The evening was fun, and Emily made for a great audience as we discussed my adventure. She was as amazed as I was at how much money I made and how quickly it could be spent. My interactions with the duke made her mad, but she laughed at the Easter eggs I had added to his paintings.

  I started to get the feeling that she was uncomfortable whenever I mentioned other girls, not in an angry or jealous way, but rather in a way that makes her feel insecure. So, I ended up avoiding all the instances where people tried to push me into marriage.

  I knew she had a crush on me and was just afraid of losing me. She had nothing to worry about, marriage was not something I could even consider right now. When your county is about to be attacked and your people need enough food to survive the year, it is not the time to go out courting. At least, that is what I told myself.

  It was all so frustrating because I didn't want to ruin my relationship with one of the few people I could be open with. Actually, that was funny. I could truly be open with Emily about everything except our relationship. I knew eventually I would have to.

  Was it selfish of me to try and preserve my friendship with Emily? If I told her that she wasn't someone I could marry would she avoid me?

  The fact that she, as a noble, would be staying right down the hall from me was also a problem. I was just trying to do something nice for my best friend, and it ended up making things worse. I hadn't considered that making her a noble would only increase her infatuation.

  Would we still be able to be friends? Would she even look me in the eyes when this all fell apart?

  So instead of discussing our relationship and the future we just talked about our lives, anything and everything that had been going on. We actually kept talking well past sunset. Sitting close to the fire, I finished up by telling about Tumlus and how I hoped that they could be good friends.

  It may have just been me, but it seemed that Emily had become more focused and thoughtful over the last few months while I was gone. She was still fun to talk to, but I think running the paper shop caused her to mature a bit. It was good to see, and I think it will help her when I bring her on my next visit to the south. Of course, I didn't bother telling her that I would be taking her. I would leave that for a surprise. I really had no choice, though. Every time I left her, she got in trouble. Best to keep her close by. Then again, I am not the best at staying out of trouble myself.

  I crashed hard that night. The fact that I was finally home relieved a lot of the stress I had been feeling. Combine that with my nice soft bed, and I was out like a light.

  **********

  I woke late the next morning, which threw me off. I was groggy and out of sorts, so I ordered a cold bath. I hated cold baths, but they woke me up quickly, and I needed to be alert. At some point, I would make a shower. Maybe I would design one to add to my new home.

  While I waited, I practiced Tai Chi and attempted to make a list of all the tasks I had to complete. I looked down at the list partway through making it and began to laugh. No matter how many things I checked off my list, it just kept getting bigger.

  I skipped breakfast today since I had already risen late and went to go find Chris. I wanted to check up on our recruits. As I was walking out the main entrance of my manor, I found Benjamin outside discussing something with a man in his late twenties. He seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place him.

  When they saw me, they both bowed. "My lord, this is Cooper, the man in charge of the secret farms," Benjamin said.

  "Ah, yes, Headman Josh's friend, right? How are things in Barim?"

  "Very good, my lord. It is quieter without the cloth production, though," Cooper said.

  "Without all those women sitting around gossiping, I'm sure it is. How is your family? If I remember correctly, you have four children."

  "Five, my lord."

  I shook my head, "I can't seem to keep up with all my people. So, have you moved your family to the farm, or are they still in Barim?

  "In order to keep it secret, all those involved have moved their families to a small group of homes near the sea."

  "Excellent. Are all the fields plowed and ready for the guano tests?"

  "Yes, my lord."

  The secret farms were testing grounds for guano fertilizer. I had begun to realize how important crops were in this society, and if the guano doubled our crop yield, there wasn't a noble out there who wouldn't want to attack me to get a piece of the pie. Hence, the secret and the plans we had come up with to mask where our fertilizer was coming from.

  "Have you started working on a road to the Cove yet?"

  "Forgive me, my lord. But the guano is hard to crush, and we are hoping to get the amount we need for the experiment before we start on the road."

  "That makes sense. How long do you think it will take to get the needed amount of guano?"

  "Another three weeks. It is hard work due to the cold, and the strong winds make the temperature even colder."

  "I remember those winds from when I first went to the cliffs. I also remember thinking it might not be a bad place to experiment with a windmill?" I said.

  "Windmill?" Cooper asked.

  I smiled. "Prepare to make history, Cooper. Well, that's assuming a windmill hasn't been created elsewhere. We will need to get with Edward to see if he has already given my designs for the windmill to the engineers. Well, they weren't really designs so much as pictures. I would leave the guts of the project to the engineers and builders. Cooper's Mill had a good ring to it. I would suggest the name if they got the windmill up and running."

  "You want me to name the village after me?" he said in a somewhat horrified tone. And that sealed his fate.

  "I don't want to. I am going to. My mind is made up and you are stuck with the name."

  He sighed in defeat. "As you wish my lord. But can you explain what a windmill is. It will be awkward to have tell everyone what the town name is and not know what a windmill is."

  “A windmill is like a watermill except it uses wind to move the shaft. I will have to show you the pictures.”

  I had actually made several drawings. The first was of those ones you see in all the pictures of the Netherlands. The second was the ones you saw in old movies about the Midwest farmers. Okay, so I don't really remember it from a historical film. My memory of those windmills comes from an old mini-series my dad loved to watch over and over again. It was a sci-fi take on the Wizard of OZ. I think it was called Tinman. In it, Dorthy helps fix a wind turbine.

  The third was the ones we use today in the wind farms. I remember driving down Interstate 40 and passing a truck that was carrying one of the blades. Those things were frick’n huge. Without a steel frame, I don't think we could make one of those turbines. Since they were the most modern, they had to be the most efficient, though. So, at some point, I would want to try to build one.

  I have no idea which type of windmill would be feasible, but we would definitely need something if we wanted to produce large amounts of fertilizer.

  "You have seen the different ways we are using the water wheel?”

  “Yes, my lord,” Cooper said.

  “We want to crush the hardened guano the same way. Between you, your men, and Sanders engineers, we will find a way to do that."

  "As you wish, My lord."

  We continued to chat for a while, and then the gates opened, and Draves came riding in on a very sweaty horse. He hopped off the horse and handed the reins to Ben, the Stablemaster. Walking up to me, he bowed, "My lord, I am grateful for your return and to see you in good health."

  "Barely, I hear that my letters were not getting through, and so my near death and subsequent rise in status came as a shock."

  "It is certainly something I would like to discuss. However, I am happy for you. I do not understand the sudden rise in status."

  "Machinations, my friend. Things are heating up down south, and I am being used in at least one if not more, plots. The ideas range from a scapegoat to making the barony a dumping ground for refugees. " I explained.

  "Any thoughts on when they will start implementing plans?"

  "It depends on which one it is. We have the attack coming from the North. If we fail to repel it I could be considered incompetent and removed. then they install a new count instead of giving the land back to Count Vaspar. This gains them three baronies not under the control of a supporter of the king. If It is the refugee thing, it depends on when war breaks out. If it is for industrial espionage, that means stealing my ideas, then it will start happening as soon as more trade starts up here."

  That last one I had thought up after leaving Sophis's barony. He said that it would be best if he sent the Starlight Mars to me in spring, and I thought he would use that as an excuse to have his people spy. That led me to think that maybe Sophis was the one behind me in becoming count. He probably believed that I was keeping secrets and wanted to send people to spy. A backwater barony had no reason for a lot of people to visit or relocate there, but he found out that I had the plow somehow and knew I was increasing the prosperity of the barony. He was probably banking on me rapidly growing and not able to hide my secrets from an influx of people.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Of course, this was all just conjecture. I had no way of knowing who was doing what. Once I got my intelligence agency up and running, I would hopefully be able to counter these attacks, but for now, I had to weather the storm.

  "Draves, let's talk about our projects in my office. I will get some food for you," I said.

  After we retired to my office and Draves had a quick bite to eat, he began his report. "The palisade for both Fort Cove on the coast and the Fort are complete, and we are attempting to build a ballistae. As well as catapults. It is not going well, though. The devices are simple, but they are not launching the projectiles well, and the accuracy is poor."

  "We are doing this without any engineers that have built one before, so that is to be expected. Also, I have changed the name of the Fort to Pine Ridge. It will help so we are not confused. How about the crossbows?"

  "Better, my lord," Draves said with just a hint of enthusiasm. Our latest design appears to be capable of launching a bolt two hundred meters, but is most effective at one hundred meters. It is quite an improvement from the first one, which only launched a bolt one hundred yards and was effective at about forty once we figure out how to make it."

  "So my pictures were not all that good, huh?" I said.

  "They were a great starting place," Draves said.

  "Nice of you to say. How about the crank on the crossbow?"

  "That has taken us a while to figure out how to make. Your design had to be scrapped. We just couldn't get it to work. We just made one before I left that lasted five shots before it broke. We would never have gotten it to work at all if not for the engineers. Please don't tell them that, though. They are starting to get full of themselves."

  "Moderation in all things, I guess. I look forward to seeing this new design. How about the trigger mechanism?"

  "The picture you drew did not give us much to go on. The trigger was too small to make easily, so we changed it, and the new design works well."

  "Good. I want them to keep improving the crossbow, but we need to start producing them for the men. How long would it take to make one?"

  "Unfortunately, we are having to make the arms out of iron, so it takes longer to work than the bronze. If we had a trip hammer up and running at the fort, I mean Pine Ridge, we could produce them fairly quickly. At least one per day, but as it is, it will be about one every couple of days. With just one smith working."

  "A trip hammer is on the list of things to do, right?" I asked.

  "Yes, my lord. Most of the components are already done. We were waiting for the gears from Melnon to arrive before assembling. There will actually be three trip hammers running off the same wheel.

  "Do we have enough material and blacksmiths for that?"

  "Not yet. We have prospectors out with scouts who have found some veins close to the fort. We should have some mines up and running by next summer, so we don't have to hide the exports from Melnon.

  "How are the looms and spinners doing?"

  "That really isn't something I have checked on. Best to ask Edward or the fort's headman, Tarence."

  "Sounds good."

  "Anything else of note? How is Kylie's Project going?"

  I was hoping it wasn't going well. I may have been too hasty with my desire to create black powder to defend us. With proper fortifications and crossbows, we may not need it. I did not want to open Pandora's box. Unfortunately, from the look in Draves' eyes and the way he shifted uncomfortably, I could tell something was up.

  "My lord, there was an incident about a Tenday ago that stopped the project."

  It felt like a rock had dropped into my stomach. "What happened?"

  "The guards on duty at the fort felt a slight tremor and heard a soft sound around midnight. Most of us didn't notice. Around half an hour later, they could see a fire blazing in the direction of the black-powered camp. Kylie and her workers showed up a little later, completely spooked. Apparently, the shed where they kept the black powder had exploded."

  "Who died?" I said, knowing that this was not the last time a man would die due to black powder.

  "The shed is located about a quarter bell down a trail from where the production is done. All black powder and equipment are stored there every night, and two guards are put on watch. We were able to reach the area with the shed a few days later, once most of the fires finally burnt themselves out" .

  The shed was completely gone, with a crater in the ground. The remains of the guards were scattered. At first, we thought the guards had done something, but we discovered more pieces of burnt body than would just be two guards. After gathering what we could, we counted five bodies. We sent out a request for a report on if anyone was missing, and we concluded that spies were trying to figure out what we were doing.

  "So we had at least three spies who were good enough to figure out about the fort. I wonder how many people there are. I can't imagine too many. They were probably the king's spies."

  "Why do you say that?" Draves asked curiously.

  "The spies would have been snooping around for a while before they made it to the fort, so that means they were probably with the original group. Other barons and counts would have sent their spies after it was announced I was count. You had already been keeping a closer eye on people by then, and it would have been harder for them to find information on Pine Ridge," I said, trying to reason out my argument.

  "They could have been people from Vaspar?"

  "True, but Vaspar is allied with the king, and any other baron or count who slipped people in wouldn't have invested much in it. Trained spies don't grow on trees, so why put your spies in Bicman when some informant would be enough?"

  "That makes a certain amount of sense. An informant wouldn't be traveling all over the barony and be able to kill two armed guards. Especially since there were three spies."

  "How much black powder was it?" I asked.

  "Apparently, they had recently had a break, and there was a couple barrel's worth in the shed."

  My eyes went wide, "A water barrel?"

  "I believe so."

  "That much powder could have destroyed their entire camp and then some. It is a good thing you weren't keeping it in the fort. I…"

  "What is it, my lord."

  "I just had a really bad idea."

  "A bad idea?"

  "Well, a good idea, but the thought of it makes me kind of sick. We pull a mini Hiroshima."

  "I don't understand."

  I sighed, "In the world I came from, there was a great war. Tens of millions of people were killed in a matter of a few years. During the war, they created a weapon that could destroy entire cities. And when I say cities, I am saying enormous cities. The city of Hiroshima was one city where they deployed that weapon. I could be wrong, but I think it killed close to 100,000 people almost instantly. It was justified by saying that the use of the weapon caused the country that it was used on to back out of the war. I agree, but at the same time, it was one of the greatest tragedies to happen in our history."

  Draves looked at me with serious eyes. "You think you could destroy all the men of the Rabiss at once.”

  "No, but I think we can get a lot of them," I said with a grimace. I didn't like the thought of doing this, but it might be the best way to get them to leave, and if this works, we could win without losing a single life.

  "What is your plan, my lord," he said eagerly.

  For the next half-bell bell, we discussed my idea. To say Draves was intrigued would be an understatement. He was happy to have a way that might hopefully destroy the enemy without the fear of casualties.

  I stood up and stretched. "I think we have hammered this out as best we can. I need to get to Pine Ridge and Fort Cove to see all the projects. I will also need to see if Kylie and her people are willing to continue or if we need a new team."

  "When would you like to depart?"

  "At dawn tomorrow after breakfast. It will take two hours to get to Melnon. Then another two days to get to the fort, correct?"

  "Actually, they have been working on the road, and I believe we can get to Pine Ridge, as you call it, in a day and a half. It took me less then that on my return to Bicman"

  "That is excellent. Now, however, I have someone I would like you to meet. Our new glassblower."

  King Lenord Asput

  "Is there any other bad news you have for me, Norris," I said werily. It had been a long day of endless problems.

  "No, Cousin. It is time for some good news."

  "Finally. What is actually going right for me?"

  Duke Falmore smiled, "Baron Pape has responded to my invitation and will be here in five days. I will give his second son the Barony of Manticole. I have always liked the boy, and I think he will do well. The Barony is going to need a strong hand."

  "It sounds like good news for you, not me. I am still trying to deal with the fallout of Baron Manticoles execution. The whole city was in an uproar for three days, claiming the accusations were false. It's still a mess production has ground to a halt."

  "I am aware; it is my duchy, after all. It is a shame we cannot locate Catherine. Marrying her to Lord Pape’s son would prove that she was truly pardoned and that we were not just trying to lure her into a trap."

  "Why does this always happen to me," I said, letting Norris feel my annoyance.

  "I think you are forgetting that your father and his father before him had those same problems."

  "I don't really care about them. They are dead. I swear if someone had told me that being king was going to be such a hassle, I would have jumped in front of my brother and saved him from his stupid death so that he could have ruled instead of me."

  "I can see you are agitated. I will finish up my report."

  "I would rather have you in here than those nerds and their stupid ramblings."

  "Your scholars are excellent people. Might I suggest you not call them derogatory names?"

  "They won't shut up about this new number system. They keep insisting that I confirm it as the Kingdom's number system. Also, they want me to force everyone to use the new bookkeeping method, which they say is so phenomenal."

  "Yes, I actually received a message from one of my barons, Baron Clairmont. He says his children are obsessed with it and the ease of its use. If I remember correctly, his twins are both mathematicians. They are headed to Vaspar to go find the man who invented it. They want to invite him or her to the capital."

  "Ha. They will have to travel farther than that to get to where the number system was created." I laughed.

  "What? I thought you told me it came from Vaspar." Norris said in confusion.

  "I guess I wasn't clear enough, or maybe I just didn't want to tell you at the time. I can't remember. Probably because it really doesn't matter. It came from the county of Vaspar, but the creator of the number system was Baron Bicman."

  "The new count?"

  "Don't remind me," I said while trying not to grind my teeth.

  "I thought you were on good terms with him. Wasn't he the one that gave you the idea for the stirrup?"

  "And the leaf spring, abacus, dip pen, and a few other things. The problem is that I didn't make him the Count. Philip the Second was the one who made him Count without even getting approval from me. The boy is wrapped up in one of their plots, and he may not even know it. It makes me think I should just assassinate the boy to disrupt their plotting." I wasn't serious, and my uncle knew it. The boy was a valuable resource, and it would be foolish to lose someone like him. The problem was that others were starting to see his value, too.

  "What have your spies reported, Majesty?"

  "I sent six. I know one was caught and escorted to the border, but I have not heard what happened to the others," I said.

  "Send a Messenger?"

  I couldn't help but make a face at the suggestion. "That is a little excessive. News of that type would reach all the way to Turabe. It might even scare away the Rabiss from attacking."

  "Do as you like, then. You know I don't like the fact that you are allowing the Rabiss to attack our land."

  "Allow?" I growled. "All my men are busy down south."

  "You could easily send a thousand men."

  "And again, that would draw unwanted attention. Besides, they are just a bunch of raiders. I would rather have them ransack the place and grab a few peasants. It is an excellent way to put everything back in place. You know that the boy does not deserve a county. The plan is simple. When the raiders come, the count will most likely flee, but if he is captured, I will pay the ransom. If he flees, he will be blamed for losing his people. I will pardon him and give him a barony here in Falmore. Either way, he becomes indebted to me. Right now, it is the opposite and I am indebted to him. Also, it is too dangerous to leave such a talented young man at the borders of our kingdom when he could be here. I get the boy, Vaspar gets his lands back, and the infighting in the council continues."