Avalon

Avalon 8.0 Confrontations, part 4 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Lockhart studied the two armies as the travelers hurried to get out from between them.  “I can’t see any difference between the two groups,” he admitted.  “How do they know who to fight?”

“There are subtle differences,” Katie said.  “But they are both Huns.”  After a minute, she added, “I think the one on Elder Stow’s side is the bigger army.  Of course, that may not matter.  I haven’t seen this kind of battle, and the scholars describe how they think it worked but they really don’t know how it worked.  I can only guess.  The scholars mostly just report the winners and losers.”

After another minute, Boston said a bit too loud.  “What are they waiting for?”

“I don’t know,” Lockhart said, “But we better hurry and get out of the way.”  He hardly had to urge people to hurry.  Even Ghost, the mule, moved as quick as he could, the tension in the air being as thick as it was.

Finally, the travelers squirted out from between the two armies.  Still the armies waited, until the travelers were beyond harm’s way.  Then, all at once, with no discernable sign given, both armies charged each other across the road.  The travelers paused to watch.  It soon looked like a killing free-for-all.

“How do they decide who wins?” Lockhart asked the rhetorical question.

Decker shrugged.  “They will fight for a while, but they can’t keep it up at that level of intensity for long.  Shortly, one side will signal a withdraw, and the other side will also pull back.  They will rest for an hour, or maybe several hours before they form up and go at it again.  They will do this until sundown.  No one fights after dark.  Then one might sneak away in the dark, if they have lost too many men, or feel they are losing the battle.  If both still feel they can win, they will be right back at it at sunrise.”

“The thing is,” Katie said.  “If one side starts to withdraw, because maybe they are losing too many men and they need to regroup, if the other side is not ready to break, or maybe feel they are winning, the withdraw can become a full retreat, and in these days, retreat risks becoming a route, where it’s every man for himself.  In that case, the winning side will give chase, and they usually end up slaughtering the retreating army.”

Decker grunted.  “Unless the losing side escapes in the night under the cover of darkness, they will end up being slaughtered, retreat or no retreat.  Some commanders don’t know when to quit.  That can be a good thing, or really stupid, depending.”

“We need to move on,” Lockhart said.  They rode a little up into the pass before Lockhart called for them to get down and walk the horses.  That was when Katie shared a thought.

“I bet the two armies waited for us to get out of the way because the three witches on one side, and Elder Stow and Sukki on the other side put a real fear of God into them.  They waited until we were far enough away so we would not be caught up in the battle.”

Lockhart looked back at his group.  “I suppose that is very possible.”

###

In the afternoon, the travelers came to a narrow way in the pass.  Shale mountain cliffs pushed in, and the road narrowed.  They discussed stopping and building a camp before entering that strip.  Elder Stow had put away his scanner, but Lincoln had the relevant information in the database.

“The narrow spot is not that long.  It should open up again on the other side and we should be able to find a place to stop where we can watch, but not block the road.”

People went with Lincoln’s suggestion.  Ghost appeared to make it up to the high point without too much trouble, and as the saying suggested, it was all downhill from there.  The rest got down from their horses and planned to walk through, in case they came to a spot that got exceptionally narrow.

They got about half-way into the narrow place before men stood up and came out from behind the rocks.  The travelers found men in front and behind.  They became surrounded with spears.

“Don’t resist,” Lockhart ordered.

“Do they want us to pay the toll?” Lincoln asked. He read about that and may have mentioned it to the others a day ago.  He picked up a leather pouch in one of the villages they passed through and filled it with what he imagined was a generous number of coins.

The men said nothing.  They immediately began to strip the travelers of their weapons, including their gun belts. Decker was reluctant to let go of his rife, but he honestly had no choice.  When the men tried to grab the reigns of the horses, Alexis’ horse, Chestnut, and Boston’s horse, Strawberry, balked.  It took a minute to get them settled down.  Ghost refused to move at all.  Tony had to lead the mule by the nose, and he explained to the mule.

“We have to cooperate, or these men might make you into mule stew.”

They went to the end of the narrow place and got taken to a hut on the hillside near a shallow cave.  The travelers got pushed into the cave and a simple door got closed across the entrance.  Clearly, the cave had been used for sheep.  Katie pointed to the dry water trough, but the general smell of the place gave it away.

“I hope they take care of Cocoa,” Sukki said of her horse.

“I still have my things,” Elder Stow said.  “But what to do is the question.  There are about eight guards outside the door.”

“I have my wand and stuff in my slip,” Boston said.  “I haven’t done it much, but I could try going insubstantial enough to slip through the door and maybe check on the horses.”

“No,” Alexis said, firmly.

“Sukki could use some of her strength and break the door open,” Nanette was thinking.

“But then what?” Decker asked, and people quieted to think.

Katie finally asked, “Elder Stow, how many of those discs do you have where you can make us all invisible?”

“I have a whole pocket full of multi-purpose discs,” he answered.  “I just have to tune them to the invisible spectrum.”

“Do you have enough for all of us, our horses, Ghost and the wagon?” Alexis asked.

After a moment to calculate, Elder Stow shook his head, “No.”

“Maybe we should see what they want first,” Lockhart said, and people sat down to wait.  They waited for an hour while the sun started toward the horizon.

At last, they peered out between the gate railings and saw a small troop of something like soldiers arrive.  One man got down right away and marched with a swagger to the door.  The guards opened up, and he came inside with two rough looking men with swords drawn flanking him.

“So, these are the travelers,” he said.

“Are you charging a toll to let us move on?” Lincoln asked, and the man laughed in his face.

“Do you use money on Avalon?” he said.  “I never would have imagined that.”  He laughed again at his own thoughts.  “Besides, I have all your money, and everything else already, including all of your guns.”  He shook a finger at them.

“The Masters,” Katie said to identify the man.

“You have been noticed and interfered once too often.  I decided, instead of making more guns and powder for you to come along and blow up, I would just steal your guns.  After using you for target practice, we will make our guns, and model them after the ones you so graciously provided.”

“What do you hope to gain?” Katie asked.

The man paused to look over the travelers.  He did not seem to care if he told them or not.  “We sit at the center of the world between east and west.  The Alchon Huna already did me a favor by tearing down the Gupta in what you call India.  Now, after the Alchon Huna and the Nezak Huna beat themselves to exhaustion. we will move in.  I have men working on the Turks further north.  I expect they will join us for the riches they can gain.  We will invade Sassanid lands to break the back of the New Persians and reestablish the Kushan Empire.  Then we will cross the so-called Persian Gulf to Yemen and drive up the Hejaz to burn Mecca.  After that, only Constantinople far in the west and the Sui Dynasty far in the east will remain to pose a threat.”  He stopped talking and smiled.  “You get the idea.”

“Lord Bobo,” someone called from outside.

The swaggering man and his two guards left, and the gate got tied shut again.  Lockhart frowned and stuck his hand out.

“Elder Stow get out your discs,” he said.

“Boston.  You need to go invisible using one of Elder Stow’s discs, like the rest of us,” Alexis insisted.  “If you go elf invisible, we won’t be able to see you, and we will all need to keep in touch without having to talk.”

“That’s okay,” Boston said.  “Being elf invisible, as you call it, is still very draining.”

Alexis smiled for the girl.  “You’ll get used to it.  You know, being invisible and insubstantial at the same time is how the little spirits of the earth get around and do most of their work in the world.  You will get the hang of it.  Soon enough, it will become the most natural way to be.  Manifesting into a visible, physical form will feel awkward.”

“Not awkward,” Boston said.  “But like a second choice.  That’s what Roland told me.”  She flipped her emotions, as fairies and young elves do, from happy to sad in a blink.  “Roland said being physical still feels natural, and takes no effort, even if it is second choice.”  Boston let a tear fall.  “I miss Roland.”

Alexis gave her a hug.  “I miss my brother, too.”

Avalon 8.0 Confrontations, part 3 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The next day, Lincoln made everyone gather around.  He said they would have to go by Kabul and Hadda to reach the Khyber Pass, the only viable way through to India.  “The thing is, after further reading, I think the capital of the Alchon Huns is north of the line, and the capital of the Nezak Huns is south of the line, and those two Huna groups at some point fight for dominance.  We need to squeeze between the two to reach the pass.”

“In other words,” Lockhart summarized.  “We are probably entering a war zone, so we need to keep our eyes and ears wide open.”

“Kind of like World War One,” Decker interjected.  “We need to sneak down no-man’s land between the German and allied trenches.”

People looked at Decker and turned their eyes to Tony.  They had been careful not to talk about what Tony might face when he got home.  Lincoln calculated that Tony left the future in 1905, but given his time living in the past, and now counting the expected travel time, he would probably get home in 1914, just in time for the war.  And they certainly did not want to name the war as number one.  But Tony just waved off their concerns.

“That’s okay,” he said.  “The Kairos told me.  I already have my Colt M1911, and a good trench knife.  I already figured the time gate will be near enough to the Kairos to be in the middle of something.  A world war is no surprise, and the fact that it is number one is honestly no surprise, either.  I used to read the newspapers back in 1905.  Europe is a mess.”  He shrugged.

The travelers breathed, and headed out, thinking, there were still plenty of things Tony and Nanette did not need to know about their future.

###

Shortly after they gave Kabul a wide berth, they returned to the road in time for Decker to come racing in from the wing.  “Boston.  Sukki.  Report.” Decker spoke into his wristwatch communicator as he reigned to a stop.  Elder Stow saw and pulled in close to hear.  The others had already stopped to wait.

“There is a whole army in a valley a half mile out,” he pointed.  “About two thousand horsemen.  No way they will chase us, but they might send a company, a hundred, or at least have scouts out watching the road.  They may have already seen us.”

“No,” Elder Stow said, as he joined the group from the other wing.  “I have the scanner set for our immediate area.  No one has been near to see us.  I did not pick up the army, however.  I can see I will have to expand the scan radius to at least half a mile.”  He looked at his scanner and turned his head in surprise.  Boston and Sukki came racing back from the point.  They looked like something was following them.  Suddenly, Boston stopped and leapt off her horse.  She pulled her wand and laid down a line of fire across the road.  The flames reached as high as her head, and the travelers saw a troop of Huns come screeching to a halt behind the fire.

Lockhart and Katie moved forward before they got down and walked ahead of the others.  Lincoln and Alexis moved up enough to hold the horses, but Sukki stopped right there, so she held Katie’s horse.  Boston came back and stopped at the front group, next to Alexis, while Nanette marched forward from the rear.  That left Decker and Elder Stow to guard Tony and the wagon.

One of the Huns stepped forward from his group.  He looked like a shaman.  He raised his hands, and while Boston’s fire already began to burn itself out, he appeared to lower his hands, and the fire quickly went out.  That got the attention of Alexis and Boston who stepped up behind Lockhart and Katie.  Nanette squeezed between the two women and whispered.

“If I had my power, I could remove them from the road.”  Nanette seemed unhappy about something and seemed to want to take it out on the Huns.

Lockhart quickly spoke over top.  “We are simple travelers.  We are headed for distant lands and have no interest in your troubles.  We will not interfere.  We will respect your land, and we will be gone, shortly.”

“I think you are not such simple travelers,” one big man spoke from horseback.

“You have a witch…” the shaman added.

“No,” Katie interrupted, and stepped to the side as she spoke, pointing behind herself.  “She is an elf.  These other two are witches.” Katie smiled.  The Huns did not smile, and the shaman began to move his hands like he got ready to employ a spell.

“Here,” Alexis said to Nanette, as she touched Nanette’s shoulder.  Boston touched the other shoulder but said nothing.  Nanette felt filled with power, more than she ever imagined.  She had the ability, but when the other earth was out of phase, and thus not leaking magic energy into our universe, she could do nothing.  She never imagined borrowing the power of others, and between Alexis and Boston, she had twice what she needed.

Nanette pulled her wand, and before the shaman could finish his incantation, he, and all of his Huns, got caught up in a whirlwind.  The wind became merciless.  It picked them up, horses and all, and flew them a quarter mile away, where it deposited them in an open field. Some got down quickly.  Some got thrown when their horses bucked.  Some got stepped on when the horses panicked.  The Huns also panicked.  The shaman, and a number of others felt so dizzy, they threw up.  None of them were in any condition to follow the travelers, or even report back to the army.

The travelers knew none of this.  All they saw was Nanette’s smile and all they heard was Lockhart’s words.

“Let’s move on while we can.”

###

The next day, near the same time, just shy of Hadda, Elder Stow reported an army on a hillside.  “About two thousand horsemen,” he said into his communicator, so everyone heard.

“Move in close,” Lockhart ordered.  “Decker.  Move in but keep your eyes open.  Boston, stay within sight.”  The road appeared flanked by meadows.  The only trees were up ahead, to the right of the road.  Elder Stow said the Huns were in the trees, so no one looked surprised when several men rode out of the trees and stopped near the road.  No one doubted there were many more still hidden among the trees.  Lockhart and Katie nudged their horses forward, but this time, they did not dismount.

“We are simple travelers.”  Lockhart spoke up.  “We are headed for a distant land.  We have no quarrel with you.  We will respect your land and soon be gone.”  He tried to smile.

One of the Huns answered.  “You do not look like simple travelers.  Give us your gold and silver.  We will search your wagon and take your horses.  Then you can leave.”

Katie imagined Elder Stow got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.  Without asking permission, which felt very uncharacteristic, he floated out of his saddle.  Sukki floated up beside him and would not let him do whatever stupid thing he had in mind alone.

Elder Stow pulled out his sonic device and plugged it into his communication device.  It amplified his voice and added a nice echoing touch.  “You were asked nicely.  Now, you get one warning shot.  Leave the road and leave us alone or suffer the consequences.”  He pulled out his weapon.  Sukki noticed and raised her hands.  Elder Stow fired, and Sukki let her power flow from her hands.  They sliced off the tops of the nearest trees and set the trees on fire.  First Elder Stow, and then Sukki, fired into the ground in front of the trees and the ground exploded.

“That is your warning.  Leave us alone or next time we will aim at you.”  Elder Stow returned to his horse and Sukki returned to hers.  The Huns turned away without a word, and tried to walk their horses, but in fact trotted, and nearly galloped back to the trees, to disappear in the woods.

Elder Stow apologized to Lockhart and Katie when he rejoined the group.  “My mother and father, please forgive me if I overstepped my bounds.  I take full responsibility for my actions and those of my adopted daughter.  I overreacted and humbly apologize.”

“Try not to let it happen again,” Katie said, smiled, and let Lockhart speak.

“But in this instance, don’t worry about it.  No harm done.”  He turned to ride down the road and said no more about it.

###

The following morning, the caravan road they followed appeared to be in good shape.  Lincoln took a turn driving the wagon.  Alexis rode with him.  They crossed a plain that appeared wide open and plenty dusty, but in the distance up ahead, the travelers could see the mountains closing in.  They figured the famous Khyber Pass would be something like a gorge between two of those mountains, where the mountains did not quite meet.

The sun beat down, hot, but the travelers relaxed, believing if they got well into the pass on that day, they might find the Kairos around noon the next day.  Boston called it late spring, or early summer.  Alexis pointed out the flowers she saw.  When Lockhart called for everyone to get down and walk the horses, Sukki and Nanette paused to pick some flowers.  Tony paused with them to watch over them.  Those three first saw the dust stirred up in the distance.  Decker reported as much just moments later.

It looked like one of those armies they passed might be heading right toward them.  Lockhart did not panic, even when Elder Stow noted the dust storm on the other side of the road.  Lockhart told everyone to mount up.  He said they could walk and rest the horses once they got fully into the pass.  He felt a little afraid that these armies decided to fight over control of the pass, and they might follow them into the pass.

“We need to hurry,” Kate said, as the leading elements of the armies came within visual range.

“I don’t think Ghost can pull the wagon much faster in this sun, especially when we start heading up into the pass itself.”

Lockhart talked into his communicator, though he might have simply yelled back.  “Try to hurry Ghost along as well as you can.”

Decker and Elder Stow pulled in to flank the travelers in close order, while Boston dropped back to lead the procession.  The leading elements of the armies stopped a hundred feet back from the road on either side.

“Are they waiting for the rest of the army to catch up?” Nanette asked.

Decker shook his head.  “I don’t know what they are doing.”

As the travelers pushed forward along the road, right between the two enemies, the rest of those armies slowly caught up.  But still they waited.

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

MONDAY

Two Hun armies will meet on the road to the Khyber pass, right where the travelers are desperately trying to get out of the way.  Until Monday, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 8.0 Confrontations, part 2 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Two men rode across the stream to confront the two travelers standing by the wagon.  They did not know one of the two by the wagon was a woman until they got close.  It got hard to see distance well in the failing light.  When they got down from their mounts and approached, they appeared surprised.  The man looked like a giant, and the woman, which they then noticed was a woman, looked as tall as them, and she had yellow hair.  Not what they expected.

“Hello friends,” Lockhart said, giving it his friendliest voice.  “This is a good place to rest if you plan to spend the night.  The water is fresh and clean, the grass is soft, and it does not look like rain tonight.”

The two made no response, so Katie added a thought.

“We would invite you to supper, but we only have one sheep, which is not nearly enough for your whole company.”

One man spoke.  “You are from Sogdiana?  You are Scythian?” he guessed.

The other man interrupted.  “You are merchants?”

“We are simple travelers from far away in the west,” Lockhart began.

“Beyond Persia.  Beyond Rome.” Katie added.

“I have herd of this Rome,” the first man admitted.

“You are Huna?” Katie asked.

“We are not Xwn scum.”  The man spat like Decker.  “My great-grandfather left the Kaghanate to seek out new pastures for our many people.  He crushed the Wusun and overran Sogdiana.  He fought the numberless Scythians before my father followed the Hephthalites into this land.  We drove many ahead of us and destroyed the last of the Great Yuezhi.  This land is good, but our people are many, so we seek to extend our pastures.  The Xionite people that came here ahead of us will serve us, and our name will be great in all the earth.”

“Turkic people, perhaps Shahi,” Katie identified the speaker.  “Tony will be glad to know that the Turks are already on the move at this early date.”

Elder Stow turned on his lantern, much stronger than the human lanterns that the travelers had and mostly left in their luggage.  It caught some twenty horsemen ready to cross the stream, down some distance where they no doubt thought they would not be seen.  Decker’s voice came through the watch communicators.

“We got enemy trying to circle around and get on our flank.  I would hate to have to kill them all.”

“Hopefully, they will have the good sense to return to their own camp now that they are seen.  Wait for instructions.  Out.” Lockhart responded.

“Did we mention the sorcerer in our camp?” Kate said, kindly.

“Who?” Lockhart asked.

“Elder Stow,” Katie answered, sharply.  “His gadgets are near enough to sorcery in this age.”

“Oh,” Lockhart got it.  “And the two witches.”

“What about Boston?” Katie asked.

“She is an elf,” Lockhart explained.  “That is different.  But what do we call Sukki?”

Katie huffed.  “I swear, Vrya and Ishtar made her practically a demi-god.”

Lockhart looked up.  The two Turks had mounted and were riding back to their camp without asking any more questions.  When Lockhart and Katie rejoined the group, Elder Stow spoke.

“My mother and father,” he said, referring to Katie and Lockhart as the mother and father of the group.  “I cannot set the screens against intruders tonight, but I have scanned the visitors and have their signatures.  I can set an alarm in the night in case any are tempted to come to our camp in the dark, even as I did back when my batteries needed charging, back before the god Vulcan made a cell charger for my equipment.”

“That would be good, but standard watch as well.”  No one complained.  It was their routine.  Tony and Nanette, new to this traveling business, watched from six, about sundown, to nine.  Lincoln and Alexis took the nine to midnight shift.  Lockhart and Katie watched in the middle, from midnight to three in the morning.  Decker, the no nonsense marine, and Elder Stow with his scanner took the dark of the night between three and six in the morning.  And Boston with Sukki watched from six through sunrise, until about nine, when everyone was up for the day and ready to travel.

Normally, the travelers did not expect visitors in the night.  People never used to travel in the dark, especially in the wilderness.  It was too dangerous.  But that night, around three in the morning, three Turks tried to climb over the rocks that sheltered the horses.  Elder Stow happened to be up when his scanner beeped.  He cut the sound right away, and while Decker woke the others, Elder Stow watched the men carefully with his scanner.

Lockhart, Decker, Lincoln, and Katie got their Patton sabers and waited.  They figured the Turks would not know what guns were so they would not be a good choice.  When the three would-be thieves dropped to the ground, they got surrounded.  Sukki held her knife, while Boston and Alexis held their wands.  One thief tried to move, and Alexis raised a wind that slammed all three back into the rock.  One hit rather hard and fell to his knees.

“Not smart,” Lockhart said.

One man, fast as a gunslinger, threw a knife at Elder Stow who just happened to walk up at that moment.  No doubt he thought the older man had to be the one in charge.  The knife bounced off Elder Stows personal screens, the one built into his belt that conformed to his body and moved with him but could not be expanded to cover more than one person.  Sukki momentarily looked afraid, before she got mad.  She grabbed the knife, bent it until it cracked.  She handed it back.

“You dropped this.”

The Turks made no more moves, and the two still standing decided to fall to their knees to join their companion.  Regret showed on at least two of those three faces.

“Get naked,” Lockhart said.  The Turks did not move.  “You heard me.  Get undressed.”  The Turks stood and slowly stripped down to their under things.  “I meant all of it,” Lockhart commanded.  He tapped one on the shoulder with the flat of his sword.  “Or I could cut it off you, but I can’t guarantee I won’t cut your flesh with it.”  The men finished undressing.  “Lincoln and Alexis, will you stack these things over on the rock at the end of the horse rope?  Yes, there.  You three, move.”

The three naked men walked to where the wagon was parked.  “Okay,” Katie said, having figured it out.  “You can walk back to your camp and give a message to your chief.”

“What message?” one found the courage to ask.

“You are the message,” Lockhart said.

“Git,” Boston raised her voice and waved her wand.  Three sparks, like electricity, zapped three naked butts.  All three men hopped and shrieked in surprise.  They hurried, but soon enough slowed down to a walk, while Elder Stow walked up holding his scanner.

“I will watch them,” he said.  “You all can go back to bed.”

Decker turned to Lockhart before Lockhart walked off.  “Better idea than what I had in mind,” he said, but he never did explain what he had in mind.

At five in the morning, about thirty minutes before sunrise, the Turks headed back up the stream from whence they came.  When the travelers got up and had their typical leftover breakfast, they packed up and started out.  They left the Turkic clothes and weapons on the rock, in case three naked men wanted to come back for their stuff.

###

The next day, the travelers avoided a few villages.  They stayed on track for the Khyber Pass which they knew was the way into India. The trail, which Katie imagined was what remained of the Silk Road, seemed good in some places, but not so good in others.  Tony, being from 1905 where he grew up driving mules and wagons, drove most of the way, and said he did not mind.  Sometimes Nanette or Sukki rode with him in the wagon.

Decker and Elder Stow stayed on the wings as they traveled.  They reported no problems and no more dusty columns in the distance.  Boston stayed out front, her elf senses on alert just in case.

That night, Lincoln got to read some about Sanyas, the ninety-eighth lifetime of the Kairos, the one who lived in this time zone.  “It says she got engaged at age three.  Her father, Yashodharman, if I said that right, was king of Malwa.  Aulikara Dynasty.  He died when she turned three, but he managed to engage her to Brahmagupta, a son of the King of Magadha’s younger brother.  They married when Sanyas came of age, which… it doesn’t say.  We can assume when she turned sixteen or so.”

“Wait,” Boston interrupted, which was good because she did not always pay attention.  “I thought we figured the time gate would be round Malwa.  They can’t be living there.”

“No.  And they are not living in Magadha, either.  They got sent to the frontier to defend against the Huns—the Alchon Huns that previously overran most of northeast India.  They got driven out before Sanyas was born, but they continue to raid.  So, the couple got sent to help defend the border, so to speak.  Sanyas’ older half-sister is Yashomati.  She is queen of Thanesar, married to King Prabhakaravardhana… That does it.  I can’t pronounce all these names.”

Alexis laughed.  “It does sound a bit like a poorly written piece of science fiction.”

Lincoln nodded, but Lockhart said, “I wouldn’t know about that.  I don’t read science fiction.”

“The thing is,” Lincoln continued.  “Thanesar is closer to Melwas, considering where we came into this time zone.  That means, she must presently be closer to us, doing what?  I have no idea.”

“Sanyas,” Sukki repeated the name.

“Actually,” Lincoln said, “Shan-eye-ash-ra-devi is what she is sometimes called.”

“I miss Devi,” Boston said.  “Our friend in India,” she explained to Nanette and Tony.  “And Varuna was very nice, too.”

“Devi is the word for goddess,” Katie said.  “The Kairos sometimes gets pegged by that sort of thing.”

“Really?” Lockhart joked, before he said, “No surprise there.”

Avalon 8.0 Confrontations, part 1 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

After 542 A.D. The Khyber Pass

Kairos lifetime 98: Sanyas, the Queen’s half-sister

Recording …

The campfire sent sparks into the cloudless sky while the sun slid behind the mountains.  The travelers would have another hour of daylight in the hills between the peaks, but the valley would be bathed in twilight before nightfall.  They had enough light for Alexis to finish cooking the sheep, or goat, or whatever animal it was that Decker shot.  Katie called it a Marco Polo sheep, but Lincoln looked it up and called it a mouflon.

“Afghanistan,” Lieutenant Colonel Decker said, and spat into the fire.  The seal-trained marine stared at the mountains.  “I recognize that ridge.  We are northeast of Kabul.”  No one doubted he did a tour in Afghanistan, and probably a couple of tours back when he was Captain Decker, special forces.

Nanette, who knew nothing about fighting in Afghanistan having fallen back in time from 1905, gently slapped Decker’s knee.  She loved the man.  She could not help it.  Aphrodite herself brought the two of them together as a last act before the dissolution of the gods some five hundred and seventy years ago, as Lincoln estimated things.  But she was trying to break his habit of spitting when he got his hands on some jerky to chew.  Spitting was not on her approved list of activities for a future husband.

“No spitting in the fire,” Alexis scolded the man.  She kissed her husband, Lincoln, who looked lost, reading in the database he carried.  It had all the relevant information on the time zones they traveled through as they slowly made their way back to the twenty-first century.  She basted the sheep-goat with some concoction of her own making and considered their predicament.  She was an elf who became human to marry Lincoln.  Her father could not handle that.  He feared she would grow old and die right before his eyes, so he kidnapped her and dragged her back to the time of her supposed happy childhood.  He tried to convince her to seek the Kairos and ask to be made an elf again so she could live her more reasonable thousand years and die well after he was gone.

Alexis looked at Lincoln.  The marriage would not have worked the other way around.  Benjamin would have made a lousy elf.

She basted and thought about when her father knew he got caught and would be in trouble.  He dragged her to the very beginning of history and pushed her into the chaotic void before human history began, hoping to get beyond the reach of those following.  All he did was screw things up.  The Kairos, the Storyteller, had to offer himself to the void in exchange for her.  Now, he is lost, and everything on Avalon is confused, and the time-connection between the many lives of the Kairos are out of sync…

“And we are stuck going from time zone to time zone, from one lifetime of the Kairos to the next, and it is a long way back to the twenty-first century,” she whispered to herself.  Of course, Boston heard with her elf ears.

“I don’t mind,” she said, as she pulled back her red hair into a ponytail.  “This way I get to see every life of the Kairos and love and hug every one that lived before my time.”  Boston pulled out the amulet that showed the way between time gates.  No doubt she wanted to check her direction for the morning.  After a moment, she moved to sit beside Lincoln so she could check her direction against the map in the database for that time zone.

Alexis sighed.  Her father disappeared, and likely died on their journey.  If so, at least he died before her.  Sadly, her baby brother Roland also vanished and is presumed dead, though don’t tell Boston that.  Boston went the opposite way Alexis went.  Boston was born human, though a wild child.  Lockhart called her a Massachusetts redneck.  She rode in rodeos, and hunted, including bear once in Canada, and grew up with brothers.  She was also a bit of a genius, getting her doctorate in electrical engineering by the time she turned twenty-three.  She already thought and acted pretty much like an elf before the Kairos agreed to make her an elf so she could marry Roland.  It felt doubly wrong when Roland vanished.

Alexis sighed and sat on the other side of Lincoln.  “What?” Boston asked and stuck her red head right between Lincoln’s face and the database.

“Nothing,” Alexis said.  It was better not to bring up Roland.  She changed her thoughts.  “I wonder how Elder Stow is coming along in fixing his screen device.  It has come in handy in the past.”

“Yeah,” Boston agreed and turned to nudge Sukki.  “How’s it going?”

Alexis considered Elder Stow, the Gott-Druk—the Neanderthal that traveled with them.  She remembered at the time of the flood, the Gott-Druk were given space flight, a great leap forward for a people who were just beginning to work in copper and bronze.  It seemed the only way at the time that the gods could save them from the global catastrophe.  That was maybe fourteen or fifteen thousand years before Christ.  Over those thousands of years, the Gott-Druk made the expected technological progress.  Elder Stow came from the same future as the rest of the travelers, other than Tony and Nanette, but he had all sorts of technological wonders on his person. He called them toys—mere trinkets such as a ship’s officer might carry.

Boston nudged Sukki again.  “Hey, Amazing Woman.  Earth to Sukki.”

Sukki turned her head.  “I think he has almost got it,” she said.  “Hush.”

Alexis thought how Sukki used to be a Gott-Druk, a very family-oriented people.  She came from those fourteen thousand years in the past, but spent all those millennia in suspended animation, or cryogenic sleep, or whatever it was called.  They found her about thirty time-zones ago, which was about two years ago, travel time.  Though Elder Stow agreed to adopt her as a daughter, she swore she never felt comfortable, being a Gott-Druk as part of a Homo Sapiens family.  She finally prevailed on the Kairos to make her human, as she said.  He—at that time the Kairos was a man—got a number of goddesses to do that, but the goddesses got a bit carried away.  They empowered Sukki like some sort of comic book superhero, and Boston wanted to give her a comic book name.

“Not Amazing Woman,” Alexis said, and Nanette agreed.  Alexis remembered that Athena at least gave Sukki a fundamental understanding of physics and astrophysics, so she could understand when Elder Stow and Boston got lost in all their technical jargon.

Katie and Lockhart stood.

“Where are you going?” Alexis asked. “Food is almost ready.”

“Just checking on Tony,” Katie said.

“Her elect senses are acting up,” Lockhart added, as they walked to where the horses were grazing.  Tony was there, brushing Ghost, the mule that pulled their pioneer wagon, sent with the horses back from the 1870s.  Tony had his eyes on the horizon, and Ghost kept nudging him for more attention.  Ghost turned out to be a big baby.

Lockhart said nothing.  As the Assistant Director of the Men in Black, he was the one charged with leading this unexpected expedition back to the future.  As a former police officer, though, he learned to wait until others revealed what was on their minds.  He doubly learned that lesson on this trip.  Charged with making the hard decisions, he learned to listen closely to the input of others.  He especially listened to his wife, and not necessarily just because she was his wife.

Major Katherine Harper-Lockhart, besides being a marine, and a doctor in ancient and medieval technologies and cultures, she was also an elect, a one-in-a-million warrior woman, who was faster, stronger, more agile, more capable in combat and tactics than most men.  She had a very refined intuition that could sense an enemy or danger to her home and family when the enemy was miles away.

“I’ve got that Rome feeling,” Katie said, and explained for Tony who had not been with them at the time.  “When we came into Italy shortly before Rome got founded, we found all the Latin and other tribes hating and fighting each other.  They all assumed we belonged to a different group, since we were strangers, so they wanted to fight us, too.”

Lockhart pointed up.  Something moved through the sky.  An alien ship of some sort.  It came overhead but did not stop.  Suddenly, it shot off to the east and quickly disappeared from sight.  “Our direction,” Lockhart said.  “Something to look forward to.”

Katie frowned but turned their attention back to the immediate problem.  Tony just pointed.  They saw the dust being kicked up in the distance.

“How many?” Lockhart asked.  Tony shrugged, but Katie paused to concentrate.

“About a hundred,” she said.

“Let’s get the horses in for the night.” Lockhart called for his horse.  “Seahorse!”  The horse looked up, but shook its head and stomped its foot like a child not ready to come in.  Katie’s horse, Bay, came right up.

“Like a faithful puppy,” she said, and doted on the horse.

The travelers camped in a rock hollow on the side of a hill, not far from the stream in the valley.  They stretched out Decker’s rope and had enough room to tie the horses and Ghost for the night, plus room for their tents and a fire.  They had to leave their wagon outside the entrance from the stream-fed meadow, but otherwise, they felt secure in what Katie called a good defensive position.  Katie, with her rifle, and Lockhart, with his shotgun cradled in his arms waited out by the wagon.  The others looked over the top of the rocks.

“I sense nomads, a scouting party, well prepared to fight, if necessary,” Katie said.  “I don’t sense it is a war party.”

“Tony said they are probably Huna people, though they might be Turks,” Lockhart responded.  Tony was a graduate student in antiquities in 1905 and might have been expected to know things like that.  Of course, Katie had her doctorate, so Lockhart asked, “Huna?”

“Huns,” she said.

“Great,” Lockhart said, sounding like Lincoln when he got sarcastic.  All he could picture was Attila and a hundred warriors coming to do a clean sweep of the area.  “You know, for people who are trying to not disturb history, we use these guns far too often.”

Katie could only nod as the Huns or possibly Turks stopped on the other side of the stream.

Avalon Season Eight Preview

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Avalon

Season Eight

Aliens

M G Kizzia

Copyright 2022

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Avalon Season 8 Introduction

aval horses 1Season Eight brings the travelers into the common era where they find the Masters are actively trying to change history to come out to their liking.  At the same time, it is a difficult time in the heavens where several wars in space spill over on to the Earth.  The travelers have to defend the Earth before the space aliens break out in a nuclear war or worse.  Aliens are at least something the Men in Black understand.  Whether or not they can keep the Earth from being destroyed is the question.

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Table of Contents

8.0 Confrontations

After 542 A.D. The Khyber Pass

Kairos lifetime 98: Sanyas, the Queen’s half-sister

8.1 Rain and Fire

After 606 A.D. Yucatan

Kairos 99: Yamaya, the Serpent Queen

8.2 Trouble Big and Small

After 640 A.D. Byzantium

Kairos 100: Nicholas, not Saint Nicholas

8.3 Above and Beyond

After 697 A.D. The Breton March

Kairos 101: Margueritte, the Bride

8.4 Happily Ever After

After 755 A.D. Basel, Switzerland

Kairos 102: Mistress Genevieve

8.5 Hiding from Them

After 820 A.D. Wessex

Kairos 103: Elgar, the Defender

8.6 Standing Still

After 883 A.D. Norway

Kairos 104: Kirstie, Shield Maiden

8.7 Escaping

After 914 A.D. North Coast of Egypt

Kairos 105: Yasmina, Arabian Princess

8.8 The Bad Penny

After 979 A.D. The Black Forest

Kairos 106: Don Giovanni, Ringmaster.

8.9 Metal Men

After 1045 A.D. Normandy

Kairos 107: Blacksmith John.

8.10 Refugees

After 1111 A.D. Japan

Kairos 108: Taira no Hideko

8.11 Tax Collectors and Other Thieves

After 1180 A.D. Nottinghamshire

Kairos 108: Helen de Lovetot of Sheffield

8.12 Abomination

After 1245 A.D. between Kashgar and Aksu

Kairos 109: Sung-Ao, slave of Kublai Kahn

End

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Introduction to the Avalon Series

The travelers came to Avalon in the Second Heavens so they could be transported instantly through the Heart of Time to the beginning of history.  They went on a rescue mission, but things did not go as planned.  The Kairos—the Storyteller, had to jump into the void before history and became lost in eternity.  Now, to get home, the travelers must return the slow way, following the Amulet of Avalon that points the way from one time gate to the next.  They cross dangerous time zones that center around the many lives of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history, a person who never lives a quiet life.

They have unlimited vitamins and elf crackers for their health, and unlimited bullets which are needed far too often.  They ride mustangs brought back from the old west, and wear fairy weave clothing that they can shape and change with a word in order to blend into the local culture.   By a special gift of the Kairos, they can understand and be understood no matter the local language.  Inevitably, they have to deal with thieves, brigands, armies and empires, gods and monsters, spirits and creatures, space aliens and the great unknown.  They try hard not to disturb history along the way.  That is not so easy.

To be sure, all they want is to get home in one piece, but they are not the only ones lost in time.  Some people lost in time might want to follow them, or even go with them.  Other people are not so friendly, and not everything lost in time is a person.  Some want to fight the travelers.  Some want to hunt them.

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CAST

Robert Lockhart is a former police officer, now assistant director of the Men in Black.  He commanded the rescue mission that left from 2010 and went from Avalon, through the Heart of Time, to the beginning of history.  He is now charged with leading this expedition through time, though he has no idea how he is going to get everyone home alive.  They have already lost Doctor Procter their guide, Mingus the kidnapper, and Mingus’ son Roland.

Major Katherine Harper-Lockhart (Katie) is a marine and an elect—a one-in-a-million warrior woman, with a doctorate is in ancient and medieval cultures and technologies.  She is torn between her duty to the marines and her desire to be part of this larger universe she is discovering, though since she married Robert, her path seems set.  She carries the prototype amulet once used to kidnap Alexis.

Boston (Mary Riley) is a Massachusetts redneck hunter, rodeo rider, and technological genius who finished her PhD in electrical engineering at age 23.  She carries the Amulet of Avalon, a sophisticated combination electronic GPS and magical device that shows the way from one time gate to the next.  She became an elf to marry Roland; but now Roland has disappeared, and may be dead, though she insists the Kairos managed to grab him at the last minute and brought him back into the future.

Benjamin Lincoln is a former C. I. A. office geek who keeps the database and a record of their journey.  He tends to worry and is not the bravest soul, but sometimes that is an asset.  His wife, Alexis, was kidnapped by her own father Mingus and dragged back to the beginning of history.  This prompted the rescue mission which got everyone stuck in the past with the time gates in the time zones as the only option to get home—the long way around, as they say.

Alexis Lincoln was an elf, Roland’s sister, who became human to marry Benjamin.  She retained her healing magic when she became human, but magic has its limits.  It could not make her father happy with her choices.  She was the one who got kidnapped and dragged into the deep past where she needed to be rescued.  Unfortunately, the Kairos had to surrender his life to the void so she could return from the void.  Now they are headed home the only way they can.

Elder Stow is a space traveling, technologically advanced Gott-Druk (Neanderthal) from the future who got thrown back into the past.  He is forced, at first, to make a truce with these ‘humans’ to join them in their journey.  He has since adjusted to the idea, and believes it is his only chance to get back to the future.  He carries highly advanced technological devices that he calls trinkets such as a ship’s officer might carry.  They do come in handy.

Sukki was a Gott-Druk (Neanderthal) from the before time. She was taken off planet to a new world at the time of the flood.  She joined a small group determined to return to Earth.  She is the sole survivor after thousands of years in cryogenic sleep.  The travelers take her with them, knowing she cannot survive in the past.  She prevailed upon the Kairos to make her fully human (Homo Sapiens) so she can fit in with her new human family but the goddesses who did the deed got a bit carried away and empowered her almost like a demigod

Colonel Decker is a trained navy seal, a marine special operations officer who will do all he can to keep everyone alive, even if it means shooting his way back to the twenty-first century.  He is a skeptic who does not believe half of what they experience.  An African American, he got gifted in the deep past by his eagle totem and can see beyond normal vision.  He also got threatened by Aphrodite when she promised to find him a wife.  At least he took it as a threat.

Nanette Jones got pulled into the past from 1905.  An

African American, she worked as Professor Fleming’s Administrative Assistant.  She only willingly left the professor to go with the travelers when the professor got diagnosed with cancer.  She has magic, rooted in telekinesis, when the Other Earth phases in and leaks magic energy into our universe.  A brilliant woman, she is in love with Colonel Decker, thanks to Aphrodite.  The Colonel, however, is resisting the goddess.  He was married once before and, as he sees it, he is reluctant to make that same mistake twice.

Tony (Anthony) Carter was Professor Fleming’s graduate student in Antiquities in Latin and Greek.  Also from 1905, he lived for seven years with the professor, Nanette, and a few other classmates in the days of Julius Caesar.  He joined the travelers because it seemed his only chance to get back home.  No one has spelled it out that he will likely get home in time for World War One, but he suspects.  And the fact that there will be a World War Two some years later does not surprise him.

Plus, as always,

The Kairos.  But that is a different person in each time zone.

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MONDAY

The confrontations begin.  Until then, Happy Reading

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Coming Attractions

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Coming Soon

The editing is moving along.  The formatting will not take much time.  The covers are ready.

If you have visited this website in the last few years, you have had a chance to read stories of the Kairos, the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history including Greta, the wise woman of Dacia in the time of Marcus Aurelius, Festuscato Cassius Agitus who calls himself the last senator of Rome and is no friend of the Huns, Gerraint son of Erbin in the days of King Arthur, and Margueritte who is not a witch, but is a friend of Charles Martel. I hope you enjoyed these stories.  They will be edited, formatted, and covers will be made so they can go up for sale, soon.  But first, a trilogy of the Kairos origin stories will go up very soon (I hope).  Here are the covers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think?

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Avalon Stories available as of today

Avalon is a television series in written story form.  Please consider buying the books and supporting the author, and remember, reviews matter. Thanks.

I only have one general rule: that anyone who reads a story/episode, for example, from the middle of season three, they should be able to pick up on what is going on and basically how it all works.  If you want to start with the episodes that appear on my website, mgkizzia.com, and then want to go back and read the earlier adventures, that should be fine.  Of course, reading them in order will enhance the experience, but I hate accidentally picking up book two of some trilogy and being totally lost.  Especially for a TV show, a person ought to be able to come in the middle and still get a good story.

 

Look for the Avalon books, Season One Travelers, Season Two Bokarus, and Season Three Werewolf at your favorite e-book retailers.  Thirteen Episodes from the earliest days in each book detail the adventures of the travelers from Avalon.  Thrown back to the beginning of history, the travelers struggle to work their way through the days of myth and legend.  They face gods and demons, gothic horrors, fantastic creatures and ancient aliens in this romp through time.  They also quickly realize that they are not the only ones who have fallen through the cracks in time, and some of the others are now hunting them.

 

Avalon, Season Four Ghouls, Season Five Djin, and Season Six Witches & Outlaws brings the travelers face to face with the worst of all monsters: the human monsters.  As they move through the days before the dissolution of the gods, they get caught up in the rise of empires and the birth of great civilizations, but it isn’t what they think—a grand adventure of discovery.  It is never what they think.  It is dangerous around every corner, and troubles rise directly in their path.

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Avalon Season Seven Wraith can be found in the archives of this website mgkizzia.com.  It was blogged from March 22, 2021 through September 1, 2021.  Season Eight Aliens will begin posting on April 4, 2022.  Most episodes are 6 posts, so the complete episode will be published Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday over 2 weeks.  A few episodes are only 4 parts long and will be posted in a single week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Avalon Season Nine The Masters will follow sometime in 2023 and be the end of the series being the third book of the third trilogy.  Editing, covers, and formatting for seasons 7, 8, and 9 are happening slowly, but hopefully all nine books of the Avalon Series will be ready for purchase by the end of 2023.

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Look also for Avalon, The Prequel: Invasion of Memories, where the Kairos comes out of a time of deep memory loss and realizes he is the only one who has any hope of stopping an alien invasion.  To keep from being overwhelmed with the sudden influx of so many memories from so many lifetimes stretching from the deep past to the distant future, the Kairos tells stories from various times in his own life when he remembered who he was; the Traveler in time, the Watcher over history.

Invasion of Memories is both a collection of short stories and a novel of the Men in Black who struggle to prevent an invasion by the alien Vordan, a species given to shoot first, and that is pretty much it, just shoot first.

All of these books are reasonably priced at your favorite e-retailer.  You can find them under the author name, M. G. Kizzia.  Now, also available from Amazon in print-on-demand paper editions.

I hope you enjoy reading the Avalon stories as much as I have enjoyed writing them.  Reviews on the e-book websites are always appreciated, and if you wish to support the author by buying a copy, thank you.

Happy Reading.

— MGKizzia

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TOMORROW

Tune n for a preview of Avalon Season Eight. The contents of all 13 episodes plus notes on the season, an introduction to the Avalon series if you have not read any up until this point, and introductory notes on the cast (characters).  This information will be on the website under the tab About Avalon so you don’t miss out.

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M4 Margueritte: Disturbances, part 1 of 3

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Carloman and Gisele were both there to support her.   “But come,” Margueritte encouraged Rotrude, and introduced her to the women.  “My mother Brianna, and Jennifer, who is like a big sister.  And this is Elsbeth, my little sister, and Margo, Countess of the Breton March, your real hostess.”

“I am looking forward to hearing all the news from Paris,” Margo said softly with a look at Margueritte which wondered what might be wrong with the woman.  Brianna stepped up and gave Rotrude a hug.

“Welcome to our home, as Margueritte said.”  Brianna guided Rotrude inside where Lolly had fixed a fine repast, with Marta there to serve, and Maven missing as usual.

They all had a lovely day, what remained of it, and got Rotrude settled into Jennifer’s big room, while Rotrude sat in a comfortable chair in the old downstairs hall.  Jennifer moved herself, Lefee, Cotton and Mercy across the castle courtyard to her home beside the chapel.  Rotrude did not want to put Jennifer out, but Jennifer said she expected Father Aden home any day, and they always stayed in their own place when he came home.

“In fact, we are building a new home beside the new church, Saint Aubin’s”

“Ah,” Rotrude sounded very interested.  “You are the bishop’s wife.”

“Yes,” Jennifer said softly and looked down.  She never wanted to be the center of attention.

“And the dearest woman in all the world,” Brianna saved her, took Jennifer’s arm, and directed her toward the food, where she got Rotrude some cider.

Margueritte mostly sat back and watched that afternoon.  Rotrude and Margo had much in common, being from Paris and wanting to gossip.  But Rotrude also shared some traits with Mother Brianna, and the two of them hit it off very well.  Margueritte concluded that her mother could not help it.  She was such a kind and caring person, and Rotrude evidentially so ill.  Jennifer almost relaxed after a time, and Margueritte felt glad to see it.  Elsbeth did not say much, which was probably for the best.

They ate supper in the old hall, on the old family table.  Childemund, Peppin and Walaric joined them, but mostly the women talked through the meal, while the men kept busy enjoying the food.  When the chicken came in, roasted to perfection and filled with the most delicious sage dressing, Rotrude made the expected comment, that if she ate like that all the time she would be as big as Margo’s house.

“All credit to the cooks,” Brianna said, and Childemund smiled, being used to the dwarf cooks.  Lolly had a whole bevy of dwarf women who were all excellent chefs, wives mostly of the crew Luckless got to help Redux, the master smith, with the forge and smithy work for the new heavy cavalry.  The women cooked for the castle, about a hundred people altogether, and no one ever complained except a few of the dwarf men for whom complaints seemed an automatic reaction.

All the young men, their horses and their equipment, were with the soldiers in a tent camp that stretched out on the edge of the long field just down the road from the unfinished castle.  Small groups of young squires got assigned to seasoned soldiers who had a few years practice learning the lance and shield.  They would camp, like an army camp, all summer, and go home in time for the harvest.  And they would learn how to be men, and hopefully how to be knights.  They had rations of bread, weak mead and cider sent down from the castle and village, and vegetables when the gardens began to ripen, but mostly they had to hunt and fish and feed themselves, just like a real army, which meant they had to cook for themselves, and learn to cook something edible.

Elsbeth excused herself before desert.  Her Bogart turned almost two and ate solid food, but still needed his mom more than the other children.  Rotrude had brought two women with her, attendants, more like nurses, to help her in her illness, with the children, and in the night.  They were joined by the half-dozen young women from the town, only two of which were disguised house elves, who had the mass of children in the Great Hall.

“I’ll send one of your ladies back to you,” Elsbeth said, and in fact, the one lady came with two locals who helped clear the table.  Margueritte watched and neither Brianna nor even Jennifer got up to help clear the table, and she decided the medieval world might be moving rapidly forward.  They were the nobility.  They had servants to do the dishes.

Rotrude went to bed early, right after supper.  She looked worn and mother Brianna asked Margueritte what might be done for her and wondered if Doctor Pincher might help.  The men stayed silent to listen and eat apple pie for dessert.

“No, mother,” Margueritte responded sadly.  “You have been to Avalon.  You know how it works.  Theirs is a world apart, and I abuse my privilege as it is.  And I have a feeling I will abuse it much more if Ragenfrid shows up.  But some things I am not permitted to do, and sometimes things carry eternal consequences and I dare not interfere.”

“But it would not hurt to have Doctor Pincher take a look at her, would it?”

“Or Doctor Mishka,” Margo suggested.

Margueritte shook her head.  “Greta says she might take a look.  She says she is less likely to do something extraordinary.”

“Doctor Pincher might look,” Brianna said.

“Please,” Jennifer asked sweetly.

“Pleasy,” they heard a voice from above to which Margo responded.

“Goldenrod, you might as well come down here from the rafters and join us.”

Childemund and Walaric looked startled, but not surprised when the fairy fluttered down to the table to stand beside Brianna and Margueritte and look shy.  Peppin laughed.

“You should have seen it when the queen of the fairies showed up just before the Curdwallah battle.”

“Ha!”  They heard a voice from the doorway.  “You should have seen the ogre.”  It was Aden, home as promised, and Jennifer hurried to him to hug him and welcome him home.  After that, the conversation turned to Ragenfrid, Goldenrod retreated to Brianna’s shoulder where she could hide in Brianna’s hair, and Margueritte breathed, but she imagined Greta and Doctor Pincher might pay Rotrude a visit in the morning.  All things considered, Margueritte had a lovely time that evening, and just as well, because it became about the last lovely time she would have for a while.

Early the next afternoon, the fifty they sent to retrieve Ragenfrid’s tax of three cows came home without the cows.  John-James reported to Margueritte and the assembled captains.

“The three of us went in as expected, like we were innocent and not suspicious, like you said.  We went to retrieve the three cows, like normal, but there were about three hundred men on our side of the Sarthe.  I did not see Ragenfrid, or the younger sons, Adalbert or Fredegar, but the older son, Bernard was there.  They had some horses, about thirty, and when Bernard shouted and pointed at us, we rode off.  The thirty were slow to start, but they followed us until we rejoined the fifty.  Then they backed off.”  He took a breath, like he had just run that distance.

“We would have run into trouble if we went the way we came.  The ford on the Mayenne we crossed just the day before now had three hundred more, guarding it.  I did not stop to count them.  The fairy Lord, Larchmont, saved us from riding right into the middle of them.  He did a good deed for us, I say.  We would have been back here last night if we came the way we went, but it took half a day to go upriver to find a place to cross over.”  He took another deep breath before he added a last thought.  “Just so you know, I say Lord Ragenfrid is coming our way or he would not have the ford on the Mayenne blocked.”

“They might be there to stall us if we come to the aid of Paris or Orleans or wherever he has in mind to go,” Walaric suggested, but Margueritte shook her head.

“He would block the main road, which would be the Paris Road.  The ford he is talking about is between the Paris and Loire roads.  The ford Ragenfrid has blocked is a ford for crossing an army without announcing your presence.  I suspect John-James rode up and crossed without opposition where the Paris Road crosses the river.”

“Even so,” John-James said.

 

M4 Margueritte: Broken, part 2 of 3

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Margueritte spent most of January in the castle of Avalon, healing.  Doctor Pincher’s quick thinking and work saved her, but he could not save her baby.  She named him Galen and buried him in the sacred garden of the castle, beside the tower that held the Heart of Time.  Margueritte spent the month alternating between fits of tears and fits of rage.  In her angry times, everyone avoided her because she wanted to break things.  Mother Brianna, the only one allowed to follow her into the Second Heavens, said Margueritte could not go home until she stopped feeling the urge to break things.  They stayed the whole month.  Brianna went back and forth several times between the heavenly castle and the castle they were building on earth.  She updated Elsbeth, Margo and Jennifer on their progress, and invited Jennifer to join her, but Jennifer said no.  Going to Avalon would hurt her heart in some way, she said.

Elsbeth volunteered to go in Jennifer’s stead, but Brianna said, “No.  Absolutely not.”

By the end of January, Margueritte got over the feeling that she wanted to kill Giselle and instead felt sorry for the woman.  She wondered what leverage Abd al-Makti had over her to make her do such a horrid thing.  She had no doubt Abd al-Makti stood behind the death of her son.  His sorceries and murderous prints were all over the act.  But to what end? she wondered.

Margueritte spent almost the entire month of February inside, by the great fireplace, composing a letter to Roland.  Mother Brianna, Jennifer, Margo and Elsbeth all helped her think through the events.  Mother Brianna got the unquestionable word from the elf, fairy, dwarf, and dark elf lords and ladies that inhabited Avalon in the Second Heavens that Abd al-Makti was indeed behind the deed, so no one else doubted it.

“And I did like Giselle,” Margo kept saying.  “Even though she was Vascon.”

“We all liked her, and trusted her,” Brianna kept responding.  “She probably disappeared because she felt such guilt, she could not face us.  But she was always a kind and loving woman, and I feel it is best to remember her that way.”

“If she had stayed, we might have found forgiveness in our hearts,” Jennifer suggested.  “I have learned from Aden so much about grace and mercy.”  It came as such an honest thought, the others agreed it might have been possible, but Margueritte did not feel so sure for herself.  She spent many hours praying for forgiveness for wanting to see Ragenfrid and Giselle, and especially Abd al-Makti suffer horrible fates.

Elsbeth proved to be the most helpful in the letter writing.  “Maybe the sorcerer expected you to fall apart and become useless and stop making your soldiers, and stop building your castle, and collapse and cry every day for the rest of your life.  But that says he doesn’t know you.  You have all the Celtic blood in you, and from all the stories I have heard, the Breton are best at getting mad and getting revenge.”

Later, Elsbeth added, “He probably wanted you to go crying to Roland, and Roland would be disturbed and distracted from his battles, and that would disturb and distract Charles, so maybe they lose the battles.”

Margueritte tore up her letter and started over.  She wrote very carefully to Roland, and said she was sorry she failed him, but they had three healthy children who needed a good future, a future of peace, and the only way to insure that, was to beat the barbarians on the battlefield, and turn them to the faith of Jesus Christ, even as Father Aden, now called Bishop Aden, Apostle to the Breton, was turning the people to Christ.

Sadly, the pope will not confirm Aden as bishop, him being a married priest in the Celtic tradition, but everyone calls him bishop and treats him that way.  Even the Roman priests call him bishop and praise the work he is doing, so I suppose the approval of Rome is less important to the work here.  But likewise, you must concentrate on your more important duty of beating back the Bavarians, free Burgundians, Aleman, Thuringians, Saxons, Frisians, Lombards, Ostrogoths, and anyone else who might threaten the peace of Franconia.  And if the Muslims ever come out of Septimania, woe to them, and woe to Abd al-Makti.  But for now, our children need peace and a chance to grow up safe and secure in their lives.  Take care of yourself and Charles.  My love to Tomberlain and Owien.

She signed the letter at last and sent it with the post to Paris.  It would eventually reach Roland, and Margueritte only hoped her letter would get there ahead of the rumors, but she doubted it would.  For herself, she got to make clothes for the children, cook apple pies, watch one stone set upon another in her slowly growing castle wall, and go to church every Sunday.  Her father’s sarcophagus got laid in the wall of the new Saint Aubin’s church where it helped Margueritte remember that he still watched over them all.

###

Margueritte felt glad when spring of 723 arrived and she could saddle Concord and ride the rest of the Breton March.  A year earlier, Peppin, the march sergeant at arms, stayed home and got all the young men to train.  He had nearly three hundred by summer’s end, and he put them through such grueling training on horseback, they were glad to take three afternoons per week to study Latin and geography (science), math, history, and military matters.  This year, Peppin would be going with Margueritte, presumably knowing what sort of young men to look for, and Walaric would take over the training, and take whatever young men Margueritte sent to him all during the summer months.  By then, word of what she was doing with the young men had spread around, and she found any number of free Franks who did not want their sons to be overlooked.

For Margueritte, she still had her clerics to write rental agreements, her surveyors still made their up-to-date maps, and her eyes were still open for who might be best to be elevated to baron, or secondary fief holder that she called vassals.  It was not that the baron necessarily got more land, but he got made responsible for a larger area of the county that he could tax, and he got handed vassals of his own—mostly with little say in the matter.  He got told to get along with his vassals as they were told to get along with their baron and the count or lose their land.  Margueritte also probably overcompensated in retaining wilderness areas and hunting preserves between the various barons, to give some buffer space in the name of peace.  She had no doubt some of that land would eventually go to the church, but she did not start out looking for church lands.  Some of it would probably be settled someday.  But by far, and about all she really stayed interested in, was finding horses and the young men she could train to be her heavy cavalry.  She kept thinking about what she wanted to do to Abd al-Makti, and it motivated her.

Margueritte went home in early October.  The weather turned early that year, and she wanted to get out of the cold.  Mother Brianna and Jennifer were very worried about her, and when Margueritte assured them that she felt fine, Brianna smiled and said she hoped Margueritte did not break too many things while she was away.

“No, Mother,” Margueritte answered with a straight face, before she returned the smile.  “But I thought hard about it several times.”

Margo, who seemed to take everything in stride and proved very good about going with the flow, said she had not worried at all.  If anything, she felt worried about what Margueritte might do to her poor vassals.

Elsbeth said, “You went away?”

“Yes, little mother,” Margueritte called her that.

Elsbeth smiled.  “I think I want to be a mother again.”  Then, since she had everyone’s attention, she added, “I hope Owien is all right.”  They had not heard anything from Paris since July.

The winter got rough, and men had to go out to hunt in the Vergen forest and in the county.  The hunting was good, so no one went hungry, but Margueritte concluded they needed to farm more land come the spring.  She laid out places where they had cut trees in the last several years.  She thought it would be good if they had Hammerhead, the ogre and his family around to rip the stumps from the soil.  She got the impression that they had moved out of the Pyrenees and up into Aquitaine, but it still felt too far away to be any help with the farm.  They had to work the old-fashioned way, with shovels and torches to burn the wood in great bonfires.  That was hard work in the snow, but then Margueritte understood what kept Roland’s brothers-in-law so busy the winter she spent on the Saxon March.

Soon enough, the children had their birthdays.  Martin turned seven, Brittany turned five and Grace turned four and finally looked to be slimming a little.  Margueritte cried a lot that winter.  The feeling came upon her suddenly, every so often.  She would weep, and if someone came around, they tried to comfort her, but nothing helped.  It did not seem anything in particular triggered her tears, and nothing in particular stopped her weeping.  She just wept every now and then, right up until March.

M4 Margueritte: Broken, part 1 of 3

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Come the spring of 722, Roland, Tomberlain and Owien packed to go join Charles for battles and adventures on the frontier, while Margueritte got to sit around and watch stone masons stack one rock on top of another.  It did not feel fair.

“But what about all the land around the Mayenne River?  What about Laval?  We promised to visit and set tax rates and talk about security questions for the people there and check on any bills of sale.”  Margueritte turned to her brother.  “As count of the mark, it is up to you to show yourself to the people.”

“Forget it.  He isn’t even listening,” Margo said.  Tomberlain hugged their mother.

“Owien is leaving me,” Elsbeth cried.  She entered her last month of pregnancy, due any day, and tended to tears.  Margueritte almost asked Owien why he did not want to see his child born, but that was not her culture.  People did not think that way.  In her world, women bore and raised the children while men went off on whatever business the men thought important.

“I’ll be back,” Owien assured her.  “I’ll make you proud.”

Elsbeth stomped her foot.  “I don’t want to be proud of your glorious death.  I want you alive.”  She grabbed Owien and cried into his shirt.

“Don’t worry, Margueritte,” Tomberlain said, as he turned to hug her good-bye.  “You are the smart one, and the only one who can get all this organized.  You don’t need me to muck it up.”

“But Margo is the countess,” Margueritte countered.

“No way.  I would muck it up worse than Tomberlain,” Margo said, as she kissed Tomberlain good-bye with no fanfare.

“Roland?”  Margueritte turned to her husband as her last hope, but he had five-year-old Martin in his arms while Brittany at three and Grace at two, remained inside with all the little ones, watched by Jennifer, and the servants, Marta and Maven, and Lolly the dwarf who could actually make faces that made the little ones giggle.

Roland set Martin down and hugged Margueritte.  “I’ll miss you every day,” he said, but Margueritte looked past his shoulder.  There were three hundred men down on the long field.  The two hundred infantry looked sloppy, but the hundred horsemen looked to be in well trained order.  Wulfram and his lieutenants, Lambert and Folmar rode up, and Margueritte turned on the man.

“Captain.  How can you leave us poor defenseless women and children alone?  And defenseless?”

Wulfram almost laughed at the word defenseless coming from Margueritte’s mouth, but he thought it better to look at Roland.

“Now, don’t be that way,” Roland said kindly.  “Peppin is staying, and Wulfram is leaving his number one, Walaric, to help train the young men and horses.”

“I’ll miss you too,” Margueritte said, pecked at Roland’s lips, and let go.

The women watched the men ride back down the gentle hill and start out, Margo waving and Elsbeth crying most of the time.  Margueritte finally broke the frieze by heading toward the house.  The others followed, Margo and Mother Brianna helping Elsbeth.

Margueritte waited for Elsbeth to deliver a fine boy that she named Bogart, though she said he had not been named after the current Breton King Bogart, who in any case called himself David.  That was fine.  It was not a name Margueritte would ever pick out.  But once Elsbeth delivered, Margueritte packed herself and Giselle, as they did when they went to Saint Catherine’s.  She gathered her clerics from the school she had built for the young men from all over her piece of Anjou province who were learning to lance and ride, took Walaric and fifty of the best trained men she had, and set out for Laval.  She started throwing up regularly in the mornings by then, but only Giselle knew, and she was sworn to secrecy.

“But shouldn’t you stay home and rest for the baby’s sake?” Gisele asked.  Margueritte shook her head.  The exercise at that point would be a good thing, and she would be home by the time she really began to show.

“I’ll be fine,” Margueritte insisted.  “I am fine, but what is the matter?” she asked, because Giselle started crying softly.

Giselle shook her head.  “I miss my family, sometimes.”  That was all Margueritte could get out of her when she found her now and then softly crying all summer long.

“Maybe this fall we can arrange to send you to Paris for a visit,” Margueritte said to encourage the girl, but Giselle cried all the same.

Poor Margueritte had to remember everything, and for the first time she had to start writing things down to remember.  She thought she might be getting old at twenty-five.  She was looking for a few good men, as she said, and the horses to go with them.  She had to keep track of claimed land and fallow land and arrange for taxes and for military service.  She looked for land that might go to the church, and for land they might keep as a preserve.  She also looked for land to support the barons Tomberlain would be appointing to oversee different areas of the grant.  Realistically, she had to find good knights and noble families already living on the land to elevate, and that was not going to be easy.  If she elevated one man over his neighbors, it had better be the right man.

Margueritte kept her clerks busy writing rental agreements.  She kept her surveyors busy making an accurate map of the land.  She settled a number of disputes where there were overlapping claims, and got wined and dined, as she called it, in every manor house and village she came across.  It became exhausting, and come September, she only had two thoughts in mind.  First, it would take another whole year to get through it all.  Second, she felt glad to be going home.

Back home, she watched stone being set upon stone as her castle slowly took shape.  It felt worse than watching grass grow, she said.  She thought of Roland with Tomberlain and Owien having exciting adventures while her life seemed so dull.  And church every Sunday, she thought.  All she did was make clothes for the children who grew out of things almost before they were made.  Naturally, Brittany became slim and petite, like her mother, and grace was round like her grandfather, or maybe her grandmother Rosamund.  She had no chance to hand down outgrown clothes.  Things brightened briefly when Brittany turned four in November.  Martin turned six on December second.  Grace turned three at the end of December, and Margueritte could hardly hold Grace in her lap as her baby took up all the room.

“Baby is too big,” Grace pointed out by putting her hand on Margueritte’s belly.  Margueritte laughed, but had to stand, then had to go upstairs and lie down.  About an hour later, Giselle brought her a small cup of cider.  Margueritte sipped and looked at her companion.

“You have been a wonderful help to me and the children.  I know they all love you very much.  But I have been wondering why you don’t seem interested in having any children of your own.  With all the men, mostly young men around training to the horse and the lance, I’m surprised one has not sparked your interest.”

Giselle shook her head and said softly.  “No.  I didn’t mean it.  I’m sorry.”

“But here, I thought you were happy,” Margueritte said.  “The only time I ever saw you cry before this summer was right before my father died.”  Margueritte’s eyes got big as everything came crashing together in her head.  “Giselle.  What have you done?”  She leaned over and threw up.

“I’m so sorry,” Gisele said, and while Margueritte began to convulse and have a fit on her bed, Giselle ran out of the room, shouting.  “Something is wrong.  Help.  Get Doctor Pincher.  It is Margueritte.  Something is wrong.”

Brianna raced up the stairs, just ahead of Elsbeth and Margo.  Brianna called Doctor Pincher, and he came, but immediately he sent the women to fetch Lolly, or Luckless, or Goldenrod.

“We need to open the way to Avalon.  Hurry,” he said.

Giselle ran down the stairs with the others, grabbed her cloak, and ran to the stables.  Grimly was there, and she hurried him to tend to the Lady.  Then she got the horse she had ridden all year and saddled the beast.  She had secreted a few coins into her pocket, but not much.  She thought a bit of bread would be nice, but she dared not waste time.  She rode off into the falling snow and hoped it would cover her tracks.

Giselle thought to cross the Loire at Angers, but by the time she got there, she thought instead to seek shelter at Saint Martins in Tours.  The abbot would give her sanctuary, and paper and ink.  She would write to Margo.  Margo would listen.  She would confess herself, and she would warn them.  All she saw and heard in Anjou was war talk.  With Charles away fighting in distant Bavaria, it looked like Ragenfrid started rebuilding his army.  She overheard that he was gaining pledges from many Neustrian nobles.  It sounded very bad.

Avalon 7.12 The Guns of Camelot, part 6 of 6

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Diogenes caught a glimpse of who stood in the courtyard.  He changed to Gerraint as soon as he got through the window and finished helping Enid and Guimier down.  Gerraint gave Guimier a fatherly kiss, and kissed Enid like a faithful husband and went away again so Danna, the mother goddess of the Celtic gods, could come from the deep past and stand in his place.

The first thing Danna did was make Coppertone, the pixie stop fluttering around the courtyard and change into her big form.  She turned from a two-foot tall clawed and winged harpy-like creature into a four-foot-tall matronly lady, a bit round, and with gray hair sneaking into her brown.  Danna found Belle, an elf maiden short of three hundred years old, and made sure her glamour of humanity was secure.  She thought to have Belle and Coppertone tend to their mistress and the princess, by which she meant Enid and Guimier.  Belle curtsied, though Danna was not there to see, she knew Danna would see.  Then she hurried to Enid’s side.  Coppertone went skipping along the side of the great hall, despite appearing far too old to skip like a little girl.

“Can’t take the pixie out of the pixie,” Danna thought with a smile before she spoke to the beauty that stood in the courtyard.  “Rhiannon.”

“Mother,” Rhiannon answered as Danna joined her.  “Coppertone flew all the way to the Lake of the Moon to find me, and I am glad she did.  Arthur’s soldiers have the fort again, and twenty-three prisoners.  But these three are the ones from Sussex making the guns and powder.”

Danna nodded.  She raised one hand and made a fist.  Those three disappeared, and no one asked where they went.  Lockhart, Katie, Percival, Thomas, Peter, and Tristam walked up from one direction.  Arthur, Gwynyvar, Bedivere, Guimier, Enid and her two handmaids walked up from the other direction.  Piebucket and Bogus the dwarfs walked up from a third direction.  The dwarfs had in mind to complain, but Danna pinched her fingers so neither dwarf could open his mouth.

Rhiannon made Odacer and Harwic appear.  Harwic was dead.  Odacer had a minute of life left.  “Gunter and Sven,” Danna called them by different names.  “We will meet again.”  Odacer said nothing.  He closed his eyes and died.

Rhiannon raised her hand and the wraith appeared, badly broken by the explosion.  “Mother.  What do you want me to do with this one?”

Danna did something before she explained.  “I have removed the compulsion of Domnu.  Lockhart, she will bother you no more.  I believe I will send her to Alice.  Alice may send her through the Heart of Time, back to her proper days.  Then Alice will have to put a hedge around the time gates and all the land between against the wraith, so the wraith cannot interfere with herself as she travelers through time, chasing after the travelers.”  Danna quickly held up her hand for silence.  “I don’t know if she can do that just yet.  The Storyteller is still missing, and things are still very confused.  Alice may need to keep the wraith in a safe place until that can be accomplished, but at least she will not bother you anymore.”  She looked around at the fort and generally at the sky as the wraith disappeared.  “Time flies,” she said, as the last of the sun sank into the west.

“Yes mother. I will be going over to the other side, soon, but there is one more.” Rhiannon tried to smile.

Danna did smile.  She kissed the goddess on the cheek.  “I know but be sure it is soon.”

Rhiannon found a genuine smile then and waved to the travelers.  “Good to see you all again.  Sorry, must run.”  She disappeared and took nearly all the little spirits with her.

Danna turned specifically to Boston.  “Be gentle with me,” she said, and went away so Gerraint could return to his own time and place.  Boston raced up, paused, and hugged Gerraint most gently.  He still said, “Ouch.”  He added, “And tell Alexis her services will not be needed, either on myself or on the wounded, dead, or dying in the fort.  I am sorry, but that is how it must be.  We fight our own battles and take our lumps as they come.”

“So we are learning,” Tony said, and the other travelers agreed.

“You will stay a few days before you move on?” Gerraint asked, and people nodded.  “The place is a bit of a mess right now, but Gwynyvar and Enid love Cadbury in the spring.”

Katie looked at the older woman that Gerraint indicated was Gwynyvar, and she got that groupie look in her eyes.  They all did a little on meeting Arthur, and Lockhart had the good sense not to say, “I thought King Arthur was a myth.”

Sir Thomas said, “So what was that all about?  What just happened?”

Percival turned to the Admiral.  “As I am sure Bedivere will tell you from years of following Gerraint around, sometimes it is better not to ask.”

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The travelers spent a week in Cadbury watching Gerraint heal.  Gerraint sent Scorch and Spark home with his thanks, and the thanks of Arthur and Gwynyvar.  “Don’t forget us if you need to blowed up some more things,” Spark said, as they vanished.

Most of the little ones that came with Rhiannon, went home to the British highlands and the lake.  The dwarfs got to escort the Saxons back to Sussex.  “To put the fear of God in them?” Nanette asked.

“No,” Gerraint said.  “But it might put the fear of dwarfs in them.”

Boston finally laughed.

Sukki sat quietly, thinking about what she did in taking down the wall.  Nanette moped.  Katie and Enid, who had become quite friendly, both came to ask what was wrong.  Nanette did not want to talk about it, so Boston told, snooty little sister that she was.  “She is upset that Sir Thomas is taking all of Decker’s attention.”

“I am not,” Nanette denied it, but the women could tell.

When they got to the south coast, Sir Thomas gave them free passage across the channel.  Boston and Lincoln had determined that the time gate had to be on the continent.  “If not in Brittany,” as they called it, though Sir Thomas mostly called it Amorica, “Then right next to it.”

“Bad area,” Sir Thomas warned them.  “Back when; a man named Claudus took the Roman military left in Provence and Septimania and tried to reestablish so-called Roman rule in the provinces.  Truth is, he ruled under the Visigoths, and sometimes played the Visigoths and Burgundians against each other.  Then the Franks came.  Then the Ostrogoths came out of old Rome and settled things.  Provence, at least, came nominally under the Eastern Roman Empire.  Claudus thought that was great.  He took his army and tried to expand his territory.  The Visigoths, Burgundians and Franks did not budge, but Claudus managed to capture the Atlantique province, alongside Amorica and south to about Bordeaux.  Then he tried to take Amorica, and Arthur brought the army over to help his cousins.  Claudus was defeated and killed in the battle.”

“Move forward.  The Atlantique province is now tributary to the Franks, but the Sons of Claudus have gained power and are again threatening Amorica.  And the Franks are sitting back, watching, to see how it goes, because they have spent their forces for the time being driving the Visigoths south of the mountains, not counting Septimania.”

“And we are heading right into that mess,” Lincoln said.

“Not so bad,” Boston countered.  “We will only be there about a day inland.”

“We might go before they know we have arrived,” Alexis agreed.

“I know a port that is safe,” Sir Thomas said.  “At least it was safe last I heard.”

“Great,” Lincoln let out his full sarcasm.

The port turned out to be safe enough, but the travelers had to wait in the port for three days until Lancelot showed up with three hundred men on foot.  They would be escorted to the time gate and left in the morning.  Around noon, Lancelot, who rode in front beside Lockhart and Katie pointed to the trees off to their left.

“The lake,” he said.  “What the Franks call Dulac.  It is where the Lady of the Lake had her residence and held court.  She trained me to the sword as she trained my son, Galahad.”

Katie nodded.  “She has moved to the British highlands and the Lake of the Moon.  She says she has one more to train.”

“How would you know this?” Lancelot asked.

“Sometimes, you just have to trust,” Lockhart said, and Lancelot accepted that.

Later that day, Lancelot admitted that things were not going well.  “Bohort and Lionel are backed up to the west coast.  The King’s city is besieged.  I will be going with Thomas back to Britain to try and raise an army.  The Sons of Claudus with their Frankish help have wasted the countryside, slaughtering whole villages.”

“I wish you well,” Katie said.  “Maybe Arthur will help.”

Lancelot shook his head.  “Arthur will not prevent me from raising men at arms, though I hope they bring their families to repopulate the land.  But Arthur says he is getting too old for foreign adventures.”

That ended the conversation.  Alexis kept talking about how lovely the spring was, but Sir Thomas and Lincoln were almost as morose as the three out front.

They camped that evening before the time gate, in an open field on the edge of a great forest.  They stayed quiet most of the evening and took advantage of letting Lancelot’s men take the watch in the night.  The following morning, Sukki asked a serious question.

“How much longer do we have to travel?”

“Are we there yet?” Boston said, with just enough whine in her voice to make Lockhart chuckle.

“As I count it,” Lincoln said.  “We have twenty-four more time zones to go.”  He waved to Lancelot and Sir Thomas and paced the mule as Tony drove and they disappeared in time.

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

MONDAY

Having read the travelers’ encounter with Arthur, the Pendragon, and before that, their encounter with Festuscato and the Vandals in Rome, it is only right to share the stories of the Kairos from those same days.  First, to see how Festuscato gains the trust of both the Pope and the Empress, not to mention how he gained a wife.  Then, Gerraint in the last days of Arthur leading to his final battle, when all is lost.  Beginning Monday.

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