CHAPTER 11
I knocked on the door then opened it and entered. Byron was already there and had a mass of papers spread out on the table in front of him.
One of the committee members bowed toward me and said, "Just yourself and two others were able to kill the leader and capture the compound of approximately 100 warriors?" he asked.
"We are well trained and, we were also lucky," I said.
"Well trained I must agree, but I doubt that you rely very heavily on luck," he said smiling.
"Enough, enough," said Byron. "We need to get moving on the settlement as soon as possible."
Byron spread out a drawing of what he called a saw mill.
"I salvaged the crude saw mill from the General’s old settlement. If we combine it with the new blade I had our machine shop make, we can set up and have a working saw mill within two weeks.
I will need a work crew making mud bricks for an oven for roasting the limestone. A couple wagons with crews to gather limestone from the cliffs about four hours to the south. And a couple wagons hauling sand and gravel from the creek, a few miles to the east.
I believe that we can have a village with a perimeter of concrete walled buildings within six months. We have designed it to allow for expansion and compound growth in an easily defended manner. We have also designed into it a means of concealing the entrance to the underground settlement," Byron said.
The meeting finally ended after three hours. When I returned to my quarters Sari was sitting with Saam talking and waiting for me.
"Where is Cain?" I asked.
He is still up at the camp talking to warriors and appointing watch captains and setting up for defense of the camp.
"Good, I need to talk to him about accessing the skill levels and training of the new warriors as well," I said.
"I want to return to my village and try to get my mother and sister to come here. They are both healers too and the healers here are far superior to any I have encountered. We could learn much from these healers," Sari said.
"OK, but either Saam or I should accompany you with a group of warriors for safety. You are still sentenced to death by the three rivers district. Tell your village any or all is welcome to join our new settlement. They are welcome to come and trade with us or send their healers here for training," I told her.
"Saam says he will enjoy returning to see friends and family. He said that if you agree to release him, he will accompany me," Sari said.
I grasped Sari by the shoulders and said, "I will tell Cain and Byron. You can leave whenever you wish. You will return right?"
"Yes, I will return," Sari said with a smile.
Byron, Sari, and Saam with a squad of six warriors and five of the Uzi caring underground guards left the following morning on horseback. The trip to Sari’s village would only take them three days
. The return trip could have baggage and the majority of people on foot and might require as much as seven days.
The reason Byron decided to go along was he planned to negotiate a trade agreement with the village elders. Despite Cain's protest Byron insisted on taking the five Uzi armed guards. Because our limited manpower dictated only six warriors could be spared, he felt for safety reasons, they might need the guards. Cain finally relented when Byron promised that the fire arms would not be used until all warriors were lost.
Cain and I were kept busy talking with each of the warriors determining their skill level and keeping our eyes and ears open for information we might need in order to determine the command chain when setting up our warrior's guild. Jace organized a work crew of warriors. On one day the work crew gathered slabs of stone from the surrounding mountain sides and on the next, they set about the task of paving a grid pattern Byron had drawn up on a large hide stretched in the center of what would one day be our settlement.
Cain and I had worked together enough to establish a trust in each other's judgment. The interviews went relatively quickly because we could each work independently. By the end of the first week we determined which of the warriors we would ask to remain as guards and which could operate from our guild house as independent warriors. Cain and I had always thought that warriors should be able to work as independent warriors taking assignments from the guild house as we chose.
Fifteen days after they had left; Byron, Sari, and Saam and his guard detail returned with about 16 additional people. Sari rushed over to where Cain and I worked helping to build the oven for roasting the limestone. Sari grabbed my hand and dragged me over to meet her mother and sister. Sari’s mother and sister Mira were olive complexioned with dark hair, while both Sari and Saam were light skinned blonds.