Chapter 32

We trundled along the road in our new cart with the newly named Goliath pulling it along tirelessly. “I just don’t understand how you got the horse and cart for so cheap,” said Hammer, bewildered, for the second time in the past hour.

“Magic,” I explained simply, and laughed as I lay comfortably against the pack of death panther pelt with my hands behind my head. Knick was up front driving. Since he had often driven his family’s cart into Tiga he had far and away the most experience. Knick liked the horse and said he was very responsive to the reins. We had all listened to the stablemaster’s lecture on the proper care and use of a rock horse and a cart, but Knick liked to drive and had taken the duty upon himself even though he’d made sure we all knew the basics. Dog was running around happily and chasing down the occasional rabbit. Every so often we’d catch up to him and find him eating messily by the side of the road, though he always caught up quickly. He was keeping himself fed which was one less thing for me to worry about today so I wasn’t complaining. Now and then he’d take a break and jump up onto the cart to sit next to Knick as he panted. He and Knick had slowly been growing less wary of each other, and I’d even caught Knick scratching behind Dog’s ears a couple of times while Dog’s tail whacked against the floor of the cart.

I reached into one of the packs and pulled out a few apples, tossed one to Hammer, and held another one forward over the front edge of the cart up next to Knick, who took it and began cutting off a slice at a time. I crunched into my own apple as Hammer did the same. I noticed Knick flick a small slice to Dog who crunched it up a bit and swallowed it nearly whole. I could swear I saw Knick smile for a second.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m in a much better mood having put some distance between us and Tiga. Doesn’t hurt that I picked up some new magic and a sweet means of transportation.”

“Yeah, same,” said Knick from up front. Hammer just nodded thoughtfully.

I continued, saying, “I figure we’ll spend a few days in the next town we hit that’s got some good shops. I wanted to get a sheath made for my sword and that takes a while even if it’s a rush order. Want to get Hammer some belt loops for his hammer and axe while I’m at it, just looks uncomfortable with ‘em tucked into your belt like that.”

Hammer shrugged, “I don’t really mind too much, but I wouldn’t say no.”

“We should get Knick a proper cloak while we’re at it. It’s getting colder every day and it won’t do to have our blademaster freeze solid one of these nights. A warm body is a fast body.”

“Yeah,” said Knick. “Could use some torso armor too, Hammer. Think you guys could design something for me that won’t slow me down too much?”

“Ooo,” I responded, “A challenge, and a really good idea. I could use something along those lines myself, and if possible I’d like us to start working on a set of full plate armor for Hammer. Can you imagine how dangerous he’d be in a fight if nobody could cut through his armor?” I put my hand to my chin in thought. “Hmm, we’ll need a shit load of top of the line steel. We’ll be depending on you for that Hammer. Should probably start stocking up on blue heartwood and fine charcoal while we’re still somewhat close to the forest. It’s probably only going to get more expensive as we get farther and farther away. We’ll have to ask about iron prices. If it’ll be cheaper closer to The Mountain, we may want to hold off on that til then. Of course we’ll have to secure a forge for the work as well. Any idea how long it’d take to forge it all, Hammer. Just a rough estimate.”

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Hammer’s eyes went distant as he considered. “Well, I won’t know for sure how long Knick and your armor will take until we’ve designed it, but I’ve considered the plate armor since you’d mentioned that as a good idea for me in the past, and it’ll probably take at least a week or more likely two. Could easily be a month though. I’ve never done it before. If I'm only doing torso armor for you guys? Call it another two weeks to a month maybe? As long as it’s not mail anyway, but like I said it depends on the design.”

That’s a good point, mail takes forever to make. That’s one of the reasons it’s so expensive, and making it out of good steel would take even longer. Could probably spend months on a single mail shirt. So what would provide good defense while being easy to produce and still allowing Knick and me to remain relatively mobile? “Hey, Hammer. What would you think about doing scale mail?” I asked curiously.

“Never heard of it. What do you mean by scale?” Hammer asked uncertainty.

I went on to describe making a series of steel scales that could be linked in an overlapping pattern that should provide a good amount of protection while remaining nearly as flexible as regular mail. I figured since it didn’t require as many pieces as an actual chain mail shirt it’d be much simpler to produce. Knick and Hammer seemed entranced by the idea. Apparently there was no such thing, in this part of the world at least. I went on to describe adding pieces of leather on the front of each piece to keep it from jingling and to provide a bit more resistance to an attack.

“Yeah, make me that,” said Knick from the front without turning around.

I shrugged, “I guess make it one for each of us then since it’ll be easier to mass produce the pieces for both at the same time. May take a bit longer since it’s never been done before, and we’ll have to work out a prototype. Any estimate on the time it’ll take for something like that, Hammer?”

Hammer was thoughtful but seemed excited by the prospect of making something no one had ever seen before. “At least a month all told for all three of us I’m thinking, possibly double or even triple that, but we’ll see. Maybe a bit more for fine tuning, but since we’ve got winter coming up that would be an excellent project for all of us to work on once we’re snowed in in some town or city for the winter. Finding somewhere with a forge we can take over will likely be the hardest part.”

We all sat there in companionable silence as we rode along and considered the project and the prospect of new, top of the line, never before seen, gear. Dog moved closer to Knick and pushed his head against his knee until Knick begrudgingly started scratching his ears. I smiled as I put my hands back behind my head and leaned back to wonder how we’d get our hands on a forge. The materials shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but we can’t exactly build our own forge can we? I’d have to ask Hammer, but it seemed like it’d be too expensive for something we’d just be abandoning after one winter. Hmm, so either we’ll need to buy out a smithy, which could also be expensive, or we’d need to find an abandoned one. Suppose we’ll need a proper anvil too if we can’t find a forge that comes with one. This could be tough to pull off by the time winter comes along in earnest. A cool breeze blew over me, and I shrugged deeper into my cloak. We definitely don’t have a lot of time either.