Riewis was livid.
She didn't know how, but she knew she'd been tricked. What those stones were for, she couldn't say, but whatever they were for, she doubted Tchisa or the Blue Rose would be happy about it.
However, she was confident that figuring out who that girl was before Tchisa got back would help keep her from getting in trouble about that matter. Especially since she had let that girl called 'Beth' leave without sending someone to follow her.
She'd believed that Beth was in fact part of the silverthorns and so was a friend! Which wasn't something she was going to let stand if she could help it.
Yet, Tchisa had returned earlier than Riewis had expected and assured that if that Beth was a spy, that she might be a spy for Versith. Which Riewis still wasn't happy about. Not when she herself had been manipulated in helping care for her when she didn't have to!
However, Tchisa promised to talk with her about that girl in the morning. Why there needed to be a delay, Riewis wasn't sure. She wasn't sure who the Blue Rose actually was but doubted that it was any of the young women who were in that meeting or that girl who was with Tchisa when she'd returned from the trip.
Riewis sighed, wishing she had something to take her frustrations out on. She didn't like using new recruits as targets to do that, but she always did think that the idea had its appeal. The problem came with how she knew it would scare off new recruits, no matter how interested any of them were in being the targets in some archery target practice.
Even though she'd gone back to her tent for the night, she was still just as livid about the matter. She wasn't sure what she'd do to Beth if she got her hands on her, but she was certain that the girl wasn't going to be happy about it.
A rapping sound on her tent got her attention. Either that was some other problem that she'd have to deal with, and maybe vent her frustrations on, or it was Tchisa as promised.
Either way, it was probably going to be welcome news for her.
As she exited her tent, she could see that it was Tchisa and the sun was just cresting the mountains, promising another warm day.
"Sorry I couldn't talk with you about the girl you thought was a spy last night," Tchisa said, her tone startling Riewis and making her feel a little dread about what was going to be said. "I had to consult with the Blue Rose about her. Just to make sure that I had all the information I could about her."
Riewis nodded. She'd suspected as much. She just didn't like where this sounded like it was going to go.
"Well, apparently Beth is a friend of the Blue Rose. She doesn't know why Beth needed so much of that magic rock, but she plans on looking into it and would like to have you find out if there's someone who needs that stone," Tchisa continued, then paused to take a breath. "If there is, that might help ease some of the economic problems we're having right now."
Riewis' ears perked up at that statement. "What's wrong? We're still getting plenty of funds from that contract with patrolling the Forest of the Lost. So, what's the money needed for?"
Tchisa sighed. "Yes, but we have so much more to do. The Blue Rose doesn't want to slow down purchasing slaves to bring here, but at the same time, we need building materials and some of the important ones clearly aren't plentiful here." Tchisa took a deep breath as she looked away absently, looking at the tall mountains surrounding them. "While you found a good supply of metal, I'm sure it's only going to cover a portion of what we'll need. Not to mention the fact that we haven't found a suitable source of hardwood for building. Which means either we use softwood and go with the dangers of that or we'll have to buy some."
Riewis nodded. "At least the Blue Rose has decided to build all buildings out of stone, even if that's going to make it hard to know what each person's status will be. As we at least have an abundance of stone here."
Tchisa shrugged. "If nothing else, it'll reduce how much hardwood we'll need."
"So, what else can to you tell me about the Blue Rose's connection with this 'Beth?'" Riewis asked, bringing the subject back to the initial one. "How well does she know that girl?"
Tchisa sighed again, making Riewis wonder if there's more than Tchisa is willing to tell her. Riewis accepted that there was some things that Tchisa wouldn't be able to tell her with how secretive the Blue Rose is, but at the same time she didn't like how much there seemed to be kept from her.
"Apparently, she said that she trusted Beth completely. That if Beth was actually trying to harm us, that she'd have a good reason to do so. Not that she'd let her get away with it, just that Beth would have a good reason for it."
Riewis couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Yeah, that doesn't tell us much about her. For all I know that meant that the Blue Rose would be fine if Beth went and killed some of us."
Tchisa shook her head. "I'm not sure about that, but she- I was told that Beth wasn't a killer. That she'd do everything she could to avoid getting in a situation like that."
Riewis assumed that Tchisa changing what she was going to say would have touched on who the Blue Rose was, but she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not right then.
Part of this was making her wonder about the Blue Rose's judgement. The first time that she'd started wondering about that. Something that had almost felt like it would be a betrayal if she did think about that before had suddenly become almost a concern.
Even though Riewis didn't plan on telling anyone about that. Not unless she felt she had received cause for it. As that wasn't something even Tchisa would do lightly. Even though Riewis knew that Tchisa's judgement was as impeccable as a person's could get.
"So, what now? What am I going to be doing at this point?" Riewis sighed after a minute of silence between her and Tchisa.
If she had been badmouthing a friend of the Blue Rose, she doubted that she was going to get off without getting one of the worst assignments there was. If only because she knew the way things really worked.
"Actually, she was going to have you go with a small unit to the Marquis Denshia. She suspects that that's who was wanting so much of the rock and wanted you to go see if he needed more. If so, we'd be happy to sell it to him," Tchisa replied as if she'd been waiting for that question to pop up. "Plus, she was hoping you might be able to see what it is that they're building that would require the stones."
Riewis nodded. While it wasn't the worst assignment she could have been given, it was still the kind you sent an errand girl on. Just to get them out of your hair.
"Oh, by the way," Tchisa quickly added, "If he isn't the one that needs the rocks, you're to try and negotiate a deal for a supply of hardwood. As Denshia is one of the largest suppliers of hardwood throughout the queendom."
Riewis nodded. If she was to negotiate, that was something above an errand girl. Something that showed the Blue Rose still had at least some trust in her, which Riewis wasn't sure was a good thing right then.
As it almost felt like she was getting set up for a fall. That if things didn't go perfectly, that she'd get something even worse than the job of an errand girl.
_
Jenn was annoyed at what had been done to the place she had in mind to create a pen for the horses. Not only was it no longer viable, with what was being constructed there, but the next best one she could think of was about a half a day's walk away.
Maybe if she walked even farther away, she'd come up with something even better, but that just added so much more time to travel to get to where the horses were.
Which, in turn, made the whole project that much more unfeasible at the moment.
However, she knew that it would benefit her people immeasurably. Especially when it came to transporting things around. Farming was also one potential aspect of it, but she couldn't say that she knew much more than that on that front.
Then there was the military aspect. With the fact that her mercenary band certainly would be able to benefit from having a cavalry unit.
Although, all that depended on getting some horses and being able to break them after getting them to accept humans as friends. Which likely was a long road. A road that she had to start sooner if she wanted to get to the results sooner.
Which all began with her getting a pen constructed to hold the horses in. At least while they worked at domesticating them. Or as much as that was possible for her people who she wasn't aware had any experience handling horses.
"So, what do you plan on doing here?" Maelia asked, interrupting Jenn's thoughts, as she looked around the space.
"I already explained to everyone about the horses, right?" Jenn asked, feeling like she was having to repeat what she'd already explained at the meeting where Beth had been accused of being a spy.
Though, Jenn wasn't sure why Riewis' mind went straight to spy, since she clearly wasn't poking around at anything that they were actually doing. Outside of building the settlement, that is. Nor did Riewis seem to have any ideas on who Beth would be spying for.
"Yes, but that still doesn't mean I really understand what you intend to do," Maelia replied, sounding a little perturbed at Jenn's enthusiasm about her idea.
"It's simple, once we have the horses in a large pen here, we can pick a few off every now and then to domesticate and make a pack animal," Jenn explained, hoping that Maelia wouldn't require her to go into specific detail about how she planned on doing that.
Some ideas worked best if you didn't delve too much into the details.
"And who do you plan on having do that?" Maelia asked dryly, her tone annoying Jenn, even though she knew that she was just doing her best to be helpful.
Or she at least hoped that was the case.
Jenn merely shrugged. "If needed, we can see if there's a slave for sale that knows about horses. We need one who knows about working with stone anyway, so it wouldn't be that much to add another to the list."
Maelia sighed, as if Jenn was being exasperating or purposefully obstinate. She wasn't sure which Maelia thought she was, but she couldn't say that she'd appreciate either one.
"You realize that the slaves we've been getting aren't going to have those skills, right?" Maelia asked, sounding rather put out. "Unless the auction doesn't know about it, it's going to cost a good amount more."
Jenn nodded. She'd expected as much. Even before Tchisa, Laer, and Zirisia had told her as much. Why each of them thought that Jenn didn't understand that fact was beyond her. She knew that she was going to have to make an expensive purchase with what she needed right now, but she was confident that it would pay off in dividends that no one else was expecting.
"Of course I know that," Jenn said, unable to keep her frustration out of her voice. "You're not the only one telling me that. Even before Tchisa and Laer told me that last night after the meeting and Zirisia told me that before I left for here with you, I was aware that it was going to cost more. The only way it wouldn't is if the slave in question managed to either hide it or picked it up on their own. You know, without having been formally trained. And even then, we'd have to get lucky to get that slave, since we wouldn't likely know about it either."
Maelia sighed. "You know, Rick probably could help out some," she suggested.
Jenn shook her head. "I'm sure he could, but I don't want him involved here more than has to be," Jenn answered, not sure if she should have said that no matter how true it was. "Besides, I think the construction methods he's aware of are just a little different than they would be here for us."
Maelia nodded, though her expression showed a little confusion. Jenn hoped that she wasn't mistaken, because right then she really didn't want to be proven wrong at the moment.
"Well, I'll talk to him about it anyway," Maelia replied after a few minutes as Jenn continued to make plans in her mind about how the pen would look, as well as some of the finer details such as making sure the stream went through the pen without creating an opening for the horses to get out.
"If you want to," Jenn replied absently, vaguely aware of what she was replying to.
"What are you planning on making the fence for the pen out of? We still haven't found any hardwood."
Jenn glanced at Maelia, feeling a little annoyed. "I know you guys don't like using softwood, but for this, it might be better," Jenn replied. "There's a few trees in here well need to uproot so we can ensure that there's enough pasture for the entire herd."
"Oh, what do you plan on doing with them in the winter?" Maelia asked, a mischievous look in her eyes. "Are we bringing them through the gate or do you plan on somehow making this pen winter-proof?"
"If we have to, I'll let them run wild during the winter," Jenn sighed, feeling like Maelia was just poking fun at her right then. Assuming she wasn't outright mocking her, that is. "I'd like to domesticate the entire herd, but I'm not sure if that'll be possible before winter." Jenn paused as she thought back to what she'd seen of the herd. Though, she didn't like the thought of turning them loose, since that would add to the problems with starting out the next season, given how they'd need to recapture the horses then. "I mean, it was a pretty big and I really don't know how long it'll take to domesticate even one of them."
Maelia sighed. "Yeah, I figured this was one of your ideas that might be more trouble than it's worth."
"Hey!" Jenn protested, confident that it would pay out many times over once they'd gotten her plan accomplished. "It will be worth it. You'll see how effective the collars can be." Once I figure out how to make them, Jenn added silently before continuing. "Not only will they be able to give our Silverthorns a boost in their power, but we'll also have a use for them with our farming plans as well as moving stone from wherever the quarry will be once we find a good one."
Maelia nodded, though her expression told Jenn she was merely humoring her. Well, if you'd like, I'll talk to Zirisia about getting some of our young women to cut some trees down so we can begin preparing the lumber for the fence posts as well as fencing." Maelia paused, her tone having turned serious partway through her statement. "Although, you might want to go over where you have in mind for the fence to be with someone. Like maybe Yaelish. She's good with internal mapping and remembering where things like this would be best to be placed."
Jenn nodded, glad for the suggestion. She at least hoped that Maelia was starting to come around as to at least accepting her idea, if not fully embracing it. Even though she doubted that was the case. As she suspected Maelia's turnabout was more in regards to getting others to deal with this so she didn't have to take care of it herself. Which was why Yaelish had been specifically mentioned.
Although, Jenn couldn't say that she opposed the idea. If nothing else, it would allow that to get started while she left with Tchisa, and maybe a few others, to head to the slave markets to see who they should try to recruit.
After all, just because they purchase someone with the skills they would need, didn't meant that they'd be willing to do that once they understood that they weren't required to do that for their freedom. That they were essentially free once they had been purchased by the order.
While Jenn wanted to do more about the pen right then, she didn't have anything with her to accomplish anything of any real note, so she had to be satisfied with what she'd seen and hope that she'd remember all of it when she spoke to Yaelish about it.
However, while she understood that intellectually, she still had a hard time getting her excitement about it to calm down. As she knew it wouldn't do her any good when she still had to return to the settlement, which would then be just about nightfall, before she could speak to anyone about the pen. As, unless Maelia wanted her honor guard to start cutting trees down, Jenn expected that those who would get assigned to that would be back at the settlement.
At that moment, Jenn realized that she needed to come up with a name for the settlement. She wasn't sure what it should be, but she knew she couldn't just keep calling it 'the settlement' forever. Especially with how calling it that was already getting old.