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.”
It was Troi that asked what everyone was wondering. “Excuse me, sir, but how do you know…?”
“Born and raised on a farm,” Gerrard explained with a reminiscent smile. “Went back every fall as an adult to help with the harvesting, too. My father always said it was worth every penny getting me trained as I could do the harvesting in a week. It saved him a pretty penny in labor. I know all of this by heart. King Edvard, one of the other things I learned how to do for my parents’ sak
e was how to create magical greenhouses. Now, they’ll take time to build, but we can have them for all of the other plants that don’t like cold, and we can turn out a ready crop every three or four weeks throughout the year.”
“Start that immediately,” Edvard ordered. “Troi, can you find me skilled carpenters and masons to help with this?”
“We have a few contract workers that are finished with other projects, but not many,” Troi warned.
“Divert all the ones you can, then. This takes priority.”
Kirsty cleared her throat. “Master Gerrard, what spells are you using to speed the growing process along?”
Gerrard spoke the spell names, which of course only made sense to the wizards in the room, but Riana saw them all blink in surprise as if these weren’t spells actually designed for crop enhancement.
“Really?” Kirsty’s head canted to the side as she considered this. “Huh. I think I see how it would work.”
“I never would have thought to use those spells,” Ashlynn admitted. “They’re made for other things entirely.”
“I taught you to think outside of the box,” Gerrard chided.
“I think outside the red box,” Ashlynn said, indignant. “This is a green box.”
Gerrard snorted, tried to stay stern for a full second, then chuckled. “Well, I grant you, I didn’t teach any of my students about plants. This is outside of your expertise. In retrospect, that was an oversight on my part. I’ll put it into the curriculum.”
“Master Gerrard,” Troi asked respectfully, “can you tell me how basic these spells are? Is this something that the majority of your students can do?”
“There are three spells,” Gerrard explained to a very attentive Troi and Edvard. “And yes, they are not at all advanced. I would say a little over half of my students can do these with ease. Why do you ask? You want to use them to create more greenhouses?”
“I’m clearing land as quickly as I can,” Kirsty inputted, “but it takes more than cleared land to make a greenhouse. Even with those spells.”
Troi shook his head, disagreeing, “That’s not what I had in mind. I would certainly like to see large greenhouses in the settlement, but my immediate concern is for the people here. These spells, can they be used for something small? Can they be self-sustaining?”
“No spell is that, but it can be easily tied into a source of power. Sunlight is a basic one. And yes, they can be as large or small as we tell them to be.” Gerrard cocked an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”
Troi spoke to the room in general as no one seemed to be catching onto his idea. “I thought perhaps it might be possible to do box gardens throughout the city. Most of the houses don’t have land to their name, but they should be able to do at least one box, perhaps two or three. With these greenhouse spells on them, the families can harvest a crop at least once a week, and it will augment their food supply.”
“Brilliant!” Edvard crowed. “And entirely feasible. Someone kiss him so I don’t have to.”
Troi actually flushed at his praise. “Please, sire, you flatter me too much.”
“I’ve been banging my head against the desk for weeks regarding this problem and you just thought of a solution. You and Master Gerrard. Actually, someone kiss both men so I don’t have to.”
“We’ll kiss them if we can pull this off,” Ashlynn said, which relieved Troi, as he looked ready to bolt the second one of the women stood up. “We’re still talking a lot of lumber to build the boxes with, and seeds and dirt.”
“We still have plenty of seeds,” Troi informed her. “We always buy more than what we need in case a crop fails. I believe there is extra lumber to be had because of Wizard Kilpatrick’s efforts in clearing land.”
Kirsty nodded confirmation. “We don’t need all of it for building with, you know. Some of it is too short for building purposes. But it’ll be long enough for box gardens, at least some of it will be.”
“This doesn’t have to be glamorous,” Edvard ordered firmly. “It has to be functional. Master Gerrard, I will gather up as many laborers as I can to augment your construction of the academy. I understand how important it is that you have it built before winter hits. But I need your students to start in on this project immediately.”
“I’ll show them how it’s done today and teach them the spells,” Gerrard promised. “My teachers will likely take about two days and supervise them to make sure that they put it in right. Once they’re confident they have the hang of things, then they’ll be turned loose on the city.”
“Not quite ‘loose,’” Ashlynn objected. “I do have some spotty areas that a young wizard-in-training should not be running around in alone. But I’ll work up a schedule so that my guardsmen can patrol in any areas they’re working. Coordinate with me on this so that I know where they’re going to be and we have help on hand if they need it.”
“I will.”
Edvard went to his desk, pulling out a report, and scanning through it. Then he grabbed a quill and scratched out something, muttering to himself, before pulling back and comparing it to the report. “Troi. Take a look. Is this enough to augment our food or do we need to think of something else?”
Troi left his chair to stand at Edvard’s side and study what his king had written out. “I believe…it should suffice, sire. We’ll still need to ration food until we can get the spring planting in and harvest, but it won’t be nearly as severe as what we once assumed. The individual greenhouses will help tremendously. I think we’ll manage.”
“I’ll make sure the academy has its own greenhouses,” Gerrard promised. “We’ll be self-sufficient, no need to worry about feeding us. During the winter, we’ll pour our energies into building more public greenhouses so that we don’t have to be completely dependent on the spring crops to feed people with.”
Edvard actually had tears shining in his eyes as he looked up. “Thank you,” he said huskily. He had to clear his throat to continue. “We are indeed blessed you came, Master Gerrard.”
Gerrard took the thanks in the spirit it was meant and bowed from his seat. “I’ll do what I can. Always.”
“Thank you,” Edvard repeated. “Can you manage to organize all of this before you leave? I know you were planning to go the day after tomorrow.”
“We might have to push our departure back a day,” Ashlynn ventured, looking around at her group as she said this. When she got rueful nods of agreement, she continued, “but it shouldn’t take more than a day. Then we can safely go.”
Turning to Kirsty, Gerrard requested, “Show me where this usable lumber is. And Troi, start digging out seedlings. By tomorrow, my students will know the spells and will be ready to work.”
“Not that fast, we need to tell everyone in Estole what the plan is,” Ashlynn objected.
Her master gave her a smile. “Then you best get busy.”
Ashlynn grumbled, glared, but was out of her seat in a thrice and heading for the door.
Riana choked on a laugh. Some relationships changed over time, but that of master and student apparently didn’t.
“Edvard,” Ash asked, “what do you want me and Riana to do? Greenhouses or continue with the food storage warehouses?”
“Bridge?” Edvard responded hopefully.
“You don’t even have plans for that yet,” Ash responded in exasperation.
“I do too! Three of them. You can pick which one to build.”
“And why do I have to pick?”
“Because you’re the one who is going to build it?” Edvard offered artlessly.
Ash shook his head and put his foot down. “Bridge later.”
“Oh, fine. I suppose we don’t really have the funds for it yet anyway. Your task is just as important and I think we have enough help where the greenhouses are concerned. Go on as you were. But if you find anything that will help with their project, or have any wood left over, please set it aside and notify them.”
Ash ducked his head in a nod. “In that case
, we’ll go back to work.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The morning that they left for Cloud’s Rest was much cooler than any day they had had in months. Broden knew that they were finally properly entering fall although the air was not cold enough to actually turn the leaves yet. It was just an escape from that almost unbearable heat.
There had been quite the debate, before leaving, on which route to take. As the crow flew, it would take them two days to reach Cloud’s Rest, although there were no roads or paths to guide them. They would be relying on Broden and Riana’s knowledge of the area and sense of direction to get them there. But if they went by road, it would take three days, and they could travel by horseback that much easier.
In the end, it had been a simple observation on Edvard’s part that had decided the matter. “Shouldn’t we explore the option of building a highway that connects Cloud’s Rest and Estole?” he had asked as if the topic was common sense. “If we really want to establish trade relations with them, then we’ll need a proper highway connecting us that doesn’t go through Iyshian territory.”
It was a valid point, so the party now had a double purpose in traveling there, to act as a forward scout to see how difficult it would be to build a highway there. Broden was not a builder, had no mindset for it, so he left it up to the wizards to think about as they walked steadily northwest.
The land dipped and rolled in gentle waves, the trees thick, underbrush heavy, none of which was unusual for a virgin forest. There was bird song and chittering of animals aplenty that sounded pleasant on a man’s ear. Broden had not been in a forest properly since coming to Estole, and he realized in a flash that he had missed the serenity of it. His heart felt soothed just walking through it.
Ashlynn lengthened her stride to walk beside him. She was quiet, introspective, and he caught a flash of some emotion along their bond, there and gone again before he could put a label to it.
Arrows of Promise (Kingmakers Book 2) Page 22