CHAPTER 51
Venn soon returned with the stable boy and three horses. The stable boy handed Lucan and his aides the horses, and they mounted without preamble.
From there, they started trotting east. The clearing of the canal had begun near Silvergate and moved east, working its way towards Lord Ravencroft’s territory, where the lord’s own works were crawling towards them. They would meet in the middle, which would ring the bell of success for their undertaking.
And so, they had to ride farther out to see where the estate’s laborers were working. Lucan couldn’t help but show a bit of mirth at the sight of Venn running beside them as their horses trotted east. The boy hadn’t learned how to ride yet, and he hadn’t earned the right to a horse either, even if a borrowed one. It was quite a sight to see him fighting to keep pace with the horses with a determined look. Lucan didn’t intend to torment him. If he began to truly struggle, he would offer him a place on his mount.
Surprisingly, they reached the canal works with Venn’s determination unbroken. The boy was drenched in sweat, gasping for air, but he was on his feet. Lucan dismounted and patted him on the back, and that’s when the boy collapsed. Lucan suppressed a chuckle as he helped him up.
As the boy settled on his feet, Lucan turned towards the canal. Hundreds of laborers toiled along its length, shoveling dirt and carrying it away, wading through mud on its banks, and even maneuvering rafts in the water.
While the work had begun near Silvergate, Lucan had been too occupied to observe it at the time, only watching it from the keep’s windows from time to time. Now, he scrutinized the work, hoping to see how Sawyer planned to remove all the built-up silt and mud, and it turned out simpler though more varied than he’d expected. Large rakes, dwarfing any that would be used in a field, extended from one bank of the canal to the other.
The men on the rafts adjusted the ropes pulling these rakes, and then dozens of men on both sides began pulling them, breaking apart the built-up silt, even if they did not remove it. Bit by bit, the rakes moved across the mud and silt covering the canal bed, tearing it apart and stirring it up into a cloud that disturbed the clarity of the water. Some of the silt, light and thin, was washed away by the running water, but plenty of it was simply rearranged and spread out.
Men on the banks, knee-deep in the mud, shoveled up what they could, as others with baskets on their backs carried it to higher ground, piling it there to dry. Small mountains of dried-up silt had been left on the banks near Silvergate. Thankfully, the unsightly piles didn’t stay there for long. Farmers were eager to take them for their fields, as they rejuvenated the land and apparently gave the crops a certain healthiness when layered into the soil.
Along the canal, there were some places where the mud and silt had built up so much near its banks that it had created pockets of nearly still water. The laborers used that for their own ends, diverting the water and digging up silt, mud, and even earth while supporting the walls that separated them from the canal water. Lucan couldn’t tell what the purpose of such perilous work was, particularly because it seemed that water was still leaking into the deep trenches the laborers were digging. Instead of only hauling up the silt, mud, and earth, the sheave that rotated the buckets up from the trench was also draining water from below.
Lucan sought out his engineer with many questions on his mind. It took some time to find the man, since he was disguised under a cap with a measuring rod in hand, traversing the works with great perseverance. Cordell spotted him after their horses had paced through half the length of the canalworks.
The engineer seemed to have spotted them too, as one of his foremen pointed in their direction. Sawyer climbed out of a shallow trench, long-necked boots covering his feet and legs up to the knee, and he waved as Lucan and his aides dismounted.
As they met, Sawyer executed a quick bow, looking spent but steadfast.
Lucan acknowledged it with a nod. “How goes it, Sawyer?”
“Well.” Sawyer nodded hurriedly. “It goes well, my lord. Though…”
“Though?”
“I’m afraid the matter of finishing in half a year may yet not be so easy.”
“Why?”
“Well,” Sawyer sighed. “Even with the generosity you have shown, my lord, I have not received enough laborers to see this matter through in such a short time.”
Lucan looked at Thomas, who nodded and said, “We have attracted quite a few laborers, but many lords have tied down their commoners in fear of suffering a lack of fighting men should they need them. There is also the matter of the war in the north. Most territories embroiled in it are already levied to their very bedrock and suffering from a shortage of working hands.”
Lucan rubbed his chin, eyes panning over all the working men along the canal. They would need more. He wanted the canal trade to flow before next winter. The war had begun in earnest, and there was no better time than now to unveil their trade route.
“Send word to the surrounding lords,” he began. “Particularly in the South. Should their folk come to labor in my estate, we will make certain they return to their lands, and we will also apprise them of all the coin their folk win from our coffers.”
All three of his aides seemed perplexed for a moment. Even Venn looked confounded, though Lucan suspected the boy didn’t understand the whole affair, let alone what he intended now. Thomas quickly recovered, however, seemingly understanding his purpose and nodding.
“Forgive me, my lord, but for what purpose?” Sawyer was the one to ask.
“If the lords are assured that their subjects will return to their lands, they will have nothing to fear,” Lucan said. “Still, there will be nothing to encourage them to send their people to labor for us either. Should we let these lords know what is in their peasants’ purses, however, they will be eager to reap some of our bounty. A lord is entitled to a tax for every copper their subjects earn, after all.” Left unsaid was that most commoners hid what they could when the taxman came about. A lord could only tax what he could prove, not that there was a lack of tyrants who demanded more than they were due, but often a noble didn’t want subjects that were ready for rebellion the moment he set foot out of his territory.
“Ah.”
Lucan nodded with a smile. “Some of our neighbors, such as Lord Cassius, will be happy to take our coin, and he is not the only one who is seeking to line his coffers.”
Sawyer nodded thoughtfully. “Should that indeed bring me more hands, my lord, then you need not worry about this matter.” He gestured at the canal.
“Good, good,” Lucan said. “Tell me, my good engineer,” he pointed at the deep trenches running along the banks, “why so much work for so little reward?”
Sawyer shook his head with a rueful smile. “My lord, it is too little work for the reward we will reap. You see, once we dig deep enough, we will collapse the supports that are keeping the canal off the trenches. The collapse will flatten the silt in the water and widen the canal. It is easier than scooping the wet silt out and loading it on boats, at least for what is built up near the banks. The rest, we will handle with care.”
Indeed, Lucan saw some rafts in the middle of the canal, probing the sandbars there with long poles, collapsing some of them when they could and guiding the rakes where they couldn’t. Some small boats had been pulled along, empty and waiting, likely for a mountain of mud and silt to be piled on top of them. These men still had plenty of work to do.
Satisfied, Lucan nodded and gave the engineer his leave, marching on with his two aides and Venn. They traced the length of the canalworks, and as they walked, he addressed Cordell, “Any word from the men in Lord Ravencroft’s territory?”
“Aye,” Cordell said. “Matters seem to have calmed down in the lord’s lands, particularly from the north. They say that they’d even spotted Sir Ward’s banner raised and marching north a time ago.”
“And we know why now,” Lucan said, thinking of the battle brewing near Eldham. Nearly a month ago, he’d sent Gery leading Ryder and Otto to Lord Ravencroft’s estate. The lord had asked him for aid, as The Silver Blades guild had begun harassing his laborers in the north along the border, though of course, they did it under the guise of rogue banditry. The Aegis from Varencourt had also lent its aid, but they were already occupied with protecting the canalworks on their side of the border. To make matters worse, Lord Ravencroft suspected that Sir Ward had been helping the Silver Blades with their skirmishes. Particularly because several of their encroachments had come from across the canal. The lord even thought that some of Sir Ward’s men had disguised themselves among these supposed brigands and had taken part in the raids.
Now, however, while The Silver Blades hadn’t halted their efforts, their encroachments had gotten lighter and less frequent. It seemed that with Sir Ward’s departure, they had less force to bring to bear, or perhaps less local support in this foreign terrain.
“It seems matters are calming down, for a time at least,” Lucan said. His voice lowered into a murmur as he continued, “It is a good time to send Clifton and Tomis with the Orb to Varencourt for appraisal.”
Cordell was quiet for a moment, then he nodded firmly. The sergeant-at-arms likely didn’t wish to send any of his men away, considering three of them were already in Lord Ravencroft’s territory, but there was unlikely to be a time as peaceful as now. “They will ride out on the morrow, my lord.”
Lucan nodded, satisfied. Tomis and Clifton were his two foremost choices when it came to matters of great discretion. Tomis was a master in the wilderness, and Clifton was a master in the streets of any settlement. Together, they could keep his twice-souled Orb safe. He’d earned it in deadly battle against a Herald in the Wilderlands, and he had no intention of losing it to bandits or some upjumped mercenaries from the Union.
“One other matter,” he said, turning to Thomas. “Send word for Sir Sarin again. We ought to speak of the latest matters.”
“Yes, my lord.”