John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

Herzer kept walking, forcing Courtney, who had put the boiler on the fire and was busy screwing down the pressure relief valve, to catch up to him.

“You told her that you just want to be friends and you don’t want to be friends?” she asked, furiously.

“No, no, I told her that I want to be friends and I do want to be friends. But I also want to screw her brains out!”

“Yes, yes, YES !” Mike said. “The shoe is on the other toe!”

“Why didn’t you just tell her?” Courtney asked.

“What, and give her the opportunity to play me off against Cruz? That seemed to me to be where she was going. That or dangle me around like a little marionette . I don’t know if that was what she was like before or if it’s from what happened on her trip. But she was trying to play squeaky-toy with me already in the baths. No thank you.”

“Wow, that’s almost as bad as a woman, ” Mike said, only to be punched in the shoulder.

“Ah! You strike me to the quick, sirrah!” Herzer replied, grasping at his chest. “Tis not as wide as church door, nor deep as a well. But t’will do, t’will do!”

“You’re both terrible,” Courtney said.

“That’s why you love us, right?” Herzer replied with a smile.

“HERRICK,” a voice called from behind them. Herzer turned around and practically came to attention.

“Ah, Sir… uh… Edm… Mayor Talbot!”

“Rachel tells me that you played games in enhanced reality, specifically the Quest for the Third Throne. True?” Edmund said without preamble. But he did grace Courtney and Mike, who were standing by open-mouthed, with a nod.

“Yes, Sir Edmund!”

“Just yes will do,” Talbot said with a chuckle. “You played it as a paladin. True?”

“Yes… Mayor Talbot.”

“That requires riding. Did you use a horse?”

“Yes, Mayor Talbot.”

“Specifically, that requires some pretty God-damned tricky riding for a paladin character.”

Herzer had a sudden clear flashback of falling into an endless chasm, as he went right and his wildly flailing, and neighing, mount went left off of a narrow foot bridge.

“Yes, sir, I did.”

“And you used your mount throughout the quest?”

“Yes, sir, I did.”

“Just Edmund. Did you complete the quest?”

“Yes… Mayor Talbot, I did.”

“ With your mount?”

“Yes.”

“And how many tries did it take for you to get across the ‘who is the son of a bitch who put this bridge here’ bridge?”

“I didn’t know it had a name, sir,” Herzer said with a laugh.

“Yeah, I know,” Edmund replied. “How many times.”

“Four.”

“How did you get your mount across?”

“Made a sling out of the ropes. Winched it across the chasm, kicking and squealing.”

Edmund thought about it for a moment and then chuckled. “Jesus. What did you do, bring pack mules in with gear?”

“More or less, sir.”

“Have you ever ridden a real horse? Or a mule for that matter.”

“Well, those were real horses, sir.”

“I mean one that wasn’t kenned. One that was born and raised and broken to the saddle.”

“Once, sir.”

“Any problems?”

“Not particularly, sir. Can I ask why you’re asking?”

“Okay,” Edmund replied. “That will do it for me. We’re doing the big hunt next week. Monday morning you need to report to Kane, the horse master, at the big corrals by the bridge while everyone else is spreading out to start the drive.”

“Oh, Lord,” Herzer said. “I’m afraid that means I’m not going to be mucking out.”

“Oh, I’m sure there will be some of that. But we need horsemen to help control the animals and run messages. And you’re on that detail!”

“Yes, sir,” was all Herzer could say.

Herzer was muttering something under his breath as Edmund walked away.

“Hey,” said Courtney, kicking him on the ankle. “What are you saying?”

“ ‘Shit, shit, shit I’m gonna die .’ ”

Rachel looked up from her stew as her mother came into the kitchen. “Stew’s on.”

“Thank you, Rachel,” Daneh said, picking up a bowl and ladling some out.

“How are you doing?” Rachel asked.

“I’ve started throwing up in the morning,” Daneh replied, sitting down. “But not all day, thank goodness.”

“Are you sick?” Rachel asked, alarmed. She couldn’t imagine a worse situation for the town to be in than for their only trained doctor to have something incurable.

“No,” Daneh said, directly. “I’m pregnant.”

Okay, that’s worse.

“How? When?” Rachel asked then clapped her mouth shut. “Oh, Mother .”

“It’s not the end of the world,” Daneh said, taking a bite of the stew and nodding. “Not too shabby.”

“Mother!”

Daneh sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “Bad things happen. Bad things happened to me and they are still happening in a way.”

“What are you going to do?” Rachel asked, finally moderating her tone. She suddenly realized that she was in a real, honest-to-God “adult” conversation. And it seemed she needed to start acting like one. She suddenly wished her father was a girl. He would know what to say. “Am I going to have a little sibling? Or are you going to… do something about it?”

“What?” Daneh snapped. “Do you know how to do an abortion? I certainly don’t! And how, exactly, am I supposed to do it on myself? There’s tansy, but from the sound of it it can kill you. So what am I supposed to do about this… thing that is growing inside of me?”

“I don’t know, Mother,” Rachel said, quietly. “But from what I’ve been reading, childbirth is not a given thing. I mean, we’ve both got the… hips for it, unlike some. But… I mean, you’re the doctor . If something goes wrong with you, what can I do?”

“What can I do?” Daneh asked in exasperation. “I don’t have any proper tools! I’ve never attended a body birth! There hasn’t been one in a thousand years! What in the hell do I know about it? Why do you expect miracles from me ?!”

“Mom, I don’t,” Rachel said, choking a hot retort. “But you at least have some idea what is going on . I don’t even know that.”

“Well, in that case, it’s time you started learning,” Daneh said after a moment of controlling her temper. “That’s your new research project. Whether it’s me, if I can’t get rid of it somehow, or someone else. You’re going to be the expert on the theory of childbirth.”

“Mom, I’m a virgin ,” she shouted, suddenly out of temper. “You want me to be a childbirth expert?”

“Who better,” Daneh replied with an evil chuckle. “At least we don’t have to worry about you being out of commission. For the time being. I notice you’ve been spending a lot of time around Herzer.”

“Oh, Herzer,” Rachel said, averting her eyes and picking up her spoon. “He’s just a friend.”

“Right,” Daneh snorted. “So was Edmund. And look what resulted from that.”

Everyone was calling it the “Big Roundup” and the familiarization groups had been co-opted, along with just about everyone else in Raven’s Mill, to participate. The reason for it was simple; hunters had confirmed that there was quite a bit of feral stock in the woods and much of it would be useable for the planned farms. The stocks of food were also dwindling faster than anticipated. The intent of the “roundup” was to push animals out of the forest and onto some of the open areas. There domestic animals that were useable would be separated and pushed into pens. “Wild” animals would mostly be either pushed on or killed in the area and preserved.