134 – Set the trap

  Caspian joined Karen in bringing her horse tack in. “Steven says you have to do to the kids what you did to Rox and him.”

  “Yes, and he’s not happy about it.” Karen picked up the saddle and its related things.

  “I think he just wants to get home.” Caspian got the bridle and saddle bags.

  “I can sympathize. On the other hand, Rox wants to prevent this from ever happening again. That means charging into a fight. That is why I need the time with the kids and Rox.”

  They went into the bunkhouse, and Karen turned to the tack area and an open saddle horse.

  “And where will I be in all this?” Caspian hung the bridle and related stuff on the end of the saddle horse.

  Karen put the saddle down, then the blanket over top of it. Caspian handed her the saddle bags. “With me. Wherever that ends up being.”

  Caspian stopped, realizing that Karen had just offered information in opposition to her previous reticence. Karen also realized that she had said more than she wanted to.

  “I never said that. Don’t say anything to the Caplan’s.” Karen’s demeanor showed its sharp edges.

  Caspian cocked his head slightly. “Does that have to do with my dying?”

  “Yeah. Drop it, or you will.” Karen turned and walked away.

  Caspian almost reached out to swat her attractive fanny as she went.

  As the afternoon progressed, curtains were located to divide the sleeping areas, and hung from curtain rods that gridded the room overhead. Karen designated her own bunk on the right hand, with Caspian a little down from her. Steven and Rox designated a pair for themselves on the left, with Diana and Alex taking the next two separating their own areas.

  The bunk house also had a bath house attached at the far end. The hot water was limited in supply, but replenished quickly from a pump on a well. There were only three tubs, but everyone was able to wash up with a few awkward moments as people changed out. Afterword they were able to do some laundry, which was hung across some hooks and lines strung for the purpose.

  The storm began to intensify as night fell. A small caravan arrived just before dark, and filled the stable with their animals. One of the stallions in the group took notice of Karen’s horse, but they were separated before trouble of any kind could start.

  Dinner was a hardy cafeteria meal shared by the livery stable and all the people who both worked and lodged there. The caravan also shared the meal, before seeking lodging elsewhere. The trader’s dialect was the most common language at the table, and it took Diana and Alex a few moments to get it rolling off their tongues.

  After dinner while Steven and Caspian talked with others, Karen took Rod and the kids back to the bath house for privacy. Rox paused with Diana paying attention, and put up a magic privacy barrier sealing the room.

  Karen sat down on the floor with the others following in a loose circle. Diana and Alex sat on either side of their mother.

  “Now, Diana, Alex, do you know why you were kidnapped to begin with?”

  Diana shook her head.

  “No,” Alex said emphatically.

  Karen looked at Rox, and then continued. “You were kidnapped because the king and queen of this land are afraid of you. At some point in their lives, you will kill them. I have done some research about this, and need to put that information into your minds, so that you can recall it when you need it but not until then.”

  Alex scoffed. “Like those people did to me, to put their language into my head.”

  Karen nodded. “Right. Did it hurt?”

  “No, but I had some strange dreams, and they were all in their language. It took two days before I could speak it properly.”

  Rox picked up the explanations. “I want to take care of this now. I am afraid that if we try to leave and go north now, they will discover that you are gone and come back to get you. Then neither I nor your Father may be able to come get you.”

  “Dad wants to go home right now.” Diana interjected.

  “I know he does. But he also does not want to have to come back.” Rox rubbed Diana’s back. “He has agreed to do this. So Karen is going to share with us what she has, then tomorrow we start for Skarg, and see where things go from there.”

  Karen took control of the gathering. “Roxanne, I will do you first, so that the kids can see what happens.”

  Rox nodded. “Diana, can you sense the magic shell on the room? Warn us if it changes. Do I need to lie down?”

  “So you don’t risk falling down, yes.”

  Rox lay with her head before Karen’s lap, and Karen put her hands onto Rox’s face.

  “The Vulcan mind meld,” Alex quipped.

  “Hush, Alex,” Rox answered.

  Soon Alex got up, and Rox talked Diana through dropping the shell on the room. They went back out into the main room of the bunkhouse.

  Steven looked up from lying on a bunk. “What were you doing in there?”

  “Just this.” Karen stepped up to him and put her hand on his head. She touched his mind and flooded it with all the information she had learned on how to defeat the king, his mannerisms and habits, and how she expected the meeting to go.

  Steven passed out from the force of Karen’s actions. She had to buttress herself by her psionics to not appear weakened, as she crossed the room to her curtained off bunk where she quickly went to sleep. Rox pulled Steven’s blanked over him, and saw that the kids were also getting ready for bed.

  Caspian watched sitting on his bunk. “So, what did you learn?”

  “That Karen is a remarkable woman. And Steven can sometimes be as stubborn as I am. We set out in the morning, for Skarg.”

  “Do you have a plan?” Caspian got up and doused the candles that lit the bunkhouse in a circuit of the room

  “See what happens.” Rox closed the curtain for her and Steven’s area and lay down on the bunk next to Steven, wishing the bed frames were large enough to accommodate two people.

  Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 155

  Karen and Rox both demonstrate what happens when two women get an idea going on between them. Rox respects my wishes to just get out of here, but has the bit in her teeth to go get in a fight, rather than quietly slip away. Karen has more going on that she will not talk about. In another story she might be called the Spook haunting the operation.

  Yet I can’t shake the feeling that I should keep my attitudes to myself, and just go along and let things happen. That everything will somehow work out.

  I’m being railroaded here!

  After the storm blew over, the temperature dipped again, and everything froze. But having spent the afternoon and evening in a warm shelter, the ponies and horse were refreshed and ready to go. Karen arranged that the other caravan went first, but they sent south instead of toward Skarg.

  The sky was cloudless and bitter cold, but slowly the forest began to warm up with a slight east-going breeze. As things thawed, they went from frozen to dry, skipping being muddy. The moons were coming up later each day and each in their time advancing through their cycles, and all three advancing toward a vertical conjunction.

  As they walked Alex was less leery of Karen, and Diana began asking Caspian questions about magic that surprised him. Cyrril stayed away from Diana, not being unfriendly, just stand-offish. Steven was surly, but went with things. Soon he was holding his wife’s hand as they walked. Karen set a slightly faster pace, and soon the kids were riding the ponies as the rest quick walked.

  The Caplan’s and their guides stopped for the day a bit early in the mid afternoon, and Karen led them off the road and aside into an unused meadow that might have once been a way station. Steven and Rox gave each others knowing looks as they evaluated the place.

  The kids quickly set to gathering firewood. Roxanne and Caspian put the fire ring and camp together. Steven followed the kids to the nearby stream and after some investigation picked a spot to fill all the water bags. Karen disappeared for a bit then returned with three freshly killed critters to add to the groceries for dinner.

  Steven had become proficient in skinning and cleaning critters, of necessity. They still reminded him of rabbits, but were a bit larger in body and more skittish, with smaller ears and larger noses. Alex was curious to watch Steven slaughter the critters. Diana just wanted to get them cooking; they did not begin to look like food until over the fire. Shortly they were gathered around a fire, with three carcasses cooking on makeshift spits. After washing his hands, Steven got one dutch oven going with a loaf of bread. Rox got the other going with vegetables slow roasting.

  Alex saw them first at the same moment that Cyrril heard them.

  “Look, a biker gang.” Alex pointed across the fire and into the trees.

  The adults turned to look where he was pointing.

  “Shut up, you little freak. They’re new wave.” Diana pushed Alex over to hide behind the log.

  Over twenty light infantry men charged at them from the woods coming into the meadow.

  Caspian spoke and waved his hand across the approaching line. The closest three ran into an invisible field of force, and staggered as they kept coming. Caspian stood, and spoke more forcefully, tossed a bit of stuff from his pocket, and waved back across the line. A vaguely amber field of light appeared at half the distance to the charging foe.

  Caspian stood where he was, brandishing his staff in one hand and his hand-crossbow in the other, and readying another spell.

  A feeling of déjà vu passed over Steven as he rolled to his right, grabbed his sword from its sheath, and stood as he turned. His mood lightened as he paused to survey the situation, and charged at the left side of the line.

  Roxanne lunged to her left and got her staff. She activated the ends, and was a step ahead of Steven going to the right.

  Karen stood, and grabbed the kids as they went over the log, and pulled them to the ground. “Stay down. We can handle this.”

  Karen watched Roxanne get to Caspian’s barrier, which two troopers had hit going full bore and were now sprawled out beside. Roxanne swung one end of the staff into the barrier, nullifying that part of it, and in a continued motion with the other end she batted a trooper fifteen feet through the air. Steven swung his sword through the barrier, collapsing his section and smashed into the shield of the closest trooper, knocking him down. The battle was well joined, as Karen had choreographed the night before in her last psionic lessons to the Caplan’s.