Chapter 7: Burt

"It's us, Garth. Consuela and Enrique. We have the Patrón and his son with us."

The man lowered the crossbow and swiped his forehead with his free arm. He moved a little to the side, leaning over so he could see past the two up front and squinting at us. I noticed that the bolt was still engaged, ready to fire, and his finger was still on the trigger. He looked back at Connie and motioned toward Alfie with the weapon.

"And this?" he said to her.

"This is Alfie," she said, leaning over and patting him on the head. "He's no danger unless he needs to be. Sit Alfie."

The wolf sat down and Garth said, "And what would make him need to be a danger?"

"Somebody threatening us with a weapon and not putting it up after it had been established that we were not a threat," Val said, barely hiding the anger in his voice.

Alfie remained seated but I could hear a low growl and see the raised hair on the back of his neck.

"Take it easy, Val," I said. "He doesn't know us."

Garth swung the crossbow to his left, making sure it was pointed at the ground, then raised it enough to unseat the bolt. He put it into a pocket of the heavy leather apron he was wearing along with about a dozen of its mates.

"It's OK, guards," he said, his voice raised. "You can come out now."

A boy and a girl quickly came out onto the road from the bushes I'd seen movement in. They looked about the same age as Ricky and Connie. I heard something behind us and turned my head around to see two women, one about Bev's age and the other my wife's, obviously mother and daughter. All four of them were holding crossbows, aimed toward the ground but still ready to fire. The woman looked as though she wanted to rip somebody's head off. The daughter looked sad, as if she'd lost something.

"Senior," I heard. I turned around to see the man in the leather apron at my side, between Val and me. His hand was extended and I took it in mine. The hand was rough and his grip was strong but not overpowering. "I'm Garth, the blacksmith," he said.

"Burt Hendrix," I responded. "And this one next to me with the temper is my son, Val," I continued, motioning to him with a head nod.

"A temper is not out of line when there is a lack of respect that is due," he said, shaking Val's hand. "We had to be certain that these two were not being coerced." He motioned at Ricky and Connie with his free arm.

"I'm a little surprised," I said. "I didn't expect such vigilance."

"This is unusual," he answered, "but we find ourselves to be in a position where it's necessary."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Come, come, this is not the place. You four go back to your posts," he said to the guards. "Amanda and Susan, I'll call some replacements for you when I get back to the signal gong," he said to the mother and daughter. Turning back to me, he said, "Come into the village, relax and have some refreshment and we will talk."

The guards disappeared into the bushes and Garth took off at a fast trot. We followed him around a curve in the road and then stopped as he did. We were at the crest of a hill, looking down into a valley.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when but this was not it. When I heard of a village near us, I thought of something out of the old west, maybe a dirt street with wood sidewalks. The saloon, bank and most likely the hotel would be missing but the stables, blacksmith, saddlemaker, etc. would all have their own places on the outskirts of town. I'd even pictured a collection of teepees with the elders meeting around a fire at one time.

What I saw was a beautiful valley with homes spread out across it. It was at least a quarter mile between the houses but they mostly averaged a mile and a half to two. The construction seemed to be mostly wood and stone. Most places had a house with a barn close by and all I could see had crops of some kind growing on a section of the property. Some had farm animals grazing. There was a stream flowing down the center of the valley and I saw three water wheels set up, several miles apart from one another. Each had at least one large building close by. One had several wagons filled with logs that looked to be recently felled. I could see several piles of uncut logs, each one numbering close to a hundred. In another area, I saw stacks of cut lumber. They reminded me of the lumber section of one of the giant home warehouses.

I was snapped back into the now by the sound of a huge gong being struck by a mallet. I looked over as Garth hit it twice, waited about five seconds, then hit three more times. The gong was hanging from an upside down L, similar to the structure you draw when playing Hangman. Garth let the mallet drop and it fell to about a foot from the ground, the leather thong holding it secured to the crossbeam away from the straps holding the gong.

I heard a repetition of the signal from somewhere in the valley a short time later. I looked at him questioningly.

"It's a signal. This one means we need to have a town meeting and that there's nothing to worry about. If I'd signaled three, then three, it would have meant I was in danger and was being forced to signal the town. The answering signal serves two purposes. It acts as an acknowledgment to me and also relays the signal so that all can hear it."

I could see some movement already. Some people were on horses, heading toward the center of the valley while others were in wagons or in the process of hooking horses up to them.

Garth reached down and picked up the mallet again. He hit the gong five times, waited a couple of seconds, then hit it twice more. He didn't wait for me to ask. "I called for two replacement guards." I could see a couple of people on horseback turn around and head in our direction.

Garth let out a whistle and a horse came running over to him. It was not a tall horse but it was wide and muscular. It looked like it would be equally at home pulling either a plow or a wagon. Garth put a foot in the stirrup, swung up and plopped down on the saddle. The horse settled itself but showed no other effect from the added weight.

I'd been observing Garth on and off since he first blocked our path. My first impression had been short and stocky, and that still held true. But calling him stocky would be like calling a politician from the old world power hungry. While true, it came nowhere near describing the magnitude of the characteristic.

He said he was a blacksmith and it was obvious he had been at it for a long time. He stood about 5'2" and was almost as wide as he was tall. There didn't seem to be an ounce of fat on him, though, it was all muscle. His biceps bulged out larger than my enhanced thighs, measuring twice as large, even at rest. He was obviously ambidextrous as I could see no difference in size between them. His pants legs were stretched out in the thighs as he sat astride his horse and they looked to be close to a foot from front to back. Barrel chested doesn't even come close to describing him. I imagine it would take more than my fist to make him react after hitting it. Hitting him full on with a sledge hammer would probably only make him take a step or two backwards.

He had been stern when we first met and there was no doubt he was giving the other four orders with full expectation they would be followed without question, yet his handshake was firm and confident but not overpowering. I had no doubt he could have easily crushed my hand if he wanted to. This was no bully. He was a strong, powerful man who seemed to have complete control over himself and those in his charge.

He lead the way, following a path that meandered down the slope. Connie got behind him, then me and Val, the pack horse tied to his with a long lead, Ricky taking up the rear. I noticed that both of our young guides seemed even more alert than they had been before, their bows held in one hand along with a notched arrow, not draped across their shoulders as they had been for most of the ride.

I could see quite a distance in both directions but could not make out any other paths into the valley.

"Is this the only entrance?" I asked.

"The only one on this side," Garth shouted back to me. "There's another one on the far side," he continued, pointing at the hills in the distance, a little to the left of center. I could just make out a trail similar to the one we were on, winding its way down the hill.

"Are there guards over there, as well?" I asked him.

"Oh, yes. Day and night."

There was something going on. The vigilance of the guards that met us at the top of the hill, Garth's inference that there was a reason they were so vigilant and that it was unusual, the meeting called between us and everyone in the community. I could see the people moving towards the center of the town and it appeared to be everyone. I had an idea that Amanda and Susan, the mother and daughter, had something to do with it. The look on Amanda's face and the tenseness of her body plus the fact that Garth made sure to tell her she'd be replaced all added up to her being at the center of whatever it was that had put this community on alert. If all the other indications didn't do it, the sadness shown by Susan alone would have told me it wasn't pleasant. Whatever it was, they had decided would wait until we got there. I wasn't about to pull rank and force Garth to tell me about it.

We had to slow down and move to the side about halfway down the hill to let a couple of young men about Val's age pass by. They nodded to Garth and exchanged hellos with Ricky and Connie.

"Amanda and Susan will probably beat us to the meeting," Garth said over his shoulder.

"I have an idea that it's important for them to be there," I said.

"That's why you're the Senior and I'm just a lowly blacksmith."

I heard a snort from Ricky. He was lucky he didn't have a mouthful of liquid because it would have surely come out his nose.

"Lowly blacksmith my horse's rump," he said. "You should see the work this man produces."

"I plan to," I said, looking back at him.

We made it to the valley and started in the direction everyone else had been going. Garth pointed out the first spread we passed.

"This is Amanda and her family's."

We were 50 yards past the entrance when we heard a couple of horses racing towards us. Susan turned down the drive but Amanda stopped long enough to shout "I'm just going to check on Oscar, then we'll head to the meeting."

"OK. Take your time," Garth shouted to her retreating back.

The next place was where I'd seen the two replacement guards come from. There was a long structure, twenty five feet deep and maybe 150 feet from end to end with walls at each either end and the back but was open all along the front. The roof sloped down from front to back. I could tell there was something all along the back wall but had no idea what it was because of the roof and its shadow.

"What do they do in there?" I asked Garth.

"That's where we make our copper pipe," he answered.

"Really? What do you use that for?"

"Oh, come now, Senior. You should know that well enough. You must have over two miles of it at your place, for the crops and your home and the other buildings."

"Oh, I didn't realize that. How about here in... ? I'm sorry, I don't even know the name of this community."

"I don't think it was ever named but everyone just calls it The Town. But to answer your question, we are in the process of manufacturing the pipe we'll need to provide for ourselves, now that we've completed your two properties."