King Lenord Asput

The doors of my chamber were flung open, startling me awake.

"What in the name of the Endless One-"

"Wake up, Lenord," came the voice of Norris.

"Ugh," I said as I sat up and rubbed my head. "Look, Norris, unless we are under an attack, I really don't want to deal with any drama. My head is splitting right now."

"You are not far off. We underestimated the council. They are not just planning on raiding Bicman. It appears they have hired enough people to raze it to the ground."

"Get me some water," I yelled to my servant as I sat up. "My ministers assured me that it would be a light raid just to distract the people and make us look bad. At least this gives us time to prepare, though."

"No, Lenord, you don't understand. I got a pigeon message from Baron Eval. Ten Rabiss raiding ships were seen escorting some merchant ships just north of West Cove three days ago."

"Ten! Why in the world would they need that many?"

"Exactly. And with the wind at their backs, they should be passing Carok any day now."

I pushed my palms into my eyes. "I can't even think straight. Why did I even go to that party last night?"

"Because it was your daughter's birthday. The problem is that you drank too much."

"Stop nagging. You're not one of my wives. What is the point of going to a party if you aren't going to drink? Besides, that has nothing to do with the current situation. Now, what can we do about this?"

"I have sent a pigeon to Carock and Vaspar. Carok will spread the message along the Falmore border and Vaspar along the Kimton. I believe we should send some soldiers to Carok, even though it will be too late to help if Carok is their goal. I doubt it, because that would start a war, but one can never be sure with these kinds of people."

"Can we intercept them with our ships?"

"In a sea battle, they would decimate whatever we could throw at them. We don't have enough ships. We could tail them, but if they turned on us, they could destroy our ships and say they were lost at sea."

"So we just let them come and decimate the entire northern county?"

"We will gather 1000 men and send them to Vaspar via ship. Then, we will travel north to Malcomp. Malcomp and his sons should be able to hold them off until our men arrive. That is, of course, if the raiders decide to travel that far south, which they may if the council has asked the Rabiss to give proof that you are not fit to be king."

"So we lose two baronies?"

"They won't be able to take everyone. Besides, you had said that you didn't mind losing a few peasants," Norris said.

"Don't patronize me. I was willing to accept a certain amount of losses, but this crosses the line."

"Well, as long as we can retrieve the count, everything will be ok. The county produces almost nothing of importance, and there are very few people there. If the count is smart, he will just have everyone flee south, where there are more fortified baronies. The mind of that boy is really the only important thing in that place. Let us gather your ministers. We will take some time to deliberate on this matter. We will be able to turn this around."

Amos

The equinox snuck up on me almost without warning. It was a day for balance, which meant that people would evaluate the winter and plan for the summer. In the morning, it was done in the household, and in the evening, it was done in the village. Of course, for me, it was done at a manor, barony, and county level. That meant that Benjamin, Draves, Terrence, and Marshandra were in council most of the day. Marshandra was important because now that I was a count, managing the manor was something that my steward shouldn't have to deal with. So, I turned the management of the manor over to the person who knew it best.

We hammered out the final details of the guest house and new servants' quarters. I thought it was ridiculous how the servants slept like dogs in the great hall. It may have been customary, but it was degrading. The North Cove Castle would have servants' quarters in the actual keep itself. Or perhaps I would create a three-story Elizabethan Manor with a wall surrounding it.

In Bicman, the servant's quarters, which would be a small house, would be about the same size as the guest house but not as nicely furnished. Additionally, it would not have a sitting or dining room, unlike the guest house. I knew that I would soon be handing this place over to some random baron, but I wanted to show them I didn't live in a hovel. Actually, the reason for the guest house was that the new baron/spy provided by the council would live in the old manor, while I, when visiting, would stay in the better building. Nothing like sticking it to the council's crony.

I sat back in my chair and glanced at the ledger next to Benjamin. "Alright, Benjamin, where are we with preparations for the new year?"

He folded his hands over the book. "We have enough goats to keep Bicman supplied with cheese and hair on occasion, my lord, but the herds aren't growing quickly. At the current rate—buying two hundred goats a year and mixing in pigs—we'd be able to feed roughly three thousand people meat once every tenday… in about six years."

"That's a long time," I said. "People need meat in their diet?"

"Pork remains the cheapest option," he replied. "You've chosen to subsidize pig farming until numbers grow, but pigs require more feed than goats or mars since they can't graze. Still, even with the current plan, the people will have more protein each year than they're used to."

I knew it was better than what was happening elsewhere, but I wanted the healthiest people in the country.

"What about hides for the soldiers?"

"The tanner is on his third batch of goat hides now, but once those are finished, we'll be out for a time since we're avoiding slaughtering breeding animals."

I tapped my fingers on the armrest. "And leather supplies in general?"

"We've tanners, leather workers, and cobblers working throughout the county, my lord, plus imports from Vaspar, but even so, supply will be tight. You're subsidizing part of the cost, but the rest will have to come out of the soldiers' pay."

"It is what it is. I will just have to continue to subsidize until we are strong enough to no longer need the books and art for rapid growth." I said. "Now, tell me about Zed's operation."

Benjamin's mouth tightened slightly. "He arrived in Oceanside village, which is right where Polman River enters the sea. I do not like the fact that he is on Plimgus's lands.

Nor do I, but he is under my protection, and he insisted those beaches would be better for building the salt yards than the cove. Has the Baron reacted to the fact that I put one of my own people in his barony?"

"Not yet. I am sure the fact that you didn't bother telling the baron got under his skin, though."

"Exactly as I intended," I said. "Does he have what he needs?"

"You've provided him with capital, labor, and protection, my lord. He'll be one of the wealthier men in Plimgus soon, and indebted to you. Within ten years, he should be able to supply most of North Cove's salt. He plans for evaporation ponds all along the coast. He will have great influence over that barony soon, and with his loyalty to you, we should be able to tighten the noose around Plimgus."

"Excellent"

I turned my attention to Terrence. "Alright, where do we stand with your projects?"

He leaned forward, eager to share what was going on in Pine Ridge. "Black powder production is going well, my lord, and the tracks for moving the coal oil are working exactly as intended. However, we were unable to get the puddling furnace to make steel. Well, we can if we pull it out a little early, but it is inconsistent, and it just isn't made for doing so. Since you said that coke and charcoal had carbon in them, we tried first producing wrought iron, then reintroducing carbon by heating it with charcoal and coke. Charcoal works better.

"Really? I would have thought coke would work better because it is more concentrated carbon."

I don't understand it all, but the men say charcoal works better. At present, we've produced roughly a hundred kilograms of decent-quality steel. If we had more iron ore, I believe we could raise that to three hundred kilograms a week."

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I frowned slightly. "And what's holding us back?"

"We need more miners, and we'll also require a larger blast furnace to produce the pig iron. Right now, the entire process takes nearly three weeks for a single batch. Not that that would change, but we could run bigger batches."

I nodded slowly, my mind half on his words and half drifting elsewhere. Black powder… steel… sparks. An idea took shape. "Tell me, Terrence—could we attach a piece of steel to a pull string and make a spark by scraping it across flint—or the other way around?"

He tilted his head. "Flint and pyrite are the most common pairing right now, but flint and steel could certainly work if the steel is hard enough. Why?"

"I want to see if we can make a remotely triggered ignition," I said, leaning forward. "Picture a mechanism where the pull of a string strikes flint against steel, creating a spark exactly when we want it."

Terrence's mouth twitched in a half-smile. "I'll have the scientists test it."

I had named all the people working on these experiments scientists just for convenience's sake. I keep the phrase mad scientist to myself. I think the pyromaniacs would like the title too much.

"Well, if half my ideas get shot down, fine—sometimes the ones that stick change everything."

As discussions wound down, I threw out one last thing. Since I felt this place had entirely too few holidays, I decided to name the day after the equinox, the first day of the year, an actual holiday. Thus, New Year's Day was born in Bicmon Barony. I would start the spread of it from here.

It was still a little chilly up in the mountains, but for the most part, the weather had started to warm up. The farmers still warned me that sudden drops in temperature could happen, killing the crops. That didn't stop us from having a party. The party was held at the fairgrounds we had created south of Kerisi. There was, of course, a football tournament, but I also wanted to introduce a new game. I wanted to do baseball, but leather was in short supply, and there was no way I was going to have people play baseball without gloves. I didn't need a bunch of broken fingers. Also, I knew the inside of the original baseballs was made of wood, but I didn't know the type. So, instead, we made a softball out of a small amount of leather and stuffed it with horsehair. It was mainly played by the kids, but they really got into it.

There was another New Year's Day party taking place in North Point, which attracted some people from the nearby villages in Plimgus. I heard afterward that Plimgus himself deigned to attend it. If I had to guess, he probably liked it better than the austere Malcomp.

There were not many goods for sale this year, but I am sure next year this will turn into a much bigger event. The party was expensive, but I was crossing my fingers that hosting this kind of event would stimulate the local economy.

Another reason to celebrate was that we had done a census, and a lot fewer people had died this winter than in all the years that people could remember, probably because people weren't trying to eat wood bark to survive. I promised myself that next year it would be even less. I had been making the medics wear specific clothes that were changed frequently, often washing the sick and keeping them well hydrated. If we could turn bread mold into antibiotics or create vaccines for the pox, that would be good. I had once heard that the first vaccine was made by infecting people with the non-deadly virus, cowpox. This would build up an immunity to smallpox. But I wasn't about to start experimenting with people's lives. I would leave that to major pharmaceutical companies, may they rot in hell.

The day after the party, preparations for planting picked up right where we had left off. Since we were preparing a significantly larger number of fields this year for both crop rotation and new cash crops, we had to start early. Fortunately, we had purchased enough mules and horses and built enough plows to get things done more efficiently. The fact that we had worked through the winter to clear the land of trees and rocks also helped. By the time we are done, I expect to have two to three times more fields in the already established villages and thirty acres per family of farmers in the new ones.

It was during one of my trips out and about, handing out small buns to some of the kids, that I encountered one of my favorite farmers.

"How are things going, Henry?"

"Busy, my lord. I do not mean to complain, my lord, but the new position of headman over Bicman is quite overwhelming," the older man said with a grimace.

I chuckled. "I understand, but I really couldn't entrust the job to anyone else. Benjamin and I can no longer fill the role, so the village needs a level-headed overseer, and you are the right person for the job. The people of Bicman trust you have their best interests in mind, and so do I. That is the most important thing."

"You have said so before. But it does not make things any less daunting."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I imagine that this spring, we will have a new baron and steward here. They may want to take some of the management duties back from you."

"The idea of a new baron does not make me feel better. I prefer the one we have."

The thought also made my stomach churn. I was worried for these people. I had no desire to leave their fates in the hands of another person. Especially if it was some stuck-up noble, fortunately, I would still be the count, and hopefully, if the people started complaining, I would hear about it and put a stop to it.

"If you have any complaints about the new guy, just make sure to send me a word. I would have to be careful about how I handle my nobles, but I can censure bad behavior."

"I am glad for your willingness to continue to support us. Maybe if our harvest turns out well, he will just leave us alone like your father usually did."

"Well, if we got the same yields as last year on some of the fields, we would get 270 kg per acre for the various grains. That means even if we feed each adult 180 kg we still have enough for taxes, storage, and to feed our population. He should be very happy about that."

"I cannot even imagine having that much cereal and grain for just one person," Henry said as his eyes went distant.

Of course, as our population moved away from agrarian culture, we would need to produce even more grain per acre, but I was hoping that new machinery and fertilizer would make it possible for a single farmer to be able to handle a larger amount of fields and yields. Hence, the automatic reaper was important, and they were even trying to create a mule-driven thresher.

The Clairmonts had left right before the New Year. To say I was glad to see them go would be an understatement. Although it was really enlightening to advance math, not to mention all the help they gave to my county in advancing my own people's understanding, all the conversations were starting to get on my nerves. I did allow them to take our brightest student, Detrick, with them. He was a pure math nerd, just like Jewel. He had been following Jewel around like a puppy. Although he was only fourteen, by the time they were ready to leave, he was already just as proficient as she. He was like one of those nerds in class who always had the answer and did extra math problems on his own time. They were the kids I always made fun of but now I wish I had more of them.

When Jewel asked if he could go with her, I gave my permission hesitantly. He would be a huge asset when we get the University of North Cove up and running. But keeping him here would only hold him back, and in a couple of years, I could probably invite him to come back and give lectures that no one else would understand. I also elevated him from serf to peasant status. Keeping him as a serf would have kept him beholden to me, and he would have had to come back since serfs were pretty much property here. I didn't want that. I wouldn't keep the boy on a leash just for convenience's sake.

I did explain to Jewel that he was still my citizen, and although he had the right to travel, I would not restrict him. I still considered him under my protection. I let her know that I expected reports on his progress and that I would come to his aid and defend his rights. I don't think I had to worry about her, but if I heard that someone was causing him trouble in the barony of Clairmont or the capital, I would take him back.

Arnold had been happy to leave. He had been excited to show off the metric system to his colleagues. He took with him measuring sticks, cups, and weights. He had helped engineer a new type of scale that worked well with our measuring system, and so he brought one of those back as well. He also took my calipers with him. This was a new tool for him, and as soon as he got hold of it, he wouldn't let it go. He had to measure everything. Fortunately, I had the original stored away. I kept copies of everything we invented here so that it could later be put in a museum. I figured if we had a museum, it would be less likely that people would take credit for what we had done.

I wasn't too worried about the Clairmonts. They most likely wouldn't take credit for things. They seemed more like the type that would try to convince all their friends to come here and see what was going on. That was a worry in and of itself.

Now that Arnold and Jewel were gone, I had some more free time to work on the electricity project. I did not want to show that to anyone right now, so I put it away while the Clairmonts were here. I had been trying to recall everything I knew about electricity, and one thing I remembered was that the more coils you have on one of those magnets you create with a nail and copper wire, the stronger it is. The other thing was that if you disassembled one of the electric motors inside the cheap RC cars, you would have a lot of small metal pieces with copper wrapped around them. I really wish I had disassembled that thing further.

I was staring at the most recent contraption I had built. We found some more magnetic rock in our expanding iron mine, and I made my contraption a little bigger. I now had four magnets and added two more magnets and two more coiled copper wires.

"Alright, Benjamin, are you ready?" I said excitedly.

"My lord, is it going to work this time?"

"Of course it will work. I can't believe you are doubting me just because it hasn't worked any of the other times. Now, start spinning it so I can electrocute myself."

I really hoped this worked. We had been at it for three hours now, trying to get this to work. Now it was time to figure out if more magnets made more electricity."

When Benjamin started spinning it, I could feel the buzz in my finger, but then my hand cramped up, and I jerked it away.

"Crap, the sting hurts as bad as touching the metal on a trampoline after jumping. Actually, it may be a little worse," I said while shaking my hand.

"So it worked?" Benjamin asked in surprise.

"Oh ye of little faith," I smiled. "Of course, it worked. The next step is computers and video games. Once we get people hooked on those, nobody will have time for all their silly wars."

"So now what?"

I scratched the back of my head. "Well, I think we have to do it all in reverse. But in my world, there was a bunch of other stuff that people were discovering about electricity at the time, like volts, amps, current, ohms, batteries, resistors, transformers, and capacitors. I don't know if any of that is important in order to make what we call an electric motor."

"Electric motor?"

"Imagine you connect this generator here to a wire that extends to a building out near the fields. It is attached to a motor that spins when you spin this one. That spinning motion is similar to a waterwheel, which operates a grain mill. What we would really do is attach this to a waterwheel and have it spin the device."

Actually, we would eventually put a dam up near the mountains and create a hydroelectric plant, but that may take many years.

"Are you saying that you can put these motors anywhere, and as long as they are attached to this generator, they would work, all because of this… electricity," he said in amazement.

"That is a really simple way of putting it, but yes. However, this is also very dangerous. High amounts of electricity can start fires and cause serious injury or death. That is why it may take years of experimenting before it is safe enough to do. Really, I should have started working on steam power first, but I have just gotten carried away because I wanted to see if it would work."

"Steam? As in boiling water. Why is that important?"

"My dear friend, it is not just important. It is a foundation stone that will help us to become the most important county in Falmoren. Actually, steam and electrical power will be two of the subjects of study at the University of North Cove. Just wait, my friend, I plan to make North Cove the most important city in the world."

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