In the end, he kept them bound until the waters receded a bit more drying the land away from the main river enough for travel. Equipping the boys with tools and supplies, he then had the marched out over the mud flats for four days, unbound and exiled. He marked each one with a scar on his left shoulder, and explained, “You are now marked so that if you return, I will know you, and I will kill you. Travel in any direction you like except back. Other clans in other parts of the land may give you shelter, or you may survive long enough to grow and start your own clans. I have no hate for you, but will assume the next time I see you, that you come seeking revenge for your fathers and I will kill any that I find.”
The boys all ran when given the chance. Dag said a small prayer to any power that may have been listening that they would all find homes, far away from his people. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for the deaths of young men whose only ‘crime’ was being too dangerous to keep close.
◆◆◆
Saying Good Bye
When finally it was time to depart, Dag’s clan left last as usual. They had the ability to carry far more back this time, as some things would be left as trade goods for the small team they would leave behind, as well as the added carrying capacity of the two boats, and the extra women now available to pull additional travois. This meant that a lot more wood and charcoal would be able to be carried downriver. He loaded all of the children into the boats with his own people. The travois would travel wagon train style, with the animal drawn travois in the front setting the pace, and the human pulled smaller travois following behind.
He kept just enough men to guard this less valuable cargo, and sent the boats on ahead it instructions to pile everyone off at the junction of the canal to the river, and then send a runner to the castle for more hands. For his own part, he was going with the travois. It would take them an extra day or two of travel time, even if all went well, and he didn’t want the boats to slow for that.
The trip back was less eventful than he had feared, though they did lose one of the women to a snake bite. She had been let loose to see to nature’s call, when she wandered off and got bit. Dag had surprised everyone when he called a halt to their travels long enough to let her have family around her as she passed. They buried her along the trail, and Dag piled stones on top of the grave to mark it and to keep scavengers from digging her back up. Dag was having a difficult enough time with the idea of having the war captives with him with no clear path for integrating them into his clan, the thought of leaving them to die alone as he pushed the others on in what could only be described as forced labor, was more than he could stand. Even as it was, he was glad that he had no mirror to look into each morning.
When they finally did reach the junction of the canal and the river, Dag had everyone drop their burdens. “We’ll call a halt here. Jack, go on ahead and send back the canal boat. We’ll take this the last little bit the easy way.”
Jack grinned and ran off in the direction of the castle. Dag set watches and set off to look around. It was mostly all mud flat, and it flooded each year, so he wasn’t sure what he was looking for exactly. He just needed to find the most solid place to put a tower. He would have preferred a warehouse, but with the flooding, any building would have to be built high.
Eventually, not more than a couple of dozen paces from the canal, he found a large boulder deeply sunk into the rapidly drying mud. He dug around it for a few minutes and discovered it wasn’t just a normal boulder, but a massive rock sunk deep into the mud. It was deep enough that he hoped that any tower anchored to it wouldn’t be immediately washed away in the floods.
By the time he had dug out enough to make his assessment, Dag saw Jack returning with a small army of helpers and the little canal barge. He grinned to see both Lavern and Shirley walking toward the back of the gaggle, big smiles, and pudgy babies on their hips.
Shirley’s face fell when she looked around and didn’t see Axle. Panic taking over her face caused Dag to run toward them, “He is fine!” he called out to alleviate her fears. Catching up to them, he only briefly kissed Lavern before turning to Shirley. “He is healthy and whole. I needed someone to stay at the fort this year, and he was the logical choice. It will only be a few more weeks until I send more supplies up on the boats. You can ride with if you like. Either for a quick visit while they are dropping off supplies, or if you like we can move you up there for as long as he is there.”
Lavern had confusion written all over her face, “Why leave people behind?” Shirley looked glad that she asked, but was still recovering from the earlier panic and hadn’t voiced the question.
Dag let out a long sigh. Then he gave them the cliff notes version of what had happened while they were away. Lavern and Shirley’s eyes were both wide in shock. “So all of these new people?” Lavern asked.
Dag nodded, “Widdows and orphans that we made in the battle. I can’t trust them not to seek some form of vengeance, but I couldn’t leave them to starve either. So, we’re breaking them up into groups small enough to be able to watch and control if they decide to be a problem.”
Shirley frowned, “But to leave Ajax all the way up there...” her words trailed off, but Dag could see the pain that not having him come back was causing her.
Dag shrugged, “I was planning it already. What we’ve built there is too big to leave unguarded. Also, it will be good to have shipments of wood to come down river every few weeks. I’m thinking about building a tower here as well.” He pointed to the rock he had been digging around. “It will make a good place to set up a way to load and unload supplies from the river. We’re not far from the marsh, and it will make sending foraging parties easy, with the excess able to be easily shipped down the canal to the village. It just makes sense. This might be a good place to put Jill in charge of, and leave several of the women here, at least in the early days. They will need all the hands they can get to gather stones for the tower.”
The ladies just nodded, but he could tell that neither of them were exactly happy about the decision, or the new comers. Dag gave himself a mental shake, they didn’t have to be happy about it, he wasn’t completely happy about it, but they seemed to be accepting it, so he let it all go and just focused in on getting everything moved to the castle that was going.
It was very late in the day when he used several of the extra travois poles to make a tee-pee for those staying at their new port to have some shelter through the night. Dag himself made it back to the castle exhausted, and took a long bath, ate his dinner, and then fell in to bed. He barely even got to play with John before both were sound asleep.
◆◆◆
Back Home
Dag found himself back on the battlefield. He hadn’t felt bad when the old man leading the charge had dropped, but killing the others, especially those who had turned to run wasn’t sitting easy in his mind. He hadn’t wanted to order them to continue firing, but he wanted to be sure that the result of attacking their clan was horrific enough that they wouldn’t be attacked again.
He watched the men turn to flee, and even as he tried to give the ceasefire order, he heard himself give the order instead, which sealed their fates, “Get them all!” The words rang in his ears, and then he heard them again, and again. He tried to stop himself, he shouted, “Stop!” It was too late, weeks too late he realized after coming awake in a cold sweat sitting up in bed.
He took deep breaths and tried to slow his racing heart, but it was of little help. He felt Lavern’s small hand reach out for him. She was still mostly asleep, but she reached out to comfort him, anyway. He let out a long sigh and got up. This was the third time he had awakened himself from this same dream in the week since he had been home.
In his rational and conscious state, he knew that he had made the right call. It was only the horror that attacking him brought down on those three tribes that kept the others from giving it a try, but that didn’t ease his subconscious which delighted in showing him in vivid images how far he had fallen from so many of the lofty ideals his wealthy and privileged western mindset had held so dear. The women were still part of work crews, slaves in all but name. They had done nothing to him, yet there they were. Paying for the actions of their husbands and fathers, or was it paying for his own fear of their righteous reprisals? Dag didn’t know, and wasn’t sure it mattered. He couldn’t imagine how he could do things differently without risking his own clan and family.
He walked out to stand on the castle wall outside of the room he shared with Lavern and tiny John sleeping in his fur lined basket. In the chill of the night air, he listened to the waves, and looked out at a star filled night sky. He wanted to scream at the sky. To demand answers for why he was trapped here in this backward world, where decisions like this needed to be made for simple survival. He didn’t. Why wake more people can make them worry? Or doubt his sanity? This was just what it was, and he would need to make the adjustment or not. Life was a series of tests taken pass fail, with the only assurance that eventually everyone failed, and once was all it took.
Reassured that no matter what the dreams may be, he had done the only ‘right’ thing at the time, and would likely have to do more things like that, Dag went back in and curled up next to Lavern. He listened to John’s little snores from the corner, and decided that whatever the cost had been to his former illusions about himself, the price had been worth it. Sleep was still a long time coming.
Larger World
Progress
Time passed and life settled back into what passed for normalcy. The bulk of the women became useful assets to the tribe. Two tried to run off. When they were caught and returned to Dag, he simply asked them, “You would rather try to go it alone without hunters to provide for you and protect you?”
The one spit at his feet, “Better than living with those who murdered my mate!”
Dag let out a long sigh, “Well, any who feel that way simply come forward now. Don’t be shy, if you don’t want to be here, I don’t want you here. Easy as that.”
Only the two caught trying to escape decided to leave at that time. So, he gave them three days’ worth of rations, and had the boats take them a week’s boat ride down the coast. There, the men in the boats put them ashore, and left them to their fates. Dag suspected that they wouldn’t last long, but better to have them out there where they could do little damage. Besides, it made him look better to those who stayed behind.
They weren’t anywhere near earning Dag’s trust yet, but those who hadn’t taken advantage of his offer to leave were less likely to cause trouble. At least, that was his reverent hope. He hadn’t wanted any of this, but actions had consequences, and attacking his people couldn’t be seen as a risk-free option for anyone.
Weeks more passed, and progress was made both in the village, and up at the river port. An additional longhouse was added to the village to ease the overcrowding that the additional women caused, and the tower at the river port was also finished. Troops were even rotated out of the fort at the Gathering spot. As a ‘remote’ outpost, Dag didn’t want to leave anyone out there for too long. Since both boats were currently being used to ferry food supplies up river, and wood and charcoal downriver, there was no hardship moving people at the same time. They had even created a small dock up river to ease the movement of cargo and passengers, and many discussions were had about what it would take to build one at the mouth of the canal.
At the castle itself, Dag had alternated between his water wheel project and diving. Diving had the advantage of adding food for the table, as well as allowing Dag to explore more of the local sea floor. The water wheel was their first real use of mechanical power. Dag was under no delusions that the first iteration of the water wheel he was working on would be enough to power grain mills or sawmills and the like, but it would be a proof of concept that worked with the crude tools he had available. He really wanted it to turn a couple of wood lathes and some pottery wheels.
Now that he had easier access to wood for building, and charcoal for the kilns, pottery wheels seemed to be the ideal industry for them. At least considering the massive amounts of new mud deposited after every annual flood. He knew that once he had real olive and grain harvest, that pots to store it in would be the only viable option.
◆◆◆
Domesticity
Lavern liked having him closer to home working on projects. Especially now that John was able to crawl anywhere he wanted to go, and standing on his own. Perhaps wobbling is more accurate than standing, but Dag was pretty sure that phase was only a short time from running wild. Either way, he was a handful, and she enjoyed time in the evenings when Dag would spend time playing with his son.
