Saturday September 22 in The Year 725 After the Founding 06:20 a.m.

Genie awoke to a soft but insistent knocking at their door. She'd never been what you could call a 'morning person' but she'd trained herself to get up no matter how much she wanted to sleep in. When your life is on the road, you don't have time to waste once it's light enough to see where you're going.

She took herself to the door and opened it to find six children waiting. They were all dressed neatly, though in clothes that fit none of them all that well. In fact, she recognized what the older girl was wearing, as it had been hers until she'd outgrown it two years earlier.

"To what do I owe this visit?"

"I'm Brigid." She pointed to the young girl beside her. "I'm the coordinator for Mattie's wing. May we come in? We need to discuss something in a place that isn't so public."

Genie stepped back and gestured them inside. Mario was on his feet and looked disgustingly bright and cheerful as he asked, "And what is it that we can do for you?"

Mattie walked to a chair and sat down as Brigid gestured to herself and the four boys, "In addition to proper travelling clothes, we require weapons for our trip."

Her statement was met by raised eyebrows and silence. Mario gestured for her to continue.

"First of all, this inn hosts many hundreds of pilgrims every year. Banditry is rampant along and off the roads as few villages or pilgrims have the means to defend themselves." An expression of profound sadness appeared as she added, "Which is why the six of us are in need of your help in the first place."

Genie and Mario exchanged a quick glance. So the children were all orphans. Here was something else Mimi had neglected to tell them the night before.

Brigid ignored their reaction and continued, "Such a large inn will, of necessity, have at least one spy feeding information to one or more local groups of bandits. Such will likely have an intense interest in a group of 18 with only four adults to protect it."

Seeing the adults nod, she added, "In a case such as this, deterrence is better than defeating the enemy in combat. There might be friendly casualties, and it is paramount that Mattie not be in danger of injury of any kind.

"Thus we need appropriate weapons, preferably knives. We should also arrange that the five of us spend some time 'practicing' with training weapons today, where the spies here can easily see us."

She stopped, assumed a 'parade rest' position, and waited. The boys assumed the same posture, two on each side of and slightly behind her.

Mario and Genie again exchanged glances. They couldn't speak "twin," but there thoughts were identical. Mimi hadn't just slightly disrupted their plans. She taken them, shredded them, and tossed them into a hurricane.

Genie answered for them both, "Approved, provisionally. First we have breakfast, then we'll scrounge up some practice weapons and watch you spar. IF we are satisfied that you know what you're doing, we'll arrange for the knives you requested."

She smiled, and it was more predatory than friendly. "If you're good enough, I think we'll finish up by letting whomever of you is the best spar with me."

This time it was Brigid who felt her eyebrow rise. The information that they'd managed to accumulate since last night had revealed no more than what 'Suela had told them. These people sold books and had some sort of connection to one of the big banks in town. Such people rarely had any combat skills. Brigid had assumed that their mercenary companions provided the minimal protection they needed, seeing as books were hard to sell quickly, were rather bulky, and difficult to move. Bandits wanted small, hard to trace valuables that were easy to sell. They'd normally let such people as these alone. Now. however, they would be transporting a precious and highly valuable cargo -- the children.

Brigid gestured her assent, and the six children left.

Mario and Genie noticed that the two eldest boys went first and checked out the hallway, after which they nodded. They were followed by Brigid and Mattie. The two younger boys followed, obviously assuming the position of rear guards.

Genie fell backwards onto the bed and buried her face in her hands. "What in the name of all that's Holy is going on? Being saddled with all these children is bad enough, but those six.... It's like that little one, what's her name? Oh, yes, Mattie. It's like she's some sort of royalty and the others are her bodyguards."

She lifted her head and shook it in negation, "And let's not mention that her 'bodyguards' are 14, 11, 10, and nine."

Her voice rose in pitch to one that was nearly hysterical, "I don't think I can deal with this. I don't want all this responsibility. I only wanted to be with you and to travel. I don't need anything else!"

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Mario gathered her in his arms and hugged her gently as he stroked her head. "It's going to be all right Love. We'll manage, though I'm bothered by it all too. What with the children and the extra tents and supplies that we'll have to carry, we won't have room for any goods to sell on our return trip."

Genie pulled back and her head snapped up. She saw a patently false look of despair on Mario's face.

She pulled back her fist and whacked him in the arm. "You beast! If there's any 'cargo' in the entire world that's more precious than a child, I'd like to know what it is!"

Mario rubbed his arm where she'd hit him. She was getting stronger. It had hurt this time.

"See? It wasn't all that hard to straighten out your priorities, was it? We'll deal with this like everything else since we set out in June. We'll tackle every obstacle together. When we do that, nothing, not even 14 children will be too much for us."

Consuela's voice manifested behind them, "Make that 13 children. Heidi had pneumonia. Mimi took her to The City last night so Kaho could treat her."

They spun around so fast that they almost lost their balance. Their words followed each other so rapidly that 'Suela could barely separate them.

"What do you mean Mimi took her to The City?!"

"If she can do that, why in the world are we being saddled with taking the rest back with us."

"Which one is, was, Heidi, and what was wrong with her?"

"Are any of the others sick?"

'Suela wanted to laugh as how silly they looked but the situation was a bit too serious for that. She'd save the laughter until she could be private with Stav and tell him about it.

"Mimi isn't taking the others because moving Heidi such a long way came close to killing her. Kaho says that she will, probably, be able to walk again in 3-4 days, depending on how much energy Jason and the twins can spare without them collapsing too."

She continued in the shocked silence, "As for Heidi, she's 12 too, and she wants to be a teacher. Kaho says that she's cured her pneumonia, and all she needs now is a few days of rest and good food. It's sorta preliminary, but I think that we're adopting her and she'll share my room."

'Suela grinned wickedly. "I really like her, and I already know that she's smart enough that the two of us should be able to get into an extraordinary amount of mischief together."

Genie didn't, quite, faint, which was a good thing as Mario was also feeling rather light-headed. They both sat down on the bed and put their heads between their knees.

'Suela walked over and patted them on the shoulders. "It's going to be all right. I was there for the whole thing, but, even so, I can hardly believe it myself. If you just sorta let it settle around you, you get a bit numb, and then it isn't so hard to deal with."

Neither of them had even the slightest idea of what 'Suela meant, but they were able to start thinking again. They stood and made for the door. Food first. Further discussion would have to wait.

------------------

To their surprise, finding practice weapons wasn't a problem. The inn had existed for more than two centuries, and a goodly number of practice weapons had accumulated. There were two racks of them at the side of the central courtyard, thus practice bouts such as they planned were not at all unusual.

What was unusual was the size of the audience they had by the time they had finished working out. It wasn't that the boys were all that good. Both Genie and Mario agreed privately that their techniques were more than a bit on the sloppy side. But their speed! They moved like greased lightning. No bandit, even if they weren't in their right mind, would want to fight them.

Then there was Brigid. The pair had each figured that the skills she knew were right up there with someone just starting their second year of Master Hiroshi's advanced classes. They nodded at each other. Genie would be the best partner if they wanted to put on a good show for any spies.

The girls strode to the center of the courtyard, faced each other, and nodded. The attack was so fast that none of those watching was sure which of them moved first. It hardly mattered, as all anyone saw was a continuous blur of movement, though it didn't last all that long. Brigid suddenly stepped back and bowed to Genie. That she'd lost had surprised her, but her greatest surprise was that Genie wasn't only slightly better than she was. She was a whole lot better. Once they arrived at this City of The Bells, she'd have to find out who had trained her and arrange for lessons for herself and the rest of the wing.

She replaced her practice knife and turned to find Genie still in the courtyard. Her husband Mario approached her, limping slightly, but carrying two staves. Brigid had discounted the possibility of him having any value in a real fight except, possibly, while mounted, though, with his horse being untrained, he likely couldn't do much.

It was clear that Genie didn't agree with that assessment. She was whispering but Brigid had excellent hearing. What Genie said was, "Not full contact today please. I have to be able to move normally when we get to the bank this afternoon, and I'll look like an idiot if I'm sore enough that I can barely walk."

Mario nodded and grinned at her, then he attacked. From the very beginning the sound of their staves blended into one, continuous crack, very like thunder. It was clearly a demonstration, as Brigid could see after only a few seconds that he was as much better than Genie as Genie was better than her.

Brigid revised her plan to get training in The City. She intended to beg lessons starting tomorrow evening after they'd made camp.

The demonstration wrapped up with Thea, their female mercenary, giving a lesson in precision archery. She'd lined up six pears and put herself 20 meters away. By the time Brigid had counted to nine, Thea had put an arrow through each of them.

Her primary worry had evaporated. No bandit group in the entire country was likely to come within a kilometer of them once they heard about what their spies here had just seen.

Genie and Mario approached Brigid and her team. "Baths now, then we'll see about getting your knives. Stavros will have found out which is the best weapons shop in town by the time we're finished."

Stavros separated himself from a shadow nearby, approached, nodded, then ambled off.

As they headed toward the baths, Mario draped an arm about Genie's shoulders. "Feeling better now Love?"

"Much. Getting my blood circulating always seems to help me think more clearly. I doubt that I'll panic again for at least several hours."

Brigid was as puzzled by their laughter as she was by their words. She shrugged her shoulders. Nobody could understand everything, no matter how hard they tried. Such was life.