“Yes Captain.” and they moved out.
“Lieutenant Roman.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Take second squad and clear the dungeon and free your father, then return here.”
“Yes Captain.” Roman said.
“Second squad,” the sergeant said, “On the Lieutenant.” They headed toward the dungeon.
I used my Mage Sight and saw there was no one in their path. I unsealed the dungeon door.
Fourth squad had cleared the upper floors and returned. “Go to the main floor, join with third and wait.” They moved out carefully and quietly.
Lieutenant Roman returned with his father. King William stopped when he saw me. “Pressing your advantage?”
“No, this was Lieutenant Romans idea, he came to me, and offered an alliance against our common enemy, I agreed. Here we are.” The King looked at his son.
“And now?” He asked looking back at me.
“That would be up to you. We have cleared your castle, freed you. What are you going to do next?”
“My wife?”
“Safe with her cousin, Queen Regina. We granted them Sanctuary.”
“Their army?”
“Outside the walls. They don’t know we are here. But once we start clearing the walls, they’ll know. Where is your army?”
“Sent home. It was that, or see the city burned to the ground by the occupation force.”
“Can I have them?” I asked
He frowned, “Who?”
“The occupation forces. Or do you want 5000 prisoners?”
He laughed, “sure you can have them, but you have to bury them."
I nodded smiling, “wait here, I’ll be back.”
I teleported to the commander’s tent. I broke his neck and cast the spell that let his body slip into the earth leaving everything else behind. I put on his guise.
“Guard.” I called. One came is saluting. “Pass the word, I want all Company Captains to report to me now and start breaking the camp for movement.”
“Yes Commander,” he saluted and left. Once the Captains reported, “we are moving toward Port City. Break the camp for movement, recall the men from the walls.” I unsealed the personnel gate. “Once that is done. We will send corporals and below forward with the supplies and wagons. The rest of us will wait here. We will go into the city for one last party.” I said and laughed. They all joined me laughing. They left to carry out their orders.
I called up a light fog. As they worked, I thickened the fog over the next hour. When the main force was ready, I cast a spell for them not to stop until they reached Port City. When they had moved out, I made the fog thicker. I cast an illusion of wine barrels and had them gather round. There were roughly 500 officers and sergeants left. I cast an illusion of their commander standing before them then sank into the earth.
I cast the beguiling spell, “There are traitors in the camp, kill them quietly then find the others. Kill them all.” The fighting started slowly at first but picked up quickly. It was a bloody mess, 500 men hacking each other to death.
These men I could not use, they had been indoctrinated in the Dunwich way of war. The ones I sent north I thought I could save. If not, I’d get rid of them. When the fighting was over, I finished the last few. I sank the bodies into the earth and put all the spoils in a crystal. I sent the horses to join other horses, heading north.
I went underground and up into the castle. I found the King had been bandage and was eating. I came out of the wall in a hallway out of sight. I joined him at the table. “You may recall your army now. The Dunwich army has been taken care of.
He stared at me." Already?"
“There were only 5000.”
He chuckled, shaking his head, “ok.”
“We will be leaving now.”
He nodded, “my son gave his word, the alliance stands.” We clasped wrist.
“He will make a good King, he has a quick mind, and courage.”
“Yes, he does,” King William said smiling.
“Captain Motts, form up the men we leave a soon as you are ready.” He nodded and began giving orders. “Lieutenant Roman.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“You will return with us to escort your mother, the Queen, home.”
“Yes, Captain.”
I looked around and saw that the Royal colors were black and gold. I touched Roman’s cloak, and it turned Black, with gold trim. He stood taller.
“We’re ready Captain,” Captain Motts said.
I nodded and opened a portal to our great room. “Lieutenant Roman, lead us through.”
“Yes, Captain.”
He turned and marched, leading the men through the Portal.
WHEN THE DUNWICH TROOPS arrived, I had a camp ready for them with food waiting. I was in the guise of their commander and had them eat, then set up tents. That night I beguiled pockets of men.
“The king has sold us to Port City. He said he would send ships for the horses because they were worth more than the troops were. He sent ships for the officers and sergeants, but not us. King Aaron takes care of his troops, we’ll be taken care of. We’ll become Port City troops. We’ll be fed and paid like the regular troops.”
Like all rumors, this one took off like a wildfire. By morning it was all over camp. After breakfast I went up on the wall overlooking their camp and amplified my voice. “Men, by now I’m sure you have heard that you have been abandoned by the Dunwich King. I am sorry to say but they were more worried about getting the horses back than you men. I told him he deserved neither, so I’ve kept you both.”
“Here is my offer. You stay with me and become part of my army, you will be fed, clothed and paid, just like my standing army. We will treat you no different from any other troops. You won’t have to beg and hope someone will remember to take you home after you’re done your duty, you are already here. I will not ask you to invade other lands, only defend this one.”
“Any who do not wish to stay and have the money to buy passage on a ship are free to do so. If you stay, you work. Because if you don’t work, you don’t eat.” I let that sink in. “If you would stay with us, and I hope you will, take a knee.” I knew none of them had money for passage. They all took a knee.
I turned them over to our army for integration. I raised another fort on the west wall for the additional troops. We paid the new men one month’s pay in advance, so they had money, and felt like they were a part of us. Soldiers were soldiers and fell in on their new lives like any other day. Sergeants still yelled at them, just different ones. As long as they were fed, and paid, we’d have little trouble.
I flattened the land around port city and pushed the forest back a mile in every direction. The Crown then opened the new lands for farming on shares, there was no shortage of takers. Now that we had the Dunwich troops taken care of I added gates in the wall on the north and south sides, including gate forts.
Caravans were once again starting to move on the King’s trade road. We had started to patrol it again to ensure caravan safety, and freedom of travel. Dov-ees was investing in caravans and our business was doing well.
“You were right,” Dov-ees said. “Your father moved against Midwick and has temporarily made your brother, the Crown Prince, the governor.
“That sounds like dear old dad. I doubt Cane will be there long. They will appoint a permanent governor and make it part of their kingdom.”
He nodded, “That is the rumor, yes.”
“How is the training of our Navy going?”
“Very good, they now have a second ship manned, and working together.”
“They say you have taken in the invasion troops from Dunwich after they were abandoned.”
“Well, if that’s what they say it must be true,” I said smiling. “Besides, I didn’t want to kill them if I didn’t have to. They got a home, I got 4500 trained or kinda trained, troops. It was a win-win. On another subject, get our next two ships ready to go to work.”
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He nodded, “I’ll get right on it.”
WE STILL CAUGHT EACH other up on the day’s events over dinner. “We need to put people to work,” Reggie said.
“What do you have in mind?”
“I don’t know, normally I’d say a building project, but you’ve taken care of that, putting us ahead by at least 20 years.”
“Streets and roads. We can have them lay paving stones on all the streets in the city. I’ll do the main street to give them an example, they do all the other streets.”
“I like that idea; I hate muddy streets.”
I laughed, ”You rarely leave the castle."
“Well when I do, I don’t like mud,” she said smiling.
“We’ll start right away.” I laughed.
“I would also like the King’s trade road paved throughout our lands.”
“That is a lot of paving and would take them years to complete.”
“True, but if we needed it finished faster, you could complete some of it.”
I nodded. “I could. I’ll get some contracts started. What about using prison labor for out on the roads? Make them work for their food and shelter like everyone else. No free rides, especially in prison. I’ll make some bracelets that will keep them from being a problem.”
“I bet that cuts down on crime too.”
“I imagine it will.”
We awarded the contract for paving stones to be delivered to the city. And one to stack piles of large paving stones close the dirt road into the city from the King’s trade road. I made compliance bracelets that made the prisoners work hard and cause no trouble. It became the new policy that all prisoners wore the new bracelets upon sentencing. Not unexpectedly, crime went down.
City streets and the trade road were being paved, people were employed, and taxes were coming in. Unfortunately, money was still going out faster than it was coming in. I added some of my gold to the treasury but that was a short-term fix. We needed a long-term fix.
Our farms were producing, but that took time. We awarded some timber leases so we could harvest some of that, but again that took time. Then I remembered reading somewhere that there was gold and silver in all dirt. It was just more concentrated in some places. It also said silver was 75 percent more common than gold. What I needed to do was figure out a way to harvest that gold and silver.
After trying a few things what worked best for my gold and silver traps was a wood plank where I had inscribed runes on calling for raw gold to gather around a coin. I made a silver coin for silver. I took them down into the earth 100 feet and activated them. I left them there to see if my idea worked.
I went back the next day to check on them. It had worked. There was one pound of gold around the gold coin and almost three pounds of silver around the silver coin. I made ten more traps, both silver and gold and placed them a mile apart well away from the city. I started checking them once a week and was getting good results.
I built an additional vault under my bedroom and started putting my harvest there. I started making gold and silver coins of the correct weight. The gold coins had Reggie’s father’s face on it, and the silver coins had her mother’s face on it. I started giving some to Dov-ees to use in the money changing business. That put them into circulation quietly.
I made sure the treasury was always well financed. The rest I spread around in my various vaults. To maintain proper records of accounts, I had to give the silver, and gold to the clerks. I told them it was to go into the general fund to pay Kingdom debt.
I RECEIVED WORD THAT two of my ships had just returns to port and had been in a battle. I teleported to the pier where they had tried up.
“Anyone need healing?”
“Yes Captain, they are below.” I went straight to them. There were only a few seriously wounded, which I healed. Then moved to the others. They had lost several men before they could reach port. They had been attacked by Dunwich ships and were able to fight their way clear, but it had been a close thing. They had made it home with our cargo but the price in men had been high. I paid the families of the dead men 1000 golds for their service to me. A small fortune in this place and time.
I needed to come up with better offensive and defensive weapons for our ships. I already knew I could put shields on the ships and the crew if I wanted, I was thinking more about offensive weapons. At the very least I needed something like exploding bolts for the ballistas. I just needed to figure out the best way to do it.
Chapter 19
It had taken me several try’s, but I finally got it right. The bolt would launch and strike the target that would break the barrier between the positive spell and the negative spell which caused a catastrophic reaction. An explosion. Depending on the size of the warhead on the bolt, and the spells determined the size of the explosion.
I sized the big ballistas to take bolts from a 105mm to a 155mm sized artillery shell. The medium ballistas were my .50 cal. The 50 cal was like a grenade going off. The standard crossbows were just arrows or bolts. For improved targeting I put a crystal for the man to sight through. When it turned red, he was on target and could fire, and never miss. The range was now about 1000 yards.
As soon as I had perfected the weapons, I update all the ballistas in service starting with the harbor forts. I then updated all the ships in port and would do the others as they rotated through. I also added runes to the ships to keep the hulls clean and watertight. I added ballistas to the city’s gates. But locked them so they could only fire outside the walls. One can never be too careful.
“A HARVEST BALL?”
“Yes, a Harvest Ball. It’s a celebration of our harvest.”
I gave her ‘the look’, “I know what it is, I’m just not sure I want to go.”
“It’s not for you it’s for the people, nobles, and commoners alike. A travelling fair comes every year, and we have a Ball for the Nobles here in the castle.”
“I think I’d rather go to the fair with the commoners.”
“We shall do both. You won’t have to do anything; I’ll plan it all. You’ll have to dance with me though.”
“That I can do. Speaking of nobles, do they all live here in the city?”
“Yes.” she looked at me strangely.
“None live on estates outside the city, or do they own any estates outside the city?”
“No, there are no estates outside the city. All lands belong to the Crown. All the nobles are merchants, and business owners.”
“I have a proposal. We give lands to the third sons of nobles, to start estates out in the countryside. They would maintain the lands hire farmers to farm the land, who they would tax. We would in turn tax them. They would also have to maintain several fighting men to secure the area and keep the peace. They would get to build their fortunes, we put more land into production, and gain tax revenue or rental.”
“They would not pay for the land?”
“That is an option, but mostly it's a reward for supporting, and fighting for us, the Crown. We may even give some estates to fighting men, for their service.”
“How would we decide who gets this land?”
“Who are our most loyal supporters, who have third sons? If they don’t have a third son, but want an estate, we’ll sell them one.”
“How far away from the city would these be?”
“I don’t know, let’s say 20 miles, and the estate would be 1000 acres. At least 200 of which would be cleared farmland. As an added incentive I’d raise a small, armed, walled hold. Like a walled in estate house. I’d also raise five farmsteads for their tenant farmers. They would not have to build anything right away. We can also put manned forts out on the borders for security, say 100 troops. They would also patrol our borders.”
“I like the idea; it would make our lands more productive and take pressure off the city resources. Let’s look at some maps and decide where we would put the estates.”
We planned estates to be 20 miles from the city and 20 miles betwee
n estates. The first ones would be the first 20-mile ring out from the city. The first ring had five estates in it. The crown would buy supplies and equipment for the first year to get the estate up and running. After that we expected them to be self-sustaining, and taxable.
I let Reggie decide who would get the estates and all the rules, and regulation involved. She took to it like the proverbial duck to water.
The first fort I raised was to the North on the king’s trade road. I put it five miles inside our border. I walled it, with six, .50 cal ballistas, a well, and stables for 100 horses. I had the men and supplies leave for there before I built it. Once they were six hours away, I raised the fort, and they moved right in when they arrived. We did the same on the West trade road. I left the southern route alone for now, but we still patrolled as they did.
When we put together a standard walled estate house, it was to support 30 people. Ten family members, ten staff, and ten troops. Farmers lived in their own houses on the farms. Once the first five were given away it become a status symbol. All the wealthy wanted one, and they paid through the nose to get one.
Not all could afford the price of the 1000-acre estates, so we sold a few 500-acre estates. Two bought 2000-acre estates. I guess keeping up with the Joneses applied here too. When we were done, we had three rings of estates around the city.
Our Navy was coming along nicely, we now had four manned and trained Navy ships. They were now out patrolling our shipping lanes. They travelled in pairs for now. We had two more ships and crews in training. I didn’t think this calm would last.
THE FALL FESTIVAL FAIR lasted 3 days, with the Ball on the last night. The fair was a big event for these people whose everyday life was spent just trying to survive. Reggie and I put in an appearance. We tried the foods, some games. But mostly we were just there to be among the people. The people seemed to enjoy seeing us there, being just regular people.
Mage Throne Prophecy Page 18