An Even Break: An Even Break, #1

By CR Williams

You're taken from something comfortable and familiar to something dangerous and life-threatening. You fall asleep and wake up speaking a language you didn't know existed. People that still fight with swords, lances and bows and have actual against-all-known-science magic want you to lead them against literal madmen coming on starships from another system. Everything you know about Medieval history tells you that something's wrong here because they're just not as good as the knights and men-at-arms you know about were. Not only that, some of them are not happy to see you and your friend. And that's before you find out about the treason being plotted against the ruler of the kingdom that kidnapped you. And why was it you and not some bad-ass hero or heroine that was taken from Earth for this? You're not heroes and don't want to be.

Sun Tzu called it Death Ground. And you and your friend are standing on it. What can you do?

If you're Adam Sterling and William Sparrow, you do what Sun Tzu says to do.

You FIGHT.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CR Williams
• Release date: Jun 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393813422

Book preview

Other Books in ‘An Even Break’ series:

Volume 1: Considering the Construction of Heroes

Volume 1.5: Violent Interlude

Volume 2: Considering the Nature of Command (All parts expected before end of 2018.)

Volume 3: Considering the Response to Crisis

(Coming Early 2019)

Other Fiction by CR Williams:

Live Fire

––––––––

Non-Fiction by CR Williams:

Gunfighting, and Other Thoughts about Doing Violence series

(Volume 1-4 available now, Volume 5 expected by end of 2017.)

Facing the Active Shooter: Guidelines and Suggestions for the Armed Citizen Defender (Available now.)

THE STANDARD DISCLAIMER...

Characters in all my fiction books are based on real-people only remotely. I borrow characteristics and propensities, attitudes and beliefs, expressions and exclamations from people I know or know of on a piece-by-piece basis on occasion. I have not and do not transfer anybody real to fiction whole-cloth, however.

...and a request.

I’ve done the best I could to make sure this text has been edited properly—the right words in the right places and no words missing or miss-spelled and things like that. Nonetheless, I tend to put a lot of words into my books and find that no matter how many times I go through a draft I still find something amiss the next time. That experience leads me to suspect that I don’t have everything corrected that needs to be.

So this is my request: If you find a glitch somewhere, let me know about it and I’ll eventually get it corrected. I may wait until I have more than a couple or I may get it corrected immediately (fast updating is one of the advantages of self-publishing), but I will at some point get it fixed. Email to [e-mail] with what you find and what page it’s on and I will get it fixed. And thank you.

Now let’s get on with the story.

CR Williams

Prologue

The strategy had failed. He could see it plainly. A hundred, perhaps a hundred-fifty cycles at most and the flank would start to be turned. Perhaps twelve hundred more and the Others would surround them completely.

Oh, they could surely hold the sphere that would be established once that encirclement was finished. That issue was not in question. They could defend that space well enough. But what of the others that would be taken? What of the Planting? They were supposed to have become the allies that would hold that flank. What of all the others? The ones the Calling demanded they protect?

All of them. All of them lost.

The Planner despaired.

Begin, Part the First

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.

– Sun Tzu, Art of War

It is insane, my lord. Patently insane.

Yes. But it may be our only hope.

First, it was normal.

Then, it was dark.

After that, the darkness was filled with voices.

Then they woke up, and it was anything but normal.

Finally, there was violence.

ADAMOUTFROMUNDER!

Adam Sterling grabbed the woman he’d almost run into and pushed her in front of him out from under the awning that was stretched tight over the front of what looked like some kind of leather-goods or leather-maker’s open front stall, complete with surprised leather-maker standing just under the edge of the wood-roofed part of it.

Get your hands off of me! she screamed as she tried to fight him, What are you do—

The awning collapsed explosively behind them under the dropping weight of his friend and fellow escapee. William Sparrow took some of the jump off the stairs on folding legs and put the rest into a combat roll that carried him half-again his height forward and back onto his feet into range of the nearest man in the group that was coming at Adam. Batons—Where did he get the other one?—whistled and thudded in his hands and that one was down. So were the two behind him that couldn’t get coordinated enough to prevent them being taken one at a time.

Leave the girl and let’s go! Sparrow said.

Wait! the woman said, You can’t—

Where? Adam shouted, looking rapidly around the castle courtyard.

Sparrow’s answer was to walk rapidly toward the one ground-level gate and the men streaming through it with batons of their own in hand.

Too many. This was not going to end well. But Adam followed his friend anyway.

The woman grabbed at him shouting something he didn’t pay attention to. He shook her off and headed out to wherever and whatever out was without believing they would make it out of wherever and whatever the place they were in now was.

He was right. As fast as Sparrow was moving, which was very fast indeed, he could not cover enough ground to keep them from being flanked. A trail of six men marked their retreat back to where they could keep the stall behind them and where Adam availed himself of a stout four-legged stool, which he used without Sparrow’s skill and style but with just as much effect to protect the smaller man’s right flank.

The remaining eight men, who carried batons and wore the same tabard with the same symbol woven into it—a closed fist covered in a Medieval knight’s armored gauntlet—held themselves off about ten yards back in a semicircle as onlookers came running or trotting or walking quickly up.

Sparrow straightened up a little from his combat crouch.

So much for that plan, he said without looking back at Adam, Sorry I went nuts, Adam. He glanced quickly from side to side, assessing positions and postures. It finally got to me, I guess. He still didn’t know what ‘it’ was. He only knew that something had been working on him from the moment he became conscious beside Adam on a thick rug in a stone-walled room. He’d resisted it as long as he could before the combination of...whatever it was...and their imprisonment in a radically different environment had taken the first opportunity they had to push him into an escape attempt.

Blasted Earth, Will, Adam said, noting in the back of his mind the translation for ‘Hell’ in the language they didn’t know they could speak until they woke up talking it two days ago, probably would have done it myself sooner or later. Not quite as spectacularly though, mind you. He judged the situation stable for the moment and put the stool down and himself on it. But honestly now—you call this a plan? He looked at the leatherworker. Hope you don’t mind my borrowing this.

The bemused man just shook his head.

Okay, Sparrow said, looking slightly down so that he could get more peripheral vision, maybe I shouldn’t call it a plan exactly. He raised his right-hand baton and pointed directly at the man at the base of the semicircle who started to edge in. BACK. He did not move his head to look at him. ’Fraid I got a little too tense locked up in there. It was something more than tension, though. Something different. And he could still feel it inside trying to drive him.

You should not have tried to run! the woman, who had not moved from where Adam moved her, said, What have you done? What happened to my Master?

What else did you want us to do, lady? Adam said, Stay kidnapped in ‘Camelot’ here? He waved a hand around the—What the holy Blast—Hell is going on here?—castle they were inside of. What the Blasted Earth are we doing here anyway?

Which one was your Master? Sparrow asked as he stepped back. The baton in his left hand spun as he did. The men around them took that as a warning and remained at a distance.

The Mage! the woman said in near-exasperation, Did you hurt him? Why did you try to run?

What’s a Mage? Adam said, looking at her. He knew what that word was in English but wanted to make sure it was the same here. The one in the robe? That one?

She stared at him. You don’t know?

Sparrow did a stutter-step forward and back when he thought there might be a rush under contemplation. If it had been, it was not after he moved.

Did it miss your notice that we’re not from around here? Adam asked in exasperation. He didn’t feel the kind of internal pressure that Sparrow did—it had worried him, seeing the signs of the build-up of it in his friend—but the idea that the two of them were supposed to know about this place and these people the blonde was expressing was giving him what might be a similar kind of internal irritation.

Everybody alive up there when I left, Sparrow said, Didn’t break but one. Other two got some bruising but they’re good otherwise. Hopefully he didn’t crack the one’s ribs with that midsection kick. It was harder than he intended it to be.

Activity ahead and above them. Two men in robes like the one in their lockup had on but in different colors were running along the parapet toward the set of stairs that would take them into the keep—Keep! A FUCKING KEEP IN A CASTLE! THIS CANNOT BE REAL.—as a tall man in what looked like a mail shirt and a tabard with a different symbol—set of symbols, actually—strode fast up to and through the crowd of watchers.

You’re mad, the woman said to Sparrow’s back.

We’re desperate, Adam corrected as he watched and wondered how the end would play out, And we’re scared. There is a difference.

Sparrow just ignored her. Head’s up, he said, End game is here. He appeared to be far calmer now than he had been and certainly looked calmer than Adam felt. Whether appearance was actuality was another matter. Knowing Sparrow as he did, Adam suspected it was not.

The older man walked through the semicircle without hesitation and stopped half the distance between those men and Sparrow, who had come to a more relaxed standing position with his batons hanging loosely on either side.  Tall and slender with gray hair and an attitude of superiority, he stood with hands on hips, surveying the scene before him like a school teacher surprising a rowdy study hall session.

I am Sir Erin, he announced, I am Seneschal of this castle. I command you to cease this disturbance and give yourselves over to me at once! He looked at the woman then. Lady, have they threatened or harmed you?

Of course we haven’t harmed her you pompous peacock! Adam shouted, You think we’re barbarians or something? He noted that the word ‘peacock’ did not cause a feeling of discordance when he said it. Was there a similar word that meant something else? Or a bird that was like a peacock here? WHERE IS HERE????

Sir Erin looked at Adam. I should punish you for that impertinence, he said.

But you won’t, Sparrow said, because if you try I will stop you. The thing he felt since first waking up here was focusing inside of him. He had a clear sense of that. What he didn’t have was a clear sense of what it was.

What was going on inside of him?

Focus.

Sir Erin returned his attention to the smaller one in front.

You will? His voice had a touch of a sneer to it. You’ve done well enough with the Guard, boy, but it’s a full Knight you’re facing now. Give yourself up or I will show you the measure of the difference.

Well now you’ve got me curious, Sparrow said, Since I’m not giving up, why don’t you start on this demonstration and let’s see if it makes a difference? He felt a curious pleasure inside. That something in him was happy about what was about to happen with this Erin fellow. He couldn’t afford to dwell on that, though. Not if he wanted to see this through properly.

A ripple went through the crowd. Probably don’t see a commoner challenge a knight much if at all—what the hell am I saying? Adam wondered, not for the first time, if this were the most vivid dream he’d ever had or some sort of very long and detailed hallucination.

Erin’s face clouded. Very well, he said, obviously not used to resistance and irritated about the source of it. He held his right hand out to one side. Cudgel! he snapped.

Have one of mine, Sir Erin, Sparrow said, tossing the one in his left hand to the knight, who caught it easily, You’re welcome.

Will... Adam muttered. Giving up advantage was not something he expected Will Sparrow to do. The man had been taught to cheat by masters of the art.

It’s over, Adam, Sparrow answered softly, Have to work on status now.

Adam understood immediately. He could only hope that Sparrow was right about this culture, whatever it really was—can’t be what it looks like. It can’t! Can it?—respecting a good fight even if it was a losing one. I’ve gone mad. I have to have gone mad. NO I HAVEN’T. THIS IS REAL.

Which means that I will shortly go mad.

Is he really going to fight? the blonde asked, Is he truly mad?

Adam just waved her to silence, which seemed to make her more irritated though she did stop talking.

Erin caught the baton, got his grip and raised it like a pistol to point at Sparrow. Sparrow was standing relaxed with only a slight flex of the knees, his own baton in both hands across his upper thighs. It didn’t look like a fighting position. Adam had seen Sparrow drilling in that posture and knew better. Did any of them?

Last chance, boy, Sir Erin growled.

You have to stop him, the woman almost-whispered.

Why? Adam almost-whispered back as he stood up off the stool.

Just remember something after this is over, Sir Erin, Sparrow said.

What’s that? Erin started to slide his right foot forward.

DON’T YOU EVER CALL ME BOY!

On the last shouted word Sparrow moved and then it was over. There was a blur and the sound of two impacts so close together they almost blended followed by a general gasp from the crowd as the baton fell out of Sir Erin’s unconscious hand and hit the ground just before Sir Erin himself, wrist and then jaw broken, did.

Adam glanced at the woman. She was covering her open mouth with one hand and staring wide-eyed. Pretty eyes. Pretty face. Pretty everything. Don’t get distracted, Sterling.

Sparrow took a full step back as he dropped his own weapon and spread his arms out to either side with his hands open.

Gentlemen, he said to the ones called Guards as they stared, as shocked as anyone else watching, I surrender.

More formidable than they look.

The Common Commander of the Guard evaluated the obvious injuries in the cluster of men he passed with a practiced eye.

Power and control. Bare-hand, or did they get weapons?

He reached the edge of the thin layer of watchers in time to see Donner step forward and slap the small one, who had a man holding each arm, across the face. His larger companion stood beside a stool on the collapsed cover of the leather maker’s stall with Master Ariel’na a few feet to that one’s left.

Bastard! Donner screamed.

Donner! Leave off! Brascom shouted from the small one’s right side.

Why should I? Did you see what he did? Donner drew his hand back to strike again.

Brannon pushed through to the front edge and was about to shout a command but his voice and attention were taken by the sight of Sir Erin laid out in front of the prisoner and behind Donner. It distracted him only a moment, but that was enough time for the restrained one to lift his right foot up—a very fast kick it was, without any windup—between Donner’s legs such that he was lifted off the ground an inch. He fell back down all the way to the ground where he lay folded.

Brief mayhem ensued. The small man was stronger than he looked and as quick and fast as anyone Brannon had ever seen. Others of the Guard rushed in and he was quickly dog-piled but not before two more were sent reeling—how, Brannon could not tell—and one more stretched out by the flat of the stool that was snatched up and thrown by the larger one. At that point Brannon found his voice.

BE STILL IN THE NAME OF THE DUKE! BE STILL I SAY!

The larger one stood with his open hands raised. The smaller one was pinned under five men, one on each limb and one on his chest. Brannon strode past Sir Erin’s unconscious form, nodding at the Healer that had appeared to start his care, and up to the cluster on the ground.

Brascom, get off of him! Let the man breathe!

Brascom jumped to his feet and away. ’Ware him, Sergeant, he said, He’s dangerous, he is!

I wouldn’t be if somebody would tell me what is going on! the one held down shouted, And I wouldn’t have been if your man hadn’t hit me!

Him dangerous or you lot not capable enough? Brannon asked, then nodded at Donner’s contracted form. Get him out of here! I’ll deal with him later. He looked down at the one on the ground. I saw what happened, sir. That was uncalled for and he will be dealt with. Believe me when I say this.

That one stared at him for a moment while his breathing slowed down. Finally he nodded once.

If you will let me stand, he said in a more moderate tone, I will not offer further resistance. Believe me when I say this.

Brannon’s evaluation was quicker than the other man’s had been. Let go of him, he ordered, Go and help your fellows. They looked up at him with doubt in their eyes. Obey me!

The four men let go, stood up, and moved away from the small one quickly. Here, sir, Brannon said as he offered a hand.

Thank you, Sergeant, that one said as he took it and let Brannon help him to his feet, That’s a title of rank where we come from. I hope you don’t mind if I call you that. It’s not an insult.

No minding from me about it, sir. Brannon looked from one to the other and back again, re-evaluating his original estimates as the smaller one brushed himself off. The larger one was not as hard-used as the one in front of him. He’d not fought much if at all. This one. This one took down all of these? It was the only conclusion, as unreasonable to his experience as it was.

I’m glad you’ve calmed down a bit, sir, Brannon said a moment later, I didn’t have many more for you to exercise against.

That one laughed a little. Maybe we quit too soon, Adam, he said to the other one. He looked over then and saw one of the cudgels on the ground, which he stepped over to pick up.

Sergeant, Ariel’na said, are you going to let him take up arms again?

He has given me his word, my lady. He will not trouble us again.

But he is—he is not—

The one called Adam fixed a look on her. The other one stiffened for a moment. That gave her pause. She did not finish her thought.

I take his word as it is given, my lady, Brannon repeated, and let it go at that.

But they attacked my Master and the Duke!

Duke? Adam said, One of them was a Duke?

Probably that one, the small one said as he pointed behind and above them.

They all followed his finger. Delwin Ironhand was coming down the stone steps of the keep, assisted by Grand Master Herrin. The ruler of the kingdom of Edgeland was limping a little on his left leg. Behind him Grand Master Elton had one hand on the wall of the keep and another on his stomach and looked discomfited but was otherwise fully intact. Of the Guardsman that Brannon had dispatched with them when they went to speak to these two there was no sig—there. A litter was being carried along the parapet toward the entrance by two Healers. Brannon looked a question at the small one.

Probably a broken arm at the least, Sergeant, that one answered, and likely unconscious. I don’t know what else. He shrugged. Still alive, though. He looked at Ariel’na. See? he said to her, I told you I didn’t break but one.

She glared at him a moment before trotting over to the base of the stairs to wait for her master.

The one called Adam seemed to think for a moment before looking around for something. His eyes stopped on another stool in the leather maker’s stall and he pointed. Sir, may I borrow that one for the Duke?

The leather maker started as if brought suddenly awake. Oh. Oh? Oh. Of course, young master, he said, waving a hand at the piece of furniture.

Thank you. Adam picked the stool up and walked quickly to where the Duke was standing now. Good my lord, he said—

Picking up the way of it nicely. That Working seems to’ve been nicely done.

—please take the weight off that leg. He set the stool down a couple of feet away from Delwin.

Young sir, I do thank you most kindly, the Duke said as Herrin helped him sit down, I do admit to feeling less spry than I did only a short time ago.

Adam smiled but did not laugh. Excuse me a moment sir, he said and walked to where the other stool, the one he had thrown, was on the ground. Come on, Will, he said as he picked that one up, Time to talk with the chief jailer.

Brannon followed the one called Will as they approached the Duke and those with him. Sir? Adam offered the other stool to Elton.

Elton smiled and waved at Sparrow. He needs it more than I do, I think, he said, I thank you for the kindness nonetheless. He looked quickly at Ariel’na, whose mouth was opening, and shook his head to stop whatever words she meant to produce.

Thank you, sir, Adam said, putting the stool down in front of the Duke and about his height away. Sit, Will. Get off your feet.

Thank you, Will said, then looked at Elton. And thank you, sir.

He sat down on the stool, releasing a sigh of relief as he did, and was still. Adam moved to his left. Brannon decided to stand on his right. He studied them both as they looked at the Duke without speaking.

Delwin looked at them and then at Brannon.

You were right, old friend, he said.

I take no joy in my correctness, my liege, Brannon responded.

Delwin looked at the one sitting and the one standing. My chief man-at-arms counseled us to make no delay in opening ourselves up to you as to our purpose. I should have followed his advice. He sat up a little straighter. "I am the Duke of Edgeland Delwin Ironhand. And I command here by the grace and at the command of the One God.

Now, it has recently come to my attention that the two of you have complaints to offer about your accommodations and treatment...

Perhaps we should wait.

For what?

To see what happens. With the invaders.

He will not expect us to remain neutral. He will command our support.

That could be good for us. It could get us closer to him.

And we would lose men and perhaps die ourselves in a futile effort at resistance.

He seems to think we can fight them.

His losses at Morestin have clouded his judgment somehow. Another reason why he should be deposed.

What of these two strangers? A Work of great power, that.

Indeed it was. But what of those two?

What if they provide him, us, with the means to defeat these others?

You think they can? They will?

I do not know.

They cannot help. They do not bring power with them.

Perhaps not power we can see.

You have a point. One I cannot refute at this time. Still...my inclination is to continue as we are. We have received a gift of the loss of many of his closest allies. We should not waste the opportunity.

We lost allies as well.

But not as many. Still...there is still time before we are ready. We can observe these two for now, gauge them and whatever power they bring. If things change, it is a simple matter to change our plans. We are not fully committed yet. We can afford to be patient.

If the invaders overcame Delwin before they were ready to move, they would find a way to deal with them. If Delwin won, the victory would probably weaken his ability to resist their move even more. He could, would have to, deal with whatever happened one way or the other or relinquish his goal.

He would not relinquish his goal.

Yes...we will wait and see.

It was a wondrous thing at first, this thing that fell slowly out of the sky onto the ground outside of the new-built village of Morestin. A vessel that carried men like they were, falling out of the sky into soft contact with the earth they stood on. The Duke’s representative, stopping to visit with them on the way back from business at the mountain border towns, wanted to go out and meet them as soon as they emerged from that vessel with its flat tail and rounded nose and bulges here and there on its skin. The head of her small escort held her back. He did not like the feel of it. He dispatched one of his two half-knights to ride to Four Castles to take word to the Duke then and there and ordered the other to stand ready to go if things went awry. He readied himself to get the Duke’s representative away or to defend her if he could not, all the while hoping that these men from the sky would not give him reason to take any action at all.

A group of the town elders met five of them halfway between the sky-ship and the edge of the town proper. This was when the nightmare began.

Go! Bohannon! his master shouted as soon as the elders started falling.

Bohannon did not want to leave them. He wanted to stand and fight, to defend the people of the town, to make safe his master’s charge. But the order was given and Sir Randall had trained him and Rector well. And it was good, if anything of that horror can be called good, that he was true to his duty. Rector turned back and spurred for the town when Bohannon shouted the news to him in passing. The only way the Duke and his nobles called to Assembly knew of the terrible news was through his hard-carried word. Because of his obedience, some of the town were recovered alive. Because of his adherence to duty, the invaders were not allowed to torture and kill everyone in Morestin. Without his warning they could not have been thrown back as they were, their ship disabled and grounded in the old crater not quite a mile from the town.

But the cost of it all was so very high. Over nine of ten of the town dead. Those not killed outright or that didn’t die fighting were not allowed to die quickly or easily if they were not kept alive for the raiders...use. In their appearance they were as men. In their actions they were as those possessed by the demon servants of the Blinder. And these demons used those remaining after their assault for pleasure and entertainment for a night and a day. Men, women, children—all suffered and died. None were spared from hour upon hour of terror and pain.

Of the rescuing force, two hundred and twenty knights, half-knights and men-at-arms led by the Duke himself and five Master Mages led by their Grand Master Elton rode out to fight an unknown enemy of unknown power and were almost destroyed doing it. Delwin led twenty-four of those fighters and would-be fighters, half of them wounded, and fifteen survivors out of that place seized by the Blinder himself as a bridgehead of the armies of the Blasted Earth. Of the Mages only the Grand Master survived to come back with them.

Broken and fearful and desperate and exhausted, forty-one rode or were carried through the western gates of Four Castles. Behind them, the ship remained and the things that looked like men remained inside of it. The supreme sacrifice the Mages made did something to it. But they could not tell if that something was fatal or permanent or not. They only knew that it was still there threatening everything they knew. They had apparently forced it back and out of the sky it had lifted into to bring them doom. But that was, if they had done it, all that they had done.

This is what two men were taken without warning from a world they knew to face, snatched from the face of Earth by means of a great Working written by a Grand Master two hundred years dead. He might well have been halfway to madness when he wrote the directions that desperate men followed on a scroll with only their own faith that it would work.

So from sanity to madness they brought one William Sparrow and one Adam Sterling. Then they showed them the greater madness that they asked them to tell them how to defeat. And then they had to tell them that they could neither send them back nor could they repeat the Great Working again.

Sun Tzu called it ‘Death Ground’. And they had just been handed a free acre of it.

Eight full Masters, whatever they are, and Elton did what they call a Great Working, Adam said, Sometimes they’ll speak of a Working as in working a spell. Or they’ll talk about casting or making a Cast. Or they’ll say they’re Spelling. Things like that. Anyway, nine magicians had to gather to cast this spell. Never been done before. They weren’t certain it would work at all. By the time it was over, three of the eight Masters were near dead and the others so exhausted they’re all but out of action for between a week, ten days here, and a week-and-a-half. Elton might recover faster, but not by much.

Magic, Sparrow said, Swords and magic. He set aside the wish to go mad with an effort. Going crazy was not going to help him or Adam. And men from space in, I guess, a starship. That they want us to tell them how to fight. He sometimes told people that warfare was a hobby of his but he was not a general or a soldier or a strategist by a very long shot. And they can’t send us back.

Adam shook his head. They don’t think they can reverse the spell. Even if they could, they don’t have enough remaining Masters to work it right now. And the ones that did it the first time may not want to try again. They’re not sure if the three that went down hardest will be able to do magic again.

So it’s us and we’re here and we can’t go back. He turned away from the view west toward Morestin and leaned on his hands on the inner railing of the parapet they were standing on as he fought down another surge of anger. Giving in to that wouldn’t do them any good either. So they say.

They’ve offered us gear and supplies if we’re not going to help, Adam said, We could run and hide out. There were extensive forests in three directions at varying distances and mountains west.

Sparrow shook his head. Don’t know if that would work. I don’t know how to camp out that way. You?

Maybe. Been a while since I did. Don’t know how to hunt with bows either.

Snares and traps would work better. We could probably find somebody to teach us how to build those. He studied the people he saw moving through the courtyard of this section of what they called Four Castles and along the parapets that offered the easiest route to the bridges that connected the walls of what used to be four very close but separate fortresses. Still don’t see it working. We’re not exactly set up to become Mountain Men. And in the long run—

If they got a message off, assuming FTL communications capability, Adam said, we could see an invasion in force eventually.

Or they come themselves before we’re out of here, Sparrow said. He looked right and left along the section of wall they were on then. Why don’t they have some of their magicians on the wall here? And in the tower. He nodded at the spire that marked one of the four individual castles that together made the whole that was Four Castles. We need sentries between here and...Morestin, that’s the place...Morestin too. With some way to signal back if that ship lifts and comes this way or they come out on foot.

So we’re going to try and help?

It looks like the best of a poor... The laugh was bitter. Poor. Listen to me. As if it was as good as poor. He fought down another surge of anger. It seems to be the best of the list of choices we have for now. Maybe. He had a temper. But not many knew that because he kept it in control. Here and now, it was harder to keep that control than it ever had been. He didn’t know why. He only knew that giving way to it wasn’t the answer either. You ever read Sun Tzu, Adam?

I think so but I don’t remember anything of it.

Sparrow nodded. I’m talking more psychological than physical here but the principle is the same. Sun Tzu listed nine kinds of ground—we’d call it terrain now, I think: Dispersive ground, Facile ground, Contentious ground, Open ground, Ground of Intersecting Highways, Serious ground, Difficult ground, Hemmed-in ground, Desperate ground. Desperate ground is often translated as Death ground. He frowned a little. I’m surprised I remember that much detail. Anyway—it may not fit the definition exactly but the way I feel now is that these people have put us on Death ground.

He turned to face Adam then.

And Sun Tzu says that when you are on Death ground, you must fight.

The invaders had soft body armor that was at least as good as fine chain mail if not better and weapons far in advance of anything anyone had on this planet called (as they heard it in their new native language) Miranda. That didn’t keep some of them from dying when they took the town and when the relief force attacked the next day. And they left things behind besides the bodies of the fallen when they fled to their ship.

It was very wise of you to strip the bodies and collect their equipment, my lord Duke, Adam said.

Delwin nodded. I sent a few back, volunteers who collected this along with all of the dead. The watch I set in the town will continue to search for additional items. This is as much as we and the first ones sent back could find without staying longer than we thought it safe. What can you tell us of this?

Their clothing is also armor, Sparrow said from where he was standing with one of the invader rifles in his hands, It’s more resistant to the point of a blade than anything like it that I know of where we come from but still, as you found out, not proof against a hard-driven thrust or a crossbow bolt. It had turned most of the longbow shots made, though. He thought that odd because at that range they should have had just as much power as a crossbow.  This, he lifted the rifle a little in his hands, we call a ‘rifle’. This one as you describe seeing it work does not fire a physical projectile like ours do back home but otherwise is the same except for some things about how it works. He set the rifle back on the stack and turned to pick up what looked like a web belt with a pistol in a low-set holster, a knife in its sheath, what looked like magazines for the pistol in carriers and three pouches, one larger than the others. One of the pockets contained what appeared to be a personal first-aid kit. The other had some sort of multi-tool and a small black box that Sparrow and Adam were going to assume was a communications device for now. The largest one was empty on this belt, but on others it held some of the ‘magazines’ the rifles and pistols used for power. Sparrow tentatively identified the big one as a dump pouch or day pack. There were also suspenders with additional pouches on them which contained other devices and tools. They would look at them in more detail later.

We call this a ‘pistol’, Sparrow said, pointing to the holstered hand-weapon, not as powerful as the rifle but easier to keep with you and you can shoot it one-handed if you want or need to. He pulled the knife out of its sheath then. It was as big and had the blade shape of a Marine Ka-Bar. Metal blade, he said, looks like a good edge but I’m not really up on blades and edges so I don’t know if it really is or not. He returned it to the sheath and looked at how the sheath attached to the belt. I’m surprised some of these didn’t go home with your men, sir. Or did they?

Not so far as I know, Sparrow, Delwin answered, The number of the blades matches the number of their dead. He shrugged. Everyone has his own dagger or knife and I don’t think any at the time wanted something of theirs after seeing what they had done.

I see and I think I understand. Sparrow unhooked the sheath from the belt. I will keep this with me with your permission, sir. He still had the baton but a good knife would always find use in his world. Especially now that this is my world.

Anything you find useful or that will help, Delwin said, You and your friend have after all been given charge for the kingdom’s defense.

Sparrow suppressed an urge to laugh bitterly and swatted aside the feelings of uncertainty, fear, and anger that statement brought up and considered the entire belt-and-suspenders setup for a moment. Until I know more about the rest just this, my lord, he said, Adam?

Adam shook his head. You’re better qualified than I am for now, Will. I’ll get by on my good looks and charm until you can get me up to speed.

Then I’ve seen enough here for now, my lord Duke, Sparrow said, We can go over it in detail later.

The strong room where the equipment was stored was in the House of the Guard in Threekeep, called that because of its triangular shape. Delwin used keys from a large ring kept in a bag on his belt to set the two locks in that heavy door and then took two other keys off that ring to hand to Sparrow. Test these, he said, and waited to see that those keys worked in the locks. These are the only two sets for this door, he said, If we lose these we will have to get the lock maker or batter it down.

They made their way down the short hallway, passing a cupboard with food storage and the room the Guard Commander or the watch leader used for an office, empty for the moment. The front room was what Sparrow and Adam thought of as the ‘squad room’ where those on duty would be when they weren’t otherwise occupied. Three Guards were in the room when they started to pass through. All rose and inclined their heads to Delwin while looking at Sparrow with a mixture of anger and wariness. That wariness was increased when Sparrow stopped and turned in front of the nearest one.

Your name, please? he asked.

The man looked first at Delwin who apparently gave him leave to speak before he answered. Lawlon, sir.

Sometimes just one, sometimes two. Irrelevant for now. Can you tell me how those hurt this morning are doing, Lawlon?

The man relaxed just a little. Half were seen to and let go, my lord. The rest are still at the House of Healing. The last word was that no one was hurt bad enough to remove them from service, sir.

Good, good. Sparrow looked at all three. I ask you to pass my apologies on to those men I hurt today.

Apologies, sir? Lawlon asked.

Sparrow nodded. I bear none of them ill-will, Lawlon. I didn’t then and I don’t now. They, you, were all doing the job assigned to you by the Duke. I was trying to escape and you stopped me from doing that. I hope you as a body will understand why I was trying to get out with my friend here. Frankly, I did panic a little— I didn’t know what was happening or where we were or what was going to happen to us. You know?

Lawlon nodded. I do sir. Like as not I would have made a break for it myself, similar circumstance and all—beggin’ the Duke’s pardon.

No pardon needed, Lawlon, Delwin said, Perhaps I should add an apology of my own, in fact. If I had followed the Common Commander’s advice this would probably not have happened.

Mistakes and loss of control all around, I think, Sparrow said, Anyway, would you be so kind as to pass that on to the rest?

I will sir, Lawlon said, And beggin’ my lord’s pardon, sir, but where did you learn to fight like that? Respectable work it was, sir, most respectable.

I did a lot of work with the fighting arts of my home, Lawlon, Sparrow said, Some very effective systems there. Put a lot of time into it. It was the one passion he had carried with him from his early teens all the way to this time. I was really quite fortunate though, this morning. If you had gotten a coordinated attack in, three or four together, you likely would have taken me down.

I see, sir, Lawlon said as he worked the idea through his mind, thank you sir.

Thank you for passing my word on, gentlemen. Sparrow started to turn away. Good day to you.

Delwin went his own way outside after answering their question about mealtimes. That left Adam and Sparrow meandering in the general direction of Threekeep’s main gate.

This morning locked in a room, this afternoon given the run of the castle, Adam said and shook his head, Why haven’t I suffered a gibbering fit? Why am I not laughing maniacally as I scrape the skin off my palms and fingers trying to climb the nearest wall?

Give it time, Sparrow said, We’ve still got the rest of the day. He looked up at the sky. Which we don’t know the length of. Neither do we know how they keep time here. Or how things work. Or what the polite and impolite customs are. He let out a heavy sigh then. Or how to fight a starship with swords and bows and...magic. Actual working magic. Which they used to get the ship grounded. Why didn’t they come back and take those magicians they used to pull us way-the-heck over here and go back and blow it up instead of pulling us way-the-heck over here?

We’ll have to ask, Adam said, like we’ll have to ask about everything else there is here.

YOU! You there!

They looked at the ramp nearest the gate that was used for access to the wall to see three men striding—not walking, striding—down it toward them.

I wonder who they are? Adam mused as they stopped and waited for the trio to close.

I’m guessing they’ll be sure to tell us, Sparrow said, bringing his baton to the relaxed ready at arm’s length and settling his weight, Better dressed than anybody but Delwin and Sir Erin.

The three young men stopped a few feet in front of the two unwilling transplants and assumed varying postures. The one in front set his hands on his hips and tilted his head just that much back somewhat as Sir Erin had assumed before Sparrow put him in the...House of Healing, they called it here. The one on his right adopted a crossed-arms posture and a similarly disdainful expression while the one on his left stood in a far more relaxed posture and nodded to them respectfully.

You are the outlanders? the center man asked, The ones summoned here by the Working of the Mages?

We are, Adam answered, Adam Sterling and William Sparrow. And you are?

I am Rainer, said the one, then inclined his head right, Grunnon— and left, —Coraman. We are half-knights sworn to service of some of the northern nobles.

Pleased to meet you, Adam lied, What can we do for you?

Which one of you felled half the Guard this morning?

Was it half? Sparrow asked innocently, I don’t know how many there are to begin with and wasn’t keeping count at the time.

Rainer looked him up and down.

You fought them?

For the most part, Sparrow shrugged, Adam got a couple as well.

You’re not as big as my little brother, Grunnon said disbelievingly, How could you have taken them?

Oh, Sparrow said lightly, a bit of luck, a bit of desperation, the focused application of violence, that sort of thing. You know how it goes.

Grunnon looked doubtful. Coramon looked interested and, Adam thought, hid some amusement. He suspects Will is hiding something. He is right.

It is the Guard, Rainer said disdainfully, It is easier with them than it would be with us.

I wouldn’t know, Sparrow said with another shrug, We still don’t know about things like that. Just got here, you know.

What about Sir Erin? Adam asked, Will took him well enough, and he’s a full knight.

Luck and surprise, Grunnon said flatly, He is old and not much in practice. It would be different with one of us.

Adam noted the doubt on Coramon’s face about that assertion.

I’ll take you word for it, Sparrow said with a shrug, Like I said, I wouldn’t know.

You know now, Rainer said confidently, You would not deal with us as handily as with them. It will go better with you if you keep that in mind. Now tell us what you will do to fight the invaders that fell out of the sky upon us.

Not a request. Will this be typical or is this an outlier?

Why should I do that? Sparrow asked as if he were actually puzzled by the command.

Rainer was briefly stalled by the question. Because I tell you to, he said after a moment.

Are you in my chain of command, Rainer?

Rainer blinked. What is that? Behind and to his side Coraman was starting to smile.

It is the name we have for the line of direct authority where we come from, Sparrow answered, It is a line of officers that starts at one’s immediate superior and goes all the way up to the highest authority in the land through his superior and his superior’s superior and so on. In your case that would be the noble you are sworn to and perhaps one or two other nobles ending with the Duke. You take orders from one who takes orders from another who takes orders from another and so on. In my case, my chain of command so far here is Duke Delwin. That’s it. No one in between for now. You are not in that line of command. So I cannot as a proper subordinate to the Duke accept an order from you. He didn’t tell them that any officer could order any soldier to some extent no matter what chain of command they were in. He saw no need to clear the water of their thinking that he had just thrown mud into.

Coraman nodded thoughtfully. Rainer took longer to work through the idea.

I see, he said finally, though neither Adam nor Sparrow was sure that he really did, Will you tell me then what is your rank or station? What were you? And have you been assigned a title by my lord the Duke?

Here’s where it gets interesting in a Chinese-curse sort of way.

I have no rank at home, Rainer, Sparrow answered. He decided he would flank to the left if it came to that. I am—was a student there. I have not been assigned a rank by the Duke.

A Scholar? Grunnon snorted.

You are not at least a Knight? Rainer asked in surprise, How could you then... His voice trailed off.

We don’t have knights as a fighting class anymore, Sparrow said, They stopped being that a long time before I was born. Such as we have now are just given the title as an honor by some of the countries that still use it. It has no special designation besides that.

Who fights, then? Coraman asked, speaking for the first time, Who has charge of the people to direct and defend them? He was genuinely curious.

There are different ways of deciding or choosing that depending on where you are, Adam answered, As to who fights, we have soldiers to do that on a large scale. But almost everyone where we come from can learn some form of fighting art if they wish. Not many do. Will is an exception to the rule there. He looked at Rainer. He is quite adept at what he does.

What did you study, Scholar? Grunnon asked. He made the title—Class title? Probably—sound like a derogative.

Sparrow smiled a predator’s smile that threw everyone but Adam and maybe Coraman off a little.

War, he answered, I studied and still study War, Grunnon. It was not officially accurate, but it was accurate enough for his needs for now.

How do you study war? Coraman mused to himself.

You don’t learn tactics and strategies and methods and techniques? Adam asked him, You don’t have an organized body of knowledge of how to fight?

Our Masters know what to do and direct us, Grunnon said dismissively, We learn from them. We don’t need to go to school to learn how to fight.

Didn’t say it was at a school, Grunnon, Sparrow said softly, Not that our schools at home don’t do that. Ours produce some very fine fighters. Certainly a bunch that could take you and your little dog too. Why didn’t a couple of them get transported here? Please tell me that, Lord.

Adam knew what that soft voice meant and hoped there would not be another fight.

Show me something you learned, student of war, Grunnon challenged, Show me what you did with the Guards this morning. He set himself. Let me test you on your so-called study.

Don’t give way to temptation. The anger wanted release again. The picture in his mind was of a large black panther licking its chops in anticipation as it waited for the signal to spring.

I have no doubt that we will be tested sooner or later, Sparrow said, but not by you today, if you would grant me pardon. I am weary already and do not wish to give you less than a proper effort. You understand?

He has a point, Grunnon, Coraman said, He has fought once and they have been brought to what for them is a strange place only days past. To try him now would open you to a charge of taking advantage. Give them time to recover. It’s not like they will be leaving us tomorrow.

Grunnon looked at first like he would carry through anyway. Sparrow decided that if he did that the goal would be to see Grunnon carried away by the other two when it was over.

Coraman is right, Rainer said, There is no need to consider an exchange here and now. He smiled, but not in a totally friendly way. Go in peace and rest, outlanders. Perhaps we will talk another time.

Not if I have a choice. But that is for ‘another time’.  Then we wish you good day sirs, Sparrow said, letting Rainer have his dismissal, and went with Adam out through the gate into the spaces between walls of the component castles.

Well that went well for certain definitions of well, Adam said, glancing back to make sure they were not being followed, Think you could take them, Will?

Always uncertainty, Sparrow said, I know what I was going to try to do. Whether I could do it... He shrugged. You noted the attitudes?

Two and one, Adam said, Arrogance and curiosity not necessarily friendly. He did seem at least neutral though.

Helped me avoid the ‘test’ Sparrow said, That’s something.

I just hope that ratio of hostile and not isn’t the norm, Adam said looking around, Do you have any idea where we are by chance?

That’s Threekeep, Sparrow said, pointing a thumb back the way they’d come, That’s Roundkeep, he pointed at the curving wall on their right, and that’s Starkeep. He pointed ahead in the direction they were heading. We’re staying in Squarekeep. He pointed a little to their left. What’s inside what and where whatever is, I can’t go there yet.

Well it’s not like we don’t have time to figure everything out.

The rest of our lives, Adam, Sparrow said bitterly, However long or short they turn out to be.

As physically tired and as mentally and emotionally exhausted as he was, he still could not sleep all the way through the night. Sparrow was awake and wandering around the inner wall which joined the four castles together sometime in the very early morning. He did not go off the wall during the time he was out. He just stopped occasionally and looked either in or out. ‘Out’ was the partial outer wall that had been left unfinished or the countryside outside of Four Castles. ‘In’ was whatever courtyard he was next to, seeing what he could in the light of two moons and stars in patterns he had never seen before, or the light of scattered glowing globes that were this place’s substitute for flame or electric light. Sometimes he would just stop and stare in or out without looking at anything.

He didn’t see anyone else out. No sentries, no night watch, no-body. The outer gates were not shut either. None of them. It was not the same as home even in the Middle Ages as he knew of them. He spent a moment trying to remember if he had suggested about magicians on the wall and watchers along the way to Delwin and finally decided that he had not. Have to remember to do that tomorrow.

They would be meeting with the Morestin survivors—fourteen young women and girls, that was all—and then speaking to all the survivors that were in shape to talk to them from the relief force that Delwin led to the town.

He doesn’t seem as bothered by what happened as I would expect. Is he? Maybe he’s just holding it back. Like me and the anger and the madness.

A different planet.

Same area? Same galaxy? Same universe? Anywhere they would know about on Earth? Not that it matters, does it?

Humans on that different planet.

They may be different internally. All we have to go on are externals so far. Why are we not going crazy?

A Medieval/Middle Age culture.

Do NOT fall into the trap of thinking it’s like what little you know about that time on Earth. Do NOT do that.

Actual working magic.

A normal part of life and living and doing things here. How do I, we factor that in? Can’t help making comparisons. That’s going to monkey-wrench some of them if anything does.

Why aren’t we going crazy yet?

A starship full of hostiles.

More humans apparently. And them from another—what? Planet? Group of planets? Empire? Republic? Constitutional Monarchy? Oligarchy? Theocracy? All hostile? Aberration? Only one? More coming?

He had a temper. Not a lot of people back home knew that. Back home he was almost always in control, almost cold. That control and the maintenance of it was one of the reasons he took to the study of marital arts like he did. It provided focus and discipline that he sometimes needed and always found useful.

Here, though...here...

The control was slipping some. He’d lost his temper a little—not as much as he might have, but some. The situation, being kept prisoner and not told anything, drove some of that. But there was something else too. And now that he wasn’t a prisoner and knew some of what was going on, that something else that wanted to bring his anger out more often remained. It was almost like a spirit or demon that had come into his mind and body and wanted to possess him. He even had an image for it, an avatar like someone might use when they emailed something to him. It was a great black cat, like a panther on Earth, large and muscular. He could still feel it. It was mostly asleep inside of him now, but it wouldn’t always be. Would it ever go away? Would it always be there waiting for him to let the barrier down? Or would it wake up some time and break past everything he could set to restrain it, bringing all his anger and more with it?

I should be raving or dissolving or shattering or all three at once.

And beyond all of that, something else was bothering him.

Given everything else happening, and the personal immensity of what was happening, it was astounding to him that something, anything else was coming through enough that he would notice. But here it was and here he was and with everything else that was there, so was this.

He sat down on the parapet where he could see the Hall of Assembly in Starkeep. This was where Delwin usually held court and counsels and it was where they would speak with each of the survivors later in the morning. Sparrow sat on stone and looked between the supports of the inner railing at it and tried to describe the nature of what was disturbing him to himself.

Something about this place was affecting him. His mind kept circling back to that. He thought it was doing that because it was true. He didn’t know exactly how it was, but somehow he knew that it was. Something here was doing something to him. But what?

Or it might be something that God was doing. He did believe in God in a way some people in the world he had been brought from considered to be unenlightened. That was fine