Chapter 19 — Black Hollow

Chapter 19: Chapter 19 — Black Hollow

Chapter 19 — Black Hollow

Christopher woke because cold water struck his cheek.

He opened his eyes in darkness and waited for another drop. It fell from a crack between two roof slates, hit the edge of his blanket and ran down his neck.

He had spent the night in one of the surviving stone houses within Dragonwatch’s outer walls, near the fortified inner castle, which Godfrey had not yet declared clean or safe. The house’s upper room still possessed four sound walls, half a wooden floor and a narrow fireplace that smoked whenever the wind changed. Compared with the families sleeping shoulder to shoulder in the old barracks, it was comfortable enough for now.

Christopher moved his blanket away from the leak and tried to sleep again.

A child began crying somewhere below. Someone coughed near the stairs. Wind pushed through the empty window, carrying the smell of wet ashes and too many people crowded indoors.

Dragonwatch had walls, but shelter remained scarce.

By dawn, thin rain had settled over the fortress and found every broken slate, rotten beam and missing shutter. Pots and bowls appeared beneath leaks, and families moved bedding away from damp walls, arguing quietly over the driest corners.

The previous night’s meat had helped. People who had gone to sleep exhausted woke without the hollow look Christopher had seen during the final days on the road. Meg and Elsie sat beside their mother near one of the cooking fires, sharing a piece of barley bread. Bram carried a roof beam across the courtyard while two men struggled to keep up with him.

The magical-beast meat had filled their stomachs and given them warmth. It had not repaired the roofs.

Christopher found Bennet beneath the overhang of the old storehouse. The clerk had protected his papers inside an oilskin bag and looked personally offended by the weather.

"How many buildings can we repair today?" Christopher asked.

Bennet glanced across the courtyard. "Properly?"

"Enough to house everyone before the weather worsens."

"Then no. Most of the buildings still need roofs or chimney work."

Christopher waited.

"We don’t have enough cut timber," Bennet continued. "Master Barlow needs a dry forge before he can make nails and fittings. Owen Wren wants men clearing the safest roofs before his masons touch the chimneys. Wat Cooper says the wagons need covering before their wood swells. Martha wants a kitchen that does not fill with smoke."

"We brought hundreds of people. Surely enough of them can help with repairs."

"Most of them are farmers, my lord. They can carry and clear, but they cannot replace trained carpenters or masons."

"Then put them to carrying timber and clearing the safest houses."

"Which timber, my lord? We have not cut any yet."

Christopher’s eyes moved to the forest beyond the wall. Rain blurred the trees into a dark line.

"Right." He looked again toward that blurred line. "We need cutting crews before we can begin roof repairs."

Bennet lowered his voice. "We also need dry wood for fires. Those are not always the same logs."

Christopher had been ready to order work on the barracks, several houses, the stable and the storehouse at once, and the words now sounded foolish before he spoke them.

"What work do the craftsmen recommend doing first?"

"One barracks roof, the kitchen, the forge and the storehouse. Clear the drains before doing anything else. After that, begin on the second barracks."

"Follow their order. Keep the workers away from any wall Owen considers unsafe."

"That was already their intention, my lord."

Christopher stared at him.

Bennet’s expression remained painfully serious. "They were waiting for your approval, my lord."

By midmorning, water ran through newly cleared channels the apprentices had opened along the courtyards. Owen Wren inspected walls with his younger brother while the carpenters marked unsafe floors with charcoal. No one entered the eastern tower after a stair tread broke beneath an apprentice’s boot.

The well became another problem. Its rope had rotted, its cover had collapsed, and no one knew whether an animal had fallen inside. Until it could be emptied and examined, water had to come from the river in barrels.

Christopher watched two wagons leave under guard and added the well to a list Bennet kept for him.

"Roofs. Water. Firewood. Food storage," Christopher said.

"They also want new latrines dug before the camp grows any more crowded," Bennet added.

Christopher had forgotten those.

"Put them well away from the well and downhill from the living quarters."

"Yes, my lord. The farmers knew that."

Christopher looked away before Bennet saw his relief.

Godfrey found him near the old stable. The three captured adults and five striped young had survived the night inside the stone stall, though they had battered one of the blocking beams loose. Walter had replaced it and warned everyone not to put a hand through the gap.

Christopher assigned one of the farming households to feed them roots, weeds and kitchen scraps. Walter would inspect the stall each morning until the carpenters built a proper gate.

"The prisoners are awake," Godfrey said.

Six bandits occupied an empty storeroom under guard. Their weapons, boots and belts had been taken. Walter had bound the wounded Black Iron fighter’s leg well enough that he would not bleed to death.

Christopher eyed the storeroom door.

"I need to know where the others went," he said. "How large their group is, where they are based and who they were reporting to."

"They refused to answer last night."

"Then question them again and make them answer."

Godfrey studied him. "Do you want to be present?"

Christopher remembered the crossbow bolt striking the doorframe beside Simon’s head, and the maps showing noble crests and wagon numbers.

"No. You gave the order, so you already know enough."

"Do you want to know what I will do if they still refuse?"

"No. I only want the answers we need to protect Dragonwatch."

Godfrey nodded once. "Keep people away from this side of the yard."

Christopher walked back toward the main courtyard. He told Walter to move the nearby workers and gave no explanation beyond saying that Godfrey needed the building kept clear.

The first scream came while Christopher was helping Bennet decide which sacks could be moved into the storehouse. His hands stopped on a sack of barley.

Bennet and Walter kept their attention on Christopher. A few settlers turned toward the sound until the Bronze Knight sent them back to work with a hard glance.

Christopher lifted the sack with another man and carried it inside.

He had ordered this. It was easy to say the prisoners were bandits — they had fired at Simon, occupied Dragonwatch and helped a larger group watch vulnerable settlements, and all of that was true. The scream sounded human all the same.

Christopher returned for another sack.

Near noon, he gathered Bennet, Owen Wren, Master Barlow and three of the older farmers beside the south wall. The stone there remained dry beneath a narrow ledge, and weak sunlight appeared whenever the clouds thinned.

"Could we build something against this wall?" Christopher asked. "A room with glass facing the sun. It might stay warmer during winter."

Owen rubbed rainwater from his beard. "How much glass?"

"Enough to cover the front and part of the roof, if we can afford it."

"We don’t have any glass, my lord, and Northgate had little to spare."

"Could we buy enough glass at Northgate later?"

Bennet gave him a familiar look.

"Not now," Christopher said. "I mean after the roofs and walls are secure."

One farmer examined the wall. "A covered bed here might start seedlings earlier. If it stays warm."

"That’s the idea. I thought the stone wall might hold warmth after sunset."

"How much warmer would it remain at night?"

Christopher had no answer. He remembered greenhouses from pictures and films: clear walls, rows of plants and moisture on glass. He did not know the proper angle of the roof, how to keep snow from breaking it, or how cold the ground beneath Dragonwatch became.

"I don’t know," he admitted. "Could we try a small one when we have the materials?"

Owen knocked his knuckles against the stone. "Small first."

The farmers agreed. Bennet wrote it near the bottom of the list, far beneath roofs, water, firewood, grain and latrines.

Christopher considered what else he remembered from his old world. Gunpowder came to mind: charcoal, sulfur and saltpepper, or salt-something.

The warthogs were more useful. Two magical beasts had fed the entire settlement and left meat to preserve, and their hides, tusks and bones might also have value.

"Walter," Christopher called.

The Bronze Knight approached from the gate. "My lord?"

"Could you and Ivo hunt around the valley?"

"We can kill what we find, my lord. Finding it is the harder part."

"I asked whether you could track game through the valley."

Walter glanced toward the forest. "We can follow large tracks. We can also spend three days following them in the wrong direction."

"Then we need an experienced hunter."

"A good one, if anyone can be persuaded to settle this far north."

Christopher added it to the list. Until they found one, Walter and Ivo would alternate leading short hunting patrols. One Bronze Knight would always remain at Dragonwatch, and no patrol would travel beyond half a day’s return.

The interrogation ended in the afternoon.

Godfrey washed his hands at a rain barrel before approaching Christopher. His clothes were clean.

"They belong to a larger band," he said. "Not nobles’ men, though they sometimes sell information to whoever pays."

"How many belong to the main band?"

"The answers range from forty to sixty. Some count camp followers. Some do not. At least six Black Iron fighters were with the main group when these men left. Their chief may be Bronze."

Christopher’s attention shifted to the western wall. "Where?"

"An abandoned charcoal settlement beyond the ridge. They call it Black Hollow. It is less than two days away on foot if their directions are true."

"Do you believe those directions are reliable?"

"Four prisoners gave the same landmarks. Separately."

"How long before the three who escaped reach them?"

"They will reach it before we could."

Christopher had expected that answer. "Why were they watching the nobles?"

"To learn which settlements are weak, which roads carry supplies and which expeditions can be robbed without bringing an army after them. They have other watching posts. The prisoners do not know all of them."

"Do they know where Harcourt’s expedition settled?"

"One had heard the name. None saw his force."

Christopher thought of Roland Harcourt gathering nobles beneath a ducal banner. Dragonwatch had looked isolated from Northgate; to the bandits, that isolation made it prey.

"Could our knights destroy Black Hollow if we found it?"

"Yes," Godfrey said. "Marching there today would still be foolish."

The answer came too easily.

"Then should we attack before they prepare for us?"

"Not today. Perhaps not this week. They know we are here. If we march straight into the forest, we fight where they choose. If we leave too many men behind, Dragonwatch becomes weak. First we learn the roads and secure the walls."

Christopher nodded. "Send scouts, but no close pursuit."

"You would send Simon and Adam?"

"They know the escaped men’s tracks."

"They also want revenge for the crossbow."

"Will they follow your orders even if they find the escaped men?"

"Yes. They know what happens if they break from the mission."

"Then send them. I want the road and landmarks, not another fight."

Godfrey turned to leave.

"What happens to the prisoners?" Christopher asked.

"That’s your judgment. We can’t guard and feed them forever."

Christopher watched the workers carrying timber through the rain. Six bound men consumed food and required guards. Some might only be desperate. Others had likely robbed or killed people exactly like the families now repairing Dragonwatch. He did not have enough truth to decide.

"Keep them confined," he said. "Alive for now."

Near sunset, Simon and Adam left through the western gate with food for one night and strict orders not to approach Black Hollow. From the wall, Christopher watched them disappear among the wet trees.

Below him, the repaired chimneys were sending up smoke once more. The storehouse roof still leaked at one end, but the grain had been moved beneath the sound half. Workers had cleared the kitchen chimney, and Martha no longer had to cook beneath an awning. The first barracks remained crowded, though fewer bowls sat beneath its roof.

They had fixed almost nothing.

Walter joined Christopher on the wall. "Fire beyond the ridge."

At first Christopher saw only forest and gray sky. Then the wind shifted, and a thin column of smoke rose in the west before fading into the clouds.

"Do you think that smoke comes from Black Hollow?"

"Could be. Could be a hunter, charcoal burner or another camp."

Christopher rested his hands on the cold stone.

Somewhere beyond that ridge was a group large enough to threaten every family inside Dragonwatch, and three men were already carrying news of the fortress’s new lord.

Christopher watched the smoke disappear, then called for Godfrey.