I Might Not Know Where I Am, But I Ain't Lost by cmsix

Chapter 7

One week and three days later the entire squad, Chungi, and I slipped into Katahalana through the * escape * tunnel, at three AM. We were equipped for silent killing and we did a damned good job of it, if I do say so myself. It was made a little easier because the new officers hadn't had time to send for their families, or at least the families hadn't arrived, thank God.

With the headquarters building secured, I sent Chungi down to open the small * military * entrance on the back wall. We had just enough time to get three thousand armed men inside the walls before the sun started peeking out.

There was no need to lock the defenders into their barracks this time, since they were more than cooperative once they saw they were outnumbered by fifteen or so to one. In fact, when Jorgenson explained where they needed to line up to see about joining us, a stampede broke out. We had the whole place organized and settled down within two weeks.

Things didn't suit me exactly though. I had two strong forces now, but they were divided. That wouldn't have been so bad, since they were only about twelve miles apart, but with typical ancient times efficiency the twelve miles between my two walled cities was expanded to nearly twenty miles of winding, path of least resistance, road.

Quasterson was the closest thing I had to a combat engineer. He hadn't lasted long in the construction trades because he liked to be where small arms were being fired. Still, he had some training, so he was nominated. With a little legwork out of Chungi, we found six locals that knew something about building bridges, although the whole bunch together couldn't be called brilliant by any stretch.

There was no sense pissing and moaning about what we didn't have though, it was time to use what we did have. I made it simple for Quasterson.

"Take the six guys Chungi found, along with about fifty soldiers, and mark off a road from here to Quancho, a straight road. If it takes six months or six years, you're going to build it," I said, giving him his marching orders.

He showed he was a lot smarter than I'd thought right away. He sent Chungi's * volunteers * into the city to hire fifty men to help; fifty men who didn't think picks, shovels, or axes were beneath their dignity. At least I knew he could use the battalion surveying equipment that had made the trip with us.

I'd expected them to have a route picked out in a day or two, but they didn't. It took them a week and a half of walking back and forth from Katahalana to Quancho, clearing brush here and felling trees there, and all that was done before he even broke out the surveyor's tools. They made good progress after that though, and a week later he had a new road staked out. He did admit he was going to need a little help designing the bridge though.

Quasterson had made a small deviation from my initial instructions. The road wasn't a straight line between the two points. It was two straight lines though. He'd picked a narrow portion of the river to bridge, but it was half a mile south of the straight line I'd called for. It had the attraction of needing a bridge that was less than one third the length of what we'd have to have in the straight line. It also dodged several larger hills that were in the way too.

Hell, it was fine with me, so I told him to get started.

"How many men do you want me to use?" he asked.

"How many can you use? I don't mind hiring plenty of men, as long as you keep them all working. I don't want a shitload of them standing around holding up shovels," I said.

"Well, I guess we'd better start with what we have and then add to them as we get a grip on what we'll be doing. We are going to need to have some equipment built though. I've asked around and no one in this time admits to knowing what a Fresno is. They should be easy enough for a blacksmith to build though," he told me.

"Well have them get started. We've got plenty of money for the time being, at least," I told him, and he beat feet to get things rolling.

While all this was going on I'd already decided that I didn't much like being the head man in charge of a city, or two of them. The daily details started piling up on me. I didn't give a rat's ass about who had stolen whose chickens. I tried putting that shit off on Chungi, and when he balked I made him find someone to take care of it if he wasn't going to. He did a bang up job.

I don't know where or how he found Silbitsa. The poor old codger had been a slave, but Chungi found out that he'd been a judge somewhere before he was captured, kidnapped, and pressed into hard labor.

The newly named Judge Silbitsa turned out to be a Godsend. Chungi found him a nice big building to use as a courthouse and assigned twenty of the late King Dasga's former soldiers as enforcers and away we went.

Judge Silbitsa didn't hold with public beatings, and I was glad enough about that. He did hold with working off your debt to society though. He didn't have offenders whipped, he had them working. His first big project was cleaning the shit out of the streets. Along with that, he put his enforcers on notice to catch people that were putting shit and other bodily waste back into the streets.

In two weeks you couldn't find anyone with enough nerve to even piss in an alley. Especially since a first offense would have you building a privy for your crime. The streets were soon clean and you could find a shithouse within easy walking distance anywhere in the city. Hell, I doubled his salary, doubled the number of his enforcers, and asked him to find a deputy he could get going back in Quancho.

It was a surprise that we were able to get things organized and working well in Katahalana without any interference from Pentah, the capital.

Our first run in with what they still considered higher authority came in the form of a group of fifty odd soldiers escorting our new King Korban's newly assigned ruler of Katahalana. They came riding down the road one day just after noon, intending to set Officer Karbala on the seat of power here at Katahalana.

Of course I was notified at least two hours before they reached the front gate. I didn't know exactly what they wanted at that time, but I expected I wouldn't want to cooperate.

I could have just had the gate closed and not allowed them to enter, but that wouldn't exactly be neighborly, now would it? Chungi and Jorgenson had the streets they would need to use cleared of our citizens and also took the time to have archers placed inside the buildings around the sort of courtyard in front of the main headquarters building.

As takeovers went it was relatively bloodless. When the fifty soldiers with the party noticed that they seemed to be covered by a few hundred archers they were reluctant to obey Officer Karbala's order to kill us all. Since I was pretty close, I shushed him with my Glock. I didn't see any reason to let him get his men all in a lather.

It seems no good deed goes unpunished though. One of the carriages in this parade contained Officer Karbala's young wife, and her two handmaidens. Seems that Officer Karbala was lately come into command by the expedient of marrying King Korban's oldest daughter.

I don't mean to say that she was ugly; it was nothing of the sort. She and her attendants were lovely and I didn't really mind increasing my household, still, it was the principle of the thing. How many wives must a man endure for the sake of his country?

Luckily they hadn't been married long, and so Christina wasn't so very attached to Jallaton Karbala. She didn't even wince when I had him taken away to be fed to the swine. I had learned just lately that the swine were not squeamish about such culinary delights. Too damned bad I didn't know about it when we were wasting all our time burying those other assholes.

Shealta, Chungi's mother, was taking a break from her kitchen management duties to watch the excitement, and when I asked she said she'd be proud to show my new woman and her attendants to my quarters, and that she'd explain everything to Jareeta, my number one wife.

Jorgenson agreed to make the happy announcement to the captured troops about their joining our forces. When I asked what he'd do if they didn't want to join, he said we didn't really need them all that badly anyway, and that the swine never complained about being overfed. It's funny, but all of them seemed delighted to join our ranks.

What the hell, everything here was moving along smoothly, so I decided to go and make sure my new woman was settling in comfortably. When I reached my quarters I found that Christina, my new arrival, wasn't fond of the notion of joining a multiple marriage.

"I'm sure you are a wonderful husband sir, but as a widow I fear the time is too soon for me to remarry," she said, and I'm sure butter wouldn't have melted in her mouth.

"That is unfortunate," I said.

"If you'd be so kind as to send a messenger to my father, I'm sure he would pay any reasonable ransom for my safe return," she added.

"I'm afraid you don't have all the salient facts pertaining to the situation. For instance, do you know how I came to be in charge here? Do you even know how your father came to be king?"

"My father was the oldest son of King Dasga. Naturally after King Dasga was killed while taking control of Quancho, my father was next in line for the throne," she said, and it seemed like she really believed it.

"I see that the truth didn't make it back to Pentah. I thought it might not have."

"Excuse me? I don't understand," she said.

"The only ones that took over Quancho were my men and I. After King Dasga showed up we killed him and eighty percent of the men who came with him. We acquired Katahalana about a week later and we've held it since then. In fact, I killed King Dasga myself.

"If I wanted a ransom, I would go to Pentah and take it by force, the same way I took Quancho and Katahalana.

"I am willing to save you the drudgery of being one of my wives though, if you insist. I'm sure that Shealta can use you as a scullery maid."

"I see. Then there is no chance I'll be allowed to return to my father in Pentah?" she asked.

"In good conscience I can't allow it. We will be capturing Pentah within a year, and I would worry about your safety."

"But you can't possibly defeat the forces at Pentah?" she said.

"Do you understand how I was able to take Quancho and Katahalana?"

"No, I do not understand that at all," she admitted.

"Do you have any idea how we were able to kill King Frata, King Dasga, and thousands of their men without losing any of our own?"

"No, if that fairytale were true I would have no idea how you did it," she said.

"Good, I like for my wives to have spirit. We will all take a little ride tomorrow and I will show you that I'm telling the truth.

"To show you my good intentions you and your maids may sleep in an adjoining bedroom tonight, but be sure to get plenty of rest, we will leave shortly after first light," I said, and left.

Luckily Chungi, who I'd come to depend on, was close by when I left my bedroom.

"Chungi, I will need Big'un, Jorgenson, and fifty archers to accompany my wives and I in the morning. We are going to show my newest wife the scene of our first triumph," I said.

"I hope that I may come along too," he said.

"Of course you can, in fact, you should send someone to make sure our noon meal will be ready in Quancho," I said.

"It will be done. Will you want to come back via the new road?" he asked.

"I didn't realize it was ready yet?" I said.

"It isn't ready for normal traffic, but the ford is easy and the road is near enough ready for riding. It isn't fit for wagon or carriage traffic yet though," he said.

"Plan on coming back that way then. I should at least take a look at how things are going."

"It will all be ready. I think you will be amazed at the progress," he said.

The rest of the day was uneventful, but when we went to bed I could tell that my wives, except for the new one that was absent, were excited about tomorrow's trip. Many of them mentioned it to me specifically as I was plowing their furrows. Alas, the work of a leader is never done.

Shealta had breakfast ready before dawn the next morning and she had outdone herself. There seemed to be mountains of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and jam and a near flood of gravy. Too bad we had traveling to do, since I thought I might be able to sit at the table and eat all day if I paced myself just a little.

Soon enough we were all mounted and ready to leave though. Big'un took the lead and away we went. Four archers led the way, but stayed about two hundred yards ahead. The rest of our guards hung to the sides and behind us, to make sure they didn't raise dust in our faces. It was mostly just for show anyway, because unlike my predecessors, I kept patrols out every day and night.

Chungi's grin was nearly getting away from him by the time we neared Quancho. I saw why when we came within site of the mass graves nearest to the cities' walls. Chungi had some men out exhuming evidence.

I was pretty sure that by this time Christina wasn't all that suspicious of my tale. She did suck up her courage and ride over to the scene with me though. The rest of my wives allowed that they didn't really need any convincing.

Christina didn't need much either. She stopped and turned around fifty feet from the dig. It might have had something to do with King Dasga's bloated body propped up at the edge of the hole. He didn't favor much anymore but it was still apparent that his kingly wardrobe was a kingly wardrobe, and after all, he was her grandfather.

On the way to rejoin the others Christina showed that she wasn't slow on the uptake.

"Very interesting, what will we be visiting next, my husband?" she asked.

I let Chungi give her a show and tell of how we captured the garrison at Quancho, including a tour of the tunnel, and a showing of the treasure closet. He was more than happy to explain the capture of the tax collector's wagons too.

After that Jareeta and the others took her to our first quarters, and no doubt gave her a rundown on how horribly they were treated from the first.

Our lunch was another trial for the poor table that had to hold it up, but this time I at least made a show of not stuffing myself. We had more riding to do this afternoon.

We left Quancho maybe an hour after eating and I was surprised from the start. My demand for a straight road was being catered too. There was the one realignment at the bridge, but from what I could see everything else was straight. They were even cutting down hills and filling in valleys to keep it as nearly level as possible.

Since Quasterson had arrived with the rest of us via our time traveling trip, he didn't have the fascination for shitty narrow roads that was all the rage here. The road he was making was fifty feet wide with banked ten-foot shoulders off each side. They were also building culverts under each spot that might cause a drainage problem. There wouldn't be any big mud holes when it rained.

It didn't take much observation to know that if he'd been making a normal road for this place and time he'd already be finished. The extra width and the extra precautions to make it stay useable in all weather took longer though. I thought they'd be worth it and apparently he did too.

The bridge was the cherry on top; it was actually wider than the road. It had to span nearly two hundred feet, but it was easy to tell that Quasterson had erred on the side of heavy duty. Hell, I figured a column of Abrams Tanks could cross it. Of course that was the type of traffic Quasterson was accustomed to building for.

Everyone had enjoyed the outing and I was slightly surprised that Christina seemed to have like it most. I asked her about it.

"What's not to like? Your other wives have told me that you actually talk to them and spend time with them. You proved it by taking us on an all day outing.

"From what I know about what I've seen you will have no trouble defending these two small cities. I'm sure you know that the type of training I see going on is practically unheard of. Your soldiers have to actually learn and practice their duties.

"When I compare your ways to those of my grandfather and my father too, I have no doubt you will take Pentah when ever it suits you. Probably you intend to capture Kahtal as well," she said.

"The thought had crossed my mind."

"Good, but for now you must come to bed. Jareeta has promised she will show my maids and I how to suck your dick properly."

Who could turn down an order like that?

Even though they rode me hard and put me away wet, I still managed to beat them out of bed the next morning. I already knew that unlike Jareeta and the others, Christina was an ambitious little thing, though it didn't seem like she was interested in controlling anything herself. It didn't add up to me, but I'd probably figure her out sooner or later. In the meantime she had the hardest working ass of any of them. She fucked back like a little demon.