Council War - There Will Be Dragons - Council War - There will be Dragons Part 38
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Council War - There will be Dragons Part 38

"We're taking a little break now," she said to the crowd as she wiped sweat dramatically from her brow. "So should you!"

Herzer started to walk away then saw Edmund coming out of the edge of the crowd. He put his hand on Morgen's arm to stop her and both of them saw Edmund walk over to the stage and wiggle his finger at the female fiddler. She raised an eyebrow in return. Edmund's opinion of minstrels had become a standing joke in the town. So it was with an expression of obviously humorous trepidation that she stepped across the stage and leaned down to listen to what he had to say. Herzer wasn't close enough to hear but he saw both her eyebrows raise in surprise and then she nodded, at which Edmund nodded in return. He walked to the edge of the stage and motioned to someone in the crowd. The short, dark man stepped out carrying a set of bagpipes. The minstrel had gotten the rest of the band together. As the man carrying the pipes mounted the stage she stepped to the front and raised her hands.

"Excuse me, folks, we've been requested to do one more number, but it's nay a dance tune," she said with a rueful chuckle. She shook the piper's hand and waited for him to inflate the bellows, then nodded the beat.

Herzer's skin went cold at the shivery sound of the pipes. He'd heard pipe music before and in general could take them or leave them. But this was unlike any tune he had ever heard. It reached down into him and grabbed something in his soul, something old and wild and terrible. His skin flushed cold and goosebumps came out on his arms as the rest of the band joined in. Then the female began to sing and with the first lyric he was gone.

"Axes flash, broadsword swing, Shining armour's piercing ring Horses run with polished shield, Fight Those Bastards till They Yield Midnight mare and blood red roan, Fight to Keep this Land Your Own Sound the horn and call the cry, 'How Many of Them Can We Make Die!' "

Herzer could almost swear he heard the sound of sword on shield and the hoarse bellowing of battle in the distance. He stood there transfixed as the song ended and then looked at Morgen openmouthed. She returned it with an unreadable expression.

"That was amazing," he said finally.

"I liked it," she said, still looking at him with an odd expression in her eye. "But whenyou were listening to it, you lookedreally weird."

Herzer thought about that for a second then nodded, a muscle working in his jaw.

"Somebody told me once that we all wear masks," he said quietly. "I think that song just strips some of mine away."

Edmund had mounted the stage by then. He looked at the minstrel and nodded in approval then raised his hands above his head for quiet.

"OYEZ! OYEZ!" some of the people in the crowd shouted. Then in the back of the crowd there was a stentorian bellow of: "AT EASE!"

"Thank you, Gunny," Edmund said to some scattered chuckles. "I have some announcements to make, a couple of things to cover. And I'd like thank these, uhm . . . players here for getting everyone's attention for me." Over the scattered laughter Herzer considered not so muchwhat Edmund was saying buthow . The crowd was large and not entirely silent. Furthermore there were no acoustical effects toassist him. But he somehow pitched his voice to carry all the way to the rear of the crowd. Herzer wasn't sure how he had done it, but it was a darn good trick.

"Many of you are in the familiarization program also called the apprenticeship program," Talbot said. "The final schedules for that have been determined and posted. They cover all except for the last two weeks, which are going to be military training, including familiarization with longbow and other weapons. This will be in the last two weeks of training, at the end of which you will be given your final scores for the courses, and masters from some of the crafts will accept applications from those of you who they feel have some talent in the craft. Also at that time applications will be taken for the Raven's Mill Defense Force and persons who have shown aptitude in that area can apply.

"For everyone who is in the apprentice courses or not, you should be aware that the portion of the agreement that everyone made when arriving at Raven's Mill relating to defense of Raven's Mill was not just lip service. One of the things that the smiths are working on very hard right now is the production of defense weapons, primarily spears. Over the last two weeks the town council has been working on a charter for Raven's Mill and it will be presented next week. But one of the features of the charter that everyone should be aware of is a requirement that a person be skilled in one or more weapons of defense in order to be an eligible voter." At that there was a burst of surprised talking, although not as much as Herzer expected. It was pretty clear that many people either knew of the rule or expected it to be included. Edmund raised his hands to call for silence and waited until most of the talking had died down.

"The only exception to this are those who can show that they have clear philosophical or religious objections to violence. In which case they will be required to take training in the care of combat casualties. Everyone in this townwill be prepared to defend it. Many of you had things taken from you by force when you were traveling here. Others still worse problems," he said, gazing from person to person in the crowd.

"Historically once bandits find that the pickings are slim on roads, they begin attacking towns. We will be prepared to defend this town. To emphasize this, Sheida Ghorbani is calling a constitutional convention with the intent to reconstitute the North American Union. It is my strongly held opinion, supported by Sheida and other council members, that this requirement, to be capable of defending one's self and the community, be a universal requirement within the North American Union."

"The fact is that we are in the midst of a civil war. It seems right now that we are not, but just as we are recovering and preparing, Paul and his faction are recovering and preparing. At the moment, the Council is fighting the Council, but that battle is effectively stalemated. So, in time, they will come for us.

And we will be prepared. You have all gone through much hardship and these may seem somber thoughts for a day devoted to celebration. But they are important thoughts, things that we should all be thinking and talking about. And making our personal decisions. So that when the time comes for you to vote on these questions, you can vote with understanding and knowledge.

"And to tell you the truth I think that's enough to put on your plate for now. You should have plenty to talk about," he ended with a smile. "So as soon as these . . . uh . . . players get their breath back, you all go back to having a good time. Take care." He waved again and started to step down from the stage but turned back and raised his arms. "Oh, by the way, this requirement extends to minstrels!" At that there was a general laugh.

"Yeah? Well I swing a mean fiddle case," the redhead replied, swinging the case of her violin around her head.

"Well, we'll just see how you do with an axe," Edmund replied and stepped down from the stage.

A crowd had already gathered around Edmund so Herzer didn't feel it was the time to ask his questions. Instead he and Morgen wandered back to the patch by the stream that had been claimed by their group.

"He's right, thatis a lot to talk about," Courtney said, flopping to the ground and leaning back against the balks of timber."Oof! North American Union!" was all Cruz said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, that's some deep stuff," Mike agreed.

"Well I don't think that it's right that everyone should have to use weapons," Morgen said angrily. "I don't have any interest in killing people. Or even hurting them."

"What if they are interested in hurting you?" Shilan asked quietly.

"Why would they hurt me?" Morgen challenged. "What have I done to them? If everyone starts getting ready for a fight, sooner or later you're going to have one!"

"People don't have to have areason to hurt other people," Herzer said. "They just have to be the kind of people that enjoy it."

Shilan looked at him oddly for a moment then nodded.

"Listen to Herzer," she said.

"I take it you had trouble on the trip?" Courtney asked.

"Yeah," Shilan replied, sharply.

"What happened?" Morgen asked.

"I do not choose to discuss it," Shilan said. She wrapped her arms around her knees, pulling them tight to her and looking into the distance.

Cruz's face tightened as a muscle worked in his jaw. Then he looked off to the side.

"I'm sorry, Shilan," Morgen said. "I'm sorry for whatever happened to you. But I still don't agree.

Violence never settles anything."

Herzer snorted and tried unsuccessfully to turn it into a laugh.

"What?" Morgen snapped.

"Sorry . . . sorry . . ." he said, still trying not to laugh. "I was just . . . thinking. Maybe you ought to ask the Melcon AI if violence ever settles anything. Or the Carthaginian Senate or the Islamic Jihad."

"What are you talking about?" Morgen asked.

"Have you ever heard of the Melcon AI?"

"Yes, I've heard of the Melcon AI."

"Does it still exist?" Herzer asked with a smile.

"No. It was destroyed in the AI wars," Morgen said, standing up and putting her hands on her hips.

"But this is the forty-first century not the thirty-first! Surely we've risen above that, wrestling in wars like boys on a playground!"

"This we defend," Herzer said, shaking his head. "Or not, as the case may be," he continued, looking at Shilan.

"What he is trying to say is, people have always been violent," Courtney interjected. "There have always been wars and as long as we stay human beings there will alwaysbe wars. The period of the last thousand years was a golden age. And it would be nice to go back to that. But if the cost of going back to that is letting Paul decide what is right and wrong . . . You can try to limit it by diplomacy but the diplomacy has already broken down. It broke down in the Council hall. When Paul attacked Sheida."

"Well, we only haveher word for that," Morgen pointed out.

"Oh, good God," Courtney replied, throwing her hands up in the air. "Herzer, you try."

"Nope ain't gonna do it," Herzer replied. "Morgen, you can say that you just want to sit this out.

That's fine. But people aren't going to let you sit it out. You can choose to leave Raven's Mill. I'm sure that there are going to be communities that are not going to enforce the requirements. You can even say that you have strongly held philosophical objections and train to handle casualties. But if you go elsewhere, to a community that says they just want to be neutral or 'violence never settles anything'

sooner or later Paul's forces will take you over and not ask your opinion. Or you'll be in the way of Sheida's forces and they'll take you over and not ask your opinion. I for one am not going to let Paul Bowman tell me how to run my life. I know enough history to understand what that road leads to. And I would rather sit here on the ground in the rain and eat maggoty bread than allow him to gain absolutepower over Mother."

"But there's no way to fight him!" Morgen said. "He's a council member! They're all council members. Letthem fight!"

"It's stalemated," Herzer said with a shrug. "And Bowman wants the entire world under his sway.

He is going to come for you, Morgen. And for me and Shilan. Because he thinks it's theright thing to do.

It's his mission in life. You can sit on one side or you can sit on the other. But if you sit in the middle, you're just going to get trampled."

"That's just . . . paranoia," Morgen said, stamping her foot. "You're all . . . warmongers! And you can just go to hell, Herzer Herrick!" With that she stomped away.

"Not bad, Romeo," Cruz said, leaning back. "Pick her up in the morning, have your way with her all afternoon and she's gone by evening. Not bad!"

Shilan took this opportunity to hit him in the shoulder as hard as she could with a week's worth of built up muscle.

"Ooow! Jeeze!"

"Less than you deserve," Courtney said.

"I was justjoking, " Cruz replied, rubbing his arm.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.

After the argument Herzer hung out with the rest of the group as the afternoon descended into twilight. Two oxen had been roasting all afternoon and the evening meal was a communal barbecue.

Reenactors who had either gotten quickly reestablished or who were permanent residents of Raven's Mill had contributed various side dishes. Herzer got his first taste of cream corn and collard greens and decided that he could live with them. But what mostly surprised him was the incredible diversity. Before the Fall, finding or inventing different food had been an almost universal pastime. For all that there was a sameness. Before the Fall, all dishes were blazinglyhot, some to the point of insanity. The only difference seemed to be what type of acid was included, whether you got the delightful piquancy of sulfuric or the there and gone nuclear attack of fluoric.

These foods on the other hand had so much more diversity, not only in the secondary spices that they used but in the very fact that many of them didn't taste as if they were going to eat the insides off their containers. Some weredreadfully hot. He had a few bites of a cabbage dish and after a chewing on it for a moment he wondered why it hadn't eaten the spoon. But many of the others were not spicy at all.

They were sweet or delicately flavored with subtle herbs.

He was spooning down mushrooms that had had simply been sauteed in butter, wine and just a hint of some herb, absolute ambrosia, when Shilan sat down next to him with two cups in her hand.

"Master Edmund has graciously agreed to let the town raid his wine cellar," she said, handing him a cup.

Herzer took a small sip and inhaled gratefully. The wine was heavy and sweet, with an almost earthy aftertaste and a decided kick.

"Ummm. This is good," Herzer said, setting down the cup and spearing more mushrooms.

"Are you referring to the mushrooms or are you being existentialist?" Shilan asked.

"Well the mushrooms, yes," Herzer replied, holding out some on the fork. "But what I really meant was this, here." He shrugged as she leaned forward and delicately pulled the mouthful off, nodding her head in agreement. "Better than being out in the woods."

"Not better than it was a month ago," Shilan said darkly.

"Yes, true," Herzer said, pushing the remaining mushrooms around. But there was an odd thoughtful frown on his face.

"Penny for your thoughts," Shilan said, cocking her head to the side with a smile. But then she laughed."What?"

" 'Penny for your thoughts,' " Shilan replied. "How old is that saying?"

"Yes," Herzer said, chuckling. "I mean, are you offering to pay a lot of money, or very little? It all depends on the value of the penny."

"I am willing to pay a lot for your thoughts, Herzer," she said, leaning forward again and looking him in the eye.

"Hmmm . . ." he replied with a frown. A muscle in his left cheek worked for a moment. "You said that it was better a month ago and I agreed."

"Sure," she said with a slight shrug. That reality was inarguable.

"Yes . . . and no," he said, the muscle working again. "This . . . this . . ." he said, waving his arms around at the groups talking and eating; in the distance was faint laughter.

"This is two things that were not a month ago," he continued. "One, it isreal . It is not some Renn Faire where if the ground is too hard you can port in a pillow, and when it gets too late you can port home. This is real. If you want a pillow, you had better go out there and figure out a way to make a pillow. I don't knowwhy that is important, but I can feel it in my soul." He held up his hand as Shilan started to say something.

"Hang on a second," he said. "Give me a little bit. The second thing is that it hassoul . Before, did you ever see so much passion? So much intensity out of people as you see today? No. Why? Because this isreal . Before, before the Fall, no matter what you were discussing, no matter what you were arguing, you knew that the next day you would be getting up and going back and doing more or less the same thing all over again. But the point was, youknew you were getting up! You knew that you were going to bealive the next day.

"Now, the questions are nottrivial . Not only lives butgenerations depend upon them. These people know that not only for themselves, but for their children and the children that theywill have, they must work and succeed. And that Mother will notcatch them when they fall. That brings a passion and intensity to things that I have never seen before.

"Now if I could press a button and turn it back to the way that it was before, would I? Yes. But that does not mean that I would not have regrets. There is a soul to this, to everything thing here. A soul that did not exist before the Fall. So, yes and . . . no," he concluded, picking out one last mushroom.

"Damn, it's cold."

"Wow," Shilan said, frowning. "That was like . . . a chit's worth!"

"Nah," Herzer laughed, shaking his head. "You know like . . . maybe a tenth."

"I begin to understand why you seem to have a girl on your arm whenever I see you, Herzer," she said, smiling.

"Maybe you could explain it to me. It's been a very recent and very unexpected thing. If you're talking about that philosophical wandering: Bast hadn't said a word to me until she walked up, looked me over like a piece of meat and told me that I needed a bath but otherwise I'd do."

"Hmmm . . ." Shilan replied thoughtfully. She took a sip of her wine and cleared her throat.

"Speaking of baths . . ."

"They're probably packed." Herzer shrugged, taking a sip from his own cup.

"Nope, most people are still eating and sitting around," Shilan said.