John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

“Yeah,” Cruz said, frowning. “But you know people. I don’t know nobody here.” For just a moment he looked haunted.

“Hey,” Herzer said, leaning forward and punching him in the shoulder. “You know me, you know everybody in Class A-5 and you know Morgen. Before you know it you’re going to know everybody in this town.”

“Now there is a goal to strive for,” Cruz smiled sadly. “But I had friends, you know? I never realized how scattered, but they were friends . Here… there’s nobody for me. Nobody at my back.”

“Yeah,” Herzer admitted. But in truth, since he’d never had anyone at his back, he couldn’t really empathize. “Speaking of which, have you seen Courtney and Mike?”

“Oh, yeah, Courtney drug Mike over to go dancing,” Cruz said.

“With what?” Herzer laughed. “Oxen?”

“Pretty damned close, man,” Cruz replied, smiling. “Actually, I think she just threatened to cut him off.” He looked over Herzer’s shoulder and chuckled. “Don’t look now, the womenfolk are coming back.”

“We gonna tell ’em we’re on to their secret?” Herzer asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Nah,” Cruz said. “Let ’em think they know something we don’t.”

There were still some greens left when Mike and Courtney, streaming sweat in the cool spring air, came walking back from the dancing. Introductions were made and then Mike thumped to the ground with a theatrical groan.

“That’s it, I’m done,” he said, waving his hands in the air and lying back on the ground. “This is a rest day!”

“Wimp,” Courtney said, her hands on her hips and obviously raring to go back to the dance floor. “How about you, Herzer?”

“Eh, nope, I have a prior engagement with Morgen here,” he replied, standing up and holding out his hand. “Care to dance, milady?” he asked, sticking one leg out as he bowed with a flourish.

“Why certainly, sirrah,” Morgen replied, snatching his hand and hoisting herself to her feet.

Herzer danced with Morgen for nearly an hour, jigs and reels and square dances, until he felt he was going to drop. Somewhere in there he had partnered off with Courtney and at one point even with Shilan but eventually came back to Morgen. After that dance the female minstrel held up her fiddle in apparent surrender.

“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.

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 when you were listening to it, you looked really 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 much what Edmund was saying but how . The crowd was large and not entirely silent. Furthermore there were no acoustical effects to assist 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 town will 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.