“General Landon is getting ahead of himself,” Cindy said. “The Council voted on several things, and one of them was to offer you the position of High General.”

  “That’s …” Devin was about to say ridiculous, but Milo bit him on the foot.

  “Ow!” he said.

  The others stared at him while Milo spoke over Party Chat.

  Milo – They’re offering to put the entire rebellion at our disposal. You need to accept, Devin.

  Devin – I don’t know anything about generalling!

  Milo – So leave that up to Landon. This is an important gesture on their part.

  Casey – He’s right.

  “That’s quite an honor,’ Devin said. “I’ll accept, on the condition that you are my second in command and lead the army, General Landon.”

  Landon nodded. “Of course, High General. Though it’s not much of an army at the moment. I have about 30 trained men and women here I can count on, and another 50 or so who can fight in a pinch. But if you give me a few weeks, I can gather plenty of troops.”

  Devin raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  Landon smiled. “Yes. I still have a lot of contacts in the army. Believe me, there are plenty of soldiers who hate the Patriarch as much as any rebel.”

  Devin nodded. He wasn’t surprised that a bunch of conscripted farmers didn’t make the most loyal fighting force. Of course, they wouldn’t all desert. That meant civil war. That sounded like a nightmare, but surely nothing could be worse than Teth was right now.

  Could it?

  “The Council voted on a few other things,” Landon said. “We elected Cindy as High Regent of Teth. The title isn’t worth much as long as Teth sits on his throne, but we needed to do it because …”

  “You need legitimacy if we’re going to be an actual rebellion instead of a bunch of people wanted by the government,” Devin said. His brain had started to wake up and understand the politics involved.

  You couldn’t minor in political science at Georgetown then live in Washington, DC, for 20 years and not learn a little bit about politics. Especially not when you ran a business, and your clients ranged from Members of Congress to retired military officers.

  Cindy beamed at him. “As my first action as High Regent, I’d like to ask Priestess Casey to serve as our High Prelate.”

  Casey smiled back. “I’d be honored to serve as the Council’s spiritual advisor, but we’re going to practice …” She glanced at Devin. “What was that phrase you used?”

  “Separation of church and state,” Devin said.

  Cindy and Landon looked confused, but they nodded.

  “What about feeding our troops?” Devin said. “Your people here are very well fed, and that meal you served us was amazing. Do you have farms on the surface or something?”

  “We have a few, but there’s more to it than that,” Cindy said. “There’s a reason people settled in these caves. There’s an enormous cavern a few kilometers from here that’s connected to our complex. We call it the Garden. It’s a blessing from Rainford, and it’s how we know he hasn’t abandoned us.”

  Devin looked at Casey, but she didn’t react.

  “The ceiling of the cavern shines like the sun during the day, and it never gets too cold or too hot,” Cindy said. “It rains in the cavern at the same time every day. There are fruit trees, gourds, grain crops, vegetables, and melons. Everything we plant there grows at an accelerated speed. We can get a half a dozen crops in every year, even with annual crops like corn and wheat.”

  Devin raised an eyebrow. “That’s … incredible,” he said. He pulled up his map. “Where is it, exactly?”

  Cindy only hesitated for a moment before she told him. Devin followed the directions on his map until a new alert popped up.

  A location of interest had been added to Devin’s Automap: The Garden.

  “Does Felle know about this?” Devin said.

  “I doubt it,” Cindy said. “Only the Council and our most trusted lieutenants know. Most people assume we have some way of smuggling food in through the mountains.”

  “If he knew, he’d have taken it from us,” Landon said. “That greedy bastard … beg your pardon, Holiness … would jump at the chance to get his hands on something like the Garden.”

  “The Garden is only way we’ve survived this long,” Cindy said. “We’ve got a lot more mouths to feed these days. Since the nobles started cracking down, refugees have been fleeing here in enormous numbers. Three years ago, we had around 300 people. Last year it was 700. We worked hard and stocked up enough food to last us through this winter.”

  “Which we could use to feed the army,” Landon said. “But if we do, we won’t have enough to get through the winter.”

  “Can the army live off the land?” Devin said. “Not looting or anything but buying food from farmers.”

  “The Patriarch’s nobles collect the crops as soon as they’re harvested,” Kye said. It was the first time she’d spoken. “All the crops, and the cattle and sheep. Every region has a garrisoned keep where they process and store all the food.”

  “How do people survive the winter?” Devin said.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Wagons bring out food to the villages every week,” Kye said. “Farmers have to travel to the closest villages to get their supplies. Every family gets a certain amount, but it’s never enough. Some weeks the wagons never show up. A lot of people starve every winter.”

  Devin frowned. “You mean, farmers have to hand over all their food then beg for some of it to feed their own families?”

  Kye nodded. “It’s worse than that. The guards are all corrupt, and they make people bid against each other for food.”

  Devin winced. If the guards were giving extra to those willing to bribe them – well, there weren’t very many things a farmer could use as bribes. At the top of the list would be their wives and daughters.

  That dark, dingy trailer. The sounds from the back room. No, no, no, don’t think about that.

  Casey touched Devin’s shoulder, and he jerked back to the moment. Cindy was pale and staring at him. Landon’s grip had tightened on the table, and Kye had placed her hand on the back of her father’s chair as if to pull it back from the table.

  Devin – Why is everyone staring at me?

  Casey – Because you had a look on your face like you were about to rip the arms off the first person you could get to. Are you OK?

  “High General,” Landon said. Given how nervous he was, Devin was impressed at the steadiness of his voice. “If we’ve offended you ...”

  Devin waved a hand. “No. I’m sorry. It’s not you. I was thinking about something that I shouldn’t have been thinking about.”

  Landon and Cindy looked relieved. Casey took over the conversation, and within a minute she had them smiling and laughing again.

  Devin focused on slowing his heart rate and tuned out the conversation.

  Idiot, he told himself. Don’t scare the people you’re here to help.

  He pulled his mind back to the present. He’d been hoping to discover a huge surplus of food that they could use to feed the army he was planning to raise, but it sounded like these people could barely feed themselves. Any army he raised had better win fast, or everyone would starve.

  “Food is an issue and it’s not the only one,” Landon said. “The Patriarch’s been recruiting heavily over the summer and fall. I’ve still got contacts in the army. They’ve been drafting farmers and tradesmen as soldiers from all over the country. A lot of the strongest men have been swept up in the draft.”

  “I see,” Devin said. “Do you know why?”

  “I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure that out,” Landon said. “It can’t be to attack us. He could send his knights in and wipe us out.”

  Devin had a hypothesis as to why the Patriarch might be raising an army, but he needed to talk to Casey and Milo about it. There was a lot they needed to discuss. His mission had gone from rescuing some refugees to leading a full-scale rebellion, but that wasn’t surprising. Quest lines usually started small. They still had to finish their original mission, but he could get other things started here.

  “I know these caves have been your home for a long time, but you may have to leave soon,” Devin said.

  Landon nodded. “We’ve known this day was coming. We can have everyone out of here in a few weeks. The food will take a bit longer, but we can do it. But where are we going to go that the Patriarch can’t just wipe us out?”

  “The Winsley farm,” Devin said. “It’s about an hour from Horgoff.”

  “That’s a lot closer to the Baron’s armies than we are here,” Landon said. “I assume there’s a good reason?”

  Devin smiled. “I’ll only say that there’s something there that gives me an advantage. If things go as I hope they will, in a few weeks, the Patriarch will be too busy to go on the offensive. But if they do attack, I want to have as many advantages as we can.”

  “That makes sense,” Landon said.

  “How fast can your people get to Winsley Farm on foot?” Devin said.

  Landon considered. “We’ll have to follow the road south to Coarshire then west down the Royal Road. We can sneak through the hills at night in small groups to stay out of sight. We can make 25 or 30 kilometers a day on the roads. Call it two weeks for the first group, give or take a day or two. Horses could make it in a week.”

  Devin raised an eyebrow. “You have horses?”

  “We have a herd hidden near the entrance to the caves,” Landon said. “Around fifty.”

  “That’s more than I expected,” Devin said. “I haven’t seen a single horse since I got here.”

  “That’s because they all belong to the nobles,” Landon said. “But we have some people who are talented horse thieves. We steal a few dozen a year, all from different estates.”

  “All right,” Devin said. He readjusted the plan in his mind to incorporate the horses. “How many mounted fighters do you have?”

  “I have 27 men and women who I’d trust as light calvary,” Landon said. “Another few dozen who can ride well enough to get around. They’re more like mounted infantry.”

  “That’s fine,” Devin said. “Send the mounted infantry to Winsley. Have them take it slow. I don’t want them there any sooner than a week. Someone will meet them there. Keep the calvary here as a swift reaction force. Get everyone ready to leave. Don’t move your civilians until I get in touch, or until you know we failed.”

  Landon met Devin’s eyes. Neither of them had to say it. If Devin and his friends failed, the rebels may as well stay in the caves.

  “We may need a larger force sooner rather than later,” Devin said. “Do you have someone who can go around to the villages in this area and recruit? I’d send Casey, but I need her with me if we’re going to survive the next part of the plan. I assume you have contact with the neighboring villages?”

  “Yes,” Cindy said. “I’ll do the recruiting myself. The villages here are much smaller than the settlements to the south, though. We’ll probably only be able to raise a few hundred volunteers.”

  “We need to start small, anyway,” Devin said. “I have some ideas, but they’re going to have to wait until we’ve helped the refugees from Horgoff.”

  Landon hesitated, then nodded. Devin knew what he was thinking. Trying to save the refugees from Horgoff was a terrible idea. The smart thing to do would be to abandon them and focus on the rebellion. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, as a certain Vulcan once said.

  But Devin couldn’t break his word to Grigor. If he started doing things like that, he’d be like the Patriarch in a few years.

  Devin held up the Copper Keystone. “There’s one more thing. This item lets me enhance a person to Copper level.”

  All three of them looked at him, then at each other.

  “You want to enhance one of our people?” Landon said.

  “I do,” he said. “I'm going to enhance one of your best people, and then I’m going to take them with me. I know that’s a lot to ask, but …”

  Landon waved him off. “There isn’t a man or woman in this rebellion who wouldn’t jump at the chance.” He gave Kye a meaningful look.

  “What I really need is a scout or a hunter,” Devin said. “It would be great if they were familiar with the ground between here and Horgoff.”

  “Asha,” Kye said.

  Landon nodded. “I agree. She's our best. She’s death with a bow …”

  “But? Devin said.

  “Well, she’s not very, uh... diffident.”

  “Is she worth it?” Devin said.

  “Yes,” Landon said. “She might be the best hunter in the kingdom.”

  Under the table, Milo sniffed. “Best hunter with two legs, maybe,” he said.

  The three rebels almost jumped out of their seats.

  “Your dog talks?” Kye said.

  “He’s not my dog,” Devin said. “He’s his own person, and he’s a cat.”

  Landon nodded, but he had that look people get when they think someone might be crazy. “I ... I’ve never seen a cat like that.”

  "And you never will,” Milo said. He crawled out from under the table and began licking himself.

  Devin smiled. “Trust me, no matter how canine he looks, you’ll be thinking of him as a cat in no time.”

  Milo rolled his eyes. “I know I’m magnificent, but you shouldn’t be talking about me. You have things to accomplish.”

  “He’s right,” Devin said. “General, while we wait on Asha, Milo and I would love to pick your brain about Teth.”

  Landon raised an eyebrow. “Pick my brain?”

  “Devin’s mastery of the Tethian language is incomplete,” Milo said. “He’s talking about a debrief.”

  “Ah. Of course.”

  Devin noticed the expression on Kye’s face. Her disappointment at not being chosen for enhancement was written all over her face.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “This isn’t a one-off thing. I’ll be able to enhance more people soon, and I was already planning to make you one of them. It’s obvious you're unusually talented already."

  Kye’s eyes widened, and she bowed her head. Landon looked pleased.

  “Is there anything else you need from us?” Cindy said.

  “Um … yeah. A short sword and a couple of daggers for me, a mace for Casey, and …” Devin ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t suppose anyone here owns a teapot?”