Jarvi's orders were simple and explicit:
• Occupy the stockade and palace at Kato
• Arrest the Maltbys, father and son
• Arrest Captain Keith Frazier
• Send the three of them, in chains, to Hasty for trial and punishment
• Remain at Kato at the expense of the duchy, holding the palace and stockade until otherwise notified
And unwritten but understood; remind the nobles everywhere of the royal power.
Simple and explicit, but not easy. First it was necessary to get his force to Kato. It consisted of four of his five companies of mounted infantry (bowmen), one of his two rifle companies (also mounted), and two batteries of light field artillery. For the mounted infantry this came to 480 men plus officers, and 20 wagoners and their draft horses. For the rifle company, 120 men plus officers, 5 wagoners, and draft horses. For the artillery, 56 artillerists, 16 gun teamsters, plus ammunition wagons and 80 horses. While attached to the command section were kitchen wagons, blacksmith wagons, haywagons, officers' baggage wagons, all their horses, teamsters, helpers. . . . All told, including remounts, replacement horses, and horse tenders, they came to some 950 officers and men and over 1,200 horses.
The mustering had taken place on the royal military reservation four miles north of Hasty. The army didn't have most of the wagons, carts, and draft horses necessary. They were hastily requisitioned from farmers, draymen, etc. for miles around, as was much of the hay.
Four extremely busy days after the Higuchian flight, the army was ready to leave, an accomplishment of which General Jarvi was justly proud. Eldred, of course, had been complaining about the delay half a day after ordering the movement, so Jarvi, gruff old warrior, had taken him aside and begun going over with him all that the job required. After twenty minutes of that, a sobered Eldred begged off and returned to the palace, where he bragged on his general as a genius.
With the army finally mobilized, the next day was spent moving it eight miles to the North Landing ferry dock. All the oared ferries of useful size had been gathered, for miles along the river. The next day and much of the following night were taken up with ferrying the army, its men, horses, wagons and field guns, across the river.
Once across, the artillerists, who marched afoot, and the more heavily loaded wagons, set the pace. They made three miles per hour—when moving. The officers and mounted infantry could easily have traveled twice that fast, but that was not an option. And there was, of course, the time spent breaking camp in the morning and setting up camp in the evening.
At least, Jarvi told himself, the road was dry. Dust was preferable to mud.
On the third day after crossing, the lead scouts heard the sound of axes ahead, and trees falling, and discovered a large party of axmen felling trees on both sides of the road. They hurried back at once, to inform the general. Soon afterward, a scowling Jarvi approached the work at the head of a company of mounted riflemen. At sight of them, the axmen rested their axes and cheered lustily. One of them, presumably the foreman, came forward grinning.
"What," Jarvi asked, "are you people doing?"
The foreman had swept off his hat, exposing a long, ruddy-brown face and white forehead. "Why sir," he said, "we are felling an abatis. On the duke's orders sir." His accent announced French as the language of his community.
"The duke? You're on the Royal Domains here! The duchy begins at Ville!"
"Yessir, begging your pardon sir. We are from Ville. But this is a very good place for an abatis." He waved an arm. "When the Dkota get here . . ."
Jarvi realized now, from the direction these people were felling trees: they were to stop an enemy riding along the Sota River toward Hasty, not to stop a royal army marching on Kato. And the axmen had cheered his arrival! These people believed the Dkota were coming, as seemingly must Edward then, and his commander at arms, Keith Frazier.
"Very well, m'sieur," Jarvi said. "Rest while we pass, then continue as you were."
As he led his troops past, he looked the peasant axmen over, shirtless, their torsos slick with sweat. They'd accomplished a lot, and believed in what they were doing, he did not doubt. He'd swear they had no notion he'd been sent to arrest their duke and take him to trial at Hasty.
And now he felt ill at ease with those orders.