United we Stand – Divided we Fall
Volume II Chapter 2– part 1
Red Town
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Stackspear's lands, 198 A.C., third moon, first fortnight
Summer
Lucas POV
The first leg of their trip was Red Town. It was mostly inhabited by miners, several carpenters, two blacksmiths, a baker and a butcher.
Smaller villages laid in the vicinity. They were all exploiting the most important iron mine from this part of the Haures. The iron mines were House Stackspear's main source of wealth.
The trip to Red Town had been uneventful. The weather was mild, although the more they went north, the highest they climbed. Despite this being summer, the nights were cool.
The Stack had been surrounded by small farms. The ground wasn't exceedingly fertile there, but it was enough for a very small town like the one below the Stack.
Red Town, on the other hand, was the second biggest village and it was only two to three days of march away from the Stack. There were fewer farms and the fields were smaller. The ground had a red tinge that had, no doubt, given the village its name.
Due to the altitude, the forest was in majority made up of poplars, birches and mostly conifers the higher they went. Lucas noticed several parcels where oak trees were planted. It was the first time he encountered a plot of agricultural land dedicated to grow trees on Planetos. It spoke of foresight and well-thought-out resources management.
Their group came across several flocks of sheep and goats, with the shepherd and their dogs following or leading it.
Grange and another guard, Plaut, knew most of the people they encountered. Some were coming back from the eastern part of the Haures, where they were heading. The shephards were able to tell them where it would be easier to cross that river or which shelters had already been repaired from last winter's bad weather.
So far, the mood was quite good and Lucas was feeling confident regarding the survey.
When they arrived at Red Town, Plaut led them to his family's home where they were warmly welcomed.
Plaut's family home was a bit further from the village. His father was one of the two blacksmiths. His activity required a lot of wood and should a fire broke out, it was safer to have the smithy far away from the other houses.
Like on Earth, the smith and his activity were shrouded in mystery around the control of fire and steel. The fact that they lived outside of the village single them out also.
As if that wasn't enough, Plaut's mother was in addition the local midwife – another activity that was the source of many mysteries.
Plaut wasn't the only one who was warmly welcomed by his family, however. His mother prepared a delicious meal for all of them.
Plaut's eldest brother, Cros, was living there too, together with his wife and their two young children. Lucas Mina and the Captain slept in their house, in the dry, after an enjoyable evening and a delicious meal. Knowing the coming fortnights would be spent walking from sunrise to sunset, most of the time without a roof over the head, they enjoyed as much as possible the evening and the night.
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The next morning, they were supposed to pick up one of the local miner, Brett, and set off again, eastwards this time. Red Town was only their first stage.
Their group would be marching five or six days before reaching the area where the survey would begin, crossing two smaller villages on the road.
Brett, the miner didn't show up however, at dawn, like he had agreed to with Grange last night when the latter had found him in the inn, drinking like there were no tomorrow.
"Your miner is most probably sleeping off his ale somewhere" was Cros's scathing comment before he went to the smithy to begin his day of work.
"He wouldn't be drunk for the first day? We are going to walk the whole day!"
"I fear that my son is right, young one. Brett isn't the man he was, once. Since he almost died when a tunnel collapsed… he has been drinking too much. People say he lost part of his mind after being kept in a tunnel for three days last summer."
"Stow, Plaut, go see where Brett is and bring him back" ordered Grange.
The two guards came back a while later, almost carrying the drunk miner who wasn't able to walk on his own.
"By the Seven, he won't be able to follow us if we depart today" was Grange reaction. "Go fetch a bucket of water" he ordered Lucas.
When he came back with the bucket, and looked again at Brett, who was now snoring on the floor, reeking of ale feet away, he wanted to curse him for already delaying them, but knew it was pointless.
Grange seemed to come to the same conclusion as he didn't spray Brett with water in the end.
'We might as well stay here and use the time to prepare ourselves furthermore, rather than drag a comatose drunken man."
Everyone agreed.
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The first noteworthy incident happened five days after their departure from Red Town, the day after Brett was found completely drunk.
The older miner had slept off his ale and Grange had bawled him out well and truly.
Their party had reached the area they would comb in the coming moons.
They had stopped for the night and had already eaten after setting camp for the night in the mountainous regions. The camp was in the vicinity of a small river. The sun had set beyond the horizon but there was still enough luminosity to see. They were around the hearth and the men were happily chattering.
To them, this survey was like an adventure. Should it be successful, they would earn one gold dragon in addition to their wages.
A gold dragon was worth two hundred and ten stags. Four out of the five guards were young. They were paid one stag a moon. Grange was their leader. He was a seasoned guard who always had a witty comeback ready. He earned one stag and four stars a moon.
One single gold dragon was more than they had never owned for themselves.
If the lure of profit wasn't enough, their duty had some: instead of standing guard the whole day or patrolling during most of the night on a wall, they got to see more lands than they ever had and, for the most part, they only had to walk day in and day out – a physical activity that most people would do anyway in Westeros.
The guards' weapon consisted for each of a spear and a shield, except Grange who had a sword and Stow who had, in addition, a bow.
There were several villages spread out where they would rest from time to time and buy what they could not hunt or collect. Working for House Stackspear gave Lucas and Stow the possibility to catch game without exposing themselves to punishment for poaching.
Lucas had called it fringe benefits, but naturally he was the only one laughing at his own joke.
Grange was telling a story and everybody was listening in.
"… she is visiting her sister, he told her. But he had barely said this, that his wife came back and found him with the young widow on his lap!"
The men burst out laughing at Grange's anecdote about Stackspear's tax collector misfortune.
The laughter died when a log was suddenly thrown into the fire. They all turned to look at Brett who was looking seriously at them.
"As much as I like listening to funny stories, I would like to know what we are going to do, now that we have reached the area where you wanted to begin your 'prospecting operations' ".
Brett put enough emphasis on the last words to convey what he really thought about this.
The man was powerfully built, had pale green eyes and despised the Captain, Mina and Lucas from day one. It didn't sit well with him to follow a young boy like Lucas.
Besides, Brett had been complaining about the lack of alcohol the three previous day – the man clearly had a drinking problem.
People suffering the lack of their tankard of ale behaved quite often with violence – so far Lucas and Mina had been able to avoid him. Lucas had shared his thoughts with the Captain and Mina.
The Captain had only grunted, knowing first-hand what drunken men or those in withdrawal were capable of.
Tonight, however, Lucas decided to humour Brett and explained how they would first 'tour' the region to have a general overview before combing through the most interesting areas.
"You are telling me that we are going to do nothing but get to know the lay of the land I already know for at least two moons before really starting to look for the gold mines?"
"Well, if you know where we shall look for it, it will save us two moons, Brett"
Even without meaning to, Lucas' words were laced with sarcasms. He was tired of today's hike and his behaviour was beginning to get on his nerves. As such, his mouth spoke before he was able to remember that this wasn't Earth where he could use dry wit freely.
"How dare you!" Brett jumped to his feet and came abruptly forward. Captain Hook surged at his side, ready to defend his adapted son in the blink of an eye.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down! Both of you!"
Before he was able to react, Grange stood between the Captain and Brett, both arms raised to hinder them from getting closer. The guard had lost his usual cheerful demeanour and was eying Brett with more seriousness than they had ever seen him do.
"Enough. Brett, you are here to observe, nothing less, nothing more. Lord Roger chose Lucas for this, not you. We will be doing it his way. Besides, this has already been approved by Gilrock, the steward, and Maester Corus. We didn't wait for your approval. And you, kid, mind your mouth."
The Captain eyed the adult miner distrustfully.
"No one will threaten myself or my kids. Least of all a drunken, second-class miner."
For an instant, we all stood still, not believing the Captain would say such a thing.
Then, it all happened in a heartbeat.
Brett pushed Grange violently aside and charged at the Captain. The miner tried to rush at him and hit the fisherman. But Captain Hook had been awaiting him and was ready. He avoided the miner's powerful fist and picked up Brett with his famous strong right hook under the jaw.
Brett gave out a short wine, interrupted by a second, not less violent punch to the nose. He fell down, knocked out, on the ground, his nose a mess.
They all looked surprised at the Captain. He wasn't one to provoke others normally. Or to strike so viciously.
The four other guards stood around us, the Captain and Brett in the middle.
"Well" began Grange as he came nearer and took Brett's pulse "at least he won't complain about the lack of alcohol tonight." The seriousness was quickly leaving his face but it came back when he stood up and turned towards the Captain.
"You did it on purpose, didn't you?"
"Better he takes it on me than on the children. I can manage him."
The night's normal noises came back to our ears before one of the guards, Stow, our only bowman, broke it.
"At least, now, we know why you get that nickname."
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Grange took Brett apart the next day and spoke with him while the latter cleaned his face of the blood and snot that had dried during the night.
What Grange told the man, Lucas never got to know, but it proved to be effective as there wasn't any more similar situation in the following fortnights.
After this little incident, Grange made sure to always put at least one guard between the Captain, Mina or Lucas and Brett, who from then on, would always bring up the rear.
For two moons, they walked from sunrise to sunset. Lucas would draw the main features of the land on the slabs, as well as any relevant pieces of information about the geology and the natural resources.
He had decided, together with Grange and Plaut's approval, to comb through the land in a south to north direction until they reach House Stackspear's common border with House Banefort, then go a bit eastward and south again. The aim was to avoid staying at the border as much as possible and camp as far as possible from it as well.
At first, Lucas thought the survey would be easier thanks to the maps House Stackspear provided them with and that the mapping part wouldn't be taking too much of their time. He thought he would just fill the maps in.
How wrong of him, he thought more than once.
The maps very quickly turned to be full of errors and incoherences. Not surprising, in hindsight, but it irritated him nonetheless to have lost half a fortnight before he just dumped the copies they were given.
He used two rigid wooden sticks of approximately two feet five inches for the first one, and one foot two point five inches for the second to measure or scale everything.
Why a stick of this dimension, asked Grange, one evening?
"Because it is approximately the length of a step from an adult man. This way, I can link the number of steps Stow is counting with the height of mountains or the distance to distant places where we don't go."
Stow was the second son of a travelling merchant's. As such, he had learnt how to count as a lad.
Lucas used the time with Mina to teach her as much as possible. He explained her Thales' and Pythagoras' theorems, fraction, percentage and dozen more things on a wide variety of subjects. Already, she was drawing on the slabs and annotating it with his observations. When there was nothing to do, he would ask her to spell some words or we would speak with her in Russian, much to the Captain's amusement.
Pat, the youngest guard, who spoke the Old Tongue as well, was curious and would often listen in. It entertained him. Mina asked him to teach him the Old Tongue when Lucas was busy with the maps. She had a knack for learning languages.
Captain Hook was slowly healing his "faith crisis" – Lucas didn't know how to call it aside from that. Together with Lomas, the fifth guard, they would pray each day to the Seven.
One evening, Lucas asked Stow if he could try his bow. He had used one back on Earth, and even built several with James, his nephew. It seemed a good idea to know how to use a bow in a place like Westeros. Learning how to wield a sword would take years and there was no way that he, a simple miner, would have the time, the occasion nor the required sword to learn how to wield one, nor had he the coin to buy one – except, that is, if he was successful in finding gold on Lord Roger's lands.
Stow was quite happy to show him and 'teach' Lucas how to shoot arrows. Even though he had been quite good in his previous life, he had to train again his body and build muscle as well as callus.
It became Lucas entertainment, after a day of hiking and mapping, to shoot several arrows and try to catch something bigger than hares.
After a moon of survey, Lucas began doing some calculus after setting camp, using the observations and the samples accumulated. It would help in the following days to know what they should be looking for or what they had encountered during the last time they were in the vicinity.
The region was still mostly untouched. At the beginning they would sometimes come upon a sheepfold or a shed, but the higher they went into the mountains to the east, the further they were from any villages.
The Stackspears' vassals were mostly located along their overlord's border with neighbouring fiefs.
The knightly House that was controlling the lands at the eastern extremity, House Chevrick, was bordering the lands of House Yawick, Lord Roger's eastern neighbours with whom he had good relations.
It was however further east than they would go. The centre of House Stackspear's lands were almost empty of human's presence because there were few edible natural resources.
Grange was in fact the nephew of Ser Chewrick through his mother. As a third son, he had chosen to become a guard for his overlord and he had told Lucas that should this mission be successful, he might be considered to succeed the holdfast's captain or at least become his second in command.
It helped explain why Grange was doing his upmost to help him in his quest, he thought.
They crossed several secluded valleys where they didn't encounter anyone, or any trace of civilisation. It reminded Lucas of his surveying missions in Canada or the one he had done in Mongolia when he was thirty-five.
The higher they went, the colder were the nights. Mina and Captain Hook thanked Lucas for his foresight profusely. Being the one that dragged them into this place, he felt it was the least he could do.
The two guards who hadn't listened to his advice back at the Stack purchased warmer clothes when they found some in a secluded village, after several cold nights spent freezing.
More than once, the ropes Lucas had purchased proved to be necessary to cross a river or to go down a rocky slope.
Wildlife was to be considered too. Their party came across several tracks from bears. Their sizes let no room for imagination regarding the beasts' corpulence. There were feline tracks too.
"What have you found?"
Lucas stood up and showed Pat, the tracks he had just stumbled upon.
Pat looked at it but didn't understand the young miner's worries.
"Come, I will explain." They went back to the group where the rest of the group was gathered for the midday break.
"We will have to be particularly careful tonight" he began. "We are crossing a pride of lions' territory. At least a dozen adults."
"Do you think they could attack us?"
Brett laughed at Mina's expenses.
"Lions don't attack parties. They are afraid of men. Young women however… or the cook…"
Since several days, he was making jokes about the fact that the Captain was making our supper together with Mina.
It was, in fact, to help as the Captain had felt useless at first, not having any surveying knowledge, nor being of help should a fight happen.
The other reason was, this way, he could stay with Mina and make sure none of the guards tried anything funny. Except for Brett, they had mostly behaved, well, at least to this society standards. There were crude jokes and comments I found uncalled, even more with an eleven nameday old girl. But non tried anything else, fortunately.
No doubt Captain Hook knocking out Brett had helped them get the message.
"It is no laughing matters, Brett. To the best of my knowledge, lions can attack us, especially at night, when they are hungry. There are few games for then to hunt. We will need to stock up on wood and stand watch. From now on, two of us stand watch simultaneously."
Brett opened his mouth to mock Lucas but Grange told him to shut it and enjoy his last small cask of ale.
Half a fortnight ago, they had reached a small village where Grange and Lucas had purchased several items they couldn't find in the wild. Naturally, Brett had used the occasion to buy quite a quantity of ale and to get drunk. Once again, they had to delay their departure and Grange had had to limit the number of casks, not wanting to overload the mule with too much weight, nor to see Brett drunk again.
That night, and the five nights afterwards, everyone heard the lions roar but never saw them.
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A fortnight later, they were done with the first part of the mission.
They had reached the end of the survey area. Lucas had a detailed overview of the region and felt confident about the presence of gold.
"How do you know there won't be gold further east?" asked Grange, when they made a pause to eat some dry meat around midday.
Lucas looked at Brett, wanting to know if he would want to answer, despite knowing he probably wouldn't – and to remind him he was the one who was knowledgeable. Not subtle, but the man had started complaining again about having to follow a smooth-cheeked boy.
Brett pretended not to hear.
"Gold can be found only in some type of ground only. Like the one we have been surveying for three moons, until last fortnight. This one, however" he said, pointing out the earth "is different. This geological layer isn't one where one would find gold."
"But you said the geo…logical layers you were looking for was most probably below the surface?" asked Pat.
Lucas was surprised he remembered this, as he had explained it almost two moons ago, when he had requested to make a break so that he could rappel down a cliff to observe an anticline fold.
"Are you seriously telling us we could have been going back a fortnight ago?" Brett jumped to his feet, angered, not pretending anymore to check his bag.
The Captain stood straight away by Lucas' side and once again, Grange found himself between both men.
"Shut up, Brett! And stop acting like a moron. If you have a problem with Lucas 'method, you are welcome to come with us to the Stack and tell Steward Gilrock your mind. But if I hear one more word from you regarding the way Lucas plan his survey, I'll make sure Lord Roger know just how reliable you are."
Grange had had to put his foot down when Brett had tried, at the beginning of the survey, to rise the other guards against Lucas, Mina and the Captain. He had threatened Brett to let Lord Roger know what happened at Red Town and the again when they slept at the small village a fortnight ago.
Brett moved away, cursing.
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"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
A bloodcurdling scream awoke Lucas and his comrade abruptly the next night. It was pitch black and the person in charge of standing guard had let the fire almost die.
It was the new moon, no light was coming from the sky.
"What's't?" asked one of the guards.
The noise coming from Lucas' left turned his blood to ice. He could somehow make out several animals moving around us.
"We are attacked" shouted one of the guards, Pat, probably.
Lucas reacted almost on instinct. He grabbed what was left of the kindling that he had placed near his feet, beside the fireplace, and threw it in the dying embers. The fire came alive again after several seconds that seemed to last forever. Besides him, the men and Mina were standing up, the guards clutching their spears blindly.
The fire illuminated a frightening sight. Several lionesses were around one unmoving human body. Their muzzles were red with blood. The yellow-red colours of the flames gave it a nightmarish tinge, the eyes of the lioness twinkling in the darkness.
"Stow is missing!" shouted someone.
"Form a line!" shouted Grange. "Together, forward!" he yelled.
The four guards move towards the felines, Grange behind them as he didn't have a spear but a sword. While they threatened the animals with their spears and forced them back, Lucas threw several logs into the fireplace and alighted two torches made of small branches.
He ran to Brett, Mina and the Captain who were standing against the cliff that they had used earlier to shelter themselves from the wind with only a long knife.
"Take!" Lucas gave Mina and Brett the kindles before he rushed back to the fireplace and alighted a third torches. He went to the guards who had reached their comrade's unmoving body. The lioness were unhappy to leave their bloody meal but the spears had helped in that regard.
"Lucas, take Stow back to the fireplace!" shouted Grange while hindering a lioness to attack them from the side.
As he went to Stow's unmoving form, Lucas tripped over something he hadn't seen in the shadow. One of the lionesses pounced on him, seeing the boy on the ground, but Pat hit it full flight with his spear. The beast landed, wounded, at his side and it was only Pat's shield that saved Lucas. The guard planted it between them and the lioness and yelled:
"Step back, Lucas!"
He did as told and went back to Stow's body. As he lighted it up, Lucas almost threw up. The beasts had cut his throat with their powerful teeth. Stow's expression was one of horror. His eyes were screaming his fear at being attacked in his sleep and his mouth, wide open, would never close. Blood was coating his thick blond hair. Several parts of his arms were bitten and his liver had already been eaten.
"LUCAS!" yelled Grange, pulling him out of his trance like state.
Lucas' eyes snapped back to Stow's body and to his bow, resting besides him.
He grabbed the bow and the arrows and drew the body towards the fireplace. The four remaining guards retreated back to the now roaring fireplace; their spears still pointed at the wild beasts.
Lucas knocked an arrow and shot the closest one. It roared in pain.
The cliff was at their back, the four guards formed a wall of spear and shield on one side and the fireplace protected the other side.
The adrenaline was high. The lioness were trying a last attempt despite two animals being injured.
Lucas continued to shoot one arrow after the other. After the fourth, the lioness retreated back, several of them limping. The beasts were so close that he hadn't missed one single shot despite the darkness.
Even when the lionesses had finally disappeared, nobody tried to sleep again.
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The sun was had not yet rose from the horizon.
As he looked at the Captain, Lucas noticed how he looked paler than normal. While it wasn't that surprising after this night attack, Lucas was quite sure the Captain hadn't been as much affected when Harmond had died.
Lucas took advantage at some point when they were alone to ask him how he felt.
The Captain - the man who had been steadfast throughout all their journey, looked at him, visibly pondering if he should speak his mind or not.
"Please, Oly, I can see something is bothering you."
Oly was the Captain's first name. Only Mina and I used it, and only when there wasn't anybody else around.
Lucas thought at first that it had to do with Oly's faith.
"It should have been me" he whispered.
He took Lucas several heartbeats to understand what he was refereeing to. He felt unease grasp him.
"Why would you say that?"
He stiffened before almost whispering with a rasping voice.
"I was on standing watch when Stow came up to me. He couldn't sleep and offered me to watch on my stead. I was tired from the day's efforts and accepted."
Lucas stood motionless for what felt like eternity but probably was only a very short time before putting his small hand on his shoulder.
Nothing he would say would help.
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