Chapter 9

Katrin and Treya were heading downstairs to look for Corec when their path was blocked by a tall woman with her black hair pulled back in a bun.

“Lady Katrin,” the cook said, “I have tonight’s supper menu for your approval.”

“I’m sure whatever you’ve come up with is fine, Mella,” Katrin told her. “We spent the last year and a half eating trail food. You don’t need to ask me every day.” She kept meaning to tell the cook she wasn’t a lady, but Mella was an intimidating woman who knew far more about running a proper household than Katrin did. Yet, for some reason, it was always Katrin she came to when a decision had to be made.

The cook pursed her lips. “My previous employer preferred to select the main course herself. It’s difficult to set a menu when we have no fresh vegetables or fresh meats. There’s only so much I can do with salt pork, preserves, and brined vegetables.”

“Nedley will find what he can,” Katrin said. Fresh food was scarce in Four Roads after the dragon, and so early in the growing season. The situation would improve as the refugees returned home to their ranches and farms, but some things would have to wait until the harvest. “If you need something special, we can ask Leena if she’d have time to do some shopping the next time she’s in Tyrsall or Sanvara City.”

“I’ll consider that, my Lady. And may I ask when the additional help will arrive? Mr. Boktar promised there’d be two kitchen maids and a scullery maid as soon as he could hire them.”

“Boktar has been busy, but you and I can take care of that ourselves. If we post a notice at the tavern, word will get around.” While the tavern was no longer selling as much ale as it had that first night, it had still become a place for the villagers to exchange news. Most of the adult men would come in for at least a few minutes each night to catch up on the events of the day.

Mella frowned. “None of the girls here have been in service before.”

“That means you’ll be able to train them up how you like. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m supposed to be speaking to Lord Corec.”

The cook’s eyes widened and she backed away. “Oh, yes, of course. I apologize for interrupting, my Lady.”

Once they were alone again, Treya murmured, “Lord Corec?”

“It’s the only way to get her to stop,” Katrin said.

Treya laughed.

They finally found Corec in Boktar’s office—one of six they’d discovered on the first floor of the keep. Boktar, Ellerie, and Bobo had appropriated three, and Corec had suggested Sarette should have another, but he’d been reluctant to take one for himself.

The two men were in the middle of a conversation when Katrin and Treya entered.

“If they want to tear down some of the older homes and rebuild them, that’s fine,” Corec said, “but not everyone can stay in Hilltop. We don’t need a farrier here if Patrig’s handling the shoeing, and we don’t need two thatchers—or we won’t after they finish the work they’re doing now. See if you can convince some of them to go to Creekbend with Jonson. The more people we send east, the better.”

“I’ll try,” Boktar said, “but some folks are already talking about expanding the village downhill.”

“Well, they can’t do that. The hill is our first line of defense. It’s no moat, but it’s better than nothing. If we’re attacked, I don’t want Rusol’s troops to have a bunch of buildings to hide out in beyond our reach. The buildings on the hill are bad enough. Can’t we just tell them no?”

“I think that’s up to you,” Boktar said.

There was a lull in the discussion and the two men turned to greet them.

“Trouble?” Treya asked.

“All the little decisions add up to a lot of time,” Boktar said. “We need a steward to handle some of it.”

“Two, really,” Corec said. “For the house steward, we can make do with a butler or majordomo since we’re not dealing with visiting dignitaries, but the steward of the lands needs special training. I’m not sure where to find someone like that.”

“While you’re looking, don’t forget we still need a housekeeper,” Katrin said. Like the cook, the two chambermaids kept coming to her with their questions—or they asked the cook, which just annoyed the woman even more.

“It needs to be someone with the right qualifications,” Corec said. “We’ll have to look around.”

Katrin nodded. “That’s not why we’re here, though.”

“Oh?”

“There are a lot of children in the village,” Treya started.

“Yes, Katrin told me you’ve been helping her keep them busy and out of everyone’s way. Thank you.”

“Mistress Nallee is helping too, but we can’t do it forever,” Katrin said. “We think there should be a school.”

Corec frowned. “A school? I don’t think many of the parents would be able to afford that.”

“Not like the trade schools in Larso or Tyrsall,” Treya said. “This would be more like the schools they have in Matagor or Snow Crown, where the younger children can attend and learn basic skills. It wouldn’t cost them anything.”

“Which means we’d pay for it,” Corec said. “Do we really need that on top of everything else we’re doing?”

“How did you learn to read?” Katrin asked.

“My tutors,” Corec said, then waved off the look she gave him. “Yes, I know these kids don’t have tutors, but can’t their parents teach them?”

“When would they have the time? And a lot of the parents can’t read either. If we teach the children, they’ll have more choices when they grow up. They won’t be stuck following in their parents’ footsteps.”

Unlike Corec, Katrin knew what it was like to be born into a poor household. She and Barz had been luckier than most—their mother had made sure they could read and write—but many of the children they’d grown up with hadn’t had the same opportunity. Ana had gone from pickpocket to prostitute before she’d ended up serving tables. Katrin had read books on music her uncle had given her so she could learn to play the flute she’d stolen. During her last few years in Circle Bay, she’d been able to support herself just from her share of the performances she and Felix had given.

“How would it work, exactly?” Corec asked.

Treya said, “In Matagor, children can attend school from age six until they turn twelve, if their parents allow it.” That was according to Bobo. Sarette had once claimed that among the stormborn, children were required to attend school until they reached the age of sixteen, at which point they could go into the trades or the military, or apply to one of the academies. Katrin wasn’t sure whether to believe her. What could they possibly be teaching that would require that much time?

“And the three of you would run it?”

Katrin shook her head. “No. We can manage it, but we need someone who can be there every day. Treya and Nallee think we should hire a Sister from the Order of Scholars. Maybe two.”

Corec was silent at first, staring down at a map of the village and the surrounding area.

Finally, he blew out his breath. “We’re supposed to be here to draw out Rusol,” he said. “Everything has gotten too complicated. Are we just doing this for a few years to see if he reacts, and then going our separate ways once we know it’s safe? Or are we planning to stay?”

“I thought you’d already made that decision,” Boktar said. “It’s good land. The location’s not great, but we can manage. I know you didn’t want all these people around, but now that they’re here, they bring a lot of potential. Is there somewhere else you need to be?”

“Need to be?” Corec said, giving Katrin a quick, questioning glance. “Maybe not. But what about the rest of you? The more things we take on, the more these folks are going to depend on us, and I can’t handle everything myself.”

“I’ll go where you go,” Katrin said, “but I think we should stay.”

“It would mean that moving to the city is a lot further off than we thought,” he replied. “We could be here for a long time.”

“I’m not worried about that.” She wasn’t having any trouble finding things to keep her busy. It was a nice change, feeling useful again.

“I can’t speak for Ellerie, but I’d like to stay,” Boktar said. “Marshal is a hell of a promotion over what I was doing in Matagor.”

Corec nodded, then looked at Treya. “You wanted us to take on a larger role once we settled down. Was this what you had in mind?”

“I thought we could protect the area from raiders, and if we were close enough to Four Roads, you could try for a seat on the town council in a few years ... but that would be a step backward now. We can do more good here.”

“Then I guess we’re hiring someone to run a school.”

“Pickled cabbage,” the storekeeper’s assistant said as he lugged his heavy burden into the wheelwright’s shop. “Two casks. Where do you want them?”

“Back wall,” Nedley said, wrinkling his nose. He hated pickled cabbage. He nodded to Aldin, who was carrying the second cask. Aldin had served with Ballista Five and had agreed to come back when Nedley asked him. The young man hadn’t managed to turn his fame as a dragon hunter into another job, and he’d begun to realize his bonus money wouldn’t last forever.

“Do you have anything else for us?” Kimi asked, crossing off another item on the list she carried. Mother Yewen had allowed her to help Nedley organize the supply caravan, and she’d taken over most of the paperwork once they realized she was better with figures than he was.

“That’s all for today,” the fellow said. “Beans and cornmeal tomorrow, and that’s the last of your order.”

It might be the last delivery from that particular merchant, but they were still waiting on a dozen others.

After the man had left, Nedley chewed on his lower lip, trying to decide what to do next. The shop was getting crowded, but he didn’t want to start loading supplies into the wagons until he’d hired enough guards to keep a night watch.

“Aldin,” he finally said, “will you go check the lumberyard and see if they’re ready for us? If so, when Bili gets back, we can hitch up three of the wagons and take them over.” Nobody was likely to steal wagons full of lumber overnight, and he could block them in with the empty wagons to make them harder to get to.

Aldin nodded and went on his way, which left Nedley alone with Kimi.

She came over and stood very close, smiling up at him. Her hair smelled like flowers.

Just as the silence had stretched too long, she said, “We’d better take a look at the new letter to see what else they want.”

Nedley realized he’d been staring. “Oh, right.”

Leena had stopped by that morning with another shopping list from Ezra. It had been her second visit since Nedley arrived in town. He’d worried about how frequently his friends were checking up on him—Leena normally only visited Four Roads once a week to exchange messages with Mother Yewen—but she’d seemed to approve of the progress he’d made each time.

He retrieved the letter from where he’d left it in the back room. “Four pitchforks. Six pl ... plow ... plowshares. A dozen saddles! Did he send enough money for that?”

Kimi leaned close so she could see the list, then compared it to her ledger. “If the prices he put down are right, yes, but everything’s been more expensive than we thought.”

“Even if we stack them, a dozen saddles will take up an entire corner of a wagon.” Nedley continued down the list. “Four wood axes. Two dozen work shirts of va ... var...”

Kimi held out her hand and he passed her the letter.

“ ... of various sizes,” she said. “And two dozen pairs of trousers.”

Nedley blushed. He could read—he could!—but all of his reading practice had been with words the others had carefully written out for him. Ezra’s handwriting was cramped and spindly, and Nedley had to squint to make any sense of it.

“There’s more,” Kimi said. “Do you want me to keep going?”

“Yes.”

“Flour, sugar, oats, soap, pots and pans, rope, more beans and dried fruit, on top of what we already bought.”

“We’re not going to have room for all of that,” Nedley said. “Did he send money for another wagon?” Even if he had, there were no more freight wagons for sale. They were already waiting on two more to be built.

Kimi shook her head.

They were still considering what to do when Bili returned.

“Any luck?” Nedley asked him.

“Not many good mules around,” Bili said. He’d worked as a stablehand before joining the expedition to fight the dragon, so Nedley had put him in charge of finding the animals. “You bought the last of them already. I can get you some old ones cheap, but Benji, he tried to cheat me, thinkin’ I wouldn’t notice. Best to talk to the farmers instead.” Benji was the owner of the largest mule yard in town.

Nedley frowned. He and his friends had purchased a lot of mules since they’d first come to Four Roads. He was tempted to ask Boktar what to do, but Leena’s next visit wouldn’t be until the day before the caravan was scheduled to leave. If he waited that long, and then waited for a response, he’d have to delay their departure.