Chapter 27

Over breakfast with Derwen and Mercedes, I discussed my planned estate improvements to help enrich the lives of the villagers. Because I had learned the topography of the estate on my last visit, I was able to identify the best placements for the two water wheels to maximize the technological improvements. Additionally, I wanted to build another clay furnace to create springs for more wolf carts, primarily to be used in conjunction with the upcoming build sites.

Derwen had stock-piled sea coal as I'd asked so getting started on the forging was my first task. Derwen didn't mind me recruiting people to join Juniper Hills but she didn't want me directly soliciting people from Lone Tree, the village on her property. We agreed that if a single man asked I would be free to allow him to move to Juniper Hills and Derwen would provide transport to the mainland for free.

My ladies walked me to the wood shop where Erfurth, the indentured wolf gunner and wood worker, greeted us. He proudly told us he had trained a few apprentice woodworkers to construct the large wolf crossbows. Derwen wanted the repeating bows on all her ships and at private docks protecting her investments. I had already seen the first wolfs set up on the blockhouses protecting the Galit's dock and Derwen's warehouse, as the large weapons were far superior to other similar mobile devices. Erfurth, himself, preferred to make pups and they were gradually filtering into the estate's small defense force.

We told the craftsman we wanted them to build us a few more wolf carts for general hauling around the area. They told me the carts had brought some notoriety to the woodworkers and craftsmen in the area and they had a few partly built carts in the yard, so we went out back and admired their handi work. Still needed were my springs with the superior metal. They had tried to make these carts work with local smiths attempting to create springs but the impurities in the metal caused them to quickly fatigue and break. I told Legieri, the master woodworker, to take off the broken springs and I promised to make my special springs for the carts. Derwen and Mercedes escorted me back to the manor where waiting on the steps was Hajin and one of his men.

"Hajin!" I called to him.

"Lord Solon, Lady Derwen, Priestess. Greetings and good morning," he responded. "Let me introduce Bonsel, recently retired from the company after ten cycles." The warrior gripped my forearm in a greeting.

"Each cycle the company loses a few really good men to retirement," Hajin continued, "But not all of them want to retire on the estate or in the local freehold village."

The retired marine grunted, the corner of his mouth twitched up into a grin. The ebony man had stormy black eyes, someone who has seen a hard life and lived to tell about it. His long, braided black hair cascaded down his broad shoulders.

"Bonsel is the leader of a group of scouts, hunters, fletchers, with women and children. They are not looking for a long term contract anymore and what I have told them of Juniper Hills has interested them," Hajin said.

"My homestead is a small village in the wilds of a pine forest―rolling hills which are bounded by the sea, the Great Marsh and a river. It's a virgin land that I've claimed and will protect. We are looking for a more hardy and independent sort of folk to join us," I explained.

"Lord Solon, we want a little more adventure in lands we've not visited. But without seeing the land I am not willing to pledge us to you," the bent nosed warrior said.

Shrugging, I answered, "Board your people on the next supply ship and take the barge to Juniper Hills. Tell my man Coven you came to look around and I sent you. You are free to stay until I return, then you either join with my people or return here with free passage. Keep the peace with my men and family or return any trouble-makers to Convey. That is the deal."

Hajin trusted this man or he wouldn't have introduced him to me. I felt fate had dealt me a good hand, experienced hunters and women accustomed to a less spoiled life, having to travel like nomads with the mercenary company.

Bonsel smiled and responded, "Works well for us; it's a bargain," reaching out to grip my forearm.

Hajin said, "I'll make the arrangements, Lady Derwen," bowing and leaving with Bonsel.

The ladies guided me into the manor for tea and a biscuit. Staying in the house didn't appeal to us during such a wonderful day, so we lazed around most of the day under the warm sun, either on the back porch or in the garden area. A servant boy with bony fingers delivered a lunch basket of fresh bread and meat stew to our picnic in the flower garden. A cluster of wild flowers pleasantly teased our noses as we rested under the sun.

We surveyed the beauty of the land as we discussed our future, the needs of the estate and the needs of the temple. The three of us took walks from time to time to clear our heads; lost in our musings, we always seemed to come back to the garden and our blankets. Once we got too sweaty under the sun we returned to the most delicious pleasure on the estate, the hot pool in the temple. I knew the civility and peace of the manor estate was something I would yearn in the future. "I have a vacation home," I thought.

Early evening clouds rolled in and our sunny serenity shifted to dark clouds and thunderstorms. Rain fell steadily over the next five days, and messengers reporting on the shipping business had hard trips to the estate. The rivers overtopped shallow banks and a few old bridges near Port City crumpled before the onslaught of nature. In the manor I studied a book on the history of Convey and its heraldry, learning about noble people and questions of rank or protocol among the nobles of the island. Derwen and Mercedes cleared up my questions on the ruling council and the lack of a king. A set of ruling families worked hard to keep a balance of power, apparently nothing and no one had upset the delicate balance for a hundred cycles.

Derwen's family was a key balancing element among three major noble family groups; often her council vote would swing policy one way or another. I could understand Lord Atum's power play to control Derwen's vote better now and why he shifted to a more passive strategy since our marriage. Mercedes' coming baby wasn't a direct factor since it would be a temple baby rather than a noble's heir; however, the role of the Mother Earth faction seemed important to a few council families and the religion had an influence on matters of state and culture.

Mercedes and Derwen were impatient with the weather and stood at the manor door, watching the shifting wind blowing stiff and damp air from the north sea. The path between the workshops and the village was slick, muddy and full of pools of dirty water. I had run to play carpenter between rain showers and worked on a recurved, composite bow design with the old carpenter. The bow was made of horn, wood, and sinew laminated together. The sinew stretched and the horn compressed, which stored more energy than a solid wood bow for the same length. The horn came from water buffalo found in the Great Marsh and was an item the Galit traded with the island.

I couldn't see the composite bow working well in the wet environment of the marsh but the dry Amarian plains north of the Great Marsh would find them a more powerful compact bow than what was currently used. The gluing would take a moon to cure, while I could make the bow in a week, its usefulness wouldn't be tested for some time. The workshop had plenty of maple for the core of the bow so I asked them to assign some apprentices the task of copying my prototype. We didn't want to take the master craftsmen away from the cart improvements just yet. Erfurth wanted to play with making a copy so the master wood worker assigned him to lead this side project.

One of the keys to making this bow shoot so far was a shelf strapped to the archer's bow hand. This device allowed the archer to pull the bow to extreme lengths, putting maximum force behind the arrow. Additionally, the new, smaller arrows couldn't be used with a standard bow, so a foe that collected them would find them useless. The draw was only to the chin so this stabilized the shot. My dream memories showed a method where an archer could hold multiple arrows in between the fingers of the drawing hand to allow for faster reloads.

Horse troops in large numbers were expensive and rare on Convey, so unless the mercenary company could capture a lot of horses I saw these bows used by mounted mule archers. This would give Hajin's company some mobile firepower. Archers seemed more common here than in the marsh, so he should be able to field a few squads of mule archers. The mercenary asked me to provide some new methods and strategies to make his company more effective. The question was, would he like this idea? Long bows would still out-range these more compact composite bows but the portability of the smaller weapons would make them deadly if used correctly. That reminded me to talk to the leather workers; we needed bow cases to protect the bows.

My lovely women didn't begrudge all the time I spent with the wood workers, but once it was dinner time the three of us watched the world from the manor, until bedtime. Derwen and Mercedes acted like inseparable sisters or sister-wives, depending on their mood. Laughter filled the manor and the comforts of home satisfied me after a long day's work. At night we sprawled out on the king-size bed, all of our eyes heavy with sleep. Mercedes often laid out on her back, mouth agape, snoring softly. Derwen particularly needed a lot of sleep, her body gliding around the bed bumping me awake at times. I would use those half-conscious moments to ponder life in Convey. These are rich lands and forests, with well-fed people who worked hard. I could see my technology improvements further enriching Derwen, thus increasing what she could do for Juniper Hills. Normally, my last thoughts of the night drifted to Juniper Hills and my lovers there.