Chapter 71 — Northbound

Chapter 71: Chapter 71 — Northbound

Chapter 71 — Northbound

Godfrey found the last eighteen soldiers over three days, drawn from several places. Four had guarded a southern estate until its owner died, six had been taken after their captain failed to pay a debt, and the others had been sold alone or in pairs. All had served in real fighting units.

Ivo watched them drill in the slave yard before Godfrey paid. Their equipment was poor, but they still understood formation commands. One man limped after an old injury, and Godfrey rejected him and chose another.

The purchase brought Dragonwatch’s new soldiers to forty-five — the number whole at last, after weeks of market stalls and dealers’ smiles. Godfrey also closed out the six farming-family purchases, the thirty-five young workers, the poultry, the four hounds, and the last of the supplies Christopher had asked for. Aldous Beckett agreed to serve as beastmaster once he had seen the written terms and the sum paid to settle his debt.

The convoy took another day to assemble. Grain, tools, blankets, seed, lamp oil, and preserved food filled the freight wagons, and Godfrey hired enough guards to protect the people and supplies on the long northern road. He and Ivo checked every wagon before dawn.

The slave convoy left the capital through the eastern gate.

Godfrey stood at the roadside and let the wagon train pass him, the purchased families riding beneath canvas rather than walking behind the wheels. Forty-five collared soldiers marched in three files between the household wagons and the freight wagons; bought alone or in small groups, they nonetheless kept their files together through old training. Guards occupied the front, rear and flanks, while two mounted scouts ranged ahead.

Warren Price stopped beside Godfrey. The Bronze caravan captain had placed eighteen hired guards around the convoy before dawn.

"Northgate in twelve days if the roads hold. Dragonwatch after that depends on weather."

"Send word from Northgate."

"The final payment waits at your fortress. I have reason to arrive."

Godfrey tipped his chin toward the wagons. "So do they."

Warren followed his convoy.

Godfrey rode beside the wagons for the first mile. The canvas covers had been tied high enough for air, children sat between adults, and each wagon carried water within reach rather than tied beneath the driver’s bench. The soldiers kept their files without being ordered, although collars and weeks of confinement had taken weight from most of them.

At the rear, one of the unattached men kept testing his collar with two fingers.

"It will tighten if you break the clasp," a guard warned.

The man lowered his hand.

A little girl in the third wagon tracked Godfrey the whole way past, until he caught her at it and she vanished behind her mother’s arm.

They had been told they were going north. Some had heard of Dragonwatch, and the soldiers recognized its name as an old frontier fortress — which put a guarded look on more than one face as the road rolled on. None of them knew whether the ruin had roofs, food, or a lord who actually meant to keep them alive. Godfrey could give orders to the guards, but he could not make anyone believe a promise from the man who had bought them.

That would take longer than the road.

Godfrey’s party remained with the convoy. Two supply wagons joined the merchant’s eleven, and the apprentices took places among the scouts and flank guards. Godfrey would speak to the orphanage youths when the entire column rested at Northgate.

The previous afternoon had been spent on final adjustments. Ivo bought lamp oil, rope and two barrels of salt after finding space in the first wagon. Nicholas added leather straps, while Thomas found a set of carpenter’s measuring tools listed below market price because the case had cracked.

Godfrey approved all three.

Bram chose nothing.

Godfrey gave him one silver coin from the road allowance and told him to purchase something useful.

Bram returned with a heavy wool blanket.

"For you?" Ivo asked.

"For the orphanage."

Godfrey added needles, thread and two bolts of cheap wool to the orphanage gift while Bram hovered at his elbow as the merchant wrapped it all up.

"I bought the blanket," he said.

"You did."

"Those are yours."

"Those are also going to the orphanage."

Bram considered this, then picked up the heavier bundle without being asked.

The others spent their last afternoon checking equipment. Nicholas replaced the faulty brake pin rather than trusting the seller’s repair, Ivo counted feed for the horses twice, and the apprentices sharpened blades and restrung crossbows beneath Godfrey’s eye.

Work meant for six apprentices was divided among four.

At Dragonwatch, Christopher spent the same days preparing rooms, stores, and work assignments for the convoy. Bennet counted beds while Owen marked the houses that could be repaired fastest, and Cedric chose fields for the six farming families.

Thunder interrupted the work each evening by sending hunger through their bond.

Christopher carried meat to the nursery and began their paired breathing after she ate, until they reached twenty matched breaths.

The thread of Thunder’s energy surfaced twice during the session, and both times his Essence held its path without slipping. The second time, warmth spread through channels that had torn open during his original, forced breakthrough.

The old weakness hurt less, and his Essence moved more smoothly through the damaged channels.

Christopher stopped at the record’s limit.

Thunder wanted to continue.

"We continue tomorrow. You nearly opened the old wounds last time."

She showed him the elder’s courtyard instead, and they walked there.

The dead Thunder Dragon remained unchanged. Thunder sat near the foreleg while Christopher practised the Drake breathing method alone, the residual Prestige increasing the difficulty without crushing him.

He completed one full cycle, sweat covering his back by the end.

Thunder approved of training near the elder. Christopher suspected she also enjoyed watching him struggle.

On the northern road, the convoy made twelve miles before the first wagon brake heated.

Nicholas smelled it before the wheel failed. They stopped beside a field, removed the pin and cooled the fitting, since the military wagon carried spare parts for exactly that reason.

Repair took less than an hour.

Bram braced the wagon up on his shoulder while Nicholas worked, and two passing farmers stopped to stare.

"Put it down slowly," Ivo said.

Bram lowered the axle without bending it.

The road north carried more traffic than it had after the war. Merchants moved grain toward rebuilding towns, families travelled south, and soldiers guarded bridge repairs. Godfrey marked every stopped cart and tree line as they passed, but no second ambush came.

They passed a burned manor on the sixth day. New beams covered half its roof, and three men raised a palisade around the surviving barn. Farther north, abandoned fields appeared more often, weeds standing waist-high between old furrows. A stone well remained beside one road with no house near it.

At every village, someone asked where the wagons were bound.

"Northgate," Ivo answered.

One innkeeper offered to buy the ducks. Adam refused before Godfrey could speak.

"You complained about them for four days," Simon said afterward.

"They are our ducks."

The argument lasted until the same duck bit Adam through his glove.

At camp, the ducks complained until Adam moved their cages away from the fire. The chickens accepted everything except rain.

Thomas unfolded the route map.

"At this speed, Northgate in thirteen days."

"Twelve," Ivo said.

"If no wheel breaks."

Nicholas looked offended.

Godfrey accepted thirteen. Dragonwatch had waited a month; one additional day would not kill it.

The purchased people travelled around them, knowing their new lord only by name, and most had heard frightening stories about their destination.

Thomas rode more quietly than before the ambush. At camp he chose positions with a tree or wagon at his back, and Simon woke whenever a branch cracked outside the firelight.

Godfrey turned their fear into training. Each evening he made one apprentice walk the perimeter with him, and together they identified approach routes, poor ground and places an archer might hide. The next evening, another apprentice had to find what the first had missed.

Bram came every time even when not assigned.

"Sleep," Godfrey told him on the ninth night.

Bram’s gaze lingered on the dark perimeter, then he lowered his head. "Yes, Sir."

Godfrey waited until he was back in his bedroll, then went on with the circuit alone.

At Dragonwatch, Christopher finished the evening beside Thunder and returned to the surface, where Bennet met him with the housing count. Three family houses could be ready within two weeks, and the barracks could hold the rest temporarily if partitions were built.

"More than a hundred people are coming," Bennet said. "The barracks will be crowded even after we finish the three houses."

"Prepare every dry room inside the walls," Christopher said. "The families receive the houses first. The soldiers can use the barracks."

"Do we have enough food for them?"

"The convoy brings grain. We keep hunting and fishing."

Christopher crossed to the river, where a stake still marked the flooded hollow the fishermen had tested earlier in the year. The postponed pond would need screens, a controlled inlet and a deeper winter section.

"Add it after housing," he told Bennet. "Some of the new workers may know ponds or river traps."

Bennet placed the note beneath the housing count, and Christopher folded the remaining list and went to check the evening watch.