Page 66 of Into the West

“I’d hope it wouldn’t come to that,” he replied. “And we do have a weather-witch or two to keep us apprised of what the weather is about to do. We can take our chances and continue on, but it will be with no guarantee we’ll even find a place as good as this, much less an ideal spot, before ice keeps us from going any further. We can also risk putting the barges on runners—”

“I thought that was the plan,” interrupted another of the mayors.

Sai snorted. “That was a contingency plan, Harkin. If we found ourselves with no prospects as good as this one.”

“The wind is going to cut right along the river,” Kordas continued. “There is a lot of open space, which is good for grass but bad for keeping warm. We don’t have barns for the animals to shelter in.”

“But if we go on,” Sai continued, “we still won’t have barns, we may not have grass, and the wind is still probably going to be wicked.”

They pondered this for a moment.

“I say we stay,” said the farmer who had spoken up first. “But!” He held up a finger. “Send Ivar and the Fairweathers downriver some more with one barge. If they don’t run into anything better within a couple days, they come back.”

Endars coughed. “I’m Landwise, and I can spirit-ride birds. I could—”

“Nay, lad,” said the farmer, who was not that much older than Endars. “I druther you rode that bird a-watchin’ for trouble.”

Kordas explained to anyone present who needed to know, “Spirit-riding an animal like a bird is delicate, sensitive work. Can’t be done while in motion, and takes preparation. If we settle in here, we can build a place to shelter and monitor him, and he can scout for us once in a while.”

Well, he’s going to be our overhead watchbird for as long as we stay here, I think.

A mayor Kordas recognized, Hale Lorant, cleared his throat and got everyone’s attention. “This may not be the best place, but it’s a good spot. Now, I’d like some sort of shelter over the barges, and I’d like some sort of shelter for the herds, but other than that, this place looks good, and we’ve got enough food to see us all the way into high summer without starving. Come spring, this place might have grown on us, or we might find a way to keep back the floodwaters, but it’s good enough for now.”

Koto cleared his throat. “We’ve got ways of throwing up something that’s shelter against rain, snow, and wind in a hurry,” he said. “Or some of us do. We can have simple barns up in a few days.”

Well, that certainly got their attention. “How?” blurted about half a dozen people at once.

“The same way the Emperor’s mages build Ducal, Baronial, and Princely manors,” Kordas said, trying not to feel too smug. “It will be fast because I’ll have every mage working on that right now, and the walls won’t be but a fraction as thick as manor walls. They’ll be like tents, but rigid, and proof against a gale.” He didn’t bother to explain that the only reason they could do this was because there was a nice, steady ley-line right beneath them. It wasn’t as powerful as the one at Crescent Lake, but it could certainly empower his mages to create those shelters.

“There’s no fences,” argued someone else. “How are we going to keep the herds from wandering without fences?”

“The same way we keep them from wandering now. Are you daft, or just stupid?” Ponu snapped. He’d been one of the people building this earth shelter, and Kordas knew he had to be tired, hungry, and in great need of lying flat in a bed.

“But—”

And they were off. Kordas sighed, and reined in his temper, although Ponu threw up his hands and stormed off to his barge and his bed. This was not the first time he’d brought his “Council” together, and he knew from experience that they just had to argue each and every point to death before they’d finally look to him for answers, usually without another question.

But it was tedious, and he didn’t in the least blame Ponu for leaving. As usual, Rose was right at his elbow, and he touched her lightly so that she’d bend down to hear his whisper. “Would you see to it that the evening meal is brought here?” he asked. “And something besides water to drink, if we can spare it.”

She nodded without replying. I’m getting awfully fond of Rose. It’s going to be hard when I have to do without her.

But the arguing carried on for longer than he had anticipated, and his nerves were starting to stretch. A glance outside showed snowflakes in the gloaming.

Boom!

He literally jumped. Louder than the loudest thunderclap Kordas had ever heard, the sound shook the walls and sent dirt and dead needles showering down on their heads. What—?

Everyone else but the Six Old Men appeared to be frozen in place. He burst through the entrance—cleverly, it was L-shaped, so there was no way a cold wind could blow directly into the structure—and into the shock of the twilight cold. He could scarcely believe his eyes.

There was a Gate downriver, where the last of the scout-barges were moored. It was the biggest Gate he had ever seen in his life, rivaling even the Emperor’s cargo Gates at the former Palace.

A spike of genuine fear held him for a moment. The Empire. They found us, he thought. They’ve come to kill us.

The Gate was not framed by uprights. It was not framed by anything. It spanned an area of riverbank wide enough to fit six carts side by side, and was correspondingly wide on the river half. Its edges danced, not with the twitch and ebb of uneven magic, but with ribbons of light in diagrams and symbols. One was a series of bright dots: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17. The second ribbon was 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13. Whoever it is, they’re educated, Kordas thought. It’s not like the Empire to announce themselves like this. They go for “We’ll pound you into paste” as a first impression, not “Here’s how smart we are.”

He gaped at it for one stunned second before belatedly coming to his senses and gathering power from the ley-line beneath him. He wasn’t the only one.

Within moments, Hakkon, Ivar, the Old Men—including Ponu—and as many of his personal guards as had come to their senses assembled on either side of him, weapons drawn or hands at their sides, ready to respond.