Portals of Infinity: Book Three: Of Temples and Trials Page 13

  “Excuse me; may I see your mounts?”

  He turned abruptly and looked at me intently, almost glared. “Why would a city man like you wish to see the mounts of my tribe?” His accent was a little odd, I suspected that the tribes on the plains spoke a different dialect, or perhaps a different language altogether.

  I unclipped the dagger from my harness; it was a nice one, with a good edge and decent balance. I handed it to him.

  He looked at it, drew the blade, and then tested it by shaving a small patch of fur on the inside of his arm. He looked up at me and smiled. “Come; let me show you our mounts!”

  I followed him around behind the trade barracks, there was a corral behind it, but instead of oxen or cattle there was a completely different animal.

  “Wolats?” I asked looking at them.

  “Yes!”

  They were large, about the size of a horse, but the similarities ended about there. They looked more like wolves, though their fur seemed a bit shorter, their legs longer. Their jaws were wider too I noticed, several of them all came over to where we were standing at the fence, sniffing the air as they did so.

  “What do they eat?” I asked curious.

  “Everything!” The tribesman laughed.

  I looked at the teeth, they had canines, though not as long as I would have expected for something so large. Their front teeth were not at all like I remember from any dog I had ever seen.

  “They eat grass?”

  He nodded, “Grasses, leaves, fruits, berries, and anything that they can catch.”

  I reached out to pet one and it tried to snap at me, but my enhanced speed kicked in at the attack, so I poked it in the nose and then patted it on the head before withdrawing my hand, leaving it looking confused.

  “Oh, yes. They bite.” He laughed.

  “Show me how to ride one.” I said looking at him.

  He nodded and led me over to where they kept the gear, and as I watched, he got out something that looked almost exactly like the bridle I was used to seeing on horses. The bit was a little different, but I could see the function was the same. The saddles they used were simple, more to spread the weight off of the spine I guessed.

  I watched as he went in and called one to him, then put on the bridal and the saddle. I noticed they didn’t have stirrups.

  “Can I try?”

  He shook his head, “They don’t know you.”

  I smiled, “Let me worry about that.” I went and grabbed a set of gear and came over to the fence. A number of them trotted up.

  “What are the commands?”

  He looked at me and shook his head, but told me the words they used for ‘go’, ‘come’, ‘stand’, ‘no’, and ‘good’.

  I looked at the one who had tried to bite me and cheating I used a cantrip that calmed animals on him. I told the others to ‘go’ and made shooing motions and they trotted away.

  Putting the bridal on wasn’t all that difficult. He shied away a little at first when I put the saddle on, I had to use the cantrip again and make soothing sounds as I’d seen the other do.

  When I mounted up he turned and tried to take a nip at me, so I hauled the reins in, yelled ‘no’ at him and gave him a little love tap on the head. He snorted but I quickly got him going and to the surprise of the tribesman, I rode him around the corral a couple of times.

  “You have done this before!” He said staring at me.

  I nodded, “Yes, but with something different. They weren’t as nimble or as fast.” I looked up at him and smiled. “How much?”

  “Not for sale!”

  I grinned, “Everything is for sale my friend.”

  “Maybe, but that one is not mine to sell.”

  I nodded, “Ah, I misunderstood. Can I talk to the one who can sell it?”

  He turned and talked to one of the others who had walked up; they all seemed rather surprised that I could ride.

  “He wants three of those metal spearheads that the trader here sells.”

  I looked around at the other wolats in the pen there was a female that looked rather nice to my eye as well.

  “Add that female, with all the riding gear and I’ll give him four.”

  “Six.”

  “Five.”

  “Six and we’ll teach you how to care for them,” he said grinning at me.

  I laughed and nodded, “Six it is.”

  We dismounted, and adjourned to the inn next to the barracks; I paid the trader for the spearheads and gave them to the tribesman who apparently owned the two wolats. We then spent the next several hours talking as he taught me everything he knew about them.

  For the most part, they really weren’t much different from dogs, there were some differences, because they could eat grass and grains and such. But they did run more in herds than in packs, and only gave birth to one at a time, so unlike with a wolf pack, you didn’t have only the alpha pair breeding.

  “Why so interested?” The first tribesman asked when I had finished speaking with Tau, the one who has sold me the two wolats. His name was Samoe.

  “Because these are how you beat the Mulanders,” I said softly smiling at him. “And how we’re going to keep those Barassan’s from getting big ideas.”

  “They are good for harassing camps late at night, but I do not see fighting a big force.”

  “You let me worry about that. How many of them would your tribe would be willing to sell to us?”

  He laughed, “How many do you want?

  “Let’s start, small, say one hundred? At two spearheads each?”

  “Three each,” he said while the others all looked shocked.

  “Two hundred fifty, for one hundred wolats, grown, of decent stock, males and females” I said, “And we’ll pay you another ten if you deliver them to Hiland, and if a few of your men could stay and help teach us about them, we’d pay you another four each per moon.”

  “Done!” He yelled surprising the hell out of me.

  I took a drink of my beer and shook my head, “Next time I’ll try not to overpay.”

  He laughed and nodded, “That would be wise.”

  I had someone summon Second Corso, and we made the arrangements then, Corso would have someone escort them up to Hiland when they returned. Which would be about a month from now.

  “What possessed you to buy so many of those... what are they called?”

  “Wolats,” I said.

  “What possessed you to buy them?”

  I smiled, “How would you feel if a thousand of them, each with an armored man on its back, charged you?”

  He stopped and looked at me in shock. “I’d feel like I was about to have a very bad day.”

  “Exactly.”

  # # # #

  I gathered up Felecia the day after, she was accompanied by a dozen acolytes and three more members of the clergy, two of whom I recognized from the fight at Tantrus’ temple.

  Besides my two new wolats, and myself, I was taking a force of twenty soldiers along. The new clerics from the temple showed up the night before, and I was taking half of the accompanying force back with me. I wasn’t expecting trouble, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

  “I see you bought two of those animals the tribes from the plains like,” Felecia said to me as we left the city.

  I nodded, “I like to ride.”

  “You know how to ride one of those?” She said looking surprised.

  “Yes.”

  “I did not know you were from the plains!” She said looking me over.

  I laughed, “I’m not. But where I come from, we have something similar.”

  “And where is that?”

  “Someplace very far from here. Tell me, where are you from?”

  “Marland, I grew up there.”

  “So I have to ask, why did you pick Tradeson as a possible location to move the main temple to?”

  Felecia shrugged, “I didn’t think that they’d be bold enough to come that close to Hiland.”

&nb
sp; “Are Marland and Tradeson the only places you have temples now?”

  She shook her head, “We have churches in Holden, Sancton, and Craighston, and a number of shrines in several cities further away.”

  “You know you probably shouldn’t be telling me this,” I chuckled.

  “Fordessa knows you are very interested in some sort of alliance.”

  I nodded, “Yes, but the decision is not mine, it is Feliogustuses’. And I’m not sure how much my opinion counts with him.”

  “But you are his champion!”

  “You should know it doesn’t always work that way,” I said.

  Felecia sighed, “We don’t have a champion.”

  I looked at her surprised. “Really? Why not?”

  “Fordessa isn’t yet strong enough. We may be spread out, but the number of her followers is not all that great.”

  “So, she’s still pretty weak as a goddess then.” I said nodding.

  “It is frustrating at times,” Felecia said nodding. “But we have come very far in the last few years, so I have faith.”

  The trip back was enjoyable, and without incident. In the evenings, Felecia and her group would play their instruments and sing, which was rather nice. During the day, I took turns taking each of the two Wolats out to ride, which I could tell they enjoyed. I don’t think they were as fast as horses, but they did better going up embankments and steep hills.

  When we got to Hiland city I showed Felecia and her people directly to the temple, where they would be quartered, then rode up to Rachel’s Castle and got them to clear out one of the corrals for the wolats. Suzhen might be mean, but a wolat wouldn’t hesitate to kill and eat one given the chance.

  “So what in the world is that?” Rachel asked coming up to me and giving me a hug. I purred and kissed her back. Holse joined us as well, I had sent for both to meet me as soon as I got to the castle.

  “These are wolats. The tribesmen on the plains ride them. They hunt and sometimes fight from their backs while riding.”

  “Well they are kind of cute,” Rachel said. “They friendly?”

  “They have a bit of a temper, but I believe with a little training that won’t be too much of an issue.”

  “So why did you buy two of them?” Rachel asked looking up at me.

  “I bought one hundred of them, and will be hiring their trainers until ours know how to deal with them.”

  Rachel turned and stared at me. “You bought one hundred of them?”

  I nodded.

  “And just how much is this going to cost us?”

  “Around three hundred metal spear heads for their hunting spears.”

  “Three hundred!” Rachel said shocked. I could hear Fel laughing in the back of my head.

  “Oh don’t worry, Fel’s paying for half of them.” The laughing stopped rather suddenly.

  “Is he now?” Rachel said looking cross at me.

  I nodded, “Yup, and he knows better than to bitch about it, though I’m sure he’ll get even with me soon enough.”

  “And just why is that?”

  I smiled, “Cavalry,” I said. They had no word for it, so I just used the English word.

  “What is Cavalry?” She said looking at me.

  “Imagine a couple thousand soldiers, armed and armored, attacking infantry, or a town, or pretty much anything, from the backs of those animals.”

  “It can’t be done,” Holse said, “They’d fall off! Assuming they could even hit anything. And the animals would be too hard to control!”

  I smiled, “I know of a few things we can do to deal with all of those issues. And yes, it will take training. But just being able to move a couple thousand men across an area that takes five days in only two? Being able to run in and attack, then retreat back out before you can be counter-attacked?

  “We use Cavalry back where I’m from, done properly it can be devastating.”

  Rachel looked angry, but Holse was looking thoughtful.

  “Can people really fight from the backs of those things?” he asked.

  “The tribesmen already do it, but they do it as singletons, to harass and pickoff a man or two. But you put a hundred or two of them in a line and charge an infantry line? Wolits have a nice set of teeth, and the soldier on their back is up too high to be easily hit, and has the advantage of attacking down.”

  Holse nodded, “Just the thought of facing a long line of these attacking you probably would unnerve a lot of soldiers the first time they faced it.”

  “We’ll need to find some of our better animal handlers, and get some volunteers from the army. They should show up in a few weeks with the hundred I’ve asked for. You may want to see about buying some more, but don’t pay as much as I did, I’m pretty sure I overpaid.”

  “Why did you do that?” Rachel growled.

  “Because I had to give them some incentive to come this far. But after they’ve seen our money once, they’ll want to deal again. Of course someone can trade with them closer to home, but before that can start, we need people who know how to handle them, train them, and ride them.”

  “I’d like to see a demonstration first,” Holse told me.

  I nodded, “I need to see the head smith of the armory, and the best leather worker we have, I need a few things made. Once that’s done, I think I can show you some things to make you think.”

  Holse nodded and bowing to Rachel took his leave.

  “I’m not very happy with you right now.” She fumed, “Do you have any idea how much this will cost?”

  I nodded, “A lot. You’re going to need to build more corrals, stables, lay in food, special training.”

  “Then what’s the advantage?”

  “A Cavalry soldier is worth at least ten infantry. In some cases more. You could put a group at Midway and in a day, they could react to almost anything in the area. You’ll be able to do more with a lot less, which means less money overall and a more effective fighting force.

  “If we can get a couple thousand Cavalry soldiers together before Barassa comes up the river, it will make a huge difference against them. And when we finally go to war with them, even thought their army is bigger than ours, this will take away their advantage.”

  Rachel sighed and nodded, “If you can convince Holse, I’ll be fine with it.”

  I pulled her close and gave her a nice long kiss.

  “So tell me about your run-ins with Barassa’s people,” she said leaning into me as we walked back to our rooms.

  I told her about everything that had happened, about Felecia’s people, and our first suspicions, then their help when we figured out what happened.

  “Do you think Feliogustus will work something out with them?” she asked as we got back to our rooms.

  “I don’t know, I hope so, I think it would be good for all of us. But Fel knows a lot more about this than I do. So I’ll do whatever he tells me to do.”

  “I’m impressed by all the places she’s gotten churches set up. I bet she has a wonderful intelligence network.”

  I stopped and looked down at her, “You know, I never thought of that. I wonder if she has?”

  “I guess I’ll have to talk to Narasamman tomorrow,” Rachel said thoughtfully.

  “Why?”

  “Because if Feliogustus doesn’t mind, I think I’ll extend the protection of the kingdom over their religion, in return for their people keeping us well informed on what’s going on in all the surrounding kingdoms.”

  I laughed and gave her another kiss, “And that is why you’re the Queen.”

  “Damn right!” Rachel purred. “Now, how about coming here and showing some of your devotion to your Queen?”

  I smiled, “It would be my pleasure.”

  Two days later I had the saddle altered to add stirrups, and had gotten one of the smiths to forge me a Cavalry saber. Saddling up Tom, the male wolat, I attacked a series of targets as Holse watched. First I used a modified spear, made in to a lance. Next, I rode by several wooden
poles and took the tops off with the saber as I did so.

  The final act was I had him put ten soldiers on the field, armed, and armored, and then I proceeded to chase them around the field using blunted weapons. They couldn’t get near me, because either Tom would snap at them, or I would whack them one.

  “Impressive,” Holse said as I rode up to him.

  “And I’m not that great at riding and fighting from wolat back,” I told him as I dismounted, panting.

  “With training you can teach them to respond to commands from the pressure of your knees so you don’t even have to hold the reins.”

  He nodded, “Well I’ll see if I can round up a hundred men and we’ll start training when the wolats get here.”

  “You’re going to have to train them in new tactics, and train their commanders as well.” I reminded him.

  “You’re going to have to train me,” Holse said shaking his head. “This is beyond anything I’ve seen before. But the potential is obvious.”

  I nodded, “I’ll do what I can to help.”

  Holse took his leave and I set about taking care of Tom, and then Tina. I’d been training several of the hands who worked around the corral with how to deal with the two Wolats, and surprisingly they’d all picked up on it rather quickly.

  Or maybe not so surprising when I thought about it. They already had to deal with the nasty suzhen, and the wolats, while a handful at times, weren’t really mean.

  I was sitting in Fel’s bar once more, looking at him across the table. My physical body was asleep in bed with Rachel, it had been several weeks since I’d returned from Tradeson with Felecia.

  “So, having fun spending my money?” Fel asked smirking.

  I grinned, “If you hadn’t been laughing at me, I would never have thought of it.”

  “Which is of course why I was laughing at you. I’ve already told Narasamman that I want her to buy some and see some of our people trained.”

  “Really?” I said surprised.

  He nodded, “I want to get missionaries out there among the tribesmen. They won’t respect us if we can’t ride; it’s a big part of their culture. But if we send in people who can ride, they’ll listen and I can start bringing them into the fold.”