Chapter 32: Shiloh

Kyle grins as he arrives in the storage room of Jonas’ office at Shiloh. Because it’s just eight feet deep by five feet wide he keeps a hold of KK’s hand and walks across the room to let the others through the portal and into the room. They’re all soon standing in the room while Kyle listens at the door to see if anyone is in the office. He soon decides it’s empty, so he lets go of KK’s hand to open the door and he walk into the doorway with his staff ready.

It looks just like it did when he was last here with Jonas. He stops in the doorway. Kathleen senses Kyle’s grief at this reminder of Jonas and reaches up to squeeze his shoulder. After a moment he reaches up to tap her hand while he sighs and walks into the room.

In a few seconds Kyle is across the room with a cupboard open and he reaches in for weapons to hand the others. In moments all are well armed with the types of weapons they can use. Larry is the least armed; with only a crossbow, knives, and his staff. The rest know how to use swords and bows, something they were surprised to learn about Nadia. All have crossbows and knives as well. Kyle even hands out some hard leather armor and caps kept there for Companions.

Properly dressed in a set of red leathers and wool for autumn, since the website told him it’s mid-autumn on Chaos, Kyle opens the door and leads them out of the office into the hallway. In a few minutes he’s in the kitchen doorway watching several women working at the cooking fires and counters on two sides of the room.

With a huge grin Kyle says, “Nelly, I hope you’ve got enough extra for four hungry travelers.”

The woman bent over looking in a cauldron spins around while she comes upright. She rushes over to embrace him, asking, “Kyle, how did you sneak in here so quietly? Where’s Lord Jonas?”

Kyle takes her by the arms to direct her to a chair beside the table before saying, “I’m sorry, Nelly, he won’t be coming any more, his time has come.” The woman looks deep into his eyes and sees the pain and grief in them before accepting his message is true. She buries her head in her hands and she cries. Kathleen walks over and stands beside the seated woman, giving her a hug. After a few minutes Nelly looks up at Kathleen with a question in her eyes, so Kyle says, “Nelly, this is my life Companion and wife, Kathleen or KK. We’re recently wed, so she may have some questions for you on how a new wife trains her husband.”

Both women laugh at his training comment. Nelly smiles at KK and says, “Well, milady, we best get to working on the meal while your man goes outside to find my man and tell him about things. We can discuss how to train children and husbands while we work.”

Kyle smiles when Kathleen and Nadia move toward the cooking with Nelly. Turning to Larry he says, “Larry stay here, please.” He nods when he realizes Kyle doesn’t want him to overexert himself.

Kyle walks out the back door into the main compound and he goes in search of Nathan. Shiloh has changed a fair bit since he was last here, but he was expecting it from the notes Jonas left him. The compound is very large, as it’s almost a town inside the wall built to defend over one hundred families that live and work here. The wall is now twelve feet high from its previous eight feet and it has an inside raised walk way. There are some interior walls opposite the gates too. The four gates are much stronger and the building roofs are now all covered in clay tiles.

Kyle finds Nathan supervising men building a wall facing the north gate; it’s to provide defensive fire from if the gate is breached. Walking up behind Nathan, Kyle says, “Nathan, I’ve news you won’t like.”

Nathan spins around to look at Kyle, notes the colors he wears, and gives a slow nod before saying, “Lord Jonas is dead!” It’s clear this is a statement and not a question. Kyle nods yes. “He told me he expected so, last time we met. I’ve something for you to take to the bank.”

“That’s for tomorrow, or later today. Now we’ve much to talk about to prepare Shiloh for war. Before he died Jonas found out the enemy had spies within our support organization elsewhere and they’ve copies of the plans he drew up for the defense of Shiloh, so we must now change them. Let’s go for a walk as we talk about them, bring a few of your senior assistants so they can hear my thoughts too.” Soon a dozen men are walking with Kyle while he walks around the walls of Shiloh.

The area around the compound has been cleared of trees and obstructions for just over half a mile then leveled, this was done many years ago to create a kill zone and to provide grazing land despite much of the area for a few miles being open grasslands in a wide valley. There’s a slight slope to the land, not much, but enough to ensure the stream that comes from the north-east continues down the slope after flowing alongside the northern wall. This stream is only a hundred feet out from the wall and it makes it hard for attackers to charge at this side, which is why it’s the last gateway to get an interior wall. Shiloh was originally built here to use the stream as a water source and a moat on this side, now it’s time to extend the moat.

Stopping near the stream Kyle picks up a stick and draws in a patch of earth while he says, “We’ve a lot of work to do and I doubt we’ll get it all done before we come under attack, but the more that’s done the better things will be. Starting near where the stream passes the eastern end of the wall we’ll dig a trench one and a half times the height of a man with a width of three men lying down. The side nearest the wall is to be straight and the other side at a gentle slope. The bottom on the side nearest the wall is to be level for a large pace from the side then the rest of the bottom is to be dug further down to be knee deep. On the level area you’re to plant blackberry bushes to create a thorny wall to stop the enemy from climbing it, so plant them close together.” He draws the profile of the trench while he talks. “The bushes will take time to reach full growth, but the height will make climbing over it hard, until then. The gentle slope is to allow the stock and people easy access to the trench to get at the blackberries and to get out of the strong winter winds. When the trench is completed all the way around the compound we’ll dig out the final space between it and the stream at both ends of the north wall to allow water to flow in at the top and out at the bottom, it’ll flow along the deeper section. To do this right the last section along the western wall will need to run a bit further away from the wall so the water will flow freely. We’ll also need to make the stream banks match this trench when it’s done. The trench is to be thirty paces out from the wall. This will let us fire arrows down into the trench from the top of the wall.” The men frown until he adds, “The wall is to be the height of a man higher again than it is now. Use the dirt from the trenches to make adobe bricks and build a new wall in front of the existing wall. That way you can use the current wall to stand on. The new wall is to be an arm’s length deep. Once a trench is dug on a side you’ll build a road over it that comes from the left at the quarter angle, even if the road to the far end has to go further to reach it.”

One of the older men smiles while saying, “Brilliant, Kyle. Attackers will have to place their shields on their right arms as they approach.”

Kyle nods, “Just so. The approaches will have to be built after the trench as we need to lay down fired clay pipes in the stream area for the water to flow through and then build the road over it. The road is to be three wagons wide and have waist high fences along the sides. Line the sides with adobe bricks to help keep it in place and strong. When this is complete the defenses will be very formidable, just the empty trench, itself will make a charge across the open ground impossible. The idea is to channel attackers into the approach roads and give us plenty of time to hurt them before they can get into positions to attack. This is our main defense. Inside the walls we continue this approach by having walls like the outside walls creating chutes people pass along once the gates are open, it’s also to turn so they can’t build up a charge.”

Nathan and the other community leaders nod their understanding of the defenses and how they’ll work. Another of the men asks, “Kyle how can we better protect the houses from fire?”

Kyle takes a moment to think then replies, “When making the adobe bricks for the walls make a lot more and build extra outside walls for the buildings by placing a layer of adobe bricks up against them on all of the outside walls. This will also help keep you warmer in winter and cooler in summer while making it harder to set them on fire. If you take the grass from the trenches out as turf you can lay it on the roof as more fire protection. Should it dry out in an extended summer it can only burn down to the earth in the turf, but the usual rainfall will keep it green. You’ll just have to throw a goat or sheep up there now and then to stop it growing too long.”

Nathan thinks on this and adds, “If we do all the roofs this way and build a grass slope up to one as well as build linking areas we can let the smaller stock graze the roofs all of the time.” They all smile at that. “We’d have to ensure the roof supports are strong enough for the extra load, but I think it’s worth it. If only to get them out from underfoot.”

The group wanders around having a closer look at the compound and the existing defenses while they make many notes on how to improve them. At the gates Kyle says, “Dig holes in the ground about a man in height, have them just behind the gates to fit thick stumps into so they stick up about a man’s height behind the gate to fit snug in the hole and tight against the gate. That makes it much harder for them to push the gates open. One for each gate on each end and one in the middle of the gate. Make covers for the holes for when the gates are open. Only have one side open, unless absolutely necessary, and only open one gate most of the time. I’d make it the north gate so they have to go around and pass our defenders before they reach an open gate. Sure, it’s a bit more work, but it beats being dead or being a slave.” That gets quite a few nods. After a few minutes he adds, “Build some small sheds along the walls and fill them with arrows. Place buckets on lines near them too. That way the older children can pass extra arrows up very quickly. Make many thousands of arrows to go in them, they’ll never go to waste.” More is discussed before they break up for the midday meal.

While Nathan and Kyle head to the main house Nathan asks, “Kyle how did you get into the compound without me being told?”

Kyle thinks on how to answer this and replies, “This war is over the whole planet. Some great magicians do not like the way the slavers behave, but their rules do not allow them to take sides. A few have done what they can without breaking the rules. One of those things is to give me a magic doorway from the storeroom in Jonas’ office to a storeroom at my house in the other land. I can only use it at certain times and only I can use it, but I can bring people with me when I do use it. I have it only while the war is being fought. I think it’ll help us during this time of war. No one else is to know of this doorway, or our enemies will go crazy trying to get control of it.” Nathan nods his understanding, happy there isn’t an unknown hole in his current security measures.

Very soon they join the rest of the main household sitting down to the meal, after Kyle introduces everyone to the others. During the meal they chat about many things while they all get to know each other. As they linger over a final cup of tea Kyle says, “Larry, for now, your job is to do your exercises and finish getting well and fit again.” Larry nods as Nathan looks a question, “Larry is recovering from a major war wound and needs to rebuild his muscle strength.” The other men at the table nod their understanding; most have had to do the same in the past. “An issue I expect to have is with the young men. I know you’ve taught them all Jonas has taught you about fighting on horses, but he hasn’t taught you all he knew. Nadia was a student of his and also knows a lot about another way for cavalry to fight. I brought her along to teach our riders all she can about fighting from horseback as a group. I doubt there’s little she can teach them about individual skills, but there’s a lot she can teach them about fighting as a group. Jonas thought very highly of her skills and knowledge so I intend to use them to defend Shiloh. Make the men aware they have to learn what she has to teach.” The men nod yes and he adds, “Nadia, as well as the Cossack combat tactics I want you to teach them those of the Mongols and have Larry help you with teaching them guerrilla style cavalry tactics, especially those of the Sioux and the Apache Indians.” She smiles and nods her understanding. “Kathleen is my Companion and will go with me when I leave the compound. When I’m busy within the compound she’ll help teach the men the use of the longbow in war, in many ways she’s better than Jonas or I with it.”

Nathan asks, “Kyle, please, how did Jonas die?”

Kyle takes a deep breath and replies, “Nathan, in our homeland the laws and culture are a lot different than here. Certain types of things can cause major troubles for people there, but would be ignored here. A bad man in our land who’s connected with the slavers visited Jonas and made threats that would’ve caused great harm to my family and myself in a way that would also have hurt you here at Shiloh. The man was sure Jonas would give into his demands to sign over Shiloh to stop the threat of the harm to my family and I. The threatened harm was of a type that would cause major social stigma and hurt. Kind of like what happens to the family of a slaver. What neither Jonas or the man Carl Edmondson knew was that the information was useless and wouldn’t cause that trouble. But they didn’t know the other things that stopped this from happening. Jonas saw no way to protect both myself and Shiloh, except to make the threat useless by killing himself; which he did after Carl left and Jonas wrote me a note about what happened.”

While the men nod one of the senior men says, “I know of this Carl, he likes to make people hurt for fun. We must make sure he never gets to control Shiloh. Kyle, how could this social harm not be a harm?”

While Kyle thinks for a moment Kathleen says, “I’m sure you know some people in a community have a higher social position than others, due to their work!” She gets many nods. “Robert Alexander managed a very large estate, much like Nathan does here, but an estate many times bigger than Shiloh. Because of this his family had much standing in the community.” Her listeners nod again. “Despite being Robert’s father Jonas was of a lower social status there because he was only a wise teacher. Carl threatened to make public the information Jonas was Kyle’s father by Robert’s wife.” Quite a few heads turn to look at Kyle and Nathan slowly nods when he remembers how Jonas described Kyle. “In a normal situation this would require the absentee Lord to dismiss Robert and the family to be shunned.” A lot more nods. “What no one, except Kyle’s mother and Robert, knew was Kyle’s mother was the Lord’s only child and now owns the estate as the laws there permit women to inherit. Thus Robert would not have been fired and the only social harm would have fallen on Carl, with a little on Robert and none on Kyle.”

Kyle takes over, “Not knowing this Jonas thought the only way he could protect Shiloh and me was to remove himself from the situation and he killed himself, thus making Carl’s threat useless. This is an extra reason for me to see Carl and his group is defeated.” He looks around the table as Nathan and his senior men with them nod their agreement.

Nathan finishes his cup of tea and stands, saying, “I’ve a medallion for you to take to the bank today so we can see ownership is passed on to you. If this Carl had killed Jonas it wouldn’t have been right to pass it to you, Kyle, but since Jonas didn’t die in a fight it’s now yours.” The men all nod agreement when they stand to leave and go back to work. While Kyle collects papers from Jonas’ office Nathan goes off to his room and returns to hand Kyle the medallion Jonas gave him.

Outside the house Kyle and KK go with Nathan while he takes a few minutes to introduce Nadia and Larry to the young men as Nathan details twenty off for Nadia to train and sets other work details going. The first of the new defenses being the holes and poles for the gates. Then the three of them are followed by a detail of twenty young men to the stables where they ready horses to ride into Riverview.

While entering Riverview they take a good look around, since there aren’t many people on the streets. They stop at the stables to leave their horses there. Joseph comes out to greet them and says, “Nathan, take care, there are about fifty armed men in town looking for someone.”

Both Nathan and Kyle slowly nod and Kyle says, “Stay and talk to Joseph for a moment, Nathan, I’ve another duty to perform in the stable.” When Nathan nods Joseph gives Kyle a close look. Kyle walks into the stable with KK beside him. He goes out the back to the paddock there and whistles a perfect imitation of a whippoorwill. War Bonnet trots over, not as fast as he does for Jonas, since he can tell the difference in their calls, but fast enough. He greets Kyle, and looks around. Kyle rubs his forehead and strokes his neck while he says, “I’m sorry, Old Fellow, but he’s gone and won’t be back.” War Bonnet pulls back to look at Kyle and shakes his head. “I’m sorry, he’s dead and we’ll both miss him.” The horse rears back and gives a loud snort before racing away.

While they stand there and watch War Bonnet race around the field a few time Kathleen says, “I’m sure he understood exactly what you said. If I’d not seen it I wouldn’t have believed it.” Kyle nods yes and he waits for War Bonnet to come back to them.

Some minutes later the horse comes back to the fence and places his head on Kyle’s shoulder. He hugs War Bonnet tight around the neck as they grieve together for their loss. After a while Kyle loosens his grip and says, “War Bonnet, this is my wife and Companion, Kathleen, also known as KK. Jonas thought a lot of her.” The horse moves to Kathleen and leans over to sniff her. She reaches out with her hand and lets him get a good sniff before stroking his neck. After a moment War Bonnet gives a snort and nudges KK with his head, showing he accepts her. “OK, Old Fellow, we need to go to the bank and we’ll take you out to Shiloh when we leave.” The horse nods and turns back to the paddock.

They walk back through the barn to meet the others. Joseph nods at Kyle, he’s more reassured Kyle is who he is by the way War Bonnet met him than by Nathan’s reassurances. When Kyle and Kathleen check their weapons are ready for action the others notice and do the same. Kyle asks, “Nathan, do you know this banker Klovus Hissup?”

Nathan shakes his head no, but Joseph says, “I do, Kyle.”

“Good, go put on some leather armor and weapons. If the men are here for me they’ll have someone at the bank. When we get there and Klovus comes out greet him. If another comes out to claim he’s Klovus say nothing. Understand?” Joseph nods yes before darting off to get armor and weapons. Kyle turns to the young men, “If anyone raises a weapon to us or attacks us, kill them! I’ll trust you to know who are our local friends who’ll come to our aid and not to hurt them. KK, kill anyone who attacks you or me or Nathan.” They all nod. A moment later they’re all ready and walking toward the bank while Nathan assigns positions to the young men so some will stay outside to cover their rear.

Entering the bank they all ready their crossbows for immediate use, Kyle’s is in his left hand. Only Kyle, KK, Joseph, and three men go in.

There are three armed guards in the bank, all wearing sneers, and the young man in the teller’s cage looks very frightened. Kyle walks up and asks, “Are you the manager?” The young man shakes his head no and darts into the back room. A moment later another man walks out and Kyle asks, “Are you Klovus Hissup, the manager of this bank?”

The man replies, “I’m the manager, Klovus Hissup, who are you and what do you want?”

Joseph is quick when he raises his hand to shoot the man in the chest with his crossbow as he says, “I don’t like liars impersonating important people.” Seeing Joseph shoot the man the guards go for their weapons and the three young men toss throwing knives into their throats. The guards lose all interest in everything. Another armed man enters from the back room and turns when he sees the dead man in the cage. Joseph grabs Kyle’s crossbow and puts a bolt between the man’s shoulder blades. As the man hits the floor they hear the back door slam.

The young teller and another man walk in from the back and Kyle is happy to hear Joseph say, “Hello, Klovus. Had some trouble, I see!”

One of the young men retrieves the thrown knives while another sticks his head out and calls a warning code-word to the others. Those outside are quick to move to cover.

Kyle grins and says, “Our bolts please, Klovus, and make sure that back door is secure. After we deal with these killers you and I have some business to take care of.” The manager nods as he leans down to rip the bolt out of the man on the ground near him as the teller does the same to the other. Both men are dying, but not dead, so they grunt in pain when the removal of the bolts tears their bodies apart even more. While the teller hands over the bolts Klovus puts a bar across the back door and retrieves some weapons from a cupboard to share with the teller. Kyle hands the medallion to Kathleen, saying, “The code-word is Old Sam and Mose. If things go against us take care of Shiloh for me.” She gulps and nods yes. “Stay here while I deal with this!” Another nod and Kyle heads for the door, “Joseph, stay and protect KK, please.”

Kyle and the three young men walk out of the bank to see several groups of men coming toward the bank from as many directions, but he can’t see Nathan or his men, which is good. One well-dressed man in leather armor is leading a group of twenty from the tavern. Kyle sees the young man beside the leader wears a sapphire ring a lot like his. The well-dressed man yells out, “Kyle Alexander, give us Shiloh and we’ll let you and your men go unharmed.”

Kyle raises his crossbow and aims as he tells his men, “The young one I shoot must be taken alive,” and fires at the young man, hitting him in the thigh and causing him to fall. He reloads his crossbow while the young men with him use their short bows to shoot three of the men with the leader. As they do a wave of arrows comes from the buildings beside the bank to hit the attackers coming up the street from the other end, killing them all. Another flight of arrows and all of the small groups are dead men in the street as the last dozen of the first group near Kyle.

Dropping his crossbow Kyle draws a large knife and his sword (a cross between a Roman Gladius and a Japanese katana; it has aspects of both, but is neither). The leader swings his sword at Kyle and is very surprised the knife provides a solid block. Kyle stabs him in the thigh with the sword in his right hand. Kyle avoids the body as he glimpsed chain-mail under the leather armor; no point wasting time against that. The leg wound will cause the man issues. When the man stumbles back to regain his balance he leaves himself open, inviting an attack against his chest. Kyle wonders how many people he’s tricked into attacking the mail while he attacks their side. Making like he’s taking the bait Kyle lunges forward with his sword. When the man smiles Kyle lowers his sword to slice deep into the man’s inside thigh. When he pulls his sword back Kyle watches the blood of the cut artery gush out. The pain causes the man to stumble. Kyle can tell when the man knows he’s dying because of the look of horror on his face. The man takes a step and stumbles to his knees, falling forward onto his face. Kyle kicks him in the face, snapping his neck when the head goes back with the kick.

Kyle looks up to see all the attackers are dead except the young man he wounded at the start. Nathan and the others didn’t know why, but they knew Kyle’s wounding of him was deliberate and they’ve kept him alive while they kill all of the others. Walking over to the young man Kyle asks, “Who are you?” No reply. He takes the ring off the man’s hand, breaking a finger in order to get him to open his fist and let it go while he screams in pain. Looking down at the man he says, “I’ll ask you who you are, every time you refuse to answer me I’ll break a bone. Who are you?” No reply. Kyle snaps another finger and the man screams in pain again.

While sobbing he says, “Jason Bennett.”

“Where were you born and what is your relationship to Carl?”

“Abilene, Texas. Carl is my boss; my dad works for him too.”

Kyle looks at Nathan and says, “Strip him, search him, tie him up, and take care of his wounds. I want him kept alive. I’ll take him with me. I’ve a use for him alive, to send a message to Carl.” Nathan nods and issues orders to the others.

While they tend to Jason he asks, “How did you kill LaMas so fast? He was sent to kill Jonas and you because he’s a great swordsman.”

Kyle turns to look down at Jason while he replies, “LaMas was a swordsman. I’m a warrior and a trained killer. I know more than the sword. Both of those give me a big advantage over such as he.” He turns to Nathan, “I don’t want this garbage left in the street. After you strip them feed them to the hogs. Check where their horses and gear are and collect them too. Use any money collected to compensate for any damages they did, please, Nathan.” A smiling Nathan nods while Kyle turns and goes back to the bank.

Kyle walks into the bank and takes the medallion Kathleen holds out for him. He places it on the counter and says, “The password for this is Old Sam and Mose. I already have an account and a lock box. All I need to do is transfer the balance and the contents of Jonas’ lock box.” Klovus smiles and he starts the processes required before leading Kyle into the vault to empty Jonas’ lock box. Most of it goes into Kyle’s lock box, some goes on the table, and some of the contents of Kyle’s goes on the table too, before he closes Jonas’ now empty box and it disappears.

Kyle hands KK a pouch of local coins and stays there while she goes to open an account of her own. She also gets a lock box and returns to the vault Kyle’s is in. Her box is soon where Jonas’ was and the things on the tables are put in it. This is so she has access to some resources if they get separated for any reason. After closing the boxes they return to the front. Kyle hands over the papers for various properties so Klovus can transfer them. Kyle has the teller transfer some more money from his account to KK’s while Klovus handles the properties.

Handing back the amended papers Klovus says, “Also linked to the account of Jonas were a number of other joint accounts. As it seemed they were for the running of the businesses I’ve changed them to be linked to your account with the other operator staying the same. I hope this meets with your approval.”

Kyle smiles and replies, “Perfectly, Klovus, perfectly. If I’d known of them I’d have asked you to do that. Thank you. All that’s probably in the other papers Jonas left for me to go through.”

The transfers take only a few minutes, which is long enough for the men to clear the street. When they leave the bank Kyle watches a wagon of dead going down the road to the large hog farm just outside of town, on the downwind side. They head to the tavern so Nathan can introduce Kyle and pass on the sad word about Jonas.

For the next few weeks Nadia trains men in cavalry tactics while KK trains men in the use of the longbow in warfare and Kyle helps with the preparation of the new defenses. As men dig the trench, starting on the east wall, Kyle helps with making the adobe bricks and building the wall higher. Since the trench will help protect the east wall the new bricks go on the west wall first so they make two walls safer at once. Dana, Nathan’s son, is busy making fired clay pipes for the moat water.

Very soon Kyle has a good production line making the adobe bricks near the stream. The production is faster than the wall building team, so he adds making the smaller bricks for the houses to use up the dirt the trench diggers are supplying so fast.

The people work very hard and fast. In two weeks the new wall is done on all except the north side, all of the houses have new adobe walls with sod roofs - though some houses got extra bracing for their roof. The approach path on the south side is finished, so is all but half the western trench. The berry bushes are being planted almost as fast as the space for them is made ready. The pipes for the stream in the other two walls are down with some earth packed around them so the approaches will be easy to finish after the water is diverted.

KK has been teaching the use of the longbow in war to the men used to using their bows for hunting. All the men and women can use short bows and long bows, with sixty now qualified as combat archers. Nadia has been busy training the cavalry in maneuvers and training officers in combat tactics. All the men and women are very competent riders and many can fight with swords on horseback. However, Shiloh now has over a hundred trained to respond as a mounted combat force to fight with lances, with a few more trained as cavalry officers. There’s still a lot more work to do to train all who live on Shiloh, since the compound only houses a small percentage of those who live and work on Shiloh lands; the rest live in the surrounding area. What they do have is the core of a good combat force who now take on the job of roving patrols while the others come in to be trained in the same skills.