Swords and Saddles (12 page)

Lieutenant Garret was looking around as if astounded. “Captain, it’s like an ancient city. The walls, the weapons, the defensive arrangements, the buildings, the people, everything.”

Benton heard the cheering rise in volume behind him and looked to see that the national colors had just entered to city. The inhabitants were pointing to the banner excitedly. “They recognize the flag. Thank God, they recognize the flag.” He called out to the crowd, “United States of America!” several times.

But the city’s people stared back blankly, before pointing at the U.S. flag and chanting “asteri” and then pointing upwards.

Lieutenant Garret understood first. “Asteri. Astra. Stars. Like the name of the city, Astera. They must consider stars important, so they’re excited to see the stars on our flag.”

“That big flag of theirs had a lot of stars on it, too,” Sergeant Tyndall agreed.

“And our uniforms, captain,” Garret continued. “She made special note of your uniform. Light blue trousers and dark blue blouse.”

“The color of the sky.” Hope died in Benton as quickly as it had blossomed.

“We’re not in Kansas, that’s for certain.”

But Sergeant Tyndall was shaking his head. “I don’t know what this is, cap’n, and I don’t know who these folks are, but that land out there is the land around Fort Harker and Ellsworth. I’d swear to it. I just don’t know where those places went and where this one came from.”

Kansas but not Kansas. “Lieutenant Garret, Sergeant Tyndall, we have to make every effort to learn the language of these people, or teach them ours, well enough to find out where we really are and how to get home.”

#

The barracks to which the cavalry was led were clean and built of stone, as were the stables for their horses. Sergeant Tyndall, accompanied by the stout Amazon, actually seemed impressed. “Real nice quarters, sir, and they seem to know how to take care of horses. I got across to Belisa what our horses needed and she made sure it all showed up fast.”

“Belisa?” Benton asked.

“Uh…” Tyndall indicated the stout Amazon. “She…uh…seems pretty capable, cap’n.”

After he explained with gestures to Odwan Freya that he wanted to stay with his men, Benton found himself and Lieutenant Garret offered private rooms, plainly but practically furnished. Before the men and Benton were even settled in their quarters some of the city folk were coming with large kettles filled with hot food. The dishes served, which seemed to be mostly a kind of beef mixed with grains and dried fruits, were unfamiliar but none of the famished cavalrymen turned up their noses at the food.

Odwan Freya came by to ensure the cavalry had been well taken of just as the bugler reported to Captain Benton. “Sir, do I sound taps?”

Benton looked at Freya, and nodded. “Yes. Let these people hear taps.”

The bugler saluted, then marched out into the hallway and raised his instrument to his lips as Odwan Freya watched. When the last long, slow notes of General Dan Butterfield’s tune had sounded, her face reflected astonishment and admiration. Turning to Benton before she left, Freya inclined her head and spoke in a quiet tone appropriate to the music she had heard. “Extos.”

The next morning, Benton resolved to send Lieutenant Garret out with a squad to collect the brass from the battle. He had yet to see any sign of gunpowder weapons here, and the inhabitants of the city regarded the cavalry’s carbines and pistols with an undisguised awe which seemed to reflect total unfamiliarity and suspicious fear in combination. The cavalry might end up having to make their own reloads, and while lead was easy enough to form into bullets, the brass cartridge casings wouldn’t be simple to replace.

But Benton had barely eaten breakfast when Odwan Freya, along with the Amazon he increasingly thought of as ‘Sergeant” Belisa, and two men came by, Freya indicating they wished him to accompany them. Collecting Lieutenant Garret and Sergeant Tyndall, Benton followed the Asterans a short distance to a large room letting out onto what seemed to be a parade ground. A line of guards stood sentry outside, not watching the cavalry but facing outward to hold back the crowds of city people who were gathered outside the barracks.

Freya pointed to the two men. “Decires Agani, Decires Costoni.” Decires was obviously a title of some kind, and both men appeared to be soldiers. Both also deferred to Freya, so the Odwan must outrank them.

Agani and Belisa unrolled a large sheet of vellum onto a table filling the center of the room, pinning down the corners with polished stone blocks and looking at Benton expectantly. “Lieutenant Garret. What do you make of this?”

Garret peered at the drawing. “It’s a map, captain.”

“Very good. A map of what?”

The lieutenant flushed slightly at the dry rebuke, then studied the beautifully hand-drawn map intently. “They’re tapping that symbol. It must be this city. Yes, that matches the river and the hills, doesn’t it?”

Sergeant Tyndall, peering over Garret’s shoulder, nodded. “Right, lieutenant.”

Encouraged by the sergeant’s agreement, Garret spoke with more confidence. “Then this over here must be the Missouri River. Which would make this the Mississippi River. And this area would be down near New Orleans. They show a town of some sort there. But many of the cities east of here seem to be missing, and these political boundaries don’t match anything I know of.”

“I follow you so far,” Benton agreed, his own hand tracing the way west. “And this is the west coast. California. Look at all of those cities. It’s as if the continent was settled first in the west and then settlers moved east.”

Garret was following the west coast line north, then halted. “Sir? This goes into the new Alaska territory, but look. It just keeps going west up here. They show a broad strip of land going west until it reaches this other land mass. That’s got to be Asia, captain.”

“A land bridge? That big?”

The lieutenant had gone pale, his breaths coming rapidly. “Sir, sir, look. It is a land bridge. They’re saying that North and South America are connected to Asia and Europe by this big isthmus.”

“They’re not,” Benton said, wondering why Garret was getting upset.

“The map seems accurate as to terrain, sir. As far as we know. Except there.”

“I’ll grant you that.”

“Look at these people, sir! They’re not Indians. They’re like Central Europeans or something, maybe with more Asian in their blood. In our history, there wasn’t any easy way from Asia and Europe to North and South America, so every human migration headed west and ended in Europe. But here they could go east, too, and some of them did. Nothing we know is here. Instead there’s the ruins we found, the language these people speak, the weapons and armor they carry, this city…”

A terrible suspicion filled Benton. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying, lieutenant?”

“This isn’t our
world
, captain.” Garret seemed ready to pass out. “We haven’t just lost Fort Harker. We lost our entire world. History changed somehow while we were on that patrol, but it didn’t include us. There’s never been a United States of America. There’s probably never been an England, or a France. North America was never isolated from the rest of the world. People did colonize the west coast first, maybe thousands of years before Columbus found the Americas in our world.”

“Great God Almighty,” Benton murmured. He didn’t want to believe such an outlandish thing, but Ellsworth and the fort were gone, ancient ruins rested where nothing had been before, and this city didn’t belong to any history of which he had ever heard. Nor did Freya belong in the North America he knew, a woman wearing armor, leading her people and wielding a sword in battle, as if Joan of Arc had lived in Kansas of all places. How could such a thing have happened though? His mind seized on the memory of the moment after which nothing but the land had been familiar, and the land itself had undergone tiny changes. “That lightning during the storm. For an instant it felt as if it were tearing the world apart. Maybe it did. If you’re right, lieutenant, what happened to the Indians?”

“Probably the sort of thing that happened to the first inhabitants of places like England in our history, sir. They were either wiped out by waves of invaders or assimilated, with maybe a few survivors pushed into areas no one else wanted.”

The idea was impossible. But so was this city. So were these people. He wasn’t an ignorant man. How could such a place exist anywhere on Earth and he not have heard of it? If it did, why did the land so closely resemble the land he knew, and how had the company of cavalry been transported there instantly without its knowledge?

Lieutenant Garret’s theory was impossible, but explained what they had found here. Every other explanation required ignoring the evidence of their senses.

Freya had been watching Benton and Garret talk, and now gestured to the map, and then to Benton, clearly asking him to show where he was from.

That should have been an easy enough question to answer, but as Benton gazed at the map he realized every possible answer had problems. Strictly speaking, if Lieutenant Garret was right, then he and his cavalry company weren’t “from” anywhere which existed in this world.

This city was near where Fort Harker had stood. That answer was probably as good as any other. So Benton pointed to the city.

Freya shook her head patiently, pointing to herself and then the city symbol, then to Benton, Garret, and Tyndall before waving her hand over the map again with a questioning look.

Benton pointed to the city once more, firmly, keeping his eyes on her.

She looked annoyed, then something seemed to dawn on her and Freya spoke rapidly to the other Asterans. The two men, Agani and Costoni, spoke back just as fast, their faces lighting with enthusiasm.

Freya pointed to herself and tapped her city’s symbol again, nodding anxiously to Benton. He tapped himself and then the same symbol as well, nodding resolutely in return. With a dazzling smile, Freya drew her sword and raised it overhead, shouting so loudly it echoed through the room. The other Asterans did the same, and outside Benton could hear the cries being repeated, followed by prolonged cheering from the crowds. Belisa turned to Sergeant Tyndall, hugged him, then planted a kiss on his mouth while Tyndall looked startled. The two Asteran men had grabbed Lieutenant Garret and were almost shaking him as they smiled and spoke quickly and incomprehensibly. Sheathing her sword, Freya stepped close to Benton, her eyes shining, reaching one hand to seize his upper arm in a comradely grip and squeeze so hard it hurt. “Achates! Cronun t’achates!”

“Cap’n?” Sergeant Tyndall asked. “What did you just tell ‘em?”

“I’m not sure, sergeant.”

“Whatever it was, it sure made ‘em happy.”

#

It took several days before Lieutenant Garret had learned enough of the Asterans' language, and they had learned enough English, to be able to provide the answer. “We’ve been asked to a meeting, sir, to formalize our alliance with the city state of Astera.”

Benton gave Garret a questioning look. “Our alliance? Did you promise them something?”

“No, sir. You did, sir. As best I can tell, these people think we’re a wandering tribe of sorts, warriors who’ve been kicked out of our own lands for reasons they’re too polite to ask about. When Odwan Freya asked where you were from and you kept pointing to this city on the map, they decided that meant we had decided to settle here, to join forces with them.”

No wonder the Asterans had been so happy. From what little they’d been able to learn so far, the cavalry company was like nothing in this world. Benton looked out across the parade ground. “That wasn’t what I meant, lieutenant, but maybe that’s not a bad idea.”

Garret nodded unhappily. “We don’t seem to have anywhere else to go.”

“No. Here we have shelter, food, walls to protect us, and civilized people who need us.” He blew out a long breath. “Damn. Part of me says we should ride until we reach the east coast if necessary, confirm with our own eyes that Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth and St. Louis and Chicago and Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. aren’t there any more and never were there. But another part of me already knows the answer. This is the area around Ellsworth. We couldn’t mistake the terrain. But there’s never been an Ellsworth here, never been a Fort Harker. Instead there’s sandstone quarries and salt mines dating back a thousand years.”

The lieutenant shook his head this time, his eyes haunted by worry. “I’ve been learning everything I can, captain, and I still haven’t found anything the least bit familiar in the history of this place.”

“Me, neither.” There’d been assorted city-states over the last thousand years, empires rising and falling apart, the latest such an empire which had its capital where San Francisco should be and had covered most of the land between the west coast up to about where the Oregon Territory lay, south into Mexico, and as far east as the Mississippi. But that empire, which had built the watch towers, had slowly disintegrated over the course of the last century, leaving city states squabbling over the remnants. “I can’t find out much about Europe, and they barely seem to know anything about Africa.”

“Yes, sir. They don’t know much about either place. I’d wager there are settlements from Europe on the east coast, but these people don’t have much knowledge of what’s east of the Appalachians.” Garret looked around as if evaluating the city again. “The technology here is a millennium behind ours, captain. No gunpowder, no steam power, no printing presses. They seem just as intelligent as we are, I swear they’re learning our language faster than we’re learning theirs, so maybe people just got started later here somehow.”

“Or they didn’t advance as fast for other reasons.” He recalled that the stirrup had come into the Roman Empire along with some of those barbarian invaders from the east. How many innovations, how much progress, had been because of those migrations all dead-ending in Europe? If some of them had gone east instead, would progress have been slower everywhere? “Or maybe a combination of those things. There doesn’t appear to be any way home, though.”