The Invisible Hand

by Chris Northern

  The Invisible Hand

  The Invisible Hand

  Midpoint

  The Invisible Hand

  Chris Northern

  Published by Chris Northern at Smashwords

  Copyright © 2011 by Chris Northern

  Proofreading and Editing by Tracy Eklund : tracydawnlab@hotmail.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced without permission from the author.

  ISBN 978-1-4661-9579-0

  For my Brothers, who may inadvertently read this.

  Orlek, who had ruled Darklake before me, had the biggest bed I had ever slept in. I guess he must have liked company. Or maybe he had just been ridiculously big.

  I stretched out and found that I was on my own, in much the way that he clearly never had been. With a curse as thoughts of Jocasta began to drift into my mind, I climbed out of the pointless damn thing. When my feet touched the ground I cursed again, threw myself back across the bed and climbed out the other side where there was a rug between my feet and the cold stone of the floor. I had to remember to have someone do something about that. It was a perfectly crappy way to start the day. The hangover didn't help; it wasn't much of a hangover as these things are measured but I was still recovering from concussion, which exaggerated every throb and wave of nausea.

  Maybe the beer hadn't been such a great idea, but I'd had to do something while I had listened as Meran detailed his actions since he had taken control of Darklake.

  Dawn light was in an indecent rush to enter the room. I'd left the shutters open deliberately so that I would wake early. I'd gotten used to rising at dawn, and the cold of the night didn't bother me a bit.

  I padded across the room to lean out the window and take a look at my new domain. Mine by right of conquest; a few hundred round-houses in a walled enclosure.

  It was a mess.

  There were thousands of people crammed into the town; homeless, but not yet hungry, refugees from Learneth and the Settlement of the Grave added to the few hundred widows and orphans of Darklake. It hadn't been just the dawn that had wakened me; it was the noise of other people waking to the day, a lot of other people crammed into a small area. Darklake now held something like six thousand people. Something had to be done about them. More specifically, something had to be done about them by me.

  There were several problems. To begin with, Darklake was far too small to accommodate everyone. Meran had been remarkably restrained in the taking of Darklake and had left most of the settlement intact, which was all to the good. The granaries were not full but held enough to keep the population alive for a month. Long enough for me to come up with a solution that would lead to long-term food security, which was an absolute first priority. People needed to eat; they also needed shelter. There was plenty of space within the walls but the locals had not made best use of it; their dwellings were scattered more or less randomly, and there were as many animal pens as houses. There would have to be new buildings and if I paid to have them built it was only fair that I take a nominal rent for their use; the beginnings of an income.

  Meran had already instigated a census; easy enough to arrange as hardly anyone had access to food apart from what was stored and controlled by us, so once a day there would be a queue at the granary for the food dole, which Meran had also instigated. If people wanted free food they would have to show a token that they were eligible for it; to get that they had to provide information for the census, so getting the information had proved to be simple enough. Analysing it and using the information to my advantage would take a little longer. The food dole could stand for now, but I wanted to get people out of the habit of looking to me for the basics. I needed to get money into the economy. Fortunately, I had plenty to spend, also mine by right of conquest. The treasuries of Darklake, Learneth, the Settlement of the Grave and the Keep of Duprane had mounted up to a pretty fair sum.

  This was just as well, as I had lost everything else. Dannat probably had possession of my sword and armor; doubtless he also had my gold torc and the scrip and coin which had been my entire fortune. Certainly Dannat had disappeared and so had my possessions. He may have died in the inferno I'd made of Learneth but there was no evidence for that. It made more sense to assume he was out there somewhere, in hiding, with my gear. Still, I had his sisters and his wife and children; along with several other women and children of the Alendi, Orduli and Prashuli, and of the clans of the Urnalin mountains. I had yet to decide what to do with any of them. For now I would keep them as bargaining chips should that prove necessary. A decision on that could wait. In the meantime, I would have to feed, house and protect them while I fixed it so that everyone else could feed and house themselves.

  Voices and sounds of movement from the outer chamber alerted me to the fact that it was time to start the day. I turned away from the window and pulled on some clothes. I seriously wanted to use one of my few handy cantrips to clean my teeth but Balaran had warned me off practicing any magic until I was fully recovered. Double vision and dizziness plagued me and would for some weeks to come, apparently. My left wrist ached bone deep and my ankle hurt just enough to make me limp. The burns that I had picked up at the Eyrie were still healing and my inner thighs were raw and tender. All in all, I was a mess. What I really wanted to do was eat, sleep and generally slob around and rest for a couple of weeks but it wasn't going to happen. There were a hundred things to do; a household to be organised, staff to be hired, duties assigned, an economy to be created. It was daunting, but I was sure I was up to the job. First things first: food security and then people who would make a profit out of it to ensure it continued; second, shelter. I would have to pay for materials and builders; that would get some people working, put some money into the economy. It wouldn't be enough, but it was a start.

  I could hear voices in the outer chamber of the suite and headed that way, knowing who I would find there. I lifted the door catch and left the room with a last, longing look at the bed. I think Jocasta would have liked it, but there was no point dwelling on that.

  The second room of Orlek's apartment showed his tastes as clearly as the bed. The walls were adorned with only two kinds of decoration: weapons and the hides and heads of dead animals. A boar, a deer with a good spread of antlers, a mountain lion, a few others, each with eyes of black glass; you can't stuff an eyeball successfully. There were couches and low tables set so that servants could move between them, with a clear area in the centre for entertainments. I eyed the hide of a mountain lion, thinking it would do for a rug. The rest would have to go when I got around to it. I'd make it an office where a man could do business. Meran had already made a start in that direction, placing a table and chairs in the middle of the room. He stood and turned as I came in; the two centurions were already standing. They saluted and presented themselves, giving name and title as Meran stepped aside from the chair, ceding the position of authority to me.

  "Breakfast is on its way," he said.

  "Good," I lied. I poured a small amount of wine into a cup and watered it well before taking a mouthful to get the slime of sleep out of my mouth and turning my attention to the senior centurion. I didn't sit down. I don't like being loomed over. "You were about to report, Parast?"

  He looked unhappy. "Yes, Commander. Among the men, morale is high and discipline is tight; there are no formal punishments required. Among the population, things are not so good. The men are acting as vigils, a century active at all times. It is a small area but densely populated with a great deal of uncertainty and confusion. Despite segregation, friction is high and there were several clashes between the three population groups during the night, all of which were contained. There was one fire that we dealt with that may or may not have been arson. Al
so, one missing person reported and the death toll for the night stands at five, with two more prisoners awaiting trial."

  "More prisoners?"

  "Making fifteen in total, Commander, aside from the original male population of Darklake, who number sixty-three."

  I turned and raised an eyebrow at Meran. "Fifteen criminals awaiting justice?"

  "I have no experience of the process, Patron, and thought to await your advice."

  To leave the problem to me, in other words. Thanks. "It adds to a problem that already exists. That has to stop." Justice has to be swift and sure, especially in a situation like this, where everything is in a state of confusion. The question was what, at this time, constituted justice? The people of Darklake were a conquered enemy and should have been taken south as slaves, which would have neatly dealt with the problem. I knew that Meran hadn't felt he had the manpower to spare an escort for them, and had agreed it retrospectively. Now, however, the women and children had mingled with those of Learneth and who knew who was who? Sorting them out would be a pretty much impossible task. I was left with a situation where I could either be arbitrary and still fail to clear the decks or deliberately leave potential enemies free to act against us. I held no illusions that they saw us as liberators. That would be too much to hope for and even if it were true of some it would not be true of all. If I left the women and children free, they would watch their surviving men marched from the town in chains and would not be human if they didn't hate me for it. It was a problem and I didn't know how to deal with it. I didn't have enough information, I decided. I knew nothing about Darklake or its people. Nor did I know what their situation had been before Meran had taken the town, apart from the fact that Orlek had been allied or strongly influenced by the Necromancers. I needed to know more and the only way to get that information was by talking to people.

  "Fetch me one of the prisoners, the one the others look to. And invite representatives of each faction to join me If you don't know who the people look to for answers, then figure it out. I want to see them today." What else? "When the census is complete, start some men to picking out the skill groups available. Get them to scan for builders first, though, then quarrymen and stone workers. Find out if there is a quarry nearby. I plan to initiate a building program as soon as possible. Five coin a day for labour, up to ten for a specialist. Use your own judgement. If you have an engineer in the maniple, put him in charge; otherwise whoever you choose. Also, get someone who can make a passable map and get the area surveyed, paying particular attention to any land that can be cleared. It's early enough to get some crops in the ground. All clear?" They agreed that it was. "That will do for now."

  They saluted, first me and then Meran, and left the room with a sense of purpose that was palpable. I turned to Meran; it was on my lips to say 'what the hell have you been doing?' but I bit it back. He'd had a campaign to fight, albeit a minor one, and he had done well enough there, all told. Darklake, Duprane, a strong Alendi force. Which reminded me. "What happened to the surviving Alendi?"

  "They fled. I let them go."

  Would they be a problem for later? "How many?"

  "Over two hundred, possibly as many as three. They fled south."

  I nodded. Unsurprised that they would head back the way they had come. I'd include the information in a report to Orlyn, who had, as far as I knew, two legions camped by the Eyrie.

  "How far along is the census?" I wanted that information. It all comes down to information in the end. If you have it, you can make decisions. Without it, any decision you make is likely to be wrong.

  "Should be complete. I ordered two copies made and we should have it today, I would have thought."

  "Seed grain, tools," I was thinking out loud. "I want an inventory done, every damn thing here down to the last nail. How much material was scavenged from Learneth?" The place had burned to the ground, more or less, but there had been warehouses outside the town walls that might have survived.

  "More than can be easily moved. I hired Lendrin Treleth into shifting it up here, as he has the mules and manpower for it."

  I had forgotten about Lendrin and his trading post. "I'll talk to him later. I have no problem sourcing anything we need from him, for now. My biggest problem is getting money into the economy, getting it started." I wondered what else Lendrin had been doing over the last few days. In one way he was my competition, as he would be looking to extract wealth from the area for himself, but would probably also need to put something in to get things started, and so in one way was my ally. In any case, I would tax him; he was a noble and making money here, which made him liable to contribute to the administration, which was me for now.

  Meran shrugged. "Why not just give everyone some money?"

  I blinked three times before I figured out how to respond. It took so long because his comment displayed such a depth of ignorance on the subject that I kept discarding possible responses as being beyond his understanding. "It doesn't work that way. If you give someone money, they will spend it and then look to you for some more. It's human nature. We are what we are. You never give anyone money. Ever. It must be a transaction. It doesn't matter what kind of transaction, what they give in return, but they must give something. Don't even think about smiling." I knew what he was thinking. I'd been living off the largess of my family for most of my life. Which rather proved my point.

  "I wasn't." But the effort was costing him.

  "The problem is that no one here has any money or any goods worth talking about. Nothing to buy and nothing to buy it with. The trick is to get people working for me first, and I'll pay them as I have all the bloody money, which isn't the way it's supposed to be. Houses, everyone needs one, so the more we get built the better. Land clearance, ploughing - we will need oxen, remind me later. I'll pay them to get crops in the ground and they can rent the land from me after an amnesty. Same with the houses, actually. What else? There are a lot of people here; they all need to be working. I need that census to know what skills are available so I can fund workshops. That'll function somewhat differently, loans that can be repaid with interest on top of rent."

  Meran had taken a seat and was taking notes. "How long will you keep the food dole going?”

  "The sooner they start paying for food the better. As soon as there's some money circulating, I'll start selling grain at a minimal cost but I won't replace stocks so someone else will have to. It will work itself out. Find out who is working the land here. I noticed the hills behind us are terraced so with any luck someone is tending it as we speak. Anything being neglected will be rented to anyone who wants it. I'll have to fix a rental rate per Iugerum of land and I have no idea what that should be so we will offer to the best bidders, no man to offer on more than twenty Iugera."

  "They probably haven't got any money," Meran reminded me.

  "It doesn't matter. They can owe me. Am I forgetting anything?"

  "Livestock. We recovered sheep, goats and cattle from around Learneth. There are plenty of pens but there isn't enough fodder here to sustain the cattle for long."

  "Same deal. I need to get out of here and take a look at things." I'd started pacing and was beginning to feel hemmed in. Decisions and action go hand in hand.

  "Breakfast," he reminded me.

  Actually, I was ready for something. "Who is cooking? You hired staff? We are going to have to, a scribe, cooks, and so on."

  "We're eating what the men eat."

  On cue, there was a knock on the door and a soldier came in carrying food. The noise level in the hall beyond had increased steadily as we had talked. It was an intrusion I would continue to ignore for now but it made apparent what I already knew; there were too many people here, crammed into too small a place. I took a seat and forced down some porridge; there were a few bits of pork in it for flavour.

  "Where are Sapphire and Dubaku?"

  "Sapphire has the suite next to this but I haven't seen him this morning. Dubaku left with Jocasta. I thought you knew.
"

  I hadn't. But perhaps it was just as well. We hadn't spoken since the burning of Learneth. I shied away from thinking about it. It was the past; no sense dwelling on it. "I owed him some money."

  "He told me. I paid him."

  I nodded and poured myself another cup of wine. "Good enough." So much for my promise to help him find his people. Doubtless he thought Jocasta a better bet for actually getting the job done. And he was probably right; she would be in the city soon enough, in the centre of things, and our influence spreads for a thousand miles in any direction. She would find them for him. And what would he do for her in return? I'd had an idea involving illusory spell-forms and spirits to research new spells. That is what she had in mind, I'd bet my last coin on it. But it was my idea. To do something about it I needed another shaman and an illusionist. I could send to the city and hire the latter, but where the heck was I going to get another shaman from? A possible answer tugged at my awareness but I was interrupted by raised voices before I could explore it.

  I turned to glare at the door. "Who the hell is that?"

  "Sounds like Orlek's widow, Anista. Want to see her?"

  He sounded too cheerful. "Is she always that loud?"

  Meran cocked his ear, the better to listen. He didn't need to make the effort. I could hear every word of her demands to speak with me, but not the more moderate response of the sentry on the door.

  "If she marries again there will be at least one man who mourns her husband’s passing," Meran said.

  I had a mouthful of wine, and managed to keep control so that I swallow it instead of spraying it across the room as Meran had clearly intended. "The guard isn't going to let her in, is he?"

  "Not unless you change my standing orders, no."

  "She can't be that bad," I told him as I opened the door and found out that I was wrong. Still, you don't solve problems by ignoring them.