***
There was a relatively flat stretch of ground on one of the hills that the hunters had identified earlier for building the place, which would reduce some of the preliminary ground leveling work. The guards had also been ordered to help out wherever they could. Even so, Taniok had said he could not give an exact timeline without seeing the site himself. The trees growing there would have to be cleared first. Then the ground would have to be leveled where needed, and a palisade would have to be raised for protection. Only after that could they start digging proper foundations and then build the main hall for processing the medicine, along with a dormitory—basically a small longhouse with bunks—for the workers and guards who would live there. Instead of making a double story building, they would just make two separate single story longhouses—one each for the men and women—which would speed up the construction time. The workers would also dig a well for water.
But, even with the relatively flat site, the first estimate of the encampment becoming ready was still around three to four weeks at the minimum. On one hand, it meant that there would be no more Acelos medicine made in that time, but there was nothing they could do about it anyway in this weather which made the losuvil leaves unviable within a few hours of plucking them. On the other hand, it meant Syrene could stay here at the manor for a while longer and continue learning from him about modern ideas and subjects before she had to leave for the encampment herself with trained workers and begin making the medicine there.
Back in the village, Taniok’s apprentices had been hard at work as well. The foreman of the fourth longhouse block construction site had reported that the lower floor was complete, and from today they would begin on the upper floor. That meant another ten days should be enough to finish the building and install the bunks. After that, everyone in the village would finally have a dedicated bunk, including the 60 or so people who were currently still sleeping on the floors in the longhouse blocks.
The sawmills had also been producing more construction material than what was needed for the fourth block. Until now that extra timber had been stockpiled for the encampment project. But there was enough gathered for that place by now, so from today the excess beams, posts, and planks had been put toward a new job.
The first barracks.
He had finished the blueprint of it just a couple days ago, and had already provided it to another one of Taniok’s apprentices. He would use those materials, along with some experienced workers from the fourth block site and some new laborers, to start making it. For that, they had already started digging the foundation east of the manor today, while others had begun erecting a new, smaller log wall. That wall would connect to the manor wall and enclose all the area east of the manor up to the eastern village wall. That would keep both barracks, one on the north side and one on the south side of that enclosed ground, along with the training yard in the middle, away from the eyes of everyone else. The guards would have more privacy there for training and for whatever future plans they discussed.
The first estimate was that it would take around 20 days to make the first two-story barracks, and another 15 days after that to finish the second one, since its foundation work would be done earlier. The new log wall itself should be completed sooner, in around 15 days. That meant that in roughly another month all the guards could finally move into the barracks instead of the longhouse blocks. That mattered for more than comfort. It would help build camaraderie among them, and it would also give Nesser the freedom to put them through training whenever he wanted, whether in the morning, in the afternoon, or in the middle of the night.
That fit into a broader plan Kivamus had already discussed with Hudan, Feroy, Kerel, and Nesser. In a meeting with those four, Kivamus had agreed that the guards needed to be shaped not only as a defensive force for the village, but also as an offensive force that could go out and raid the compounds of their enemies if needed—just like they did with Torhan.
Tiranat needed to train men and women who could leave the village whenever needed and strike their enemies at their own homes when required. It was too early to make any formal divisions, but later he intended to separate the guards into three divisions—a police force to keep order in the village; an expeditionary company that could go out and attack enemies in their own places and serve as the base of a proper army in the future; and lastly, a scouting force that would sharpen its skills as hunters in peacetime and act as special forces when needed.
Even after that, Nesser would remain the basic instructor for all new recruits, giving them the same foundation in fighting and hand-to-hand combat. Kerel, who had worked as a manor guard since the founding of Tiranat, would train them in keeping order and acting as a proper police force inside the village based on the ideas Kivamus had already begun giving him. Hudan, who had seen how knights and trained guards operated during his earlier training among the Cinran guards, would help shape the early foundation of the army. Feroy, who was the most capable man in the wilds and had the most varied practical experience of anyone here, would train the scouts and help shape them into something closer to a special forces company.
But all that would be for later, when the village was much larger. Perhaps when Tiranat had grown from its current population of around 650 to something closer to Cinran’s size—around 3,000—then there would be enough guards, numbering in the hundreds, to make those distinctions properly. But even before then, the current leaders could start training them with those future roles in mind. By starting the work now, with the guards already numbering above a hundred, it would become much easier to expand the guard force into separate sections and companies once the population finally reached that stage.
Now that the village center was mostly empty apart from the shops around the market square and a few other wooden houses, there was a lot more freedom in deciding the layout of the village. So Kivamus had ordered one of Taniok’s apprentices to start laying down proper roads. The same ten meter wide roads that already surrounded the longhouse blocks would be extended, and the village would be given a grid layout, with drains on both sides of each road with the same width of ten meters. The new blocks of the grid—which were just empty ground for now—would stay the same size as the longhouse blocks, all of which were 25 meter squares. Although in a few places, two such blocks had been combined for special cases, including the area where the new market square would be built later and when larger buildings needed to go up.
It was simple enough work. The apprentice had taken a few gromas to make sure the roads met at right angles, and had already begun marking out the full layout. Other workers had started flattening the ground along those lines, and once that was done a layer of gravel would be spread over the top so the roads would stay at least somewhat dry when the rains came in a few months. Since there was no need to rush it, only around a dozen laborers had been put on the task. At that pace it should still be done in around a month. After that, all new buildings in the village would have proper roads and drainage surrounding them.
The mushroom barn already fit neatly into that 25 meter square grid, and the tenement block design he was working on had also been planned so that four such tenements could fit inside a single square.
That was the idea now—keep the layout regular wherever possible, so later expansion would be easier. The southern part of the village, where the vegetable patches had been grown in larger numbers, was being left aside for now, and the grid wasn't being extended there, apart from a single road which would lead to the periphery road as well as the gates. There was still more than enough space for new construction in the center and the north anyway. Once those were full, the vegetable patches could be moved elsewhere and the south could be laid out the same way.
At the current pace of construction, he knew that all the open space inside the village would likely be occupied within a year, maybe even earlier. But that was fine. He was already planning to build a new village wall in the winter months, one that would enclose the current settlement and leave more room for growth while also giving the place another layer of protection.
He looked out across the manor grounds for a moment from his perch on a chair. People were moving about, each busy with some task, and it made him smile a little. The village was progressing well.
He was still waiting for Duvas to arrive with Cedoron, though. The blacksmith had started the last stage of the steel-making process yesterday, so he should be coming with the final results soon.
***