From Londoner To Lord

Joric explained, "Some of the bandits were still doubtful of attacking you when they saw that there were double the number of guards they had expected - rather than only two guards along with a merchant and a woman - as told to them by an informer in Kirnos, but Nokozal forced them to attack. I'm just glad you killed those bastards!"

"How many men did the bandits have?" Feroy asked. "We counted seven bodies."

"Then you must have killed all of Torhan's men, including his deputy who looked after his compound at the clay mine, but I saw Nokozal running away so that giant must still be alive..."

"If I find that anything is a lie in your story," Feroy warned again, "then it is not going to end well for you."

"I have no reason to lie!" Joric protested. "Not for these bastards!"

"It better be so, or we can just hand you over to the guards in Kirnos next time. With how much influence Torhan seems to have there, I am sure he will be happy to find a lost slave."

"No! I can't go to that compound again..." Joric whimpered. "They'll kill me immediately when they find out only I remain alive from that ambush group. I can't even enter Kirnos to find my family, because like you said, Torhan has informers there and will find out immediately. My slave contract is for decades so the baron's guards won't stop him either! If the bandits do take me to the clay mine again, they will take my head for one reason or another!"

Feroy kept staring at the man before he nodded. "I believe you. For now. We will take you to Tiranat with us and Lord Kivamus will decide what to do with you."

Joric bowed his head low enough that it touched the floor of the wagon bed. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Feroy grinned. "We still have a long journey ahead of us. In the meantime, why don't you tell us everything you know about Torhan and his clay mines. If your information is good enough, I might just be able to ask Lord Kivamus to give you a permanent place in Tiranat. Maybe your family can join you too."

Hyola glanced back from the corner of her eyes, and saw the tears flowing freely on Joric's face. Even without all the information he was going to give which would be helpful to Lord Kivamus, this man didn't seem like a criminal to her. Perhaps it was a good decision to take him on after all.

She turned to the front once again, looking for a suitable place for a camp tonight, before it turned into night completely. With the delay because of the ambush, they wouldn't be able to reach Tiranat by tomorrow evening as was the earlier plan, but thankfully they did have barrels full of smoked fish that spending another half a day on the road wouldn't be too much of a problem. The journey might even be tasty!

Still, she couldn't wait to reach Tiranat. Even though it had only been a few months since she had started living there, it was her home now. Of course, there was an added benefit that after she told Calubo about all the dangers she faced on the journey, he just might find the courage to pop the question in the future. She giggled just thinking about it. There was no time to waste since a person's life could be cut short at any moment these days, especially for guards like her and Calubo. It was a dangerous world after all!

******

~ Kivamus ~

He was sitting inside the manor hall in the morning after breakfast, while waiting for Hudan to arrive. Duvas was working nearby to maintain the tax ledger, while Gorsazo was teaching Syryne at the moment in another free room.

Earlier in the day, he had been working on more blueprints for things they could build in the spring to generate more revenue. With the snow having started to melt since yesterday, it meant the temperature had already risen above freezing point, and spring wouldn't be far away now. From what others had told him, he expected it to take around a week for all the snow to melt here and perhaps a few days longer for it to happen on the northern road going to Cinran. That road would finally become traversable once again after that. That meant merchants should hopefully start arriving in Tiranat within two weeks, and the tax collector wouldn't be far behind them.

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However, Feroy still hadn't arrived from Kirnos. While unexpected delays were always possible, he still should have been back by yesterday. Kivamus looked at the majordomo who was sitting in an armchair nearby while scribbling something on his ledger. "Any news of Feroy and the caravan?"

Duvas looked up from the ledger. "Sorry, what?"

"I asked if you heard anything about Feroy," Kivamus repeated. "He is still not back, you know. I can't think of any good reasons for him to be delayed this much."

"You are not wrong," the majordomo agreed with a sigh, "but we can't do anything about it. We simply don't have enough guards right now to send them on the western road to take a look. I just pray the Goddess keeps them safe."

"Let's hope so..." Kivamus muttered when the outer door of the manor hall opened. However, instead of Hudan, it was the carpenter Darora.

"Milord, I just completed the twelfth seed drill," the young carpenter reported with a grin. "I've already brought it here so your servants could put it in a storage barn."

"Well done, Darora. It won't be long before we need to use them. Well, you know what to do next."

The carpenter nodded. "Of course! I'll get started on the fourth crossbow immediately. In the time I spent making the seed drills, Cedoron and my apprentices have already built up a small stockpile of the parts I need to assemble the crossbow. I believe I should be able to make a new one every three or four days until I run out of parts."

"Oh, that's excellent! Go on then."

Darora gave a bow and exited the hall, while the guard captain entered inside not long after.

"We are ready to leave," Hudan reported.

Kivamus stood up and looked at Duvas. "You sure you don't want to come and see the dam?"

The majordomo shook his head, before he hesitated, and then eventually put down the ledger he had been working on and closed it. "Actually, I think I will come with you this time. My mind is going numb after working with numbers for so long, and I still haven't gone to visit the dam site yet."

"That's great. Let's go then. We will take another horse for you."

Duvas nodded and wrapped his fur coat around him. Kivamus was also wearing one of them, although he could have gone without it, but he just didn't want to risk getting sick in this world if he could help it. The path going between the eastern hills could get very windy, and it was still just above freezing. On the other hand, the huge muscles of the guard captain were easily showing where the leather armour wasn't covering him, since he had decided to forgo wearing a fur coat for the last few days.

Soon, they exited the manor, and walked through the muddy courtyard towards the stables, where Hudan told the groom to bring out one of the last two horses there, with the rest of them already being used by Taniok to build the second watch tower in the south-west, as well as by Pinoto to clear more forested land in the south. Two pairs of horses had also gone east to pull the wagons bringing coal every evening from the mines where most of the labourers of Tiranat were already working.

While the groom was bringing the horse, Kivamus looked at Hudan. "Can we really not afford to send even a single guard to the west? I'm worried about Feroy."

"It would be difficult, milord. Three hunting groups are already out at the moment, and eight guards have gone with the caravan to Kirnos. I'm also taking three guards other than me to accompany you to the dam site." Hudan gave a loud exhale while gazing towards the west. "I'm just as worried about him as you are, but it's really not a good idea to send even more guards out of the village at the moment."

Kivamus sighed. "You're right. We have to trust Feroy. I just wish we could recruit more guards soon. Once spring arrives and we start sending caravans to Cinran regularly, we will also need to send guards along with them. I don't think the danger on that road is as high as it was before winter, but we'll still need to send three or four guards with a caravan, just to make sure wild beasts or bears don't mess with them."

"I don't think we need to send guards with every merchant that comes here," Duvas remarked. "They don't hire such protection anyway when they are travelling north of Cinran, since those roads are always well-patrolled by the Duke's knights, so there is no danger of bandit attacks there. Even when coming here, they all know that the road connecting Cinran to Tiranat is dangerous, whether because of bandits or wild beasts, so they always make sure to bring enough protection for themselves, usually by hiring mercenaries from Cinran for the trip to our village and back. After that they can simply let go of those mercenaries, and travel further north with only a couple of men."

"That makes sense," Kivamus commented when he remembered something. "Then why didn't Pydaso bring enough guards with him? Even if we include that assassin Levalo, he had brought just two trained men to protect his three wagons."