Helke’s eyes sparkled. “My lady, if we do this right, people will sail directly to Earton to buy from us.”
“Do you think so? For now, you need to rest and I need to speak with the king’s envoy.”
“My lady, be cautious in your dealings with him.”
“I am the one who asked for him.”
“Yes, and Baron Avermal wrote to the nearest envoy, but this is a different man. He arrived in Altver on a military ship with instructions to follow to Earton.”
“When did he arrive?”
Helke gave the date and Lily pondered for a moment. By her calculations, Taris Brok and her father had nothing to do with it. The envoy was obviously here for some reason other than to simply take the would-be murderer off her hands.
“Thank you, Helke. I will be very cautious.” She turned to go into the castle.
“My lady!” She turned. It was Ali, holding the bridle of a… of a…
Lily had never been crazy about horses, but as soon as she set eyes on the stallion – and she could tell right away that he was a stallion – she knew she had to love him. She saw a fire-red coat, a long, black tail, a black mane, and enormous dark eyes. The stallion stamped his fine, long legs and tossed his long, thin head. He was gorgeous and he knew it.
“This is an Avarian stallion.” Ali was proud. “We never sell our mares. They stay in the Khanganate. This one is named Lidar. It means “wildfire.” I would like to give him to you as a gift.
Lily almost fell over. “But…”
Ali was decisive. “This is the most valuable thing a Khangan can have, and it is the least I can give you for saving my life.” She looked into his face. He would not back down.
“I thank you for this gift, and for finding me to be worthy of it. It is truly a gift for a king.”
“For a queen,” Omar whispered.
Lily smiled at him and turned to the horse. She approached him slowly and reached into her pocket, where – thank the gods! – she found an apple (it was autumn and there were apples everywhere, so Lily had taken to snacking on them). The stallion took the apple neatly with its lips. Then it sniffed her hair, snorted into her ear, and seemed to decide that she was worth his attention. Lily was lost to the world around her. The horse was wonderful. She could already imagine riding around the estate. Then a terrible thought occurred to her.
“Will my grooms be able to take proper care of him? They will do anything I say, but I’m sure they’ve never seen a beast like this before.”
“I will leave you my own groom, my lady. He will care for Lidar.”
Only then did Lily notice the short, dark man standing by the horse.
“This is Lisam,” said Ali. “He will remain with the stallion. I brought enough feed for several months.”
Lily could no longer contain her thanks. Ali was pleasantly gratified.
That evening, a large group gathered around the dinner table. The countess was joined by Miranda, Chevalier Lons Avels, the king’s envoy Chevalier Tremain, Ali and Omar. Lily invited Erik, but he declined, as did Tahir Djiaman din Dashar. Helke knew not to expect an invitation. After all, an Eveer could not be seen at the same table with such company. Leif and Ingrid were not at the castle, but Pastor Vopler joined the party at dinner, as did Maria Reichart, who wanted to keep an eye on Miranda’s manners (and Lily’s, as well).
Lons directed the conversation skillfully, often drawing the guests’ attention to the earl’s neglect of his estate and to all the hard work the countess was forced to take on her lovely shoulders. Hans listened intently. Ali spoke warmly in the countess’ favor. Maria pecked neatly at her food and gave whispered instructions to Miranda. The pastor supported Lons’ account of affairs at the castle and praised the countess for undertaking to rebuild his church. Omar said nothing, but kept his shining eyes on the countess throughout dinner. In a word, everyone was busy.
Problems did not start until the next morning, after Lily bade farewell to the Khangans and turned her attention to the king’s envoy. She invited him to join her in her study. When he sat down, he changed his manner almost immediately. Gone was the kindly man from dinner the night before. In his place, Lily saw the Grand Inquisitor.
“My lady, what can you tell me?”
Lily was not the least bit phased. “About what matter, Leir Hans? You will have to be more specific, since so much has happened lately.”
“Let us start with the complaint you filed.”
“You refer to the attempt on my life?”
“Yes.”
Lily took a scroll from her desk. It was the record Pastor Vopler had written out of the questioning. “I have nothing to hide. Read this.”
Hans raised an eyebrow. Apparently, he had expected her to react differently. Lily suspected he knew how to make an impression on the locals, but she – or Aliya, rather – had seen worse. Plus, she had read plenty of mystery novels.
Now he wants to play “bad cop.” We’ll see about that.
When he saw the countess had nothing more to say, Hans started to read the scroll. His eyebrows kept going up and up. Lily watched, idly wondering how many wrinkles he could fit onto his forehead. Three? Four?
“My lady, how ever did you survive…”
“It was a miracle,” Lily sighed. “My guards saved me just in time.” That wasn’t exactly the truth, but she had no intention of sharing everything with this man.
“And this scoundrel says…”
“That he was hired by the lover of my husband’s mistress. The man is still alive, by the way. You can ask him anything you like.”
“I will be taking him with me.”
“Thank you for that. We barely have enough food to go around for the winter. I’d rather not feed the wretch.”
“Not enough food? But…”
“Leir Hans, do you have any idea what condition the estate is in? Do you see how hard we are all working?”
“I see that, my lady, but…”
Lily later reflected that the monologue she gave at that point should have been set to music. It was pure Greek tragedy. The way she told it, she had only the faintest memory of her life before the miscarriage. She suspected she may have been poisoned. She had no proof, why should a healthy young woman suddenly fall down the stairs and lose a large chunk of her memory? It was strange, to say the least.
Leir Hans had doubts on that point, but he didn’t want to argue with the countess.
Lily went on. She told him about her thieving estate manager and pulled out all the account books she had found. She told him that Etor had fired her guards, and that he had been selling local youths into slavery. She invited him to ask the servants or anyone else he liked. He could question every single person in Earton and she would ensure their cooperation.
Once he realized that the countess was telling the absolute truth, the envoy’s heart fell. He had hoped that this would be an easy job – just talk to the hysterical woman, calm her down, and make haste back to the capitol. Unfortunately, now he could see that the woman was not hysterical, and that the situation was serious. She also had serious guards at the castle.
“Why do you have these Virmans, my lady?”
“What if the slave traders come back? My husband is not interested in my safety, so I have to think for myself. And for his daughter, as well.”
“But I see that his soldiers are here.”
“Fifteen men? Do you find that to be a sufficient number?”
“Perhaps not, but from the looks of it, you are preparing to defend the castle from a siege.”
“Better prudent than dead,” Lily shot back. “Although prudence is not cheap.”
“What about the estate’s revenues?”
“What revenues? That man Etor stole everything but the curtains in my bedroom. I know he had accomplices. One of them happens to be sitting in the dungeon right now. I also have four slave traders locked up. Since we’re on the topic, I also have several dozen people that my Virmans saved from the slav
e traders. Go speak to them, if you like! In short, Earton is a terrible state. I have no idea what the earl was thinking of when he sent me here. I know that he does not love me, but I can’t understand why he would send his daughter here, too. I suppose he wants to be done with both of us.”
“Watch your words, my lady!”
Lily laughed bitterly. “Watch my words? Leir Hans, I don’t have to convince you of anything with my words. Ride around Earton and talk to people. Question the men in the dungeon. Then decide for yourself what is going on.”
“What about these Eveers?”
“Where else was I supposed to turn for money?”
“And the Khangans?”
“My Virmans saved their leader, Ali, from being trampled by a bull. He came to express his gratitude for saving his life.”
Lily did her best to turn every topic back to her husband. If he hadn’t abandoned her, she never would have had to raise money and hire guards. She was a weak, frightened woman who had been left to a cruel fate.
After half an hour’s talk with the countess, Hans headed down to the dungeon. Lily gave vent to some elaborate profanity (looking over her shoulder after every word). Then she went out to the stable to see her Avarian stallion. She wondered if her husband would try to take him from her. She hoped not.
Alex was working to pull off the plan that had been devised by his dear Adele. He had already hired a soldier from the unit that was following the earl’s daughter to Earton. In truth, he was not very hopeful of the man’s success, but it was worth a try. Adele was good at getting information out of the earl. She knew when Lady Miranda was supposed to leave with the soldiers, and five days had been plenty of time for Alex to pick a man. One man was not enough, however, so Alex sold Adele’s costly ruby brooch, earrings and ring (gifts from the earl) and went to strike a bargain with the leader of a band of mercenaries.
“One hundred coins.”
“Five hundred.”
“One hundred and fifty.”
“You’re joking. Six hundred wouldn’t be enough for a job like that.”
“I won’t give you more than two hundred. All you have to do is ride out there, pretend to be pirates or brigands, kill a couple of people and ride off. There aren’t any guards to speak of, and even if there were, there are fifty of you in your band. You won’t be outnumbered.”
“If the king finds out, he will hunt us down like dogs.”
“Don’t get caught. The estate is a backwater. No one will know.”
“She’s a countess. If we get caught, they’ll break us on the wheel. Four hundred.”
“Two hundred. That’s my final offer.”
“That’s not enough for the murders and the simulated attack.”
“It would take you six months to earn that much.”
That was the truth, but the mercenary made one more attempt. “Two hundred and fifty.”
“Two hundred. And ten more for you if you pull it off.”
“We want to see the money.”
“I’ll pay twenty upfront and the rest when you return.”
“It’s a deal.”
“Where do we go?”
“Earton.”
“But that’s the end of the world…”
“Not true. You’ll be there in three weeks.”
“It’ll take longer this time of year.”
“Bad weather is already included in the price.”
Alex was a reckless haggler. He had pulled together three hundred gold coins using every trick he knew, and he was prepared to fight to the death for each one of them. The jewelry hadn’t been enough. He had been forced to borrow against other assets, but that didn’t stop him.
All that mattered was that he had found a group of mercenaries who agreed to do the job. They weren’t the best out there, but there were forty-five of them. That should be plenty to take out Lilian Earton and little Miranda Catherine.
The mercenaries didn’t like anything about the job, but they had gone many months without work after a regrettable incident in which they had played too hard with other men’s girlfriends and ended up stabbing a couple of idiots. Now they were forced to take on an assignment that they would normally have turned down. In the end, they decided to sail out to Earton and see how things went. Their leader didn’t like the looks of this particular client, but the advance was sufficient and – who knows? – they might pick up other valuables while they were there.
Two men met in the shadows of the woods.
“When are they supposed to arrive?”
“They said they would get here before the storms start.”
“The storms are already here.”
“Then they’ll be here any day.”
“We have to warn them, or else the Virmans will see them.”
“See them? There’s about fifty of them. They’ll run right over the Virmans.”
“You think so?”
“There’s nothing to think about. The countess doesn’t have that many Virmans, and they’re all spread out. Some are at the shore, others are in the villages. Some are off on odd jobs, and some of them are sick. If they’re lucky, they can get twenty men together at short notice. They’ll be overrun.”
“Still, maybe we should send a boy to warn them?”
“Go ahead, if you want.”
“I’ll send my son to the dock. He can wait for them there.”
All the next week, Lily was up to her ears in work. She left castle affairs up to Emma and farm work to Ingrid, who went with Leif to see what kind of stores the villagers had for the winter. At the last minute, Lily had asked them to take Pastor Vopler with them. Before they left, she took Leif aside and reminded him that no one expected him to change his religion, but that he should avoid offending Pastor Vopler at all costs.
Leif frowned. “What do you need this man for?”
“Because he is the pastor. I have fifteen hundred people on the estate and one little church. He wants to find a place to put a second church, so let him do it. And don’t bother him if he wants to hold services in the villages. You don’t have to attend.”
Leif grimaced, but promised to tolerate the pastor. “He can do as he likes, Holosh[4] take him.”
Lily repeated her admonishment to be careful and keep both eyes open. She wanted to know where Etor went after she kicked him out. Leif nodded grimly. Once again, Lily saw quite clearly that Leif – cutthroat and sea wolf – wouldn’t be in Earton at all if it weren’t for Ingrid. She wondered if she would ever find a husband who cared for her that strongly. She doubted it. And in all honesty, if her prince on a white horse had ridden up just then, Lily would have told him to go to hell. She didn’t have time for love.
There were too many important things going on that needed her attention. After Tahir Djiaman din Dashar read through her notes on human anatomy, he begged her to share the source of her information with him. Thinking quickly, Lily told him that she didn’t know what the source was called. When she was a girl, she had found some old scrolls at her father’s house that interested her. They were falling apart, so she had copied them for her own benefit. If he wished, she would look for the rest. He did wish it, very much so.
When she was alone, Lily put her head in her hands and began to think. She had already written out what she remembered of anatomy and pharmacology – her two worst subjects. She had planned to move on to pediatrics and surgery, but now she thought it might be more useful if she wrote out her notes on nursing. Once that was done, they could organize a nursing course at the castle.
That’s what I’ll do. I’ll write out everything I know about nursing: how to prevent infections, how to treat bed sores, all the different ways to dress wounds. Tahir can take that and teach others, and I’ll pretend to be learning from him, too.
Meanwhile, Lons was setting up a school for all the children running around the castle. The Virmans had brought twenty children with them, boys and girls ranging from three to twelve. Lily told the tutors they would be
teaching all of them, as well as Miranda and the pastor’s son, Mark. Anyone who didn’t like the terms of employment was free to leave. The tutors wisely decided to adapt to the new conditions.
After the children had their lessons, they were marched out in small groups to help the adults with their work. Emma found a job for each child, even Mirrie. The earl’s daughter whined, but she had to learn to manage a household along with all the other children.
Once the small people were used to their new routine, Lily sat down with the blacksmith and the glassblower, who had brought back plenty of sand and chalk from the shore, and tried to work out a process for making high quality glass. She knew that large pieces of glass were cast onto a layer of molten pewter, but they would need tools that the blacksmith was not sure how to make.
Their first attempt was a learning experience for all three. They blended quartz sand, soda and lime using a ratio Lily remembered from her school days, heated it until it melted and poured it into a mold. When the glass cooled, they saw with disappointment that it was full of large bubbles. Lily’s only consolation was that they had made a small batch.
For the next batch, they poured the glass onto a layer of molten pewter, and it cooled into a smooth, even layer. However, the bubbles remained a problem. Eventually, the blacksmith came up with a tool that could be used to stir air bubbles out of the glass before it cooled. They also did a better job of sifting and grinding the sand, and their third batch turned out a decent piece of glass.
After their twelfth attempt, Lily picked up a sheet of perfect clear glass and felt immense pride.
That’s why I never skipped chemistry. With a little chemistry, you can accomplish anything!
The blacksmith and glassblower were just as proud of their contributions to the enterprise. Lily knew the theory behind glassmaking, but they did all the hands-on work themselves and did it well. Never one to rest on her laurels, Lily suggested that they add a little iron oxide for green-tinted glass and sulfur for brown glass. She hadn’t found any cobalt or manganese yet, so blue and red glass would have to wait.
The Clearing Page 24
