushed her horse, Cocoa, out ahead of the others to scout the area.

That evening, the travelers might have frozen if not for their fairy weave clothes, which they made as thick as possible, and their fairy weave tents, which they also thickened and made waterproof.  It began to snow.  Fortunately, they had plenty of fairy weave blankets which they draped over Ghost and the horses and shaped to imitate real medieval blankets that fell to the ground.

“At least the horses won’t freeze,” Sukki said.

That night, Elder Stow surrounded the camp with a screen no normal thing could break through, though they understood Dagnanus might contrive some magical way to get inside the screens.  With that in mind, Nanette and Katie kept their senses on high alert and worried in the night.  Elder Stow set the alarm on his scanner so if anything bigger than a marmot or an owl came into the area and got through the screens, they would be alerted.  The big predators, like lynx and wolves could be kept out by the screens, along with people.  The return of the brigands would be bad, but they also did not need a bear stumbling into the camp.

Avalon 9.0 Pestilence, part 3 of 6

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Lincoln relayed information from the database while the others ate their supper.  The inn stayed quiet and empty.  The one older man by the fireplace sat alone and seemed to want to ignore everyone.  He might have listened.  If the staff did not have other things to do, they might have eavesdropped to relieve their boredom.  But no one else was around to overhear, and Lincoln figured he would not be talking about anything that would alter the course of history.

“Prudenza was born in 1312, in Genoa.  She was a Doria, a prominent Genoese family, though her branch of the family was not so prominent.  Her father and uncle had a couple of ships and traded between Genoa, Sicily, Constantinople, and Caffa in the Crimea on the Black Sea.  Prudenza was the eldest of four siblings.  Prudenza, Bartolino the only boy, Nina, and Tedesca.

Prudenza was forced to marry at age seventeen, in about 1330, and the database says she was happy for about a year and had a son, Iacobo.  Her husband was Anthonio D’Amalfi from another not so prominent-prominent Genoese family.  Anthonio was a mercenary captain of a company of crossbow men.  When Iacobo turned three months old, Anthonio raised a hand to Prudenza, and she walked out on him and moved home.  It doesn’t explain…

In 1331, Anthonio took his company and sailed off to fight for the Byzantines.  He came home again in 1335 and it says he raped his wife.  He promptly left town and headed north to fight for the French, who had some money at the time.  Pay from the Byzantines was an on again-off again thing.  Prudenza had a girl, Sancta, and always said it was not her daughter’s fault that the girl’s father was such a horrible man.

In 1339, her brother Bartolino succumbed to the temptation and ran off to fight with Anthonio.  They fought for the French who lost the battle of Sluys.  The company of crossbowmen survived, but they needed to recruit men to fill the decimated company.  Around that same time, Prudenza’s mother died, and her father lost his ship in a skirmish with the Venetians off the coast of Messina.  The man ended up crippled, but he had lived a high lifestyle, living and raising his children above his means, so he was in debt and saved no money to help in his infirmity, much less money for a new ship.  They had to sell the house and move to the slums.  Prudenza’s uncle helped where he could, but it was not much.

Finally, it broke Prudenza’s heart when her son, Iacobo, ran off to fight for his father.  He was just fifteen and no doubt imagined he was relieving some of the burden of staying home.  He had offers on several mercantile ships and a chance to learn the business, but he was not interested in that.  He thought war and adventure, but preferably on land.

1346, the battle of Crecy.  The French lost that one, too.  Bartolino and Iacobo survived, but Anthonio died.  It says Prudenza got the letter from her brother the same day her uncle’s ship arrived in port.  It says her uncle picked up the pestilence in Caffa, spread it to Constantinople and Sicily and brought it home.  He, and most of his crew, were deathly ill by the time they arrived.  Prudenza promptly lost her sister, Nina Bonoconte, Nina’s young son, and her father.”

“What do you mean pestilence?” Nanette asked.

“Plague—bubonic plague,” Tony, Katie, and Lincoln all answered together.

“But what happened to Prudenza?” Sukki asked, not fully understanding what the plague might be, though they had mention of it in previous time zones, so she had the general idea.

“Prudenza packed up her things, her daughter Sancta, her sister Tedesca and her brother-in-law Carlo Bonoconte and headed for Paris to escape the city—to get while the getting was good.  I checked around.  This is late October 1347.  Prudenza is thirty-five and traveling in this direction.  But she does not get over the alps before the weather.  She stops at a way station, and then moves to an out-of-the-way Alpine village where she has to wait until spring.”

“Good luck,” Lockhart said.

Katie looked at him.  “The plague will be dogging her heels, though it probably will not move fast until the warm spring weather.”

Tony nodded.  “It may get down into Italy, but it will probably move slowly over the alps.”

“Great,” Lincoln said, showing Tony the proper way to do sarcasm.  “And we are heading right into the middle of it.”

Everyone quieted.  a young nobleman came into the inn. Two soldiers placed themselves on either side of the door as the young man walked to the table.  He grabbed a chair and placed it at the end of the table, and said, “Mind if I join you?”

###

Prudenza sat on a rock and tried not to start crying again.  Her twelve-year-old daughter Sancta stayed with Tedesca and her Aunt Bellaflore.  The dogs started barking.  Sancta was wary of barking dogs, but Prudenza looked.  The dogs did not seem unfriendly to her.  This was a way station on the trade route over the alps that led into France.  Surely the dogs were used to strangers.

“Do you have names?” the woman asked, holding back what was likely her own young daughter.

“Prudenza D’Amalfi de Genoa.  My daughter Sancta.  My sister Tedesca and my Aunt Bellaflore.  The old man is Benedictus de Auria.  The middle-aged fellow is Luciano Calvo.  And the young man…”

The so-called young man, who was near thirty, stepped up and interrupted with a flourishing bow.  “Carlo Francischo de Bonoconte.  Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“We don’t have room for all of you,” the woman said, flatly.  She looked at the sky.  The sun would soon set.  “We have two others already, but the next village is a day away.  I suppose the men can stay in the barn, but they will still have to pay.”

A man came around the corner of the big house and stopped to eye the motley group.  “You are a strange collection,” he said.  “We don’t often get unescorted women here.  You have no soldiers, no hired men?”

Prudenza shook her head.  “My father died.  A terrible sickness has come upon the city, and we thought to escape the city while we are well and able.  My brother Bartolino and my eldest, my son Iacobo are among the soldiers fighting for the French.  I am going to fetch them and bring them home.  I am sure the sickness will be over by the time we return.”  She sighed and the woman paused in her rough attitude to show some sympathy.

“My father died last winter,” she said.  “I am Francesa.  My baby is Divitia.” she pointed to the girl beside her.  “My husband is Augustinus.”  She pointed at the man.  “No telling where my son is.”  Francesa smiled, though it did not look entirely like a natural occurrence.  “You might as well come inside.  There may be a delay in fixing supper with so many more mouths to feed.”

“I am sure whatever you fix will be fine,” Prudenza said.  “Bellaflore and Tedesca can help.”

“Prudenza,” Tedesca complained about being volunteered.

“And yourself?” Francesa asked.

“No,” Tedesca responded.  “She is not the best cook.”

Francesa nodded and walked Tedesca through the house.  The kitchen fires were out back.  Bellaflore followed.  Prudenza paused to look at the men while Augustinus moved to intercept them and spoke.

“Let me take you to the barn.  It is where the men often stay, and where the soldiers and hired men always stay.  It is not as bad as you may be thinking.”

Old man Benedictus took the ox and wagon, and the men followed.

Prudenza stopped and turned in the doorway.  She watched the two girls.  Divitia went straight to Sancta, and the dogs followed, tails wagging and tongues lolling.  Sancta stood her ground but did not look entirely comfortable.

“Hi.  I’m Divitia.  I’m thirteen.”

“Sancta.”  Sancta gave her name but neglected to say she was only twelve.

“This is Filipo and Giletta.  They are very nice.  They won’t hurt you.  They like people.  They hate rats.  They are ratters. Father says they are pinschers, but Mama calls them ratters.  They keep the rats away from the house and Mama says that lets her clean the house for the travelers to stay.  Mama says it is a good thing they have short hair.  They don’t shed so much.  I like your hair.  You can show me how you put it up like that.  Your mother is very pretty.  I wish I was pretty.  Your mother has big breasts.  Giletta got breasts when she had her puppies.  We got three puppies.  Come and see them.”  She turned to lead the way.

Sancta said nothing that whole time.  She stiffened a little when the dogs sniffed her, but she followed Divitia on the chance that she might make a friend.

Prudenza turned her eyes inside the house.  She saw an old woman and a girl by the fireplace.  The old woman looked like a Gypsy crone.   She had a stick in her hand that she waved at the fire.  The young one, maybe fifteen, sat at the old woman’s feet like an apprentice of sorts.  She wore fancy rings and something like an amulet that hung from a gold chain around her neck.  Witches, Prudenza thought before she scolded herself.  She must not judge based on appearance.  They were probably a grandmother and her granddaughter trying to get warm in the October chill.

“Hello,” Prudenza said in her friendliest voice.  “I’m Prudenza.”

The two stared at Prudenza for a minute.  Prudenza waited and felt the need to scratch the back of her head.  The old woman frowned and spoke.  “Babara.  My young one is Malore.”  She had nothing more to say as she and Malore turned in unison to stare once again at the flames.

************************

MONDAY

Everything seems calm and quiet, but strange things are swirling around the travelers and around Prudenza and her family. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 9.0 Pestilence, part 2 of 6

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Prudenza watched Tedesca and Bellaflore march into the village inn while Carlo and old man Benedictus led the ox drawn wagon to the barn out back.  Her daughter Sancta wanted to stay by her side, but Prudenza told her to go with her aunt Tedesca and great-aunt Bellaflore to see what might be available for supper.  Sancta huffed but nodded and hurried to catch up to the others.  Prudenza found a bench under an awning that jutted out from the roof of the inn.  She sat heavily and pulled out the letter.

My dearest sister, Prudenza,

I do not know how long it may take for this letter to reach you, but in August, anno domini 1346, the French faced invading English forces near the village of Crecy.  It was a disaster for the French.  The English dug into their well defended lines and the French wasted themselves in charge after charge with no success.

Being bowmen, we moved up first to soften the enemy and make little holes in their lines that the French cavalry could take advantage of, but being hurried, we had no shields.  They were still in the baggage train, so we had to use whatever natural cover we could find and hurry close enough to be affective.  The English archers remained strong.  They fired five or six powerful arrows in the time it took us to fire two.  The mud hampered our ability to reload, and I am not sure all of the company even got in a second shot.  We would have been hopelessly slaughtered to no help for the French, so the call went out to withdraw.

It was in the pulling back that the French began their first charge.  They were not happy with our failure and some of the knights made their displeasure known on our person.  It is now that I must give you the sad news.  Your husband, Anthonio, was struck with a blunt instrument, possibly a mace.  He died within an hour.  I do not know what kind of a husband he was.  You said he became like a sour lemon in your mouth, but he was a good captain to the men in his company, and his leadership will be missed.

In the meanwhile, let me assure you your son, Iacobo, my nephew is alive and well, while I have only a scrape from an English arrow which the doctor says will not even leave a scar.

It was a disaster for the French.  I don’t know what the king may do.  I don’t know if we will be paid.  I must confess.  The adventure of it all has left me and sometimes in the night I think I may give it all up.  I will grab your son, and we will come home to father and to you, and to my little sisters, Nina and Tedesca.  I pray all are well.  Since mother died and father became crippled, I fear there is no man to watch over you, to care for you and keep you all safe.  I know my namesake, Uncle Bertolo can only do so much, and he is away at sea so much of the time.  Now that Anthonio is gone, I do not know what will happen or what I may do.

Do not worry yourself.  Things will work out, and I will watch over your son and bring him home to see you one day soon.  Until then, God keep you and I pray all are well.

Your devoted best and only brother, Bartolino

Prudenza crumpled the letter.  Then she smoothed it out and carefully folded it to put it back in her pocket.  She cried.  No one in Genoa was well.  The pestilence came.  Uncle Bertolo brought it into the port and died from it.  Father died.  Nina and her young son both died.  Somehow, she knew the plague would reach Pisa and from there kill so many in Italy.  She knew it would reach Marseille and France would fall.  She cried like someone in prison with no way to escape.  But then, Sancta came back out looking for her.  Prudenza quickly wiped her eyes and put on a smile as Sancta spoke.

“When are we going home?”

Prudenza reached out and hugged her daughter.  “Come now.  Paris is a long way from here.  It has only been three days.  We have a long way to go to find your big brother and your uncle Bartolino.  Courage.  We will get there.”

###

While the travelers waited for supper to be served and all sat around the table together, being the only customers at that time in the downstairs room, Lockhart told everyone what Nanette sensed when they arrived.  Nanette confirmed everything and concluded with, “I don’t know what the man intends, but it won’t be good whatever it is.”

“I remember being arrested by soldiers in Jerusalem,” Tony said.  That was the first time zone he and Nanette went through after they joined the group.  The whole experience felt traumatic at the time.  He thought the others took the whole affair with a light heart, like it was no big deal.  It bothered him.  It felt serious, but he since learned that being arrested was mild compared to most of the troubles the travelers faced.

“That was about twenty time zones ago,” Lincoln pointed out. He had the database out but did not look at it.

“Doesn’t mean it can’t happen again,” Decker insisted.

“But for what reason?” Elder Stow asked.  “We blew up a gun factory in Damascus back then if you recall.  But we have not done anything in this time zone to bring attention to ourselves and certainly nothing for which we should be arrested.”

“Why should people need a reason?” Sukki asked.

“We are well into the Middle Ages,” Katie said and nodded to Sukki.  “Just being strangers is enough reason for some people to be suspicious.  We are on a main trade route, so we should not stand out too badly, but you can be sure, any stranger in town will be watched.”

Lockhart interrupted.  “Katie and I discussed this.”  He glanced at Katie, and she nodded again.  “Now that we have lost the wagon, we cannot really pretend to be merchants.  For the duration, if anyone asks, we are pilgrims.”  Katie interrupted to explain.

“Being on a pilgrimage is something common people understand in the middle and late medieval period.  We have a long way to travel.  At least eleven more time zones, so it is not exactly a lie.”

“In this case, we are headed toward Rome,” Lockhart finished.

“Wait,” Lincoln said.  “We won’t get as far as Rome.  The time gate may be around Milan when we get there.”

People rolled their eyes.  “No one said we would arrive in Rome,” Katie explained. “But Rome is one of the main places pilgrims go.  In this case, that is the direction we are going.”

“We are headed toward Rome,” Lockhart said flatly.

“Oh,” Lincoln said softly.  He got it.

Tony had another thought and practiced his sarcasm.  “So, when the soldiers arrest us, we should just say we are pilgrims headed to Rome and they will let us go?”

“I doubt that.” Lincoln agreed with Tony.

“There,” Elder Stow spoke up.  “I have set my device and Sukki still has a disc so if the soldiers come, Sukki and I can go invisible like last time and break the rest of you out of whatever jail they throw you in.”

People frowned but did not get to say anything as Decker grabbed their attention.  “There is another possibility.”

He looked around the table and ended with a kind look at his wife, Nanette.  “We discussed it.”  He smiled for Nanette, and it was a nice smile.  “Without the wagon to hide our equipment under tarps, we agreed to keep our rifles and such in hand.  They stand out no matter how we dress to blend in with the locals.  I imagine since we have finally moved into the days where there are guns of a sort, they will be recognized as weapons and hopefully ignored.  But they do stand out, and any servant of the Masters will recognize them for what they are.  If that man was a servant of the Masters, he may have recognized us and set us up—accused us of some crime or something to get us out of the way.”

“And God knows for what reason,” Lockhart said.  “No doubt the man has something nefarious in mind.”

People understood.  They would have to look out for that going forward, but right then the food came, and an old man walked in to take a small table over by the fireplace.  The old man did not look familiar, though both Katie and Nanette took an extra look.  They saw the maid at the inn bring a mug of beer to the table without asking first, so they figured he had to be a regular.