Chapter 70 — Soldiers for Dragonwatch

Chapter 70: Chapter 70 — Soldiers for Dragonwatch

Chapter 70 — Soldiers for Dragonwatch

By noon, nineteen new slaves had already come through the western yard.

Godfrey bought seven. Three had worked together loading river barges, their palms still rope-burned from it. Two were sisters from a farm outside the capital, and the final pair had never met before the market, though both had been sold for family debts. All were young enough for the northern journey and strong enough for field or road work.

That completed the thirty-five workers.

Ivo added their names to the list. "The dealer wants payment for another week of food."

"Pay it. They leave when the whole convoy is ready."

The soldiers would take longer.

War had filled Griffin City’s slave yards with men who claimed military experience, some of them truthfully. Some had guarded warehouses. Some had trailed armies as porters. Others had simply learned that buyers paid more for a soldier than for an ordinary laborer.

Godfrey visited three yards on the first day.

At the first, twelve men stood behind an iron rail, their dealer claiming they had served together for six years.

"Form two ranks," Godfrey said.

They formed three uneven lines. Two turned the wrong direction when Ivo ordered them to face right, and another held a practice spear with both hands near the middle.

Godfrey bought none of them.

Five soldiers from a destroyed border company stood in the second yard. Their gear was gone, but the mail marks still showed pale across their shoulders, and they understood watches, shield commands and how to move without crowding one another.

Their sergeant had died during the retreat south. The oldest remaining soldier spoke for the rest of them, but never claimed a rank that had not been his.

Godfrey bought all five.

The third dealer showed him sixteen men from two different households: nine who had served as spearmen, three archers, and four who had guarded wagons during the war.

Ivo tested the archers with a cheap yard bow. One struck the outer ring twice. Another missed the target but handled the bow correctly. The third drew with his arms alone and nearly lost the string.

"He is not an archer," Ivo said.

The dealer shrugged. "He carried a bow when he arrived."

Godfrey bought the first two and six of the spearmen, and left the rest.

Thirteen soldiers had been chosen by sunset: ordinary soldiers experienced with walls, watches and formation fighting. Dragonwatch needed exactly that.

Christopher would examine their potential after they arrived. Godfrey could only judge what years of service had already taught them.

The selected soldiers were moved into one guarded yard. Godfrey ordered better meals and kept the collars secured for the northern journey.

Ivo handed them wooden poles the following morning and called simple formation commands while Godfrey leaned on the rail to judge the result. The five border soldiers moved together. The spearmen from the third yard hesitated whenever the command came from an unfamiliar voice, but their feet found the correct places after the first turn.

One archer tried to join the shield line out of habit. Ivo sent him back and ran the movement again.

"They can be used," he told Godfrey afterward. "They are not one unit."

"Walter will make them one."

Walter would form them into proper units at Dragonwatch. Godfrey used the journey to judge how well they followed unfamiliar commands and stood beside strangers.

The oldest border soldier approached after the poles were collected. A guard moved to stop him, but Godfrey allowed the man to come within speaking distance.

"My lord, will we keep our old units?"

"You came from different units. Sir Walter will arrange you after we reach Dragonwatch."

"Will we receive weapons on the road?"

"Only if the convoy is attacked and Sir Ivo orders it. Until then, hired guards protect the wagons."

The soldier bowed and returned to the others.

Ivo let him go, already turning something over. "He can help keep the others in line."

"Watch him for another day. If he still does it without demanding command, place him at the front of their file."

Godfrey would not appoint a sergeant after one conversation, but he also would not ignore a man whom the others already followed.

That evening, Godfrey sat in the inn’s common room with Ivo and the surviving apprentices. Martin’s death had changed the table; nobody took the empty place near the hearth.

Thomas scanned the soldier list. "How many do we need?"

"Forty-five," Godfrey replied.

"That is more than the people already defending Dragonwatch."

"That is why we need them."

Robin’s name went unspoken.

Bram ate beside the wall. He had spent the afternoon helping Aldous move sacks away from the animal cages, and his warhammer rested across two stools where nobody could trip over it.

"Can soldiers become Knights?" he asked.

"Some can," Godfrey said.

"Can all of them become Knights?"

"No. Most people never form a Knight Seed."

Bram accepted the answer and returned to his bowl.

Far north, Christopher followed Thunder through the orchard.

The limping buck had separated from the herd. Thunder moved between the trees with her wings held close — young, impatient and far too confident, though the contract allowed Christopher to feel the instant she prepared to leap.

He sent the signal to wait.

Thunder froze where she stood.

Christopher moved to the other side of the animal. The buck smelled him and turned away, placing Thunder between itself and the open slope.

She struck.

Her first leap carried her farther than Christopher expected. She hit the buck behind the shoulder and rolled with it through the grass. The animal kicked free, essence brightening beneath its hide as it tried to run.

Thunder opened her mouth.

A short burst of lightning crossed the space between them. It lacked the force of the storm that had answered her hatching, but it brought the buck down.

Thunder reached it before Christopher. Her triumph filled the bond.

"You waited," he said.

She placed one claw over the carcass and claimed the best portion before he could touch it.

Walter emerged from the trees with his sword still sheathed, having followed far enough behind to avoid disturbing the hunt.

"She listened," Christopher said.

"She listened once."

"That is better than yesterday."

Thunder tore into the buck, offering no opinion on Walter’s judgment.

Christopher examined the scorched hide. The buck carried enough Essence to make its body tougher than an ordinary deer’s.

Walter turned toward the orchard. "We cannot hunt the nearby herds every day."

"Aldous should be on the return convoy."

"If Godfrey found him."

"Then we start watching the herds until he arrives. We need to know how many the valley can lose."

Thunder raised her head. Blood covered her jaw.

Christopher felt her objection arrive fully formed: the valley had food. Food existed to be eaten.

"You are one dragon," he told her. "You do not need the entire valley today."

Her pride suggested that this was a failure of human imagination.

They carried what remained of the buck back toward the castle. Thunder refused to surrender the foreleg and dragged it herself.

At the outer wall, Christopher stopped beside the old road leading toward the rhinoceros grasslands. Deep tracks crossed a muddy hollow. A small herd had passed several days earlier.

"We watch those as well," he said.

Walter studied the prints. "Capturing one will be harder than killing it."

"That is why we asked for a beastmaster."

They returned to Dragonwatch before evening. Owen waited on the western wall with two carpenters and a mason. The new arbalest platform had been marked with stakes, but part of the old tower floor had cracked beneath the proposed position.

Christopher climbed the stairs with Walter.

"We can brace it with timber," Owen said. "It will hold through winter if the wood remains dry. Stone takes longer."

"Use stone," Christopher replied. "The machine is meant to stay longer than one winter."

Owen pointed toward the quarry road. "Then I need the next two stone carts here instead of the houses."

Christopher took in the inner stronghold. Several houses already had roofs. Others still showed rafters beneath the evening sky.

"One cart here," he said. "One to the houses. Finish the foundation before you ask for both."

Owen accepted the decision and returned to the marked floor.

Christopher spent the rest of the afternoon with the men who actually ran the stronghold’s work. Cedric reported what grain was left after harvest. Peter counted off how many houses could be sealed up before the first hard snow. Barlow wanted more charcoal, with the arbalest fittings still to forge and enough spearheads needed for whatever soldiers Godfrey might bring home.

Christopher listened, asked what each man needed and assigned the next loads of stone and timber. He no longer walked to every roof to repeat the same order: Peter directed the houses, Owen controlled stonework, and Cedric handled the fields and food stores. They would report when something required the baron’s decision.

That left Christopher enough time to train, inspect the defenses and spend time with Thunder without stopping Dragonwatch’s work whenever he went below.

Christopher continued along the wall. The main-gate arbalest covered the northern road. The western arbalest would cover the broken ground beyond the orchard. Archers still needed protected positions near both towers, and the inner yard needed space for reserve spearmen to move without colliding with carts or livestock.

Walter listened while Christopher explained the arrangement.

"Forty-five soldiers will change it," Walter said.

"If Godfrey finds forty-five."

"He will find men. Whether they are useful is another question."

Christopher could answer that when they arrived. The Dragon Eyes would show whether any possessed enough potential to justify Knight training.

The walls had to be ready when the soldiers arrived.

In Griffin City, Godfrey spent the next morning at a yard holding prisoners from the western border. He selected four spearmen and one shield sergeant, and in the afternoon found three wagon guards who had fought through two retreats without abandoning their teams.

Twenty-one soldiers now stood on Ivo’s list.

The dealer offered to provide the remaining twenty-four from one estate sale.

Godfrey inspected them before discussing a price. Several knew one another, but they had never served as a single company. Half carried the soft hands of household guards who had spent more time at doors than on walls. Others were too old for the northern road.

He chose six and left the rest.

"You will spend another week buying them one at a time," the dealer complained.

"Then I will spend another week."

The dealer stopped smiling.

Twenty-seven soldiers had been selected. Eighteen remained.

The caravan lodge still had not given him a final price, not with the wagon count changing almost daily. Food kept filling the warehouse regardless. In the second yard the farming families waited out the days, and the fevered woman was mending now. Aldous worked the horses and hounds every morning without being told to. The thirty-five young workers stayed divided across three guarded compounds, still strangers to each other.

Godfrey had people, animals and supplies scattered across Griffin City.

He had not yet built the convoy that would carry them home.