Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 The Saga of Nowy Poland Book 4: The Wizards of Nowy Warsaw

   By Invid Fan (c)2014

   Chapter 3

   Liuz waited next to the road, packs by his feet.

   He wasn't sure he was awake.  Certainly, there was a dream like quality
to the world around him.  What little light there was hid more than it
revealed, each shadow seemingly more mysterious than the darkness itself.
The order that caused him and his sister to be out here had no basis in
reality.  Kasia had heard something about a King, but how was that
possible? Kings just didn't appear out of thin air.

   "Are you sure you have to go?"

   Urszuli's voice was soft, worried.  He had a faint memory of his own
mother, voice unheard since the birth of his unnamed youngest sister.  She
had a blanket wrapped around her body, light wind sending her hair across
her face.  Roda stood beside her, crutch held tightly under her arm.  Liuz
shrugged to them.

   "I'm in no position to argue with armed men."

   "You'll be fine," Kasia said to the woman.  Liuz raised an eyebrow at
her.  They had no way to know that.  After a pause, his sister slipped one
of her larger canteens over her head.  "Here.  I assume they'll keep us fed
and watered." She handed it towards Roda.  Her mother reached over, taking
it.

   "Thank you."

   Liuz sighed.  Kasia was right.  Food and water were now not an issue,
even if soldier's rations might not be great.  Bending down, he opened the
large sack which had been his nemesis.

   "Here.  I'm tired of carrying this thing." He pulled out the ham.  The
two girls stared at it in awe.  Liuz handed it to Roda.  "You can cut it,
divide it among your packs."

   "Thank you," she whispered.  He shrugged.

   "It was heavy." He looked down the road.  "I hear something.  You should
go."

   Lips touched his cheek, Urszuli turning away before the kiss fully
registered in his mind.  Roda stood looking at the two siblings for another
moment before she, too, began her trip back into the wagon circle.  Liuz
shook his head.

   "Girls."

   "Oh," Kasia said, chuckling, "you have NO idea."

   ****

   The low sided wagon was pulled by four horses.  Six men sat among the
cargo, dark forms swaying at the whim of the wagon.  Giving one final look
at the camp, Liuz stepped out into the road, waving his arms.  The driver
slowed the wagon.

   "What do you want?"

   "We were told to take the next wagon," Liuz said.  The wagon stopped,
its passengers now seemingly awake and looking down at them.

   "Why?" the driver asked.  Liuz just shrugged.

   "No idea.  He asked if I was a carpenter, then said I was drafted."

   "Damn.  We are desperate.  OK, climb in." He watched as Kasia grabbed
her pack.  "Her too?"

   "I'm not leaving her."

   The two kids moved to the back of the wagon.  One of the men stood, arms
out.  Liuz tossed their packs up to him.  Another reached an arm down to
help Kasia climb in.  For one brief moment, the thin girl was hanging in
space, both hands gripping his thick arm.  Liuz reached and pushed her butt
up, Kasia's feet finding purchase.  He began his own climb, strong arms
grabbing under his armpits for the last bit.  He found himself on a wood
bench pressed against someone as the wagon began moving.  Kasia was across
from him, small form dwarfed by the man beside her.

   "Who are you?" a voice asked.  Liuz felt sleep once again overcoming
him.

   "Liuz," he yawned.  "That's my sister Kasia."

   "Your Father was a carpenter?"

   "A good one," Kasia said.  "He made all our furniture!"

   "Where are we going?" Liuz asked.

   "Don't know.  I just know we're not walking."

   ****

   Liuz woke to find himself now part of an armed convoy.

   Sometime in the night they had been joined by other wagons.  Soldiers
marched beside them, the speed of both much greater than that of the
refugees they had left behind.  Hussars ranged on either side of the road.
That was a welcome sight.  Liuz already felt safer.

   "Morning." Kasia was stretching as she forced herself into wakefulness.
At some point, a blanket had been placed around her.  It wasn't one of
theirs.

   "You feeling OK?" he asked her.  She nodded, opening one of their
canteens and taking a drink.  She looked around.

   "Did we even camp?"

   "We changed horses an hour ago," the man next to her said.  "You two
slept right through it."

   "You sure you're not soldiers?" another man asked.  "Soldiers have to
learn to sleep when they can."

   "Ha!  If you're not a soldier, that's called being lazy!"

   Liuz saw some of the men marching beside them look up.  This was
probably not the best time and place to mock the soldiers of the Polish
Kingdom.

   "Do we know what we're doing yet?" he asked.  The man at the far end of
the opposite bench nodded.

   "We're bridging the Orlan River.  Something about going around the city
of Daraja instead of through it."

   "Never built a bridge," Liuz said, shaking his head.  "Don't know why
I'm here."

   "Oh, we'll find a use for you.  Never fear."

   ****

   The drudgery of walking had been replaced by the boredom of wagon
travel.

   Kasia sat beside Liuz, body pressed against his as she looked out at the
road behind them.  His own gaze wandered to the land on either side as they
passed.  Clusters of homes and farms slid into, then out of view.  Had the
families been warned?  Were they safe from the Elves, or would they join
the slow caravan when it finally reached them?

   "Hey, Boy.  Is it Liuz?" Liuz turned to the speaker, a balding man with
a thick brown beard and mustache, the hair on his head like a horseshoe. 
He was leaning forward, elbows on his knees as his body bounced with every
rut.  Liuz found himself mirroring his pose.  Kasia leaned forward with
him, seemingly unwilling to break the contact between their shoulders.

   "It's Liuz," he confirmed.  The man nodded.

   "Tymon."

   Liuz nodded back.  Calling adults by their given name seemed...  wrong.
Like a breach of social order.  But, he was the oldest in the family now
(at least, the family his Father had accepted as his own).  A Man.  Best to
act like it.

   The others around them introduced themselves.  He tried to keep track,
mind never good with names.  It took much repetition and continued contact
for even one name to stick.  He felt Kasia shift beside him.  She'd
remember.  Hell, she probably still remembered the name of the boy they'd
left behind.  It had been Ra-something.

   "Have you been out of the city before?" Tymon asked.  Liuz looked at
him, puzzled at what brought that question.  The man shrugged.  "It's just
how you're looking at the land as we pass.  Like you'd never seen it's
like."

   He didn't know what business it was of this stranger.  He returned the
shrug.

   "Father never took us beyond the walls, no."

   Tymon nodded.

   "Thought so." He swept his gaze over the countryside.  "I've been this
far before, perhaps a bit farther.  Grandfather worked a farm until he
died."

   "Are we near the border?"

   "Borders are tricky things," another answered.  His black hair was
thick, curly, as was his beard.  "There are no lines on the ground.  There
just comes a point where the next farm over isn't Polish."

   "Who lives this way?" Kasia asked.  Liuz gave her a quick look.  She
should know that.  Tymon smiled at her.

   "Watu.  Short furry fellows.  Stay to themselves, mostly.  Can't recall
the King having any problems with them."

   "We don't know about the current one, though," the curly haired one
said. Estek.  That's what his name was, Liuz thought.  Estek leaned out of
the wagon.  "Hey!  Hussar!  You know anything about this new King?"

   The rider glanced over, saying nothing.  Estek turned back to the
others, shrugging.

   "We'll find out eventually."

   ****

   They stopped to camp earlier than the civilian column had been.  Liuz
was surprised, eyes on a sun that was still a ways above the horizon. 
There had also been a few more rest stops, although almost all had been
near some source of water.  Stops of convenience.  There was a small lake
here, back away from the road.  Farm buildings sat on the far shore.

   An officer rode up, armor dusty, dented in a few spots.

   "I want an encampment on that rise," he shouted, pointing to the north.
"Ditch, earth walls.  Forget the stockade."

   Liuz blinked.  They were going to BUILD something?  Tonight?  After
traveling all day?  He thought the soldiers might complain, bitch at the
work.  There was none.  The soldiers left the road, moving towards the site
as units.  He felt a hand on his back.

   "Here's where we do our bit," Tymon said.  He motioned the two kids out
of the wagon.  Liuz dropped out onto the road after Kasia, grabbing her arm
as she staggered a bit.  The adult landed next to them.  "We need to figure
out what you two can do.  I think digging is out."

   "Anything that needs an axe or a saw," Kasia said, confidently.  Liuz
nodded.

   "Or knife." His sister would be better with a knife, larger tools a bit
more unwieldy.  Tymon cocked his head at them.

   "Knife it is."

   ****

   The two pre-teens sat on the sloping ground, large knives whittling
sharp points onto wooden stakes.

   Liuz was happy just to be doing something.  Freshly sharpened, his
father's knife made quick work of the soft wood they had been given.  His
experienced eye noticed a few sticks of hardwood among the pile.  He'd have
to save those for last, with the hope he wouldn't need them.  They couldn't
be expected to do enough stakes to surround the entire encampment, after
all.  He knew of at least one other group doing the same work on the other
side of the growing ditch and dirt wall fort.

   Kasia tossed another stake into the growing pile between them, leaning
away from him to grab a new length of branch to work on.  Gripping it the
way she wanted, she put her borrowed blade on the bark.  Her face became
pained.

   "Grrr.  Another hard one."

   "They're not that hard to tell apart." He extended his left hand to
place his stake beside hers.  "See?  Check the color."

   "I know, but my eyes have trouble with it." Tossing the stick away, she
looked at the finished pile between them.  "There has to be a better way to
do this."

   "Hmm." Liuz put his own stake and knife down in his lap, considering. 
He picked up a finished stake, examining it.  "A lathe, perhaps?"

   "Hmm." Kasia took her own stake.  After a moment, she grabbed another,
placing it beside the first.  "It would have to do more than one at once,
to be worth it."

   "A line of sticks," Liuz said, placing his next to her two, "with a long
blade above them." He placed his knife over the tips.  "The sticks rotate,
and the blade is moved and lowered until it makes the points."

   "Not hand cranked," she said, frowning.  "It has to be faster than
that."

   "Maybe.  Maybe not." Liuz rotated his stick.  "Ox powered?  Use some
gears to change the direction of the motion."

   "Water!" Kasia practically bounced in excitement.  "A waterwheel! 
Remember the mill Dad took us to?"

   "So," he laughed, bringing the stick and knife back before him, "we can
either find a stream, build a water wheel, construct our lathe, and churn
out stakes every night...  or just whittle these for another half hour or
so."

   "I vote build."

   "Tomorrow night, maybe."

   ****

   Dinner was hot and filling, as you would expect for hard-working
soldiers.  A thick stew with day old biscuits, which became soft and
flavorful when dunked in the broth.  The cook had been surprised when the
two kids showed up before him with large bowls, but he ladled a man sized
portion in each before sending them down the line.

   "Don't spill it," Liuz told his sister.  Kasia frowned at him, feet
taking slow, careful steps.

   "I won't.  He filled it almost to the top!"

   "He knows your appetite."

   "Heh."

   An arm rose, waving to them.  Liuz saw the six from their wagon eating
in a group.  Not knowing where else to go, he led the two of them over.

   "Sit!" Tymon said, motioning to a large spot between him and Estek. 
"You two need food!"

   "Good job on the stakes," a red headed man told them, name completely
forgotten by Liuz.  "You now have a career."

   Kasia let out a rude sound.  The man laughed.

   "I have some gossip about the King," Estek said.  Liuz turned to the
man, mouth full of stew.  "He's young, probably not yet twenty.  Just
showed up with the Royal Guard."

   "From where?" someone asked.  Estek shrugged.

   "Damned if I know.  He looks royal, they say."

   "May he act better than a royal." Liuz shot his gaze to the redheaded
man, shocked.  The others were just nodding.

   "I got the impression that the relationship with our late sovereign was
distant, to which I say thank God and Mother Mary." Lifting his bowl, Estek
took a long swig of stew.  Liuz looked at his sister.  She was looking
back, eyes uncertain.  The talk of men was new to her.  Him, too, Father
not one to idle gossip.  At least not in front of them.

   "Well," Tymon said, swallowing, "who is king doesn't matter to us.  We
get there, do the job.  That's all.  Leave politics for the nobles."

   "We let them deal with the Elves as they wished, and look what
happened," someone muttered.  Liuz's eyes widened.  That...  that was
treason!  He quickly looked down into his bowl, taking a large spoonful
into his mouth.

   Food, he could understand.

   ****

   Torches lit the camp as darkness fell.

   Liuz sat against the earthen berm, watching the camp.  The soldiers were
broken into groups, many around small fires.  He heard singing.  Not songs
he knew.  These were...  rough songs.  Songs of women, fighting.  Some of
the lyrics made him blush.  He hoped Kasia wasn't paying attention to them,
wherever she was.  She had said she had to get something.  Had he been
wrong to let her go alone?  After all, the camp was filled with strange
men, and it was his job to protect her.  Not that soldiers of the King
would harm a little girl, but...

   He saw her make her way between the wagons.  Kasia held a small sack,
one he knew well.  Liuz could not help but smile as he raised his hand to
her.

   "I was bored," she said, coming up to him.  She plopped down in front of
him.

   "Same here."

   Grinning, Kasia pulled the sack open, turning it upside down.  Wooden
sticks and small round pucks fell onto the matted grass.

   "What's that?" Tymon was looking over at the pair.  Kasia gave him a
look as if he was an idiot.

   "Building sticks."

   "What?" The man stood, walking over.  He stopped beside the siblings,
looking down.

   "Building sticks.  Dad made them." As Tymon squatted down, Kasia picked
up a round piece a bit over an inch across and a quarter inch thick.  "See?
This has holes on the edge, and one through the middle." She picked up a
thin dowel a half foot long.  "You put the sticks into the holes, and build
things." Kasia shoved the stick into the side of the puck, twisting it a
bit.  Taking another stick, she stuck it into another hole, forming a right
angle.  A minute later she had a square.  Holding the finished shape up,
she displayed it.  "See?"

   "Huh." Tymon picked up one of the connectors from the pile, examining
it. "And your Father made this."

   "Yeah."

   The balding man gave both siblings a long look.  Feeling a bit awkward,
Liuz picked up some of the pieces, swiftly assembling them.  Both the man
and Kasia watched intently.  Tymon's eyes widened.

   "You can make GEARS with it?"

   "Yup," Liuz said, holding up the puck with eight short dowels sticking
out the edge.  "Only a few pieces have a wide enough hole in the center so
they can rotate, though.  So, we can't build anything too fancy."

   "Dad kept saying he'd make more pieces."

   Hearing the emotion in her voice, Liuz swiftly slid around to put his
arm around Kasia.  She leaned into him.

   "I'll make more pieces," he told her.

   "Promise?"

   "Promise."

   ****

   Liuz woke to a horn blaring through the pre-dawn air.

   This, he figured, was the price of stopping early the day before.  They
had to get on the road, keep ahead of the main group so they could get
started on their bridge.  He still didn't know what they'd expect of him.
How many stakes does an army need sharpened?

   Kasia stirred beside him.  Liuz felt a bit embarrassed, his little
sister sleeping with him among these adult men.  It made him feel like even
more of a child.  Not that he WASN'T going to let her sleep with him.  She
was his sister, for crying out loud.  He just wished the two could have a
bit of privacy.

   "Time to get up." Tymon's voice came from above them.  The man held two
steaming mugs as he knelt down beside their blankets.  "Here.  Save you a
trip."

   "Thank you," Kasia yawned, reaching up while staying covered by the
blankets.  Liuz sat up to take his.  Tymon regarded the two for a moment.

   "Do you need to wash up?  There's water to spare, so if you want a bowl
and a cloth..."

   "I'm good," Kasia said.  Handing the mug to her brother, she reached
behind her into her pack.  Grabbing a clean dress out of it, she maneuvered
it onto her body while staying covered.  Tymon chuckled, standing.

   "OK, then.  Gather your things.  Breakfast is just going to be hot
porridge, then we're on the road."

   "Porridge," Liuz groaned.  Kasia laughed, tossing off the blanket,
revealing her green dress as she rose.

   "Hey, maybe they make it better than Dad did!"

   ****

   Liuz watched earthen camp fade away in the morning mist behind them. 
Was this what armies did?  Build, then abandon, a fort every night?  Did
locals move into them, taking advantage of the free constructions?  It
seemed so...  inefficient.  Wasteful.

   Then again, if it helped protect an army from even one attack out of the
darkness it was probably worth it.

   "The head Engineer showed up last night," Tymon said.  Liuz straightened
in his seat, as did the others.  Kasia slipped her arm around his.

   "And?" Estek asked.

   "Don't know how they did it, but scouts have already found where we're
going to put the bridge.  Pontoon.  Build in sections, float across.  We're
to build a huge earthwork to hold the entire refugee caravan, and a
fortification on the other bank to defend that end of the bridge."

   "Jesus."

   "If He wants to help, we could use it.  We'll have a few days leeway,
but the earthwork at least has to be finished before the first wagon gets
there."

   "That's soldier work," Borys said from beside Liuz.  "We're doing the
bridge."

   "Until the trees are cut, we'll probably be digging.  Everyone help
where they can."

   "Just tell us what to do," Kasia said.  Tymon smiled.

   "That I will."

   ****

   To be continued

   ****

   Edited by Packrat

   Tech advice by Ivan

   ****

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