Chapter 11

"Since we were in a conquered land, just like my home was, I knew it would be too slow and dangerous to take the wagons. I needed some information, and the wizard was still too weak to talk so I turned to the sergeant."

"Sarge, do you know the land around us?"

"I know of the overall geography of the known world. This particular land is also foreign to me, so other than what I covered in the war, not much beyond that." He says it like a man who has only been following orders.

"How would we go about finding a safe place for the wizard, women and girls to hold up until something bigger can be done?"

"Starting from the west side going east of this continent, there is a small nation, which is bordered by your country to its east and surrounded on all other sides by ocean, called Breemer. Then there is this nation of Venloring bordered on the west by your land, and on the eastern side by my nation of Aden. On the far eastern side of my nation there is another small nation called Quadral. All these nations run parallel south until they hit the ocean. To the north there is the mountain range, which caps off all the nations by running the entire length of the continent. Supposedly there is a small nation even further north on the other side of the mountains. I believe the wizard to be from that land."

"Is all the continent overrun by your people?"

"All but the land on the other side of the mountains. It is a magical land that is impossible to find unless they want you to."

"Sarge, why did your people invade my country?"

The old soldier looks down at the ground before answering, "Our king died, and his only heir was his fourteen year old son Xeldric. Xeldric is reputed to be a magic user, and has spent much of his childhood in the land east of mine known as Quadral. Quadral is also a magical land. It is a dark and dangerous land that very few ever return from. I believe it is they who have Xeldric under their control. He is sixteen years old now, and I believe the black wizards and night witches command him like a puppet.

"There have always been skirmishes between all the peoples of all the lands, but this is different. They seem to be playing an end game. As far as I know none of the other island continents are involved yet."

"Any ideas? Since you are now must assuredly a wanted man, too, you will have to come with us."

"The only thing I can think of is to head north into the mountains and hide out, and hopefully once the wizard gets better he can give us more counsel."

"Now it was my time to lower my head. I nodded my head yes so Sarge knew I had heard him and understood, but I just turned around and walked off muttering to myself. I had tried that once before, and I was in no mood to try it again."

Maybe the dark magi are controlling the sixteen-year-old king of the sergeant, but Christopher figures he needs to die anyway. He begins to hatch two plans.

Christopher has as of yet to share his duplicity of plans with anyone else, but for the time being they will head north to the mountains.

By the time they decide to head out just before dawn, the wizard hasn't seemed to gain enough strength to ride by himself, so the same woman who had volunteered to be with the dark mage so no other innocents would be violated, says, "I will ride behind the wizard for the time being." At first glance of this very kind and strong woman, Christopher would have said she is a little on the plain side, but the more he sees of her wonderful nature, the prettier she becomes to him.

Christopher orders, "Sergeant, lead the column and I will bring up the rear."

As they ride, Christopher searches out among the women for the best of the riders and that quality that you can't really put your finger on, but you know when somebody has it. However you describe it, it comes down to strength and the ability to continue to function through fear and chaos. Excluding the ones that have taken over stewardship of the children, Christopher finds eight women, of which two of them are still in their teenager years. He immediately informs them that they are now soldiers and arms them to the teeth.

At every opportunity Christopher trains them, and they learn fast and become wonderfully adept.

"I think they knew the consequences of failing. It's amazing how such things can motivate you. I once heard it said that it is necessity that makes men, so I had no doubt that it is the same for women. I had been blessed to be around some truly capable and exquisite females in my young years."

After about three days of riding on and off continuously, Christopher figures the girls will respond well to having a true honorable professional soldier teach them some new tricks, so he asks Sarge to take over for a while.

They travel for a long time without seeing anybody. They stick to the forest and off any easily identifiable paths. Christopher guesses most of the enemy forces must be needed in his country to control it. For a moment he feels great pride at that, even though they are a conquered nation. This knowledge is never to come to him beyond guessing and his death, but his friends are to learn that it is because of the killings he has done in his country, which makes them think there is an uprising there, so they send reinforcements in.

Well into the second week the Freedom Guard, as they start calling themselves, ride with intent and purpose. Christopher is proud of these women from his country. That thought of patriotism almost makes him cry, by making his eyes well up just as past horrors had done.

Near the end of the second week Sarge is again at point. Christopher again brings up the rear and he positions four of the Freedom Guard on the left flank of the column and the remaining four on the right.

"The lady that had originally ridden with the wizard now spent most of her time riding back next to me. I didn't mind, though, plus not much was said and I appreciated that more than I could ever put into words."

By this time the wizard had regained much of his strength. At fifty percent, or whatever the quantitative amount actually was, of him being back to normal that old fart of a wizard looked truly formidable, and Christopher doesn't think his attitude is any better than his. He thinks they are much the same, since he never puts it into long words about Christopher helping him out for most of the trip, but he shows his gratitude nonetheless.