Firefly Light

Chapter 22

All roads within the kingdom border were maintained by the army. They quite often followed some of the same paths as the old pre-plague highway and road system. However, the roads of the year 131AV bore little resemblance to their high maintenance predecessors. Ordinary automobiles would have been useless on a modern road. Only all-terrain vehicles could have navigated them. Since any work done on the roads was accomplished with manual labor, only necessary work was done. The army was mandated to keep two lanes wide enough for two good sized wagons to be able to pass each other easily and that the roads be maintained so that the lanes were both clear and passable, but nothing more.

Over the years nature and the weather slowly destroyed the old pavements. Without maintenance, most bridges and dams fell, so in some cases new routes had to be found and cleared. Crossing rivers required the building of new wooden or stone bridges, where possible, or the establishment of ferries. Where the modern paths followed old multiple lane highways, only two lanes were maintained and used for traffic going both ways. The rest crumbled untouched, slowly consumed by the forest. Frequently the material of the unused lanes was cannibalized in order to provide fill material for damaged places in the active road. Nothing was done to try to keep the sides of the roads clear and in places the forest grew right up against them. This gave criminals many hiding places from which to spring their traps.

The first weeks of duty on those roads were somewhat disappointing. Keika and Valerie, accompanied by two Praetorians, and with Master Pierce for the first week, had run into a few gangs of six thugs or fewer who were waiting in ambush. Keika was able to detect them with her enhanced senses as the patrol neared the bandit's hiding places. She would then order the patrol to attack from an unexpected direction before the crooks could run, or attempt to spring their trap. Unfortunately, the ones they captured consistently had no useful information. Their equipment and dress were not unusual and nothing could be found on their bodies to identify them or where they came from. The few thugs that they had been able to capture knew only that their boss or clan leader had led them into Otania for raiding as the pickings were good. But, at least the team was now helping to patrol the roads, and make them safer for their citizens and merchants. In accordance with the new laws, Keika held court as judge of the brigands at the scene of their capture and passed sentence on each of them. Caught in the act, all were clearly guilty and sentenced to death, with the sentences being carried out immediately by hanging.

These patrols went on for a couple of months without any real change in the situation. Despite how many outlaws the party removed from the roads, there always seemed to be more. The citizens and travelers that they passed on the roads were certainly appreciative of their efforts, however, and always happily greeted Keika and her group. Either the thieves they were dispatching were being replaced, or there were far more of them than first thought. Both cases were bad, but if they were being replaced, then this could only be brought about by the actions of an outside party. The most obvious threat would appear to be from the Holister's neighboring land just to the east, but they adamantly denied knowing anything about the problem, and reported they were dealing with increased banditry as well. Interestingly, messengers returning back from Taylorton reported that Baron Robert Holister had died suddenly almost a year back and his 20 year old son, Levi Holister, was now Baron of Armania. The tendencies of the young new baron were unknown, but information gathered from Armanians traveling through Otania about him was not encouraging. If anything he sounded more dangerous and cruel than his father.

Winter's blustery cold winds gave way to spring, which moved rapidly toward summer's heat, and the routine had become downright boring. All thoughts of glory, excitement and how awesome they looked in their battle gear were long gone. The roads were now hot and dusty, the unwashed criminals they dealt with stank and the trail food was unpalatable. When they weren't patrolling, they were training with the Paladins or doing school work with their tutor at camp, so that they did not fall behind in school. Although, with Keika's eidetic memory, this was only really a problem for Valerie. They studied together anyway so that Keika could help her friend. If Keika hadn't originally seen this project as punishment for her infractions during last year's mission, it certainly seemed that way now. Both girls had turned sixteen in the spring and felt that life in the city was passing them by. They were only in town for a couple of days every few weeks, although this would improve as the Paladins were about to graduate from their training and would be assigned to a greatly increased number of patrols.