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.