Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (ebook audio reader .txt) 📖

The boy murmured with a weak shake of his head. “I don’t know.”

Unfortunately, the Gailert knew he wasn’t lying so there was no way to take the information from him.

They started that very day organizing a military post for a toll road. The first thing the general did was send back one military car to Barnid where they would assemble a road building crew. The young interim patriarch who had been so insolent the day before was nowhere to be found, so negotiating for labor within the village was practically impossible. Also there was the issue of the sleeping soldier who, despite all their efforts, still snored without any signs of waking up.

Slapping his face one more time, the man merely licked his lips and murmured. The lieutenant shook his head and said to the general, “It is some kind of sleeping balm. We washed his face off, but it’s oily and resists water.”

“Then use soap,” the general said with bite.

“A balm that puts people to sleep?” the captain repeated with skepticism, glancing at the general.

Gailert had been frowning all morning, glaring at this soldier but also at his boy who continually rubbed his eyes and shook his head as if he were still dreaming. The child in this state murmured words rather than kept silent—though he answered questions with pure honesty. His lieutenant had found the balm smeared all over the child’s ankles as if the witch was trying to grease them for an escape. It obviously didn’t work. The irons were too small to go over the boy’s large feet.

“I think the balm is only part of it,” the lieutenant said. “Otherwise we would be falling asleep from smelling it.”

“Agreed,” the general said. He frowned deeper. “It is clear the insurgents are near by. That witch came in to steal information.”

“From asking your boy?” The captain nearly laughed.

“Your boy is wise to keep his head down,” the lieutenant said, glancing back at him as the child yawned, scrunching his eyes closed and opening them with every attempt to wake up to avoid a beating. “The witch wouldn’t be able to get anything vital from him.”

With a grunt, Gailert turned to go back to where his automobile sat. “Yes, but what if he had tried one of your men?”

The captain shrugged, though the lieutenant delivered a hard look as if insulted.

“We’ll double the watch,” the lieutenant said with a slight bite. “You have no need to worry.”

Despite his assurances, Gailert felt uneasy. He lifted his eyes, surveying the village then the hill where the villagers gathered to work among their crops. This village had been relatively secluded, though it had been along an existing road. Their lack of Kitai structure indicated that they had been free and independent for perhaps as long as the village was founded. Of course these villagers would be more defiant than most. This village probably would have to be burned to the ground anyway and turned into a military post.

He continued to glare at the village, but then something lovely crossed his gaze. A shapely figure, womanly with grace among the savages. The village woman’s hips swayed as she carried her basket on her head through the rows of crops the villagers were gathering. Bending with her knees, she wove in between the gatherers to the road. When she walked by the soldiers, trying avert her eyes with that same defiance as all the villagers of that place, he caught a glimpse of her sun-kissed face and her two-color eyes of greenish-gray along the rims and reddish brown in the center. His heart pounded looking at her. He wanted her.

Turning to his driver who tried to mask his annoyance at the general finding yet another beauty among the humans, Gailert delivered a chiding look. “You know what I want. I have had a terrible night last night. I want a good one tonight. Guarantee it for me.”

Bowing with a poorly hidden sigh, the driver nodded. “Yes, sir.”

He then gestured to a corporal and a private to help out. That woman looked feisty. They followed where she had gone into the village. Gailert drew in a breath, feeling better already.

 

She screamed as she fought him. But as a conquering general, he won. He even found a knife hidden in her clothes. He had confiscated it before she could use it, a knife undoubtedly intended for his heart. And as she wept, screaming obscenities at him, he decided that he wanted to keep her.

The captain was against it.

“You already have a boy. What do you need your own wench for?” the captain shouted the morning after.

Gailert grinned with a glance at where the lieutenant was chaining his new mistress to the porch post by her arms. “Are you a man, Captain?”

Frowning, the captain said, “I am, sir. But I do not approve of mixed breeding. She is a human.”

With a shrug, Gailert glanced over at the woman who kicked out at the lieutenant. She slid to the edge of the porch yanking at her wrist cuffs. They were the irons that used to be on the boy’s ankles a year ago. He had kept them with the intent to use on the boy’s wrists whenever they entered places where the boy could get his hands on dangerous things. Up until that moment, they had not much need for them.

“Besides, your automobile won’t have room if you keep collecting humans for yourself,” the captain said. “She is a liability. Undoubtedly she was an insurgent sent to kill you. You found her weapon.”

Nodding, Gailert smiled wider. “Yes. I know. That’s what makes it so much more enjoyable.”

Balking, the captain coughed with disgust. “You really like owning dangerous things, don’t you?”

The lieutenant walked by, smirking. “Of course he does. An insurgent’s child and now a…wow…completely hot woman.”

“This is idiotic,” the captain muttered with a turn to look away. “I don’t agree with this at all. But you are my general, and I will be silent after this. It’s your funeral.”

But the general only smiled. Gazing at her again with a dreaming look at her magnificent body shape, his eye also caught on his boy who sat next to her on the porch. The boy glanced at the woman as if he felt sorry for her. The boy’s shoulders hunched in, and he wiped his face as if he were crying. Others had made the same prediction about that child as they did her, and they were wrong, just like they were wrong about the general being a curse when he was born.

“So she’s coming with us?” the lieutenant asked.

Gailert nodded. “Yes.”

Shaking his head, the captain walked away.

The general watched him go with a smirk. “Yes, lieutenant. She is coming with us to the next village.”

“And when are we going to do that?” The captain stopped and walked back, setting his hand set on his hip.

“Today.” And the general rose from his seat, ordering the lieutenant to gather the soldiers that they would now be leaving the village in the mountain pass.

 

The soldiers gathered together everything and loaded their armored cars, except for one group. That group, led by a corporal, was to set up a military post in that village, starting with the construction of a tollhouse across the dirt road for the soldiers. The rest of them continued north into the forest above the Semple Mountains. It wasn’t in the Southwest corner, but General Winstrong felt it was necessary to drive the insurgents into the territory of his successor, Captain Welsin who had maintained that portion of Westhaven as if the general had not left it.

Chained and struggling, the woman they were bringing with them had to be dragged over to the general’s automobile and latched to the hook that was designed for the boy in case it was too dangerous for him to be in the rumble seat. She kicked out and screamed. The villagers bristled, but did not dare to attack. Even after the general climbed into the back of the vehicle and his boy hopped up into the rumble seat while the engine started, she shouted out curses. But no one stepped forward to help her. Instead, their eyes followed her as if they were giving her up for lost.

It was only logical. All the soldiers had their weapons trained on the villagers. Their aim and fingers were ready to fire if any one of them stepped forward. And though they were sullen when the majority of the general’s caravan continued on towards the north, they were wise enough not to interfere in his decrees. They watched them go without taking any action.

 

There were no villages along the road through the Semple Forest. Even as they camped in the woods at the end of the very long day, the soldiers on guard discovered no sign of any human insurgents lying in wait for them. And the morning after when they broke camp, everything was as it was the night before.

They continued on for another full day, emerging at the end of the forest road to the open plain of central Westhaven where a small settlement of humans was situated. It was not quite up to town status, but certainly not a mere village. Upon their arrival, the people ducked and hid much like they usually did when they saw the Sky Child military approach. They even had a military post there.

The captain of the post rushed out, blinking at them. But immediately he called for his men to greet the caravan. When it parked, he marched straight to the general’s auto. The driver hopped out, his footman scurrying over with the stool. As soon as the door opened to let the general out, the captain spoke.

“General Winstrong, if, that is…how is it that you have come through the old forest road? We heard that forest is inhabited by demons.” The captain saluted him, but then started to wring his hands.

Smiling with a nod, the general climbed out and took in a breath of air. He saluted the captain and then gestured for the driver to take his woman out of the automobile and into the inn where they would be staying. His boy already put back his step stool and was heaving out the general’s bags.

“We just came from the village in the pass,” the general said. “We were following the trail of some insurgents that fled from us in the south. Have you seen any rise in rebel activity in the past few months?”

The captain shook his head. “No, sir. But, you came from Wenden Village? The village in the valley? And on that road?”

“It is a straight road,” Gailert said nodding with a look back at the way they had come from. “In fact, I am surprised that you haven’t followed orders and had it paved.”

With a visible cringe, the captain turned. He led out a hand for the general to walk with him back to the military post. “Actually, we have had some difficulty in starting that project. As you can see, the road ahead to the town of Herra is paved. But all the locals agree that these forests are infested with goles, kirrels, and most especially with parasitic spider demons. In fact, I’ve seen a gole not far off. And bullets have little effect on them, especially when they run so fast. And we have discovered two men infected with spider parasites. We had both of them burned. In fact, I spoke with Governor Shillig of Calcumum about building a rail from Herra or at least Wingsley to go through the forest to Barnid, but even he refuses to have his workers put at risk in those woods.”

The general emitted a tired moan. “Captain, we slept an entire night in the forest without one of us getting any harm. If there are demons they would most likely leave us Sky Children alone.”

With a frown, the captain shook his head. “If you say so. But seeing a gole is a great