From Londoner To Lord

Torhan just stared at him for a moment, like he was peering into his very soul, before speaking in a gentle, yet commanding voice. "You'll be leaving tomorrow with Nokozal and some of my men to the road going east from Kirnos."

"Uh... what?" Joric was thoroughly surprised. "But why?"

Torhan kept quiet while still staring at him, so his deputy gave the answer after taking a glance at his chief. "Our scouts had seen a caravan leaving Kirnos a few weeks ago, likely with a good amount of food. It's rare for a caravan to come to Kirnos, so this is a great chance for us, in case they come again. So we'll be setting an ambush on the road going east from there, and if it goes well, we'll be able to grab enough food to last us a couple of months, while also getting some new slaves for free."

Joric's mind was running rapidly. Did these bandits really want him to fight against some caravan guards? He thought he would just be digging clay here! If he really had to fight against trained guards, he would most likely die in his first fight, which meant he would never be able to see his family again! He looked directly at the chief with pleading eyes. "But why me...?" he protested. "I can't fight at all! I've never even held a sword in my hands!"

"You aren't going there to fight," the deputy replied. "We need to know in advance how valuable that caravan is before deciding to attack. You were a merchant, so you will help us to find out more about it before we decide whether we should ambush them or let them go. We aren't going to risk our men for a meager loot."

"But..." Joric hesitated. He knew it wouldn't be a good idea to say no to the chief, not that he even had any choice in the matter as a slave, but how was he supposed to find that out in the first place?

The giant man, who was called Nokozal, gave a huff and crossed his huge arms. "I still say we don't need him! Just give me some of your men, and I'll bring you all the loot of that caravan!"

"Just like you looted the caravan going south to Tiranat a few months ago?" the deputy retorted. "The runt who came with you told us all about your great feats, getting nearly all your men killed and your slaves stolen. We don't operate like you here, going to ambush or attack without a good plan."

"That little bastard..." Nokozal muttered. "I'll wring his neck..." The giant man glared at the deputy. "That was different! Those men were useless and couldn't fight for shit! This time I know I..."

Torhan looked at the giant man and spoke in his usual gentle voice. "Shut up, Nokozal."

Joric had thought that the huge man would protest, but immediately, the huge bandit shut his mouth, and gave a quick nod. Joric was thoroughly surprised by that... So even that giant was scared of the soft-speaking Torhan. That made the decision easy for him, knowing he'd better agree soon or he'd be risking his life anyway even without participating in the ambush. Looking at the chief, he gave a short bow, "I'll do whatever you order, but I still don't know how I'll be able to tell what the caravan is carrying while looking from a distance."

The deputy snorted. "Who said you'll be looking from a distance?"

*****

~ Kivamus ~

He was standing near the north gate of the village, along with Duvas, Hudan and another few guards, looking at the watchtower under construction. The four main wooden pillars had already been put in place, and right now Taniok was working along with some apprentices to attach the last crossbeam to the pillars. Another apprentice was busy cutting planks nearby, and there was already a small stack of them ready to use in the watchtower.

It was approaching noon right now, but he still had to stand near the burning brazier kept here for the workers. While snow hadn't fallen for more than a week by now, the temperature still remained below freezing, and the gathered snow on the ground was just as ever-present as always. However, one relief was that sunlight had become more frequent these days, with the cloudy skies opening up more often than not. There was barely any warmth in it, and yet the sight of the sun always lifted his spirits.

Days like this were when he missed his life in London the most. What he wouldn't give to have access to some freshly brewed coffee right now! Or like he did sometimes after coming from his office, to open up a football match on the TV and to just relax. Alas, none of those things were possible here at the moment.

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Coming back to the present, he looked at the workers while thinking about the other projects active in the village. The paper making project was going well, and by now they had started to gather a small stack of those primitive paper sheets in the manor hall, allowing him to keep working on more blueprint and ideas, while still giving one of the paper sheets made every day to the classes being run by Gorsazo in the longhouse blocks - so the people there - especially the children and kids - would get used to it. If they could sell it to a merchant in time, it might help to get them some valuable gold to pay the taxes, even though the amount they would gain from it was going to be very small in comparison to what they needed.

He looked at the majordomo. "It has been a few days since the mushroom barn was completed. What is the progress of the replanting?"

"Oh, it was already completed yesterday," Duvas replied. "Madam Helga told me that unlike the shed where we had preserved the Rizako mushrooms until now, this barn is a lot bigger, and has a lot of surface area on the inside where we can grow mushrooms, including the upper floor, so it will take a long time before we can grow enough mushroom to even fill this barn. Only then, we would be able to use it as food." He continued, "She told me that it takes around three to four weeks for them to be ready to harvest - or to replant - after planting a new batch. That means it will take a few months until we can fill the whole barn with it."

Kivamus exhaled. "I had expected something like that. Since we want it to become a regular source of food for the village, it would be better not to harvest anything from the barn until it is reaching close to its capacity, or we would be delaying the time when we can harvest it regularly." He sighed. "It was a good idea to send Feroy to buy more smoked fish to help us feed the villagers in the next few weeks. Of course, these mushrooms will still help us in such a pinch in the next few months, but we will have to make sure not to use them unless there is no other way."

He asked, "That reminds me, is the losuvil powder still working well?"

Hudan gave the answer. "It is. I just used some of it in the morning to give to a guard who wasn't paying attention in the mock fights today, so he kept getting hit many times. I had to take him out of the training today, and told him to rest after giving him the medicine for the cuts he had gotten."

"Oh, that's unusual," Kivamus commented. "Usually the guards pay close attention to you in the training. Who was it?"

"It was Calubo," the guard captain replied. "You remember that we sent Hyola to Kirnos yesterday morning?"

"Of course I remember," Kivamus snorted. "I was the one who pushed for her to accompany the caravan."

"Well, Calubo had taken a liking to that redhead during the time he was living at the limestone quarry after being captured by Nokozal. So it seems like he was worrying too much about her and just couldn't focus well in the training fights because of that."

"Hmm..." Kivamus muttered. "It's good to see that he cares, but we can't have any guards distracted right now, especially with the spring approaching soon. A distracted guard is a dead guard in case we are attacked. Give him a warning that he has to focus on his duties and not to worry too much about her. Feroy and the other guards with the caravan are more than capable enough of defending themselves and each other."

Hudan nodded. "I already gave him a scolding for it, but I'll make sure he understands."

Kivamus looked at the majordomo. "Did you shift more labourers to the coal mines today?"

Duvas nodded. "Of course. As we are getting close to the total area of the forest we need to clear, I am transferring some workers to the coal mines every day. By today there are above fifty men working in the coal mines. That being said, since the forest clearing is coming to completion, by now there are way too many log piles scattered around the village. But I guess it's a good thing since we will have no shortage of any construction material for a long time."

"While it's good in general," Hudan warned, "if it is too close to the walls it can give a hiding place to any bandits, and it would make it difficult for us to target them even from the watchtowers."

Kivamus nodded slowly. "That's true enough. Now that most of the forest clearing is done, both of the log-movers are free for most of the day, especially with us sending more and more workers to other places now. So why don't we bring those log piles inside the walls? Until now the workers were piling them criss-crossed to air them close to where they were felled, but we can take a dozen or two workers and tell them to use both the log-movers and a couple of sledges to bring all the logs inside the walls."

He added, "Leaving the logs out there also gives a good opportunity for a bandit to set them on fire, thus destroying our future construction material and also distracting the guards in case of an attack." He shrugged, "Anyway, nearly all the construction we start in the future will also happen inside the village walls, which means we won't have to waste time dragging the logs inside at that time, and it's much easier to do it when the ground is snowed over, like right now."