Alright, thank you to the few people who reviewed my last few chapters, but please, I would like more than just two reviewers per chapter. I don't write ff because it's my way of dealing with the things I don't like about how books ended, I write it because I want to be filling in those cliffhanger-ey gaps in books that others want filled.
Gilan explained to me and Jenny a little more about the Mawagansetts we were going to stay with while the rest of the crew gathered up their go-ashore supplies.
Hal was arranging the ship so that it would be fine on its own for a few days and Stig was organizing the others. Ulf, Wulf, and Stefan were collecting the canvas and clothes needed for a few days' camping, Ingvar was heaving one of the huge water casks onto the deck.
Edvin was arranging spices and other food, muttering to himself what seemed like a recipe. "Mud… bark… gobble-gobble bird…" he mumbled.
Jesper was darting to and fro, appearing busy, though he never seemed to be accomplishing anything.
"Jesper!" Stig bellowed from the stern. "Get to work or you'll be bailing out bilge water while the rest of us are feasting with the Mawags!"
Immediately, Jesper began helping Edvin with the foods. If anything motivated these men, it was a feast.
However, once we were ashore and in the woods, it was apparent that there would be no feasting. Where the Mawags once were, there was nothing but an empty clearing and abandoned firepits.
"I'm no tracker," Hal said, "but it appears that no one's living here."
"I am a tracker," Gilan said. "And it looks like there's been a plague."
Upon further observation, it did appear that there'd been a plague. A little ways into the woods, we found a small clearing where at least thirty graves had been dug. Simple cairns marked the places, but the plants had only just begun to grow over the turned dirt. Several had nameplates.
"There's Pillika," Ulf said sadly.
"And Mohegas," said Stig.
"I don't see Simsinnett, though," Hal remarked. "If Mohegas is gone, I wonder if he became the new leader."
"I thought the Mawags didn't believe in graves," Edvin said.
"I don't think they dug any," Gilan replied. He gestured to the small group of nameplates. "These aren't marking graves. They're just stones with the names engraved, and see here? Under each of the names is the new name you told me about, the one people would use for them after they died." Sure enough, each nameplate had two names. "I think the graves were dug later, by other people."
"You mean after the Mawags fled the plague, others came by and buried the bodies?" Gustav asked.
"It seems like a likely possibility," Gilan said. "My guess is after a few deaths, the healthy Mawags left to find an untainted home, and when the sick ones here died, someone else–who didn't share the Mawag's beliefs–buried the bodies."
We all stood, silent, until Jesper, who'd been searching the woods around the empty clearing, burst in. "Um, guys? You need to see this."
The next clearing was small, and almost all of it was taken up by the firepit in the middle. Ten feet in diameter, the circle of black logs and stones looked only a few days old. Several long sticks were burnt on the ends, like they had been poked into the fire. And badly charred human bones were scattered in the coals.
After the gravesite, Gustav had taken Jenny and Kari back to the ship, fearing that another creepy sight might be too much for them.
"These must have been the first victims," Hal said, fingering some of the ash on the edge of the pit.
"These," Stig said, "combined with the graves, are more than half of the tribe."
A thought that had been nagging at me shoved its way through my lips. "Are we safe? From the plague, I mean."
Gilan grinned halfheartedly at me. "Probably." Most of the crew looked at him questioningly, so Gilan felt obliged to elaborate. "Most plagues like this are brought from elsewhere, where people have immunities built up against them, and when the people here, who don't have those immunities, are exposed to the virus, it takes hold quickly and firmly."
The message of this statement sunk in slowly.
"You mean…" a twin started.
"That maybe…" another continued.
"We are the reason half the Mawagansett tribe was wiped out," Hal finished sourly.
Liese:
I had never ridden a horse before, but I was learning fast.
Two months passed after my dad had left Skandia for Araluen, one more than when he should have returned.
The new duty ship was going, so my mother sent me with them to see what what wrong. Never before had Dad been more than three days late. He was an outstanding skirl and was always punctual to keep me, Mom, Gramma, and Thorn from worrying. After a week Mom started to talk to Erak, and after two began to talk about sending me to find him.
If you're wondering why Mom didn't go herself, it's because she's in a bit of a delicate condition.
Something else I should probably explain about me is why my parents are so ridiculously overprotective.
They married when they were eighteen, a typical age for marriage in Skandia, and at twenty my mom had her first miscarriage. By twenty-two she had had two more. Altogether there were four before she had me at twenty-five. Since me she's had one.
So by the time they finally had me, they were so used to the happiness overwhelming them, then it all crashing down to grief, they felt they had to protect me. Like they were scared that I was still going to be taken away from them.
It was also hard because when Stig married Milly, a maid from Castle Araluen, they had no trouble having two daughter, Gustav, and then another daughter.
Edvin married a pretty blonde Skandian woman named Kirsten when he was thirty, considered an older age for romance, but the couple had shown little interest in having children.
Ingvar and the twins were still passionately single, though Stefan and Jesper both had sweethearts fretting about them back in Hallasholm.
So why hadn't the Herons returned on time?
That's what I was finding out.
When the Wolfhunt had docked near Caraway, I leased a small horse with the money my mother had given me to fund the trip and started on my way to Araluen.
Grampa Thorn (at this point, Mom was too distressed to give me comprehensive instructions), had told me to immediately head to Castle Araluen (or "that overgrown stack of brick and tapestries" as Grampa put it, because that's where news of the Heron was most likely to be. But even on horseback, it was still going to take me two days.
"Okay, you cursed, flea-ridden, bouncing, lumpy beast," I told the horse. "That's enough for today."
It's owner had told me the horse's name was Cora, but I had called it everything else, such as: "Orlog's greasy horns, my backside hurts!", "You, wicked creature, are going to regret ever being hired when we stop!", and "WOULD YOU STEP SMOOTHLY FOR A FEW MINUTES?!".
I had purposely stopped in an uninhabited area where I could set up a camp without unwanted company, since the coin my mother provided wouldn't quite cover the cost of an inn. I tied the horse to a thick branch and rolled myself in my tarpaulin for the night.
I was greeted at the entrance to the castle grounds by a blonde girl about my age with a leather sling and a pouch full of stones. Madelyn.
I regarded her skeptically, and noted that she also carried an impressive bow and wore a double-scabbard belt around her waist.
"Liese, what are you doing here?"
I didn't deign to answer her question, it was none of her business, and instead asked my own. "What's with the bow?"
She shouldered it affectionately. "Like it? I'm training as a Ranger. My mentor, Will Treaty just helped me finish making this one yesterday. I'd been using a recurve bow up until now."
"But aren't you a princess?" I asked, sincerely confused. Honest, I was not at all trying to make her angry, though I did know she hated the whole "royal" thing and I did know that her temper blew up easily at things like that… okay, maybe I was trying to make her angry. It doesn't really matter, though, because it didn't work.
"I'm both now. My dad says it's good for me to be learning how to defend myself, and my mom went on a bunch of crazy adventures when she was young, so she isn't allowed to say anything. It was meant as a sort of punishment, but I really enjoyed it so I'm officially training to become a fully-fledged member, though I may not actually be posted at a fief.
"Anyway, why are you here? I thought our yearly visits finished after you ran away," she said.
"I need to talk to your parents, or someone with authority here…" I said. The best person to talk to would be a Ranger, since they normally knew what was going on, but now that Maddie was one, I wasn't going to say that.
"Will's just inside, let's go talk to him," she told me.
HAHAHA! I left you guys with a cliffhanger, I left you guys with a cliffhanger!
Actually, I'm wondering what's going to happen next, too...
Also, I want to say how disappointing it is to wait three days and see that only one person-ONE PERSON-read, liked, and bothered to tell you about your story. I thank everybody who's reviewed so far, but please, PLEASE, PLEEEEEEAAASE REVIEW IF YOU LIKED THE CHAPTER! Just a sentence. Even "Thanks" is so encouraging. For the past two chapters, I've only had like three reviewers, so please, just let me know you liked what I wrote.
REVIEWS KEEP MY STORIES ALIVE!
