3.01: Going Back

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Under the mercifully cloudless sky, square sails snapped above me like a whip in the coastal wind. Our ships sailed northwest through the dark green water, leaving Nordhaven behind.

The Royal ship going the other way kept shrinking, until it was nothing more than a dot.

I could have used my blessing to zoom in, but I decided to refrain from it. I would see Reshma again in a month and a half. Chadom needed my full attention in the meantime.

I turned to face my guards.

“Excited to go back?” I asked them.

Restrained smiles answered back, under pinched noses.

“I thought you would be happier.”

Their eyes found the ship accompanying us. The one whose deck was piled with forty tons of damp earth. Year old topsoil from barns, rich with fermented urine and rotted waste.

It was slightly behind us, so the overpowering stench had found its way to our ship.

Lucky for me, I could turn my sense of smell way down, which I had. The rest were not as fortunate.

“The crew wanted to burn that ship after the first trip,” Jaklen said through a pinched nose. “I had to beg, threaten and make promises I cannot keep for them to sail again. Why do we even need this much dirt, sire? Our valley is plenty fertile.”

“Very good reasons.”

“Secret ones?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t want to ruin the ship with the stench either, but extracting saltpeter from the soil in Nobart was out of the question.

If anyone figured out what nitrate-rich soil could become, I would have far bigger problems than angry sailors. I could only hope our enemies would think me a whackjob obsessed with farming.

Jaklen groaned as another gust full of ammonia swept across the deck.

“Couldn’t we have moved it through the land route?”

“A hundred cartloads through the Bog?” I snorted. “No. Not when a single ship can transport all of it to our shores in less than a day.”

“The crew are not happy about it. They seemed ready to mutiny.”

“I’ll pay them extra.”

“Pay?” he asked in confusion.

Oh, that’s right. I haven’t been paying them anything.

Every single coin we had had gone into either bare survival, grain and cloth, or making me look like the leader of a real nation, so the Queen would take me seriously. There hadn’t been any left for the others.

But finally, finally we were free of the struggle for mere survival.

My lips curved in a broad grin.

“It’s time to kick-start the economy of Chadom, my friend.”

He looked at me, uncomprehending.

“Were you on that ship as well?” I asked.

“Yes. It was one of the worst decisions of my life.”

I fished out a large silver coin and flicked it toward him.

He caught it with ease.

“Consider that your hazard pay, Captain.”

His eyebrows shot up. “That’s very generous of you, sire.”

“The crew will get their share as well.”

“Thank you,” he said, bowing with a flourish. “So, we’re rich now?”

“I wouldn’t say rich. Not yet, but we won’t be at the mercy of the ocean for our sustenance anymore.”

“Good, ‘cuz I am sick of fish. Eating it, smelling it, and the immigrants complaining about it.”

“Come again?”

“The Nanoans, sire. They might not have much, but they’re still city folk. Whining is in their blood. Every week they have a new complaint. ‘We were left in the middle of nowhere. There is no running water. Wild animals will attack us.’”

I grimaced. The poor bastards were suffering due to me. In my defense, I couldn’t have known about what would happen in Aldersthron in advance.

“How is the construction of the insulae apartments for them going?”

His voice dropped. “Fine, sire. As per your orders, we have prioritized it. At a cost.”

“What cost?”

“The speed of construction at Cradle. We won’t be able to build enough houses for us all before winter.”

I resisted the urge to grimace. “The castle?”

“Rising. The stone wall is taller than a story now.”

“So we will at least have almost a hundred rooms ready before winter,” I said with hope in my voice. “That’s shelter for five hundred people.”

My decision to make a large shell keep was finally going to pay dividends.

To my surprise, Jaklen’s expression remained dark. “Seeing those buildings meant for Nanoans rise up, our people now want their own houses. Many are grumbling about us prioritizing them over our own people, while they still sleep in tents.”

“They are not Nanoans anymore.”

I didn’t say “one of us.” That would take time.

His eyes didn’t meet mine.

“Speak freely.”

He glanced at the sailors before lowering his voice. “That’s not what anyone thinks, sire. Nor the Cha, neither the immigrants themselves.”

The sail kept snapping, while seagulls cried around us.

I let out a breath of exasperation.

These people-problems were going to haunt me forever.

“We need them. None of the Cha know how to make ships and how to sail.”

“Immigrants, milord?” Darron asked.

I turned. The big man stood near the mast, next to Ansel, Rowan and Harald. The two youngsters looked ill, while the older men stood straight.

“Ah, sorry for ignoring you. Everyone, let me introduce you all to Master Darron, Ansel, Rowan and Harald.” I gestured to them. “They are going to help our nation become a real powerhouse.”

Darron nodded in the gruff manner of a soldier, while Ansel and Rowan bowed deeply, eyes wide in fear. Harald, as the former head steward to a noble, bowed sharply.

“Master Darron is a barber surgeon with decades of experience, Ansel is a master glassblower, Rowan is a master brewer and Harald will be my butler.”

The soldiers’ eyes widened, as they turned to look at Rowan like predators hunting their quarry.

The poor young man shrank under their gaze.

I realize too late I had made a mistake telling them about him.

“I brought him with me for an important task. He’s not here to get you sloshed.”

Men grumbled in disappointment.

“If you want to get close to someone, it’s Master Darron. He will be teaching you battlefield first-aid.”

“First-aid?” one soldier asked.

“Aye. That’s what milord calls immediate medical care. Too many soldiers die because they don’t know how to staunch a bleed or how to take care of a dressed wound.” Then he turned to me. “Gerrin could have done this as well as me, milord. On the other hand, I dunno if he could wrangle our ‘young charges’ into obedience.”

“Stop whining, Darron. If I had left you back there you would have butted heads with whoever the Church will send to investigate my ‘unnatural’ methods and gotten yourself burned alive.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it.

I couldn’t help but smile. The man was obstinate, but smart.

Grumbling, he stomped off towards his packs, while I turned my attention to the man in charge of this trip, who hadn’t spoken a word.

The tall and stern third-in-command of our military stood to the side, his face as expressionless as ever.

“How have you been, Rafiel?”

“Fine, sire,” he said in his usual monotone,

The men around him hid smiles and sniggers behind their hands.

“What is it?” I asked his adjutant.

“Nothing, sire. Commander Rafiel has a delicate stomach.”

“Just like you,” a younger soldier piped up.

I narrowed my eyes.

“Who told you that?”

“Umm… Captain Jaklen was describing your heroic defense of the Queen’s envoy, and the journey to the capital.”

I looked around for the prick, who had wisely made himself scarce.

Rafiel had been watching me carefully.

“What has been Jaklen hiding from me?”

“There have been many changes in Chadom, sire.”

“Such as?”

“Lady Aprilia told us to not inform you. She wants it to be a surprise.”

“Lady Aprilia?”

“A lot happened in the last few weeks.”

“Nothing bad, I hope?”

He paused to think, making my heart jump.

“Overall, no.”

I took a breath of relief. As long as she was safe.

“Alright, keep your secrets.”

The wind kept up throughout the afternoon. I had feared another bout of sea-sickness, but was thankfully spared from it. As the sky turned orange, the Treacherous Bog that had been our constant companion finally gave way to trees a kilometer ahead of us.

Dense forest rose along the coastline, dark beneath the orange sun.

Chadom.

At the border’s edge where the sea met stone, a tiny point of light flickered.

I zoomed in, and the world sharpened.

A wooden lighthouse came into view, perched at the edge of the cliffs. It’s fire sharpened by a brass reflector. It had been just a foundation when I had left for Nanon. Now it stood tall, a beacon for our ships.

As our ships approached the border, men at the base of the lighthouse noticed us and began waving.

We waved back. I was sure a rider must have left to inform the others. We might have beaten him, if only the shore wasn’t too dangerous to sail at speed.

After a minute, the ships’ crews closed the sails. As they slowed down, I spotted two boats approaching us from the harbor that lay ahead, rowed by a dozen men each.

“How did they manage to get here this quickly?” I asked my men.

“Light mirrors,” Rafiel answered. “We built a tower on East gate as per your order. The man on the lighthouse must have sent a signal to it.”

“Good job.”

The boats stopped next to us and the sailors aboard the ship threw ropes to them. The men on the boats tied the ropes to their vessels and went back to rowing, pulling the ship carefully through the shallows.

Peering to the side, I could see rocks only a meter or two beneath the surface that would destroy any ship stupid enough to sail there without guidance.

The few flimsy excuses of boats the Cha had built dotted the harbor, still being used by the fishermen. Those not hauling in catches raised their hands to cheer us as our ship moved deeper into the harbor.

The coast that came into view wasn’t the one I had left. Only a few months ago, it had been a pristine beach, broken by a few rickety docks built of driftwood. Now, two ships as large as the one I was on dominated the view, moored at docks that covered the wet sand.

I’d have to convince Laira to let me keep all four of them.

Hundreds of people were gathered there. Behind them stood four half-built insulae. The beginning of our very own port town. The smell of sea was now joined by tar and wood dust. Looking around, I spied the skeleton of a half-built boat.

Chadom hadn’t waited for me. Good.

The tugboats released their ropes and let our ship approach the dock on its own momentum.

While the men rushed forward to secure the line, I had eyes only for the dock, or rather one woman standing there.

Aprilia stood at the front of the gathered crowd in a lime-green dress, her silver-gray eyes ablaze in the light of the setting sun.

Wind-tossed loose strands of hair danced across her face, but she stood still amid the chaos around her.

Relief overpowered the murmurs of anxiety in my head.

For the first time since leaving Chadom, my chest truly loosened.

I was finally home.