Conflict and Courage (5 page)

“Vikings? Never
heard of them.”

“Tenth century
earth raiders. They terrorised northern Europe, rape, pillage and
the like.”

“I see,” said
Wilhelm, “and Jim Cranston thinks the convicts are going to emulate
them in some way? He thinks that I can stop them? Young lady, I can
assure you that I cannot.” He grunted and shook his head. “I don’t
teach children how to kill. I may be a fencing maestro, yes, that I
admit, but it is a sport. Before the battle I had killed neither
man nor beast.”

“You
did
help train the infantry. If you hadn’t, if we hadn’t learnt how to
fight we would be dead.”

“I know this,”
Wilhelm said, his voice rising in agitation. “I know this, you
think I don’t?”

“So what
happens next time the south attack?” Geraldine pressed.

“The situation
would have to be grave indeed before I will raise my blade again in
anger. The south is defeated. They will not be eager to
return.”

“The Larg will
always want the north,” said Geraldine. “The convicts too; maybe
not another invasion on the same scale. They will raid instead.
Francis and Jim are sure of it.”

“Robert
Lutterell is not convinced,” answered Wilhelm.

“Then he is a
fool,” began Geraldine with some heat.

Wilhelm stilled
her with one upraised hand.

“I see no
reason why I should uproot my family once more. We are far from the
coast. I am not the only father to bring his family inland. The
Larg will never reach here.”

“How little you
know them,” said Mislya in a soft voice. Wilhelm jumped.

“I don’t see
the need,” he argued, “this Vada of yours has good fighters and
surely one of them can train the youngsters?”

“None have your
mastery,” said Geraldine, trying to be as persuasive as she
could.

Wilhelm
laughed. “Trying to butter me up young woman?”

“We need
you.”

Mislya took a
step forward and another, until she was standing directly in front
of him. He shut his eyes. He could feel her breath on his skin. It
had a sharp spicy odour to it that was not unpleasant.

“Enough,” she
declared. “We need you, I need you.”
:
I
need you Wilhelm
:

He stepped back
and his eyes snapped open. Their eyes met. Wilhelm was unable to
tear his gaze away. He did not want to.

Mislya
continued to stare at her vadeln-pair as she simultaneously sent
telepathic instructions to Jsei
: Go to their daga both of you.
I and my vadeln-pair have much to talk about. We will follow later
:

Geraldine and
Jsei crept away, jubilation in their hearts. Wilhelm Dahlstrom had
accepted Mislya’s challenge.

Geraldine was
halfway through a glass of redfruit juice when Jsei relayed
Mislya’s next message.

: Start them
packing :
was his jubilant instruction
: Vada has
Weaponsmaster :

Jsei also
wasted no time in sending the news back to Asya. Geraldine had the
more difficult task of explaining the situation to Wilhelm
Dahlstrom’s wife and family.

Their eldest
son, also called Wilhelm, Wil for short, was the least surprised of
them all and also the calmest. His mother Unda was upset, she knew
that her husband’s acceptance of the Weaponsmaster’s position would
mean yet another move and she was not happy about it.

“We’ve worked
so hard to get the farm, come all this way,” she complained, “and
now we’re all going to have to uproot again.”

“I’m staying
here,” Wil announced. He looked at his heavily pregnant wife, who
smiled at him, “Jane shouldn’t travel either. No need for us all to
go.”

“I want to go,”
announced Wil’s younger brother Eitel.

“We’ll see what
your father says,” answered his mother, wondering what they were
going to do about their possessions.

“Please
Mum.”

“Father has to
go,” said Wil in a tone that brooked no argument. He turned to
Geraldine. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“There are
living quarters available,” she agreed, “they’re not palatial, but
are big enough for you and your four youngest children.”

“Life isn’t
that palatial here,” said Wil. “We’ve all spent so much time
seeding and planting the cabin is still pretty rough and
ready.”

“How long will
the journey take us?” asked Unda, “and how do we get there?”

“You don’t need
to rush it,” said Geraldine. “Wilhelm and Mislya will be leaving
almost immediately of course.”

“I would like
to wait for the birth of my first grandchild,” said Unda looking at
her daughter-in-law.

“That could be
arranged. It will take a while for the Lind to get here
anyway.”

“The Lind?”

“How else would
you be travelling?” teased Geraldine, “did you think we would
expect you to walk?”

“Will we ride?”
asked Eitel in excitement.

“Yes, unless
you can work out a way to run as fast as the Lind can.”

“Great!” Eitel
rocked back in his chair in a state of bliss.

Jsei poked his
snout through the doorway.

“Greetings from
Susa of pack Jalkei,” he announced. “Congratulations too.”

“How did they
know?” asked Wil.

“The Lind
always know,” answered Geraldine. “The Lindar on patrol duty knew
we were in the area as soon as we crossed the border and in all
likelihood the reason why as well.”

She looked at
Jsei who was listening with interest to the conversation.

“I told Jalkei
Susa,” Jsei informed them. “It is good manners when we pass into
another’s rtatha.”

“What is that
word?” asked the irrepressible Eitel.

“Rtatha?”

He nodded.

“Pack-range,”
explained Geraldine, “you will be learning lots of Lindish when you
arrive in Vadath.”

“But Argyll
isn’t their pack-range,” protested Wil.

“No, but they
are the duty Lindar here. This area is their responsibility.”

“Take it very
seriously do you? Duty?” asked Wil of Jsei.

“We are allies
and friends,” answered Jsei, “it not only the Larg that make
danger.”

“Not only the
Larg?” squeaked Unda. “What does he mean?”

She glanced out
of the window as if she expected large scaly monsters to be waiting
outside to eat them all up.

“Wral and
gtran,” said Jsei, squeezing himself through the doorway. He sat
down beside the others who moved their chairs aside to make
room.

Unda seemed
rather nonplussed as she recognised the fact that here was a Lind
sitting quite at home in her living room but managed to pull
herself together. “What are they?” she asked.

“Large and
nasty predators that live in the north,” answered Geraldine. “They
come south to hunt. I’ve never seen any myself and I hope the
images of them I’ve seen through Jsei’s memories are
exaggerated.”

“I not
exaggerate,” insisted Jsei, “I fought them.”

“Some of the
Councillors don’t think they are dangerous,” said Wil.

“They also
think the threat from the south is over and don’t believe we need
the Lindars camped on our doorstep,” added Unda.

Jsei laughed
aloud.

“We have some
who think same,” he admitted, “they like not changes.”

“Robert
Lutterell is having similar trouble with some settlers,” added Wil,
“it’s a small group, but a noisy one.”

“Are these
troublemakers colonising round Settlement area?” asked Geraldine
with interest.

“No,” he
answered, “mostly up north, east of here, on the coast and inland a
ways.”

“Their opinion
might change after they meet their first gtran.”

Wil shrugged,
“that remains to be seen and personally I am glad they are
distancing themselves from the rest of us.”

“Let’s hope
they don’t cause too many problems,” said Geraldine, resolving to
tell Francis and Jim about this development. She turned to Unda,
“can I help prepare supper?” she asked. “I’m a dab hand at spicy
baked root casserole.”

Eitel’s eyes
brightened with anticipation. “If Geraldine is helping that means I
don’t have to,” he suggested to his mother.

“After you have
dug them up from the garden,” she answered pointing at the spade
propped up against the doorframe.

He got up from
his chair with a sigh.

Jsei watched
him, caught his eye and winked. He stood up.

“Leave the
spade,” he instructed Eitel, “I will show you how we Lind do
digging for roots.”

Boy and Lind
left the cabin together.

On their way to
the garden the two spied Wilhelm and Mislya. The duo hadn’t moved
from the spot where they had met. Eitel didn’t think his father
even saw them.

“I wonder how
we are going to fit everyone inside tonight,” mused Eitel. “It’ll
be a bit of a squash, won’t it? You and Geraldine can have my room
if you like. I can sleep in the barn.”

His eyes
brightened at the thought; Unda Dahlstrom preferred to keep her
family behind the stout farmhouse walls when darkness fell.
Sleeping in the barn would be an adventure and the first of many if
Eitel had any say, his mother’s wishes to the contrary.

Jsei nodded.
Eitel was enthusiastic about the changes. Enthusiasm was, Jsei had
noted, infectious amongst humankind. He had few worries about the
future of the Dahlstrom family when they came to Vadath.

* * * * *

It was not only
Wilhelm and Mislya’s lives that changed that summer. Other humans
were meeting their vadeln-pair for the first time and some
life-bonds were more unexpected than others.

Much of
Settlement, the haphazard township built when the colonists had
landed on the planet, had been destroyed during the battle and the
convict prisoners were helping to rebuild it. When the southern
prisoners had been questioned after the battle they had been asked
if they wished to be considered for an exchange with the women and
children captured by the south. Of the three hundred or so
prisoners a third had said yes. This group was held under high
security within Settlement and worked under strict guard whilst the
others had more freedom.

Richard Moreno
set out for work the same day as usual. Wilhelm met Mislya. He and
the other members of his work-gang were building the sewerage
processing facility.

An ex-member of
Colonel Duchesne’s regiment, now Lord Duchesne if the rumours were
true, he had liked his Colonel and had, like him, been sickened by
the cruelty and bloodlust shown by some during the battle. He had
watched, bile in his throat as Lieutenant Albert Borsley had set
fire to the older male prisoners. He still dreamt about it, waking
up in a cold sweat.

When orders
came that the Larg were in retreat and they were to evacuate
Settlement, Richard had made a life-changing decision, better to
face the wrath of the colonists than to remain with such people. He
had hidden himself behind the wall of a smouldering outhouse and
waited impatiently for the opportunity to surrender. He had not
once regretted his choice.

To his
surprise, he had been treated fairly by his captors, amazing
considering the circumstances. They had investigated his
antecedents and listened to his terrified explanations, two Lind
had been present at his interrogation, teeth bared and then classed
him as a Grade Two prisoner, suitable for re-education and a
possible commutation of sentence. Unlike those designated as Grade
One and therefore dangerous, he and others like him, had been
allocated to one of the lightly guarded work-gangs labouring
outside Settlement proper, helping to construct the infrastructure
that had been delayed due to the war.

That morning
Richard and another four were finishing setting the roof beams in
place. They had only the lintel beams to go and were having a
well-earned rest when they became aware of a commotion not far from
where they sat.

Richard looked
up and saw the construction engineer deep in conversation with
three yellow-striped Lind. The woman looked and sounded angry then
she shrugged her shoulders and walked, visitors in tow, towards
them.

Richard
strained to hear what they were saying. “Which one of them is it?”
she asked, but the Lind did not answer.

He scrambled to
his feet with the other four, wondering what was up. Ordinarily
they did not see many Lind, whose primary duty it was to patrol the
coasts as a guard against any Larg war parties or scouts, who might
feel inclined to attempt a suicidal revenge attack. The Larg were
not emotionally suited to an acceptance of defeat.

The five
prisoners regarded each other with unease.

Two of the
yellow-striped Lind stopped some paces away and stood staring at
the men. The other continued her unhurried yet steady advance.

Richard braced
himself for what was coming.

He couldn’t
breathe properly, his breath caught in his throat and he began to
tremble. Like most men from the south he was terrified of the
Lind.

She stopped in
front of him.

Engineer Maria
Anstell moved up beside her. Tall as she was, the tip of her head
barely reached as high as the Lind’s withers.

“Well Moreno,
this is a day of surprises and no mistake,” she said.

“Surprises
ma’am?”

“It appears
that this lady Lind is anxious to make your acquaintance. I would
assume that she has sensed something in your make-up that has
eluded us. Do you know what a vadeln-pairing is?”

“Yes ma’am,”
gulped Richard, “we
were
told.”

“She wants you
to go with her,” she said in a tight voice.

“Go with her?”
Richard asked stupidly. “Go where?”

“I imagine she
wants you to go to the west, where the rest of those paired live. I
don’t know what the Council are going to say about this, or what
they’ll do to me for releasing you. Dahlya here says you must go
with her now. She is very insistent. Says she has made her decision
and nobody can gainsay her right to do so.”