Chương 205: Day Two Hundred And Three

Dear Diary, Someday I'm gonna have my shit together. Not get blindsided time after time by the same shit in a different toilet. But today is not that day. Tomorrow's not looking good either. So with everybody from the farm we stayed at packed into the farmhouse proper, and the bunkhouses for the hands filled with Volunteers, all the Expedition troops had to rough it in pup tents. We handed over a few head of cattle, and the farm's kitchen sent cauldron after cauldron of hot stew out to our encampment.

Given how everybody inside was packed in, with everybody low key panicked about the Plague, that seemed like a decent compromise. With no space for our troops to sleep indoors, I made the call that none of us would bump people out of the farmhouse. Rosen looked a little cranky about that, but Lancaster, of all people, told him to get his ass in a tent or he'd be sleeping under the snow.

Just as I sat my ass down on my shield, using my pack as a backrest, ready to spoon up some stew, Saffron asked, will you be coming home tonight, love? I thought about it for a half second, desperately wanting to, but eventually my grown up won out and I replied, Sorry, Kitten. Everybody's outside tonight. The wind chill is kind of a bitch, too; we're having to camp in the lee of snowdrifts just to keep things warm enough we won't freeze our asses and wake up dead. What's the situation like there?

Local volunteers filling the bunkhouses, farm family and hands filling the farmhouse, but safety-wise we're pretty okay. What about Plague? I hadn't even stopped to think about it. Haven't checked. I think my brain is fuckin' frozen.

"Well, I can't have that now, can I?" I looked up to see her standing there in the fur coat I'd left in our room. Her torso bulged out, wriggled, and then the menace popped out and leapt on me, shouting, "mama!" The troops around us heard that. A few of them caught sight of Isnomi pouncing on me and let out a weak but heartfelt cheer that rippled through the encampment.

"Hey, Menace. You taking good care of the Academy while Mom and I are out here working?" I snuggled her close, trying to settle her in a spot where the wind wouldn't hit her directly. She, of course, loved the snuggle, but then pushed herself away to answer me.

"Mawee an I tate good ca of 'cademee!" She looked so serious about it I just kinda melted. Saffron stepped behind me, then my fur coat settled across my shoulders. A moment later she picked up the menace, then sat down in my lap, pulling the coat around both of them. I have no idea how I managed to avoid spilling stew all over both of them, but after a few moments of jostling, we were all inside the coat, with one of my arms through one sleeve and one of Saffron's through the other.

I held my bowl of stew in my free hand, and she held the spoon in hers. She took her time feeding me, while the menace, after taking one spoonful of stew, decided to fuck off and run around visiting the rest of the expedition.

"She's absolutely fearless, isn't she?" murmured Saffron. I hugged her closer with my fur-coat-sleeved arm.

"She's not exactly helpless, Kitten. Not to mention pretty much everybody in the expedition would kill someone for looking cross-eyed at her, what with her wolves taking several hits that would have done for them instead."

"To think. Four months ago, on the Equinox, she could just barely crawl around, could only scream when that bitch stole her." A savage grin stretched across her face.

"I would rather she be the danger than be in danger."

"Amen to that, Kitten." We shared stew and watched as Isnomi visited each and every pup tent, collecting hugs and occasional bites of stew as her just due. Eventually she came back to us, grinning like an idiot. A smug, self-satisfied, gloriously cute little idiot.

"Hey, Menace. You say hi to all your friends?"

"Ya!" She looked around, then back to me, as if she'd just thought of something.

"Wuff go home?" I nodded.

"Yeah, they all went home. They helped us through the forest, then helped us kill some wyverns that tried to eat us. We left them the meaty bits of the wyverns and the dragon, so I think they'll do okay through the winter."

"Good." She nodded, her expression delightfully serious in that way only toddlers can pull off. Then she wormed her way in between Saffron and the mostly empty stew bowl.

"Thtoo!" She grabbed Saffron's hand and scooped the last couple spoonfuls into her maw, Saffron helping by keeping her hand on the spoon the whole time. Once it was empty, I grabbed up some snow, wiped the bowl and spoon mostly clean with it, and stuffed them both back in the top of my pack. The three of us settled in under the coat to watch fat, fluffy flakes of snow drift down from the sky. After about half an hour something clicked, and I muttered, "snow, snow, and more fuckin' snow. Does it ever not snow here?"

Saffron laughed, and Isnomi joined in.

"It's winter, Goof. It snows in winter." Doesn't it snow in the winter where you're from? I shrugged. Maybe once or twice a winter, and it never sticks around. Mostly it's just cold rain. That sounds awful. After a bit of pondering, I nodded. Yeah, pretty much. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Isnomi chose that moment to chime in with, "ya, Mama. Thnow ith fun!" I shook my head, but said, "yeah, I guess you're right, Menace.

Been a long time since I got to play in snow."

"Play?" I shook my head again.

"Sorry, kiddo. Momma's too beat to do much of anything. Marching in this shi... snow really takes it out of you."

"Mama gone get gwounded." That got me laughing for a bit. By the time the laughter died down my tentmate for the night came back from making sure all the troops were bedded down with enough shelter not to freeze to death overnight. Saffron looked up and asked, "Sergeant Vivian?"

"Yes, Imperator?"

"Would you mind awfully if your tent had some extra visitors tonight?" The sergeant chewed the air for a second, looking for something to say, then chuckled and said, "I really hope I don't keep you up by snoring. Or if I do, I hope I don't wind up going to the gallows for it." Saffron put on her most regal look and replied, "I would never. Flogging is sufficient for such an offense." Vivian just smiled and said, "I thought you were married?" Saffron dissolved into laughter at that.

"What do you think, Menace? Wanna camp out with Mom, Momma, and Sergeant Vivian tonight?" Obviously Isnomi was all for it. Once Vivian finished her own dinner, with the menace only stealing a couple bites, we all crawled into the tent. With so many bodies, it warmed up to a nice temp for sleeping pretty fast, but while Isnomi went out like a light, and Vivian started snoring shortly after, I just couldn't drift off at first. What's wrong, Goof? I'm not sure, I...

then I realized what it was and, with a quiet chuckle, thought, I miss Marie. I'm afraid she wouldn't likely fit in here by herself, let alone with the other four of us. Fair point. Good night, Kitten. Good night, Goof. Mimic dreamed of moss and mist. We woke to the kind of bright morning that only comes when everything is covered with white, reflective snow. Vivian beat us out of the tent, but Saffron and I weren't far behind.

She stood up on tiptoe, kissed me thoroughly, and then held Isnomi up for a kiss goodbye.

"With all the people here, you might want to Cure everyone who needs it, set up a cordon from this road, what with all the manpower here for it and Lancaster House so close."

"Sounds like a plan. Wait, how do you know Lancaster house is close?" She nodded to the west, where a taller hill than most of the farm buildings had been built on dominated the near skyline. The upper half of it showed more rock than dirt; I guess at some point we'd hit mountain territory, despite so much of it being cleared for farms and ranches. Someone had built a house into the side of the hill.

For a moment it reminded me of all the farms we'd seen; one main farmhouse building with two outbuildings for farm hands. Then something clicked, and I realized what I'd taken for small windows were actually barn sized doors; the actual windows glittered, made tiny by distance.

"Wow."

"Wow indeed." She sighed.

"With that, I'm off to drop Isnomi with Marie and head back to Newark."

"I thought you'd moved on to New Amsterdam?" She shook her head, "Newark's Curing is done, and we've partially lifted the quarantine to let food shipments flow through Newark's docks, but the quarantine is still in full effect for New Amsterdam. Just... so many people." I pulled her close and held her.

"I believe in you, Saffron Aetos."

"And I you, Tabitha Diaz. Be well, take care of Lancaster House, and whether it be threatened by Plague or Calverton or both... rack 'em up." I gave her and the menace one more kiss goodbye, and then they were gone. I stepped over to Larry and said, "I know you want to get to Lachlan as quick as you can, but Saffron had a good thought; if we Cure everyone who needs it here, we can set this farm up as the first point in a quarantine cordon around Lancaster House.

The sooner we get something like that in place, the sooner we can start systematically eradicating the Plague from the area." Larry closed his eyes, sighed, and said, "I... I love my brother. But he would be the first to tell me. Duty first. Duty before anything. The Imperator is completely correct, Commander. I ask only that we complete the task as quickly as we can safely do."

"You got it, Larry." I put my hands to my mouth and hollered, "Cadets! Rally on me!" When they'd gathered, I glanced around, sizing people up, trying to remember who was good at what.

"Okay, Bonita, Fred, take our volunteers and start working on a blockade or gatehouse across the road. The Volunteers in the bunkhouses will man it once we're gone, but I think our guys are in better shape. Rosen, Rider, Raven, you three take the North bunkhouse; Assess everyone, Cure any that need it, line everyone who needs Healing up inside, send everyone that doesn't out to help Fred and Bonnie. Bill, Carruthers, Angel, you guys do the same in the South bunkhouse.

Larry, you're with me; we'll take the main house, then swing around and I'll take care of any Healing that needs to be done." Lancaster nodded, but said, "I doubt I can pour as much Mana into it as you, but I am familiar with the Heal Injury spell as well; if I've any Mana left after the farmhouse, I'll take as many of the South bunkhouse as I can while you work the North bunkhouse?"

"Sounds good. I guess those pricey tutors got something right, huh?" Everyone laughed at that, even Larry, and I finished up with, "okay, Cadets, get a move on! We're burning daylight, and we want to be sleeping inside Lancaster House by dark!" I don't know how, but everything basically went according to plan. The Volunteers were used to being told what to do and doing it, and if they weren't used to someone burning Mana to Cure them when they got sick, they certainly weren't going to complain about it.

The folks in the farmhouse might not have been quite that agreeable, but with Larry fuckin' Lancaster himself telling them what to do, they shut up and did. By noon we'd gotten the entire place Cured and cleared of Plague, and an ever-expanding cordon stretching out to the sides.

They seemed to get it, that they were to keep anyone from going in or out until they got word otherwise, and the folks from the farm seemed more than willing to billet them, since that meant they had a few hundred armed men to make sure nobody got grabby with them. The last leg of our journey, the march to Lancaster House, was both easy and hard. Easy, because the roads had already been stomped flat, the snow overnight only adding a few inches that we crunched under our boots.

Hard, because the packed snow was a little slippery, and every step we took was either down into the one remaining valley or up the far side, Lancaster House growing bigger with every step. We entered the massive courtyard between the two huge four story 'bunkhouses', staring up at Lancaster House itself, a six story fortress built right into the side of the hill, just as the sun dipped behind that hill. In the gathering dusk, a single man came out the door carrying a light; when he saw us, he sprinted towards us.

Dark-haired and dark-eyed, he wore a fancy outfit I almost couldn't place; right before he reached us I realized it looked a lot like the suit Raven had drawn me in for the 'wedding picture'. Fancy clothes or not, the dude managed to keep his feet despite slipping and sliding at least three times between the door and us. I'd stepped up next to Lancaster as we entered the courtyard, and so I was right there when the dude slid to a stop, grabbed at Larry's arm, and said, "Master Lancaster! Thank the Gods you're here.

Your brother is upon his deathbed, and wishes to speak with you before he passes from this world." If it ain't one goddamned thing it's another. But that's why they pay us the big bucks and call us Heroes, right?