Chapter 303: The First Recruits

The next morning the square was full to the brim.

There were the usual ones, the originals, the ones who had endured the hunger and the raids. There were the survivors the Black Skull tribe had held captive and Kellar had freed. There were also those who had come over from the deer sect, bunched at one side and not raising their eyes much.

At one side of Kellar, hundreds of hardened soldiers. At the front, the knights already mounted, in full armor, and Aldric ahead of them on an enormous white charger with a lance near three meters long laid across the saddle. For all his grey beard, the old man still carried himself in a way that made him look fearsome.

A little further back, the ship captains, with Julian at the front. Beside Julian, his sister Rosalind and Captain Drake.

At the other side, in file, every expert who had arrived as a reward.

And pressed close to Kellar, Ophelia, the staff in both hands.

Behind the two of them, seated in chairs that had to be brought out, Kellar’s wives. Their bellies had grown enough that standing for half an hour would have been a sentence.

Kellar raised a hand.

"With the end of winter and on the eve of spring’s coming," said Kellar, "the time has come to speak the new reforms of the Overlord tribe."

No one breathed.

"First of all," said Kellar, "from this day we stop being the Overlord tribe and take the name Overlord Kingdom. We have won the recognition of our neighbors, other kingdoms, as a force to be reckoned with. Now we can stand on equal footing with them."

The square burst into applause.

No one quite understood how it helped them or how it hurt them, but the feeling was shared. It was good for the tribe, and it had to be applauded.

Kellar waited. He raised his hands and asked for silence.

"That is the good part," said Kellar. "What follows is a little hard for me to do. But it is necessary. I have had too many complaints about people who are simply living off the work of others."

Those nearest looked at one another.

"We have our glorious armed force," said Kellar. "All equally important to the tribe. I do not wish to set one above another. But everyone has known the dangers that stalk us. Every night, every day, hundreds of our men fight with courage and ferocity against every hardship to keep the tribe safe."

He raised his voice.

"I am no exception. I have fought at the front in every important moment. I have never hidden behind the walls and let my men bleed. We have bled together. We have fought together. And if one day we die, we die together."

The whole army shouted.

It was a single roar, long, weapons up and horses shifting.

Kellar let it die out.

"It is unacceptable," he said then, "that there are still men without the courage to join the army and fight for their territory."

And there he looked, one by one, at every man among the onlookers.

"Because I consider the situation of keeping a pack of cowards safe to be entirely unfair, we have decided on the following reform."

The uproar came at once.

The workers shouted. One threw his cap to the ground. Another shouldered his way to the front to shout something at him. A woman slapped her husband’s arm and pointed at Kellar’s face as though the man were to blame.

Kellar said nothing.

The guards were already moving.

They came into the crowd without hurry and without noise, and in under a minute they had eleven men on the ground. One kicked. A guard put a knee into his neck and the kicking stopped. They tied their hands behind them and hauled them up.

The square went quiet.

"Well," said Kellar. "It seems we have winners. Congratulations. You are the new recruits of the Overlord Kingdom’s army."

One of the bound men twisted.

"Fuck you!" the man shouted at him. "We are free men, we are not your slaves!"

"Bring him," said Kellar.

The guards dragged him to the front and dropped him kneeling three paces off. He was a broad type, square-jawed, hair wild, still hauling at the ropes.

Kellar looked him up and down.

"I do not seem to remember you," said Kellar, and raised his voice. "Does anyone know who he is?"

Mentz stretched up from one side.

"He was a slave of the Black Skull tribe, Great Shaman," said Mentz.

Kellar nodded slowly.

"Wow," said Kellar. "So you used to be a slave. They held you down to be less than human. My people pulled you out of that hell. And now you feel strong enough to rebel? Is that your gratitude?"

"Fuck your mother," said the man. "I was the leader of..."

"Of a tribe that was put down by those slavers," said Kellar. "You are less than nothing."

He crouched to his height.

"But do not worry," said Kellar. "Once you are in my army, I assure you, you will become somebody."

The man cleared his throat and spat.

The guard reacted before the spit landed. He drove a fist into his jaw and dropped him sideways into the dirt.

"You had better respect the Great Shaman!" the guard shouted at him. "Or I will take it on myself to make your life a hell!"

Kellar straightened and shook out his cloak.

"With a performance that pitiful," said Kellar, "I believe my decisions next are the correct ones."

He looked down at the man in the dirt.

"I hope when your training is done you are still as rabid as you are now."

He turned to the guards.

"Treat him well. I want him to be an example of what discipline and determination can achieve in my army."

The people did not dare make more noise.

A pair of guards riding tigers walked around the crowd, slowly, their enormous paws sinking into the square’s mud. The tigers did not growl. There was no need. They passed and the people moved out of the way on their own.