Chapter 13

The new Baron of Sachs-Tyndell held court in the upper room of his whorehouse for the next week until he was certain that his side was healing. Shortly after the fight he held a ceremony to make Rotrington and the three knights his vassals through acts of homage and oaths of fealty to him.

The three knights were then sent out to round up the foot soldiers, and after a speech urging no hard feelings between miners and soldiers he granted the men freedom from their serfdom if they wanted to stay and look for gold, as long as they promised to spend the gold in Glen MacTynnen.

During his recovery time, Rolly learned more about the barony. The valley it existed in had been conquered by a minor lord from the east who was under threat from a stronger neighbor. One day he decided that it was better to leave than to get overrun so he picked up and moved his people through the mountains to the isolated valley where he found a few farming villages that were easily subjugated. He combined the name of his old lands with the new and called it a barony because he didn't think it was anywhere near large enough to call a kingdom, and 'Barony, ' made it sound like there was a king's army backing it somewhere.

The first baron claimed all lands within the borders of the valley and then divided it into two types: barony lands, and estate lands. Barony lands supported the household and administration of the barony through a large number of manors. Estate lands were fiefs granted to military lords. In return for quasi hereditary use of the land, the estate lords were responsible for training and supporting a relatively large number of knights and soldiers to defend the passes leading into the barony. These lords were also required to act as councilors and ministers to the baron.

The farmland in both cases was divided into manors that were farmed by serfs and managed by a manor lord. Knights for the estate lords and the baron usually came from the sons of the manor lords or other knights.

Each serf household was granted an area of farmland for which he was responsible. A percentage of the production belonged to the lord and a percentage was for the serf to support his family. Each year the plots of the manor were assigned by lottery, and each household would get several plots to tend. This guaranteed that no one would get better soil than the others. The serf also owed labor to the manor lord, a set number of days per year for man, woman, and child over the age of eight.

Just like the manor lords and estate lords, the serf positions were hereditary at the discretion of the lord, and it was illegal for a serf to move off of the manor without the lord's permission. The serfs lived in villages on the manors and were provided with a cottage. Male serfs between the ages of sixteen and forty were required to spend a certain number of days in military training. Neither the old baron nor Nevin ever enforced that, but the estate lords did.

The old baron had outlined the serf's responsibilities for the whole barony so that greedy lords could not squeeze their serfs for more profit, and as a result the serfs were well fed and content for the most part. Some serfs were under a three year contract, which meant that if they wanted to leave the manor for any reason, they could once the contract had been honored. Serfs could also run away, and if they were not caught and returned within a year they were free from prosecution, but it was a good idea to be outside the barony when they claimed that freedom.

The three surviving knights with Nevin were actually the estate lords of the valley. It was their duty as advisors to come with Nevin on the expedition, but they had urged him to use his own knights so that their men could stay to protect the valley. Sir Brinkton had become an estate lord after the previous one had died without any heirs.

Not sure what to do with the Songbird now that Saleen would be leaving with him to his house or castle or whatever he now owned, Rolly called a meeting of his partners and employees. He offered to employ the girls in Glen MacTynnen somehow, but they said that they were happy where they were. They knew that Saleen would be leaving at some point and so they had been learning her act. Between the five of them they thought that they could pull it off. The two that had quit working as whores and took positions as bartenders and blackjack dealers also wanted to try being up on the stage. Several of the women had suitors, but they were waiting for someone to strike it rich before they were willing to give up the good income they were making.

"Please consider settling in Glen Mac if you do. I don't know how much time I'll be there in the future, but it will be nice to know that I have friends there." Rolly told them.

So the Songbird was left to Rolly's two partners, who were staying behind to manage the gold claims.

When Rolly was ready to travel he loaded up all of his gold, as well as that of his partners, to take to his castle for safekeeping. He promised the girls dowry money to show his appreciation for their hard work and hard lives.

Rolly knew that the placer deposits in the stream beds would be stripped in a few years and all of the unsuccessful miners would leave the area, so he wanted to make as much money off the growing boomtown as possible before it collapsed. That would take some time for him to organize in the lowland. He broke the news to Saleen that they still were not going back to Crossroads.

She was a trouper about it and looked forward to a new life as a pseudo baroness for a while. That would give her more stories to tell on the talk shows.

The trail south was not as bad as Rolly had been led to believe, for the most part. Between the high southern pass and Glen Mac there were three sections of trail that were impassible for wagons, but with a little engineering skill and manpower he thought that they could be improved enough for wagons. One section needed to have an area of rock wall fired and picked away to widen it, and another was so steep for a short distance that it would have to have ropes and pulleys installed to pull wagons up it. The third problem area could be taken care of with a bridge. He pointed all of that out to Sir William, Sir George, and Sir Brinkton. The three men said that they knew just the people to get the jobs done.

Rolly's overall plan was to make money feeding and supplying the mining camp. The farming area around Safe Harbor would not be able to provide much more than it did right now.

After two weeks on the trail they were out of the mountains.

The town of Tyndell was near the head of a picturesque valley situated between the Kenty Range and the Great Northern Range proper. The MacTynnen River emptied into the much larger Balkat River, which then flowed a short distance to the sea. Port Balkat sat near the mouth of the river on the south bank and was the main trading center between the north men living in the fjords further up the coast, and the larger cities to the south. South of Port Balkat the coastline was inhospitable for many days sailing because the coastal mountains came right up to the sea.

The end of the MacTynnen Valley was on top of an escarpment above a swampy delta where the MacTynnen entered the Balkat. Both the escarpment and the swampy ground were good strategic barriers, so the town of Tyndell, and Tyndell Castle, were situated at the other end of the valley to defend the Tyndell Trail and Pass through the Kenty Mountains.

The Tyndell Pass went over the Kenty Ridge to the Central Basin. The trail split off near the top of the ridge and wound through the mountains for a long way to the more populated part of the continent to the east. There wasn't much on the south side of the Kenty Ridge for some distance because the Central Basin was very dry, so after the early days no one had ever wanted to take the trouble to invade the backwater valley.

Rotrington and Brinkton were younger sons from a large landed family that lived far from Glen MacTynnen. Both excelled at swordsmanship and joined their lord's army where they met William and George, who were first sons of two of the baron's military estate lords. The two were traveling the land as young men seeking glory in battle. Rotrington was the only one of the three not to be knighted, but that was mainly because the baron asked him to stay as swordmaster while the younger three men went off to lead troops in campaigns for Lord Timson, a distant relative.

Tyndell Castle itself was of moderate size and overlooked the city/town. Luckily for Roland, the household staff had not liked Nevin at all and was happy for the change in ownership. Nevin had been in residence long enough for the staff to get over their attitude that everything the old baron did was the way it should be done. They knew their jobs and if Roland was a good master they would be flexible. If, on the other hand, he was the type to chop off their heads, like Nevin, they would be flexible then, also.