The Chieftain's Daughter

Despite the warming weather, there was still a great deal of snow on the ground around, piled up in drifts against roundhouses and thrown across the farmer's freshly ploughed fields like a moth-eaten blanket.

Camouflaged against the snow, it was all but impossible to find any yarrow. I'd been out nearly all day, but standing now atop the hill that marked the very outskirts of the village, I was disappointed to admit that I'd be returning to Cassie empty-handed.

I knew there might be some yarrow down below. Perhaps in the forest that had appeared at the bottom of the slope with this morning's tide, but I dared not risk it. Even Dincun and Hamon, who I could see down there doing their rounds, dared not venture into the wood. They strayed close, spears in hand, but they spent more time babbling to each other than watching for threats.

Perhaps if they'd been more attentive, the giant wouldn't have needed to work so hard to get their attention.

He emerged from the brush perhaps twenty yards behind them and turned his gaze towards the two young men as he stepped out into the sun. Though I saw his mouth move, the words did not carry far enough for me to hear.

It looked as if he were dressed to travel, though the oddness of his attire made it hard to be sure. His footwear looked to be leather, though the boots ended at the ankle. Either that or the dark blue trousers he wore covered their tops. His tunic, though so short it ended at the waist, was a drab green that blended in with the greenery behind him. His face was bare. It was like that of a woman or child, though his features made clear that neither was the case. Short brown hair, well kept, gave further evidence that he was someone of means. There were perhaps one or two garments as refined as what the giant wore in the whole of the village, and I did not wear my delicate blue dress to travel.

The pack he wore was small, made smaller by comparison to his enormous frame. It would have been fitting for a poorer man, with space only for a blanket and one or two possessions, but I would have expected someone as well dressed as this to have a bedroll, even a tent as well. Furthermore, where were his companions, servants, was he alone out here?

Ignored by the two distracted sentries, the giant spoke again, and this time his short call of "Hey," carried up the hill.

The two sentries damn near jumped out of their skin, and Hamon almost dropped his spear. The two whirled to face the giant and were stunned into silence.

The giant waved and said something that did not carry before nodding towards the hill.

Whatever was said, it shocked the two men out of their fugue. Dincun broke and ran, his spear forgotten in the grass. Hamon seemed ready to stand and fight, but suddenly finding himself alone against the goliath, hurled his spear before sprinting after Dincun.

The giant stepped aside before the spear reached him, and gazed after the fleeing men with evident disinterest.

Neither spared the breath to shout, but both waved their arms in broad sweeping gestures, as if I hadn't seen the exchange, and needed a warning.

The two of them ran past, short of breath from the ascent, and Hamon did not slow as he rasped, "Come on Aldy, we need to warn the village."

Neither looked back to see if I was following, instead pelting across the field towards the centre of town.

The giant bent to retrieve one of the spears, and as he did, I saw the axe strapped across his back. It was next to the pack and on the opposite side was some other such weapon. Though I couldn't make sense of the strange black thing, I knew an axe when I saw one. The haft was taller than most men, and he'd taken the care to cover the blade with a stitched piece of leather.

He did not seem impressed by the weapon and threw it aside without a second thought.

The man turned, sweeping his gaze across the hill as he did until his eyes fell upon me. And then he began to climb. He took his time, nothing about him giving the idea that he was in any sort of hurry, but it was plain to see that he was headed straight for me.

I thought to run, but only for a moment. Who knew which of us he might run across next. Short of my father, I was the only one in the village in a position to speak on behalf of all of us. The giant hadn't hurt either of the sentries, even though he'd every right after Hamon had thrown his spear, perhaps he could be reasoned with.

I straightened my dress and smoothed the folds of cloth, and hoped that the giant was too busy watching his footing to notice.

It was only once he made the final few steps up the hill to stand before me that I truly realized how enormous he was. I'd travelled to other villages, met the families of other chiefs, and never had I seen anyone as tall and broad as my father. At six feet, Cassie was close, but the giant was another thing altogether.

I should have run.

"Afternoon," the giant said by way of greeting, in a deep, hollow-sounding voice, "I'm Wallace."

I hesitated for a moment, fearful that I'd stutter, "Welcome, Wallace, my name is Aldith."

"Thanks for not throwing anything at me Aldith, really appreciate it."

"Um- Yes, I'm very sorry about that, they meant no offence. They were simply startled."

"Don't worry about it," the giant replied, finally lifting his eyes from me to gaze across the plateau, "Friend of mine said there was a castle around here. I just thought I'd say hi."

"Are you from close by?"

Wallace nodded, "There's a fortress a ways that way," he explained, gesturing with a thumb, "You'd have seen the top of it if we were a few miles closer. I was hoping I might meet whoever's in charge around here."

"That would be my father," I explained, "Ah," I went on a little nervously, "Do you speak for the chieftain of this fortress?"

"I am the chieftain of the fortress."

"Perhaps maybe then you should speak to my father?" I all but squeaked.

"Lead the way."

A single horn blast sounded as we approached the town's walls, and no one moved to close the gate.

"One blast, what does that signal?" Wallace asked, speaking for the first time since we'd begun walking.

"Returning villagers", I told him. Though I had to repeat myself, as it came out a little strangled the first time.

Though he'd not been the slightest bit aggressive, indeed, was even keeping a respectable distance, I could do nothing to still my hammering heart. It was hard enough, remaining outwardly calm, acting as a good representative of the village at the best of times. Now here I was escorting a chieftain to see my father. A chieftain that was the most formidable man I'd ever seen, let alone heard of.

Even the heroes in old Magdith's stories would baulk at the sight of this man.

The same could be said for the others in the village. While it seemed like most of the town was in attendance, they watched from their roundhouses, or crowded within the gate, giving us both a wide berth.

A runner met us just outside the wall, and we exchanged hushed words before he went running back up to my family's longhouse.

"What was that about?"

"He's just letting my father know you're here to talk to him, that's all," I assured him.

Wallace seemed to take an interest in everything he saw. It reminded me of Cassie's first visit to the village. His eyes flitted here and there. People would withdraw as his gaze swept across their houses, inspecting the walls, the thatched rooves, before darting to the next thing. The well, then the gate, and on to the walls. He seemed to count each of the trunks that made up the wall, considering the earthworks to judge their strength, before flicking up to the platform where more villagers stood ready with spears. Then inwards, through the gate, and up to the longhouse and the earthen ramp behind.

Wallace grimaced, "Where's the castle?"

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"The castle, I was told there was one."

I nodded stiffly towards the hill at the back of the village. We'd already put up the first layer of walls, though construction on the bailey had long since ground to a halt, "Just there behind the longhouse, we're still working on it," I insisted.

Wallace regarded the bailey to be with a flat expression and sighed, "Simon thinks he's funny."

The runner had hardly made it into the longhouse before emerging again. Once again, he came running down the hill to whisper in my ear.

Strictly speaking, he should be delivering his message to Wallace, speaking clearly and openly. I gritted my teeth as I listened to his message, very good for him, the coward, to let me deal with this giant.

The runner retreated, and I turned back to Wallace.

"My father just needs a moment, maybe, um-" I looked around the crowd, hoping to spot someone who might be willing to play host for however long it would take father to consult with the others about what to do with the new visitor.

Thankfully, Cassie's intervention saved me the embarrassment, as people beat a hasty retreat.

"Hey, hey big guy," I heard Cassie call, and the two of us turned to see him stomping up the path to the front gate.

"Cassie, this is Wallace, Wallace, Cassie," I put in hurriedly.

Wallace extended a hand, and Cassie took it.

Wallace raised an eyebrow, "Cassie?"

"Easier than Cassius, everyone calls me Cassie or Shaper."

"Shaper?"

Cassie tilted his head back the way he'd come, "Maybe we, uh?"

"Sure, waiting to talk to the chieftain anyways," Wallace agreed.

Cassie turned to me, "Hey, thanks Aldy. We'll just be at the mill."

"Oh, okay," I said, trying not to let my disappointment at being uninvited from the conversation show.

Playing guide to the foreign chieftain might be terrifying, but being cut out seemed somehow worse.

With the two men going off to Cassie's mill, I felt suddenly out of place. Alone, and surrounded by curious faces, I hurried out of the throng and into the maze of houses.

Staying in the houses, I caught up with Wallace and Cassie and kept pace with them until they reached the mill. Once they were safely inside, I emerged from the buildings. I bent low and crept around to a window at the rear of the mill.

"You live here?" I heard the giant ask.

"In the mill? Yeah," Cassie replied, "It's a little loud, but at least it's clean. I sleep up on the second floor, keeps the creepy crawlies off me."

"Fair. Did you do some work on the roof? Or was it tiled before you got here?"

"I made the tiles, that's the kiln over there. I run the bellows off the windmill, saves me the trouble of doing it myself. Besides, thatch is a bitch to maintain. And the less I'm up four stories climbing around outside, the better."

"I was gonna say, seems more like a blacksmith's shop in here than anything else."

"I still mill grain, but yeah, been apprenticing under the smith here since day one. I mean how the fuck else am I going to make life bearable?"

"I'll be honest. Until I saw the inside of this place, I wasn't sure these guys even had metal. After the one idiot threw a stone spear at me, I was half expecting to find a bunch of cavemen."

"Dude, they only just discovered agriculture. As in, like, their great grand-daddy was the first generation to settle down and try planting shit. You know what this place is called?"

"The village?"

"No, the mill. It's called 'The First Mill', you know why?"

"Are you about to tell me this is the first mill they ever-"

"Yup."

"Man."

"Yup."

There was a pause, and then Cassie spoke again, "You seem real chill about all this. I take it this isn't your first day?'

"No, been here a couple of weeks. I got lucky, ended up near a city-"

"City?" Cassie urged, "What the hell kind of city? Are we talking twice as many mud huts, or some steel and glass?"

"Not a ton of steel, not a ton of glass, it's more Napoleonic era, if I had to guess," Wallace explained, "Early steam power, but pre-industrial revolution, that sort of thing."

"Holy fuck man," Cassie breathed, "If you can get me to this city, man, I don't know, I'd find some way to pay you back."

Though I couldn't see the giant's face, a frown crept into his tone, "You couldn't be convinced to stay?"

"Fuck no," Cassie said flatly, "I've been here two fucking years. If I have to do another, I'm gonna hang myself."

I felt my stomach drop, and I had to cover my mouth to keep them from hearing my muffled sobs.

"Two years? How? The city's only a couple days that way, how haven't you run into the hotel? Hell, go a couple miles south, and you'd probably see it. Not to mention, how long has the village been here?"

"Ah, see that's the thing, you only got fucked once, I bet. You're walking along, then poof, green mist, welcome to wonderland?"

"Yeah, I mean I got hit by a dump truck, but pretty much."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, don't worry, the dump truck was fine."

"Damn, well, okay, guess I don't have a monopoly on getting screwed. But I got the green mist treatment twice. First time dropped me off near this village, and after I convinced the locals not to stab me with their caveman spears, I got a job working for the smith. I don't know if blacksmith is even the right term because they've got no iron. Jesus, dude, was amazed when I told him how to make bronze. I had this big plan. I was gonna save up some money working for the old man, then head for the city. Villagers never really liked me anyway, they're not big on outsiders. Only reason the smith was cool with me was his kid had died, and he wasn't about to teach his daughter the trade. But there was a problem."

"This was it, wasn't it?" Wallace guessed, "This was the city."

"Smart guy. Yeah, this was fucking it. A bunch of mud huts with straw roofs. Then six months back we get hit again, whole village, not just me. After that, life got a bit better. People didn’t hate on me so much, guess their priorities got adjusted, and now and then we’d find stuff. Hasn’t been anything life changing, but now and then someone will spot something in the distance and we’ll go check it out. What about you? Where are you from? What were you doing before all this?"

"Canada, I was doing software development."

"A fellow nerd. I was going to UC-Berkley. I was in the robotics program. Now I'm here. You're telling me someone on this rock has steam power? That I can work with."

"Alright, I get why you don't want to stay."

"Man, there's nothing for me here, why would I?"

I covered my face with my hands, That's not true.

"You've figured out the tides, I take it?" the giant asked.

I gritted my teeth. Everything was fine until he showed up. Cassie had never said such awful things before today. He'd always been so polite, even when the others were cold to him, he'd do whatever he could to help out. And now this creature arrives, and it's as if Cassie is a different person.

"Yeah, if you're not above the high water mark you're fucked. If you're lucky, sometimes interesting stuff gets dropped off after it rolls through."

"Right, so Cole's notes version. There's three cities out there, each one about four days from either of the others, jumping from high point to high point."

"This is on foot?"

"Or horseback, yeah. But you've noticed that once a week-"

"Gas giant eclipses the sun, and the tide doesn't happen," Cassie finished.

"Exactly, and you can travel further during The Long Night- That's what the locals call it," Wallace added, "Locals use it to try scouting new safe zones, but a friend and I used it to find a safe zone that's usually out of reach."

"This the hotel you mentioned? Man, I would cut off my arm for a hot shower and hotel sheets."

"Yeah, and it's something of a fortress. The mist didn't just grab the building. It also grabbed about thirty or forty feet of concrete below it, it's a little over nine acres, assuming my math is right."

"You're consolidating power," Cassie realized.

"Yeah, if anyone from one of the three cities wants to do anything on this side of the mountains, they've got to pass through the hotel's safe zone. They've got their little network of safe zones on their side. I'm trying to put together one of my own over here."

"And the village is the first one?"

"Eh, sorta. There's this Disney main street type thing to the west, but there's someone there already holding on to it. I got a tipoff about this place though, thought I'd come by and check it out."

"You want to outnumber this other guy two to one?"

"I want to outnumber him one to one," the giant explained, and I began to get a sinking feeling, "Six months you said, you figure the magic yet?"

"Two years," Cassie corrected, "And yeah, I haven't told anyone else, but it's why they call me Shaper. They just figure I'm a good smith."

"Ah, hold on, you had magic after the first time you got swept up?"

"Yeah, that so weird? I mean, weirder than anything else?"

"Maybe? I don't know. Maybe it's a big revelation. Maybe it's not a huge deal. It's just none of the worlds anyone else has come from had magic. For the rest of the people here, this is the first they've heard of it. But that's not the point. The point is the hotel is kinda short-staffed at the moment. I don't even know how much food we could grow in the area we have. There's more space not up on the block, but who knows if it's any good for farming or what our yield would be like."

"Mmm, I see, you want to take over the village. Hell, you wanted me to run it."

"That's the backup plan. Ideally, assuming the chieftain isn't too big an asshole, I'd convince him to swear fealty or some medieval nonsense. But yeah, if he's a dick, and he needs to go, then I thought you'd be a good fit."

"Nah, sorry man. I'd sign on to your little empire-building deal. Hotel sounds pretty dope. We can compare notes about magic. But I'm not staying in this village one day longer than I need to."

"Fine, hotel it is. But what about the guy in charge? Is he going to be a problem?"

"Oh yeah, no way he plays ball. The last chieftain, from what I hear, was pretty decent at the job. Bit of a dick, but smart. He knew what he was doing. This guy was just the biggest motherfucker in the village when the last chief died. When the old guy dies, they pick the new one by single combat, and just about the only thing the new guy is good at is fighting."

"What about his family? Kids, wife, that sort of thing?"

"Wife died long before I showed up, sons too. He's just got Aldith. She's the one who brought you in. A lot nicer than her dad, I think she's sweet on me, keeps bringing me flowers, but not leadership material."

"Flowers?"

"Yeah, yarrow. She caught me picking them one time. I think she realized I always keep some around, even if she doesn't know why. I've asked her not to once or twice, but she's persistent."

"You use it for the magic?"

"Yeah, happened by accident, but when I've got yarrow and something else I can use it like a sorta dowsing rod."

"Hmm, Sense mana," Wallace mused.

"Sense what now?"

"The locals have all the different mana types categorized. Sense is one of them, Sense mana lets you-"

"Sense stuff?"

"Yeah."

"Makes sense I suppose," Cassie agreed, "Granted, it was a hell of a lot more useful when I could travel a couple days out looking for metal without worrying about getting flattened by a tsunami, but it tracks with my experience."

"I've got some notes on mana. I'll dig them out after, but for now-"

"Right, trying to take over the place. I don't know, maybe the smith? But they go by single combat, and the smith is getting pretty old."

"I don't care how they used to do things. They're going to do things the way I tell them to. I just need someone local to the village to manage things."

Cassie seemed sceptical, "How are you going to take over, just merc the chief?"

I didn't move. I didn't make a sound, I hardly breathed.

"No, I need some way that the locals will accept, then I can change things."

"Well it's not like I spent a ton of time looking into it, but the only time I've ever heard of someone replacing the chief is when he dies, and then people challenge for the big chair. Don't think you can throw the glove down and challenge the current guy though."

"So I'll probably need to convince the current guy that it's in his best interests."

'Yeah. Gonna be a hard fucking sell, but yeah. Unless you want to fight the big man and all his buddies, it's probably the only way."

I'd heard enough. Father was still speaking with his advisors, and he needed to know what I'd heard. I retreated from the mill as quietly as possible, and as soon as I was clear, broke into a sprint. I ran like the wind, barely touching the steps as I flew over them and up to the longhouse.