Hostages, page 26
Everyone was there, and most were still standing, not getting at the food yet, so he waved for them to do that part. They had the right number of places, after all. A thing that Gull noticed, with an upraised eyebrow.
“That’s fine. We have the coin. I’m working on getting raw metals after this, if I can. It will take the rest of the day, possibly. I need to practice fighting, too. With magic and without. That will... Probably have to be on the ship. Gull, you’re in charge of that for us? We need to push people that way. Including me. Possibly some of the ship’s crew, if we have any real time on board. I’m planning to use the winds at the maximum the mast will allow for, if I can talk Captain Enna into it. We have food for three weeks, in case that doesn’t work. Sea travel is always a guess that way.”
Princess Lissa, who was in a rich seeming brown robe, with a light flower pattern to it, which was delicately done and matched her eyes, brushed her straight black hair out of her face as she settled next to Anders.
Her voice was nicely conversational.
“I’ll help, with the winds? I think the two of us can do it, if we take turns.”
He started to nod, but Far rolled his eyes, smiling in his direction. That was, clearly, because the young looking, but ancient fellow thought that he and Lissa made a good couple. Probably, at least. Just in case, he glanced around the table, and then shook his head.
“No. It might be slower, but we need everyone to take a turn at it, if allowed to us. We’ll also be handling the food and getting ready as we move. Everyone will need to work, the whole time for this first portion. That could mean scrubbing a clean deck at times, or sealing timber seams below decks. Collin, you’re on food for the voyage, as far as the meals. I bought that today, the working supplies. We’ll also be working as the servants, for the meals.” He waited for the glaring to come.
Which it did, almost instantly.
Mainly from Ezola, of course. A little from Apprentice Great One Salina. Only one of them seemed ready to scream and throw a fit, and it wasn’t the soft and bratty princess.
Anders didn’t let Ezola speak.
“We’re using magic for it, so will need to arrange for new spells, so we can do it correctly. Apprentice Niven, you’re in charge of uniforms for the men. Everyone on board, as far as clothing goes. Including Depak Sona, and he’ll need very well-done robes, so start paying attention to what he enjoys that way. Everyone needs to practice fighting in some fashion, each day.”
Gull grinned.
“That’s the way of it, then. Now, Niven... I don’t know everyone here yet.”
The small, pale boy, raised his hand, and got a solid nod in return.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Gull. This crew... Good enough men for pirates, I suppose. They might try to take advantage of some of these people. How are we stopping that?” There was no question as to if they were going to. Just how.
Anders waved across the table.
“Everyone will look out for themselves, but Journeyman Walden will also be keeping a watch. If there’s trouble starting, you stop it. If it comes to it, you might have to fight one or more of the men. Also, don’t steal on the ship. If you do that, you’ll have to fight the wronged party. Otherwise, Walden will do that for us.”
That got an interesting response from Duke Ford.
“Good. It won’t be a problem, of course. If anyone tries to do anything to you that you don’t enjoy, kill them. We don’t have time to be too soft, any longer.”
Chapter eighteen
After the meal, Anders went outside, not calling for anyone to come with him. He moved to the line of trees, the broad leaves swaying gently in the summer scented breeze. Once there, he tucked himself under his favorite one, which had a bare patch of flat, soft moss, underneath. In the shade, which was just about right for him to enjoy, on a sunny summer day.
Settling, his legs crossed, he tried not to notice how many people had come to watch him experiment. Given that he was probably going to fail, possibly several times in a row, he felt awkward. As if everyone had come to watch him do exactly that. Which, interestingly, Farad didn’t care about at all. No, to him, the old man with his nearly hundred years of life and learning, the idea that people would see him struggle with something was a good thing.
Anders didn’t see it, himself, but ignored everyone, and focused until only blackness existed in his mind. Then he sought the sense of gold, to see if there was any in the ground, nearby. Interestingly, there was some, no more than a mile away. Nearly straight down, of course. With silver there was some closer to the surface, just inside the woods. When he sought iron, he was nearly tossed out of his trance. The world was made of the stuff, it seemed. That wasn’t the real case, but it was so common that he decided to try to move that first, even if it was a dense and heavy metal.
The movement needed to be guided by wizardry the whole time, at least to set the lines of force. He made a small channel, no bigger around than his thumb, deep into the earth below him. At the far end of the smoothed energy flow, he created an area, using a spell, in which all of the iron in the rock would become intangible. Only a small piece at a time, however. Then, slowly, it was drawn to him, directly up the controlled line. Each bit of metal no larger than a grain of sand.
The end point was about two handspans above the ground, the pure iron collecting on the ground, falling into place. It occurred to him, once it was set, that he could have gotten a cloth or something for it to be caught on. When he opened his eyes, to see if anything at all was happening, feeling like it was, he noticed that the stream of red and black metal was emptying into a plain wooden box that seemed like the type that goods were carried in. When it was filled to a handspan, Duke Ford nodded.
“End that now? We’ll be too hard pressed to carry it, if we put more than this in it. This probably weighs more than I do, as it stands.
Anders looked at it, noting that only a few moments had taken place since he’d started. Sixteen breaths. True, those were slow, but no more than a few minutes.
“Fen.”
The flow stopped and there was a gentle thump from the ground, the iron becoming tangible inside of the rock, probably. That was a poor way of doing it, so he noted the idea. He could simply finish bringing the currently intangible material up to the surface before the spell ended. It would need a new order to make happen properly, but what he had would work well enough for the moment.
Oddly, several of the people there clapped, which meant he looked up. Shocked to find Princess Peri and Prince Robarts there, along with Princess Mathia. Robarts smiled, looking at the box with an odd, strained expression on his bearded face. That was short and well kept, seeming more golden and lighter in the direct sunlight.
The Heir slowly exhaled.
“How difficult was that for you? You found a seam of ore nearby?”
Anders thought for a moment, still in a trance, and nodded.
“It’s complex, in a way, and uses wizardry constantly. The energy portion is decent, but everyone here could do this, I believe. I could have done it faster, but this seems a good pace, if you had to work for a full day on it. About as hard as smoothing and hardening a road?” Most of the people there nodded, having done that at least a few times.
Then he shrugged.
“Iron is everywhere. If we want gold, or gems, silver too, it might pay to find a good collection of it, and use that, going to the spot, to save on work. I should attempt some gems. Those will be larger pieces, so it will take more effort. There are...” He went silent, casting his mind out, and collected a fist sized emerald from about four miles away, deep inside the ground. There were a lot of good gems close by, he noticed.
That, finally, made a deep thump as it moved into the box.
Duke Ford swore in response.
“By all gods! That single stone is a life’s fortune.”
It was pretty enough, in a misshapen and lumpy pale green fashion, he guessed, when he saw it with his eyes. A nice color, he supposed, but not the well-shaped and glittering gem he was used to seeing. He picked it up, the weighty thing requiring him to strain a bit. Not too much though. It was a big rock, but only about the size of both of his hands put together.
Looking at the rock, he shrugged. Farad took over them, and stood, doing it smoothly, the stone held at the same time. That was passed to Lyse.
“There you go. A gift. Not that it gets anyone out of learning how to do this. We can practice on the ship? Now, this works. It needs to be refined as a skill, but we’ll all be able to do this soon.”
Lyse looked at the stone, several of the others staring at it, then her. Anders didn’t think it was that large of a matter, even if it was worth a lot. He wasn’t even upset with Farad for giving the big rock away. It might be worth a fortune, but the truth was, wealth didn’t mean anything to him. Not truly. He had what he needed and likely would, as long as he could do the needed work.
Making riches a thing to share and to use to aid those around him.
Dusting off his trousers, just using his hands, he glanced at everyone there, who had gone quiet, for the moment. Depak smiled, and waved at the iron in the box.
“We should also make some weapons? This is pure iron, and we’ll need other things to make it truly strong, but this is an excellent starting place. When we return, we should see to setting some individuals to such efforts as their primary occupation, perhaps?”
That, doing one single type of work most of the time felt like it would be boring, to Anders. Unless they were allowed to travel as well, perhaps. Interestingly, Prince Robarts started to nod, rather firmly.
“Yes. That will be recommended to my father. You can work with these materials, as well? Is that, your people here are military, in design, but some of them could be put to making magical weaponry and armor? At least in times of need. It has been...” He glanced at Lyse, then Mary, finding Niven last, his face going hard at the end. “Some people who might be very good at magic, would harm morale if they were sent into danger too often. Work like this, and supplying the fighters and other mages is an honorable task as well, however.”
The man actually tensed up, as did a few of the others, Walden for instance. So did Salina, but Lissa gave a small nod, and Duke Ford cleared his throat.
“That probably won’t be available to this first group. It certainly can’t for the Great Ones, either. I mean, I don’t think we should treat them in such a fashion. For our forces, well, we should hold them from battle until they’re sixteen, and pregnant women have no place on the battlefield, but for the moment we don’t have that level of force available.”
There was something in what he was saying. The man seemed hard, but Anders, recalling what King Matheus had told him, used wizardry to sense what was being suggested to his way of thinking. Which was that he figured most of the apprentices wouldn’t see combat, if at all possible, but they wanted each of them working hard, daily, to be ready, just in case. He also didn’t want to insult them. Not even Niven.
Anders nodded though.
“This is a bit rushed, traveling to a war zone like this, so we can’t afford to be weakened that way, agreed. The plan is to hold some of you back from the front, if at all possible, but even then, you might all see battle.” He looked at Salina, who had been to war, then glanced at Mary, who had once ended up a prisoner of Yanse, for some hours, as only a camp follower.
Locking eyes with Anders, she tightened.
“We need to be able to fight. All of us. Working together, too, in case we have to face hundreds of the enemy at one time. I don’t know how to do that. I can hit things with a stick?”
She could do more than that, but Anders took her meaning. Real war was a different beast than fighting one or even two other people. Interestingly, Duke Ford made a noise then.
“Good thought, Miss. Now, what’s the plan?”
That was mainly getting ready to travel. A thing they needed to be doing, starting the next morning. It wasn’t that late in the day, but, as it turned out, not everyone was ready to go on an ocean voyage at that moment.
Even Anders wasn’t.
“I need to hire a driver and another wagon. Two drivers, since they’ll need to bring the oxen and heavy wagon back here. I’m not certain where to go to for that.” Probably back into the city, since it was where people there lived.
Gull shrugged.
“Borrow one from the royal holding and we’ll set a few of the men to act as drivers? We’ll have to ask first, but it should be allowed. Honestly, we need a coach or two as well, for the fine types that are going with us. The rest of us will ride in a wagon, of course.” The man was jesting, about the coaches.
At least Anders thought it was the case. Duke Ford actually tapped his lips.
“That makes sense. I’ll set that up. Are we meeting here or at the castle?”
Thinking, Anders finally shrugged.
“Let’s meet in front of the castle? We need to head that direction at best speed. We can do that at first light? That’s a push, but we need to do what we can, even if it means losing sleep.”
Several of the people took deep breaths, but Depak smiled.
“We’ll be ready. Thank you, Duke Ford, for arranging that for us. Now, we should all prepare, packing for travel. If you need anything, clearly, get with Anders or...” He glanced at the others, then shrugged. “Journeyman Walden. Meet here, before dark.”
Then the man, bald and mustached, the hair on the side of his head a few inches long finally, turned with a flourish and walked away. Everyone else did the same thing, then, with Duke Ford starting to pick up the case filled with iron. He did it, grunting, but Anders shook his head on seeing it.
“Use magic for it? You know how.” Anders thought that was the case, anyway.
The man set the case down, then muttered, the words all familiar sounding. Slowly, the box rose in the air, the fellow not breathing hard to make that happen at all. The box even followed him as he walked away. They were missing Jasmin, he noticed, finally.
“Oh, Duke Ford? Please remind Princess Jasmin to hold to good practice? I don’t want her to fall behind.”
Those words got him smiled at, as the man turned.
“Ah? She’ll be glad to hear that, coming from you. She hasn’t been certain what level of magic she was allowed to learn, to be truthful. Is she allowed to take lessons?”
Anders didn’t hesitate, nodding instantly.
“We won’t have people to help with that... I’ll contact her with instructions? I have some people doing that already. Tell her to expect that? I’m sure it will be welcome, having me speaking in her ear several times a week.” He fought a smile, not really meaning it.
Waving, Lyse making her new present float into the air, to follow along behind her, she joined the group heading back to the castle. That had Prince Robarts in it, as well as his wife and daughter, so they’d probably be let in, at the far end.
Anders moved back to his own room, unpacking his travel bag, cleaning everything with spells, and altering some of the clothing, then folding and rolling it tightly, then pulled enough gold and silver to hide at the bottom that he doubted more would be needed for the trip. Regardless, he took one of the bigger chests, already filled with coins and then a second one, to go with them. One being for Baron Belford and his wife, down in Barquea. The other for the men he had looking to stop slavery, as well as a gift for the Sea Leopard and her crew.
Everyone else would have their own travel funds, as well. He hoped that would be enough. If not, something would have gone very wrong, with their travel arrangements. In the main, he didn’t want to go room to room checking each person’s gear, since that could be insulting to them. Still, he risked it with Niven, who was actually doing a good job with his gear, having added to it, in the last days.
At least he had several full outfits worth of clothing, in a second pack.
The boy waved at it, seeing Anders glancing that way.
“Depak Sona, he gave me some cloth, to make these from, to use as a base for my clothing. I didn't bring much from home, being we were on horses for the trip. Is... I’m supposed to see to all the uniforms? Are we doing that? I didn’t know I was in the Army, but Princess Lissa said that was right, so we all might need uniforms?”
Anders hadn’t thought about that, but made a considering face.
“That sounds right. We’re in red and brown for that. I think that we can make up what the uniform is, as long as we all match? We’ll need some kind of badge, as well. I don’t know, let me think about that portion?”
Niven looked at his gear, and tensed.
“Do you think I really might have to fight like that? I’m scared. That isn’t manly of me.”
Anders chuckled, but spoke instantly, since that could be taken the wrong way.
“Most people are afraid of battle. The trick is in not showing it at the wrong time. Even then, if it comes, then yes, you might have to fight. You know enough to do so, using magic, already. We’ll be practicing that, as well, so don’t let it worry you too much. You also won’t be going to the front. That means being ready, but only that.” He made a silly face then, and explained. “Don’t tell, but we really just don’t want anyone to get lazy on the trip. You really won’t see anything like that. Keep that between us and practice really hard, anyway? Some of us will be at the front, and we need to be ready for it.”
The boy took a deep breath, and nodded.
“So, are you saying that because it’s true, or so that I won’t worry about it too much?”
Anders winked.
“Yes. That’s it. Both of those. The practice won’t be wasted though, and is part of what you’re expected to keep up with, from now on, even if we treat you too much like a little child once we get into position. I’ll try not to do that too much, of course. That would be annoying, don’t you think?”
Nodding, Niven seemed slightly reassured.
“It would be. I know I’m not a man, expected to hold to that level, but I should do what I can. Seeing to clothing and trying to learn what I can, in case it ever does become needed. I just... I get scared and everyone else is so good at everything. I don’t think I can keep up.”
