Eight men marched silently out into the yard. They came to halt in neat formation facing George, who waited as if utterly bored. Then he tilted his head to one side, smiled and spoke gently.
“Have a seat boys.” They all sat rigidly on the ground. George hiked up his black robes and joined them. Fortis was sitting on a bench with his back against the building. The twins were stationed a couple dozen meters off to either side, arrows nocked on the strings of their longbows, but aimed down, held by one hand.
“Relax.” He waited a few seconds. “Anybody married or engaged?” Four hands went up.
He put his left hand over his chin and mouthed and stroked for a few seconds. Then opening the hand in invitation, “How many of you would go home right now if I found a way for you to be relieved of duty properly?”
They didn’t respond immediately. “What’s it like here, away from home for three years? Ship out the prisoners; bring some back. Two weeks or so going out; the same coming back. Then off a month, then back out again. Holidays, sure, but only if folks come to see you here.”
He paused for a few moments. “Yes, duty to your clan and to your planet. Select duty, no less. Automatic promotions.”
“I’m going to take it all away.” He let that sink in for a moment.
“What makes a man do his duty for three years, such hard duty, such upstanding men guarding us all — then throw it away like this? The Council — your very own sheiks — ordered me to come here and shake things up. They gave me this fancy robe and said to do whatever I like.”
“I’m the last man who wants to put you on those ships as prisoners. But you know? It won’t be straight north from here where you’ve been going all this time. No, we will have those ships going south and around the central continent, to the northern islands thousands of kilometers from here. How long would such a voyage take? I’ll bet the trip out is a lot worse than a single month on an island.”
A very long pause, as he looked down, resting his chin on the back of his left thumb. Then he began dramatic gestures, drawing his idea in the air. “The other plan I had in mind was to fix this mess by making sure rangers always worked with their own kin. I never liked mixing clans randomly and taking you away from family. I have a wild dream of this island being fully developed, with men rotating on duty with their own clans, family members and so forth.” He looked up at his hands in air in front of his face.
Finally one of the men spoke. “What do you want, Judge?”
He dropped his hands and looked mildly at the man who spoke. Leaning forward, he rested his left hand on his knee, and placed the index finger against his upper temple. “What happens when you pass the rocks on that northeastern shore?”
Somehow, Fortis was not really surprised with the answer. Young men on such duty, and on such a planet as Misty, never faced naked women who offered to exchange their bodies for food and supplies. And it really wasn’t hard to convince them to drop their prisoners closer to that area, though they had no idea why. It surely shortened the trip and helped avoid having to explain a day lost, anchored there near the rocks with the lovely young maidens. There were always enough to go around. Not all the men participated, but they all had agreed to remain silent.
Apparently the commander was not aware of this, remaining on the base island his entire tour. His family was there, of course, since his duty was six years. They had their own section of the island. That was not the problem, but that his family was isolated from the clan. Were the entire garrison from the same clan at the same time, there would be precious few shenanigans. Men create an artificial loyalty when the kinship is absent, sharing only the experience of common misery. That also means sharing the secret ways they relieve the misery. But changing that meant changing how rangers were chosen, trained, and so forth. Most of the rangers already felt isolated from the rest of the planet. It would mean assigning each clan to provide themselves a full ranger village, choose an extended household much as the bodyguard were formed. It would mean raising the tax rates just a bit, but with the impending trade, perhaps it would balance out.
Either way, Special Magistrate Manley ordered it so.
He granted a limited amnesty to all the rangers if they would fully cooperate in ending this fiasco. Thus, he ordered a crew to make ready for sailing, and took all volunteers. By the end of the second day, the men were ready.
He had one more task before he removed the black robes.
