Chapter 35: Visiting

The coronation went well.

Four of the five Lords attended. The fifth was the one was who caused a lot of speculation. He had sent word that he was indisposed. They had an illness affecting his people, so they didn’t even send a representative.

Ryan told me Lord Mark Metal owned a valley that was further away than many of the others. He was also very old and being indisposed wasn’t something new to them. While the Lords operated the Shires in a rough semi-circle around Weston, Mark’s Shire, while towards the north-east, was further into the mountains than most.

He said that I’d probably be better off travelling to Lord Darren Nous’s Shire first. The main connecting road to Metal Shire branched off from the main road between Nous Shire and Lord Lon’s, Lantern Shire. The Metal Shire was predominantly a gem mining Shire and famous for its diamonds.

Metal Sire was in a long wide valley that butted up against a volcanic crater. The crater had become a large lake, which drained through the fertile valley. The volcano was still active as the lake water was warm, but it hadn’t erupted for two thousand years. The mountain ranges on either side were riddled with cave systems.

Ryan said that most of Weston’s diamonds came from the area. Lord Metal didn’t encourage prospectors or many other visitors for that matter, so I’d better let Mark know that I was coming. If they had some sort of illness, they might not let me through the pass into the valley.

I had different ideas about that. If they had an illness affecting the people I felt I should go see if I can help anyway. That diamonds were one of the gems I’d not mind collecting some of, was another good reason. I’d learnt they could be used in place of aquamarines for adding Lore disciplines to magical items. I had neither gem in my limited supply.

Amethyst could also be used instead of moonstones for Physics, and I didn’t have them either. Apparently, the Shire also sold them and a variety of coloured quartz crystals (Psychic) to jewellers in Weston. Albi and I were looking forward to exploring some of the cave systems in the region.

I’d seen some nice gems in the jeweller’s and could have purchased them, but as odd as it may sound, they didn’t feel right. I’m not sure if it was the cut or the quality. I think I’ve also got the explorers bug. Albi probably doesn’t help as he is biting at the bit for us get on the road. He’d not explored Metal Shire before.

We left town the morning after the coronation.

Iran caught up with me after the auction.

“Bron, we consulted the Law Book with regards to if you could claim free land. There is a special page in the book where you can write a question, and if it can, it would answer you on the next page. I told the book the King wanted to offer you land as restitution for his father’s sins.”

“Iran, I don’t believe your people owe me anything. The King died and that more than pays for his sins as you put it. I told Andy this, but he was adamant that I chose some land since I wouldn’t take a coin from him. I told him he could call that Crown land to the south Horn Reserve and we would leave it at that.”

“Yes, that was a nice solution for Andy considering it is mostly a swamp and not used. I did mention this to the Book. However, it pointed out that as a High Mage consulting with the new King, you can open up new land.”

“If you wished for the new King to oversee the use of that land for you that was your prerogative. I don’t know how that book knows what’s going one but it did say ‘new King’. That surprised us all. We got the impression that the book likes like you and Andy, as he insists we still call him.”

He pulled out a map and showed me two valleys that had a low set of hills that separated them before they were joined by their rivers. The valleys fed into the area that was deemed Weston, from the northeast.

Both of their rivers fed into another major river that came into the city from the east. The valleys occupied an area that filled a gap between Darren, Mike and Lon’s shires. It sat just behind the low range that formed the current border of Weston’s Shire.

“We can enter this area, but other than using it as seasonal grazing lands people can’t live in the valleys for any length of time. If they plant more than a small garden or try to build anything bigger than a temporary shelter the buildings fall down, and the seeds won’t germinate.”

“The Book said that if you submitted the area as an extension, we could expand. It would help solve a lot of our unemployment and food shortage issues. Weston had grown substantially in the last two hundred years. We will still be more than happy to accept your produce as it is out of season to us, so it will always sell here.”

“Andy had offered me about 3km square of land. That area constitutes more like a 30km square. Do you think the Book will be happy for it to be added to Weston? I don’t want any of it. As I said, the land I mentioned is fine by me. I won’t be living here and the two other cities I have to monitor as well as my own land are more than I can handle,” I told him.

Iran shook his head, “I knew you would say that so I asked the book. It just said you had to submit the border alterations.”

I looked at the map again and got an idea. The back of the low ridgeline that separated the valleys also blocked access to the current ring road that serviced the outer Shires, and it was close to the connecting road to the Metal Shire.

If I ran a road through, it would provide much better accesses back to the city for that shire. It would also provide a new thoughrafare to access the valleys and make it easier for Andy to split it up. For some reason, I didn’t think it would take a lot more effort to go that way.

Trixi, Albi and even Sable had Earth disciplines. I only needed a single carriageway to start with, and the locals could widen it later as they developed the area. If it was flat enough, I could make it dual without over-extending myself.

I discussed it with my team.

We stopped off at the Court House.

I submitted my application to the book for the land extension, and I mentioned the road and the reserve. Iran was amused when the second page printed the word ‘granted’.

The map of the Shire on the wall glowed, and the area of Weston now included the valleys and even the road I had suggested. Horn Reserve appeared over the swamp. I guess I was committed. Andy was delighted when we told him at the ball that night.

So the next morning, we headed out of town to the east. We had little trouble finding the cattle trail that led to the valleys. The fact that, I now had an escort of ten soldiers and a wagon of their supplies, made for a more interesting trip.

I knew as soon as they arrived outside Sandy’s that it was useless to argue. I was amused to find Sergeant Jay Jones and his four men who had defended the ship were amongst them. Harry was delighted to make their acquaintances again.

As we went, we compressed, smoothed and bound the road surface as we widened it slightly. At first Trixi, Albi, Sable and I found we could create a 5m wide by 150m section at a time with little effort. It made the trip slower but to be honest, I wasn’t in a huge hurry.

If I found what I was looking for at Metal Town, then I didn’t really need to visit the other Shires, and I did have a month to play with. We had about an 80km distance to cover once you added in the hills and valleys. I was hoping it didn’t take more than a week to cover. I couldn’t see why we shouldn’t cover 10km to 15km a day.

I did forget one major problem. We were in the first month of winter. We were going into the mountains. They were called mountains for a good reason, and we were far enough into the northern hemisphere that it would snow. I forgot that I hated snow.

The first 45km was the easiest, and we had covered it in three days. By the end of the second day of travel, as long as we could see the way ahead we could flatten nearly a kilometre at a time. Forests were a bit trickier.

In most cases, we didn’t have to remove too many trees to create our road. The soldiers became a great help with aligning the downed trees to provide better rain runoff from the road to protect it and reduce our use of magic to the actual road.

They also set up our camp, and let Trixy and I, roam ahead once we stopped for the night. We could add a couple of extra klicks while they worried about the mundane like feeding us. Jay always accompanied us. He said they had their share of bandits, wolves and catalo in this mountain range.

We relocated a couple of hilltops and cut through several outcrops to reduce inclines. Trixi got really good at building low earth bridges to get us over gullies and even small rivers. Sable loved every minute of it. He liked creating gutters to direct the water off the road for us. I think we were all surprised at how good he was at it.

He sure slept well each night after consuming a phenomenal amount of food for an almost four-year-old. It was only a couple of weeks to our birthdays, I realised. Sometimes I found it hard to think I was not even twenty yet or him four.

I was glad four of the soldiers were shifters, and two more were female. I suspected Andy picked them knowing what would happen if they were camped anywhere near us. Apparently, when Trixi and I regenerate our magic at night, we got everyone wound up.

The sentries did grumble about all the sexual noises at first, but they did say it was hard to go asleep on duty when we were all active. It was just as well Foxi and Albi were quite happy to keep each other satisfied.

I had also noticed one of the soldiers called Smithy, who was a shifter, had been invited to their tent after the second night. Albi didn’t mind a bit of help with Foxi. The three of them seemed quite delighted with their arrangement, so I didn’t comment.

I was surprised when Harry and Jay became bed buddies. Harry confessed he took a fancy to the sexy sergeant when they met on the ship. I had noticed they spent time together the day of the auction too. They certainly seemed compatible with the way their tent rocked.

Jay was a shifter and took wolf form mostly. He often changed to that form on guard duty, as did the other three shifters. His guard partner was Smithy, so retiring at the same time suited them just fine. They often did the dawn hours.

Jay had joked he was always more alert after some good nooky the night before. Going by the satisfied and loving looks Harry gave him, I knew he wasn’t the only one who found satisfaction with their arrangement. I hadn’t decided if they were coming home with me or if Harry would stay. It would be one or the other.