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  “More like they chased him here. The whole reason his people were dead on their feet was because the assholes outside our gate were relentless in their pursuit.”

  “Does he know why?”

  “Seems like there’s something corrupting the tribes. At least, that’s what Borin said. The bad ones were snatching and eating babies. Using them in rituals or something. Whatever the case, it’s nothing good, and Borin bolted with the babies who survived and the ursus who had yet to turn to the dark side.”

  “The dark side?”

  “You’re right, problematic phrasing. Let me put it a different way: the ones out there are the corrupted ursus who eat babies. The ones in here are the last of the uncorrupted ones.”

  “Are you sure of that?”

  “Yes. Mostly.”

  “Mostly?”

  “I mean, I didn’t check each one of them for signs of corruption before I brought them in, but none of them had fucking glowing eyes or smoke coming off their claws. Pretty sure those were solid signs they’re okay.”

  “You know nothing of how this corruption spreads! It could be infesting our community as we speak.”

  “I mean, sure, it’s possible, but it doesn’t seem likely,” I said, meeting Nikolai’s stare without flinching. “You’re welcome to go check them out.”

  “I say this not to be cruel, but to make sure this is something you are aware of. If we are going into battle against a corrupt people, we must be sure our own are not corrupted in the process. I was not expecting to be going up against such a foe this early on. It could have dire consequences for our new holding.”

  “Are these, like, zombies?”

  “You know of zombies? I thought magic did not exist in your world.”

  “It doesn’t, but we’ve got a lot of imagination.”

  “They are not any undead I have experienced or know of, but...” He trailed off.

  “What?”

  “I can only offer a conjecture, a guess—”

  “I know what a guess is, asshole.”

  “Yes, your grace. Were I to guess, I would assume they allied themselves with some sort of power, likely an evil power given the manner in which they look and their actions. When it gets to this stage, at least as far as I have read in the past, there must be a charismatic leader who presents this change as a good thing. Or, if not something good, then something necessary. An increase in strength for a minor evil, perhaps even something that is hidden at first. When the truth comes to light, when the real cost of what they have given up becomes apparent, they have gone too far to back out. It can certainly become appealing to our people, especially if there are those who are unhappy.”

  “Right. That’s bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Nikolai.”

  “What was the tip?” He started to ask, but I was already moving. Any time you have to explain a reference, you’ve already lost.

  I headed towards the ursus longhouse, feeling like I needed to know a little bit more about our potential opponents. It was an act of intelligence on my part, something I realized I should have done sooner when a yell sounded out from the Northern wall.

  “Lord Coggeshall!” came the cry.

  I looked over and saw a man running for me.

  “What is it?” I asked as the man slid to a stop in front of me, slamming his fist to his chest in salute. From the look of it, he was one of the Thingmen. Calm demeanor, ready to rumble if needed, but trying out this whole being-a-normal-guard thing.

  “My lord, there is someone who wishes to speak to the ruler of our town.”

  “From the ursus?”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “I don’t suppose he seems keen to wait.”

  “No, my lord. He says that if there is not someone willing to speak to him in the next five minutes, he will destroy the town and slaughter all the inhabitants.”

  “Seems a bit impatient. Tell him I’m on my way.”

  “My lord, all due respect, he is planning on killing anyone who speaks to him that is not you.”

  “I see. Sounds like just the friendliest guy.”

  “He does seem huggable,” the Thingman said with a smile.

  “Lead on.”

  Chapter Three

  A quick peek over the wall, and I could see a large ursus standing midway into the cleared land between the woods and the wall. He was big. Far larger than Borin, which meant he was substantially bigger than me as well. No one else around, so there was that.

  I decided to use the gate. I walked calmly through as if I hadn’t a care in the world, wishing I’d had time to get some armor on. Instead, I had on new pants that hadn’t been blessed by a goddess, and a shirt that didn’t fit. My usual attire.

  Unlike me, my teddy bear buddy was armored up, with heavy looking plates of iron or steel on most of his body, black tufts of fur sticking out here and there. The iron didn’t seem to be expertly worked — there were definite gaps in between the bits — but there was an impressive thickness to it. Nothing short of a ballista bolt would have a hope of denting the stuff. He stood about twelve feet high, and impossibly broad. His shoulders were massive. I mean, everything about the dude was massive. A huge axe hung across his back. He stood where he was with his arms crossed, a clear indication he expected me to walk to him.

  Which, you know, I did.

  While walking, I had a moment to look at the others spread out in the forest behind him, and I realized my initial count of the evil ursus was way off. They had seemed to be everywhere, but that had to be an illusion of sorts, something that fell apart when I was paying attention. Not like there was, you know, ten of them hanging out in the trees, there was well over a hundred. But it wasn’t the thousands and thousands I’d initially feared. Maybe it had something to do with a fear ability they had, something I was immune to. I wasn’t exactly sure.

  I stopped about ten feet away from the leader bear, so I didn’t have to hurt my neck to look up at him. His eyes were glowing, a subtle effect now that he was out of the darkness around the trees. Faint wisps of smoke still curled up from his claws.

  “A good day to you,” I said.

  “You have taken some of my people,” he replied, voice deep and gruff. “I will have them back.”

  “Hey, man—”

  “And you have invaded my lands. I will have those back as well.”

  “Here’s the thing—”

  “There are no things. You have until sundown to return my people and leave my land. Any who remain after dark will be slaughtered and fed to my soldiers.”

  “Doesn’t exactly feel like you left any room for negotiation.”

  “There is none.”

  “What if I have a counter proposal?”

  “I care nothing for your proposals. Leave or be eaten. Those are your choices.”

  “Can I get your name?”

  “No.”

  He turned and walked away.

  “At sunset, we all come for dinner,” he shouted over his shoulder.

  I stayed where I was, taking the time to watch him walk away. Not because I liked the way his butt looked — you know, not bad but not exactly my type either — but because I wanted an idea of the physicality these creatures could bring to bear. They lacked the long legs humans had, and instead had ridiculously long torsos. They’d have great balance, but, as a trade-off, I couldn’t see them running particularly fast.

  We need more archers, I thought.

  The leader returned to his line and turned around to face me again. I gave a jaunty little wave, and started walking back to the town.

  There was a faint whistling sound, and then a spear slammed into the turf right near my feet.

  Looking over my shoulder, I saw the leader glaring at me, another spear in his huge fist.

  I picked up the spear. It was heavy.

  Ursus Spear of Competition

  Item Type: Rare

  Item Class: One-handed Melee, Two-handed Melee

  Material:
Leadwood

  Damage: 45-90 (Piercing)

  Durability: 48/88

  Weight: 48 lbs

  Requirements: Str 18

  Description: An ungainly and heavy spear used by the ursus primarily for contests of skill between and among tribes.

  I carried the spear with me until I got right to the edge of the ditch. That’s where I turned, hefted the spear, took a second to aim, and threw it back.

  The spear sailed through the air and slammed into the ground right in front of the leader. The spear vibrated for a moment. The ursus exchanged surprised looks, and the leader roared back at me.

  I gave him another wave, then walked back through the gate without another look, genuinely worried a spear was going to come flying into my back. It did not.

  Back inside, I made a beeline towards the ursus longhouse. But the honor guard was still outside, and they stopped me before I could get to it.

  “No one is awake yet,” Ragnar said.

  I hesitated. And perhaps that was my mistake. I nodded, and walked away, looking for Nikolai and Wian. We had to talk.

  Chapter Four

  The two men were inside Nikolai’s office, sitting on either side of the desk with a rudimentary map spread out. Both sets of eyes locked on me as I stepped inside.

  “My lord,” Wian said, getting to his feet and bowing his head.

  “Knock that off,” I said. “At least in private. We don’t have time for that shit.”

  “The Corrupted Ones,” Nikolai said, “what is your assessment of them?”

  “Big,” I replied. “And ready for war. They gave us an ultimatum — they’re coming in at sundown, and if we aren’t gone, they’re going to eat us.”

  “Am I right in assuming you are not going to agree with said demands?””

  “It’s a bit against my game plan here,” I replied.

  Wian nodded and Nikolai smiled.

  “Then it is going to come to battle,” Nikolai said. “Wian and I have been considering what our options are.”

  “There’s good news,” I replied. “They’ve got some sort of illusory thing going on, makes it seem like there’s a lot more of them in the trees than there actually are. Unless it’s the opposite and there’s an illusion that I saw when I went to talk—”

  “The former,” Nikolai interrupted to say. “It is a known skill the ursus have. Provided adequate cover, it is very difficult to get an accurate count of their forces. An innate skill. I should have mentioned that from the start. Is there bad news, then?”

  “I’m a bit worried that their height is going to make our walls kinda useless.”

  “The ditches will make it difficult for them to climb over the walls.”

  “What kind of archers do we have?”

  “Few, but skilled.”

  “Is there anything we can do to get more? The ursus have short legs and a long march across open ground. Enough archers, and we could really put a hurt on them.”

  “If I remember my own fighting against the ursus,” Wian started, “archers have difficulty penetrating their armor. But you are right assessing their speed. If they drop onto all fours, they can get going. Otherwise, they tend to depend on their armor to keep them safe.”

  “Can we use that against them somehow?” I asked.

  “In what way — force them to cross the river?” Nikolai replied.

  “That’s not the worst idea,” I said.

  “It was a joke.”

  “And yet. Let me go talk to Lee. If I can get Fritz to do some quick digging for us, I bet we can make it harder for them to get to us.”

  I thought they were going to try and pry the plan out from me, but they just went back to talking about troop placement on the walls, ignoring me. Either Nikolai was finally starting to believe in me, or thought it better for me to just be out of the way.

  Back outside the hall, it remained mostly empty. People were still hiding. And, most annoying, the weather was definitely turning. Remarkably cold winds were blowing from the west, while heavy black clouds hung low over the mountains. The sun wasn’t long for the day.

  Lee was over by the industrial area, standing on the wall and looking out at his water wheel.

  “You have a minute?” I asked.

  He nodded, and turned his attention on me, though I caught him side-eyeing the wheel.

  “Need something?” He answered.

  “I want to flood the ditch.”

  “Make it a moat?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s doable, just not exactly intelligent.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “It’s not constructed to hold water. With a stone wall sitting on top of soil, compacted as it is, there’s going to be a lot of weight pushing down. The water is going to eat away at the dirt under the wall, and sooner rather than later, that wall is going to start failing.”

  “How much work would it take to get it constructed so we could have a moat?”

  “A lot. Despite the stone going down to the base of the ditch, as it does right now, you need it go lower. And you need stone at the base of the ditch, or moat, and, ideally, you want stone on the outside as well. You want to have the boundaries of the moat established so water doesn’t wear anything away. And then there are long-term problems you’ll have to overcome. How do you make sure the water circulates? How do you make sure you don’t make the most perfect insect breeding grounds? How do you—”

  “Okay, but let’s reign it in a bit and focus on how we can survive those big ass bears with glowing eyes and smoking claws.”

  “I’m not sure I see how a moat would help there.”

  “Because they’re all wearing unbelievably heavy armor.”

  “How tall are they?”

  “The leader is like twelve feet. Ish.”

  “Okay, so you see the problem?”

  I looked over the wall and down at the ditch running around the outside. I got the problem immediately. The ditch, at present, was reasonably deep, but it fell far short of ten feet. Some places were as little as six feet deep. It was fine as far as a ditch went, but we’d need to do some serious digging to get it deep enough to force the ursus to swim.

  “Shit,” I said.

  He nodded. “I’m wondering how long it’s going to be before they destroy the wheel.”

  “Tonight,” I replied. “They’re coming tonight. I don’t think they’ll breach the gates, but they’ll definitely break anything they can. I just don’t see a feasible way to defend the wheel.”

  “I know.”

  “I wish I had the means to put a wall across the river. Take all the space from the river to the mountain on the east side, just, you know—”

  “It didn’t make sense,” Lee said. “I understand.”

  “Yeah. Not yet at least.”

  “Next civic expansion.”

  “Sure. Exactly what I was thinking.”

  “I think it’s going to snow today.”

  I took a peek around, trying to gauge if anyone was looking at me, listening to me, who might overhear me talking to Lee.

  “How fucked are we on food?” I asked.

  “Well, with the extra hundred-plus mouths you added, and the five hundred mouths Nikolai added, we’d be pretty fucked even if we weren’t besieged on two fronts.”

  “Are we Donner Party fucked?”

  “Not yet. But the snow isn’t here yet.”

  “Is there anything the prinkies could do? Or magic?”

  “You’re asking the wrong guy for that. I’m the technology guy. I don’t know anything about magic. At least not yet.”

  “Have you been working on it?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it.” He took a deep breath, and looked out over the river again. “I know it’s real in this world, but it doesn’t feel right. Or real. I almost feel like I’m betraying who I was as an engineer and a pilot if I do magic, you know?”

  “I hear you,” I said. “But it’s not, I mean, it’s not the way I fe
el.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll probably come around. Just an old fart in a new body. There’s going to be some things that hold me tighter to the old world than a youngin’ like you.”

  “Find a spot in the mountain,” I said. “Somewhere safe. Please. I’d really rather not worry about you during this shitstorm.”

  Lee laughed, and shook his head. “Don’t have to worry about me. Harmut’s already making a suite for me. It’s a bit high, but he and I are working on some counterweight elevator systems.”

  That made me smile. “I can’t wait to see that,” I said.

  He nodded, and took a last look out at the wheel. “I know it's silly, but I’m going to miss that thing.”

  “You’ll build it bigger and better,” I replied, giving him a hearty slap on the shoulder.

  “You know it.”

  Chapter Five

  The rest of the afternoon was spent getting things in order, making sure that all of our non-combatants had a place to go. Which, in this case, was inside the mountain. Essie had worked herself to exhaustion emptying out a series of large open rooms. They’d be storage later, but for the time being, they were excellent war shelters. Safe spots to weather storms. Or demonic bears.. The princess had her own little room filled with her attendants and four Thingmen. There was a minor kerfuffle when I insisted Borin and his people go inside the mountain. The ursus didn’t want to leave their longhouse, and the humans didn’t really want the ursus in the mountain with them. Then Harmut started yelling at everyone, and things were settled. For the moment.

  The Legion took up posts in front of the main gate and inside the mountain, while the Thingmen held the walls. I stood on top of the northern gate, and watched the field. Nikolai stood on one side of me, Tarryn on the other. Ragnar and Skeld flanked them. The hirð standing together as a group.

  This time facing the corrupted ursus, I had armor. I wore an amalgam of heavy plate, a big shield for my left arm and the giant Sword of Weight for my right. Ready to jump over the wall and deal out death if needed.

  As the sun closed in on the horizon, a delicate snow fell. Were it not for the evil-looking bear-warriors standing in the tree line, it might’ve been beautiful.