Chapter 18: Trees

David and Kelli went to check out the mines and logging operations with Levi and Chris.

Chris was delighted to show them around. He hoped Levi found that he had looked after her Duchy as if it was his own. He hadn’t done a lot with the mansion other than to keep it maintained. He told Levi that now that it was her home she could do what she liked with the place. She might have to watch their spending for a while if they were going to need the money for expansion.

He had the staff assemble so they could meet the people that worked for him. David stopped at one man and placed his hand on his head. The man whimpered and then fainted.

“What the hell?” Chris said in surprise.

David looked down at the man. “Who was he again?” he asked.

“He’s the mine supervisor. Tom is one of my most trusted men,” Chris said tightly.

“Was,” David said. “Once he comes to, he might be again. I wonder how long he has been spelled.”

Chris frowned. Come to think of it, why was Tom at the house? He hadn’t seen a lot of Tom in the last couple of months. He kept saying he had problems and things hadn’t been going so well at the mine. He had been sending one of his foremen to talk to him and keep him appraised.

One of the main shafts had flooded, and they were having trouble draining it. It had put them behind. He’d been in Greco to explain to his buyers why the shipments were late. They hadn’t been happy, but he had secured an extension at a cost, to get his iron delivered.

Chris had told David that he needed to buy a bigger pump to drain the mine, but David had said they might be able to help without them going to that expense. Chris turned to Carl, the supervisor of his logging operation. “Why, was Tom at the house and you too for that matter?”

Carl became very agitated and then stood ramrod straight when Kelli touched him. Kelli said, “The truth and only the truth. I will know if you lie.”

Carl stammered and then his eyes went wide when Kelli pulled her wand. She tapped him on his head and then left it pointed at him, “I will force you if I must. You are free of the binding spell. Now the truth. Why are you and Tom, at the house?”

Carl blinked several times and then said, “We were to kill Chris and kidnap Lady Levi. Domo Ethan wanted her.”

“How did he expect you do that with two wizards with her?” David asked.

“We were told that the wizards were going back home. We didn’t know you would be with them,” Carl said. He was petrified.

Kelli touched his temple and closed her eyes. “I believe there are three other men here and one woman who we have to find. They too have been coerced,” she said tightly. She looked at the group, “They are not here. Chris, who is missing?”

Chris looked at his frightened staff. He noted one of the maids glancing at the barn. David also picked up the look and blinked. They heard a scream from the barn and a thud as something hit one of the walls.

Kelli grinned at Levi when they heard David cuss and call someone a stupid woman. They watched him march a woman and a small man out of the barn. He had bound their upper bodies and arms with a spell. “Two more are missing,” Kelli said.

Chris and Kelli were both surprised when Levi spun on her left leg. She pushed Chris in the chest with her right hand and then her left hand shot forward. Her wrist flicked twice, and within a split second of each movement, they heard two cries of pain.

Chris stumbled and would have fallen, but David immobilised him. Levi grabbed his shirtfront and David released him. Chris found himself wrapping his arms around Levi as he gained his balance. She wrapped hers around his waist, and Chris found he was perfectly happy having her in his arms.

Kelli chuckled. “Here, you can keep this as a souvenir,” she said and handed Chris a short throwing knife. Chris looked at it perplexed. “Missed you by a whisker. That was some fancy footwork, Levi. I hope you didn’t kill them,” Kelli said.

Kelli walked away from them towards the downed men. Chris released Levi enough so she could walk with him, under his arm. They walked over to the two men and found that Levi had been very accurate with her shots. That is if she wasn’t planning on killing them.

One of the men was missing the top of his thumb above the knuckle, and the other had the throwing disc embedded in his hand between his thumb and fingers. Chris looked in shock at the wounds. He looked at Levi and realised she wasn’t a woman to mess with.

He spent most of his time in his male form, as it was his preferred gender. Sometimes he forgot that he was a shifter. He just realised that Levi had reminded him that she too was capable of looking after herself, even if he hadn’t seen her in her male form.

Levi had mentioned that she knew how to hunt and that she missed her bow. Going by her throwing skills, she was probably just as deadly with a bow. She had a few hidden depths he was yet to learn about, Chris surmised.

Only a fool would assume by her femininity that she was defenceless. To forget what she was and where she had grown up was to any enemy’s detriment. She wasn’t the soft city born woman her current appearance suggested.

Chris hugged her to his side. “Remind me not to make you cranky,” he said.

Levi grinned at him, “That’s when my sisters ran and hid.”

“Smart sisters,” Kelli said with a chuckle. She pulled the disc from the man’s hand to a squirt of blood and then tapped his hand with her small wand. She touched the other man’s hand, and his stump healed over. “Sorry, I’m not Kale, but I wouldn’t want him to give either of you cretins, his special treatment anyway. You’ll live.”

She tapped them both on the head and removed the spells. She then touched each on the temple. “I’d not keep either of these two. In fact, I think we will send them to Leslie. They are bad apples even without the spells. I believe they have some interesting stories to tell her.”

David had the two men stand, he bound the four would-be assassins with a spell and then he and Kelli disappeared with them. Chris and Levi went back to the staff. Chris collared his two supervisors, “I think we need to have a chat.”

The two men nodded. Tom asked, “Will they be back?”

Levi smiled at him, and he shivered. He suddenly realised it didn’t matter. He had a feeling trying to pull the wool over his new bosses eyes would not be smart, especially if she had those discs on her. She was behaving as if taking down bad guys was an everyday occurrence. She didn’t look the least bit frazzled by the attempt on her life. She had even saved Chris without hesitation.

Tom caught her eyes, and he shivered again. No, she would do it again without blinking an eye or shedding a tear. He bowed, “My Lady, I’m at your service.”

“Yes, you are and don’t you forget it. Now tell me, what is the truth of the mine flood?”

“There is nothing wrong with the pit, mistress. We have in fact hit a new seam that is very high yielding,” he immediately volunteered.

“So why isn’t it in the smelter?” she asked him.

He glanced at her and answered, “We have been shipping it to Garson at Domo Ethan’s orders.”

Levi’s lips tightened. “Have you kept records of how much you have shipped?” He nodded. Levi turned to Chris, “I think you need to collect those records and take them to David.”

Chris asked Tom where they were and blinked him to get them. He loved blinking. David had upgraded his bling to a mage’s level, and he could now do a lot of things he hadn’t been able to do a week before.

Levi watched the staff flinch when he blinked. She smiled. Things were going to change around here. She could see that knowing Chris could appear anywhere at any time didn’t please a few of them. She wondered how many of them slacked off because he was too busy to keep an eye on them. She had a feeling they weren’t going to be impressed with her either.

She turned to Carl. “Now your turn, what is going on with our logging operation?”

“Um well, we have had a few setbacks,” he stammered. He then made the mistake of meeting Levi’s eyes. He shivered with intimidation.

“Man-made or natural?” she asked with a firm voice that chilled him.

He replied churlishly, “The men are not working; they say they aren’t being paid properly, and the living conditions are bad.”

Levi nodded. She turned to the person that Chris said was the housekeeper. She looked the woman up and down, “Mimi, I wish Lord Chris’ room cleaned and his bedding replaced. I want the master’s chamber suitably prepared for myself, and the best guest room for my friends.”

“In three hours, I expect a four-course meal served in a dining room suitable for entertaining royalty in since that is what my guests and I are. It would also be nice if the bathing chambers were cleaned and prepared with hot water upon our return. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”

Mimi bowed, “Yes, mistress.”

“I will get to know all of you in time. If you wish to stay in my employment, you will do your jobs. I will be reviewing the tasks allocated, your time off and pay by the end of the week. Please go about your duties,” she said and dismissed the staff.

She turned back to Carl. She placed her hand on him and said, “Please think of where the men are.”

Carl thought of the camp and blinked his eyes. He blinked again and found he was standing there. One of his men looked up and yelled out, “Ho, ho! Did you bring us some sport, boss? Damn, she is scrumptious. Do we toss to see who goes first?”

The big man hauled his bulk to his feet and sauntered over to them. He put out his hand to grab one of Levi’s tits. ‘Thud’. The noise was particularly audible, as was the groan that followed when she twisted his arm a little more.

Several of the men were still blinking trying to figure out how Bull got to be lying on his belly on the ground. He had his arm twisted behind his back at a nasty angle. His hand was bent in the little woman’s hand, and her knees were on his back.

Levi smiled down at the big man, “If I wanted you to touch me, I’d have asked. I am Princess Levi, and I will not be manhandled by anyone who feels like doing so. Do you understand?” she asked as she twisted his hand again.

Bull whimpered, “Yes Princess, I’m sorry Princess.”

She let go of his hand and wiped hers on her skirt as if in disgust as she stood. She was having fun. She stepped over to the men sitting around a little fire and gracefully dropped onto a log, so she was amongst them. “Is that tea still hot?” she asked sweetly.

One of the men hurriedly fetched a cup, “I have fresh honey, Princess,” he offered.

“Thank you, and you are?” she asked.

“Thumb, Princess, they call me Thumb,” he said as he filled the cup and place a small piece of honeycomb into it.

“Do we have bees here?” she asked in surprise.

“Yes, Princess. They have been doing well. I’ve been building little houses for them. They like my homes,” he said excitedly.

“What is your assigned job, Thumb?” she asked and sipped the tea. She indicated that the tea was lovely.

“I’m the Cook, mistress,” he replied.

“Well, you do make a lovely cuppa tea. However, I think your talents are being wasted. I believe that you and I will have to have a long chat about your new job as Bee Master,” she said.

Thumb plonked down on the log behind him. He loved his bees and to be employed to just look after them would be a dream come true for him.

Levi looked at the others, “Now I understand we have a wages and conditions issue. I also have some issues with your logging practices. Why don’t I see any new trees being planted?” she asked the group. Her mothers had taught her the best defence is an offence.

The men all looked at each other. Bull had come and sat back with them, and many of them looked at him for assistance. “We cut trees mistress, we don’t plant them,” he said crankily.

“If you cut them down and don’t plant replacements, you boys are destroying the environment, and that is not acceptable. If we don’t plant new trees, we run out of trees. No trees, no jobs; that is just not smart.”

“Plus in the future, we don’t just want the logs. You have piles of trash that take a long time to break down on this planet. Fortunately, we will be introducing new processes. I need a list of the orders we currently have to fill.” Carl dropped his eyes. “Carl?” she said.

“The stop work lost us the last contract we had,” he said glaring at the men.

“Excellent,” Levi said. She had to grin at the shocked looks on the men’s faces. “Since there is no work, you are all fired.”

“You can’t do that!” yelled Bull stomping to his feet.

“Why not? We have no orders. No orders, no work, no job,” she said and clapped her hands as if applauding a job well done. “Your stop work has ensured that you don’t have jobs. I’ll have Carl work out your severance pays.”

The men all looked at each other in shock. She was correct. She was well within her rights to sack them if she didn’t have work for them. “Now we have that little problem out of the way, I do have some jobs I’m looking for workers for.”

“You?” said Bull.

“Yes, didn’t I tell you that this was my Duchy? Sorry, I’m the new boss lady, Princess Levi.”

“What about Chris?” Bull asked.

“He has agreed to stay and work for me as my manager,” she told them.

One of the other men butted in, “Princess, I’m called Ned, what are the new jobs?” He had kids to feed, and he needed a job.

“Well, Ned, we have a new machine coming. This device is called a Chipper. We need to load all the waste, branches and all into the chipper. It will chop it up into very tiny pieces about the size of a Ques.” (18mm round gold coin worth ten dollars)

“I’m Bob, Princess. Why do we want to make little pieces of wood?” one of the other men asked.

“Well, there are actually lots of uses for small pieces of wood, Bob. They are great for compost and making gardens look nice and even for putting down on muddy paths. But that is not the main reason we want them. We are going into paper production.”

The men all looked at each other, and several scratched their heads. “But we’re loggers, mistress,” Bob said.

“I will still need a couple of loggers. But the culling of trees will be very selective. Right now, I mostly need people to cut the piles we currently have into smaller pieces to feed into the machines. I’m also going to have to find some people for my replanting project.”

Thumb piped up, “You need faeries for that, they are best for working out where to plant the right combination of trees.”

“Okay, do any of you know of any faeries in our Duchy?”

Thumb looked at the others and then nodded his head, “Yes mistress. It’s one of the reasons we stopped work.”

“Oh!” Levi said intrigued.

“Yes, they were chopping down our homes,” a petulant voice said.

Levi looked around, “Who am I addressing?” she asked.

The little faerie appeared in front of her. He said, “Prince Gaul at your service Princess.” He bowed to her.

Levi was delighted, as she had never met a faerie before. He was a handsome fellow, about 38cm tall. Gaul was anatomically correct and nicely built. He had longish pale green hair that was plaited down his back and translucent cicada-like wings.