Chapter 80

Gerald was in his study with Arthur and Robard, discussing the most recent problems that the Viscounty was going through. He would have to begin building the road the Duke had demanded, and he was already building the market quarter south of the walls.

"Rebuilding the road will cost us from three to four thousand gold, my lord," Arthur said as he pointed at the middle of the map on the table. "And the market quarter will also need a similar amount if we want to continue building it."

"And our treasury woes again," Gerald chuckled. He would be left with ten thousand gold pieces after the mentioned amount of gold was expended, which would pose more problems for him in the coming months. With all that he was doing, it was inevitable that such an amount of gold would be inadequate. "But at least this time the treasury is being emptied for the good of the territory, not running dry for nothing."

Arthur still grimaced though. He'd likely thought that the days of starving for gold would be over after they had liberated a generous amount from the bandits. "Must we build the road now, my lord? We can wait until the next harvest, and by then the market quarter would have begun to bring some of its benefits as well."

"That's quite a while from now, Arthur," Gerald shook his head. "We have to begin now. If we delay, it wouldn't be us braving the risks, but my sister."

The old minister nodded sullenly then opened what seemed like a ledger. "I will make sure these two undertakings are well taken care of, my lord. Hopefully, we can see some coin from the market quarter sooner than expected." He began to flip through the ledger.

Gerald turned to his head knight. "Tell me about Westwell."

Robard took a breath. "Count Westwell might be in command of the largest army in our immediate vicinity, my lord. That is if we don't take into account the vassals of the Andross Empire north of us. Had it not been for the available pool of mercenaries, the Baronies would have been swallowed by him."

"How many men does he have?" Gerald said. "Tell me everything you know."

Robard nodded. "I'm not certain of the numbers, my lord. But Count Westwell might have as many as nine thousand men under his command. His County is almost always in conflict. He's clashed with the Baronies before but failed to gain ground. I believe he wanted to reach Moutpie, like everyone does. But it's in the middle of the Baronies and he faced resistance with every step. Now, however, he is in conflict with Viscount Norsewise."

"Where is this Norsewise?" Gerald asked. He raised another map from below the table and spread it out. It showed the basin, the territories south of it, and even some territories south of those. The QasmRiver cut its way through the map from east west, indiscriminately.

Robard pointed at the southwest of the Westwell territory. The borders there showed the NorsewiseViscounty taking most of the seaside land, and leaving Westwell with almost nothing but inland territory south of the river. "South of the Qasmriver, Count Westwell only has a small piece of seaside land. The rest belongs to Viscount Norsewise. The Norsewise territory gets a lot of trade by sea, which makes it wealthy enough to resist Count Westwell. I suspect that the lucrative trade routes are what Count Westwell is after." He moved his finger to point just north of the Qasm river, seaside. "The town of Maleh is the only place that gets seaside trade within Count Westwell's territory. But it can't compare to the Norsewise territory."

Gerald nodded. Maleh was the town where Lucas had left the families of his men. The old knight hadn't invited them to the basin yet, likely uncertain about bringing even more hostages into Gerald's grasp. He would have to gain the knight's trust over time, it seemed. "I suppose that's it then."

Robard seemed to remember something and raised his hand in warning. "I must also mention Count Westwell's heavy riders, my lord."

Arthur nodded on the side with a cautioning glance.

"Heavy riders?" Gerald cocked his head.

"Yes," Robard said. "The former Count Westwell, who was our ally, was a very cautious man. He'd made sure that his treasury was full when handing the County to his son. When Count Alaric inherited the County, he spent a great amount of that gold on a heavy cavalry regiment, armored from head to toe. Even the horses, almost every inch of them is covered in armor. The stallions were bought from outside the subcontinent. As you likely know, my lord, it is hard to come by horses that can carry such weight around here, and in such numbers. The Count's heavy regiment is well trained and feared in any open field of battle. And rightly so.Each rider from that regiment has reaped dozens of lives on the battlefield. He also has a heavy infantry regiment, but it is nowhere as dangerous as the heavy cavalry."

Gerald nodded. "It seems we have to avoid open conflict with him for now. Specially since we don't know how harsh his war with Viscount Norsewise is. Averting a war with him shouldn't be difficult though. We simply need to prevent him from finding something he wants in the basin." He wouldn't have to worry about someone sneaking through the southern pass again, since Lucas had already placed men there to inspect all those who pass through it. He glanced at Arthur and said, "tell me about the amount of land sowed in the scorched forest, Arthur. You have lent a certain amount of gold to our new farmers, yes?"

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Arthur smiled. "Yes, my lord. It has gone better than we've imagined. After we lent the decided amount of coin, more of the refugees wanted to cultivate land, so they borrowed from the merchants and lenders in Ard. The sowed land is twice the size we have anticipated."

"Then the next harvest will bring balance to our treasury. We will simply have to manage until then," Gerald said, hoping that no disaster would strike the fields this winter. The main reason farmers sought to plant grain in the summer was because they feared that the next winter would bring them no harvest. It was rare, but sometimes a mild storm would ruin most of the fields and leave farmers starving for months. That was why he and Arthur had been worried that none of the refugees would be willing to borrow coin and put their freedom at risk to grow grain that might never be harvested.

The assembly came to an end with Gerald ascertaining his command for Arthur to begin work on the road.

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Harrid followed the fly with his eyes, until it neared the darkness, then he followed it with his mind. He expected where it would arrive in the shade and rested his eyes there, letting them get used to the darkness. The fly entered the shade cast by the fence and he caught sight of it passing by the spot where he was staring. He followed it from there and entered the shade himself, but he was interrupted by Master Rudolf.

"Good," the old steward said, standing in the light, several steps away from the fence. "Not quite what I wanted of you, but you have good eyes. Good enough that they would see even if they were shut."

Harrid walked out of the shade and nodded.

"It's time to move on then," Master Rudolf said. He brought out four daggers.

Two of the daggers were handed to Harrid. He looked at the pair of them then stared at Master Rudolf, clueless.

"You've learned how to stab an unwitting man with a dagger, but sometimes you will have to stab a witting one." The old steward strengthened his grip on his two daggers as he approached Harrid. He swung one of them towards him.

Harrid tried to clumsily parry it. But his success or failure had nothing to do with the result, as Master Rudolf's other dagger was already poking him in the neck.

"A simple move that any experienced combatant would be able to counter. But it's just the beginning," the old steward said. He raised the two daggers and waved them for Harrid to see. "A man's eyes can rarely follow more than one thing at a time. To feign an attack from one side and strike from the other is an ancient tactic in both combat and war. It has been used countless times. But that's not why you should learn to use two daggers."

Harrid scratched his head with the pommel of one of the daggers. "I thought you used a sword, Master Rudolf."

The old steward shook his head. "My father taught me to use a pair of daggers, but my heart was bent on the sword. He told me that it was a mistake, and he was right." He readied his daggers again. "Keep your eyes on both daggers. The real training won't begin until you can stop both of them."

..

.

For four days, Harrid trained, solely in the hopes of stopping the daggers. And he did on the fifth day. He stopped the attacks of the two daggers every time on that day.

A dagger came from his right, heading for his ribs. He evaded it and softly parried the one coming for his throat as he slipped through the attacking arms of Master Rudolf.

The old steward stepped back, and Harrid panted with satisfaction as he succeeded another time.

Master Rudolf nodded. "Now you should learn why my family uses the two daggers." He approached him again.

Harrid braced himself, ready to handle any dagger that came his way.

Master Rudolf went for a full swing, bringing his hand across and swinging the dagger sideways towards him.

Harrid stepped forward instead of backwards, grabbing hold of the old steward's arm before the swing was finished. He pushed the arm down, only realizing a bit too late that he didn't know where the other dagger was this time, because it was nowhere to be seen. But as he pushed Master Rudolf's arm down, the other dagger appeared, right behind the arm. It was so quick that he didn’t have the time to even jolt before it stop an inch away from his right eye.

"As you've learned," Master Rudolf retracted his daggers, "the attribute manual of my family focuses on the sight patterns that a man's eyes follow." He brought one dagger behind the other so that Harrid could only see the one in front. "Most men can't see two daggers coming from two different directions. But all men can't see two daggers coming from the same direction."

Harrid nodded, gulping.

"It is not only that though," the old steward continued. "It's about how you see your opponent, and how they see you. You blind them with one arm and strike with the other. That's why we use two daggers. Not for distraction, but for cover." The old steward paused then glanced at Harrid after a bit of thought. "That is only one sight pattern that can be exploited. There are many. I will show you another." He approached Harrid one more time.

Harrid slowed his breath and watched the old man.

Master Rudolf rested one hand to his side and waved the other with a dagger. "Follow the dagger."

Harrid nodded as Master Rudolf weaved circles with the daggers. He was confused as to why he was following it, but he did anyway. The dagger kept circling. At some point in each circle, Master Rudolf would turn it, pointing it at him. But it was too far for Harrid to worry. He would have enough time to evade it if it came, he told himself. But at one point, the dagger turned towards him. It was in front of Master Rudolf's chest. The old steward's clothes weren't of the exact same color as the dagger's hilt, but they were of similar shade. With only the thickness of the blade to see and the confusing color of hilt and clothes, he noticed a moment too late that the dagger was cutting its way through the air faster than any time before. As he pushed his feet to evade it, the pointy end of the training dagger struck him squarely in the chest. The pain seemed to follow his breath from the chest up as he stumbled back. The severely dulled dagger hadn't broken his skin, but it was painful enough that he wouldn't want to receive such a strike ever again.

"In the heat of combat, it is much easier to execute," Master Rudolf said. "But studying these patterns will require a long time of training, much longer than a few days." He smiled at Harrid.

Harrid grimaced and forced a smile back.