Travelers

Avalon 9.2 The Called, part 5 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Lockhart reigned to a halt at the top of the hill where he and Katie spied out the village.  He figured Elder Stow needed to stop to check their direction.  Katie looked behind them to see if they were being followed.  Sure enough, the well-dressed Moor and six others came rushing out of town on their tail.

“Hurry,” Katie told Elder Stow.  “Which way?”  Elder Stow stopped fiddling with his screen device.  He clipped that device back to his belt and pointed across the open field.

“The others are in this direction.”

“Can’t exactly hide in the lack of cover,” Lockhart said, and he started out.  Katie and Elder Stow followed.  Katie kept looking back.  The field was a farm field only covered with winter grass and weeds.  She saw the Moors arrive. She saw them pause and look in their direction.  Then she saw them continue off down the road like they were letting the travelers go.

Lockhart slowed as he led the group in among some trees. When they were far enough in, he asked, “Did they follow us?”

“No,” Katie said with one more look back.  “They continued down the road at some speed.  Maybe the idea of the spiders scared them more than the need to get us.”

“Wait,” Elder Stow said as he juggled his scanner and tried to read it while his horse walked carefully through the underbrush.  Katie looked at Elder Stow, but Lockhart stopped, so the other horses stopped as well.  A knight stood among the woods and blocked their path.  Six men came from the trees, three on each side, and they were armed.  The knight had two matchlock pistols pointed in their direction and spoke.

“Stand and deliver,” the knight said.  It was a woman’s voice, and she started to laugh as she put her matchlocks away, and added the word, “Lockhart.”

“Catherine?”  Katie asked, and with a glance at Lockhart she said, “Well, Lincoln wasn’t here to ask.”

“Yes, Katie,” Catherine said.  “I already hugged Sukki.  We were coming out to get you from the village if we could.  We are following the Moors, looking for their base of operations, but don’t want them alerted if we can help it.  Come.  I’ll tell you all about it when we can relax.”

“My Father,” Elder Stow said.  He stared at his scanner.  “The spiders have invaded the town.  There is a battle there, but most of the spiders have come to the edge of the buildings and continued. There is no doubt they are following us, and they are fast.”

“Quickly,” Catherine yelled and turned her horse.  The travelers and Catherine’s six men followed in her wake.  They crossed several more farm fields, passed by a couple of houses and barns, went through another small woods on a farm trail, and came out at a very big barn next to a stables and a couple of out-buildings. The big farmhouse, nearly a manor house, sat by a road that ran down the hill to the main road just west of the village.

People dismounted.  Sukki, Tony, and Nanette ran up to the travelers, but Catherine jumped and began to give orders to her men.  “Get the servants and Old Miguel from the house.  Check the far field and bring the men and cattle.  Check the driveway-road, but no further than five minutes and come right back.”  She turned to Elder Stow.  “Will your screens cover the stables and fenced in area?”

Elder Stow had to stop and look.  “I will try,” he said.

Catherine grabbed Lockhart’s and Katie’s attention. “The Baron has taken his men to fight for Isabella and sent his family to Toledo to wait the outcome of the struggle.  We have the place to ourselves but for a few servant-caretakers left behind.  We should be safe here for the time being.”

“Not safe if the spiders are following us,” Katie said.

“Just working on that,” Elder Stow spoke, though his eyes were on his screen device.  “Gather everyone in the barn, and the animals.  This will take another minute.”  He began to walk toward the barn even as Tony and Sukki arrived to pace him.  Nanette went straight to Katie and Lockhart.

Catherine continued.  “Get the horses in the fenced area.”  That area stood beside the barn and looked big enough for a dozen horses to run and play.  The cattle might be a problem, depending on how many there were.

Nanette led Elder Stow’s horse and told Katie her news.  “The Moors are servants of the Masters.”

“We figured that out,” Katie admitted.

“Lady Catherine says she has been secretly following them to try and find their base of operations.”

“Understood,” Lockhart said, as they arrived at the fenced area and let their horses in with the others.  Two men closed the gate, and Catherine looked to where the cattle should arrive.  She breathed when she saw the first and the men whipping the beasts to get them to move.

Elder Stow had his screen device in one hand.  He said he was ready.  He had the scanner in the other and kept a watch on the progress of the spiders.  Now, he had no doubt they were after the travelers, though whether they zeroed in on the refined metals in the weapons or the energy signals from Elder Stow’s own devices, he could not say.

Three men came up the road, riding all out.  The spiders appeared to be catching up.  Tony pointed at the spiders rushing across the field and crashing through the woods.  Elder Stow held off as long as he could.  The last of the men and cattle crossed the boundary.  Two of the three road riders made it, but the third rider got snagged by a shot of webbing and pulled from his horse.  The horse made it.  Elder Stow turned on his screens.  Three spiders got trapped inside the screens, but fortunately, Decker and Kate were right there to blast the spiders.  The rest of the spiders crashed into the screen wall and could not get through.  Tony, Lincoln, and Lockhart added fire from their handguns, though they were not nearly as effective as the military rifles.

Some spiders tried to climb the screen wall which actually made a dome shape—a globe above and below ground, but they had nothing to hold on to and slid back to the bottom.  Some kept trying.  Others tried to dig to see if they could get under the screens.  While most continued to press forward, some spiders split left and right to follow the screens—to see if there was an edge or a way to get in from behind.  The spiders were smarter than most realized.

Catherine split her crew and had them follow the spiders left and right toward the back.  She said they had to fire their matchlocks and hoped the kinetic energy would be enough to carry through the screens and still strike the target with some force.  She was not sure, but she said clearly the crossbows they carried were not strong enough.

Nanette used her telekinetic energy to rise up about ten feet.  She grabbed whatever fallen branches and lumber she found in the woods and began to pin spiders to the ground.  Sukki, on seeing this, flew up beside her and said something about hating spiders.  She put both hands out and let her power fry dozens of spiders that were up against the screens.  Elder Stow, having handed his screen device to Tony, flew up to join them.  He had his weapon out and prepared to join the girls when the spider-shuttle came over the top of the trees, and after a moment, fired its main weapon on the screens.

The screens barely registered the hit, and Elder Stow mumbled that it was a good thing he did not set them over a larger area.  “The larger, the weaker,” he said, and returned the ship’s fire.  Elder Stow’s little hand weapon melted the shuttle’s main guns and after only a second, the shuttle’s guns exploded.  The ship began to spin and fall slowly as Nanette and Sukki struck.  Nanette crushed the middle of the ship—more an act of will than simply her telekinetic magic.  Sukki fried the engines in the rear of the ship and that explosion lit up the sky for miles around.

All the defenders inside the screens and their animals were protected by the screens.  Outside those screens, the manor house, one unprotected out-building, and the woods all caught fire.  Hot shards of metal rained down on the spiders still alive outside the screens.  The dozen surviving spiders, a few of whom were badly wounded, ran off, back toward the village. Catherine could not let that happen.  She stepped aside and the goddess Danna stepped into her shoes.

Danna said the word, “No,” and waved her hand.  Everything happened at once.  The surviving spiders all died, including the three that remained in the village.  The fires all got put out.  A twenty-foot-deep pit appeared in the field where the cattle had been grazing.  Every last shred of spider got put in the pit, and the pit covered itself like nothing happened.  All the shards, down to the smidgen size vanished, presumably sent to the island museum on Avalon, and Danna smiled for everyone.  “They breed quicky and massively,” she said.  “They would be right back at it by the end of the summer if they were not dealt with.”  She vanished, and Catherine came to live her own life in her own time.  And Catherine said, “Tony, you can turn off Elder Stow’s screens.”  Tony did so, carefully, and Catherine turned to Lockhart and Katie with a question.  “Tell me about the Moors.”

“The main one and six or seven others raced off down the road toward Barcelona.”

Catherine nodded.  “Al-Alaki is carrying a relay.  He is broadcasting to the stars to come and invade this world.  He sent assassins to take out Isabella, and twice to kill Ferdinand.  I am sure Columbus will be in danger the minute he shows up.  Like him or hate him, Columbus sets history in motion, and no, I cannot think of any alternative that would not be worse.  I have no power to make the human race play nice with one another.  All I can do is try to minimize the damage.”

“A relay from where?” Decker asked.  He cradled his rifle, just in case Danna missed one, though he knew that was impossible.

“That is the question,” Catherine said.  “We are following him, hoping he will lead us to the broadcast center so we can blow it up.  I hated leaving Ferdinand under siege in Toro, but this will destroy the whole world if we don’t stop it.  So far, I had to get the Gott-Druk to remove the Honogon, permanently.  Now the spiders landed here, and I have Galabans in Barcelona that I don’t know what to do with.  I contacted the Elenar to try and remove them, but that is just the few to begin with.  There are others, far more powerful and worse out there that may be on their way.  These landed in the Al-Andalus area.  They zeroed in on the broadcast.  Others…” she shrugged.  “They might swallow the whole planet.”  She looked at the couple and hugged Katie. She said to Lockhart, “You have to move on while you can.”

Avalon 9.2 The Called, part 4 of 6

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The travelers snuck out of town the following morning before dawn.  The mayor and village council wanted them to stick around until this Kairos showed up, whoever that might be, but they figured out that they would likely meet the Kairos right about where the shuttle should be, if they hurried.  They felt the urge to warn her in case she did not know.  No one could imagine why the Kairos would not know there were alien spiders on the planet, but they all conceded that it was possible.

The sky opened up as they got the horses ready to ride.  It had been threatening for the last two days, and looked like it might even snow, but Elder Stow reported that it rained in the west.  “In fact, it has been raining in the west since we arrived, only now it seems we are going to get a share.”

“Ugh,” Tony said, and Lockhart agreed, but it did make their sneaking out of town easier.

###

Catherine wiped the cold rainwater from her eyes and looked carefully down the hill at the road.  Two dozen Moors paraded along like conquering heroes.  They were not.  She chased al-Alaki from Toro, saved Ferdinand’s life, again, and had spies following him.  She did not kill him, though normally she would never let a servant of the Masters live.  In this case, he had set up a broadcast station and was sending a message to deep space inviting various alien species to invade this world.  She had a hell of a time driving off the alien Honogon.  She called them the new exterminators, like the Balok all over again.

“They will stop in the next village for the night,” Catherine said, though it was not long after noon.  She concluded that they believed they shook off anyone that might be following them.  They appeared relaxed, and only traveled about six hours per day.  “We need to find a shelter nearby where the men can spend a quiet evening.”  She spoke to Jacob, her Jewish sergeant who faked being Roman Catholic well.  Jacob, and three of the ten with her were leftovers from the days when she lived as a highwayman, stealing from the rich, some on this very road.

She looked back at the men, mounted and miserable in the never-ending rain, but quiet, and they kept their horses in line.  Two of the men were knights from her home county.  They attached themselves to her, their Contessa, and would not let her go off to fight without guarding her person.  The other four were members of her castle guard.  They felt pretty attached too.

“The next village is near where the spiders landed,” Leechy said, and Catherine looked at him.  Leechy was a half-imp, half-goblin who hated the sun, but did not mind the daytime as long as it was mostly cloudy.  He wore a glamour that made him look human, more or less, mostly less, and he had a voice like he had gravel in his throat.  Catherine imagined some of her men thought Leechy might be another alien from some other world.  She thought in a way he was.

“We will have to keep our eyes open and double watch tonight,” she said, and she slid down the hill to her waiting horse.  She repeated herself so everyone could hear.  “Double watch tonight.  We don’t want the Moors alerted, and we need to keep our eyes open for giant spiders.”

“Giant spiders?” one of the men asked, and Catherine nodded.

“About as big as you, but with eight legs and poisonous.  Keep your matchlocks loaded and ready tonight.”  She mounted and led her men to a barn she remembered from her highway robbery days.

###

Sukki rode back from the point, her amulet in her hand.  Elder Stow rode in from the flank, his scanner loose on his belt.  He grabbed the scanner as soon as he stopped, but no one said anything at first.  Lockhart stopped at the top of a hill and had the binoculars out while Katie looked through the scope for her rifle.  They studied the village down below, looking for anything out of the ordinary.  Tony and Nanette came up alongside Lincoln so they could hear what transpired.

“Looks like they have visitors,” Katie said.  “A troop of Moors would be my guess.  Probably from Grenada.  They look like soldiers, not merchants.”

“I would have thought the Muslims would have stayed out of it,” Lockhart said and lowered the binoculars.

“They may be mercenaries willing to fight for pay,” Katie suggested as she put her scope away and Decker rode up to join the group.  “Castile is divided, and Aragon is fighting Portugal.  I wonder whose side they are on.”

Lockhart shrugged and looked to the sky.  At least it stopped raining.  “They don’t seem in a hurry to get to the fighting.  What time is it?”

“Two-forty,” Katie said.  Lockhart generally forgot about the wristwatch communicators, and especially that they were also watches.

“They look settled in for the night.”

“Blame the weather,” Katie said.  “I imagine six hours in the morning moving miserably through the rain is enough for a day.  They stop early enough to dry off before supper and sleep.  That is pretty much our pattern in the rain.”

Lockhart nodded and turned to Sukki first.  “My Mother and Father,” Suki said in good Gott-Druk form.  The Gott-Druk measured everything by the family unit, even military matters.  “The Kairos appears to be stopped off the road, south of the village.”  She pointed.

“Farm country,” Decker said, having just scouted the area.  “Plenty of cattle, sheep, and barns against the rain.”

“Elder Stow?” Lockhart turned to the Gott-Druk.

“My Father and Mother.  The Spider shuttle is just north of the village.  It is in a clearing in the midst of a small woods and looks undisturbed.  They may have sent out more than one scout ship, but they appear to be content to wait until they get the report on the lay of the land.  The villagers have not gone there in the weather and probably don’t know the spiders are there.  I say that because I see no dead bodies.”

“Can you show us?” Katie asked.

Elder Stow pulled up his scanner and called up a hologram of the area.  They saw farms to the south as Decker said, a large chunk of the village, and grazing land north to the trees which quickly climbed a steep and rocky hill.  Elder Stow tilted the projection so he could point to the clearing where they saw the shuttle craft.

Lockhart nodded and decided what he and Katie had discussed.  “Elder Stow, we need your scanner to beep if the spiders begin to move in our direction.”  He looked at the sky.  The rain might hold off for the rest of the day.  He wondered briefly if the spiders were being wary of the rain and the mud and not just waiting for their scout ships to return.  “Decker, you can take Sukki, Nanette, Tony, and Lincoln to the Kairos.  Katie, Elder Stow, and I will go into the village to get something for supper and check out these Moors.  We will figure out what to do about the spiders when we talk to the Kairos.  We have the communicators to keep in touch if there is a problem.”

Ten minutes later, Katie, Lockhart, and Elder Stow reached the edge of the village.  They found the Moors gathered around the village square in front of the town hall that had a flag of Castile hanging from the second story balcony.  Katie pointed and spoke.  “It does not say which side this village is on.  Probably Isabella being this close to Aragon, but you never know.”

“The Muslims appear to be bargaining for food for themselves and their horses.  I imagine the inn is full,” Lockhart said, and Katie clicked her tongue.

“I have a bad feeling about them,” she said.  “A Masters-creepy kind of feeling.  As bad as the spiders, but in a different way.”

They watched as one of the men bargaining with the Moors broke away from the group and came to confront them.  “And what do you want?” the man asked.

“We are simple travelers,” Lockhart said.  “We left our people back along the road. You appear to be busy.”

The man turned his head.  “The Moors want everything for nothing…”

“We can pay,” Katie said quickly.  “We have French and English coins.”  They had a purse full of whatever coins Quentin gathered for them in the last time zone.

The man seemed to like the idea of being paid, but his frown deepened as he mouthed the word, “Gypsies.”  His conclusion was unwarranted, but understandable for simple travelers who stayed on the road, sent a few in for supplies, and offered to pay with foreign coins.  “I suppose you will be wanting fodder for your animals as well as foodstuffs.  So you know, here at the end of the winter, our supplies are limited, and much of that was taken by the soldiers fighting in the west.  There won’t be much left when these Moors finish taking what they want.”

“We don’t need much,” Lockhart said, as two things happened at once.  A rich looking Moor, probably the leader of the military group came out of the inn across the street and walked toward where several soldiers were yelling back and forth with the village council.  And Elder Stow’s scanner went Beep, Beep!  That may have attracted the eyes of the well-dressed Moor.

The Moor recognized who he was looking at and yelled.  “The Travelers from Avalon.  Get them.  Kill them.”

Elder Stow shouted over everyone to be heard.  “Spiders.  A hundred or more coming this way.”

Lockhart told the village man, “Run and hide,” before he turned his horse around.  Katie grabbed her rifle and shot at the Moor.  The man ducked behind one of his soldiers who took the bullet.  Katie quickly shouldered her rifle.  There were too many innocent bystanders in the square.  She rushed after Lockhart and Elder Stow who quickly got back to the road and away from the town.

Avalon 9.2 The Called, part 3 of 6

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The travelers piled out the back door.  The wife and two serving girls stood by the door, screaming.  The innkeeper lay on the ground. A spider the size of a small table hovered over the man, spitting venom at the women to keep them away.  Katie flipper her rifle to automatic, but Decker was one step ahead of her.  He sprayed the spider with bullets, putting any number of holes in the thing.  It collapsed as Katie spun around to fire at the roof.  The spider there leapt away while it shot a stream of webbing at Katie and her rifle.  Katie also leapt away, so they both missed.  Too bad for the spider.  It landed just above Lockhart who blasted it twice with his shotgun.  The spider face turned to mush, and it fell off the roof.

Elder Stow raised his voice to get everyone’s attention.  “A three-man scout ship,” he said and stared at his scanner.  “Probably from a shuttle such as used to carry up to forty Wolv.  I’m expanding the search grid now.”

“I hope there isn’t a mother ship out there full of spiders,” Katie said, as she and Tony examined the webbing.  Nanette and Sukki ran to examine the dead man on the ground.

“The horses,” Tony said, to suggest spiders might have gotten into the stables, but Elder Stow interrupted.

“The scout ship is in the other direction.  The third spider, probably the smart female is there.”

“We need to make sure they don’t report back to the mother ship,” Decker said, and indicated that Elder Stow should lead the way.

“Tony and Lincoln, check on the horses and Ghost.  Nanette and Sukki stay here and help if you can.  Katie,” Lockhart said.  Katie left off examining the web as he and Katie followed Decker and Elder Stow to the edge of the village, which was not that far away.

Down an alley between two buildings, they looked out on a field of weeds and a few trees a short distance away.  The scout ship landed beside the trees, not exactly hidden.  Lockhart shouldered his rifle and reached out to Elder Stow.  “Scanner,” he said.  “Elder Stow, you need to get your weapon ready in case it takes off.”

“We don’t want them reporting to the mother ship,” Decker repeated himself.

Elder Stow only hesitated for a second before he shook his head.  He clipped the scanner in place, back on his belt, and got out his weapon.  “The scanner is expanding the search.  It will beep if it locates an appropriate energy source.”  He retrieved his weapon.

Lockhart nodded and led the group several feet out onto the field.  They were all familiar enough with the ship design to recognize any weapons the ship carried were pointing away from them.  They stopped suddenly as five smaller, chair-sized spiders came rushing out from among the trees.  “Babies,” Katie yelled as she and Decker sprayed the spiders with bullets.  They were fast.  Katie and Decker shot four of the five, but Elder Stow sprayed all the babies with a wide angle shot that put them all down.  Decker continued to shoot them to make sure they were all dead, even as the ship began to lift off the ground.

Elder Stow had to work fast to create a narrow beam on full power.  The ship topped the trees and looked ready to take off at high speed before Elder Stow fired.  He clipped the treetops before he zeroed in on the ship.  The others could see the beam of Elder Stow’s weapon.  It went right through the ship, unhampered by any screens the ship may have had, and continued to the clouds above.

The engines on the back end of the ship that faced them began to smoke.  The ship shot up suddenly a thousand feet into the air where there was a small explosion, and the ship began to fall as gravity took over.

“Into the alley,” Katie yelled.  From there, they saw the ship plumet down to crash almost where it started.  Katie turned away and covered her head.  The others joined her, having learned not to question her elect instincts.  The ship exploded when it hit the earth.  The two buildings they stood between took some of the shrapnel.  One caught fire.  The travelers were lucky not to be hit by any flying metal.  One man around the corner, out of sight from where they stood got hit in the head with a small piece and went unconscious.  The wound bled plenty, but he would survive.

Men and women, locals came from the streets around.  Some went to work on putting out the building fire.  A few stopped to stare at the dead babies and wonder what would cause a spider to grow so big.  A few joined the travelers in checking out the wreckage.  They found what Decker claimed and Elder Stow confirmed was the biggest spider of them all.

“The female,” Elder Stow said.  He had his scanner out again and checked to be sure nothing else would explode in their faces.

“Don’t touch them,” Katie yelled at the man who was about to touch one of the babies.  “Poison,” she shouted, and the man withdrew his hand.  “Acid,” she added, just to be safe.  The people would have to be careful to bury the spiders.

“You know, the female might have radioed the ship,” Lockhart said.

“That depends if the females got those systems working,” Elder Stow said and looked at the wreck.  He shrugged, believing there was no way they would know.

“You don’t normally send out scouts without some way of reporting on what you find,” Decker said.

“Yes, but…” Elder Stow paused when his scanner beeped.  He examined it closely.  “At the edge of where this little toy can reach, I believe a Wolv shuttle.  It is powered down, but readable.  I would estimate we may reach there early afternoon tomorrow.  I can put a screen around the inn and maybe part of the village for tonight so we can get some rest.  Of course, picking up the shuttle does not mean there is not a mother ship beyond where this scanner can reach.  A mother ship might carry half a dozen shuttles, but the shuttles alone could travel hundreds of light years on their own, so it may be just the shuttle to deal with.”

“Yeah,” Decker said.  “But if they can turn a three-man scout ship into an eight-spider ship, they might have two hundred spiders on that forty-Wolv shuttle.  That is a lot of spiders.”

Katie walked up with a man beside her, talking on her wristwatch communicator.  “Lincoln, report.”

“We have gathered quite a crowd.  Tony is checking the horses and equipment.  Sukki and Nanette are trying to explain the impossible to the mayor and two of the councilmen.  I kept everyone back from touching the spiders here.  The poison might be on the skin…”

“Same here,” Katie interrupted.  “The spiders turned an old humanoid three-person scout ship into an eight-spider ship.  We got them.  All are okay.  One local injured.  Elder Stow shot down the ship when it tried to take off.  It exploded so we have no way of knowing if they contacted the mother ship or not.  Over.”

“The mayor claims three dead between the inn and where you went.  It appears as if the spiders zeroed in on us at the inn.  You don’t suppose they are after us, do you?  Over.”

“Doubt it,” Katie responded.  “They probably scanned the area and picked up our advanced metals or maybe Elder Stow’s energy signal and came to check it out.  Over.”

“You make them sound more intelligent than I wanted to give them credit for…”

“We will be back shortly,” Katie interrupted.  “Try and keep the people there away from the spider bodies until we get there.  We have to clean up this mess first. Out.”

Lincoln switched off and found Sukki and Nanette both floating a few feet off the ground.  Sukki could fly.  Nanette could lift herself by her telekinetic magic, but the locals would not know the difference.  Between the two of them, they got the astounded local men to fetch the tools to dig a hole, at least six feet deep.  The local women had taken the wife and servants inside the inn.  One of the members of the village council had the body of the innkeeper taken away to rest with the other dead.  That still left a second councilman and the mayor to complain, though they did not complain too loudly.  They understood what the hole was for.  By twilight, the men had a hole about as tall as a man.  Nanette used her magic to lift the dead spiders, one at a time, and place them in the hole.  The men began to shovel the dirt back in, and Katie walked up with the others.  She turned to Nanette.

“We could have used you at the crash site.  We did not dig nearly as deep to bury the babies, and there was not anything we could do about the crashed ship other than rope it off and tell people not to go there until the Kairos could come and decide how to handle it.

“I thought the little ones took such things to Avalon,” Nanette said.

“True, but there were not any elves, dwarfs, fairies, or goblins around to ask about it, and with Boston gone, we have no way of contacting any.”

Sukki came up and looked at Katie and Nanette.  She shivered and said quietly, “I hate spiders.”

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

MONDAY

The Kairos, the travelers, the Masters, and the spiders all come to the same town, but it appears the spiders have a target. Until then, Happy Reading

*

Avalon 9.2 The Called, part 2 of 6

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The next day, the travelers climbed into some hills where they stopped for a picnic lunch.  Having reached the late medieval world, and certainly in Europe, with the slow recovery of the population since the various crisis of the late Middle Ages, including the plague, the travelers found plenty of village inns all along their route.  Those inns had big fireplaces which helped against the winter cold, so even if the food and lodging were usually poor, at least they did not have to camp in the snow and wilderness very often.  In fact, when they crossed the hills that separated the coast and Barcelona from the Ebro River valley, they chose to picnic where they might have found a village inn to rest.  Katie found a spot where the wind at least blew the snow away.

“I want to hear what Lincoln and Elder Stow have figured out without unauthorized ears listening in,” Katie explained when she picked the stopping place.  Decker agreed, and just checked both sides of the hill to be sure they had an unobstructed view.  He did not want anyone, or anything, like space alien spiders sneaking up on them without their ability to see and be forewarned.

Lincoln read from the database for the last day and a half and was ready to report his findings to the others.  Elder Stow also spent some time reading in his own Gott-Druk database.  It was not nearly as detailed as the one Lincoln carried, and particularly with regard to human history it was often wrong, but Elder Stow’s database contained some information that Lincoln did not have, like what to do about certain alien species.

Lincoln began with Catherine, the Kairos.  “You remember. English mother, Spanish father who served as a military officer for King John II of Aragon.  Her mother died when she was young.  Her father died in Naples and the crown supposedly did not know there was a child, a teenager.  The house was given to a different family, and Catherine got thrown out.  She took up with a man named Smith—a quarter-English descendent of the English troops the Black Prince sent to Castile in support of Peter of Castile in the War of the Two Peters.  Smith was an old man who turned to highway robbery having no other way to make a living.  He taught her…”

Lincoln scrolled a little before he began again.  “She took over the brigand group.  People called her The Falcon—the crest she wore on her tunic over her armor, her cloak, and her shield.  El Halcon mostly because people did not know it was a woman…”  Lincoln found the place he was looking for.  “Anyway, she saved John II, the King of Aragon’s life, and his son, Ferdinand, as in Ferdinand and Isabella.  She fought off the Moors, servants of the Masters sent to kill specifically Ferdinand… That was before Ferdinand and Isabella married.  You can imagine the Masters probably did not want that marriage to take place.”

“Talk about changing history,” Katie said, and Lockhart nodded. Once again, Lockhart figured any names he knew had to be important to history.

“Anyway, Catherine admitted to the king who she was, and the king recognized that he made a terrible mistake taking her father’s title and property.  He promptly married her off to the old Count of Chaca—Jaca, the original capital of Aragon that became an Aragonese border county against Navarre, the Basque country, and the French.”

“Okay,” Decker interrupted.  “She is a countess.  Now it is 1476.  What is she doing now?”

“How old is she?” Sukki asked.

“Thirty-nine,” Lincoln said.  “Probably thirty-eight, depending on when her birthday is.  Anyway, Ferdinand and Isabella married in1469 and Isabella claimed the throne of Castile in 1474 when her half-brother, King Henry died.  Unfortunately, Joanna was supposedly Henry’s child and also claimed the throne, and she had the King of Portugal supporting her.  Let’s see. Joanna is about fourteen.  Isabella, about twenty-four.  Castile is divided, and basically Aragon is fighting Portugal.  Catherine gets out her armor and brings her people to support Ferdinand.  She gets it out one more time in the future when they overrun Granada.”

“Wait,” Katie said, sharply.  “We don’t need the details of future events any more than anyone else.  Any one of us might accidentally say the wrong thing at the wrong time and to the wrong person.  You know that.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Lincoln said.  He pulled his cloak tight over his shoulder.  The cold wind was picking up, and he was missing his wife, Alexis.

“But wait,” Nanette spoke with a glance at Decker.  “What did you find out about the Galabans?”

“The database calls them Conquistadores,” Lincoln said.  He looked around the campfire to judge the reaction to that word before he said, “Elder Stow and I talked about it this morning, and I think he has more general information that he wants to share.”

“Right,” Elder Stow said as he got out his own database for reference.  “There is not really much to tell, but essentially the term Conquistadores is correct.  Their world was destroyed in a battle between the Flesh Eaters and Apes.  Most of their world is radioactive.  In the end, there were only small places that remained habitable, and the population got squeezed into those places.  They were…” Elder Stow paused to think.  “About Roman level of technology.  No gunpowder.  They had concrete and steel, but they were experimenting with steam engines, so not an exact parallel.  The war left a lot of broken space race technology around, and some of it was serviceable.  Over a few hundred years, they not only got space flight, jumping straight to faster than light flight, but they also got the weapons technology to take to whatever worlds they discovered.”

“Conquistadores?” Tony asked.

“Yes.  They visit and plant a small colony.  In a short while, they bring supplies and more settlers.  Maybe start a second colony.  Eventually, the native population figures it out.  They resist, but the Galabans use their superior technology to crush the resistance and maybe make slaves.  More come, and if they carry a disease that the human race has no resistance to, too bad for that.  Eventually, the human race will be pushed to the edges, or forced to try and fit in with the Galabans that now own everything.  As I understand it, that is the technique.”

“Conquistadores,” Lockhart said in a grumpy voice.

“The Priest said Barcelona was a temporary settlement until the Kairos has time to make better arrangements.  Maybe she will move them off world—like to an uninhabited planet.”

“They drowned their ship,” Lockhart pointed out.  “And the Kairos does not have any spaceships I know of.”

“Yes,” Elder Stow agreed.  “But I have learned on this journey not to underestimate what the Kairos may do.” People understood and agreed with that.

“What about the spiders,” Sukki asked, while they talked about the aliens.

“Ah!” Elder Stow put up a finger to take back the conversation.  “They are called Panknos in my Gott-Druk database.  They are human size and poisonous, both.  The females are intelligent enough to figure out space flight. cryogenics, and even repair the ships they take to some extent.  They do not have any technology to build ships, but they can figure out how to fly any ships foolish enough to land on their world.  The males are not so smart and tend to be eaten by the females after their egg sack is fertilized.  They birth hundreds of babies at a time, so the Galaban was right about them breeding fast.  Their world is way overpopulated, so they are quick to find ways to escape their world and would dearly love a world like Galabar or Earth where there is a ready food supply.”

‘Great,” Lincoln said and frowned.  “Flesh Eaters—no, Wolv all over again.”

“Similar,” Elder Stow admitted.  “They don’t have ready access to ships, like the Wolv had whole fleets of Humanoid ships.  But the Wolv and Flesh Eaters who went there both lost. Poisoned, mostly.  They got overwhelmed with numbers of Panknos and got eaten.”

“Serves them right,” Decker said.

“So let us hope they did not follow the Galabans to this world,” Nanette said, and people began to clean up from lunch.  No one had any appetite left.

###

On the fourth day out from Barcelona, having ridden due west, Lincoln suggested they were nearing the Aragon-Castile border.  “Sometime tomorrow, we will be getting into where the war of the succession is going on.”  He pushed the slop around his bowl and stared around the inn.  The slop was supposed to be chicken something, but Lincoln was not sure it ever got near a chicken.

“We just need to keep a low profile,” Lockhart said, and Decker agreed, but Katie shook her head.

“These kinds of civil wars don’t give people a choice of staying out of it.  Even peasants get asked which side are you on?  We need to be prepared for that.”

“If it helps,” Sukki said, and pulled out her amulet which showed the next time gate and the general contours of what lay around them.  “The Kairos appears to be getting closer.  We might meet her tomorrow, and if she keeps moving east, we might find the time gate before we reach the war.  You said the war was mostly in the far west, over by Portugal.”  Sukki smiled.  She did not normally say that much, but these people were really becoming family, so she did not feel so shy.

Elder Stow whispered to Nanette.  “There are still Panknos in the future, but they are confined to their home world.  Everyone knows not to go there.”

Nanette nodded as Tony spoke up.  “Anyone find any chicken in this goop?”

Decker smiled.  “I ate something that may have been chicken.  No guarantees.”

“Tasted like chicken,” Katie said with a grin.

“It’s all Greek to me,” Lockhart said and returned her grin.

“Land of Goshen,” Lincoln said and added his grin.

“Land a Goshen,” Decker responded with an “Ouch.”  Nanette kicked him under the table.

“Family,” Elder Stow said with the biggest grin of all.

Tony just frowned and stirred the goop in his bowl.  Someone out in the kitchen screamed, and Tony jumped up as he mumbled the word, “Saved…”

Avalon 9.2 The Called, part 1 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

After 1437 A.D. Aragon and Castile

Kairos lifetime 113: Catherine, La Halcon

Recording …

The sun rose over the Mediterranean gleaming golden bright and reflecting off the water of the bay.  The travelers came out squinting, facing the water, and had to turn quickly to put their backs to the glare.  The spires of the cathedral nearby reached up into the cloudless sky and also glared in the early morning sun, but the cathedral itself, though hardly a stone’s throw away, was hard to see through the narrow streets and buildings that surrounded it.  There were people around at that early hour.  Poor fishermen were preparing for a day at sea, and merchants of all sorts were headed for the docks and getting ready to open their stalls and begin hawking their wares.  Fortunately, the travelers came out of the time gate in a garden, which was actually a cemetery, so they had room to move, and as the time gate faced the sea, it might have looked like they came riding out of the sun itself.

Only one priest faced them.  He stood nearby in the shade of a tree, speaking to several families, presumed parishioners.  It seemed likely only the priest saw them appear out of a hole in the air, and he only stopped speaking and looked up when Ghost came through and bucked, something the mule never did.  The priest certainly saw something, but by the time the people with him looked, the travelers were through, and the time gate quickly closed.

The priest pulled his cloak tight against the cold winter wind.  “Pardon me.”  He told his families to wait and came right up to the travelers with an odd question. “And what planet have you come from?”  An old man followed the priest.

“Earth,” Lockhart said.

“Planet Earth,” Katie echoed.

“Human,” Lincoln raised his hand like he did in France while his eyes stayed focused on the database.

“Why would you ask such an odd question?” Elder Stow wondered even as Tony tried not to curse at Ghost in front of the priest.

“You are not more Galabans from the planet Galabar?”  He seemed to indicate the people behind him.

“No,” Lockhart said.  “We are human.  Who are the Galabans?”

The old man who stepped up to join the priest spoke.  “We are,” he admitted in a friendly tone.  “We are refugees from our world and hope we may be allowed to make a small settlement on your lovely planet.”  He smiled a human enough smile as Elder Stow turned his scanner on the families.  “Our world became a battle ground between two peoples.  They ruined the world and not many of us survived, but we learned something from the wreckage they left behind.  We saw images of your world and the people here, and thought, you are very much like us.  We came here.  We have nowhere else to go.”

The Galabans appeared light red, leaning toward a light violet in skin color but they wore mostly yellow or pale blue or pale green clothes which further washed out their skin color making them look human enough.  There were no doubt other differences that might be picked out on closer examination, but Elder Stow spoke up to resolve all doubt.

“Definitely not human,” he said.  “Appearances can be deceiving.”

“Where is your ship?” Lockhart asked the logical question as Lincoln looked up from his reading.  Only Sukki kept her eyes on the people in the streets.  Katie stared at the old man.  Nanette focused her attention on the Galabans waiting for the priest.  They appeared to be mostly women and children.

The old man pointed toward the sea as the priest spoke.  “They arrived in the northwest of Aragon.  The Countess of Chaca, the Lady Catherine sent them here, to my bishop, with papers concerning their need for temporary settlement until she can make better arrangements.  Her attention is first taken with the war with Portugal over the Castilian throne.  My bishop has provided food, shelter, and work for the men.  I have been tasked with teaching the faith to these Novo Christians to keep them out of the hands of the inquisition.”

“Your ship is parked underwater?” Lockhart asked, stuck on what he imagined was the important point.

The old man sadly shook his head.  “Of the three ships that brought us here, two have returned to our home world with word of our discovery.  We brought the third ship to this place, but we had difficulty flying the short distance.  There was an accident.  We managed to escape, but the ship sank in the waters.  It is now ruined.  We are cut off from home until our other ships return.”

“You know this planet is off limits to outsiders,” Katie said.

“So the Lady Kairos explained to us, but we have nowhere else to go and now, no way to get there.”

The travelers remained silent, looking at one another, not sure what they could say.  Even Lincoln seemed to be at a loss for words.  The priest and the old man waited, stomping their feet a bit against the cold.  The priest, because he saw them appear out of nowhere, and while they claimed to be only human, he was not so sure.  The old man because he saw enough to recognize these were people who had power well beyond his understanding.  He saw the women with only a word adjust their clothing to the local styles they could see.  He wanted to ask how they did that, but he dared not.

Katie finally broke the silence.  “You must learn and practice the faith.  In this time and place it is vital for your survival.”

Lockhart spoke again.  “We will be seeing the Kairos, shortly.  Do you have anything you wish us to tell her?”

The priest shook his head, but the old man had a thought.  “Only to remind her of what we told her at the first.  The Nameada—spiders may have followed us to this world.  Such was not our intent, but we are new to space, and they may have followed without our knowing.  They breed fast and are deadly.  I hope—pray they did not come here.”

“Space alien spiders?” Sukki heard and let out a little shriek before Lincoln could respond.  Lincoln frowned, like she stole his line.  Tony, having gotten Ghost under control, laughed.  Nanette sealed her mouth and looked at Decker, who remained as stoic as ever.  Elder Stow fiddled with something on his scanner.  Katie and Lockhart stared at one another once more before Katie again broke the silence.

“Priest.  What city is this?”

“Barcelona,” the priest said.

“What is the year?” Lockhart asked.

“1476.  February.  Why?”

“Not your concern,” Lockhart said.  He looked at Katie without a word.  She pointed the general direction and he said, “Move out.”  They turned and started through the narrow streets of the city.

###

That night, having made it out of the city, the travelers sat in a quiet village inn.  While Lincoln and Elder Stow both seemed preoccupied with their reading, Lockhart finally asked what everyone appeared to shrug off.  “So, why did Ghost object so much when we arrived?”

Tony looked at his food for a minute and it gave Sukki a chance to interject her thought.  “I guessed it was because we came out facing the sun, and the sun was so bright in the way it reflected off the water.  I had to close my eyes.”

Tony nodded a little before he shook his head.  “It is only a guess, but you know Ghost is not good with strangers.  Back in the Khyber Pass, the bandits got him out of the harness, but he would not move for them, not even to get put in the fenced in area where they put the horses.”

“The horses did not cooperate either,” Katie said.  “I assume that is why they were still saddled and ready to ride.”

“Maybe,” Tony said.  “But Ghost is normally okay with strangers as long as he can ignore them, like when we move through a town.  I have noticed, though, he reacts to strangers when they are not human.  I don’t know what it is, or how he can tell, but this is not the first time.  He did not mind the Apes so much, though he let me know not to get too close.  The Flesh Eaters made him nervous.”

“He didn’t want to be eaten,” Lincoln said under his breath while he read.  He looked like he did not blame the mule for that attitude.

“He did not seem to like the Galabans either,” Tony continued.  “I don’t want to read into it.  We are talking about a mule, but it seems like he has a sense for aliens that are a danger.”

“Like children and puppy dogs,” Lockhart said.  “They can sometimes tell the good ones from the bad ones.”

“And elves. They can sense such things,” Sukki added, thinking of her adopted sister, Boston, whom she missed.

Katie nodded.  “I wouldn’t trust the mule entirely, but I also felt something not quite right with the Galabans from the start.  The old man and individually they seemed nice enough but, I don’t know.  My elect senses flared.”

“I know what you mean,” Nanette agreed.  “I looked with my magic if I did it right.  The old man was not lying, as far as I could tell, but it seemed like he did not tell us the whole truth.”

Elder Stow spoke up.  “Like, if their ship crashed in the sea, how did they escape and get safely to shore?  Do they have shuttle craft and escape pods hidden somewhere?  And what is their weapons technology?”

“It almost makes me want to go back and ask some more questions,” Lockhart said, but Decker interrupted.

“The Kairos met them and brought them to Barcelona.  We should trust that she knows what she is doing, and she knows what these Galabans are capable of.  Our job is to get back to the future.  It is hard enough staying focused on that without all the interruptions.”

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 6 of 6

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When the six hundred- and fifty-foot soldiers of Wendomme were ready, the travelers and Jobarie’s fifty started out for the farm.  The charge came, and Elder Stow and Sukki, both invisible and flying at tree-top level, gave the enemy something to think about and maybe softened them up.  They burned the ground, the trees out front, and no doubt some of the archers in those trees all along the line.  Those men were already retreating when Lionel’s pikemen arrived.

Sukki flew back to the travelers who quickly got out of range of the melee, but Elder Stow had another idea.  As long as he was invisible, he thought to get out his sonic device.  The squeal sent the enemy horses into a panic.  Many ran off, but even the ones that did not run were too panic stricken to be ridden right away.  The enemy had no way of making that quick getaway, and with Jules and his two hundred coming up from their rear, they would do well to surrender.

When Elder Stow rejoined the travelers, they had just made it to the farmhouse.  The house was empty, but the archers fought with a dozen men out by the barn.  Those men fought with a fanaticism rarely seen on a medieval battlefield.  They took about twice their number of archers before they died, even with Decker, Katie, Lockhart, Tony, and Lincoln all taking shots when they had a clear target.

“Check the barn,” Lionel yelled, upset with the loss of his good men.

“Wait,” Lockhart also yelled, and Lionel amended his command to “Wait.”

Decker, Katie, Lockhart, and Tony went to the barn door.  Lockhart and Tony each grabbed a handle to the door and Decker and Katie raised their rifles to the ready.  Lockhart nodded as a signal, and he and Tony swung the double door wide open.  They saw people.  Two men had their arms up, showing no hostile intent.  One big red-headed man looked unsteady on his feet, but he shouted.

“Lockhart.”

Decker and Katie lowered their rifles.

One soldier sat on a horse, and it took a moment for the travelers to realize it was the girl, Joan.  She handed her banner to the big red-head and said, “I won’t be needing this now.”  She walked her horse forward and the travelers got out of the way.  She stopped just outside the doors.  “To whom have I the honor of speaking?”

With the girl’s voice identifying the rider, Jobarie rushed up and said “The Masters,” and they would have their way with her.  He shouted something about rape and death.  He reached up and dragged her off her horse, but the big red-headed man was right there.  He whipped out his sword, fast as a gunslinger, ready to remove Jobarie’s head from his shoulders, but Decker pulled the trigger.  Jobarie grabbed his chest and collapsed.

“Quentin?” Lincoln asked.

“Hold,” Lionel shouted at the same time to keep Jobarie’s men from acting as any man would.  “Stay where you are and put down your weapons.”  He saw the travelers turned their guns to the archers and he knew the archers would not stand a chance.  He spoke to the travelers.  “A servant of the Masters?”

“Yes, Lincoln,” Quentin said.  “And yes.  I smelled the masters even if he did not open his mouth.  There is a deeper, spiritual struggle going on here than just your French and the English all fighting each other over a perishable crown.”

He let his hand down to help Joan up.  Joan brushed herself off but refused to look at the now dead body.  She turned to Quentin as he sheathed his sword.  Quentin also whispered, “Ouch by the way,” and that made Joan smile between her tears.

“The man may have had a wife or children,” Quentin spoke to Lionel, the only one still on horseback.  “They should be helped but watched.  They are probably clean.”

“I will compensate the man’s family,” Lionel said.

“I return this to you,” Joan interrupted, her eyes only on Quentin.  “Will you return it to Saint Catherine’s?”  She removed the sword from her side, thus disarming herself.  She handed it to Quentin.

“I will see it gets to where it belongs,” Quentin said, and the sword turned ghost-like before it disappeared.  Several of Jobarie’s archers saw and took a step back, uncertain now what to think.

Joan turned away so Quentin would not see her tears. She remounted her horse and faced the man still up on horseback.  “To whom do I have the honor of addressing?” she repeated.

“I am Lord Lionel of Wendomme,” he said, and expressed genuine surprise.  “Why, you are just a child.”

Jules trotted up with four of his men in his trail, even as the rest of the travelers, having dismounted, brought their horses and mule toward the barn.  Quentin took another step forward and almost collapsed.  Katie quickly grabbed him to help hold him up as he spoke. “She is a maiden, and a child, pure, and she better remain so under your hand.  If any defile her, there is nowhere on God’s green earth where they can escape my wrath.”

“And who might you be?” Jules asked.

“Quentin the Scott.  Of late, the Highlander from Lord Bedford’s inner circle.  Your Philip calls me the dog that won’t let go once I’ve got my jaws on my prey.  So, you better hear me.”

“Do not be afraid,” Lionel said to Joan.  And to Quentin he added, “I pledge on my honor I will do all that I can to keep her safe for as long as I can.”

“And I,” Jules added before he turned to Lord Lionel.  “The men are coming up with prisoners.”

“Lockhart?” Quentin asked without detailing his question.

“These last few days we traveled together.  He seems a fair and honest man who will keep his word.  He knows who we are, and who you are, so he knows what you speak is true.”

Quentin nodded and sniffed.  Joan returned the nod and had a sniff of her own before she spoke to Lionel.  She lowered her eyes appearing most humble.  “As the Lord wills, I give my life into your hands, Lord Lionel of Wendomme.  I am your prisoner.”

“I accept your surrender and pledge myself and my men to your safety and security,” Lionel said, graciously, before he turned to Jules and the men with him.  “Let the archers stay here and turn any of the enemy they see.  Let the two hundred escort us and the prisoners to Lord Jean’s camp.  We need to deliver the prisoners to him.”  He turned back to Joan.  “Might you ride with me?  I have so many questions.”

The travelers chuckled, as Joan moved up to ride beside the man.  Jules and his few fell in behind, like an honor guard.  The remains of Jobarie’s men turned their backs on Quentin and the travelers.  It was an uneasy peace, the tension in the air felt thick, but the men saw what the travelers could do and had time to think about it, much as they might have liked Jobarie.

“Sukki,” Quentin said, as he opened his arms for a hug.  Sukki came, tentatively, but hugged Quentin with a good will.  Quentin said, “The hug is for you with as much love as my old heart has left to me.  But you must also give my hug to your sister, Boston, when you see her again.”

“I will,” Sukki said, a big smile etched across her face.

“Good, now come,” he told the travelers.  “I will introduce you to Bertrand, de Metz, and Henrietta, the cow, then I think it wise for us to get out of here.”

###

Three days later, when the travelers were well on their way to Saint-Catherine-de Fierbois, the English and Burgundians drew their troops up on one side of a wide field.  They figured with the capture of the Maid, the French would be demoralized, and the city would fall.  The French, for their part, were not exactly happy, and some did say the war was lost.  But Quentin would not have it.  He gathered the Scotsmen from among the French troops and put them in the center when the French lined up to face their opponents.

“The question is, who will charge first and expend all their energy crossing this wide field?”  He knew the English commanders would wait in the hope that the French would tire of waiting; but Quentin had another idea.  He had Joan’s banner, and with de Metz and Bertrand, he walked out, the three of them, all eyes watching.

Quentin stopped at what he judged to be the outside limit of where the Welsh Longbowmen could reach.  He planted Joan’s banner in the soft mud.  Then he took two steps out in front of the banner.  De Metz and Bertrand knelt to each side, like men in prayer, one step back from where Quentin planted the banner.  Quentin drew his sword and planted the point in front of himself. The message was clear.  He was taunting the English and Burgundians to come and take it.

Everyone watched.  Several attempts were made to shoot the men around the banner, but Quentin judge the distance right.  The arrows, even from the vaunted longbows, mostly fell short.  One appeared to strike Quentin in the chest, but the ancient armor of the Kairos, made under the watchful eye of the god Hephaestus himself, repelled the projectile.  It did not penetrate, and while Quentin whispered “Ouch,” to his companions. he remained unmoved.

Finally, three knights and a dozen footmen came out from the English line.  They had to know who he was, and they had to be steaming mad.  Quentin had no doubt their orders were to kill him and get that banner.   He heard noise begin in the French line behind him.  The closer the enemy came, the more noise he heard.  De Metz and Bertrand stood, picked up their shields, drew their swords, and prepared to fight and defend the banner.  Quentin did not move.

When the enemy arrived, the sound from the French line sounded fever pitch.  Quentin cut down three of the pikemen in quick succession.  De Metz and Bertrand both faced English knights, but the third knight thought he was smart.  He grabbed Joan’s banner and began to wave it like a conquering hero, no doubt for his own side, but the effect cannot be overstated.  The entire French line charged screaming death to the English.  This was not a typical inspired group of soldiers.  This was wrath of God stuff, and the English and Burgundians knew it.

Quentin killed the foolish knight and grabbed the banner before it touched the ground.  He risked getting stabbed in the back to plant the banner again in the mud.  Fortunately, the Englishmen who attacked the banner ran away as fast as they could.  The French went right around the banner, screaming madmen.  The English and Burgundian lines almost immediately began to disintegrate.  Quentin knew some French soldiers would continue to follow the enemy well into the night.  It would take that long for the tempers to cool.

“That was quite a risk,” Bertrand said after the screamers all passed them by.

“It was,” Quentin admitted, but the Siege of Compiegne was finished as of that day.

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

MONDAY Episode 9.2 The Called

Castile is divided and Aragon and Portugal are fighting to decide who will rule the country, but of course, the Kairos Catherine has a bigger problem being broadcast into space. Until then, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 9.1 Johanne, part 5 of 6

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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

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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

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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

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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.