The ceremony to open Trackford as the capital of Ebonreach culminated in a feast for the public. There was nowhere near enough food to go around, but the bountiful central table in the town square nevertheless created a mood of merry among the citizenry.

For the next few weeks I set about organising the affairs of the County. Urzo furnished a guild hall as a courtroom and I spent most of the days in my throne, adjudicating disputes. I also organised nightly food runs through the inner city streets to keep the homeless people healthy. I arranged for the distribution of blankets where I could, but these were in short supply. Alum was insistent that the best thing for these people was to get back on their own two feet, and I was concerned that the disaffected would be easy prey for the Vizonian Order despite their banishment from my lands, so I allowed him to arrange for guild representatives to interview the men and find them suitable work where feasible.

After a few weeks, I had cleared all of the people out of our chambers except the first man. I still did not know his name for he was not sane enough to give it, but I allowed him to use our changing room as a permanent home. I kept my wardrobe in the bedroom instead.

Timoth visited to participate in a meeting regarding the construction of the castle on Dusky Hill. Aside from the two of us, the meeting was comprised of Alum, Urzo, Gentleman Fraedwin, and, to my surprise, Gentleman Tefgae, who’d heard of our plans and travelled all the way from Hollowhold just to pledge more soldiers to man the castle upon its completion. I’d permitted him the seat on the council as a well-earned gesture of gratitude. Fraedwin was the foremost expert on military constructions in the County so he led the conversation.

‘I don’t think that we can afford to build a castle. We had to scavenge for parts for our ballista, and a castle is an order of magnitude more expensive than a single siege weapon.’

‘I have applied for coin from the King, since we act to protect the Haelling which runs all the way to the Mountain Duchy,’ Alum said. I nodded; he’d done so at my instruction.

‘Even so, a castle can take generations to build and the Reach’s labourers are already busy with reconstruction of the capit-’ Timoth stopped himself. ‘...Of Haelling Cove. We need to consider a smaller scale fortification.’

I nodded, having expected such a suggestion. ‘We must consider the purpose of the fortification. There are two functions of importance: to provide a safe refuge for the nobility and citizenry of Trackford in the event of a raid, and to provide protection for the tools of statecraft. The treasury, the courtroom, and so on.’

‘And yourself, Countess,’ Urzo added with a smirk.

‘We can build it in stages,’ Timoth suggested. ‘We can move the earth to create banks and ditches, fortified with wooden revets and palisades, particularly to the south and east. In the future, these can be upgraded to stone walls. The keep must have a core of stone, but we can build all else from Trackford’s plentiful timber and, again, replace it with stone in the future.’

The discussion continued as we delved into specifics: the number of ditches, the amount of wood needed for the first stage, the difficulties in transporting stone from distant quarries. Timoth’s suggestion became our mission statement. ‘The castle on Dusky Hill’ became ‘Dusky Castle’. The men estimated that functional walls and a wooden barracks could be made ready in a matter of weeks, and I gave the order to make it so.

A messenger interrupted the discussion with news from the east. Tokuan raiders from Trent had sacked a small Ebonreach border town I’d never heard of called Cricksham. This quickly changed the tone of the meeting.

‘We must send soldiers into Trent to secure the lands around the border,’ Alum insisted.

‘That would be an invasion,’ I replied. ‘I have already spoken against such an act.’

‘Many in Trent would support you, Countess,’ Tefgae chimed in for the first time. ‘There are many in the west who remember their roots in the Reach, and who have never been satisfied with the redrawing of the border.’

‘As I said, I have already spoken against invasion. More to the point, why wasn’t Cricksham better defended if it’s on the border?’

Timoth cleared his throat. ‘Saemara… Countess, the County is vast. It may be small in the scale of the six autonomous provinces of the Kingdom, but it nevertheless covers an area thousands of miles wide, with a massive coastline and major river to protect. We have men at the major towns on the Trent border, but even these may be insufficient in the event of a sizable raid. The smaller towns, like Cricksham, are protected only by their insignificance. Even with the generous support of men like Prince Alum and Gentleman Tefgae, we have less than two thousand men spread across Ebonreach, mostly here and in Haelling Cove.’

I shook my head, still unsatisfied. ‘There are 50,000 people living in lands distant from either city. We have sat here discussing the building of walls with which to protect the people of Trackford, yet the people presently under siege are protected only by the apparently vain hope that raiders will not care to take what meagre wealth they possess. It’s not good enough!’

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I actually shouted at the last sentence, frustrated at my own impotence. I had a responsibility to these people and I was letting them down. Damn Alum’s family for withdrawing their men from Haelling Cove. Even a hundred would make a massive difference. Nor did I expect them to approve Alum’s request for financial support. To that end, I sent envoys to Hollintay in search of loans to fund the construction of Dusky Castle. The County had no means to repay such loans, but we would suffer far worse than debt if Trackford was sacked.

Alum stepped in to cover my outburst. ‘This meeting was called to plan the construction of Dusky Castle. We have our orders.’

It was a dismissal, and everyone stood and gathered their notes. Fraedwin and Timoth spoke further about the exact angles and lengths of each side of the castle wall. I had one further thought, however, and took Urzo aside by the arm. He was surprised by my physicality, not least of all because he was a slight man and I a tall woman, but allowed himself to be led to a corner of the room where none would overhear us.

‘There is one avenue of support we have not yet attempted,’ I began, but he cut me off.

‘Do not ask this of me, Countess. I beg you.’

His eyes were wide and he was shaking his head. He remembered our conversation at the front of The Erick Tfaeller Chambers as well as I did, it seemed.

‘It need not be you in person. But an envoy from Ebonreach must speak to the leader of the faeries and request their support in protecting our eastern border. It lies not distant from the eastern border of the Dreadwood Forest.’

‘The faeries no longer involve themselves with the affairs of men. The anti-isolationists were cast out generations ago!’

‘Who knows how their society has changed since then,’ I suggested. ‘Perhaps they will be more receptive to diplomatic entreaties in these trying times.’

Urzo shook his head. ‘The faerie folk have long memories. They do not forget.’

‘Forget what?’ I asked, for it seemed that Urzo had a particular event in mind.

‘Have you ever heard the story of the Ashwood Blade?’ Urzo replied in turn. I shook my head. ‘It is an old tale, still told by some who dwell near the forest, perhaps more fiction than fact. In the time when the lands east of the Dreadwood Forest belonged to the House of Tfaeller and the House of Tfaeller to no king, the faeries fought alongside your ancestors - namely Count Erick - against the eastern houses. When the House of Goldmane united the lands of Halivaara, it defeated the House of Tfaeller at the Battle of Iyasgorth. Faerie military strength was crushed that day, their king slain, and his most sacred hereditary artefact, the Ashwood Blade, taken back to Hollowhold. It is a wooden sword of unerring sharpness and veins of unicorn blood. When the isolationists assumed power within the Forest, they swore never to treat with men again until the Ashwood Blade was returned to its rightful owner, the king of the Faeries.’

‘You’re saying that I need to get this Ashwood Blade before they’ll listen to me?’ I asked.

‘I’m not saying anything. A lot of the loggers know these stories, you could have asked any one of them. I just know that the faeries currently aren’t interested in picking sides in human conflicts,’ Urzo said, choosing his words carefully.

‘Currently…’ I murmured, thinking about the Ashwood Blade.

There was no way I was going back to Hollowhold personally, but I did know an assassin who owed me a favour, and his skills seemed easily transferable to those of a thief. I stopped Timoth near the door.

‘Send for the Vizonian assassin Tadruk,’ I commanded him.

‘You let him go, remember?’ my brother replied.

‘He won’t have left Ebonreach, not after we expelled the Vizonian Order. It’s the safest place in Halivaara for him right now. He’s probably still in Haelling Cove. You have soldiers in every major city in the County in any case. Track him down and tell him I’ve got an offer for him.’

Timoth raised an eyebrow. ‘What sort of offer?’

‘I thought you didn’t want to be involved with the affairs of state anymore,’ I chided him, meeting his gaze. He turned away. ‘Just find him for me.’

‘I will.’

I returned to my usual duties for a time: adjudication and the allocation of coin. Trackford was a bustling city by comparison to the rustic town I’d first encountered simply by virtue of a change in governance, the bestowment of capital status, and a constant stream of immigrants. At this rate, it would have the population to rival Helmfirth or even Hollowhold in a matter of years, and its commanding position west of the Dreadwood Forest at the westernmost ford of the Haelling ensured its economic success in years to come. If it could be protected.

I told Alum everything, including my plan to ally with the faeries by having Tadruk steal the Ashwood Blade. Regeda organised testers to taste everything myself, Alum, or Timoth ate and drank while he was in the city, having been forewarned of poisoners by Tadruk.

I also passed some new laws. As the County was an absolute monarchy I answered to no one - at least until the point at which I aggrieved enough landholders to challenge my leadership - so I could pass them with a minimum of fuss. Nevertheless, Father and Alum had taught me that stability was the key to economic success, so I kept changes to a minimum. I created a fund for anyone who could prove that they were sheltering refugees to get them off the streets. I sought to pay for this initiative and the rebuilding of Haelling Cove through the confiscation of the empty Vizonian buildings and monasteries, but Alum counselled against it.

‘The people do not know of the Vizonian betrayal, and we cannot tell them until we have evidence they will accept. If they see that you have confiscated monasteries, they will see it as theft and sacrilege.’

‘We can leave the monasteries then, but what about the Vizonian administrative buildings? Surely those are safe to confiscate and sell.’ I asked.

‘I would advise to make your actions seem less targeted. Perhaps the passage of a bill giving the crown ownership of commercial buildings that have remained unoccupied for at least three months would be sufficiently vague. We might even pick up some unexpected non-Vizonian assets.’

That was the sort of political nous Alum contributed to our rulership. I’d make the decisions, with advice from all quarters, and he’d know how best to make it palatable. Things ran very smoothly, and construction on the castle began in earnest once the couriers returned from Hollintay with copies of loan contracts.