She learned something new every day. “And silver?”
“Silver’s the same. But copper’s easy. It likes to form in the ground, and it’s usually found with lead and zinc. Well, it forms with gold and silver too, but not in very large amounts.”
While all of this was fascinating, she had to wonder, “How do ye know this?”
“Hmm?” He paused and glanced back at her, drawing a wand from his belt as he answered, “My master is a strange man in some ways. Very old fashioned. He never let us buy the materials we needed to make our wands or tools. We always had to go mine the metals we needed and refine them ourselves. He said that if, in a pinch, we were stuck without our tools or needed to make something, we needed to know how to do it from the ground up.” Ruefully, he added, “I cursed him at the time, but you know, all of that knowledge has saved my hide more times than I care to recall. Now, for instance.”
Now, indeed. “Ye probably never thought that what ye learned under him would save a country someday.”
“No, the thought never crossed my mind. Actually, if I had known what I’d be doing ten years down the road, I would have paid a lot better attention. The benefits of hindsight.”
She let the matter rest there as he worked his magic, searching about him for any hints of ore. He didn’t seem happy with the results, as he didn’t find anything worth mentioning, and they trudged along, heading deeper into the woods. Riana was automatically alert to her surroundings as this was uncharted territory and she had no idea what dangers might be lurking in here. She also had no faith in Ash’s ability to navigate their way back. The man seemed to be a little lost without roads. City-boy that he was, it wasn’t much of a surprise.
It was turning out to be a blessing that Ash and Ashlynn had figured out how to boost the caller system. They’d had to craft much larger versions, connecting them in a way so they all powered each other, but they now had roughly three times the range they did before. The instantaneous communication made an already challenging job that much more manageable.
Ash stopped again and cast his spell, but this time he looked faintly hopeful. “I’m getting a ping over in this direction.”
Riana followed his pointing finger and noted, “That be towards the coast.”
“Is it?” he asked, genuinely surprised by this.
Thank Macha she had been paying attention earlier. He really had no idea where he had been going. She fell into step with him as he cast the same spell again in a continuous loop, and watched him work from the corner of her eye. She would never, ever, let him go out into the woods alone. She’d never find him again.
In between renewing the spell, he observed, “I’m going to be tied up with mining some of this, at least to start with, until we can get miners established over here. It’s going to delay getting the marketplace in.”
That…was not good. “Belike we will need to set guards around the mines as well so people can work. At least until we be sure the bandits will no’ be returning.”
Ash nodded, indicating his necklace caller. “Ashlynn is aware of that and already working on the problem.”
That was good. Riana looked around at the forest, but didn’t see it, as her mind turned over the problems they had at hand. Not that they had much other choice in the matter, they really had to have money to run the country on, but… “Ash, be there a spell to make two of ye?”
He snorted. “I wish. It would be handier if we could duplicate me and Ashlynn. Actually, I’ve been thinking about that recently. At the rate we’re going, just two magicians can’t handle the workload. We really need to scout out other magicians, see if we can’t lure them in to working for us.”
It was not a bad notion. “Have ye a thought on how to go about it?”
“I do, but I’m not sure how viable the idea is. Ah.” He stopped dead and pointed to a rolling hill that looked craggy around the base. “I’ve found our copper. And possibly zinc. Let’s mark this area.”
As he put up magical lights around the base of the hill, she asked, “Can ye be telling how much there be?”
“A good deposit is here. It might be enough to do a whole new currency with. It’s a little hard to tell, as the deposit goes deep.” Ash gave her a cheerful smile. “Well, those two were easy. Let’s go searching for the hard ones.”
Chapter Eight
Broden sat at the table on Ashlynn’s right and tried to be as still as possible. As foolish as it was, people often overlooked something that was still and quiet. He harbored the hope that if he sat like a statue, no one would think to draw him into this debate.
All of the provosts sat around the oblong table, Edvard at the head, as usual. Ashlynn had brought in one of her larger Callers, this one linked to the other magician in Tierone’s service so that the other brother could weigh in with his opinion as well. Ash was connected in so that he could report. All told, they had fourteen people in this meeting, three of them without being in the same room.
And was not that a thought to boggle a man’s mind with.
“We have two important topics to discuss today.” Edvard was back to his usual self, seemingly in control and much calmer than before his four-hour nap. He still looked a mite tired to Broden’s eyes, but then four hours of sleep could not solve everything. “Food shortage for this winter and currency. I think we should discuss currency first as that is the most pressing problem.”
“Agreed,” Tierone’s voice came through loud and strong. “I understand from Ashlynn that she has been doing some footwork in that quarter.”
“Ash and I both have, actually,” she corrected. “Provosts, I have lined up five artists who are ready to design our new currency once we tell them the denominations. I also have twenty-three workers who have experience working with metals, four blacksmiths, and promises from every money exchanger in the city that they will distribute the new coins as soon as they have them in hand.”
Broden was gratified to see that every person at the table looked impressed by the sheer amount of groundwork she had already laid for them. As well they should be. Lass nearly ran off his legs getting all of that done in four hours.
“Now, as for the metal itself.” Ash sounded a bit smug. Gloating, even. “I’ve found deposits of copper and zinc over here that are near the surface and will be easily mined. I’ve also found aluminum and tin. We’re so near the coast that I think there’s gold and silver to be had as well, I just haven’t found it yet.”
The man had only been looking four hours. It was a miracle he had found as much as he had!
Zorich, a rather stout and short man, leaned over the table, making the wood creak a little under his weight. His dark eyes were seemingly glued to the caller. “So we actually do have the means to make our own coins.”
“Exactly so,” Edvard agreed as if he had known this all along. Actually, the man had only been awake fifteen minutes, and this was the first he had heard of it. “Now, provosts. I think we should settle on how many types of coins we need to make and what their worth shall be.”
“Let’s not confuse people,” Ross suggested. He was stroking at his tawny beard in thought, lanky build stretched out comfortably in the chair. It almost looked as if he were taking this discussion casually except that his brows were furrowed in concentration. “Let’s keep the coins the same. We’ll just have our own version of it.”
“Won’t that be more confusing in the long run?” Captain Bragdon protested. “How will people tell the difference between Iyshian coinage and ours?”
“He does have a point,” Troi agreed. “The confusion we’ll have with a new system will be short lived, just long enough for everyone to get used to it. Perhaps two, three weeks.”
“That’s for the people that are already here,” Haney pointed out stoically. As a large man, his words were more ponderous and weighty, as if his presence alone made them so. “But we get an influx of people weekly. What about them?”
“They’ll catch on quickly enough.” Troi splay
ed his hand in a dismissive gesture. He clearly didn’t worry much about this. “Even the influx of people will die down eventually. It’s not like this steady stream is going to keep up forever. Eventually, the people that want to leave Iysh will have, and the people that can’t leave for whatever reason will remain where they are, and our population growth will plateau.”
Broden certainly hoped so. Because the ‘influx,’ as they put it, was no jesting matter.
“But if we stick with the Iyshian system, I anticipate one of two things will happen.” Edvard frowned, speaking slowly as if he were working through the idea out loud. “One, because our coins have their own value and aren’t dependent on the treasury to support it, it’ll be easy for Iysh to claim them as a ‘new’ version of the coinage and steal them. We won’t have any legal course of action to stand on and they’ll profit from it greatly.”
Ashlynn hissed out a breath. “That’s exactly the sort of underhanded thing they’d do, too.”
Well, now. That nap had done the man wonders after all, if he could think that far ahead.
“The other thing is,” Edvard continued, “I don’t think the people will accept anything that bears such a strong resemblance to Iysh. We’ve been using their money simply because there was no other choice. But now? Now we do have the means to come up with something different. If we offer them more of the same, would they take it?”
Towan cleared his throat, expression disagreeing. “This is money we’re speaking of, sire. They’d take it.”
“Would they?” Ranun countered thoughtfully. He had seen a great deal of sun recently as his dark skin was peeling pink around the nose and cheeks. He’d also lost several pounds, if Broden was not mistaken. He had not seen the man face to face in a good month but Ranun had seemed more…stout around the stomach area before. Now he looked almost trim. “I’m not so sure. When the Iyshian money started disappearing, they just wrote up their own vouchers, came up with payment in kind, and kept moving forward. I’m not sure if they would just blindly accept anything that we made.”
“We need a new system.” Edvard’s tone was firm, uncompromising.
“I agree,” Tierone put in. “Actually, I had a feeling that things might come to this. It’s not just you that Iysh has cut off, after all. We’re not in quite the same predicament, but it’s going to happen in the next few months, I think. When I realized that, I did some research. Edvard, are you aware that the old government you copied your new monarchy from had a money system that bears no resemblance to Iysh?”
Edvard blinked, then blinked again. “Truly?”
“Not in the least whit. I was just as surprised, but pleasantly so. Their money was quite simple and straightforward. There were only seven denominations.”
Broden internally cheered. Seven types of coin was very simple in something as complex as a country, but really, it would be pushing their resources to do any more than that.
“Just seven?” Edvard repeated doubtfully. “Is that enough?”
“To start with? Heavens, man, do you want to work people to death? If it’s not enough later to support your population, you can always add more in.”
Edvard seemed sold on this idea but Ashlynn had more caution than that. “How was it divided up?”
“Bit, denning, kroner, mark, gulden, reales, trillina.”
A what now? Broden was gratified that he was not the only one at the table that had trouble following that rattling of foreign sounding names. At the risk of drawing attention to himself, he requested, “Run us through that again, slower, and with a proper knowing of what be what.”
“Ah, Broden, you are in the meeting after all. I was beginning to wonder as I hadn’t heard your voice.”
It be a shame, it was, that a man could not glare through Ashlynn’s caller.
“Certainly, I’ll go through them again. Bit. It’s rather like half a copper. Denning is a full copper. Kroner is roughly ten coppers. Mark is half a deneres. A full deneres is a gulden. Ten deneres is a reales. A hundred of them is a trillina.”
Broden thought that through. Really, it was not a bad system. It was missing a few coins in the middle, but a man could get by with that, and make change well enough if he needed to. He personally did not see the need for a coin large enough as that tril-whatchamacallit, as a man very rarely spent that sort of money, but maybe he was the only one that thought that way?
“They didn’t have anything larger than a trillina?” Edvard asked, eyebrows kissing his hairline in mild surprise.
Apparently he really was the only one at the table.
“Things didn’t cost as much back then,” Tierone drawled. “Well, what do you think?”
Troi was already nodding in approval, practically radiating it. “It’s good. It’s workable, it’s divided up enough to be usable no matter what rank you are, and it’s foreign enough that no one can get mixed up with another country’s currency. Sire, I think we should adopt it.”
“We already adopted the government, I don’t see why we can’t do the money as well,” Amber observed. “Do we have any objections to this?”
Not a single person raised a hand or a voice.
Edvard was the only one that seemed to hold any reservations. “I still think we’ll need a few more in there, but for now, this will do. Ash, which metals did you find again?”
“Copper, zinc, aluminum, and tin,” the wizard patiently repeated.
“That’s not enough choices to make seven types of money from,” Edvard grumbled.
Ranun cleared his throat. “Speaking as a former mine owner…copper and tin make bronze.”
Broden blinked at him. Did they really?
“So we actually have five?” Edvard cocked his head in question. “How difficult of a process is this?”
“Not. It’s quite common practice, actually. Bronze is only slightly more valuable than straight copper, it’s that cheaply done.”
“Oh-ho. Then let’s assume one of the coins will be bronze. Ash?”
“Yes?”
“How certain are you that you can find silver and gold along the coast?”
“Dead certain. Copper, zinc, aluminum, silver, and gold all like to appear in the same areas. Especially with this much sea water at hand, it’s bound to be over near the coastline somewhere. I just haven’t stumbled across it yet.”
“Then we’ll assume that bird is in hand.” Edvard pulled a fresh sheet of paper from the center of the table toward him and started making quick notes to himself in a sloppy hand. “My proposal is this: aluminum for a bit, zinc for a denning, copper for a kroner, bronze for a mark, tin for a gulden, silver for a reales, and gold for a trillina. Any objections?”
“What if we need to make more coins later?” Ross asked with a half-raised hand.
“We will cross that bridge when we come to it. Any other objections?” Edvard’s stare practically dared someone to speak up. Fortunately, no one seemed to find anything wrong with this plan. “Good. Ashlynn, speak with your artists and tell them what we’re planning. I want sketches of the new money in two days. Ash? Get people mining the ore that you have already found and get it to me as soon as you can. Let’s see, where to best set up a factory—”
“My district,” Captain Bragdon said firmly. “You’ll need water to do all of this work with, and I don’t have a lot of people yet in my areas. I have more space to build in.”
“Good point. It’s yours, then. Build something or repurpose something to suit. Tierone, I assume you want to assign some of your people to develop coins as well?”
“You assume correctly.”
“Then send a courier over here to pick up the new designs of the money. We’ll figure out how much ore you need later. Ashlynn, do we have a guard rotation figured out to protect the settlement during the day?”
“We do, roughly. We’ll be a little shorthanded here in Estole for this week, but the week after, our newest guardsmen finish their training. At that point I’ll have enough to redo our ro
tation schedule and cover everything.”
Zorich lifted a finger to call attention to himself. “May I ask, what do we know about the bandits at this time? I haven’t heard anything about them since that last attack.”
“We haven’t seen any since then,” Ashlynn answered. “Things are extremely quiet in that area. We’re not sure if they’ve given up or if they’re just retreating until they have a better plan. Right now, we’re guarding the settlement as best we can just in case they do come back.”
The provost did not seem quite happy with that answer, but no one was. Then again, there was little they could do about it except wait them out. Or go after them. They did not have the resources to go hunting down bandits now, more the pity. Broden was all for it but they really had enough on their plates as it was.
Edvard ticked points off on his fingers, nodding when he realized he had covered everything. “Good. Now, let’s talk about food.”
Chapter Nine
Riana sat at Ash’s side, listening to the meeting. So far, she hadn’t a comment to make that someone else didn’t voice, and she was content to just listen as things played out. The money issue had been settled far faster than she’d expected it to be. But then, there were people who had seen the warning signs and were already planning ahead.
Pity of it was, no amount of forethought or research could solve a shortage of food.
“Someone run me through the numbers exactly. How short are we going to be?” Edvard requested.
It was Troi, Master of Spies and Fount of All Knowledge, that answered. “I’ve made a prediction based on the number of people we’re getting every week. It takes, roughly, an acre to feed one person for a year. Right now we have a population of twelve thousand, one hundred, and twenty-two.”
“That number exactly?” Tierone asked in surprise.
“That was the count I had three days ago, when I checked our logs. It’s probably gone up by then. If I may continue? Supporting that number is not quite four thousand acres of developed farmland.”
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