Chapter 271: End of one road, Start of Another.
Jonathan Yarrow was tired. He was tired of running and sleeping under a wagon, worried that his family would have to flee again in the middle of the night. They had rested in the large refugee camp on the outskirts of Rowan keep for the last three days. He was still uneasy. The Legion at Northguard had done nothing to aid them when the raiders burned their villages and herded them like cattle to the north.
Things seemed better here. The Legion had supplied them with food and clean water, and a healer had been making the rounds. While he was still worried, at least his family had been able to relax. The children could play with others their age, and his wife and mother-in-law had slept for a full day. His wife's father was also looking better. His burns had nearly killed him. He'd been hurt when he saved two of his grandchildren after the house was torched in the middle of the night. Now he was up and walking again. The goddess had sent a healer to them, for which they would ever be thankful. The man had ridden up on a large horse to help them gain the safety of the keep. When he noticed old Fallis in the back of the wagon, he'd leaped down from his horse and used the Goddess's light to heal the old man. The children had gathered around him, asking him to heal their cuts and scrapes, and he'd patiently taken time to heal each of them. Jonathan had never believed the old tales of the Emperor's magical couriers who rode through the land righting wrongs and carrying tidings from place to place. He was more inclined now.
After two days, they were on the road again. And it was a good road for a change! The wagon wheels rolled quickly along the smooth stone. The roads past Northguard had been demolished and it was easier to travel through fields on the side. He'd been told they were heading for a small village ten miles away. The new Baron was offering them a chance to farm for him. Jonathan and others had eagerly taken him up on his offer. They would still be working to make a noble rich, but if it kept his family fed and protected, that was all that mattered. His family and nine others were in a group, all headed together to an area they could begin homesteading and sharecropping.
The work would be hard at first. Creating new farmland always was. Trees had to be cut, and stumps tore out. The would clear rock to make fences and use the wood for houses and barns. Then gathering more rock to build hearths and chimneys. Food was a worry, but the Baron's man had joked that they had no shortage of groats. It would be porridge and muffins three times a day, but at least his family would be fed until he could make his first harvest. Things would be rough, but rough was better than impossible.
The little caravan moved down the road and circled the small town, led by some of the Baron's men. One, in particular, stood out. He was quite large, and when one of the wagons had become stuck, he picked it up and set it down a few feet to the side as easily as if lifting a piece of firewood. Rather than being scared of him, the children clustered around his legs, asking him how strong he was. He gave them rides on his shoulders and back, three at a time.
The town had some oddities. The children stared first at the horrible smoking building and then at the beautiful ship above it. A flying ship! There had been a wild tale that such a ship had been sighted in the sky. But where was it from? What magic made it move? The giant man, Ozzie, told the children fanciful tales of ghostly pirates and ships sailing on a sea of smoke. The rest of the town seemed well off—roofs and walls of solid stone and slate. No one was pinching pennies here. It would be a place to visit and spend their meager funds on necessities for the house. They had saved a few things, like his plow and smithing tools, but many things had been left behind, or lost in the fire.
After the town, they turned off the paved road onto a dirt lane that had seen much traffic. They passed wagon after wagon headed the other way, loaded with gravel, sand, wooden planks, and apples. So many wagonloads of apples! The Baron must have extensive orchards. After five miles, they stopped in the middle of nowhere. All around them was a vast area of tree stumps, piles of barren limbs, and stacks of lumber. It was as if Hade's scythe had cut down an entire forest. One of his younger sons pulled on his sleeve, excited. "Daddy, they knew we were coming and made a place for us!" Jonathan doubted that. But, he was very thankful that some of the work had already been done.
Ozzy came to his rescue in explaining things to the children. "This was a forest a year ago, but the oaks picked a fight with all the other trees and then went to war with the town. The town had more axes than the forest had trees. Things have all been worked out, but it left the Baron with some unused land, and the mayor wants to fill it up with people. No sense in letting it become scrubland. Follow along, and I'll show you where to start building."
He led the wagons to an area of flat ground. Work had already been done here. A plot of land a hundred feet to the side was paved with stone, with a good well in the center. On the far end was a windowless stone building that looked like a storehouse for grain. The area around the square had plots laid out for houses. "Normally, we'd just dig wells and lay out the town square, but things are busy with the work up at the keep. The mayor talked to the Baron, and he agreed to use some of the village's building points to get you folks started. Each hamlet will start with a town square, a well, a storehouse, and one hundred acres of cleared land for farming. You can bed down the children in the storehouse until we get the homes finished, we'll start those today. There are blankets and food inside. Lots of fuel for fires in those piles of limbs. You folk can decide who lives where, and we'll start moving the timber and stone to begin the houses." He paused. "Any questions? I know this is hurried, but the mayor wanted to settle you as quickly as possible."
There were murmurs all around. One man ventured a question. "Your pardon, sir. The Baron is very generous to build houses for us to live in as we work his land. But we don't know what he needs in return. Do you know what he expects in harvests and taxes from us?" Many of the other farmers were curious as well. Nobles demanded work and taxes and gave little away out of charity.
"Oh hell, don't worry about that for now. You should all focus on caring for your families and finishing the work on your houses. We're still figuring things out as we go, but I can tell you a few things." He began counting the points off on his fingers.
"First, no taxes the first year because the Baron knows you don't have any money. You should elect a mayor for your hamlet, someone who speaks for you. We'll sit down with the heads of each hamlet and hammer out an agreement for sharecropping or taxes. It has to be fair to all of us. You need to feed your families and get some money to move forward, and the Baron needs a profit from the land. How much did you have to pay in taxes to Baron PinchPenny?"
No one spoke until Jonathan stepped forward. "We gave him half of everything we grew and paid a tax for our land and a levy of goods to the Imperial Storehouse so we could buy seed from them the next spring. Sometimes a little more if the Barony was having a bad year."
Ozzy looked at the villagers. They were thin. And it wasn't from a hard couple of weeks on the run. He knew about sharecropping. The farmer worked and gave up half of what they grew. A bad year meant starvation. It was a horrible system, and this was worse. "That's too much. The Mayor and the Baron were thinking of at most a quarter. But for the first year, you keep all of it. The Baron will buy your excess food and grain, or you can sell it to the merchant house in Sedgewick and pocket the money. Every family should start an account at the bank. The gnome is a nice fellow and will start your account for just one copper. That means all your money will be safe from thieves or bandits."
While they were getting used to the idea of keeping most of what they grew, he continued. "You should consider the houses as belonging to you. Technically, the mayor has things set up as a long-term lease, but we'll include a way for you to buy your land and house. If, for some reason, you need to move on, that's fine. We'll give your house to someone else or buy it if you've paid it off. Each family starts with a farmhouse and ten acres of land. This area in the center will be for your hamlet. We want each of you to have a small vegetable garden behind your house, and we'll plant berry bushes and fruit trees around the town's border. You'll be surprised how well that will cut the wind and keep out wild animals. Be careful of the trees. Please don't cut them for wood or break branches. They won't like that."
"The Baron will provide seed to plant your crops and tell you what to grow first. We want you maximize your work and make the most money. Expect several harvests a year. Things are fertile here. Oh, and that reminds me: Just let the unicorns roam around and make friends with them, if possible. They might be a bit skittish at first. They can increase the yield in an acre just by walking through the crops, and unicorn poop should be saved and used in your gardens. Careful, it's potent stuff."
"Hmm, other rules. Don't cut down an apple tree; always ask permission before picking fruit. In fact, it's best not to cut down any trees at all. You can cut up all the piles of oak limbs for fuel for the time being. Mamas, keep a watch on your older sons for now. We'll have a talk about dryads as soon as we can."
"That should do it for now. In a little bit, I'll start working on your farmland, and we'll have a gopher hunt. Betty sent along a recipe for gopher stew, hope you like it."
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