Arrows of Promise (Kingmakers Book 2) (25 page)

“The man just arrived!” Edvard shook his head in denial.
“No, surely not him.”

“No, he’ll want to go,” Ash endorsed, lips kicked up on one
side. “He’ll consider this ‘fun’ and if you leave him out of it, he’ll pout for
weeks. Besides, he’s not going to rest easy until this problem is eliminated.
The bandits are striking too close to home for him. He won’t want his students
over there until this is settled.”

Ashlynn gave him a regal nod. “Precisely.”

Riana turned to Ash and said softly, “We should go too.”

Ash met her eyes and for several moments the two of them
spoke without words, conveying what they were thinking, ‘hearing’ what the
other person felt. Broden watched them and felt his heart constrict a little.
There had been a time, when Fianna was alive, that he had had such a bond with
another person that words were not necessary. Seeing his daughter find that
connection with someone else made him happy but also a little sad. It was a
bittersweet thing.

The room stayed quiet, waiting for what they would say. It
was Ash that spoke, eyes level with hers. “I’ll punch every person that insults
you, man, woman, or child.”

Her hand slid into his, fingers lacing. “That be fine,” she
whispered, winking.

Tightening his grip around her hand, Ash looked up at their
audience and announced, “We’ll go too. I’m also mad about the destruction
they’ve done and Riana’s knowledge of the area will be just as vital, I think.
It’s also an opportune moment. Edvard, you do realize that we’re close enough
to incorporate Cloud’s Rest into our own boundaries? That given enough time,
the settlement will likely grow enough to meld into their borders?”

“I had considered it,” Edvard admitted, eyeing the pair of
them. “But that’s another couple years down the line so I wasn’t going to worry
about it just yet. You think I should?”

“The bandits be a bane to everyone up there,” Riana
explained. “If ye want to get on the village’s good side, establish a
relationship, now be the time to do it. Get rid of the bandits. It be a sign of
good faith.”

“We need to establish trade with someone, have another
source of food coming in,” Ash picked up the idea and kept rolling with it.
“Cloud’s Rest will be a good source for that. It can’t hurt to try.”

Ashlynn cocked her head. “But no one has mentioned that
before? I mean, we’ve been having food shortages for months, why not approach
them before this?”

“No bargaining power,” Broden explained. “Cloud’s Rest be
needing a mighty large reason to go against Iysh. Getting rid of the bandits be
the right leverage for us. Which is why, King, I vote we go as well.”

Edvard groaned and refused to look at any of them, eyes on
the ceiling. “Why do I feel like I’m being ganged up on?”

Because he was. Broden was not about to say it aloud though.

“And your arguments make too much sense.” He glanced around
suspiciously. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you had planned all of
this out beforehand.”

“We didn’t,” Ashlynn denied. But the whole room knew they
did not need to. The twins knew how the other thought, their partners were used
to reading each other, and the four of them combined could read the others well
enough that they did not have to have this out before laying it all out in
front of Edvard.

“Just three weeks?” Edvard asked, suspicious. “You really
think you can pull off everything you need to in that time?”

“With four wizards and two archers that are experts on the
area?” Ashlynn responded, already sporting a victorious smile. She knew she had
won. “If I can’t pull this off in three weeks, there’s something wrong with the
world.”

“Even if you don’t do everything you planned, you have to
come back home when your time is up,” Edvard commanded, pointing a stern finger
at her. “I can’t spare you for longer than that.”

“I know,” she soothed. “We’ll be good and come back after
three weeks.”

“If Ash hadn’t come back with so many wizards, I wouldn’t be
able to let you go at all.” Edvard went back to staring at the ceiling. He
seemed to find it safer, or perhaps easier, than meeting anyone’s eyes. “Let me
check with my spies tonight. If Iysh is still dragging their feet, you can go.
If not, you’re staying. I’m not being caught shorthanded with an army on my
doorstep.”

Ashlynn maneuvered over to his side and patted him on the
head. “You’re a good brother.”

“I feel sorry for the bandits, I really do,” he muttered,
ignoring being patted on the head like a faithful dog. “They have no idea what
they’ve done by irritating you. Are you really that sure that Gerrard will go?”

“Absolutely positive.”

“How’s this?” Ash looked to his master for an opinion.

They’d come out this afternoon after Ashlynn had done a
lecture to all of the new citizens about the laws here. There were many
questions, some thoughtful, some silly, but at the end every person seemed
quite pleased about these less stringent laws. With that sorted, Gerrard had
given them specific instructions to learn the city and learn it well. He’d
broken them up in groups with a shopping list for supplies and, armed with some
of the new currency, they happily went off. As long as it didn’t involve
traveling on a cart, they would likely have done anything cheerfully.

Gerrard stood on the docks and did a slow revolution,
looking around him with judicious eyes. “How long have you been building this
place?”

“Hmm, almost three months?” Riana offered. “If ye include
clearing the land.”

“Which I do,” Ash muttered under his breath.

“This is a great deal of work to be done in just three
months.”

Truly. Riana had fresh eyes to it now that she had left and
come back again. Some things of course had been done in their absence. One of
the food storage buildings had been built, for instance. There were three new
streets that she could see coming in. Of course Edvard had explained to them
the day before everything that had been done, but that was different than
seeing it with their own eyes.

It no longer looked like a ‘settlement.’ It had all the
earmarks of a proper town now. Which meant they really did need to come up with
a proper name to go along with it. Riana would bring it up later but for now
she enjoyed the progress. They had a new smithy, three operating mines, a
completed marketplace with all of the essential stores, and almost three dozen
houses that were finished. More businesses were in the process of being built,
which included a mercantile, clothier, and apothecary.

She was also heartsick seeing what destruction had been left
in the bandits’ wake. The inn had serious fire damage in one corner of the
building and even now people were tearing out the burned boards, preparing to
redo it. The bakery had been hit by fire as well and its roof was severely
charred. Some of the houses, which had nothing more than a framework up, were
down to charred rubble, and it would require clearing away before any
rebuilding could be done. Riana had heard that the bandits had used fire to
distract people so they could make off with the supplies. Seeing it with her
own eyes was infinitely worse. Heading for Cloud’s Rest and hunting down
bandits sounded better every moment.

“This place does have more room to expand,” Gerrard finally
stated, tone satisfied. “And I believe that by the end of next year we’ll have
everything we need here and won’t have to go into Estole proper very often.
Alright. I agree to building the academy here. Which site did you have in
mind?”

“Ah, it’s actually straight along this road. It extends far
past the houses, so you can choose a lot on either side. If you want to be on
the main street?”

“I’d prefer it, certainly.”

Riana knew that Edvard certainly would. If he had to send a
messenger to the academy, then a direct route would be best.

They followed Ash to the site that he had in mind but
Gerrard was shaking his head before they had even come within full view of it.
“Something flatter than this, Ash. The land curves a little too much for my
liking.”

“Flatter? Hmm.” Ash turned to Riana.

She nodded and waved them forward. “I think I know a good
place. This way.”

“Riana, how is it that you know the place up here better
than Ash?”

“Ah, that? While he be putting in docks and buildings, I be
wandering about acting as provost. And hunting. So I have a better sense of the
lay of the land.” She took them off the roads entirely and to the east although
not far. Then she stopped and gestured. “This section goes back a ways. Aside
from the land right next to the channel, it be as flat as can be. Everything
else be naught but hills and ridges.”

Gerrard took several steps forward, eyes taking in the area.
It wasn’t completely flat, no lot was, but it was nothing more than wrinkles in
the ground. This place wasn’t cleared yet, either, so the trees were still
thick as thieves and as wide as the day was long. The wizard master spread a
hand, palm facing earth, and invoked a spell. Then he waited for several
seconds before a slow smile spread over his face. “There’s fresh water under
this area. A rather large river, actually.”

True, he would need a well, wouldn’t he?

“As you can see, the land isn’t cleared, and there isn’t a
connecting road, but if you like the place?” Ash waited for a confirming nod
before continuing, “Then I’ll build you a connecting road.”

Gerrard waved him down. “We can handle that. And clearing
the place. We’ll use the trees here for lumber. I’ll make up the plans today of
what we’ll build and have Maree and Loraine start on it tomorrow. Do I need to
submit the plans to anyone?”

“Me, actually. I’m the acting provost of the area until
Edvard can find someone to appoint. Do you have an idea of how much land you
want?”

“Now that is an excellent question.” Gerrard stepped back
and really studied the area. “Hold on. Let me pace this out.” He started
walking with a stiff, measured stride, counting to himself as he went. The man
stopped barely within shouting distance and gave an exaggerated motion toward
his feet, pointing at the ground. “HERE!”

Ash waved a hand of acknowledgement. “Riana, let’s mark his
ground with arrows. The place is growing so fast I don’t want a territory
dispute cropping up because we didn’t mark the place.”

“Good thought,” she allowed. Pulling her bow off her
shoulder, she grabbed two arrows from the quiver and nocked it.

“You know where he stopped?”

“Aye.”

Ash whispered a word and put the tip of his finger against
the shaft of the arrow for a brief moment. “Shoot.”

Riana hesitated a brief second to make sure that Gerrard had
moved far enough away from that spot before arcing the bow up high and firing.
It landed exactly where Gerrard had been standing. The master heard the whizz
of the arrow in the air and the thunk of it landing and whirled around,
surprised. Seeing what it was, he bellowed, “WARN A MAN!”

Riana laughed. “I WILL NO’ HIT YE!”

There was probably a lot cursing from her response, but from
here, she couldn’t hear it. Just as well.

Gerrard paced out a large rectangular lot, waving and pointing
when he wanted a spot marked, which Riana and Ash obliged via their arrow
markers. When the last arrow was solidly planted in the soil, Ash spoke a
string of words and the arrows lit up like bright lanterns. Then ribbons of
light shot out, connecting each arrow to another. The master returned to them,
surveying the area, and nodded in satisfaction. “Plenty of room. Good. I’ve
never been this far northeast before, so I ask, when do you usually get the
first snowfall?”

“Right before or after the All-Winter Festival, generally.
It’s been so mild for this season I think it’ll likely be after. So, you have
roughly three months?”

“The finishing touches be too much to ask, but I’ll have the
building’s frame and some of the main rooms finished by then.” Gerrard jerked a
thumb back toward the road. “Give me your specifications for the road and
sewage systems so I know how to build this section and tie in.”

“I will.” Ash turned and led them back. “Master, are you
sure about coming with us to Cloud’s Rest? You barely got in a day ago.”

“I can’t rest easy knowing this place will be attacked,”
Gerrard denied with a flick of the hand. “Besides, are you trying to cut me out
of the fun? Again?”

Ash held up his hands in defense, grinning. “Perish the
thought. I just thought maybe Ashlynn had charmed you into going.”

“Ha! Couldn’t keep me out of this one. Just give me enough
time to set everyone in motion before we leave. I want them working and not
sitting about on their hands.”

“We have our own preparations to do before we can go, so no
worries there.”

“Edvard mentioned something about wanting to build a bridge
over the channel?”

“There’s no plans for that yet.” Ash had a resigned
expression. “He’s marked out the spots where the bridge will start and end, but
we don’t have a design for it yet. It’s not an immediate project anyway, so
don’t worry about it just now. Then, if you don’t have any other questions?”

“Not a one,” Gerrard denied. “Go.”

Riana knew it had to be bad if Edvard called them over to
his study. Most of their communications were done by the callers so that they
didn’t have to shuffle back and forth from the settlement. But sometimes, he
insisted on a face-to-face meeting, and that always spelled trouble.

This time, Edvard had called for Gerrard as well, and Riana
wasn’t quite sure why. It could be in part because he wanted to start including
the man in these meetings just because of his magical prowess. It could be that
he hoped to make Gerrard more than a wizard master who had an academy on his
land. No one had confided in her Edvard’s goals, so she only had her own
suspicions and observations to go by.

They entered Edvard’s study and found that Ashlynn and her
father were already there, as well as Troi, Tierone, and Kirsty. Kirsty had
been sitting next to Ashlynn, but at their entrance, she immediately stood and
went to greet them. “I believe this is the first time we’ve seen each other in
at least a decade, Master Gerrard. I’m Kirsty Kilpatrick.”

Gerrard accepted the hand she offered him with a firm enough
grip. The doubt was in his expression. “Wizard Kilpatrick. I heard you were
here.”

“The only place to go when you’re fed up with Iysh is
Estole.” She grinned at him as she said it. “Although if I’d had any notion of
how much work I was signing up for, I might have had second thoughts.”

Ashlynn laughed. “I warned you.”

“You did not,” Kirsty argued back good-naturedly. “All you
did was ask me how good I was at building things. Not the same at all!”

“That question, the minute you arrived, was your hint,”
Ashlynn retorted, still grinning. “Not my fault you’re slow on the uptake.”

Kirsty waggled an outraged finger at her. “With friends like
you, who needs enemies?”

Edvard cleared his throat. “Girls. Take it outside if you
want to continue. I actually did call you here for a serious reason.”

Riana sank into her usual seat on the two-seater couch, Ash
claiming the spot next to her. “Edvard, when ye call us in like this, it never
speaks of good things. What be wrong this time?”

“Food.” Edvard nearly growled the word. “It’s become the
bane of my existence. The solutions we thought up to fix the problem are going
to be too slow, I’m afraid. We simply have too much populace and not enough
harvested crops. We’ve run through most of the food storage trying to support
everyone, and now we can’t even buy more because of trade being cut off. At the
end of this week, I will have to increase the food rations.”

Riana had experienced lean winters before but she had never
once really gone hungry. Her hunting skills and her da’s were enough to ensure that.
But she’d known the lack of anything but meat and taproots in a stew pot and it
wasn’t something she cared to experience again. “The fields we have planted?”

“Can’t be harvested soon enough,” Troi explained. The man
must have been dead on his feet because for once he was actually sitting in his
king’s presence. In these impromptu meetings, Troi almost always chose to
stand. “What you suggested, Miss Riana, was excellent to get us through the
winter. But right now we’re not even sure we can make it through the fall. This
population growth was more intense than we planned on and even though it’s
tapered off severely in the past month, we still have more people than we do
planted land.”

Ashlynn lifted a hand to draw attention to herself even as
she asked, “What we can hunt from the settlement lands and fish from the
channel isn’t enough to make up the difference?”

“Have to be careful there,” Broden warned. “Hunt too much,
there no’ be enough to give birth to the next generation, and ye can hunt an
area dry. Same can be true of fishing, I expect.”

Troi inclined his head toward the archer. “Exactly so.”

Edvard splayed his hands. “I need options. Quick options so
that my people aren’t starving in front of my eyes.”

Gerrard shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “Plants
can be enhanced so they grow faster.”

The whole room snapped around to face him. Edvard leaned
forward, riveted to the man. “Can they now,” he breathed. “How fast?”

“Depends on the normal growing season for the plant. Some
mature quickly anyway.” Gerrard thought for a moment before he rattled off the
list. “Carrots and radishes have to be planted every few weeks to keep a
continuous harvest. Others, like snap beans, squashes, and tomatoes produce a
constant harvest if you’re quick to pick them.”