The temple bell rang once.
An hour after midnight.
By then, the idea had spread far beyond the fourth longhouse block.
People had arrived at the new market area from all four housing blocks, along with residents from the older houses elsewhere in Tiranat. For the first time, the new market block did not look too large for the village.
Usually, its broad roads and open ground made the few makeshift shops present there look lonely. Tonight, several small cooking fires burned across the open space, with families and groups of friends gathered around each one.
People roasted potatoes directly in the embers and held sticks of meat over the flames. A merchant named Kigeir had opened his shop and contributed a basket of food without asking for coin, as his contribution toward Tiranat’s victory and to let the latest refugees know about his shop. Of course, after that it was only available on payment. Merchants would be merchants after all. Others had set up small stalls close to the groups of people sitting near the fires and were selling bread, dried fruits, and cooked meat for half their usual prices. The alehouse was also open, selling ale and full meals at a hefty discount.
Older children ran between the fires as though this were a festival arranged for their entertainment. Most of them did not seem to understand how close the danger had come a few hours earlier.
Widel looked at the happy faces of the villagers for a few more moments, then walked towards a bench where Hyola was sitting.
Calubo sat on Hyola's other side, close enough that their shoulders touched whenever one of them shifted. Savomi and Tesyb sat on the ground nearby, while Isomi sat beside her sister with her legs stretched toward the fire.
Nobody cared tonight that it was in the middle of summer and the weather was already hot.
A few more guards rested around them, some still wearing parts of their equipment. Most had set their shields and spears within easy reach, but nobody kept glancing toward the walls anymore.
Hyola finally noticed her. “You’re back, shorty!”
“I never went anywhere, carrot-head!” Widel retorted as she took a seat next to her.
Hyola smirked. “Guess shorties like you easily get forgotten between the little kids running around.”
Widel just snorted, knowing it was the redhead’s unique way of sounding friendly. Still, she had not expected to make real friends so soon after coming to Tiranat.
She had certainly not expected one of them to be Hyola.
Most of the time, Widel found the woman irritating.
Hyola was loud, competitive, and far too pleased whenever she proved better than someone else with a crossbow.
Unfortunately, Widel was much the same, except she wasn't nearly as good with ranged weapons as the tall redhead was.
Hyola looked at her. "I heard you somehow managed to load the scorpion without dropping a bolt tonight."
Widel narrowed her eyes. "I loaded it properly every time."
"But you still can't aim it though."
"I just haven't had enough practice."
Hyola leaned back against the bench, looking far too satisfied. "I can use both a crossbow and a scorpion now. You can only use a crossbow."
"For now!”
"That is what people say when they are losing."
Widel considered pushing her from the bench.
Instead, she reached for a roasted potato offered by Isomi.
Yufim would have made the argument livelier. The blond archer was still away on the hunting trip, though he should be returning soon. Things were usually louder whenever he was present, particularly once he and Hyola began arguing over which of them was the better shot.
Widel enjoyed those arguments. Far more than she would ever admit to anyone.
Mostly because Yufim was one of the few people who could annoy Hyola as quickly as Widel could.
She noticed two villagers coming to sit on the ground nearby, speaking beside another cooking fire ahead of them. Widel recognized both as newer arrivals who had come to Tiranat with one of the recent refugee groups.
"I thought we had made a mistake when we first arrived," one of them said.
The other man nodded. "Coming this deep into the forest?"
"That, and the wooden walls. We never had to worry about damned adzees at the farm in the north."
The second man snorted. ”We had other things to worry about there."
The first man gave a quiet laugh. “True that."
He turned a stick over the fire. A piece of meat had been pushed through its end.
"The last two nights crowded into that longhouse courtyard… I hardly slept any," he continued. "Every time one of those accursed beasts howled, my wife pulled our boy closer. Half the men were sitting near the gate with machetes because we thought the wall might break.”
"So did I."
"I kept wondering what the owner of our old farm would have done."
The other man snorted. "You know exactly what he would have done. He would have put his family into a carriage and ridden away. The rest of us would have been ordered to stand in the road and slow the beasts down."
The second man stared into the fire.
"Probably."
“No, certainly. Here, the baron stopped all outside work because he did not want anyone beyond the walls, even though he would take a loss without any work being done. Even the miners and road crews were ordered to remain inside. I lost a day's wages, but my wife and son are alive."
"So are you."
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
The man looked around the market block. Another woman, probably his wife, was sitting at another fire nearby with a small boy asleep across her lap.
"I still do not know if this place feels like home yet," he said. "But it feels closer than it did two days ago."
The other man smiled. "Being trapped in a courtyard with a hundred sweating people will do that."
Both of them laughed.
"We shared food. We watched each other's children. Men I had hardly spoken to stood beside me at the gate with knives. If an adzee had entered, we would have fought together. We might not have survived, but damned if we wouldn't have given them a bloody nose. Or a snout!”
The first man laughed at that but fell quiet for a moment. “How's work at the mines?”
"Better work than what I had before coming here," he said. "They pay me every week, and no one beats me if I slow down or take a break."
"Then why do you sound unhappy with it?"
"I am not unhappy."
He looked toward his sleeping son again. "But tonight I sat behind another wall and waited for someone else to protect my family. I do not want to do that next time."
The second man glanced at him. "You want to join the guards?"
“Not sure yet, but I think I will."
"Your wife may have something to say about that."
“Hah! She always does."
They laughed again, and Widel looked away before either man noticed she had been listening.
She understood him.
Tiranat did not feel entirely like home to her either. Not yet.
But it was getting there.
Hyola slapped one hand against her knee. “So now that I have proved again I am the best shot in Tiranat—"
"If Yufim were here, he would claim otherwise," Tesyb interrupted. “I’m not sure if I would disagree with him.”
Hyola pointed at him. "You only say that because the blondie is your best friend."
"I say it because I have watched both of you compete many times."
"And I have a scorpion now. Now he cannot even claim he can shoot farther than me!”
Tesyb lifted one hand before she could continue. "Before tonight, I’d still say Yufim was the better shot. He would probably have landed more arrows on those adzees than you did crossbow or scorpion bolts."
Hyola opened her mouth.
"But," Tesyb added, keeping his hand raised, "those arrows would not have done nearly as much damage as your scorpion bolts."
Hyola's expression changed at once, and she grinned. "Now you understand!”
Tesyb snorted. “I only understand you had the larger weapon. And that you can’t carry it with you or move it around as much as an archer can.”
"I used the scorpion well enough."
Tesyb shrugged. “That you did."
Hyola looked around the fire as though expecting everyone else to admit the same. Not getting any response, she grumbled something inaudible.
Tesyb looked at the redhead again. "I still want Yufim to return soon so I can see what new reason he invents for still being better."
The people around the fire laughed.
Widel could already imagine the blond archer's reaction when he found out about the dead adzees with scorpion bolts buried in them. Yufim might still be the best archer in the village, but his arrows looked much less impressive now that Tiranat had weapons capable of punching deep into a fully grown adzee.
The talk of Yufim returning reminded Widel of something else she had been considering.
"Tesyb."
He looked toward her. "Hmm?"
"Can I be assigned to the dam tomorrow? Or in the next few days?”
"Why would you even want that?” Tesyb frowned. “Most guards complain when Kerel sends them there. It is a long walk, there’s hardly any shade there, the furnaces make the place miserable in this heat, and the sawmills and triphammers are noisy all day."
"I still want to see it."
“What? The dam?"
"All of it. People keep talking about the furnace that makes steel, but I still don't know what a furnace that large looks like. I want to see the sawmills and the triphammer too."
Savomi smiled. “In this weather, it does feel nice sitting near the reservoir if there is a wind blowing.”
Widel continued before anyone could interrupt. "And I want to know what a fish ladder is. People keep saying fish climb it. But fish don't have feet!”
"They don't climb it like a person," Tesyb snorted.
"Then they should not call it a ladder."
Isomi laughed.
"There is also the reservoir," Widel continued. "If I go in the morning and take the afternoon duty there, I can see everything before my shift starts. So, can I?”
"Kerel assigns the guard shifts, not me," Tesyb said. “But I don’t think he’ll object. If anything, he'll be glad to have someone volunteer for it, because usually he has to change the groups sent there because nobody wants to go to the industrial area.”
“Well, I do.” Widel shrugged. “For once at least. After that, we'll see.”
Tesyb snorted. “Sure. I’ll tell him. I can't guarantee it will be tomorrow, since he assigns the duties a few days in advance, but it should be possible within a week.”
Widel grinned. “That’ll do!”
Hyola turned toward Widel. "Why don't we all go?"
Calubo looked at her. “Huh? All of us?"
"The industrial area usually has half a dozen guards posted there. So we can ask for duty there on the same day. We hardly ever get enough time to sit together when we are all working different shifts and different posts."
“Hmm… That’s not a bad idea," Savomi said.
She glanced briefly at Tesyb before looking back at Widel. "I can show you how the sawmill works."
"I want to see the triphammer first," Widel said.
Savoli chuckled. “You can see both."
Isomi nodded. "I will come too."
Calubo agreed as well.
Tesyb rubbed the back of his neck. "Yufim should return in a couple of days. We can tell him to come as well if we go after that. Otherwise, he’ll whine that we left him behind."
Hyola smiled. "He’ll complain anyway that he’s being sent on duty as soon as he gets back. But the moment you mention the reservoir, he’ll come. He spends half his free time there trying to improve his swimming."
"He will not need to be on duty," Tesyb said. "Only six guards need to be assigned there. Anyone else can come while off duty. Kerel will not mind having more guards at the site, even if for only a day.”
His smile faded slightly. "We need to keep it protected, especially with the mercenaries arriving in a month."
Widel stiffened.
Mercenaries…?
There were mercenaries coming to Tiranat? The relief she had felt after the adzees were defeated vanished at once.
She knew little about the group coming toward Tiranat, or why they were coming here, but she knew what mercenaries were. Men who would rob, burn, or kill anyone if someone paid them enough.
She almost asked Tesyb why they were coming.
Then she looked around.
Villagers were sitting close enough to hear everything they said. If the matter was sensitive, this was not the place to discuss it.
Tesyb seemed to notice her expression, but he did not explain further.
“So it’s decided. We’ll all go to the dam in a few days," he said. “Yufim’ll come too.”
Savomi, Isomi, Hyola, and Calubo agreed.
Widel grinned. “I can’t wait!”
The conversation moved on. Hyola began describing the angle of one of her shots at an adzee in far greater detail than anyone had requested, while Calubo listened with a patient smile. Nearby, Savomi was telling Tesyb about something new Nurobo had taught her about treating wounds. Isomi sat beside her with a small smile, looking pleased to see her usually reserved sister talking so freely.
Widel leaned back on the bench and looked toward the nearest fire.
It was still hot. The flames added more heat, and sweat gathered beneath her collar. But no rain had fallen for nearly a month, so the night air was dry enough to remain bearable.
Around her, the villagers ate, laughed, and argued over who had shown the most courage during an attack where most of them had watched from behind closed gates. Children continued running between the cooking fires. Somewhere farther down the market block, someone had begun singing badly, and others were encouraging him rather than asking him to stop.
Widel thought again about the forest encampment where she had lived before coming here.
Leaving it had been the right decision.
Here, she had food, wages, and work she had chosen for herself. More importantly, she had people around her who would stand together when danger came.
She looked at Hyola, Tesyb, Savomi, Isomi, and Calubo. Or the other guards sitting nearby.
Any one of them would risk their life to protect the others.
Widel knew she would do the same.
I guess Tiranat is already a home for me, after all…
The temple stood to the west, its patched-up wooden walls partly visible beyond the market stalls. Widel lowered her head toward it.
Thank you, Goddess.
Then Hyola began boasting again, and Widel turned to the redhead to set her right. She couldn’t let Hyola’s head grow any bigger. It was large enough already.
***