Ghost in the Yew: Volume One of the Vesteal Series

by Blake Hausladen

  I nodded absently as I read through the long list of names on the contract. Many of them were familiar to me. The Chaukai were taking care of their own. Someone, likely Sahin, had also brushed for me a crude but informative map.

  I finished eating and followed Fana and Dia through the town to visit my craftsmen. I met with the new members of the consortium from the north in the meeting hall, and from there visited each of the more established Tracian craftsmen at their shops. The wide spaces were terribly barren, but each had toiled mightily to impress. All of them needed tools and materials, they told me, and I saw their trepidation for the first time. Without Dia and Fana’s encouraging smiles to my right and to my left, they would not have been able to speak to me at all. They saw only a Yentif prince, and my ready annoyance reminded me that not too far beneath the surface, I still was one.

  Fana kept a record of all their needs, and we reviewed it while the three of us returned to the keep. Its length made me suddenly impatient for my alsman’s return. Our business with Kuren needed a trip made to Almidi very soon, and the morning’s walk had tripled the list of goods and supplies I needed him to return with.

  Back in the great hall, Fana handed me another stack of sheets, the less legible script her father’s. The farmers were clamoring to borrow wheat seed, and the reeve’s less than subtle reminder had nearly 700 names on it. It pressed forward the priority of a trip south, and I set to work crafting the documents Kuren demanded while Fana itemized everything Enhedu needed. Dia was as helpful, summoning the Dame to add to the list all the things the keep would need for the summer. It wasn’t long before I recruited her staff and Gern into the effort of preparing a wagon. The destination I had in mind would prevent my going along, but seeing to a prince’s business was what an alsman was for, after all.

  The rest of the day vanished, and it was very late when Dia pulled me up to our room. I was more than content to simply sleep, but she had other ideas. She proved again ferocious, and by the time I was allowed to rest, I was certain if I did not put a few days between when I made her mad or jealous, I would not survive.

  The next morning was another ambush. Gern knocked, entered, and opened shutters to let in the dawn.

  “The wagon is ready, and Leger and Sahin are due to return.”

  Dia took hold of my arm as I rose. “Not back to work already?”

  “Yes, love,” I said, which made her smile, and she hurried to help me make myself princely.

  “Join me when you can,” I urged and hurried to follow my lieutenant down. Fana and one of my heavy wagons waited behind the keep. Leger and Sahin were there as well, walking across the practice field. Behind them, the town was starting to wake.

  “Fana, go get Leger’s case and ...” I started to say as she handed it and a heavy coin purse to me.

  “Morning,” Leger greeted while he inspected the jars in the wagon. “Where are the last of the stewed apples headed? I’ll be sad to see them go.”

  “You and Gern won’t be parting company with them just yet.”

  “Samples to Bessradi of what is to follow?” he asked but did not need me to reply. “Glad to hear it. There is much we could do there.”

  I cocked my head at him. “I spent yesterday worrying about market access and all the supplies we need that Almidi is too small to provide. You have other ideas for what could be accomplished at the capital?”

  “Indeed I do. I have my summer report to deliver. If I do it in person, I can petition to have your stipend increased.”

  “Excellent idea. It should be an interesting trip then. Be careful, though. I have no say in your appointment. I would hate for you to run afoul of Chancellor Parsatayn and be replaced.”

  “Do you think he could find anyone else who would want the job?” He laughed.

  “No, but all the same, be sure to come home to us.” I handed him his case. Gern locked the coin purse in the wagon’s strongbox.

  Leger thumbed through the documents I had prepared, nodded approvingly, and glanced at the accounting of the supplies I wanted purchased. Foremost on it was the wheat seed for Enhedu’s farmers. The large number at the bottom of the sheet represented the last of my coins. I expected him to remind me I would not see the second half of my stipend for at least sixty days or that only a scant few of Enhedu’s villagers would be paying their rents this year in silver.

  He said instead, “I will do what I can to save you some of these coins.”

  “My lord,” Gern interrupted with considerable reluctance, “I have a concern.”

  “Speak it, Lieutenant, though mine are already many.”

  “Weight, my lord.”

  “I’m sorry, Gern, I don’t follow.”

  “80,000 weights of wheat and nails, iron for the smith, and all the rest. I don’t think you have given proper thought to it. This wagon plus a second purchased at Bessradi could bring back no more than 30,000 weights. And one man per wagon would invite disaster upon the mountain road.”

  “Hmm. Yes, not very clever of me at all. What is the status of the men? Could any of them accompany you?”

  Sahin and Leger looked at Fana and then back at me.

  I folded my arms at them. “Fana is too much involved in Enhedu’s business, gentlemen, for us to keep secrets from her.”

  “It is not that,” Leger said. “The staff has been sworn to your secrets and knows the details of the men in the trees. You should have no fear speaking around anyone who works inside the keep. We were looking to Fana because she was supposed to have reported the disposition of the camp to you.”

  “Forgive me,” Fana bowed to them. “Dia and I were working so hard getting everything ready for the trip that I did not get a chance to tell him.”

  They seemed satisfied by her explanation, and Leger told me, “Gern’s troop has been released back to regular garrison duty.”

  I turned to the young lieutenant. “So I should not be surprised to hear your men are waiting for the order to join you and that you have a plan that overcomes the shortcomings of mine?”

  “Yes, sir, with your permission, I mean to spend my portion of the falcon silver on packhorses. A few craftsmen from town also hope to accompany us—make sure we return with the proper materials.”

  “Drayage?” Sahin remarked, looking a bit crestfallen. “I thought you would choose bowyery.”

  “Sorry, Sahin,” he said, “but you know I will never have time for such a craft while on active duty. Owning the animals that will carry Enhedu’s goods seemed a better choice. The garrison and I figure it won’t be long before we are guarding caravans over the mountains, so we thought we might as well own what we guard. All the boys have gone in with me.”

  I tried to do the arithmetic in my head. I wasn’t sure of the size of their shares, the cost of a good animal, or how much weight a packhorse could carry, but it seemed they should be able to afford enough to get the grain back in sound fashion.

  “I suppose it did not occur to you,” I said to Gern with a smile, “that the animals would be earning for you on the trip back.”

  “We’ll only charge a penny per thousand-weight per day—courtesy of Gern and Company.”

  I chuckled at his prepared line, but the ever-critical alsman commented, “Always charge full fare, Lieutenant. Barok’s easy dealing with Enhedu has a horizon to it. If you want your enterprise to succeed, this next year and a half must be as profitable as you can make it.”

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about an alsman speaking against a prince’s coins but could not have agreed more with my Chaukai’s sentiments.

  I told the lieutenant, “Go collect your men. You can negotiate a good rate with my alsman on the way.”

  Gern trotted off, and Leger looked ready to say something else to complicate my morning when Dia appeared around the corner of the keep.

  “There you are,” she said with a smile as she approached. “Good morning, all. Early day for everyone, I see.”

  We all said good mornings, and I offe
red her my arm, but before she could take it, Sahin said, “I was hoping you would join us. There is a situation that needs your attention, if our lord will permit me to ask.”

  I gestured for him to continue, and he explained. “Erom needs help better coordinating the business of the town with the business of the keep and province, and he worries that too many of us are still strangers. We are hoping the matron might join the town meetings so the interests of the staff and the villages will have a voice that won’t go unheard.”

  Dia smiled and laughed. “You mean the morning and evening meals at the meeting hall?”

  Sahin chuckled. “Precisely, yes. We think you should be there.”

  “I would be happy to attend. Is there time yet to join this morning?”

  Sahin nodded, and the pair looked to me. How could I tell them I wanted her to myself? The answer was I could not. Dia’s festival had already taught me quite pointedly the risk of letting strangers stay strangers. My penalty for being blind to it was to eat my meals without her. I nodded with what I hoped was a smile.

  “Very good, Lord Prince.” To Leger he said, “Keep the boys out of trouble.”

  “My greatest skill. They will do fine.”

  They looked ready to salute each other, but the careful Chaukai waved instead, and Sahin led Dia away toward the meeting hall. I could not help but feel like I was being robbed.

  Leger’s voice yanked back my attention. “Was there anything else you needed done while I am at Bessradi? Best to stack up the work if we can.”

  I could not have been happier and whispered, “If you are able to save enough coins, there is something else I need you to get.”

  “Name it.”

  “A wedding bracelet.”

  “Do you mean to ask Lord Vall’s permission?”

  “From my father? No. He would not even receive my correspondence.”

  “So you will marry in secret?”

  “I ... I don’t know yet. Just get a bracelet, will you?”

  His eyes narrowed briefly before he replied, “As I can.”

  “I understand your concern, believe me. We cannot run the risk of someone suspecting that you made the purchase for me. Yarik’s lack of care was the reason I learned he had taken a wife. It very nearly got him hanged. If you feel it is too risky, forgo it. We do not need that kind of attention.”

  “You can count on my discretion.”

  “Thank you. What would I do without you?”

  “Very little.” He shook my hand before he tossed his pack into the back of the wagon and climbed into the box. Gern and his troop trotted into view and clamored into the back of the wide wagon. With them went a handful of craftsmen from the consortium, our mayor, and his son. This made good sense. What did Leger and Gern know about buying what those men needed?

  They waved goodbye to the mothers and wives who had gathered suddenly across the practice field, and Leger got them moving toward the carriageway.

  As they disappeared from view, I began to contemplate how much I was risking and could hardly keep myself from rushing to stop them.

  “Something wrong?” Fana said, putting one of her soft little hands on my arm.

  “I just put our lives in Leger’s hands. No Yentif would ever trust a man with so much. I have left much to chance.”

  “Do not worry, with Gern and the boys along, everything will be fine. Thank you for what you said, by the way. I am glad I have earned your trust as well as theirs. It was getting hard to pretend I didn’t know what the garrison was up to.”

  “You knew?”

  “Most of the staff knew. The story of Edonia was quite a shock, but Leger’s army wasn’t much of a secret to the people who grew up with the men in it. Who do you think added just enough linen, wool, and heavy leather to the list to see all one hundred men into proper tunica, overcoats, and boots?”

  “A hundred?”

  She chuckled. “Shall I give you a report of your greencoats while we make our way to Ojesti?”

  I smiled at the name they had come up with and looked down at the list of things she had planned for my day. A visit to the orchard was next.

  “It would appear I could not get very far without you, either.”

  I found her close then, and she quietly looked up into my eyes. She smelled delicious, and the curve of her breasts begged to be held. My face was suddenly hot. Everyone seemed to be in the meeting hall.

  “I have horses ready for us.” She blushed back at me, thinking perhaps as I did that the stable might be empty at that hour.

  “Seeing you at work, finally, I would be surprised if you did not.”

  She gave me one of her most fetching smiles and led me there by the hand. But when we entered the stable, we found Thell inside saddling a third horse. We let go of each other.

  “Morning,” he greeting without looking at us. “Sorry I’m not moving as quick as you today. Go ahead, and I’ll catch up.”

  We had little choice but to lead the ready horses out and make our way to Ojesti. I thought once to stop us along the road and take her into the woods, but noticed Thell not that far behind on the road. In her nervousness Fana began her report of my greencoats, and after hearing it, I was no longer in the mood.

  The details of the fifty days the men had spent in the dell surprised me as much as the tale of the larger camp the Chaukai were establishing south of Ojesti. When the next set of men had finished their fifty, the greencoats would number six full troops, duly led by a captain, two lieutenants, and seven sergeants. One third of a company of Chaukai verses 250 companies of Hemari.

  I shuddered. Leger had better tiptoe through the Kaaryon. The armies of Zoviya made my ready men seem a tin two-penny next to a mountain of full-weight gold.

  We reached Ojesti just in time to stave off the feeling of doom.

  The forest intersection had a commanding view, and the men working it had already cleared a square of plots. After a few introductions Thell led us out to the orchard.

  It was simply gargantuan. I had not had a proper conception of its size, but stunned as I was, the tale of the work it would take to develop it was nearly too much to be believed.

  Many of the trees would be cut down, and the healthiest would be cut sometimes almost in half. I was startled to hear it, but Thell explained that new growth was what was needed. All the buds would be spliced lower, making the trees shorter and thick with branches. Easier work. More apples. The hardest work would be the immediate need to thin the number of blossoms on the trees and remove competitive plants that stole the trees’ water. I was glad so many who had grown up with the trees had joined the effort.

  The happiest details were in their talk of delivering apples that year. They wondered where I would find enough wagons to haul it all, but were confident that if I did, we would have a truly monstrous crop to send south. Our clever young lieutenant, I smiled, had no doubt heard of their needs as well.

  Thell was equally confident the apples would survive the trip across the Daavum Mountains. The orchard’s apples did not ripen until very late in the year, he told me, and were very hardy because of it. If the crop could be put into proper cellars after picking so the field heat could be gotten out of them, they would keep for a season and could certainly weather the road. It was more than I had allowed myself to hope.

  Fana and I took their words back to the keep. My orchard-owning staff could not have been made happier, and they departed chatting of their hopes for the harvest. Dia missed the news, being busy in the town. I was sad for her loss at my side, though it seemed I would see plenty of Fana.

  But as Fana set me to review Sahin’s latest recommendations for craftsmen worthy of a plot of my land, worries dashed away my idea of how she and I could spend that warm afternoon.

  The young businesses in my midst had to become profitable enough that they could afford to pay my taxes when the pledges expired. And the taxes I would collect from them would, in turn, need to be sufficient for me to afford all the labor
and goods I got for free while they were pledged. It still seemed very likely that what we would end up with was a collection of empty buildings no one could make anything in because no one else could afford to buy what was made. I had just one and one-half years to make sure that didn’t happen, but I could not see a successful ending while my father’s gold was all that came to Enhedu. We would need customers, and it would be some time before an invitation of mine would bring merchants to Enhedu. What a shrieking arrow time could seem.

  46

  Captain Leger Mertone

  Twelve Days Away From Urnedi

  Gern got it right. Managing a six-ox team and two sets of brakes on the mountain road was a four-man job at best. To attempt it alone would have guaranteed destruction. Of the rest of the boys and our passengers though, few had driven a wagon over those mountains. For them, the trip proved to be as much an education as it was an adventure. I had them take turns at the brakes and reins while the rest watched how best to negotiate the turns of the road. Most proved capable drivers, but on a downward slope, the business was something else entirely. Even with the way the road had been built—all the declining turns pointed toward a rock face instead of a cliff’s edge—everyone was glad we would be returning with packhorses. Heavy wagons with heavy loads did not belong on the Enhedu Road.

  We arrived in Almidi no worse for the wear and started around to the crudely named Pormes Manor. It sat atop the harbor, surrounded by the crumbling arm of a sprawling fortress. There had once been wealth in the province of Trace, but of it there was no other sign. The only ships in the harbor were the barges loaded with Enhedu timber. The lads did not enjoy the sight any more than I did.

  I left them at an inn so they could find a hot meal and made my way along the harbor and up the brief hill to the fortress. I was received by an impish attendant and was left to wait a long while in a drafty foyer. When I was finally shown up to the arilas, he proved ruder than described.