The Greystone Chronicles: Book One: Io Online Page 43

  “And you lived happily ever after?” Alexander tried to lighten the mood

  “Ha! Hardly!” Fitz smiled a sad smile as he looked down at his hands. “I took her to my tower, where I knew she’d be safe. I left her there to go and report to the king. He sent me back with a company of soldiers to make sure the baron was dead and his minions destroyed. It took half a day to search every room and kill all the undead in the keep and in the mine. There was no sign of the baron’s body, but with the spell I’d hit him with, I assumed it was simply destroyed. By the time I returned to my tower, Agatha had cleaned everything and cooked me a meal. She begged to stay with me, afraid that her family, if they knew she was alive, would marry her off again. And so she stayed. For nearly sixty years.” The old man wiped a tear from his face.

  “I’m sorry, Fitz,” Alexander patted his shoulder. “I did not mean to bring back such sad memories.”

  “No, lad. No sad memories there. That woman yelled, and teased, and lectured me every day. But I wouldn’t trade a single one of them for anything.” The wizard rose to his feet again. “Why are we just sitting around here?! Let’s round up our short, bearded friends and go see if we can cause some trouble at the quarry!”

  Alexander grinned at the feisty old wizard, and followed him toward the gate.

  It turned out that Master Stonebreaker and his gang had left before dawn to go explore the quarry, so Fitz and Alexander headed out the gate. As they turned off the road to head through the forest, Alexander paused. “Hey, Fitz?” The wizard stopped and turned to him.

  “The dwarves are going to need to bring the stone from the quarry to the city. Either to take it through the portal to Broken Mountain, or to sell it to merchants. Those wagons are going to be heavy. I think we should make them a road so that they don’t get stuck in mud or break an axle.”

  “Aye, good thinking, boy,” Fitz nodded. So the two of them worked together, raising stone in a strip twenty feet wide. They didn’t bring the stone all the way to the surface, leaving a couple of inches of grass and soil to act as a cushion for the wheels. Alexander raised a marker on either side of the road every fifty feet so that the road could be navigated in deep snow. Walking slowly as they built, the two of them traveled the mile through the trees to the quarry. It took until nearly lunchtime for them to arrive.

  Master Stonebreaker was standing at the lip of the quarry pit as Fitz and Alexander approached. On either side of him, ropes were tied to stakes driven into the rock, and led over the edge. Looking down, Alexander saw dwarves hanging from the ropes, tapping at stone and listening to the echoes. Others were standing at the bottom, hands on the stone, eyes closed.

  “This quarry be all that Thea said, and more,” the dwarf reported. “From just what me senses have found already, there be a good ten years of work here.”

  “Glad to hear it!” Alexander nodded his head behind them. “Fitz and I have come to see what you might need as far as structures.”

  “Aye, thank ye lad. Wizard.” The dwarf bowed his head briefly, then began to walk back toward the trees. Seeing the road markers, which hadn’t been there when he’d passed by a few hours earlier, he looked questioningly at the two mages.

  Fitz grunted. “Yes, well, the boy thought you should have a proper road to move those ridiculously heavy rocks over.”

  Looking at the undisturbed grass, the quarry master put his hand on the first of the road markers. He bowed his head and closed his eyes, using his earth sense. When he found the road, his head jerked up, then moved slowly to left as if he were surveying the path. When he opened his eyes, his head was shaking.

  “That be twice in two days I doubted ye. Thea told us ye did crazy things to help the folk in the village. I should have known after seeing the dragon forge that ye didn’t do things in small measures!” He reached out his hand to Alexander. “I’ll not doubt ye again!”

  Your reputation with Quarry Master Stonebreaker has improved to Respected

  Alexander shook the dwarf’s hand. “Thank you, Master Stonebreaker. We are allies now, and I hope, friends. We believe in helping our friends, and it is no great hardship for us.”

  “Aye! The boy needs all the practice he can get!” Fitz added with a grin. “So tell us what buildings you need, and where you want them.”

  Chuckling as Alexander rolled his eyes, the dwarf led them back about 100 yards from the edge of the pit. “We’ll be expanding yonder hole as we go. But this should be far enough.” He said. “Can ye make us a building like the barracks where we slept? And maybe a small masonry shop for shaping and cleaning the stone?”

  “Bah! We can do better than that!” Fitz shouted, making the dwarf jump slightly. “How many dwarves will you have here once the operation is going?”

  “Maybe two dozen?” the dwarf responded after thinking about it for a moment.

  “And what about families?” Alexander asked.

  “Families?” Master Stonebreaker hesitated. “We were not told…”

  “Bah!” the wizard made him jump again, cutting him off. He winked at Alexander. “Of course your families are welcome here! Our King would not force you to leave them behind to earn your living! Now. Two dozen dwarves. All with families? How many are we talking about in total?”

  Master Stonebreaker pulled out a parchment and pencil and began to make a list of each man, whether he had family, and how many. After looking at the list, Fitz declared “You’re going to need a building bigger than the barracks just to store your ale!”

  That gave Alexander an idea. “Master Stonebreaker, the village is only a mile away. Rather than having wives or husbands and children running about underfoot while you’re working, would it not be better for them to live in the village? We can build your shop here, and a barracks for single dwarves or guards you wish to leave here at night. The rest of the housing we can build inside the village walls where they’ll be safer, and more comfortable.”

  “Aye, thank ye lad. Tha’d be most welcome. We’d not expected to be treated so well. Though, by what I’ve seen so far, I dunno why. Old habits, I’d guess.”

  With that settled, they went to work. Alexander started on a workshop building, while Fitz teleported back to the village with the list. He would enlist the help of the guild mage to start on the housing there. Also, it was lunchtime.

  Alexander didn’t need a cellar for the workshop, so he simply cleared the topsoil in a 50x50 area, and raised the stone below up to ground level. He then grew thick stone walls on all four sides, leaving a 12ft wide doorway in the wall facing the road. He added small windows all around, for defense more than for light. He raised wide stone pillars in two rows across the floor, and placed massive support beams across them, connecting the front and back walls. Next he grew very thin stone slabs to cover the beams to make a roof. Then, just to show off, he decided to try one of Brick’s tricks. He didn’t have the natural shaping skill that Brick, had. But he thought he might be able to combine his own skills to mimic his friend.

  Using his earth sense, he searched the edges and the bottom of the quarry pit. He found sand and stone dust aplenty. Moving them up through the ground, then up the walls of the building, he liquefied the mixture to the consistency of mud, and spread it across the roof slabs until it covered them all in a layer roughly four inches thick.

  Now came the hard part. Closing his eyes, Alexander took several deep breaths. He concentrated on his wizard’s fire spell. But rather than simply casting the spell, he focused on the components of the casting. The direction and intent of the spell. The source of the heat. The duration the fire would burn. Holding them separate in his mind, he targeted the entire roof of the structure, and began to slowly apply the heat of the wizard’s fire. At first it was difficult, with some sections heating much more quickly. He focused harder and smoothed the heat out evenly. At the same time, he kept his earth mover skill focused on maintaining the shape of his creation. After just a few minutes, as his mana began to approach empty, he ceased cast
ing and opened his eyes. He smiled to himself.

  “Durin’s hammer, boy! What’ve ye done?” Master Stonebreaker’s mouth was open.

  “Stone shaping is delicate and detailed work,” Alexander replied. “I wanted you to have plenty of light to work by!”

  The entire roof of the building was now a single sheet of five-inch thick glass. It wasn’t perfect by any means. There were areas that were slightly opaque, and the surface wasn’t completely smooth. There were bubbles in several areas. Walking inside with the quarry master, Alexander thought that the midday sun shining through the imperfections actually made some pretty cool designs on the stone floor. “What do you think, Quarry Master?”

  “BWAHAHAHA! I think me shop’s to be the envy of every stone mason in Broken Mountain!” The dwarf thumped him on the back hard enough that he took a step forward for balance. “Come with me lad.”

  The dwarf stood outside and cupped his hand around his mouth, hollering, “LUNCH!” Then he looked to Alexander. “Watch their faces.”

  As each dwarf cleared the top of the pit and headed toward them, Alexander got to see the various amazed and confused looks upon their faces. It was totally worth the effort.

  While the dwarves inspected the shop building, and began to unload tools and supplies from their wagons, Alexander went back to work. He created a simple three sided shelter with a sloped roof large enough for half a dozen ponies to take shelter from the sun or the weather. Around this shelter he raised a wide circle of stone fence posts with two slots in each one. The dwarves would have to cut their own wooden slats to finish the corral. Until then they could use rope.

  He took a break once the dwarves had finished their unloading, and shared their lunch of bread, jerky, cheese, and ale. There were many toasts in his honor, so many that he took a short nap in the sun before he was sober enough to get back to work.

  Next he built a shorter version of the barracks building. He gave it a cellar, with a ramp leading down for ale storage. The first floor was long enough for two rows of 6 bunks each. At the back of the building he created three bathrooms and a set of showers. Since this building was mainly for sleeping, he made the roof regular stone, with just three small glass skylights. He was much more pleased with his glass work on these. Whether it was because it was his second effort, or because the spaces were smaller and easier to work with, the glass came out with a lot fewer imperfections.

  Alexander spent the rest of the afternoon on detail work. He raised twelve stone bunks inside the barracks, with stone shelves above each one. He added plumbing and drain lines in the bathrooms and showers. Both buildings got a rain cistern, and a fireplace.

  He met with Master Stonebreaker, and at his direction added some work benches in various locations around the shop. In one corner, he added a small kitchen area with a sink, and the pipes to go with it.

  Alexander stepped outside, and using his earth magic, located an underground stream. He extended a stone pipe, which was really just a very small tunnel through the stone, up into the bed of the stream, so that gravity and the current of the stream would push water through the pipe to the buildings. At the dwarves’ request, he also routed a second pipe from the stream to the edge of the pit. Apparently water helped in the stone cutting process. He routed all the sewer drains deep into the ground where he found a natural cavern big enough to function as a septic tank.

  He raised two stone troughs that could be used to feed and water the ponies. Then he created a stone walkway that led from the workshop to the barracks, and from both out to the road. Lastly, he created a loading dock near the shop entrance by cutting a ramp down into the earth so that, when a wagon was backed down the ramp, the wagon’s bed would be level with the shop floor. That way heavy stone could be loaded on sleds or rollers instead of lifted up into the wagons.

  Finding himself with some time before sunset, he messaged Fitz to come and help him with something. When the wizard appeared, he explained what he wanted to try. After a brief discussion, the wizard gave his consent.

  Alexander focused on his enchanting skill. He targeted the cistern above the barracks. As before when he’d enchanted the stone outside Millicent's, he concentrated on a heat source. Only this time, instead of the awesome power of a volcano, he pictured the warmth of a hearth fire. He transferred mana into the stone of the cistern slowly, adding more and more heat, until Fitz tapped him on the shoulder. Fitz routed a water supply line up into the cistern, and filled it a quarter full. They waited about 20 minutes, then went and turned the valve on one of the showers. Warm water! It hadn’t had time to get much more than luke warm, and the amount of heat Alexander had put into the cistern stone would never heat the water to boiling, but the dwarves would at least be able to take reasonably hot showers.

  Before they headed back, Fitz added some magic of his own. He taught Alexander a pre-set enchantment for hot water pipes that would heat cold water as it passed through. He added a small magic stovetop in each building for cooking, and a cold storage closet in the workshop. Admiring Alexander’s glass roof, he added a complicated enchantment that he explained to Alexander and Master Stonebreaker as he went. To avoid excess heat from the sun in summer, and to provide heat in the winter, he enchanted the glass to absorb the heat of the sun. He installed a dial on the wall that allowed the heat to either be disbursed upward, or downward. In the summer, the heat being disbursed upward would help keep the shop cool. In the winter it could be used to heat the shop by transferring heat down into the stone floor, or melt snow off the roof to keep the glass clear.

  Then he added one last enchantment that allowed the shop roof and barracks skylight to absorb light energy that could be used to light the buildings after dark. The dwarves all returned from the pit just as the sun was setting, and began to hitch the ponies back to the wagons for the return trip to the village. When they were done, darkness had fallen, and they all watched quietly as Fitz adjusted the light dial on the workshop wall. As he turned the dial, the roof went from emitting a soft glow to light nearly as bright as day. It faded quickly, though, as the enchantment hadn’t had much time before sunset to charge.

  Riding back to the village, the dwarves all praised the smooth yet quiet roadway. Alexander offered to enchant the markers to glow, but was told there was no need. He’d forgotten that dwarves lived in tunnels, and could see quite well in the dark, at which point he felt a little foolish for all his glass work on the quarry buildings. Master Stonebreaker quickly assured him that it would come in quite handy and was much appreciated.

  If nothing else, it was good practice, he thought to himself.

  They arrived back at the village to find that Fitz had recruited a second guild mage (who was working for kegs of dwarven spirits), and the three of them had managed to raise 14 new housing structures. Each of them had a main room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and three bedrooms. Those nine men with families could take a home for themselves. The other five homes could house three single men each. Any extras could stay at the barracks or the inn.

  Once again there was a celebration, this time hosted by the dwarves. There was good food, music, drinking and storytelling that lasted well into the night. The children spent the early part of the evening playing with the guild’s mounts. There were games of tag, during which the giant cats chased screaming children around buildings and through crowds, to eventually pounce upon them before turning to run away with the children in pursuit. Bacon gave literal piggyback rides, which more often than not ended with a child or three dumped into a nearby mud puddle. Once the children were put to bed, Bacon amused several of the adults by catching bits of meat and fruit thrown in his general direction. The big cats refused to participate, preferring to remain aloof and preserve their feline dignity.

  Alexander, having learned his lesson at lunch, drank sparingly. As he tumbled into his bed, he was just tipsy enough to sleep soundly.

  Chapter Seventeen

  A Pair of Kings

  The next morning, aft
er breakfast, the Greystone members, the Redmonds, Fitz, and Thea and her three crafters all teleported back to the compound. This was the last day of their one week immersion, and the day King Thalgrin would be visiting Stormforge, and King Charles.

  They all retired to their rooms for showers and a change of clothes. Fitz went back to his tower to freshen up, and to see about Fibble, who’d been locked up in there for days.

  “When you get a chance,” Lainey said to Fitz, “I was practicing my leatherworking, and I made some clothes for the little guy. He can’t be running around in a loincloth.”

  Laughing, Fitz said, “I’ll send him over to you. But make him bathe before you dress him. He’s quite ripe.”

  Alexander finished getting cleaned up, and headed downstairs. He passed Lainey on the stairs with the tiny goblin.

  She was using food to lead him up the steps. “C’mon Fibble. I’ve got some nice new clothes for you! But first you need a bath!”

  The goblin kept jumping up, trying to grab the fruit in Lainey’s hand. “What is bath?” he asked.

  Chuckling to himself, he headed out to the back courtyard. It was nearly time for the king’s visit. He found Fitz, Brick, Sasha, Max, and the Redmonds already there. Thea came walking out of the workshop where her quarters had been set up. The king was at the palace. Though he’d dearly wanted to see Thalgrin’s reaction to the dragon forge, this was an official state visit, and protocol required the meeting take place in the main hall.