章節 25: Infiltration
(POV Clay)
"Let's move forward a little more..."
Clay whispered to his boys as they slowly moved forward, crouching down.
"Clay...!"
Clay heard the whisper behind his back and saw the direction where his hunting partner was pointing.
"Come on..."
Ahead, about thirty yards away, were three Ice-river clansmen. They were moving deeper into the forest, all carrying bows and bone daggers, one had a spear, but none had a sword. They appeared to be hunting.
Clay hid by a tree with a grin, and all his boys followed. They were easy prey, the distance was short and they had not noticed his presence.
Clay signaled and the 6 men under his charge moved into position, drawing the bows in their hands.
"Just a few more steps... Now..."
When the Ice-river clansmen were in perfect position, Clay gave the signal and 7 arrows flew towards them.
There was no sound, and the 3 Ice-river clansmen fell dead almost instantly.
Clay signaled his men and they approached, very slowly, still on the lookout for any other Ice-river clans.
(I'll give you a skin of wine for every head of Ice-river clans you bring me).
Clay still remembered the words Blake said to him when he sent him on this mission.
"Hahaha, ok guys, with this we'll get drunk, bring the skins of these bastards too, we'll trade them for more wine!"
Clay and his men cut off the heads of the Ice-river clans, they also stole the ragged old skins they wore on their bodies. They had nothing else of value, so they returned.
Clay was an expert hunter who could travel free in the Haunted forest, during the last 6 months he had spied around the Ice-river clans, knew their paths and surroundings, and had cut off the heads of more than 10 members of the clan.
Still, it took him 6 days to get out of the Haunted Forest, and another 2 days to reach the fortress Blake had built on the fork of the Milkwater River, north of the first men's fist.
"That damn kid looks like a son of the woods..."
Clay looked at the circular fortification that seemed to have come out of nowhere, and a bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.
It was small compared to the tribe, being only about 100 feet long and wide, but the walls were taller and thicker than the tribe's, and despite its size, it had 6 observation towers.
When the watchers saw them coming, they gave notice and opened the gates for them.
"Clay, you took longer than usual to get back, did the hunt go well?"
Clay looked at the ghostly boy who greeted him, then looked at the surroundings inside the fortress. There were at least 6 finished huts, and there were 2 more in progress, the last time he was here they were still making the last watchtower, and the center of the fortress was empty.
"We were chasing some Ice-river clan bastards for a couple of days and got held up."
Clay placed the heads on the ground in front of Blake, along with the skins they were covered with.
"You owe me three skins of wine, and I expect a few more for the skins."
Clay watched as Blake examined the skins and gave orders to the other tribesmen to nail them to pikes outside the fortress, there were at least 50 heads already stacked outside.
"I'll give you what I promised, but I won't give you anything for the skins, I'll make clothes for the whole tribe with them, you included, Clay."
Clay gritted his teeth and was about to protest, but when he saw the boy's lazy, cold eyes, he swallowed the words, finally nodding.
"Whatever, I'm going back to the tribe."
Clay turned to leave but stopped when he heard Blake's words.
"We've already built enough cabins, spend the night here in one of them, when you leave tomorrow I need you to give Oswin a message."
Clay looked up at the sky where the sun was no longer at its highest point, agreeing.
He didn't like being in such a small place with the little demon, but at least he would have good food.
*************************************
Blake climbed the walls of the fortress doing a quality inspection. He was looking for any place that was in danger of giving way and creating an opening. After looking for an hour, he found none, satisfied.
This fortress had taken them about a year to build. There was a watchtower on the road between the fortress and the black axe tribe, which would also serve as a shelter in case of attack.
They had killed every member of the Ice-river clans they had seen, not allowing them to approach the fortress, but it was almost finished and it would be time to let them come closer to see the heads of their friends and relatives.
If this didn't draw the general hatred of the whole tribe, making them lose their heads and make an attack, Blake still had a good use for the fortress. He would use it as a base for Oswin's travels when trading, having a great foothold in the lands further north, and better controlling the Ice-river clans. In addition, more huts could be built outside the fortress, housing fishermen and hunters.
Blake jumped off the wall, falling very easily, he was already about 1.3 meters tall and weighed about 25 kilos, it might not be much, but he had enough strength to hold a 60-kilo log on his shoulders with ease, and that was something impressive.
Blake walked towards the warehouse, looking at the 30 longbows, with at least 600 arrows. There were also 30 spears and 30 shields. It was the work he did while staying in the fortress.
Naturally, Blake couldn't stay too long at the fortress, there were things he needed to take care of at the black axe tribe, so he usually took two-week trips, reviewed the work, corrected, added, and left orders for the next month, and finally returned to the tribe and restarted.
That had been his new routine this year, resulting in this nearly completed fortress.
Blake now wondered who to leave in charge of the fortress. He had to be someone trustworthy, someone wise, and someone who knew how to mobilize the warriors.
He thought for a while about who could fill those qualities until he found the answer.
True, it didn't have to be just one person. Although he was enough to manage the whole tribe, none of the tribe members had so many qualities together, so it would be better to divide the work among several people and have them share the burden.
A leader was necessary since without one time could be lost in times of emergency, it would also take someone to take care of the household chores, and finally, someone to take care of the maintenance of the fortress.
After a few seconds, Blake noticed that this was the same as the way the night watch divided the work in the fortresses.
First, there was the commander, then the leader of the stewards, and the leader of the carpenters. There was also the scout leader, but that position was not necessary. In such a small base the commander could absorb this position, taking care of warriors and hunters alike.
Blake, after some thought, concluded that the brother's Wren and Dian were excellent for the positions of commander and steward. As for the leader of the carpenters, he would leave the best of the craftsmen in his charge, Benton, a lame boy who had been wounded by the attack of Thenn's people a couple of years ago.
Benton, commonly called the lame one, since he had a partially useless leg, spent all his time learning from him in his workshop, he was the best woodworker in the tribe, and although he was young, he was the right man for the job.
Since this fortress was at risk of being attacked at any moment, Blake also thought of transporting the old healer, which his father brought after a trip to annex a surrounding village of the tribe.
Blake would have put the old man to another task if he had seen him treat wounds with rituals and garbage, but the old man instead used poultices and wild herb remedies, succeeding in treating some wounds.
"Old Ham won't be happy at all..."
Ham, as was the name of the medicine man, was rather fussy as he was treated with much respect for his medical knowledge. He ate three hot meals and had milk and wine at his disposal, as well as clothing and other things. Blake would have to arrange things very well in the fortress or the old man would undoubtedly refuse.
Shaking his head, Blake went to his hut where he found Ygritte drawing on papers with a lump of coal.
"AH!"
The girl screamed in surprise when she saw him enter, hiding the lump of coal behind her back.
Blake shook his head entering the hut and taking Ygritte in his arms and tickling her.
"Nooo hahahhahaha!"
Ygritte squealed and giggled until Blake threw her onto the fur bed, taking the lump of coal from between her fingers.
"These papers are hard to make, I hope you didn't ruin too many."
"Just take one, Blake can draw forever, it's not fair!"
Ygritte complained loudly about her situation, but Blake turned a deaf ear. The drawings she mentioned were plans Blake had made of arches, houses, towers, and different plans he intended to implement in the tribe.
"Come, I hope you've memorized the last thing I taught you."
Blake lay down on the bed, sitting Ygritte on his lap, and picked up a piece of paper with the alphabet and numbers from 0 to 20.
"Let's see... How do you say this letter?"
"A!"
"And this one?"
"B!"
"..."
"What number comes next?"
"Twelve!"
"Wrong, eleven is next. But you did well to remember this far, I'll leave you a piece of paper so you can draw whatever you want."
"Yes!"
Although the tribesmen knew the language of the Westeros, and some even knew the ancient tongue, no one knew how to write.
Blake finding no one literate, set out to teach the children, women, and youth the language he knew best from his ancient world.
More than teaching them to write, it was to teach them another language, but Blake had no other options. He also taught them numbers and the four basic mathematical operations, which would be useful to him later.
Blake wanted to appoint Dean as the leader of the butlers because he was the best in the tribe at learning these things, both writing and mathematics, which would be useful for keeping accounts since they could exchange letters and it would not be necessary for Dean to constantly visit the tribe or vice versa.
By the time Blake left his cabin it was getting dark, so he took care of the food and called it a day. At least for the tribe members, he would spend the night making weapons, they would soon need them.
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Hello, the last edition of the glossary of characters is ready, and I have also made a glossary of articles, I hope you like it.
glossary of characters: https://mega.nz/file/Sa40BRqI#VF-crMEkIDHL-y8f-NC7gukL2vjewJyenNfhZZe64BY
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