The Lady in the White Tower
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own neither towers nor castles. Rating: K Time: In an AU future, or perhaps an AU past.
"That's enough." Kate said. "The young man isn't too badly injured, but he needs help. Have his friends take him to my wagon and I'll help him."
The other Tischetti were afraid to go near Lady Kate, but Long Jehan asked them if they wanted to openly defy the Lady. They carried their friend to Kate's wagon, but the injured man would not go inside. So, Kate patched him up outside, setting and splinting his broken arm and leg and giving him some medicine for the pain. Then off he went with his friends.
Castle approached the young redhead. "At the beginning of this trip, I asked Lady Kate if her people could fight. She told me I'd be amazed. And so I am. You are an excellent fighter, Alina."
"Thank you, Baron Castle, but I'm Alice."
"Of course, you are." Castle muttered.
The redhead curtsied, smiled and winked at Castle, then walked away, swaying her hips far more than usual.
"Is she flirting with me?" Castle asked Lady Kate, who had been standing by him the whole time.
"I'm afraid that Alice is an incorrigible flirt, but she knows you're taken."
As Lady Kate walked back to her wagon Castle realized he was very much taken.
When she got to her wagon, she turned around. "Are you coming, Castle?"
He hurried to her.
The Tischetti soon left. The scouts from Sandrall's people followed them for some miles and reported that they had split into four groups that each kept a close watch on the other three. Castle and his party never heard of them again.
They continued across the vast plains, with one day turning into the next with no seeming change. The land was flat and brown and the sky was endless and blue. However, Long Jehan finally announced that something would be changing.
"The Bankhurst River is a day or so ahead of us."
"Will we have trouble crossing it as we did with the last river?" Castle asked.
"There's bridge that was built across the river in the days of the old ones. It's said that the material the bridge is the same as that from which the White Tower itself is made. I don't know about that, but I do know it's been there for many, many years. And it's a good thing, too. To the south the river widens out into a swamp that would take weeks to cross and would probably cost us many horses and wagons and a few men. To the north, the river is a roaring torrent with near vertical banks. We'd have to travel hundreds of miles to find someplace where we could cross."
They arrived at the bridge the next day and found that some others, some very odd others, were there ahead of them.
"Who or what are they?" Castle asked, mystified.
"Those are Mammuts." Said Lady Kate. "Another people brought to this world when man first came from the stars."
"Those are people?" Castle asked. "They're huge. Monstrous, even. And they're intelligent?"
"They are large. The males stand about twelve feet high at the shoulder and weigh some six tons. The females are a bit smaller. I've heard of old books that say that the old ones somehow modified them to be intelligent and changed them in other ways. Do you see the nose hanging from their faces?"
"Those are noses? They must be fifteen feet long."
Lady Kate nodded. "They diverge at the end into something like our hands and arms. So, they can make tools and weapons, but given their huge size, they have few, if any, enemies. Even humans leave them alone."
"They're all crowded at the other end of the bridge." Said Long Jehan. "We won't be able to pass if they don't move, and I don't like the idea of having to chase something, many somethings, that are that big away from the bridge."
"I'll go see what they want." Lady Kate said and rode off. Castle and Long Jehan hurried to follow her.
The leader of the mammuts greeted Lady Kate with a blast of sound through his nose that Castle was sure could be heard for miles. Lady Kate replied with a similar, but much quieter, noise. Then a conversation began between the two. Castle was amazed that Lady Kate could make the sounds he heard from her. He was sure no other human could do what she did.
He and Long Jehan also noticed that more and more of the mammuts were coming. He was sure there were over a hundred there already and from the dust cloud he could see on the far side of the river, he was sure there were more mammuts on the way.
Finally, the conversation ended.
"This is odd." Lady Kate said. "They're bored. They demand we entertain them as the cost of a passage across the bridge."
"Entertain them, how?" Castle asked. "I have a few men who can play musical instruments and a number of singers. And one man who juggles."
"They want to laugh. We need to tell them jokes."
"Jokes?" Said Long Jehan. "What would make something like those beings laugh?"
Castle began asking his men who might be able to make the mammuts laugh. To his surprise, it was Brother Ryan who volunteered.
"You know jokes that'll make the mammuts laugh?"
"I'm pretty funny, if I do say so myself. I just don't tell many jokes because I'm the regimental doctor and I want my patients to think I'm a serious man."
Castle was willing to try, so he, Kate, Esposito, Long Jehan and Ryan rode towards the waiting mammuts.
"A mammut saw a naked human, "Ryan began, "and said, "How do you breathe through that little thing?""
There was an odd snuffling among the mammuts, Ryan went on.
"Do you know how mammuts hide in apple trees? They paint their balls red. Do you know what the loudest sound in the apple orchard is? Giraffes eating apples."
That got the mammuts braying loudly and slapping each other on their backs with their trunks.
Brother Ryan was on a roll.
"What's big and grey and black and white? Sister Mary Mammut."
"Why is a mammut big, grey and wrinkled? Because if it was small, smooth and white, it'd be an aspirin."
"Did you hear about the job opening for a mammut circumcisionist? The pay isn't great, but the tips are huge."
"What do you do if a mammut comes through your window? Start swimming."
By this time the mammuts were rolling on the ground, laughing at Brother Ryan's jokes. However, they made way for Castle and all of his followers who crossed over the bridge while Ryan kept the mammuts amused.
Finally, the very last of the convoy was past the mammuts. Ryan was the last to go past the mammuts.
"What's invisible and smells of peanuts? Mammut farts." Then Ryan waved at them. "Thank you and good day. You've been a wonderful audience."
Once across the river, they continued across the seemingly endless prairie. But, eventually, they saw the tips of a mountain range beginning to rise over the horizon.
"That's the Shieldwall." Said Long Jehan. "It goes almost straight up and there's just one pass through it that I know of. It goes all across the continent. It'd take us months to go around it either to the north or the south. All we can do is go over it."
Long Jehan stood in his saddle. "It looks like it's close to us because the Shieldwall is so high. We're still a good two weeks from the base."
"And there are people who live in those mountains." Lady Kate said. "We'll need to get their permission to cross their mountains."
"What do we know about the people?" Castle asked.
"Nothing." Replied Long Jehan. "The only people I ever met who traveled through the Shieldwall said that they came to a small log barricade across the trail. On it was a sign that said pay or die. But, it didn't say how much to pay, or how to pay. So, they put trade goods out and the next morning some of the trade goods were gone, but the sign was still there. So, they put more trade goods out that they thought they might like and waited overnight. The next morning all the trade goods were gone, but the sign was still there. They put out more trade goods and the next morning the trade goods were gone as was the sign and the log barricade. Some people thought they saw some movement as they rode along the trail, but they never got a look at the people who live in the Shieldwall."
"Could we fight our way through if we had to?" Asked Esposito.
Long Jehan shook his head. "Most of the trail is just big enough to get a wagon through. They, whoever the hell they are, could drop huge boulders down on you from hundreds of feet above you. We'd all die if we tried it."
"Who the hell is they?" Esposito snarled.
Long Jehan shrugged. "Who knows?"
They marched on for another two weeks, watching the Shieldwall slowly grow closer and closer. Eventually, they arrived at the base of the mountains, or perhaps mountain would be a better description.
"How tall is it?" Castle asked, craning his neck to look up to try to see the top of the Shieldwall from the bottom.
"Over fifteen thousand feet from the base to the top." Kate said, offhandedly.
"How does anyone know?"
"Geometry." Kate replied.
"Pardon?" Castle said.
"Ask any military engineer." She said with a smile. "If you know the length on any side or a triangle or two of the angles of the triangle, you can work out the other angles and sides. In this case you take a chain that's five hundred feet long and stretch it out away from the Shieldwall. The Shieldwall is about straight up, so assume the angle at the base is 90 degrees. Then use a spirit level to figure out what zero degrees is along the chain and use a surveyor's transit, like a telescope to measure the angle from the far end of the chain to the top of the Shieldwall. You have a side and two angles. Using geometry, you can figure the height."
"I've seen engineers use that, Baron Castle, at sieges." Ryan said. "It works."
Castle looked up again. "I'm sure it's at least that tall."
"We are about five miles south of the beginning of the pass." Said Long Jehan. "We can stop here for the night and look for the pass tomorrow."
They did find the pass the next day, although it took a bit of looking. The pass was barely wide enough for a wagon to pass.
"Does it get any narrower?" Castle asked.
"People have said they've gotten wagons over the pass." Long Jehan said. "I have no reason to think they'd lie."
"In that case we'd better get started."
"No." Said Lady Kate. "Baron Castle and I will ride ahead and make the arrangements. I believe I can make a better deal that way. I'll take Lotus as well."
Knowing Lady Kate's abilities, no one argued with her, but Castle worried quietly. As he did so, one of the redheads came to him leading a packhorse.
"Baron Castle, I've packed what you'll need for a trip of a few days. You should find everything you need on the horse."
"Thank you…Alana."
The girl smiled and curtsied. "You're most welcome, Baron Castle, however, I am Alyssa."
"Of course, you are." He muttered.
They rode off up the pass and in a few hundred yards, the small pass took a sharp turn and they lost sight of the army camped below. They rode for the entire day, going back and forth on switchbacks until, just as the sun was setting, they came to a wide spot in the path.
TBC