Defense against Thieves

Norton was strung out along a bend in the river, a long loose collection of houses with an insignificant wall running parallel to the riverbank. The town looked as though it was no more than a few houses deep; the riverfront was very long. Illumina remembered her father commenting on the place once, saying it was "just about as defensible as a string of fat sausages someone had forgotten to eat and left lying beside the river." She had not understood the comment at the time but, looking at the place, she understood it now. The wall was immensely long compared to the size of the town. In many places, it looked as though the wall was just a part of someone's back garden; a defense against thieves perhaps but hardly an obstacle to a determined aggressor. She remembered something else her father had said. "They used to rely on the river. If anything threatened, they would pack everyone and everything into boats and fight on the water if they had to." But the place had grown beyond a time where its inhabitants could just climb in a boat to be safe. The town looked too populous, the buildings had a settled look that was hard to reconcile with a nomadic life on the river.

Illumina felt the urgency again. The following would start arriving by nightfall and she had a sudden vision of the screaming man, only this time there would be hundreds, maybe even thousands of them as the following consumed the town. She knew that if Norton fell, Sutton would fall as well and ultimately the King's City would either go the same way or simply starve and die for want of a hinterland to support it. It might be possible for the people of Loro to keep the madness out, but standing on the hill, she was not sure. Perhaps even Loro would succumb.

She shook herself, taking a grip on Wals' arm, "Come we must hurry. They must talk. There is no other choice." The company traveled quickly down the road towards the town. Illumina was dismayed to see no response from the town at all. There was no one visible at the gate where the road disappeared into the town. There was no one on the walls. All she could see from the crest of the hill was a single boat, making its way up river under sail, not apparently in any hurry; otherwise, the place looked deserted. Even that much disappeared as they approached the walls and could no longer see into the town. Illumina had a vision of herself running from one end of the town to the other, trying to find someone she could talk to but seeing nothing but frightened faces peeking through windows or doors closing as she passed by.

They almost ran down to the gate. Illumina was relieved to see someone come out from within, stopping, standing in the middle of the arch of the gate, watching them as they came down the road. As they came closer, they could see other people standing back in the shadows of the gatehouse. Illumina was relieved again. At least it looked like a delegation, someone presumably delegated as speaker, others standing back as witnesses.

She slowed the pace giving herself a moment to gather her thoughts, wondering what she would do next. For a moment, she had a sense of being out of herself. She thought so clearly of her father, her sister and her brothers it was as though she was there, in their company, back in Loro, imagining herself walking down to the Norton gate. She so longed to ask her father what she should do. She saw him smile at her as he so often had in the past. Looking at her and then looking at the people around her. They would know what to do; it was simply a question of helping them to see that knowledge; bringing them to something they could all understand.

When they were about forty paces from the gate, Illumina turned to the others riding and walking behind her asking them to wait. She took Wals by the hand, walked with him another twenty paces and then stopped. Letting go of his hand, she turned her attention to the man standing in the arch of the gate. Illumina smiled, she looked up at the wall, up at the sky and brought her eyes down to him and smiled again.

She stood quite still, allowing her awareness to expand into the people around her. She could feel Wals standing right next to her and a little behind. There was some movement from him as he looked around, taking in the sight of the town. It seemed an impressive structure to him, though he was impressed as much by its fragility and isolation as by its size. Illumina could hear the company behind her. Libby and Manueline were talking quietly to each other. There were various other conversations going on or the odd remark being exchanged between one person or another, mostly just whispered sounds, low enough that the words escaped Illumina's hearing. What she did hear was their confidence. They were not afraid. They knew that Illumina, Wals and the rest of them would find a way forward. They would do what needed to be done.

There was real fear under the arch. Illumina could almost smell it. Something about the light, the overcast day, the breeze blowing towards her as she faced the town wall, brought a sense of the almost overwhelming fear that gripped the town. They were blinded by it, unable to see what they should do. They were at the gate simply because Illumina's presence forced them to be there. Her gaze had drifted up to the sky again as the thoughts went through her mind, her expression becoming quiet, neutral, the expression of someone listening to the breeze, catching the distant sigh of the wind blowing through the grass.

She looked down, smiling again as she looked at the man under the arch. He took a hesitant step towards her. He took another couple of steps bringing him out from under the arch. He stopped and looked round at the people behind him. As far as Illumina could see, they offered no encouragement; if anything they drew back as though he would draw them into what he had to do; they had already made their minds up, he was doing it, not them. He stepped out into the grey light of the afternoon. The gate faced northeast so the afternoon light coming through the grey overcast clouds only caught the man as he stepped well beyond the gate. He hesitated again finding himself in the light.

Illumina felt he had done enough. She walked briskly towards him, stopping when they were five paces apart. Wals followed her and stopped just beside her and half a pace back. Illumina held her hands out in an open and welcoming gesture, "Hello, my name is Illumina; I am the daughter of the Margrave of Loro. Are you the North Lord?"

She was quite certain he was not but wanted it clearly stated. He obliged, shaking his head, "No, I am not the North Lord. We heard he is dead. No one is sure. The Captain of the Guard is in the west." He hesitated, then seemed to commit himself to something as he plunged on. "The Captain is in the west looking for you. We have heard nothing from him in the last four days. The North Lord told him to watch the Loro road and the passes out of the hills north of the road. Now we hear that the Death March killed the North Lord and it is coming here."

Illumina still had no idea who the man was but she assumed that if his position was significant he would have announced it at the beginning.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yes, Guida, the herdsman, told us. I recognize you. I saw you and the Prince on the way to Loro in the autumn, last year. I was in Sutton on business. I saw you on the road." He looked uncertainly at Wals but completely ignored Libby.

Illumina asked the man, and then turned to look at Wals, "You saw the Prince as well?"

"I did, though he looked different as I recall." He bobbed his head to Wals as though apologizing for the difference or for what he remembered.

Illumina stood for a moment wondering what she should do with his confusion. Her first impulse was to put a stop to it, explain who Wals was and introduce him to Libby. She stopped herself. Libby would have to go on to the south and go as soon as possible. It might be as well to leave the confusion about the Prince and either exploit it, if the occasion arose, or clear it up later. She asked instead, "Who is in charge here?"

"No one. Well, I am the mayor but I have no powers to speak of. Normally the North Lord or the Captain makes any decisions regarding the defense of the town or allocation of any resources we might have."

"Is there no one who can stand in for him? A family member, an uncle, a son perhaps?"

"No, his son went north with him and we assume died with his father. His wife is here but beside herself with grief. He has no other significant relatives not here anyway."

Illumina stood looking at him for a moment, taking in the fact that if there was any organizing to be done, she would have to do it. "Very well, we haven't much time. There are ten thousand people on the road behind us; they will be here by nightfall. Most of them haven't eaten for days."

As she spoke some of the people who had been waiting under the arch of the gate came out, coming close enough so they could hear what she was saying. She raised her voice for their benefit. "How much food is there in the town? Does the North Lord have his emergency supplies here?"

The mayor hesitated, looking round him, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. One of the people who had just come out from under the arch spoke up. "There is plenty of food, enough to feed the whole of the north for a year."

The mayor suddenly found his voice, stammering out, "But it is the North Lord's, we cannot touch it. It needs his hand to open the granaries."

Illumina spoke again, speaking so all of them could hear. "You have a choice, open the granaries and feed the Death March or wait till they arrive and the Death March will open them for you and destroy the town in the process."

She was astonished when the mayor persisted in his protest. "The North Lord, we cannot act without the North Lord." He was obviously afraid of her and at the same time afraid of the people of the town, afraid of the North Lord, even though he was dead and afraid of the Death March. He seemed paralyzed by fear, capable only of reacting to the suggestion of the moment; his reaction was always one that tried to keep him in the same spot. Illumina saw she would have to move him. The people behind him knew what to do but they would not act against him. She closed the distance between them walking up to him and taking him by the arm.

She spoke quietly for him alone. "The man with me is the personification of death, have you heard of him?" The mayor mutely nodded his head, his eyes going round with fear as he looked at Wals. "In the end, no one defies death. No one will blame you if you agree to his acceptance as the new Lord of the North.

"I thought he was the Prince of the King's City?" He suddenly blurted out in a half whisper only she could hear.

"No, whatever else he may have been or may become, he is the personification of death. He is that to the ten thousand following us. They will listen to him if they will listen to anyone. Will you accept him as the Lord of the North?" The mayor just stood looking at her, a helpless expression on his face. "Will you?" He mutely nodded his head looking as though he could not believe what was happening to him. "Good." She pointed to the man who spoke up about the granaries. "What is that man's name?"

"His name is Grana. He owns a lot of property in the town."

Illumina called Grana over, and turned to Wals, drawing him into the discussion. "Grana this is the new Lord of the North."

Grana looked frightened, looking from Illumina to Wals and then to the mayor. He asked, "By what right. How can he claim to be Lord of the North?"

"He is the only person who can protect you from the Death march. He is the only person who can stand between you and the other Lords and help you with the King. If you can propose a better candidate, do so now. There is no time. See they already come." She pointed dramatically back up the road where a few people had just come to the crest of the hill and stood there looking down on the town, clearly uncertain of what they should do. She turned back to the group consisting of Grana, the mayor and Wals. She looked meaningfully at the mayor and asked him, "Well?"

She could see he was actually shaking from fear, not knowing what to do. Then he did something that for him was clearly a simple act of courage and selflessness. He whispered to Grana. "He is the North Lord. We must accept him."

Grana looked round, as though looking for some alternative, then he gave up, turning to Wals asking, "What should we do. How are we going to feed ten thousand people?"

Again the people under the gate had crept closer until they were all standing round the group consisting of Illumina, Wals, Grana and the mayor, standing close enough to hear and be heard. One of them spoke up. "There are the tanning cauldrons. There must thirty or forty of them in the town and each is big enough to feed a couple of hundred people. We should get them out here and fill them with grains and water. We can make soup, soup enough for ten thousand people."

"What will they eat off" someone else asked.

Almost immediately an answer came out of the crowd, "Shingles. Jeb just got a shipment of shingles from the north. There's a barge full of them tied up down by the quay. There must be twenty thousand or more in that barge. Make the soup thick enough and the shingles will do fine for plates. We can split off smaller sticks for spoons."

"But who will authorize it; we can't just go taking people's property."

Wals spoke for the first time in his odd northern accent. His voice cut through the talk silencing them all. "I will authorize it."

Grana looked at him in wonder, as though seeing him for the first time, he explained, "He is the new Lord of the North. We can act under his writ and the people of the Death March will listen to him."

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