Chapter 1

“What?” the grizzled captain growled, looking at me as if I were wasting his time. Nervously, I stepped up to the table where new recruits registered. The canopy over his table did little to protect him against the cold and damp of the heavy overcast and patchy fog, which probably added to his ill-temper.

“I’m here to enlist to fight in Donnak.”

“How old are you?” he queried grumpily after appraising me for a moment.

“I’ll be sixteen in a few days,” I replied, trying to sound more assured than I felt.

Technically, you had to be sixteen just to enlist, but there shouldn’t be any fighting for at least two weeks. The military would need that time to test and train new recruits to make sure they were competent with their chosen weapon. Most chose a pike, as it was the simplest weapon to learn, while those with more experience preferred the bow, sword, or other melee weapons, such as a mace, hammer, or battleax. The recruits would be assigned to a squad with others training with the same weapon. In addition to learning their selected weapon, the recruits needed to learn the army’s various horn signals. Overzealous recruits turning to the right instead of the left during an attack could be disastrous.

“Can you even use any of those fancy weapons you carry?” he asked snidely.

I’d seen his eyebrows arch in surprise when he saw the quality and quantity of weapons I carried. I had two of the excellent swords our clan now makes, using the techniques they originally used in Narcilia, as well as new ones they had learned during their two-decade-long trek across the continent. One sword was a long sword and the second shorter.

On one of my packhorses, I had an identical set of swords made from normal steel for use during practice. That way, I wouldn’t damage the swords of the men I sparred against.

In addition to swords, I carried a long Orangewood recurve bow and an Orangewood pike with a steel tip. I even had an Orangewood staff. I was better equipped than the majority of the men in the camp.

“I can use each weapon better than most of the other men here,” I replied confidently.

“Warro,” he shouted at another man, his tone of voice indicating that he was trying to keep from laughing at me.

“This pup thinks he knows how to use the weapons he has. Make sure he isn’t a danger to the other men and that he doesn’t hurt himself,” he chuckled, giving me a dismissive wave towards a man who looked to be a few years older than my father. Warro’s face and hands were leathery and brown from being outdoors in the sun so much, but it was still lighter than my naturally brown skin.

At least the Captain had given me a chance to prove myself, although he obviously didn’t think I’d meet their meager standards.

“Do you actually know how to use any of those?” Warro asked, motioning with one wave to my collection of weapons. “And why do you have four swords?”

“I am quite competent with a bow and sword. I’m just as skilled with my pike and fighting staff. Our clan has had to fight off small armies of two hundred to three hundred bandits every autumn for the last dozen years and I have been in the midst of the fighting each of the last six.”

“Three hundred bandits is hardly an army,” he snorted derisively.

“To twenty or so women and ten or twelve boys it is,” I replied. “I was the oldest of the boys the last four years and accounted for nearly a quarter of the dead bandits.”

“Is that where you got the horses?” he asked, now sounding more curious than dubious.

“Sort of; I always targeted the bandit leader first, even though he felt he was safely out of range of our bows. He usually had the best horse. Since we killed every bandit each year, none of them could warn the next group. Our clan breeds the best of the horses. Clan warriors get one of the best geldings.”

“How far away were the bandits you killed with your bow?”

“The leaders usually stayed about three hundred paces away. The women have an accurate range of two hundred paces with their crossbows,” I replied.

“Two hundred!” he exclaimed. “We’re lucky if our best archers are accurate at that distance. Are you from the clan we bought two hundred crossbows from?”

“Yes,” I replied, and then briefly explained our clan’s recent history.

Clan Teopaqa was originally from Narcilia, a country from the opposite end of the continent and more than ten thousand thoups distant. After the Duke’s son and four of his cavalry raped the youngest daughter of my great-grandfather’s brother, the Duke refused to punish the men, claiming that his son couldn’t possibly have done it because he was inside the castle at the time. That son vouched for the whereabouts of the other four men.

Outraged by the betrayal by the noble the clan had faithfully served for decades, they packed everything they owned into forty-eight wagons and left a month later, right at the beginning of the week-long harvest festival. That way, they would be across the border and into the neighboring country before they were missed.

During the clan’s month-long preparation for their flight from Narcilia, they had collected seeds for the Orangewood tree, as well as for every crop they grew.

Clan Teopaqa was renowned throughout Narcilia for their swords and bows. In addition, one of the clan’s best warriors had been the Duke’s weapons master, responsible for training the Duke’s troops. Any clan members not involved in making weapons or trained as a warrior had helped to grow our clan’s food crops or raise the livestock.

What the Duke didn’t know was that the clan had improved the recurve bows his archers used. The wood of the Orangewood tree had long been known to be extremely resistant to rotting and insects. Unfortunately, unless the tree had been dead for at least three years, handling any part of the wood except the outer bark caused severe blistering on any skin it contacted.

When two clan hunters saved the life of an elderly hermit living in the forest, the grateful recluse shared the secret of handling the Orangewood. Heating a branch or section of a felled trunk until all the sap bubbled out the end stopped the wood from causing blistering. There was still minor stinging in the hand gripping the bare wood, but no burning or blistering. After a few weeks of handling the wood every day, the user’s hands became tough enough to ignore any stinging. Once the wood cooled, heating the wood a second time eliminated the cause of even that small amount of discomfort.

The hermit had recommended collecting the sap in a ceramic bowl while the wood was being heated. After allowing the sap to cool and then heating it again, the viscous sap could be spread on cloth or hide, making them water-repellent. Reheating the cooled sap also eliminated any potential unpleasant burning or tingling from touching the treated material.

It was even possible to collect the sap by making diagonal slashes through the thick outer bark of several Orangewood trees and gathering it in ceramic pots positioned below the lowest slash. The collected sap could be heat-treated twice and then used to waterproof things.

Several months before the rape, the clan’s bowyers had completed four bows from the heartwood of an Orangewood tree and had been testing them. They wanted to make sure the bows held up as well as their regular bows. Two bows were made from the center heartwood and two from the outer heartwood. The durability of the four bows was even better than the usual elm wood bows, but the two made from the center heartwood had a much better range. They were also significantly harder to draw.

The higher drawing weight of the Orangewood bows made from the center heartwood meant that already competent archers had to practice with the bows for a full mark each day for at least three months before they were strong enough to draw them completely, and another three months before they were reasonably accurate at the three hundred to four hundred-pace range the bows gave them.

Before leaving, the clan had lined the bottom of every wagon with three, four-pace sections of Orangewood trunks. They intended to use those for making arrows and other useful items, like axles for their wagons and spokes for their wagon wheels. Everything else the clan owned was loaded atop the Orangewood. They knew that the only place Orangewood trees were found was in the southwestern part of Narcilia. They carefully stored seeds to make sure they’d have the wood available when they found a new home.

They even collected thick Orangewood branches. The branches were big enough that the center heartwood was thick enough to make a bow. During the early part of their trek, they carved the branches to make 250 bows, setting them into frames so they would dry in the proper shape for a recurve bow.

The center heartwood of the Orangewood tree is orange, the reason for its name. It’s also extremely strong. A large man could safely stand, and even bounce, in the middle of an elevated four-pace length of center heartwood that’s three fingers in diameter.

The outer heartwood splits extraordinarily straight. The craftsmen used a froe to split off one side of the trunk starting right next to the center heartwood, and then repeated the action on the other side. The two remaining sections were split away from the center heartwood, leaving only a small amount of brown outer heartwood attached.

After removing any remaining brown heartwood, the orange heartwood proved exceptional for carving, although the hardness of the wood dulled blades quickly. Unlike some trees, the Orangewood tree didn’t have a soft, pithy center. The soft, spongy sapwood was right below the tree’s bark, which could easily be peeled off the outer heartwood. In a tree three spans in diameter, the sapwood was the width of three fingers. Once it dried, it was slightly pliable and very lightweight. We use it to line the inside of our chain mail, where it helps to cushion any blows from weapon strikes.

The clan carefully planned the route they would take, selecting rarely traveled roads through the forest. They obliterated, as best they could, any signs that their wagons had passed. Their efforts were aided by the frequent rains that were common after harvest. Once the clan was safely across the border and into the neighboring country, six clan warriors returned to Narcilia via a different route while the rest of the clan continued to put distance between themselves and their former home.

The six warriors killed the five rapists, the usual punishment upon conviction. They took the rapists’ weapons and horses. The weapons master sent one of the Duke’s couriers to the King with a sealed message telling him what had happened. He knew that the six of them would be long gone before the King received the message. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t know what, if anything, the King would do to punish the Duke.

That night, the six snuck into the castle using a secret sally port known to only a handful of the Duke’s most trusted men, the weapons master being one. They took all the gold and silver coins from the Duke’s vault, nearly two hundred pounds, leaving the body of the Duke’s son in its place. Then they made their escape with the gold and silver loaded onto four packhorses they took from the Duke’s stables.

They finally stopped well across the border, at a rendezvous point where other clan warriors had set up an ambush for any pursuit that might be coming.

A year after their departure, the clan attached soil-filled half-barrels to the outside of their wagons and planted some of the Orangewood seeds in them. After three years of careful tending, the saplings produced a new crop of seeds. The three-year-old trees were planted in a small grove near the road and the new seeds were planted in new half-barrels. Repeating the process every three years, they left seven small groves of Orangewood trees scattered across the continent.

The clan wandered for twenty-three years, looking for a place to settle. In each country they reached, they found the same or worse abuses than they had fled from, so they kept going. The men of the clan did odd jobs as blacksmiths and laborers to earn money, not wanting to spend their hoard of confiscated gold and silver coins. Two or three times a year, they fought off bandits, usually small groups of thirty or less. They collected the belongings of the bandits they killed, selling the weapons and lesser horses to earn money. They kept and bred the best horses. Any money they took from the bandits went into the clan’s coffers. Clothing from the bandits was repaired and worn or sold.

The frequent bandit attacks had them searching for methods that would let the women and boys help defend the caravan, and themselves. They tried smaller bows that the women and older children could use when the bandits were close enough. One of the boys with a birth defect had a difficult time holding and drawing even the smaller bow. He affixed the bow to a wooden crosspiece to help steady it while he drew it.

Expanding upon that idea, the adults devised a crossbow with a trigger release. It was still too difficult for the boys and women to draw an Orangewood crossbow, so they added a lever to aid in drawing the bowstring.

Four times, the clan tried unsuccessfully to settle in a country where they felt that the nobles cared about their subjects. The first time, they were attacked by a large group of bandits who thought the clan would be an easy target. After successfully defending themselves, the clan informed the watch commander in the nearest city, who came out to investigate.

Noting that one of the dead bandits was the nephew of the local baron, he shook his head. “I knew he would end up like this,” he said resignedly. “Unfortunately, you need to leave before the Baron finds out. Bury the bodies and the nephew’s horse and saddle. Tell nobody about what happened. I will wait a week before telling the Baron so that you have time to leave.”

They buried the bodies and the nephew’s clothing. They kept the nephew’s horse, dying the distinctive blaze on his forehead and the two white socks to disguise the horse.

The sword had two gems on the pommel, so they replaced the crossguard and hilt. After removing the gems, the old hilt was melted in the blacksmith’s forge.

A leatherworker changed the appearance of the nephew’s saddle by staining the leather darker and altering the trim.

The clan had just finished harvesting their crops before the attack, which was the reason the bandits struck when they did. The bandits had wanted the grain and dried food to sell. Since the clan had defeated the bandits, they had plenty of grain and dried food when they once again began their journey. The clan had built homes and barns on the property and managed to sell the land for slightly more than they had originally paid for it, even though the sale had to be concluded quickly. With what they got for the land, they left with a bit more money than when they had arrived, and a full cargo of food.

They earned a bit more later when they sold the bandits’ weapons and lesser horses in the next country.

In the second country they tried to settle, their property included an iron mine that had been abandoned because it no longer produced enough ore to be operated profitably. When the local noble died two years later, and his son took over, they sold everything and left, deciding to continue looking for a home in a country with a better political climate. Upon learning that the clan was leaving the country, a man named Lunêfi bought the property to get the mine, explaining that he only needed small amounts of iron.

After Lunêfi explained his plans for the iron, the clan paid him to teach them how to make the exceptional steel he had developed. Using large ceramic crucibles, Lunêfi melted low carbon iron and high carbon wrought iron together, adding two additional minerals. The crucible process was complex, so several members of the clan learned how to do it. To oversee their efforts when they found a permanent home, the clan purchased a slave from Lunêfi, one who was very knowledgeable about the process. The slave was promised his freedom in ten years and could join the clan at that time if he so desired. The clan made sure to take samples of the two minerals they would eventually need to find to add to the crucible process.

Our clan still begins new blades using the same process they used for decades in Narcilia, forge welding layers of two different types of steel, folding the metal several times as they work the blades.

Now, the bladesmiths add a layer of the crucible steel and forge weld all three types of steel giving each finished blade the distinctive and intricate patterns of swirling bands visible all along its length. Striking bronze or iron swords usually ends up breaking those swords, as well as many swords made of lesser quality steel.

The other two times the clan tried to settle, they left after the first harvest. Each time, they learned that the local noble was more corrupt than they’d been able to discern from talking to people in the marketplace. Still, each time they stopped, it let them rest. They repaired their wagons and built new ones since the clan was expanding and wagons wore out. It also let them harvest a good crop before they left.

As they traveled, they purchased any available female slaves. Those slaves became second wives or concubines to the clan men, further increasing the clan’s numbers, which had been around three hundred when they left Narcilia.

During their travels, the clan encountered unique spices and herbs, as well as new fruits and vegetables growing in each country they passed through. The unique plants were seldom available more than one country beyond their origin. The clan collected a valuable treasure by gathering the seeds of those plants. Some seeds were even for nut trees or cereal grains.

They learned to be traders and merchants, rather than just farmers, although they still thought of themselves mainly as warriors and weapon smiths. They bought unique and otherwise valuable items they found along the way and sold them elsewhere for a good profit. When possible, they bought slaves who knew how to make those items.

The clan arrived here, in Congra, twenty-three years after leaving Narcilia. They arrived in a caravan of two hundred and seventeen wagons. Many of the wagons carried trade goods; most had two wooden half-barrels attached to each side growing Orangewood trees or other unique plants they had encountered on their journey. There had been an almost fivefold increase in the number of people in the clan since leaving Narcilia. Nearly half of them were young children born along the way. I was three when they arrived here.

Two months after arriving in Congra, they located an ideal valley for agriculture. When they inquired about purchasing the land, which included a lake and an island in the lake, they learned that bandits inhabited the island, which was why nobody lived in the valley around the lake. The clan’s warriors attacked the bandits during the night, catching them by surprise and annihilating them.

The bandits had built a shallow ford to the island. It was just wide enough to safely drive a wagon across. Since then, the clan has built a tall, thick defensive rock wall at the ford. The wall has a single opening with one sturdy gate on the inside of the wall and one outside the wall. They dug a trench across the ford, so horses and men had to swim across when the drawbridge was raised. The drawbridge acts like a third gate.

Upon hearing of the clan’s victory, the Magistrate in Korlor, the only city in the province, gave the clan the island, lake, and the surrounding valley as a show of appreciation for eliminating the bandits.

We’ve lived in Congra for over twelve years now, making a permanent home for ourselves. I heard that the men voted six years ago to make this our permanent home, satisfied that the crown and nobles took care of the people in their provinces instead of abusing them.

The island is now known as Teopaqa Island, after our clan. Several merchants from Bellcaava, the country’s capital, visit us to purchase the exotic foods and spices our clan learned to grow during their trans-continental trek, items that would otherwise require a round trip of a year or more to obtain. The merchants make the eighty-thoup trip to the island in two days.

During my trip to Bellcaava to enlist, I worked as an armed guard for one of those merchants. Two of his guards had been severely wounded in an ambush while en route to our island. The two were still at the island recovering under the watchful eye of our healers. Despite my youth, once the merchant saw my expertise with my weapons, he eagerly hired me as a guard for the trip back to the capital.

On the morning of the second day, another roving band of bandits attacked. This time, all the bandits died in the attack and none of the guards were seriously injured. From the top of the merchant’s travel carriage, I had a good vantage and spotted the waiting bandits in time to warn everyone. I also managed to kill nine of the bandits. The other three guards killed the remaining nine.

There was no denying my brown-shafted arrows in the dead bandits, so I was awarded their horses and belongings. I sold most of those yesterday when we reached the city, or I would have had even more horses and weapons when I arrived at the castle this morning.

“I never did ask your name,” Warro chuckled as we approached the butts so I could demonstrate my prowess with a bow.

“Koyle, of Clan Teopaqa,” I replied.

“Well, Koyle, of Clan Teopaqa, pick a target and show me what you can do with your bow,” he said as he motioned towards the targets in an empty lane of the busy butts.

A well-worn path in the damp, ankle-deep grass of the field marked the beginning of the range. I looked downrange at the four targets in my lane, one every fifty paces up to a distance of two hundred paces. The way the targets were placed in the center lane of every three, it looked like three lanes used the same targets if there were numerous archers practicing.

Starting at the usual line, I stepped off an additional hundred paces heading away from the targets, a wooden silhouette of a man. Warro was still standing at the original line with a smirk on his face. I did a quick check of the wind as I pulled an arrow from my quiver and waited while Warro chased two men out of my assigned lane.

Every arrow I had with me was tipped with a war arrowhead, a small, diamond shaped tip made from our crucible steel. Even at four hundred paces, they penetrate armor or chain mail, or a thick oak shield, not that I was proficient at four hundred paces--yet. I needed to grow more and probably wouldn’t be accurate at that range for two to three more years.

In a comfortably familiar and oft-practiced motion, I nocked the arrow and raised my bow. Drawing the arrow back, I exhaled slowly as I aimed and then released the arrow. Several nearby archers had stopped to watch after seeing Warro chase the men out of my lane. Fourteen pairs of eyes turned skyward, and heads turned to follow the flight of my arrow as it gracefully arced through the air, finally striking the farthest target just above the stomach. I’d aimed for the center of the chest, but the first arrow is frequently a little off.

Fourteen jaws dropped when the arrow struck. and the men turned to stare at me. More heads turned to see what everyone was gawking at, and I released my next arrow. Four more arrows followed in rapid succession, each released while the previous arrow was still in flight. Each of those five arrows landed in the center of the chest within a span of each other. Finished, I headed back over to Warro.

“I’ve known very few men who could shoot an arrow three hundred paces before and none who could do so accurately,” he said deferentially. “Is it possible to buy more of those bows?” he asked hopefully.

“Our clan has a thousand ready right now and four thousand more they could have ready within a year. The problem is that your best archers will need a minimum of three months before they can even draw the bow fully and another three before they can use it accurately. Still, our clan feels that the additional investment of time and practice is worth the effort,” I replied as I handed him the bow and an arrow.