John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

“They’re going for a bicameral legislature; I got them that far,” Edmund replied. “The lower house will be straight population representative, although broken up geographically. The ‘upper’ house, though, they want to be an aristocratic body. I think I’m going to get it to be partially representative. Probably with members chosen by district governments. But some of the representatives are insisting on an aristocratic addition. Give them their due, it’s not all hereditary. But they also want ‘notable persons’ who will have lifetime appointments. I don’t like lifetime appointments in general and I especially don’t like the idea of hereditary appointees having a say in government.”

“What’s their argument?” Kane asked.

“Basically that there are some areas that already determined to have hereditary power transfer,” Edmund sighed. “And we can’t get them to join us unless we factor for it. There’s also the fact that some of the members of the committee recognize that they are likely to be included. Their argument is that it gives a solid means of power transfer that people can identify with.”

“Edmund, bear with me,” Kane said carefully. “But… they have a point. As a society we have had one hell of a shock. People… people are looking for security as much as anything right now. Hereditary aristocracy… has a very secure feeling to it.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Edmund replied. “But it’s also a bad idea in the long term. You know how hard I’ve been working to avoid even de facto feudalism here. There are ‘allies’ that we’re going to be forced to include that have actual feudalism brewing. And that is getting included as well, the permission for feudalistic society. Now, right now that is going to fly. But in time there are going to be areas that have serfs and areas that abhor the concept. That’s a recipe for civil war if I’ve ever seen one.”

“Ouch,” Kane replied. “Good point.”

In the meantime, I’ve a town to defend and that’s what I really wanted to talk about.”

“Oh?”

“I need two things and I think that you’re the right person to handle both. The first is that we need some cavalry scouts and eventually we’ll need some heavy cavalry. Good cavalry is as hard to come by as good archers and good legionnaires. In fact, I don’t think you’ll find it possible; it’s the one arm I’m willing to admit will need at least a few generations to develop.”

“Agreed,” Kane said with a sigh. “And bow archers are even harder. I’d love to have a squadron of them. But this area will never develop the skills; too much woodland, not enough plains.”

“True. But I want you to start working on it. They don’t have to be full, professional quality cavalry, just the best that you can do. Start with the group that helped in the roundup. The main thing I need is cavalry scouts and those just need to be able to find their way around and stay on a horse.”

“Okay, I’ll start with Herzer,” Kane said with a grin.

“Well, you’ll have to discuss that with him,” Talbot temporized and then chuckled. “He’d probably make a damned fine archer from evidence, Jody has been asking to have him back on his clearing crew, you want him for cavalry and from what I saw of him in my forge the other day he’d make a damned fine smith. The only person who’s not asking for him is John Miller who called him ‘a hack-handed idiot.’ ”

“So who gets him?” Kane asked with a smile; the sawmill manager was well known to the old re-enactors.

“He told me he wants to be a legionnaire,” Edmund said with a shrug.

“Does he know about the cavalry?”

“No, but I doubt you’ll change his mind,” Talbot replied. “Actually, I think that once they’re done training, we’ll probably want some of the archers and infantry to get used to riding. But not as true ‘cavalry.’ ”

“Okay, I’ll work on it,” Kane said with another grin. “Even without Herzer.”

“The second item is like unto the first,” Edmund said, starting to walk the horse sedately back down the hill. “I need someone to organize the militia. You can delegate that as you wish, but you’re well known in the ‘fighter’ portion of the reenactors. And I just don’t have time. I have Robert for the archers and Gunny for the legionnaires but I need someone to organize the disorganized militia.”

“Fun, are you giving me the cavalry in compensation?”

“Something like that,” Edmund chuckled. “Again, you can delegate it to others, but I want you to manage it in your munificent free time.”

“Since the roundup I’ve actually had free time,” Kane grumbled. “So much for that.”

“We’ve all got our crosses to bear,” Edmund said as they reached the flats. They were about a kilometer from the fences and that caused Edmund to grin. “Race you.”

“Herzer, you have visitors,” Rachel said, from the doorway of his bedroom.

Herzer looked up and smiled as Courtney and Mike came in the room and Rachel faded away. “Ah, visitors from far away lands,” he said, setting down the book he had been reading. The visit to Edmund’s forge had, not too unexpectedly, taken it out of him and he had suffered a small relapse. But he was feeling well again and getting tired of being confined. Fortunately, Master Talbot had a fine collection of old books so while the time was not passing pleasantly, it was passing.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Courtney asked.

“Never mind,” Herzer chuckled. “I’d say ‘pull up a chair’ but it’s more like ‘pull up the chair.’ I haven’t been getting a lot of visitors,” he continued. “So tell me all the news.”

“How are you feeling?” Courtney asked, instead.

“Fine. I wish they’d let me out of here.”

“You took a really bad hit,” Mike said, leaning on the wall and crossing his arms. “You nearly punched out on us.”

“Yeah, well, that was then, this is now,” Herzer replied with a frustrated tone.

“Trust me, it’s better than working,” Courtney sighed, tossing her hair. “That’s why you haven’t been getting many visitors; we’ve all been running around like a chicken with its head cut off. And having seen a chicken with its head cut off, that now has a whole new meaning to me.”

Herzer chuckled at the image and shook his head. “So, come on, what’s been happening? I understand I missed quite a party at the big slaughter.”

“Yeah, well, we did gorge ourselves for a couple of days there,” Mike admitted.

“But we paid for it,” Courtney said with a shudder.

“Pretty bad?” Herzer asked.

“You know that creek behind the slaughter buildings?” Courtney said and waited for a nod. “It was running red with blood. We ended up with about six hundred carcasses and it was like an assembly line. Hanging them, skinning them, cutting them up, separating out the guts…”

“Offal,” Mike interjected. “It sounds better. Especially when you end up eating it.”

“But we rounded up a lot of feral domestics,” Courtney pointed out. “And tons of food that’s being smoked. And that’s part of what we wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh?”

“The class has been breaking up,” Courtney said. “Emory ended up going to work with Jody clearing land and burning charcoal and Shilan has joined the weavers. We’re in the farming portion of the class but… after that we’re planning on quitting as well and we’re nearly done. They’re starting to parcel out the land for farms and there’s a lottery for the domestics that were captured. Anyone can apply for land and everyone who was involved in the roundup gets tickets for the lottery.”