Chapter 11

The smell of funeral pyres was well neigh overpowering through the evening air. Over half of the nomads who had attacked us had been killed; their bodies were now being burned, as was the usual practice for someone who had died honorably in battle. I really hated that so many brave men had to die to prove our point, but I had no other choice. Hopefully, at least, they would now pay attention when we tried to tell them something. On the morrow, I would visit the nomad camp to see if they were ready to listen to reason.

Capt. Nax was of the opinion that the elders would now listen to us, but he was sure that there were still hot-heads who would rather fight than cooperate. We might have to resort to the lowest from of trickery by having Alice, a mere woman, defeat their champion in hand-to-hand combat. She was so much stronger and faster than any human that she could easily win such an encounter, the problem would be in doing it without killing her opponent. I wanted to avoid that option if at all possible, since I felt that we could accomplish more by representing Alice as the avatar of Venus. A living, breathing goddess walking around among lowly humans was as impressive as hell, and I wanted to make use of that.

The next morning, we again dressed in our best clothes and rode our horses into the nomad camp. Yes, I kept my fly-whisk handy. We had hardly gotten to the edge of the camp when some idiot shot an arrow at us at very close range. Alice saw the arrow in time and snatched it out of the air as it was headed for my chest. Now, it is possible to dodge an arrow under some circumstances, but it is virtually impossible to catch one while it is still in the air. Alice caught the arrow when it was only inches away from hitting me.

She had been waving a leafy branch as we rode in, claiming the sacred right of parley. In all cultures at the time, it was too dishonorable for words for someone to attack anyone waving such a symbol. Alice only had to hold up the arrow in one hand and the leafy branch in the other hand to cause a swell of rage to build up within the crowd of nomads who were watching us as we rode into their camp. Before Alice or I could say anything, the crowd had attacked the shooter and had literally torn him to pieces.

The elders came rushing up to us and tried to apologize for the affront before we took offense. I was wearing my armor under my outer clothes, so the arrow could not have hurt me, but I didn't mention that. I had been expecting something like this to happen, so I was not taking any chances. But the act of wearing the armor would have been insulting to the nomads, since it shouted that I did not trust them to observe the standards of "civilized" behavior. By keeping my armor hidden, I was protecting myself, but preserving the nomad self respect. Later on, they did notice that I was wearing the armor, but nobody said anything.

Both sides spent some time calming tempers and soothing the crowd, but we eventually adjourned to a very large "hut" where we went inside to escape most of the larger flies. We drank fermented mare's milk and ate small cakes while we swore undying friendship to each other. Of course, neither side believed these oaths, but they did sound good. Besides, the fermented drink had enough alcohol in it to calm the nerves of the nomads. I only pretended to drink, so I was not affected by the alcohol, and Alice, being a woman, was not offered any to drink.

The meeting was interrupted at noon for a meal, but was followed that afternoon by more drinking. I was sure that some of the older and wiser elders were not drinking any more than I was, but we all put up a good front. We parted late that afternoon with some semblance of friendship, but I was not sure just how far we could yet trust our new "friends." I was also sure that they felt pretty much the same way.

The nomads now had a big problem. They had lost so many men that the number of widows in the camp was nearly equal to the number of married women. We latched onto that as an opportunity to launch a nomad version of the Venus cult. The women with husbands didn't want to give up the economic security of a bread-stealer, oops, bread-winner, but they didn't mind spreading the sex around, as long as the "marriage" link was kept tight.

Over the next month, during the day, the Rumans helped the nomads get ready for a lean winter, and, during the night, invited a few of the nomads to our camp for a demonstration of the virtues of being a member of the Venus cult. By the end of the month, every member of the nomad camp, even the elders, had a least one session experiencing the rites of Venus worship, and they all became enthusiastic converts. Even the tribal shamans could see which way the political wind was blowing and became Venus fanatics, particularly when they realized that this would get them all of the free nooky they could handle.

Relations, both social and sexual, warmed during the next couple of months, and Alice and I figured that the nomads would become Ruman in all but name by the end of the winter. The Ruman militia members who had been selected for this expedition had all been people with no ties remaining in Ruma, so it was easy to convince them to relocate permanently to this section of Austria and to integrate with the nomads. We had been sending regular reports back to Ruma by heliograph, so there was no surprise at home with the announcement that the entire militia detachment planned to stay in Austria.

Capt. Nax became General Nax as he reorganized his militia into a legion of border guards. His legion accepted the enlistments of locals who were happy to join when they found out that the enlistment bonus included being issued a firearm. Of course, what they didn't know was that Ruma was the only source of the striker flints, so they had to remain in the army to keep their weapons functioning properly. A few quit in disgust when the realization sank in, but most of the enlistees quickly grasped the value of steady meals and a safe place to sleep, so the legion grew steadily as we were able to get new guns shipped to us.

The legion of border guards very quickly grew to include local women, too, so that we were rapidly advancing our goal of gender equality. Nothing made a young man appreciate the value of a woman so much as when she saved his life with a rifle shot, and they rewarded themselves with a good fuck. Ah, the joys of being young and in the Ruman Army!

One of the requirements for being in the Ruman Army was that a soldier had to stay in one place until ordered to move. This immediately killed the nomadic lifestyle, but the advantages of farms and a stable lifestyle soon won the nomads over. Soon, the locals were "out Rumaning" the Rumans! Many people chose to live close to the military bases for the assured safety of protection with firearms. Also, there was the assured clientele of the soldiers and their dependents for the businessmen who chose to grasp the opportunity. By the way, there were no bordellos close by the bases—the Venus cult made them unprofitable.

By spring, General Nax had roughly 1000 soldiers under arms and placed strategically along the eastern frontier. They quickly became the police force which patrolled the western bank of the Danube River and did a remarkably good job of keeping raiders from crossing. He began to get requests to extend the patrols to the eastern bank, since the people there were coming under pressure from barbarians to their east. General Nax, Alice, and I discussed the situation and decided that a token expansion of what was becoming the "Ruman Empire" was appropriate, but we had to do it gradually.

In keeping with this policy, two small bases of 25 soldiers, each, were established on the eastern bank of the Danube River. When midsummer came, we started to notice that the level of military activity by one of the units had picked up on that side of the river, but not by the other unit. Inquiries were made by General Nax's staff, and they were told that the "barbarians" on that side of the river had been making more trouble, but the situation was under control. Alice noted that the base with the increased activity had been requisitioning more and more ammunition in amounts totally inappropriate for such a small number of men.

I asked Alice to make a personal investigation making use of her special skills. Alice left that night and crossed to the other side of the river by walking on the river bottom in order to escape detection. She was gone for 3 days, long enough for me to worry what had happened to her. On the fourth day, Alice returned with a disturbing report.