Chapter 43
The Cove Dancer leaned gently as the wind filled the mainsail. The little boat skipped across the waves with surprising speed, spray occasionally splashing over the bow.
Emily sat opposite me on the windward bench, one hand gripping the gunwale while the other held the jib sheet. Her hair whipped wildly in the breeze.
"Ease it a little," I called.
She loosened the line an inch.
"Too much."
She laughed and pulled it back.
"I still don't know how you can tell."
"You'll feel it eventually."
"The sail looks exactly the same."
"It doesn't."
"It absolutely does."
"It really doesn't."
She rolled her eyes.
"I think you're making it up."
"I promise I'm not."
The sail filled with a satisfying snap as another gust caught us.
"There," I said.
"What?"
"Did you feel that?"
She nodded slowly.
"...Maybe."
"The boat sped up."
"It did?"
"It did."
"I think you are teasing me. You are just trying to sound smart."
I smiled, giving the tiller a small correction as we cut across the mouth of the bay.
For several minutes neither of us spoke. The only sounds were the water hissing along the hull, the creak of the mast, and the occasional flap of canvas when the wind shifted.
Finally, Emily broke the silence.
"You've been out here almost every evening this week."
"I know."
"Grandma says you've also hardly slept."
"I know."
"And Benjamin says you've read the same supply lists three times."
I sighed.
"Everyone talks too much."
A crease formed between her brows. "We all worry about you."
"I know."
She studied me for a moment before asking quietly,
"So...what are you really worried about?"
I watched the shoreline slide past before answering.
"I'm done."
She frowned.
"Done?"
"Everything that can be prepared has been prepared."
I shifted the tiller slightly as the wind veered.
"The ships are loaded. The men have their orders. The warehouses are stocked. The new stewards have enough paperwork to survive the winter."
Emily smiled.
"I think they enjoy paperwork; that's why they are stewards."
That finally got a laugh from me, and that made her smile in return. "I think you're right."
She waited.
I knew she wasn't going to let the subject drop. I looked toward North Cove, now growing smaller behind us.
"I'm leaving."
"I know."
"For months."
She nodded.
"So?"
I rubbed the back of my neck.
"I keep wondering what I forgot."
She smiled knowingly.
"You always think that."
"Because usually I remember something important two days too late."
The Cove Dancer rose over a swell before settling back down.
"I'm leaving John here to oversee the trade with Vaspar."
Emily nodded.
"And I still don't know how I feel about the arrangement with his father?"
She shifted slightly on the bench.
"I thought you were happy."
"I am."
"But?"
"I wanted John to simply join the North Cove Trading Company. But this new deal, I am not sure it is right. I just wanted John, and I ended up getting the whole Mitt Trading Company.”
“Oh, I see. You are probably right; the North Cove and Mitt Trading Company is quite the mouthful.” She said sarcastically.
I snorted. “A seventy/thirty split sounds good on paper, but I don’t know if I can trust my Uncle. It just sounds too good to be true.”
“He gets noble patronage of a new and upcoming Count who, if John is correct, is being called the Sage of the North.” She kept her lips pressed tight, but the corners rose up. The first time she had heard mention of the 'Sage of the North' her laughing fit lasted nearly five minutes.
I ignored her attempt to suppress a smile.
“Besides,” she continued. “If they do, you can just have them executed.”
I said nothing.
“That fell flat, didn’t it?”
“Flatter than a pancake.”
That got her to perk up and lean forward. “That reminds me…”
I sighed. “I know, I promised you maple syrup. But I can't just zap it into existence. I need a maple tree first. While I am gone, you can go and find a maple tree. Remember, look for the double helicopter seeds.”
“Not even Jarum knew what that was when you drew a picture. How am I supposed to find one?”
“Looking for one may keep you out of trouble while I am gone.”
Emily watched me for another moment; she tried to put on a brave face, and she was supportive, but I knew she didn’t like the fact that I was leaving any more than I did. Even so, she was willing to let me vent to her and work through my problems.
"Is that all?"
I looked toward the shrinking shoreline again.
"No."
"What else?"
I tightened my grip on the tiller.
"I'm trusting everyone else to protect North Cove. To protect what we have built without me."
Emily followed my gaze.
"You're trusting them to do what you've spent the last year teaching them to do."
“There are wolves at our door.”
“The people here are men, not pigs, Amos. They can handle Yarbeth while you are gone.”
The wind caught the sails again, and the Cove Dancer surged forward.
For a long time neither of us spoke, we simply sailed.
*****
The trip around the lake had been a much-needed break from the regular routine. Conversation had picked up again, and we talked about everything the way good friends do. Emily was one of the only people I could be completely genuine with. We went back and forth sharing both our concerns and what was going on in our lives. Lately I simply haven't had time to do anything other than work. Even that little break was taking away from time that I should spend resolving issues and guiding people.
As soon as I stepped off the boat, I was accosted by Preston. “My lord, I need more people,” he said with a manic gleam in his eyes.
I was not sure whether to laugh or cry. “What did you discover this time?”
“Crystals, my lord. It doesn’t just work for sugar. We have tried growing salt. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t, but this last batch…”
He trailed off and just shoved a dangling string in front of me. “The concentrated solution we were making exploded into a mass of crystals within minutes.”
It was a string of perfect cubes all linked together.
“Rock salt.” The words escaped my lips before I thought better of it. I should have posed it as if I were suggesting a name, but instead it came out as a statement of fact, and my lack of surprise at its unique structure didn’t help either.
Preston narrowed his eyes but didn’t ask the question that was on his lips. A question that anyone who spent too much time with me eventually wanted to ask. He wasn’t stupid. None of these people were. They knew I knew more than I should, and while most just chalked it up to being some divine messenger, not everyone did. I of course denied it, but it did not stop the rumor from spreading.
Fortunately, instead of asking the question that was on the tip of his tongue, he simply said, “A good name, my lord. I will write that down. But I didn’t just come to show you this. I need to get more people so that we can study crystals more thoroughly.”
The amount of growth we were experiencing in the sciences was ridiculous. I cannot be sure because I don’t know much about history, but we were discovering things at a far faster rate than even I expected. I chalked it up to a few things. First was paper, a cheap way to record information. Second was the development of the education system. Third was the measurement system. Fourth was the scientific method. Last was the fact that everyone was sharing their results with each other.
We had created a modern think tank. Several modern think tanks that were starting to splinter into even more think tanks. We had even created a group of people that gathered all the notes and cross-referenced everything, trying to come up with correlations between fields. And then handing the information back to everyone with ideas for experiments to try.
I guess there was one more thing that made this all happen. Money. The incentives I gave for developing useful things were generous. In ancient times, your wealth was dependent on how well you could hide your secrets from others within your same trade. However, now all of these people were subject to me, and I paid people to find ways to advance the county. Since my wealth was generated in trade and not restricted to the food I produced, that was seeing a steady growth as well. Hidden by the fact that I was buying things almost as fast as I was selling.
I sighed, “Preston, where are we going to find more people? What you are doing requires absolute trust in the people involved.”
“What about the kids? Anyone older than fifteen. We just need extra hands. Gillum can show them what needs to be done. If they can follow directions, then he can do the rest.”
“Once people enter the mountains, they don’t come back. I am not pulling kids away from their families.”
I could see frustration forming on Preston's face. “What about orphans? It will give them a future without taking anyone away from their families.”
I thought about that for a moment. It wasn’t a terrible idea. We always had orphans. People died here. We had established a health system that reduced the numbers by quite a bit, but that didn’t stop there being orphans.
“That may work, but the pool will run dry quickly. You aren’t the only one who needs workers.”
“What about the people that just made it through the quarantine? The people from the Nile. I hear that over half of them died on their travels north. They must have people without family. From what I understand, they feel pretty indebted to you.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. They had orphans; the issue was whether they trust me with their kids. It isn’t like I could let them visit. Maybe take those who didn’t have any close family.
I scratched at my beard.
“Ok. Tell you what, I will write a letter to their council explaining what we are looking for. If they agree, great. If not, you will just have to make do.”
“Thank you, my lord. I have to say things are becoming more exciting.” His eyes gleamed in the way that anyone who is passionate about their field does. “You would not believe all the ways you can get one thing to become something else.”
I could, and now I wish I had paid more attention in chemistry. So many things I had ignored that could have made my count even more prosperous. I had to remind myself, though, that it was good for my people to discover things. It gave them pride in their work and tied their loyalty to North Cove.
I fished out a ball from my pocket. It was a grey mass that I kept squishing into various shapes and then rolled it back up. I tossed it to Preston.
“I know we discussed this a few weeks ago, but I want to remind you. With any luck, we should be receiving latex soon. It looks like I will not be here when it comes. You must find a way to harden it so that it bends but maintains its original shape.”
“I have your notes, my lord. I will do my best. All the possibilities you have listed are as exciting to my crew as they are to you.”
I smiled. He thought he understood, but I don’t think he would really appreciate it until it happened.
*****
The next meeting was less exciting but arguably more important. I sat at a table with Benjamin, General Draves, and the three men that were going to replace Benjamin while we were gone. Each had been working underneath Benjamin for the last six months, slowly accruing knowledge on governance. They would not be perfect as someone who had been studying their whole lives for the position, but they were competent and had already been making rulings and decisions in preparation for our departure.
The issue was that they did not have the right to full governance of laws since they were not nobles. Draves would be handling judgments due to his status as the son of a knight, but even he did not have the power to completely control my barons, even with me giving him full authority while I was gone. So he could only threaten the barons with repercussions when I returned.
This meeting, however, was not about the judicial side of my county. The table had a large sheet of paper in front of it. We were staring at our production management diagram for the next few months. I cannot remember the exact name from my Business in a Box online class, but I think it was called a Garrett Chart or something like that. Lines were drawn across it showing the various things that needed to be completed while I was gone. Those lines were divided into subsections listing individual steps, and each had the names of various people in charge of each step.
This particular chart was for infrastructure. We had others for things like experiments and city planning.
“I am looking at the lighthouse and think that the timeline looks good. We don't want to rush this. None of my contacts have heard of a lighthouse; therefore, we need to make it impressive.”
I got nods from around the table.
I was actually surprised that they didn’t have lighthouses. I know the first lighthouses on earth were built in BC. I had seen artwork of the Pharos of Alexandria. I wasn’t going to build something quite as amazing as that for the first one. I wanted them up faster than that. But what I was looking at on the Garrett Chart was going to be a masterpiece. It would take at least several years to build. Over the winter, it would be the first phase of the foundation. We were going to build a platform right at the mouth of the cove. It would probably take at least two years to create the platform, if not three. It would not just hold a lighthouse that would become a wonder of the world but also a fort that would eventually have cannons mounted to it. The fort would be phase two and the lighthouse phase three. The first step was to make sure the platform didn’t sink into the ocean.
With a fort on either side and a fort in the center, we could stretch a chain across the mouth to prevent entry and exit. So this winter was all planning and surveying the ocean floor. At the same time, we would be gathering resources a little at a time.
Other projects that would be higher priority were walls, bridges, and the extension of the rail system. The rails were currently made of wood. And over the last year, we discovered a few things by attempting various loads on the rails up and down the mountain from the mines. The tracks were made of wood and allowed a mule to pull three to four times as much, depending on the grade. They had experimented with capping the wood with iron, their idea, not mine, and they doubled their original number on the few sections they had capped.
I didn’t even think about capping them. I thought the next improvement was being able to make entirely steel rail. Glad I kept my mouth shut and let the people do what they wanted to.
“I find the plan for the rail system quite ambitious, though that will be a lot of iron. Wesley, I believe this is your area?”
Wesley was a man in his thirties and held himself with confidence. He could have passed for a Falmoren noble from his appearance, but his family had been carpenters in Plimgus for four generations.
“My lord, I have spoken with many of the workers across North Cove, and they all feel that a rail system that can handle the heavier loads should be a higher priority.
"With our rapid expansion, bulk supplies are needed everywhere; it is cheaper to improve our transportation system than to build duplicate industries in each barony. It is better to have all the people with experience in the same place. Timber, charcoal, and wrought iron all need to be available in every barony, and if capping the rails with a small amount of iron makes that possible, then it is worth the expense.”
“You are forgetting about the cost to build the bridges across all the minor rivers and large bridges across the Nore and Polman rivers."
Wesley pointed at the chart. "If you look at this part here, we are planning on building cranes to move goods off the mule trains and onto wagons to cross the bridge. This part here accounts for the future building of barges. Bridges can be put off for a while.”
He was coming to each of these meetings more prepared and with answers to my questions. He was going to become a huge asset to our county.
“Have you figured out a way to make sure the rail lines are clear of other traffic?”
“We have planned for rail loops as you suggested. As far as how we plan to notify people when to be on and off the track, we reviewed the cost of several options and eliminated quite a few. What we believe would be best is towers with people in them. They could use cloth of different colors up and down the line to indicate to the next spotter when a train is coming.”
“I like it. It seems that it has been thought out well. However, I still believe we should stick to wooden tracks for now. Even though the cost of iron has come down, it is not to the point where we want to lay down track and then pull it up again because we need the iron for something else. Let me be clear, though. You may do as you and the others see fit. If you think this is best, then do it. Make sure you have considered all the costs thoroughly. I am leaving North Cove in your hands.”
Jess of the Karr
Jess stared at a sheet of paper containing a list of names. Fifty more people throughout the county had been converted to the organization. A new branch had been established in Malcomp, and the dedication to the Defenders of the Chosen had grown exponentially after the harvest. A small group had even formed past the borders in a town belonging to Vaspar. The leader was an old farmer whom they had converted after he received a personal visit from the Decended.
The other encouraging thing was that half the new converts were from the people brought into the land by Baron Yarbeth. Jess was not particularly surprised by this fact. They had been brought here expecting to be worked to the bone and be starved due to lack of food. Instead, the laws instituted by Lord Amos had protected them and given them the right to food and shelter.
Still, it was disappointing to see how many rejected the truth. Many believed that he was Chosen by the Endless One, Decended of the Gods, or a Hand of Malitouma yet would not embrace their duty to truly devote themselves to him and join the Defenders of the Chosen.
He was not discouraged, though. The truth was spreading, and that is what mattered.
As he was mulling things over Kith finally entered through the back door. The candle was blown out and plunged the room into shadow.
“I have found another traitor among the members of those working for the Decended. He took a bribe from a man of Yarbeth.” Jess said as he handed two folded sheets of paper to Kith.
Jess continued. “You are to interrogate him and find out when he is meeting with Yarbeth's man next and what information he has shared. Dispose of him and report to me. We will have the members of the Defenders who are in the guard stumble upon their meeting and dispose of them. We will make sure that the meeting will not go well for Yarbeth’s man. He will resist arrest and be killed.”
Kith nodded. “Do we have enough Defenders going with the Decended to the capital?"
“Ten in his personal guard and another twenty-six mingled among the commoners.”
Even though there was no light to see, Jess could sense the frown on Kith’s face. “He needs Shades to deal with anything that might arise.”
“You know that is impossible,” Jess said. “We have three commoners who have been trained to deal with anything that might arise. A cook, a maid, and one of the standard guards. All are of Falmoren descent and will blend in.”
Kith sighed, “I hope you are right, or everything we have built will be for nothing. May the gods shield him.”
“May the gods shield him,” Jess whispered.