Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 (58 page)

“Thank… you… Lady… Jul… i… a,” the children sing-songed together.

“You are welcome,” Julia said and smiled as they jumped to their feet.

“Walk! Don’t run!” Tulley shouted and the rush subsided a moment until they were outside. Screams of childish delight were raised and they ran off to play.

Julia and Tulley smiled as they left the church. “Full of energy,” she said.

“Too much, sometimes,” Tulley said as they crossed the square. “What would you see first, Lady?”

“Oh, I don’t mind Father. I’m here for a few days. No doubt I’ll have time to see it all. You choose.”

Tulley nodded. “Along this side we have the inn and its stables.”

“What about that one?”

“Houses, but they have yet to start on those. Too many stumps.”

Julia frowned. There were a lot of men stripped to the waist with spades and axes attacking the stubborn things. “Let us go see,” she said with a vague notion forming in her head.

“As you wish, Lady.”

They walked along the road toward the struggling men. Apart from the pegs, there was nothing to distinguish the road from the surrounding land. Stone was in short supply it seemed.

“Where does the stone come from for the roads?”

“Same place as for the foundations, Lady.” Tulley nodded toward the wagons being unloaded. “The stockpiles are all that is left from two seasons of work.”

“I meant the quarry.”

“Oh. The hills to the south have plenty of rock, Lady. There are heaps all around the old mine. It’s stone we are short of.”

“The mason?”

“Him and his apprentices are working non-stop and have been since this site was given us by the Lord, but they can’t keep pace.”

“What will you do when you run out?”

Tulley grimaced. “Use wood I suppose. That’s why we stopped using stone on anything other than foundations after finishing Market Square and River Road.”

“I’ll talk with Kev. Maybe we could reuse the old stone in West Pass.”

“Forgive my saying so Lady, but that would be more trouble than it’s worth,” Tulley said and at her surprised look he explained. “Stone is heavy. You can’t carry much in a wagon and Athione is a long way from here. Then there is the Gap to consider. We would have to build a sturdy bridge just to cart up a few blocks at a time. The wagons would make their way here, and then have to turn around empty for the return trip and—”

“I get the picture,” Julia said ruefully. “That means I understand,” she added at his confused look.

“Get the picture? Get the picture…” he said and shook his head very much like Keverin did when she said something he didn’t understand. “I like that, Lady. I have learned something this day.”

Julia smiled and stepped over the rope boundary of the road. They stopped to watch dozens of sweaty men heaving on ropes while others chopped frantically at stubborn root systems.

“Heave!” the first man on the rope shouted.

“And here she goes!” his comrades sang in response.

“Heave!”

“The God knows.”

“Heave!”

“And here she goes!”

“Heave!”

“The God knows.”

Tulley smiled and circled his heart. “He does know.”

Julia nodded her agreement. “He does, but that stump isn’t coming.”

“Redwood, Lady. They’re stubborn,” a sweaty man said leaning on his axe panting.

Julia pursed her lips in thought and stepped forward.

“Heave!”

“And here she… goes,” the song stuttered to a confused halt.

“Heave?” the man said one more time and stopped pulling.

“Do you mind if I have a look?” Julia asked the men as they brought their axes to the ground and leaned on them tiredly.

They were exhausted. Sweat rained from them and there shiny bodies bulged with muscle. Chopping roots and stump pulling were good ways to build strength, but she bet they would rather be putting up walls.

“What would you, Lady?” Tulley said.

“I might be able to help.”

“I don’t know… you are our Lady not a forester.”

Julia looked around uncertainly. “Am I doing wrong?”

“Not by me, Lady,” the leader on the rope said.

“Nor me…”

“… get the dang thing out of there…”

“Nothing wrong with helping folks, the God says…”

“She’s our
Lady
, not one of us…”

“Give over! She’s ours.”

Lots of nods to that last one and Julia blushed. She couldn’t help it. She always did flush easy. She needed to work on a tan to cover it! Everyone chuckled to see her, even Tulley.

“You don’t mind then?”

“Have a look, Lady. The God knows two days wasted on the cursed… pardon, Lady,” he said blushing himself now. “Two days wasted on a single stump is two days too many!”

“Too right!”

“The dang thing has nearly crippled me!” another voice, lost in the crowd, said.

Julia nodded and looked into the hole with her helper pointing out the trouble. There was a huge taproot gripping the soil, but there were many others with chop marks. By the looks of it the stump would be out soon without her help. The digging had already been done, and most of the roots were already severed.

“How many stumps have you done?”

“Hundreds, Lady.”

“Mind if I do this one?”

He looked at her uncertainly, but reached for a comrade’s axe. “It’s heavy,” he warned. “I think Father Tulley is right, Lady.”

Julia laughed as he offered her the huge axe. She doubted she could swing it let alone hit her target. She was more likely to cut her toes off than the roots.

“I’m not laughing at you,” Julia said and daringly squeezed his shoulder. He was all hard muscle, just like Kev. “I couldn’t lift that. I was going to use magic.”

“Good idea, Lady. These are dangerous,” he said swinging the axe easily and smacking the handle into his other palm.

“So is magic.”

Julia gestured everyone back. She was sure stumps had been burned out of the ground on her old world before machines were designed to do it quicker. Her magic could easily provide that and more, but a fireball could bounce. She chose an alternate method. She grasped her magic and sent fire in a controlled stream no thicker than her arm into the hole.

The roots exploded.

Julia ducked and scuttled back releasing her magic at the same time.

“Oooh!”

“Ahhhh!”

“Magic is wonderful stuff ain’t it?”

Lots of nods and appreciative murmurs.

Julia didn’t tell them that the explosion had been unexpected. The fire was so hot it had caused the moisture in the roots to expand into steam. She would have to be more careful next time.

“Heave!”

“And here she goes!”

And she did go. Julia grinned as the rope teams fell back as the stump popped free.

“Drag it there,” Julia pointed to a point well away from the next stump. “That one next?”

“Yes Lady, but she needs to be dug out first,” the gang leader said apologetically.

“Oh,” Julia said disappointed that she couldn’t help more.

Julia studied the stump knowing it would be stubborn like the other one had been, and an idea came to her. Back during the war, she had needed to get into a door blocked by fallen stone and timbers. She hadn’t been any good with her magic back then. She had succeeded through luck and desperation. Maybe she could do something here—just like the machines on Earth!

“I have an idea,” Julia said and grasped her magic.

She frowned in concentration and stroked the tree stump with an outstretched hand. She nodded as the feeling of the living wood came to her. She had it now, and heaved.

Eeeeeek! Snap! Crunch!

Julia ripped the stump out of the ground with ease. It didn’t feel heavy at all!

“By the God! Did you see
that?
”

“I am seeing it!”

Julia smiled and dropped her burden next to the other one. Her helper pointed to the next and the next and Julia ripped them out the same way. She soon got into a rhythm. Julia and her admirers wandered the clearing ripping out tree stumps and piling them in a central location for burning. It didn’t take people long to get used to the sight of a tree stump floating by.

“It’s noon, Lady. Time for a meal,” Father Tulley said.

Julia nodded and released her magic. “I’ll leave the rest for you,” she said to her new friends.

They bobbed their heads up and down and thanked her for the help. There were hundreds more to do, but it was their town. It wouldn’t be right to do it all for them.

“That was good of you,” Tulley said stiffly as they walked.

“Don’t be angry with me,” Julia said with a sigh. “I like helping people.”

“You are nobly born.”

“Not really…” she began, but his look stopped her.

“What would become of us all if the nobles left their castles to work next to their tenants?” Tulley said.

Might make for a better world, but Julia didn’t say that. “The lords would never do that.”

“You have.”

“But I’m different. I wasn’t born here.”

Tulley frowned. “We each have a place in this world. It is not good to forget that, or try to change it.”

Julia gaped. “The Church doesn’t teach that view…does it?”

“No, it’s my own.”

“It’s the wrong one,” Julia said firmly. “Gideon taught me that the God wants us to learn. What point in restricting ourselves? If we followed your way we would never learn anything new.”

“We are reborn time and again, Lady, sent back to learn. This is true, but the God sends us where he will, not where we would have him send us.”

“The point being?” Julia asked as they reached the tables.

“If He sends me back to learn what a priest knows, then I will be a priest and should not change it. If He sends me back as a lord, then he wishes me to learn what a lord knows. Do you see?”

“I see where you are heading, but you’re still wrong. Does the God say I must learn one thing at a time? Of course not. As you said earlier, we all learn at a different pace. If I learn all I can in this life, does that not mean I will be by his side that much quicker?”

Tulley frowned trying to puzzle it out. He still hadn’t answered when Kev sat by her side and reached for the bread.

“How is Wendell?” Julia asked him.

“Pleased to have the iron,” Keverin said and poured himself a mug of ale. “It’s good, want some?”

“A half mug, then,” she said and sipped it. It
was
good.

“Wendell has his forge, and now he has iron to work with he can start making hinges and such.”

Julia nodded. They had brought wagon-loads of iron, but that wasn’t all they brought. “What did he say about the nails?”

“He nearly wept with delight!”

Julia laughed. No smith liked making nails.

“What have you done to Tulley?” Keverin whispered as he leaned forward.

“Nothing. We did a little stump pulling,” she said and at his raised eyebrow, she explained. “I used magic to rip them out, but Tulley doesn’t approve of me.” Keverin’s brows lowered and she hastily patted his hand. “That came out wrong. He likes me, and I like him. He doesn’t like me lowering myself to help the folk here. It’s this noble and peasant thing again.”

“Ah,” Kev said and his features lightened.

Julia breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t want Keverin to upset Tulley by accusing him of disrespecting her. The poor man had enough on his mind without having his lord angry with him.

“We need more stone, Kev,” she said after swallowing a piece of cheese. It had a strong flavour and she cut another piece. “Tulley says they used it on River Road and Market Square. They can’t do much more without running out.”

“Wooden foundations won’t last,” Keverin said scowling.

“That’s what I thought.”

“We won’t send the empty wagons back just yet,” Keverin mused. “I think we should have a look at the quarry and see what might be done there.”

“Maybe I can help.”

Keverin smiled. “You always do,” he said and took her hand for a chaste kiss.

Julia smiled in pleasure. “I love you.”

“And I love you my lady.
My
lady Sorceress.”

A few days later, Julia and Keverin rode into the hills with twenty empty wagons clattering along in their wake. The trees gave way grudgingly as the hills came into sight and they were able to make better time. The forest had encroached so badly upon the road that at times Julia thought further progress was impossible. Keverin hadn’t hesitated. He and his men had simply dismounted, pulled axes from a wagon, and waded into the forest as if attacking a troop of bandits.

Quarry Road was a mere lane compared with the high road, but it was adequate for their needs. The large wheels of the carts were wide and strong. They coped well with the rutted lane. The stone that once covered the road was missing in places, perhaps swallowed by the earth in some long ago storm when the ground had turned to sludge. Keverin directed his men to take to the verges to protect their horse’s vulnerable legs. Julia followed suit. Although Ayita was doubtful, she settled down once on a relatively flat stretch of the verge.

“She doesn’t like this,” Julia said meaning the dew soaked ground.

“Her Dam never did like getting her feet wet,” Keverin said with a grin. “Temperamental she was, like all women.”

Julia gave him a dirty look. “Sensible if you ask me. Why walk on wet grass when you can stay dry on a nice stone road?”

“Ah yes, but we haven’t got a nice stone road.”

“We haven’t any stone either.”

“Not yet,” Keverin said.

Julia nodded. That was why they were riding out here. By rights, they should be on their way back to Athione now, but a little side trip wouldn’t hurt. In time they took to the road again as it made its way between hills somewhat larger than the others they had seen. Keverin sent scouts out wide as the hills closed in and obscured the road ahead. They were in the heart of Keverin’s lands, yet he took no chances. Reports of bandits and highway robbers did filter through to the fortress from time to time. The closer they came to the abandoned town of Dirlston, the better the road’s condition, adding credence to Julia’s earlier thought. The town was at a higher elevation and the ground was dryer—stonier too. Flooding hadn’t submerged the road and the blocks were still in place.