From Londoner To Lord

As the guards brought the horses to their group, Hudan repeated the question to them.

"Oh, these people are coal miners," the guard replied. "I've heard from a friend in the village that these days they often come here during their lunch hour to see the dam."

"Hmm... I didn't know that," Kivamus muttered.

"They've always been coming here for lunch, even in the past," Duvas reminded him. "I did tell you that they used to come to fish here, even though the previous baron didn't exactly allow it."

"Right, right... you had mentioned that, but everyone was huddling in the village during the winter or working nearby to clear the forests so I had forgotten about it."

"Of course. Nobody wanted to travel here in the middle of winter," the majordomo shrugged, "but now that we have started coal mining again, it only takes around a quarter of an hour to walk here from the coal mines. With the dam nearly complete now, that must also be adding to the charm of eating their lunch here."

"You're right," Kivamus nodded. Like he had been thinking earlier, this dam was easily the biggest structure in this region anyway which would make people come here to visit and see it. "Anyway, in the future we will have to keep some workers here permanently to manage the water wheel and whatever machinery we run from it. We might even need to put up some temporary housing here, in case the weather gets too hot or too cold, or if it is raining. I'm not yet sure what we can do about it, but we might even need to build a better road connecting the village to the coal mine and then further to this dam to make it easier for the wagons."

"That's a good idea," Duvas agreed, "since these parts often get very muddy during the rainy season after summer."

"Well, that's one more task to add to the never ending to-do list."

As their small group mounted their horses, Kivamus glanced at the coal miners who had begun to sit near the slope of the dam as one of them opened the large wooden container they had brought with them for lunch, before he began to serve others in their bowls. The labourers working on the other bank of the stream had also started walking to this bank to have their afternoon meal, with Yeden following behind them.

Seeing such a normal scene of people taking a lunch break while finding a place with a nice view to sit and eat - just like it was common on modern earth, even though it was a very different locale - brought a smile to his face. This scene was already a far cry from the desperate village he had arrived at before the winter. While there was still a long way to go for Tiranat, he was glad to see that the village was on the right track now.

"Come on, let's return now," he called out. With that, the small group of Duvas, Hudan and the three guards started riding back towards their small but growing village of Tiranat.

******

In the evening Kivamus was pacing inside the manor hall. Feroy had still not returned nor had the scout arrived with any news. Right now, Duvas was once again scribbling something on the tax ledger, while Hudan was out to give the daily evening training to the guards. Gorsazo had gone to the longhouse blocks to teach, while Madam Helga was busy preparing their dinner, with Syryne helping them. Lucem and Clarisa had also been out for a while, likely gathering sawdust to give to the wood press workers to get the first rank in their daily competition of all the village kids, before Gorsazo announced it there. However, constant worry about Feroy and the others was still gnawing at him.

Giving a sigh, he slumped on an armchair. "Did something really bad happen to the caravan? I knew I should have sent even more guards with them..."

Duvas gazed upwards from the ledger. "There is still time, my lord. They might simply be running late. I do have to say that I had cautioned you against sending Hyola with them. If we had sent a male guard instead of her, he would have been able to use a sword in case they didn't get enough time to use the crossbow, and would have been a lot more help if Feroy had to deal with a beast attack or something. Hyola would only be a liability if a fight turned into a melee, and I don't even want to think about what could happen to her in case they were ambushed by bandits and were defeated..."

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Kivamus glared at him. "You're back to that again? I'm telling you, that was our smartest decision! If we could have sent a few more guards with crossbows, I would have sent them willingly, even if they were women! Those crossbows are going to be our secret advantage in the coming months against all kinds of attacks. If we somehow afford to build enough of them, nobody will be able to touch us or our people! Of course," he muttered in a low voice, "if we had actual guns here... then it would be a whole 'nother story."

"What was that?" Duvas asked.

"Nothing..."

He kept waiting impatiently for some news while Duvas had returned to his ledger when the outer door opened. Hudan - his face looking quite troubled - walked inside along with another guard and pointed at the man. "He's the one we had sent to scout the western road and he just returned, so I brought him here immediately so he can give the report directly to you."

Duvas put his quill on the table to hear, while Kivamus immediately focused on the guard. "Tell me! What did you find? Are they all alive?"

The guard hesitated for a moment. "Uh... there is both good news and bad news, but yes, all the guards are alive."

"Thank the goddess for that!" Duvas prompted, "Tell us the good news first."

"Well... while returning back from Kirnos, Feroy saw a small group of people huddled around a small fire on the side of the road. They turned out to be refugees wanting to come live in Tiranat."

"That's indeed great news!" Kivamus grinned.

"They weren't free people though," the guard continued. "Apart from a few men, all of them were escaped slaves. Feroy said that they were barely being given to eat anything by their owners, so when they heard rumours that Tiranat would provide them food, work and shelter - whether they were a slave or not - they all decided to risk escaping from Kirnos, even knowing that if they were caught the punishment for them would be severe, including maiming them."

Kivamus grimaced thinking about the cruelty which slaves had to suffer under the hands of rich people and nobles. "I don't care if they are slaves or free people. Whoever wants to work is welcome in my village."

"That's what Feroy thought you'd say," the guard reported, "and that's why he decided to slow down the caravan so the refugees could walk together with them. They didn't have enough space on the wagon beds to let them sit there, since fully packed barrels of smoked fish were already kept there. That's the other good news."

Kivamus smiled. "At least we don't have to worry about our people starving in the coming week without us touching the seeds we have kept aside for sowing."

Duvas looked at Kivamus. "That's certainly good to hear but if the news gets out that we are sheltering runaway slaves from other barons - and it certainly will get out in due time - it won't be easy to explain it away. It might even lead to clashes between us and Kirnos."

"You already know that we'll have to deal with it one way or another. Kirnos has been collaborating with Torhan anyway, and they both must have shared the loot from the raid on Tiranat in autumn. That means they haven't needed any reason to attack us in the past, so giving shelter to their slaves is only going to benefit us by providing us more workers." He shrugged, "Nobody can say what will happen in the future, but they already see us as a weak target since they raided us so easily and without any punishment from us. That's why I've already been anticipating another raid by Torhan's bandits after the winter, maybe even supported by Kirnos. "

"That's what the bad news concerns about," the guard added hesitantly. "Before the caravan met the slaves, it was ambushed by a group of bandits, including Nokozal."

"That bastard is still alive?" Hudan growled. "We really shouldn't have left him alive last time... That bastard even managed to round up more lowlifes to attack us!"

The guard nodded. "Nokozal is still alive, but they weren't his men. It was the deputy commander of Torhan who was leading the bandits."

"Wait, what? It was Torhan again?" Kivamus clenched his fists. "What wrong have we done to him that he keeps attacking my village and my people! I'm not going to leave that bastard alive if I get my hands on him!"

"Let's hear him out first," Hudan interrupted before looking at the guard. "Carry on. You said everyone was alive? Does that mean they killed all the bandits?"

The guard nodded. "All but Nokozal. The giant ran off after the battle, but the rest of the bandits were wiped out."

"That's still an excellent result," Kivamus said while glancing at Duvas. "I told you that sending Hyola was a good idea. What are the injuries on our side?"

"Most of them are okay and escaped with minor scratches and such, but two men have moderate injuries including a man who was stabbed in his leg." The guard continued with a wince, "Apart from them, one man also had his sword arm cut off completely when he was fighting with Nokozal."

"I'll kill that damned bastard!" Hudan growled, before he asked in a softer voice, "How was that injured man looking when you last saw him?"