Chapter 12

After breakfast Swarta, Tharin and I found Derwen addressing a few housemaids on the back staircase. The servant women left to go about their business, and the four of us moved to a table to enjoy the song birds and breezy air. Dark clouds rolled off the sea and a storm was certain for this afternoon. I'd had time to think about Katsu and Derwen's comments at the temple.

"So the former lord of this house was Katsu's father, your half-sister by the High Priestess. How many half-brothers are there and do I have to worry about schemes from them?"

"Temple children cannot inherit noble lands, but they can marry into noble houses or serve as gentry in freeholds," Derwen answered. "My brothers are happy with their lives and look out for me, and we do not call them half, but merely that they are temple children. They have my full respect."

Swarta, Tharin and I really had no context to understand the familial structure of Convey after only a few days. "I am a stranger in a strange land," I thought.

Derwen explained the island was not heavily populated like the mainland, and numerous freeholds had been created to encourage the development of less desirable land. Within a freehold a former indentured servant or noble child without an inheritance can claim a specified amount of land. When they worked the land it became an official land grant from the county. Gentry were often set up in business this way with the aid of their noble family. The two closest villages off our land were both freeholds―West Branch and Grundy. They are Hajin's favorite recruiting source on Convey for his mercenary company. She expected that some of her brothers' children would eventually join his service.

Derwen had company messengers waiting for her, so the rest of us spent the afternoon scouting around the estate near the sea. The storm's heavy rains drove everyone indoors to pursue their own interests. Tharin spent time with Grimm. Swarta followed the servants around, learning how to keep a manor house. Derwen worked with her estate's steward and I ran across to the armor smith's workshop. Lemos was busy supervising a room full of men working on my requests. When he saw me he picked up 2 small pine boxes and presented them to me. The boxes held the specialized nails I wanted, including a spool of red ribbon.

I was pretty pleased with my new toys. He gave me a place on the work table to finish the weapons. I ignored the raised eyebrows of a few artisans. I carved long sharp points one nail at a time with my clan knife. Lemos put a wrinkled hand on my shoulder, asking, "How can you shave off metal so quickly and easily with a short sword?"

I really didn't want to get into my nanoblade's abilities, so I said, "This enchanted sword can cut through any metal. It's a family heirloom attuned to my bloodline." "Best to discourage anyone from wanting it for themselves." I let Lemos hold it and try to sharpen a nail. Of course it didn't work for him. The nanos only came to life with my DNA.

My paranoid side wanted to keep this wizard thing going, so people don't get bad ideas like killing me for my off-world toys. It is bad enough to be on an assassination list due to political considerations like a shipping company. Showing people a little martial skill might help to discourage random bad people, too. I fitted four nails with short red ribbons and asked everyone to clear a path to the far door. I carved a shallow circle, about the size of my head, in the oak door then went to the other side of the room.

"This is a valuable weapon to assist a warrior overrun with enemies." I closed my eyes and opened my mind, visualizing the door, seeing the motions of my movements, seeing the iron nails inside the circle. I extended my arm throwing with everything I had into the door, time after time hitting the circle. Each nail sunk slightly into the door. "It helps to have off world muscle strength, and training. Where ever I got that from," I thought.

Lemos clapped and a few of his assistants did too. The rest sat stunned. Shrugging like it was no big deal, I took three nails out of the door and left the last one as a reminder to people not to think bad thoughts.

The rest of the afternoon and evening I spent with the carpenters and crossbow craftsmen. I worked on a couple of super-sized, ship-based crossbows that had been fitted with iron sights for aiming. The tricky part was fashioning wooden gears for rapid reloads. I reused a few pieces of nanoline from my marsh rafting days; the off world wire was the perfect all weather crossbow string for my device. I am still aware of my limited enchanted resources so there were not going to be many of these super recurve bows made.

My indentured men were the only ones interested in getting close to me in the workshop. I explained to them how the crossbows would work on the Lady's ship with the use of the enchanted string. Erfurth said they wanted to try them out, so in the middle of the storm we got soaked, shooting bolt after bolt into a broken wagon. We all had a laugh and they really enjoyed the target shooting using the iron sight. Really it was just a point and shoot device. Our biggest sighting problem was that flashes of lightning was our only light source.

The four of us were man handling the oversized weapon across the courtyard to the wood shop when lightning revealed a group of men in dark clothes moving together towards the manor. They moved hunched over, as if trying to hide, moving from bush to bush in short bursts towards the garden area. A lone horseman guarding a string of ten horses was positioned further up a hill under a tree. They hadn't seen us coming around the corner.

"Assassins, Erfurth," I said, my tone bitter.

The faces of my men distorted in disgust and their gazes darkened scornfully. "I am going after them," I said, upset. My anger rose from just thinking about these threats and the stupid Convey power struggles. "Erfurth see if you can deal with the horseman using our new toy," I said, continuing, "You two raise the alarm in the workshops and stable." I drew my blade and pulled out my three nails, charging to the back of the manor.

My throat became constricted and tension gripped the back of my neck. I ran blindly, drawing in all the focus I could, shifting my eyes to where those men went. At the back corner of the manor house I bent low and looked towards the servant's door. My sight was blurred from the rain. I made out seven men pressed against the manor's wall, while another was bent over, working on the lock to the door. Replaying their number in my mind, two were missing. I began to study the men, tall stout figures, short swords and darkened armor. "They're here for me. Speed and surprise are all I have. If they get up the manor stairs before help arrives, who knows how many might die because of me." I thought.

I switched my blade to my left hand and pictured my three nails entering the necks of my enemy. I stepped around the corner wide and thought, "Wish I had that fourth nail." My first nail hit the lock picker in the ear. Not waiting to see him fall, I put the next two nails in the throats of the two nearest assassins. I yelled at the top of my voice and rushed them. The lock picker lay dead on the ground. Two men gurgling held their throats, swords long forgotten.