Chapter 11

I woke up with my body trembling all over, muscle spasms in my feet lifting my legs off a bed. My eyes opened to find Swarta squirming nicely against my naked body. I was in a well-appointed bedroom with landscape paintings on the wall and drapes open to a nice view of the blue sky. My body sank into the depth of the most comfortable mattress in the world. The silk sheet sliding against my dry skin felt wonderful. As I turned to look at Swarta again she said, "You enter the world again. We were worried by your deep sleep and shallow breathing. No one could wake you up."

I responded, "I'm pretty sure I was drugged and Lady Derwen too."

Swarta answered, "Derwen's healer told us that earlier this morning when you arrived."

I sat up and said, "How is Lady Derwen?"

Swarta looked at me and said, "She woke up feeling well rested. Her first comments were, what a fast and comfortable trip home".

My love went on to tell me our escort noticed something was wrong when they picked us up. They hurried home almost killing the horses to get us both to Lady Derwen's healer. The old healer thought Derwen was is no danger since her breathing was normal and heart counts steady. She explained my body was cold, heart counts erratic and such shallow breaths the healer had to use a feather to be sure I was really alive.

"A muscle poison of some type was used on me, and not Derwen. But a sleep herb for both of us," I said and Swarta nodded yes. "A good thing we left immediately after dinner or I'd be in his dungeon or worse, " I thought. "I understand Roch's grin now and the reference to a private breakfast with Lord Atum," I said.

As I dressed in my familiar black clothes I noticed the rest of my gear was against the far wall. I strapped on my clan blade and left the packs in the room. Tharin was outside the room sitting in a chair. "Food poisoning they tell me can be unpleasant," he said with a sly grin, standing up. We gripped each other's forearm in a strong embrace of affection.

"You go see Lady Derwen on her outside patio, I will watch your wizard gear," he said, sitting down.

"We have to work on getting a few more trusted men so I can have you at my side," I said. He shrugged and crossed his legs, leaning back in the comfortable chair.

Swarta took me down a back servant staircase, which led to a small exterior door. Outside Grimm and Derwen walked in a flower garden that surrounded a small pond with a large willow tree on its bank. I could see large gold fish amongst the clusters of reeds. Both Derwen and Grimm ran over and clutched me closely like a long lost child.

Tears welling up in her eyes Derwen said, "Yes, my sister schemes about matching me with merchant families, but I cannot believe she was a part of poisoning us." Derwen openly cried now, turning her head away from me, as I snaked my arms around her waist and kissed her neck gently.

"Grimm, what is the security situation here?" I asked, pointedly.

She was dressed in casual trousers and a loose, white linen shirt rather than in her shipboard, warrior look―her female curves much more noticeable out of the armor. Grimm shifted the hilt of her sword, causing it to tap her long leg. "Hajin has surrounded Lady Derwen's estate with his entire training cadre. They are roaming in tight patrols, while Lady Derwen's normal estate guards are at their regular posts. Hajin set up a command post with the ship's marine squad at the estate's Lookout Tower," She reported.

The four of us wandered around the circular garden path talking. Grimm's soldierly bearing was apparent as she explained that the training company had a hundred young men and women. The skill levels of these troops were much lower than an experienced mercenary company but, they would rate better than most noble household troops we might face on the island. The Lookout Tower was located where the local road connected to the estate. The tower was on the highest hill in the county and provided a splendid observation point for any local troop movements.

None of us spoke for some time, standing under the willow tree, watching a peaceful gold fish spit bubbles and glide among the reeds. "With the way we left Port City, it will be a few weeks for me to get you home," Derwen said reluctantly. "We will have the ship meet us at a nearby fishing village during its next scheduled run to the Great Swamp. The Lord of the Port will not dare try stopping it, as that would be cause for a blood feud against me and my allies." Derwen would not look at me as she continued, "Katsu wouldn't allow that," she said and shivered at the thought.

"What if Atum had ships shadow your ship, and after we board, attack us out of sight of land? Kill me, keep you locked away until you ran out of time so that the council could force a suitor on you, and take your empire out of your hands?" I asked, looking at her, but Derwen still wouldn't look at me.

"Grimm, is he the type of warlord to do that to rid an unwanted nuisance?" I asked.

The marine pondered my question thoughtfully and said, "He has a history of quietly removing obstacles to his plans. Yes, he might, if some unseen alliance required Lady Derwen's shipping empire under control and Lord Atum believed she was leaning towards another suitor." A picture of the maid seeing me kissing Lady Derwen, holding her close, ran through my mind. "I will have to think some wizard gadgets up for the ship, " I thought.

I gathered both Swarta and Derwen in my arms and said, "Show me around your estate and perhaps the local villages." Derwen looked into my eyes and nodded. "We will plan for the worst but hope we can defuse the tension between your house and Lord Atum," I said firmly.

I continued, "Derwen, send a note to your sister saying we felt ill after dinner and decided to go see your healer, not wanting to distress them. Perhaps we can save their pride and give your sister time to intervene in plans gone awry."

Derwen just cried, saying, "I don't want to lose my sister, but he can neither have you nor tell me how to run a shipping line!"

I pulled her close with both hands into a hug and she stopped running on. From her arms I scooped up Swarta, not giving Derwen the only attention, and gave her a passionate kiss, saying, "Did I say I missed you yet?" I moved my hand over her bottom. Taking both their hands in mine, We moved on to investigate the estate.

While the back of the manor house was peaceful with gardens and a nice scenic view, the front of the house looked out south to a collection of stone buildings with much activity. Children ran between two parked work wagons, full of lumber and charcoal. Mules with feed bags swished their tails swatting horse flies, waiting for their wagoners. Dirty smoke drifted above a smithy and we heard an anvil ringing to thuds of a hammer. Next door a few carpenters were sawing rough lumber boards at the side their building.

Derwen pointed out a stone stable house explaining the estate horses were a major expense but worth their weight in gold for farming, mounted protection and adventures in the city. Her property included one village, whose farmers she allowed to use her animals for plowing in the spring, making that village rather wealthy compared to most villages in the county. Most farmers who were not rich enough to afford a horse used oxen. Oxen, while stronger beasts were slow and cleared much less land in the same time.

Derwen mentioned that most of the men working close to the manor house were close relations, gentry even, all of whom were loyal retainers she could count on. We walked by an older, plump woman drawing water from a well using a pulley and rope to fill the bucket.

Inside the smithy, I could see a large establishment with fires and two sets of hand-pumped bellows in operation, a brick chimney at each end of the room. A long work bench dominated the entire length of one wall with numerous tools hanging above the bench. Two long, narrow glazed windows in the roof spread light upon the work area. Various bits of sword parts filled a side table near the door and a barrel of spear-heads and crossbow bolts blocked our immediate path to the busy men.

Derwen introduced me to Lemos, the armorer for Hajin's mercenary company and his three apprentices. The elaborate workshop looked like it could fill my needs to build a few special weapons to enhance our next ship journey. I also pulled out the long flat nail from my boot, which I had tucked away until I found someone to help me. Lemos gave me more of an anticipatory smile than a distasteful look when I explained what I wanted completed within two weeks. It helped to have the lady of the manor at my side.

I ignored the children as their hands reached out to brush me as I swept past into the carpenter's workshop. Inside, where my three indentured men were planing wood at a workbench, a short elderly man watched over their work. Grimm hailed the bulky warrior from the ship, "Erfurth I see you are making yourself useful like I asked."

He ventured an answer with a laugh, "Yes, I told you we could work wood."

The elderly man grunted, but I wasn't sure if he was agreeing or not with Erfurth. Looking around the shop I could see half-finished crossbows and sanded spears without metal tips. "Not an ordinary lumber shop, I see, " A number of finished shields waiting for metal rims were stacked beside a wall of lumber, and an empty wagon filled the back of the building's open, double-door entrance. Two young teenage boys were sitting on the wagon perch eating cheese and apples.

Derwen pointed at the elderly man. "As you can see, Von, this workshop specializes in making weaponry. This is Legieri a master woodworker, famous in Convey for the quality of his work."

The old man's deep-set eyes bored into me like I was a ghost. "Moon Mother, I didn't believe them. You are white," Legieri said.

My men laughed and Erfurth said, "Everything we said about him is true, old man. We are lucky to be alive after battling the white wizard."

The elderly man forked his fingers in some sort of religious sign over his heart. "I am surprised I don't get more of that, " I thought.

"Enough of that, Legieri. This young man is a gentleman," Derwen said in a huff.

I pulled out the sketches I had made in Juniper Hills and handed the paper from my pocket to Legieri. "I want these made for Lady Derwen's bodyguard and for her marines to use on The Lady of Truth. We have two weeks."

Curious, Grimm looked over Legieri's shoulder to see what was on the paper. She couldn't read, but Grimm understood the diagrams. "Javelins and crossbows mostly;some sorts of wooden mechanisms too," she said to the other men.

Legieri said, "I will have to call in a number of carpenters from the villages, Lady Derwen. This will cost a bit of money to get done in two weeks."

Derwen nodded her acceptance and Legieri shouted at the two teenage boys to bring some particular people to the workshop. I noticed he used a few bits of coal in his fire pit outside, which gave me another idea to work on this week too. Legieri said it was sea coal and women of the fishing village picked it up along the sea shoreline.

Once outside I asked Grimm to spread the word in the villages. We would pay one silver piece for every ten, intact, skunk's stink glands and a few coopers for a pair of dead porcupines. It was a relative fortune and should get me what I wanted quickly from hunters and trappers. Also, I wanted all the sea coal collected this week purchased and delivered. Swarta looked at me with a questioning grin but I just kept walking to the stable. Because only three horses were left in the stables, Swarta remained at the manor while we rode out to the estate village.

Grimm and Derwen rode horses well, whilst I more or less clung on to the beast's neck for the entire ride. Fortunately, Derwen's village, Lone Tree, had a glass maker, the only one in the county, where we placed my order for little finger-sized, glass potion ampuls.

We stopped at the village inn and picked up some pastries, honey cakes and meat pies to eat. The patrons seemed uneasy around me but they were pleasant enough since Derwen was present. Being at the public house reminded me to ask Derwen about the Juniper water.

She said, "Most of my barrels were left in my Port City warehouse because of the difficulties we had there." I wanted to see how our special water would sell to plain villagers, so we arranged for two barrels to be delivered here.

"Juniper water will be sold as a healing tonic in mugs at ale prices. One barrel to be offered to patrons― on the house ―as a gift from Lady Derwen," I announced.

Derwen responded, "That is a clever way to create a test market."

Lone Tree had a wide, swift stream which ran two mills―both a stamp mill and grist mill―providing the bulk of the area's crushed ore and flour. I asked to ride by them to compare their mechanisms to the images I seemed to have in my mind. All of them used crude gears to power their devices and utilized an undershot waterwheel, which I knew was the least effective power application.