3.09: New friends

Darron’s eager hairy face appeared the moment I knocked. It fell the instant I tried to enter the room.

As he reluctantly stepped aside, Harald rose immediately and bowed. Ansel and Rowan jolted upright as if shocked. They made an admirable attempt at copying him.

“I hope you weren’t too inconvenienced,” I said.

They looked at me with confusion.

Oops. Too unlike a noble.

Harald was the first to recover. “Thank you for your concern, my lord. Or should I use sire?”

“Whichever suits you.”

“We are happy to see you fine and well this mornin’, sire,” Darron said, smiling. His hand hovered in the air, as if about to pat me on the back, before he pulled it back. “We worried what might happen to us if you’d swallowed poison.”

I let him keep his assumptions.

“Let’s start the day.”

“Let’s. I’m tired of being cooped up here. And…”

His stomach growled, completing the sentence.

“Hungry?”

He nodded quickly.

I was quite hungry myself.

I guess nobody ate after the poisoning.

Erickson cleared his throat. “I wasn’t sure if you would want to eat from the common kitchens, so I asked Aprilia’s mother to make breakfast for you all.”

“My mother is an excellent cook,” Aprilia said proudly. “How about I ask her to make it for us all from now on?”

“Sure.”

“I will see you at lunch, sire,” Erickson said, bowing, then turned away.

As we walked to the gatehouse, I turned to Darron again.

“As we discussed, I have two things I want you to do for me here, Master Darron. Teach the soldiers how to save the lives of their wounded comrades and take care of their wounds, and teach your skills to my healers. Which one do you want to do first?”

“The healers. I’d like to see who I will be working with.”

He hesitated.

“Milord, what happened last night?” he tried to whisper.

“You were there. You saw it all.”

“Aye, but… you said there was poison in your food. Nothing happened to you.”

“I could tell you.”

His eyes lit up.

“But then I’d have to kill you, Mr. Holmes.”

His face blanched.

“Who is Holmes?” Aprilia asked.

“Not him. Relax, Darron,” I said, putting a hand on his massive shoulder. “You just wouldn’t be allowed to leave Chadom. Ever.”

His enthusiasm vanished.

“Still want to know? We would welcome a man of your talents.”

He shook his head. “No.”

As we walked, he gave me a cautious side-eye. “There were rumors at Falkenheim… about you healing from a mortal wound within a just week.”

I scoffed. “Not in a week. More like two. And even then not fully.”

“You speak as if that’s not unnatur… impressive.”

I made sure to maintain eye contact with him. “Good catch. Don’t share that story with anyone. I’m already dealing with some problems.”

He nodded immediately.

The valley opened up to us as we crossed the gatehouse. The echo of hammers became clearer as the breeze carrying the smell of pine and cedar reached us.

The city under construction lay beneath us. The closest circle of insulae were almost finished.

I counted twelve, which meant housing for almost a thousand people.

If we focused on the castle’s first story, that would be housing for five hundred more people.

Not enough.

I noticed the short healer standing to the side of the road, looking at the buildings.

“Hey, Emma.”

She jumped a foot, then noticed us and bowed hurriedly.

“What are you doing here?”

“I—I just wanted to see if,” she glanced at Aprilia, “if you were fine, sire.”

“We all are. If you wanted to meet her, why didn’t you just come inside?”

She tried to keep her face straight but couldn’t.

“She’s not allowed in the castle,” Aprilia mumbled.

“Why?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

I looked between the two of them. Something had definitely happened between the friends while I was gone.

“Emma, this is Master Darron, a veteran surgeon. He will be teaching you his techniques.”

She smiled weakly.

Aprilia took her aside, talked in hushed tones and came back.

Together, we all walked up to the circle of insulae that surrounded the castle. Their ground floors were already occupied. Only the roof remained to be finished.

“So, what do you think of Cradle?”

“It’s a… nice place,” Darron said. “I’ve never seen a castle like that. It’s going to be as tall as the palisade?

“Yes.”

“Shouldn’t it be taller.”

“No.”

It didn’t need to be.

Not once our soldiers were armed with gunpowder weapons.

“Who lives in this mansion?” Ansel asked, looking at the building we were approaching.

“Not a mansion. Insula. You were there at the coast when I explained it to the immigrants.”

He looked down sheepishly.

Great. Even my people didn’t believe me.

Well, he wasn’t my people, yet.

Turning his gratitude into trust would take time, but a patient man I was not.

“Each of them have sixteen large rooms,” I explained, “each big enough for a family.”

I knocked at the door.

It flew open as Aprilia’s mother answered. Her face lit up as she saw her. She flung herself at Aprilia and wrapped her in a hug.

“Are you all right? They told us there was poison served in the feast, but nobody was hurt.”

“I’m fine, mother.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I came to check on you but…”

“We must have been busy,” I said shamelessly.

Only then did she notice the rest of us.

“Sorry for ignoring you, sire,” she said, bowing deeply.

“No need for that,” I said.

“They say the poison didn’t affect you…”

Oh great.

Even her eyes were worshipful.

“And that you ate from others’ dishes to see if they were safe.”

I sighed.

In the past, I could always rely on her to point out my flaws, miffed as she was at me for not marrying her daughter. Now I didn’t have even her.

The narcissist in me cackled with glee.

She led us to the inner courtyard, where a table had been set up in the center, next to a wood stove.

As we sat, she began ladling vegetable and meat pottage into our bowls.

The ash-glazed dishes gleamed under the sun. Master Almar had done a fine job.

If we could figure out the colors, these would sell like hotcakes in Nanon.

As we ate the hearty dish with fresh bread, I turned to Harald, then Aprilia.

“I didn’t get to personally introduce you two. Harald, this is Aprilia. My… lady in Chadom.”

I wanted to say fiance, but doing that in public might cause problems if the Church didn’t cooperate.

“My lady,” he said, inclining his head.

She waved a hand. “The Supreme Leader is too kind. I’m no lady. We don’t have nobles in Chadom, other than him.”

The men stared at her, then at me.

“It’s true,” I confirmed. “But she holds the position of my secretary, so Lady is appropriate.”

She blushed slightly.

“Harald, you will be working under my lady. Aprilia, you will share your administrative work with him.”

“I thought…” she began.

“That I brought him to manage our household?”

“Yes.”

“It is just the two of us right now. He’ll be wasted as a servant.”

“Sire?” he asked.

“I saw your work in Mondgrove, Harald. You were essentially running Ludwin’s estate. Aprilia is smart but inexperienced. I want you to help her become a better administrator.”

He bowed as deep as he could while sitting. “It would be my honor.”

“Don’t let your skills become rusty, though. You will be our butler when we have noble company.”

He inclined his head.

“Noble company?” Aprilia asked fearfully.

“My mother wants to meet you.”

Her face paled further.

“You told her about me?”

“Yes.”

It kept getting paler.

“You’ll be fine,” I said, rubbing her shoulder.

She didn’t look convinced.

Furtive eyes glanced at me. “What about the Queen?”

“I want the castle finished before I bring Laira here. I want to leave a good first impression.”

“Does she know about,” her eyes pointed to the unfinished roof, “Chadom’s state?”

“Not entirely, but yes.”

Her eyes widened. “You told her?”

“No. She made a good guess. I just didn’t refute her.”

“Why?”

“We had already decided to marry. I had to put some trust in her.”

She sent a glare my way, but didn’t speak out.

As we finished the breakfast, she cleared her throat.

“You didn’t introduced the others to me.”

I gestured to the glassmaker. “You’ll be seeing Ansel often.”

“Oh?”

“Ansel, building a glass workshop will take some time. I have other works in mind that will take priority over it. In the mean time, you will work with my father-in-law.”

“Um…”

“You can speak your mind with me.”

“Isn’t he dead?”

My heart almost leapt into my mouth.

“What?”

I looked at Aprilia and her mother. Both looked fine.

“The king,” he clarified. “He died months ago.”

I took a sigh of relief.

“I meant Aprilia’s father.”

“Oh.”

A sly smile played on her lips.

I gave her a glare, then turned back to the thin man.

“He’s a master potter. You two can help each other out.”

“Is this his work?” he said, lifting the plate.

“Yes.”

“It’s good.”

“It is,” I said, beaming with pride, as if I myself had invented the downdraft kiln.

As they began talking among each other, I turned to look at the youngest and most nervous member of the group.

Rowan’s eyes kept darting around, like a prey animal.

He was going to play an even more important role in Nanon and Chadom’s future. Applied chemistry was essential for securing out future; not just prosperity through medicines, dyes and whatnot, but also safety.

Through explosives.

The nightmare of organic chemistry still haunted me, but one thing I remembered was that coal tar was a precursor to many organic chemicals, including dyes and medicines, and we finally had access to coal.

How to turn it into them was beyond me. For that I needed a chemist.

Rowan was a timid young man, but one look at his equipment and product had told me more about him than any words. The meticulous man had refined the process of alcohol distillation by himself with just scraps of metal.

If I could teach him basic chemistry, he should be able to turn my half-remembered ideas into something concrete, sowing the seeds of a more prosperous society.

But before all that, I sadly needed him to work on explosives.

“You will be working closely with me,” I said, squeezing his narrow shoulder. “And eat some more. You’re too thin.”

His lips quivered in a slight smile.

Suddenly Ansel began coughing.

Again and again.

Aprilia pushed a jug of water towards him.

“Jack?” she asked, looking at my frozen face, while he drank.

Ignoring her, I looked at him. “How long did you work at your previous master’s shop?”

“Twenty years,” he said, clearing his throat.

“You began working when you were eight?”

“Yes.”

Twenty years of working in the glass workshop with no ventilation and no masks. He had definitely developed issues. I feared they weren’t reversible either.

And there were a dozen other young men I had left behind.

All of whom were breathing in silica dust.

“Are you fine?” Aprilia asked.

I noticed her gaze. “You’re asking me?”

“Yes.”

I could only nod.

This world couldn’t progress fast enough.