Fixing Rian's adjustable water jet was easy enough. The mount for it had a thick wooden rudder that had hollow tubes in it to draw water up and thrust it down. The tubes were more wood that had been hollowed out—the carpenters were getting a lot of use from their new lathe—and she was able line the insides with bone to act as waterproofing and sealant. Correcting the problem was simple enough. Lori had a small hole drilled in the intake pipes just before the sliding block, and put in a small binding of airwisps to constantly siphon out air. When put into the river, this drew water into the tube and allowed it to reach the binding of waterwisps in the moving block, and the suction by the waterwisps would do the rest. While she was able to put blood in the binding of waterwisps, the binding of airwisps couldn't be connected to her like that, but fortunately, it was a small binding that didn't expend much magic that she could imbue the usual way.

Instead of lining the moving block with ice, they just carved out a recess on the block, lined the recess with stone and put some ball bearings on it to help it roll. Much simpler.

The resulting block of wood was far too big to be installed into Lori's Boat, but they needed a new boat for conveying miners to River's Fork anyway. So the carpenters made a wooden frame, some floor planks so that people wouldn't slip and some simple benches, and the new prototype water jet was installed into the new small ice boat. Adjustments had to be made, and an outrigger was added for stability.

They also finally found someone to learn to be a ferryman. Or ferrywoman, as the case may be. Lori didn't know her name—not important—but she apparently wasn't bothered by speed and could remember how to operate the new water jet. They'd added notches to the bar and a latch to lock the rod in place so it would stay in position and not move.

"Otherwise it's too easy to bump the rod and then you might suddenly be going in reverse," Rian explained. "We'll be able to do it better for the large boat, which is shaping up well. You'll be able to put ice on it soon."

"I can't wait," Lori said blandly. "Do we have anything to bring to trade?"

"Absolutely nothing!" Rian said cheerfully. "Well, we can try bringing some of the beast and seel skins to see what they're worth, but the scales are… probably not worthless but most likely a little devalued and the market slightly saturated if as many dropped on the other demesne as it did on us. Even River's Fork has a stockpile, they just don't have the manpower to get everything. But the prices will probably go back to normal soon, and metal products will always have worth. At the least, we can sell some knives. We probably can't spare more, since we need the fabrics we're producing for clothes and most of the leather for shoes." He sighed, looking down at his feet. "I'm really going to miss having thick soles when these eventually wear out. Hopefully we'll have access to some kind of trade by then, or at least some Deadspeakers willing to fuse together a bunch of leather into something thicker."

"I'm working on it," Lori said irritably, just keeping herself from glancing at the women next to him.

"Well, maybe we can see what the going price for it in Covehold is," Rian said. He titled his head. "Do you want us to recruit more settlers while we're there, or would you rather wait on that until we're more established to your satisfaction?"

Lori's satisfaction would have been a demesne with a diameter of a hundred taums, a manifestation chamber that let her make any substance she wanted, a vault full of beads so deep she could swim in it, a functional theater district, a library, and possibly a stone giant to make war with.

"I doubt recruitment will be much of a problem at any time," Lori said, "so hold off for now."

"I promise not to recruit any wizards?"

"Hold. Off. For. Now."

"Yes, your Bindership!"

Lori nodded sharply,

"Something else occurred to me," Rian said, "but can you make a binding that evaporates water if we put water into it?"

"Easily, but why?"

"We'll be sailing over the ocean for part of this, and I figure we might as well get some salt while we're at it," he said. "The tanners need it, and it will help in preserving food. In fact, I'm thinking that having it go down the river to collect salt wouldn't be a bad use for the boat once we come back from Covehold. You can never have too much salt."

Lori frowned. Salt was a seasoning to her, something you added to food to make it taste a certain way, and had interesting interactions with earthwisps, waterwisps and lightningwisps… "If you say so," she said. Well, evaporation was simple, though she'd need wire so she wouldn't have to add blood to water. She might need to use steam or vapor instead of liquid water anyway… "I'll see what I can build."

"You're the best Binder ever," Rian declared with a grin.

"You set the bar very low," Lori said.

"You are the best Binder ever," Rian repeated, still grinning.

She wasn't sure if this was new flattery, but she'd take it.

––––––––––––––––––

Construction on the boat continued. Planks were laid on the bottom to mark the underside and bottom of the boat, meant to protect the ice from damage. It seemed slow to Lori, who had watched wood be worked quickly with shop equipment, but there was always more wood on it every day. It was like the wood was materializing around some invisible material that formed the bulk of the hull. Carpenters worked with hand tools, the progress deceptively slow but their movements quick, skilled and precise, creating parts that would slot together and be held in place with more wood. Some children would just sit near them and watch as the carpenters made the boat like they'd been making things like it their whole professional career.

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With most of the demesne's physical needs met, Lori allowed herself to fall into a daily routine, imbuing everything that needed imbuing, keeping the water hot and flowing, the reservoir roofs solid ice instead of water, the water wheels turning. There was more wood curing in her days than before since they needed more of it because of the boat construction, and the thicker wood needed for the beams needed more effort to cure.

The day when she had finally had to make the ice that would seal and waterproof the boat seemed to come abruptly, even though it had been nearly three weeks in the making.

"It won't be final," Rian said told her as he finished pointing out the beams that the ice should wrap around as the carpenters did one last check to make sure all the planks were secure. "Portions of it will definitely need to be hollowed out for the water jet's tubes and things. But better we know now how well it floats." His voice dropped down slightly, for her ears only. "Besides… everyone needs to see the idea work. They've been doing it so far because… well, there's a little bit of humoring me, but some probably think it's a waste of time, even with the original ice boat prototype. They need to see that it could work."

"They should have seen that with the ice boat," Lori said.

Rian shrugged. "These men are builders. They know better than anyone that some things don't scale up in size very well." He paused. "Also, I'll be honest, I really need to see if the idea still works at this scale."

Lori gave him a glare. "This was your idea."

"I know!" He sighed. "I know. Better to be sure sooner than later."

Lori kept on glaring at him. But she supposed he had a point. And she felt like she needed to see it work too.

She reached her awareness towards the river and bound the waterwisps there, drawing it up onto the shore once the carpenters stepped back out of the way. The dirt, small rocks, sand and earthwisps, she compressed and pulled out of the water, followed by the bubbles, dissolved air and airwisps, leaving only water. Then she contracted the water together, and there was a puff of heat as the water went from liquid to solid. The air around it began to get hotter as she compressed the water more and more, until it was a cold as it was physically possible for water to be.

Then she slowly, carefully made the ice flow around the beams of the ice boat.

She had to admit, it was nice more-or-less having a mold to mark out the confines of what she was binding. The bottom and side of the hull began to be filled with ice between layers of wood, and she was careful to make sure the ice didn't ripple and fold and accidentally trap bubbles of air inside it. She had to draw on more water from the river twice more before she finally filled in all the areas Rian indicated with ice.

There was surprisingly less ice than she thought there would be. For some reason, in her mind all the internal walls and surfaces were made of ice… which was, in hindsight, idiotic. Instead only the hull was made of ice, with thick beams for the ice to wrap around, wooden planks cladding it on the outside, and some more planks on top of the ice as a surface to walk on. Everything else above that, like the internal walls, was composed of wooden planks and beams.

And then Lori was raising pillars of stone out of the river to act as a sort of cage and using water to lift the boat from where it rested and into the river and…

"Huh," Rian said as he stared at the boat of wood and ice floating in the water, tilting a bit to the right. "It actually worked." There was a momentary beat as he visibly and theatrically caught himself, then 'hurriedly' said, "Ah, I mean, see everyone, I told you it would work! It's floating." He waved at the boat bobbing in the water, being kept from drifting downriver by the stone pillars, then seemed compelled to comment on the tilt. "I mean, it's tilting, but we expected that. That's what the outrigger will be for. I think we can consider it a success."

Lori had to admit, there did seem to be a general air of 'huh, I can't believe that actually worked like it was supposed to' from the carpenters, who had gathered around on the shore nearest to the ice boat and looking at it like they expected the ice to start melting. It wouldn't—the binding was keeping it solid and Lori was heavily imbuing it at that very moment—but they were clearly expecting it to.

"Well, congratulations everyone," Rian announced. "We've actually managed to make a boat that floats! I'd say this calls for a celebration, but we'd be the only ones celebrating, so why don't you all take the day off to rest? We still need to install the fittings like beds and tables and things tomorrow, but you've all earned a break."

There was a sort of relieved and relaxed cheer from the carpenters, who all began to pick up their tools and putting them away. Lori had to acknowledge their professionalism, they were cleaning up properly instead of just walking away from their work site. She continued to stand where she was, staring at the boat—and it was properly a boat now, since it was floating in the river and everything—while the carpenters slowly trickled away and Rian went among them, congratulating them individually and talking to them. From the sound of it, he was also inquiring about the larger-sized blocks that were being hollowed out for this boat's water jet.

Eventually, there was only Lori, the muted sounds of the river and the boat bumping up against the stone pillars, and Rian. He stood next to her, also staring at the boat.

"We're actually doing it," he said quietly. "We've actually got a boat to send back."

"You're not going," Lori said sharply.

"I have to," Rian protested. "You saw them. Seeing it float barely managed to convince them it works."

"Your absurd theatrics might have had something to do with that."

"You'd be surprised how much more effective levity can be," Rian said. "If I'd just said 'see, I told you so', they'd have likely remained contrary because no one wants to be proven wrong. By playing it up like that, I made it all right to show that they'd changed their mind. Now, at least, the carpenters will look confident about the boat that they built, and that confidence in it will spread among other people. Meaning we might actually be able to find volunteers to travel on this with me."

"You're not going," Lori repeated.

"Lori, do you really trust anyone but me to come back with the boat?"

Lori wanted to snap that she didn't trust him… but even to herself the impulse seemed silly and childish. "What am I supposed to do without you around?" she said instead.

"You have Erzebed to talk to people for you," he said.

"Who?"

"Riz. You'll be fine. And I'll have us come back as quickly as I can. At the very least, we might not be able to afford the berthing fees for very long."

Lori blinked. "Berthing fees?"

"You don't think boats can just pull up to Covehold's docks for free, do you?"

She'd honestly never thought of it.

"I've honestly never thought of it," Lori said.

"Yes, there's a good chance we might even lose an absurd amount of our money just to be able to dock."

Lori could see it. Now that she knew it was a possibility, she would not be surprised if they charged by the hour.

"Relax, we probably won't need to leave for a week or two," Rian said. "There's still putting in the beds and storage spaces, the cells for the exiles, the food supplies, a cooking area, finding the volunteers to go on the boat with me, preparing the cargo… you'll have plenty of time to adjust to me being gone."

For a moment, Lori had a wild, insane urge. It filled her, completely irrational, pointless, stupid and unsafe.

She quashed it ruthlessly. After all those times vowing never to leave her demesne again, there was absolutely no reason for her to leave it just to go to Covehold, especially when she'd need to travel with two people who'd already tried to assault her.

Besides, she was used to feeling lonely. It was her entire childhood, school life and early adulthood. She'd be fine.

She'd be fine…