The Goth had travelled into the netherlands without incident, meeting the DG border guard and passing through. Several days they had travelled within the Netherlands, with newlywed Leader and Lady riding elegant horses, and a long train of cars, trailers, trucks, vans, campers, wagons and RVs. It was nearly summer, full spring, with cool breezes bringing pollen and flower petals through the air. One of the black mares had birthed a foal, which followed along on its thin long legs. A newer member of the tribe had brought a small flock of black sheep with him, which sometimes rode in wagon, or were tethered to one.

      There were many new members of the tribe, which had become just large enough now that not all knew each other fully. It was clear now who the twelve Elders were, those who the others went to for help. These did not include the Leader and Lady but were Elzbieta, Alaric, Merideth, Robbie, Leonore, Mikolaj, Adelle, Patrick, Marcus, Sascha, Elonwey and Louisa. The final list had been approved by John and Claudia and the inclusion of the two newer tribe members Elonwey and Louisa rather than others such as Karina, Jayne or Helena had been made in order to attempt a sort of diversity and yet balance. There were five Elders who had been Polish but they were from four different cities, as there were five Germans from three different cities. There were only five men to the seven women but inclusion of others would have tipped the scales toward Robot Dan or BCG and Claudia did not want that. With Patrick who though married to Adelle was himself Irish and Elonwey who was from Denmark attempt was made to include Elders from various modern states. With Karina in the office of Secretary of Religion and Arbiter they had formed a simple government.

      Any differences were brought to the attention of one of the Elders, and if their decision was not satisfactory on all sides, they called in all Elders to vote. Still no resolution, and Karina was brought in to make a final judgement. She swiftly, and with some annoyance, set the tribe straight on all internal matters whether religious, moral, social, or personal. When outside parties were involved, and the Elders failed to solve the issue, John and Claudia stepped in, whether it was to bail a tribe member from a local jail, represent them in a court, or make negotiations with citizens for purchase of goods.

      As they had in previous cities, the Goth spread their word and gathered members. They purchased goods they required for travel, whether it be eggs or gasoline. Often they traded crafts or performed temporary jobs. Louisa had contributed right away, a young woman from Bremen who Merideth had recruited, by suggesting they visit employment agencies first thing they came to a city, to ask if they had any jobs their regulars could not fill the next several days. This had worked out enough times that Goth had been hired to do data entry work, install hardware or software, or otherwise fill-in on crews doing construction, cleaning, or repair.

      Louisa had been working in such an employment office herself when she met Merideth and Alaric, and was trusted already to keep track of the skill set of each member and if needed assign duties when there were no volunteers.

      Two fourteen-year-old boys had joined them in Bremen, and though they seemed to understand and take seriously some teachings of the tribe, they caused a lot of trouble. Unlike Mikolaj, who was of the same age but already an Elder, hunter, all around handyman, and requisition agent, Hansel and Rory were often being chased about by Karina with a broom. John had vetoed any attempts to force them to leave. He figured that all nations and societies had a few trouble makers and part of life was continually trying to teach them the error of their ways. Claudia said the problem was they listened to John, and it was only when he wasn't around they acted up.

      It was time they move on, and John was thinking it over, all the recent developments. He, with perhaps half the Elders, was in the trailer where Leonore had set up their listening station. The rest were out, making sure the tribe had everything packed and that everyone had a place to ride. Claudia was at his side, but attending her mobile.

      They had a printed map on the wall that showed all of Europe, a slice of the Mid East, and Northern Africa. Leonore gestured with a red laser pointer to the map, touched the area of Yugoslavia just south of Belgrade. "EG is here now," she said.

      "Traveling by river and motorboats," Alaric pointed out.

      John gave a nod, stroked the back of Claudia's neck as he studied the map. There was a pin that marked their own position in southeast Netherlands. Leonore gestured again with the pointer which showed up quite clearly in the dim lighting. "The Russians have reached Plauen. Right now, it is only their advance troops, holding the position. They still have army throughout Poland, but for the northern plains and lakeland." John frowned. For all purposes, Poland was shrunken to that small area and Russian-occupied territory had extended to share a border with Germany.

      "I saw a report that the President of Poland is now in Berlin, and many other officials of the government who managed to escape Warsaw or the provincial capitols are in Danzig," Alaric said.

      "Gdansk," John whispered. He looked up. "Who else?"

      Leonore pointed out the middle of Austria. "VC all over the Austrian Alps." She pointed to Berlin. "Because the Russians have now broken into Germany, Berlin is deploying their military to the eastern border and to directly engage the Russians. I don't have specifics on where the troops have been based. We do know that, unlike Poland, Germany had a decent standing army and recruitment has been up since the beginning of the war."

      "How are things in Poland?" John asked. He tried to not look at the news himself. It always had a slant one way or the other.

      "Bad. Russian martial law. Many resources are taken into providing for the Russian military and so things really are hard to get now, food included, prices are high. There's a curfew in every city. There have been a few civilian deaths so far, no details." Leonore was constantly gathering information from home, writing to her family and friends.

      "There was a labor strike in Poznan," Claudia said, "The workers of the meat packaging plant refused to work if the meat fed the Russians instead of their families. The Army brought in a new crew to work from elsewhere and arrested any of the laborers they could find. Some did escape arrest."

      John swallowed. How would Claudia know unless Leon had told her in message sent to her mobile? "Josef?"

      "He is in hiding. Your mother and the rest of her children are still safe and in their own house. Rudolph is not known to be dead but they do not know where he is. His platoon was last on a mission in western Poland, along the border with Germany."

      John sighed. There was nothing to be done for Rudolph now, not by him. "Clearly, all the armies are looking to meet up with each other. It doesn't look so good for Germany, the southern parts along the Danube would be a likely place for all these troops to run into each other. Do we know of any of the movements of the private military forces, terrorists and the like?"

      "I can tell you what I do know," Leonore offered, "But I have to remind you we can't capture or understand everything. There can always be movements we don't know of in time to avoid them."

      "Just tell me," John grumbled. Claudia hooked her arm into his and leaned against him. It was something of a comfort.

      "So far as we can find, Pepe is in small cells spread all across Europe, we will probably always be close to at least a small number. Twice before, we've come close to direct conflict. I don't know anything more than that they are continuing to move around. The Rowan have been quiet thus far, but others report about encountering them, my guess is that they have some alternate form of communication or at least its quite local and secured. What we do know is that, now that we are in the Western parts of Europe, they may be more prevalent. The SCB is right now more towards the east, unlike Pepe who is all spread out and in cells, Brotherhood deploy more like a military force and in larger numbers. There is a some team mentioned recently, in communications between members of Pepe, that seem to be some manner of investigators contracted out to Pepe to locate nearby Darkling. Like the Rowan, this team also has something to do with witches, though we're not sure what."

      "If they are who I think, then we don't know what they call themselves, but they are based in England and trace the relations and movements of Darkling and witches, as part of their mission to track the Sidhe. I have no idea what they do with Sidhe once they find them."

      Leonore nodded. "What should we call them in reports then?"

      "Morpheus calls them the Psychic Dicks," John answered.

      Leonore shrugged. "There is another group. Claudia told me she knows of them, but until recently we weren't picking much up. So, it is possible they are only active in the west. They are the Klan, an offshoot of an older organization in America, again, human supremacists, much like Pepe or the SCB, only with even less religious rationale behind them." Leonore paused, looked around. "How many was that, I wrote down six."

      "Pepe, SCB, The Klan, the Rowan, the Dicks...that was all," Alaric listed.

      "Oh, the Manchester School. They are particularly active in France and therebouts now. Originally from England. Vampyre hunters basically."

      "Pepe, SCB, and Klan, are all similar. Military style forces made up of volunteer members who have some vague religious connection who will kill any Darkling or accomplices. They have political lobbyists among them that try to get others to legalize what they do and take rights from Darkling," Claudia said, "The Rowan and the Manchester School, as well as this other group, they do not bother with politics or military type tactics. They have lone agents, or small teams that simply hunt Darkling and are very secret about it. With the Manchester school it is mainly Vampyres. The Rowan are literally witch hunters, but they will capture, perhaps kill, any type Darkling. Like John said, it's suggested that the Psychic Detectives are most interested in Sidhe." She looked around the room quickly.

      "It's too much," John said. "I need to know a direction we can move in, to gather members of the tribe."

      "Any direction will get us that," Alaric said.

      "What about south into Belgium?" Sascha asked.

      "There would be members of our tribe there," Claudia agreed.

      "We'll head south," John said. "Call to the train, tell them we move out now, so we can be at the border in daylight." He took Claudia by her arm and led her to the door.

      Claudia stepped down from the trailer just after him.  John took in the state of things quickly, looking for two people in particular. "Rory! Hansel!" he called. It took a moment for the call to pass along the line but the boys came. They were fourteen, tall but not yet filled out to full manhood, like saplings. They dressed well enough, latest street bindings and black shirts of clingy fabric, black jeans and work boots.

      John gave a look to Claudia, thought maybe she anticipated his plan. "Hansel, Rory," John said to the two golden-haired boys, "I need a couple of young men to aide me, stay by my side, and carry messages, sometimes scout or, if I ask, guard the Lady for me? Can you do it?"

      "I thought Miko was your gopher," Hansel said.

      Rory laughed, tossed his longer hair behind his broad shoulders.

      "Listen, Miko is a valued member of this tribe, he finds things that are needed, and he does what has to be done. But, that's beside the point. I thought you could do this job for me, but I guess you boys aren't up to it." John folded his arms about his chest, glanced again to Claudia.

      "We picked up a group of local boys recently," Claudia offered.

      "Hey! We can do it," Rory said, "We were just messing with you."

      "Right. Just playing. We can do all those things."

      John pretended to question as he looked them over again. Claudia had said they respected only him, and were basically good boys. "All right. You both can be my personal aides, so long as you take the job seriously, no complaining or dawdling, no picking on the younger kids or your Elders while you represent me. It would be very bad for you if you misrepresented me." They both nodded consent. Though he was only six years older than they, John knew he looked the part, that between attire and manner and the so-called ineffable charisma, he somehow demanded their respect.

      "Good," he said to them, "Your first task is to fetch for me Darkling and Cloud. Have them saddled. And choose two of the horses for yourselves to ride, excepting Velven and the mare who just foaled, you'll have four to choose from. And on your way make sure that everyone is set to leave, help out if they are not. And get back quick!"

      The boys ran off and John turned fully to Claudia. She had dressed to ride and, as now customary when travelling, wore her hair in uplifted collection of braids wound around her crown to anchor it. Under her skirts would be her dagger in its leather sheath which hung opening down strapped to her left thigh. She had her cloak on her arm and was just lifting it to be worn. She was ready. He had his sword about him, the Crown of Thorns on his head, and wore his cloak. John also had a rifle strapped to his back which was hidden, at a distant glance, by his cloak, and he kept a knife in his boot. But he prayed daily he never needed them but for hunting.

      John didn't want to fight at all, but having so many followers was making him nervous, making him want to protect them, though they knew and shared his love of peace. It was hard, being him. He took Claudia again by the hand and made another careful look about. Alaric came to them.

      "All is ready, Louisa and Merideth are in the jeep, a few of the newlings riding along in the trailer. We'll need to acquisition some tents to sleep everyone when stopped, take another count when we get moving to alter food purchases if need be. Karina suggested taking up a voluntary collection."

      John frowned. "We just need to get our horses. Who's on hovercar today?"

      "Miko and Elzbieta."

      A nod. "You ask them to start south. I'll wait for Darkling and ride up the line. Do we have other scouts?"

      "A number of them. We haven't been short Volunteers for much of anything since Hamburg. A whole lot of tribe members just rode up to the end of the line and followed, mostly from that fair, and they've stayed."

      "Well, pass the word around to add side scouts on route parallel if we've people and vehicles for it. The train is getting very long."

      Alaric smiled, "But that's good," he said. He straightened the black beret he usually wore now, or gave it just the right tilt. Alaric wore the beret with silver badge bought from one of the new craftsmen all the time now, as if it was his equivalent of the crown. But John had said Alaric was to be considered their commander and champion, it seemed right he have something to set him apart.

      John nodded. "It is, and we'll gather more."

      "Even those who don't follow talk about us," Claudia added.

      Rory returned on horseback, leading Cloud, and breathing heavily. "The Lady's mount sir," Rory panted, "got here quick as I could. I apologize for my partner. Darkling does not used to being handled by others, but they are on their way."

      John smiled. Darkling was becoming loyal, no longer the lead horse of a team but his own personal horse and used to John. "He'll learn," he said. Hansel was close enough that they could see him struggling to lead Darkling after his own horse.

      Alaric was gone already, doing his duties. Claudia swung onto Cloud as Hansel found them. His face was red with anger or embarrassment.

      John reached for Darkling's reigns and drew him close. "We'll wait for the end of the line, make sure the last ones here get on their way and no one is just left. After that, we ride up the line. On a good day as today, depending on ground surfaces, we might ride up and down the train several times checking on everyone." John hugged Darkling's head to his chest, pat his face.

      When John was atop his horse, they waited, watched the long train of vehicles and animals pass. Alaric had been correct. There were many new members of the tribe. A good number of them seemed to be venders from the fair, judging from their wagons and vans painted with their advertisements, and the wares visible inside or outside. There were other groups of riders on horseback, and a few wagons drawn by horse. There were families, like Adelle and Patrick had been, bringing their children along. Sometimes pets came along and there were dogs running along or looking out from windows. John even noticed ferrets and kittens.

      The crew's trailer was one of the last, housing three of the Elders and pulled slowly by the van that paced the wagons and horses before it.  Marek was taking his turn at driving. He waved.

      John heeled Darkling and pulled him about to pace the trailer. The door opened. Miko was there. He looked strangely at Rory and Hansel. "Greetings Elder," Rory called to him.

      "Hello Elder Mikolaj, any troubles?" Hansel asked.

      "What do you call them?" Miko asked.

      "They are The Leader's personal Honor Guard, sworn to protect John, myself, and the Elders, to always stay at John's side, unless he orders them away, to keep everyone out of trouble," Claudia said.

      "I understand," Miko smiled. "No, Gaurdsmen, no troubles here. We are well prepared to bring up the rear of the train; we keep a watch out the back."

      "Very good," John said. "We will see you later, Miko." He called Darkling on and the horse quickly galloped up the line of vehicles. Claudia and Cloud soon paced them. She smiled.

      "Tell them to be sure they include Karina, our arbiter in those they need honor," she said.

      "I'll help them understand," John said quietly.

                      †               †               †

      They had crossed into Belgium without seeing any border patrols, it was unusual even considering the border between Belgium and the Netherlands was friendly. It was war time and all European states were involved, all had border patrols. John allowed the possibility that their strategy or numbers allowed for periodic patrols.

      It was late afternoon, and time to consider stopping. John and Claudia with their new Guardsmen were riding beside the midpoint of the long train, Alaric also with them on another of John's horses. Karina's mini and wagon were rolling nearby, both sturdy vehicles that might have moved much faster and loaded with plants. Karina was driving the mini, her new apprentice Vivianne in the seat beside her.

      Karina glanced away from the wheel to speak out the window. "Well, I am most pleased with the new responsibilities given Rory and Hansel, in fact I may have a few more names I could nominate for similar job."

      "You can discuss it with Claudia later," John called into the car.

      "Someone's tearing up the side of the train," Karina called, annoyed. John turned over his shoulder. "I bet it's that boy Aaron, always getting into scrapes, already on the bad side of too many girls."

      A small black car that reminded John of the one that Robbie had traded-in bumped along to a halt. "That's Aaron," Karina said, pulled mini and wagon out of the train. The boy sat up half inside the car, perched in the door's open window.

      Karina seemed ready to lecture him but John showed his palm to her for silence. The boy was upset or excited by something. "Aaron, what is it?"

      "Soldiers," he panted, "West of the train. Sort of olive uniforms and some in green camo. They saw us scouting the sides, and when we pulled back, some followed in a Jeep. They are gone now, but they could be coming back. They saw the train for sure."

      "Did they speak?" Claudia asked.

      "Not so we heard," Aaron said quickly.

      "Could be a number of armies, even Belgians," Claudia advised.

      "Claudia, ride to the rear, tell them all to pull East, southeast is fine for now, don't be obvious. Alaric, you go to the front, do the same. I'll take the boys here and see who's to the west. Aaron, scout east, I don't want to run right into another force if it can be helped."

      "Shall I have scouts along the train move?" Claudia asked.

      John nodded, "tell scouts to move east ahead of the train, try to find a place to hold, at least for a short rest. Aaron, where were you when it happened?"

      "Passing nearby some kind of fence and building."

      John rolled his hand forward in signal for Rory and Hansel to follow. They rode toward the back of the line on the West side first. John scanned the area constantly. There were small towns in the area and farmland. The end of the train came toward them, Claudia had not yet reached them on Cloud, but John had raced Darkling all the way. He slowed their pace, searched westward.

      They came to what must have been the area Aaron had mentioned. The large building seemed it must be factory or laboratory of some sort. It had a wide berth of land about it, and the building itself had too few windows to be an office or home. John reined in Darkling.

      There were vehicles leaving the fenced area on its north side, visible across the grounds and chain-link fence. John signaled the other two close to him. He looked for cover, there was little but few sparse trees and shrubs. John dismounted and walked low, leading Darkling beside him. Rory walked up to his side. "Can you tell who they are?" he asked.

      "I think they are the Gaul army," John said. He was not completely sure of it, but the color of the uniforms was like that he had seen Gaul soldiers wear in news footage and photos. "Hansel, ride around the building, carefully, see if you can find any markings on it to tell us what this place is." John took his field glasses from his belt and offered them to Hansel.

      John listened to the boy ride slowly away and looked to the moving vehicles. There were trucks of the sort used in moving large freight by land, powerful trucks and long trailers. There were jeeps and as they moved John made out a red and blue flag on the side of one. "Gaul all right," he said.

      "Look," Rory whispered, "at the building."

      John panned his gaze back toward the building, away from the fence and moving vehicles. Here were the camo fatigued soldiers Aaron had seen. They were standing together, John could not count their full number, but estimated at least twenty.

      John saw no markings that indicated nationality or loyalty. The group began to move, quickly loaded into personnel carrying trucks. A number of crates followed them out and into trucks.

      Hansel returned. "Munitions," he said, "Herst Munitions."

      "They're buying weapons!" John hissed. He took the glasses from Hansel and viewed the soldiers. "These ones are not Army of Gaul, I think these are SCB." John panned north. The Gaul army vehicles were moving directly south, toward them. The other soldiers were now driving to the gate.

      "Lets get away," John said. He jumped to Darkling and glanced to be sure the two boys were mounted and ready. They raced across the road and into the heavier trees directly east.

      Only after they were a fair distance into the wood did John turn and scan. The Gaul army was continuing on the road south. The other soldiers had a small motorcycle patrol apart from the trucks and were moving slowly, as if searching for something. This area was where they had last seen the train. They might even have seen John.

      With gesture John signaled the boys to follow. He rode slowly, the ground uneven and not wanting to attract attention.  Every minute or so he stopped to look back. They had sent foot soldiers into the woods. Once he knew they were there John spent most of his time winding a path through the woods and encouraging the boys to disturb as little as possible.

      After a while, John glanced at the sun and turned South. He pushed Darkling to move a little faster. The sun was almost down, illuminating them for a while yet to their pursuers if they continued east. The woods continued until breaking abruptly into a farmed field sprouting some sort of vine.

      They rode heavily across the farm, heading south then east then south again. Just as it grew full dark they all saw the lights ahead. The long string of illumination meant the tribe. It also meant that they would be visible to others. John glanced at his compass, one Joy had sent; it was programmed to give his position in longitude and latitude and even had town and city names. "Hansel, Rory, ride to either end of the train, tell them I said get on the main road just east, tell them we go north. We backtrack north, only along the road and meet in Aachen."

      "North to Aachen on the road," Rory repeated.

      "Take road to Aachen, North."

      John nodded. "I'll be midpoint, don't bother to meet me, just make sure all the tribe is moving safely on their way."

      The two boys heeled their horses and rode north or south. John urged Darkling on and headed for the midpoint of the train of lights.

      As he came close, John realized they were moving slowly, a lot of people moved on foot between vehicles. The first person he came to was Elonwey. She was with Masha and others in one of the venders' wagons, a side flap open so he saw them clearly. "John, you startled me," Elonwey said.

      He blinked. She had no concern. "There is a change in plan. Everyone must get onto the highway and head into Aachen, head north."

      "You want us to go back north, everyone is hungry and tired."

      "I will explain, just do it, please, it really is important."

      Elonwey nodded. "Go on, I will alert my section of the train." John saw Elonwey hop from the wagon and run to the next trailer. John waved to the next driver.

      "Follow the wagon, we're changing direction." He rode further back, found Karina's mini. Vivianne was driving, Karina asleep in the passenger seat. The window came down. John hopped down from Darkling to speak to them better. He gave Karina a shove.

      "What?" she sat straight, "Did you find what it was?"

      "Looks like Gaul army and SCB. Both visited a weapons factory. The Gauls moved on but the SCB are pursuing us. I have a plan to backtrack north along the highway and meet again in Aachen."

      Karina sighed. "All right. We'll head north, inform our section."

      Already, seeing others change course, the train was shifting northeast to join the highway.  John jogged to the nearest vehicle. It was the van belonging to the blacksmith Quentin. "Quentin, move on."

      "Some members that were riding with us walked back to talk to another friend, to ask if they had any food. I don't want to leave them."

      "It's all right, move on. We're going to Aachen. I'll stay until I see everyone gets into the train."

      "Thank you, Leader," Quentin said. He started his van up again to drive. John scanned the area best he could. He saw the crew trailer and mounted to ride for it.

      Claudia was still with Cloud, walking her outside with Rory at her side, leading his own horse. "John!" she said, "we've been moving slow, doing the check for straglers, I hoped you would find us."

      "We need a light behind us," John said as he got down. He handed his reigns to Rory. "Tie the three of them behind the trailer then go and run to the van and tell Cyprian to drive in the horse lane when we reach the highway."

      Rory took the horses, led them slowly around to the back. John knocked on the door. Leonore opened it. She just looked.

      "Got any lights, flashlights?"

      She nodded.

      "We need a light pointed behind to make sure there are no straglers."

      Leonore called into the trailer. "Marek, get a torch and climb onto the roof. Pan the area behind for straglers." She stood aside. "Come on in, John, Claudia."

      John climbed in, reached out for Claudia. Marek passed them as he left. Robbie was lounging on the floor with Miko, both at their machines. "I found something, a Hearst Munitions factory. They gave something to the Gaul army, who moved south toward France or maybe another road. The other group - I think they were SCB facilitating the transfer- were following us, or were last I had sunlight to see."

      Robbie tapped at his keys. "Gaul and SCB, Hearst munitions," he repeated. "Must have been a sale - under duress or not - Hearst is too well guarded for it to be a theft, we would have heard something. Hearst has been working on various electronic weaponry, rail guns, timed lasers and the like."

      "That's not good," John said, "could tear through the VC with that sort of weaponry.

      Claudia removed her cloak and then lifted hr mobile from her bag. She sat down. John was tired, wanted to sit himself. "You rode pretty hard, I'll get you some water," Leonore said.

      John sat among the cushions between Miko and Claudia.

      "I'm sending a message to my father, just text, he'll usually leave his machine to automatically print incoming text. I don't want him to see me anyway."

      "He has Union connections doesn't he?" Robbie asked.

      "He used to run the Metro Noir, I told you, now he is retired, has a Vampyre lover, Lady Anne." Claudia was typing her message. "Robbie, source for that info about electronic weaponry?"

      "Did a search. Dailies reported on it. It's actually a Union government contract."

      Claudia stopped. "That's treason. Selling military weaponry under government contract to their enemy during wartime."

      "Has to be," Miko said.

      Leonore walked slowly from the sink and handed John a mug. It was coffee-stained, but clean, and filled with water. He took a gulp.

      "Sip," Claudia said, surprised John by noticing he had gulped, the way she seemed intent on her keys.

      "It's treason," Miko said, "I just looked up the law section of the Union site."

      "But if they are from the SCB, and selling the weaponry to their brothers they might think the Union is about to fall and aren't worrying about legal issues," Leonore said.

           †               †               †

      The tribe made it to Aachen, stopped in a car park to see that their number remained the same. There were hundreds of them, not a small band. John knew they were all hungry and tired. They had not stopped today for any meal or rest. John untied Darkling and Cloud from the trailer as the Elders counted off sections. He was rubbing down the horses when the twelve plus Karina and Claudia found him.

      "Don't tell me we lost some?" John asked.

      "All accounted for," Merideth sighed.

      That was good. "I know it's been hard today. You must have all heard by now, that the SCB had been pursuing us. I felt we couldn't risk meeting them, whatever their reason."

      "John," Elzbieta said, "If we look angered, it is not because of you. I remember when we were in Poznan and we angered the Russians by aiding refugees and helping take back the train. I know how I felt when we nearly came between the DG and Pepe, that it was a horror all the Vulkodlak were slain and no one else was there to care. It's just the newlings don't all understand."

      "They'll learn," Patrick offered, "Adelle and I didn't follow for fun. We chose to continue with the tribe and to become art of it, because we saw how right it was, compared to the war and politics we had left in our home city. We knew it could get dangerous."

      "I know half of you think me shallow, but I swear it was a real kind of love that drew me here and I do understand," Elonwey pleaded, "Always some must suffer, but if it is for a good cause...it has to be suffered."

      "They will understand," Louisa said, "If they do not understand the importance of these minor sacrifices, then they do not really belong. Let us just make sure they know they can leave with our love. Doesn't everyone here have family or friends at home who would support the Goth but have other responsibilities? We can be supported in other ways besides following our trail to discover lost members."

      "Exactly right," John said. "Lets spread the word for everyone to get what food and rest they can here, and ask for volunteers for a watch. Don't unpack too much. We may find cause to leave again. I think Koln next."

      "Open fires are no good here, but those who have portable grills, box ovens or can stoves, even some gas camp stoves around I noticed, they can help the others get something warm," Alaric said.

      John nodded. I'll head the first watch, but I would like at least two shifts so that everyone gets some rest."

      "I can take either watch," Patrick offered.

      Around the circle of Elders almost everyone volunteered. The few who didn't had good enough reasons, needing to put a child to bed, or being designated healer and thus needing to be where the tribe knew best to find them.

      "I'll head the watch then, get goggles or glasses from Robbie. Patrick, you can head the second, if I may wake you later." Patrick nodded and walked his family back to their camper.

      Claudia slid an arm under John's cloak and about his waist. "I'll stay up and watch with you," she said.