The heavy hauling was done in sturdy wagons, which left Tarncamp, and moved east by means of a narrow path through the forest. These wagons were drawn by draft tharlarion.
“At Shipcamp,” I said. I had not been there.
“Perhaps,” said Tyrtaios.
“Some,” I said, “say these are for a fort of wood.”
“In a way,” he said.
“We are far from the sea,” I said.
“Some days,” he said.
I struck the trunk, again. The shock moves through one’s whole body. After a time one’s body aches. One longs for the night. I had not come north for the service of a woodsman. Nor had many others, if any. Why, I wondered, had I come north? Yes, I thought, two golden staters, adventure, and what else was to be done? Surely there could be no other reason. There was much discontent in the camp. The wood of the Tur tree is closely grained. It is much easier to fell Needle Trees. Tharlarion, by means of tackle, would draw the logs to a clearing, where, by arranged hoists and pulleys, by hooks and counterweights, they would be lifted to the wagon beds. When it rained it took double teams of tharlarion to draw the wagons, which were often mired, sunk to the axles. I had occasionally been a member of work parties, put to the east road, to repair it for passage. But they had not let us too far down the road. Perhaps work parties came from another direction, to repair the more eastern stretches of the road. As far as I knew, they were not permitted far enough west to reach Tarncamp.
“I think you know more than you say,” I said.
“One must consider carefully those in whom one confides,” he said.
“True,” I said.
“There is a river,” I said.
“The Alexandra,” he said.
“You are building a fort at its head waters, for trading inland?” I asked. “There is a company? You will then barge furs down river to Thassa?”
“Perhaps,” he said.
Again I struck the trunk.
Some yards away four fellows, two on each handle, were working with a large, two-handled, iron toothed saw. It is a heavy device. One saw the sawdust scatter with each clear motion of the blade. Sometimes the blade would be arrested in the wood.
I glanced at them. Then I said to Tyrtaios. “They cannot hear us,” I said.
“I suppose not,” he said.
“I am sure you have been to the other camp, Shipcamp,” I said. “It is said you have been even to the pavilion of Lord Okimoto.”
“Who said that?” he asked.
“One hears things,” I said.
“One pays one’s respects,” he said.
Lord Okimoto was a lord, or daimyo, of the Pani, whose headquarters were at Shipcamp. At Tarncamp, the lord, or daimyo, was a Lord Nishida. I had seen Lord Nishida about, commonly on tours of inspection. He was usually accompanied by Pani warriors, in their short robes, with the two swords, their hair pulled back and knotted behind the head. In his retinue, as well, were some fellows of the sort who had been recruited in Brundisium. It was by means of some of these that he usually communicated with the common mercenaries. There seemed to be formalities involved here with which I was unfamiliar, and even amongst the Pani themselves. I knew little or nothing of the other daimyo, Lord Okimoto. I had gathered that he had some sort of precedence and that Lord Nishida was expected to defer to him. Tyrtaios, at least, it seemed, had been as far as Shipcamp. Beyond the training area, Pani guards regulated traffic on the east road.
“I do not see why armsmen, or so many, were brought here for this work,” I said. “It is not work for armsmen, and you have far more than would be required to garrison a trade fort and police traffic on a river.”
“It would seem so,” said Tyrtaios.
“A great deal of timber has been moved eastward,” I said, “perhaps more than would be needed for a local trade fort, or the construction of barges.”
“Perhaps,” said Tyrtaios.
“One does not enlist a small army without purpose,” I said.
“Perhaps there is a purpose,” he said.
“I know of no cities in the vicinity,” I said, “no walls to raze, no palaces to pillage, no gold to seize, no trade routes to command, no women to collar.”
“Perhaps elsewhere,” he said.
“This is a wilderness,” I said.
“That is why we are here,” he said.
“Some venture, some project, is concealed here,” I said.