I stood on the shore of the cove, a gentle breeze whipping my coat as I addressed the people of Cove Town and Pine Ridge. I held a hand-blown bottle in my hand. The glass was fragile and heavily tinted green due to the high iron content. It was nowhere good enough to store wine in, but for what I was about to do, it would be fine. As I waited, the tide rose, signifying the time for our ship to depart.

  “My friends,

  "Today, we stand before something more than wood, iron, and sailcloth; before us lies the beginning of a new chapter in North Cove’s story. This ship, once a tool of terror, will now bear a name of hope.

  "When the Rabiss came, they sought to take from us, our people, our goods, our peace. But because of each of your sacrifices, we took back more than what they came for. We took their ships and their pride. And now, with our own hands and hearts, we have acquired what they meant for destruction into a vessel that comes with a new beginning.

  "I name this ship Freedom.

  "For that is what she represents, not only freedom from the raiders who sought to bind us, but freedom from the limits that have long chained our people to our isolated lands. Freedom will carry our paper, our books, our cloth, and our hope across the sea. She will open doors to lands beyond our sight and opportunities beyond our reach.

  "May Freedom remind us that every storm can be weathered, every loss can be turned to gain, and every defeat can forge the strength to rise again.

  "To those who will sail her, know that you are not merely merchants or sailors, but ambassadors of our future. Carry yourselves with the pride and courage of those who fought for her.

  "And so, before the Endless One and before all gathered here, I bless this ship and all who sail upon her. May her sails never tear, her hull never falter, and her crew never lose sight of the light that guides them home.”

  I turned and walked down the wooden stairs onto the newly created dock. I had always wanted to do this. I swung the bottle. Smashing it against the ship.

  Turning to the crowd that had rushed to the ridge to see my christening, a new tradition to be held in North Cove.

  I said, “May the Endless One bless her. May she sail ever free!”

  A cheer rose from those who were on the shore and the sailors already on the boat. Poles were used to push the boat away from the dock, and soon, oars extended into the water. To say I was nervous was an understatement. The ship had a rudimentary keel and a shallow bottom. Until we got my schooner and cutters up and running, I would probably have a panic attack every time my ships left out of the mouth of the cove.

  The small sloop style that we were going to use as a training boat in the cove was sitting on the shore waiting for the sailcloth to be finished. The woman promised me that it would be done by the end of the week. We had scooped up all the extra flax in the county in order to make it.

  The ropes were finished last week, thanks to the new rope machine. And I was chomping at the bit to get everything hooked up.

  My thoughts were interrupted by Emily, who had walked up behind me. "Nice speech."

  "Make sure to complement Benjamin. He wrote most of it." I said as I turned around. She was wearing her blue dress with her hair held up by sticks.

  "I will when he gets back from Plimgus."

  "I guess you will have to wait a while. It may take some time to get someone to take over for Fredrick. I explained the situation to the king in the letter I sent back with his commander, and I hope he moves faster than the council does in getting a temporary replacement for Plimgus. I don't want a fight to break out when Kevin returns."

  "Are you really going to pay a ransom for him?" she asked, surprised. "He is Plingus's son."

  "We can't choose our parents, and he's a good kid. However, he isn't well-suited to be a leader. He will be a good stand-in, though. Someone to block the council from putting in thier own people again. Now that his family is dead, I think I will offer to train him as an artist. That, combined with the fact that I freed him from his imprisonment, will probably be enough to convince him to give up the barony." I shrugged.

  "It still makes me nervous to imagine who the king will send."

  "Me too. But nothing moves fast in the Capital we may have Kevin back before they can finish arguing. It will likely come down to who can pay the most. Whoever it is, it cannot be worse than who we had. Even if he is just lazy, as long as he follows the laws, it will be fine. I can work with the people under him to ensure the barony doesn't fail."

  "Amos?" She said in a tone that suggested a follow-up question.

  "Yes?" I ask hesitantly, wondering if I was about to walk into a trap.

  "Can we take out the Dancer and see if we can beat them to the mouth of the cove?" She said with excitement in her voice.

  I grinned, "Let's do it."

  *****

  Unfortunately, the wind did not favor us. The crew slowed the Freedom enough so that we caught up to them, but as soon as we tried to pass them, their oars started to churn up the water so fast that we were left in the dust or…wake.

  We didn't bother after that and just enjoyed the time out on the boat. Too soon, the sun began to set, and we headed back to Cove Town. Upon reaching the dock, Emily tied off the ship, and we both hopped out. I waved at the few individuals who were fishing off the end of the new pier. One of the older men had even brought out a rocking chair.

  "Caught anything worth keeping?" I asked.

  "Not today, my lord," one of the boys said sullenly. A group of three men was all arguing with each other over the latest attempt to cast a fishing line with the new reel. I had mentioned it offhandedly one time and then tried to explain my idea. In the end, the best way I could describe it was a small windlass.

  These guys were no engineers, but they had spent a considerable amount of time carving out a reel made of wood. Since it was wood, the crankshaft was a little bigger due to the tession on on the line, but this latest model seemed to work. I had considered recommending a copper-cast reel, but as I spent more and more time reviewing projects, I came to understand the processes better. Casting it out of copper would be expensive and heavy. It may also be too brittle. In the end, it just wasn't worth it. Without mass production and precision machining, it just didn't make sense.

  This latest one was even better; they had bartered away a lot of fish for the carpenters to make the reel on the new Cove Town Lathe. It looked better, and the carpenters had taken only a fraction of the time to make everything. I doubt their wives were happy with how many fish they had spent to get the new item made, though.

  As we headed back to the small house to warm ourselves by the fire, we ran into our chief surveyor, Austin. He looked like a man who was about to give me bad news.

  I gave an inward sigh, preparing for the worst. "Let me have it, Austin. You look like you would rather be anywhere else than right here, giving me whatever report you are about to share."

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  "It isn't all bad news, my lord. The water is draining faster than expected, which means more land will become arable in the future. But…"

  I could tell where he was going with this. "So the foundations are going to be destroyed even faster than we thought."

  "Probably within a year or two."

  "I asked Jarum to hire some people who could come and take a look at our land and plan out how the drainage should go. There is a lot more to it than just building ditches, I guess. And don't worry about not being a land management expert. I put you in the position you are in because you are good at math and measurements. However, I know you well enough to know that you also brought an idea along with the problem."

  "I did, my lord, but you may not like it. I recommend moving the village closer to the mountain, in the hills where the Mar and goats are. If we are going to have a large influx of people over the years, I suggest we start there, and the land surrounding it will be the first to drain."

  I paused and thought for a moment. The reason the town was here is that it was the location of the original town that the runaway serfs had created. This was a good spot for a dock as well. But is it the best place for a town? Did we really want to build a castle here?

  "You are right. We only used this place for the infrastructure that was already here, and even then, it was barely passable. You said these structures will last a year? Let's spend this year seasoning wood and gathering material so that by next year, we can quickly build the town. Do you have everything picked out?" I asked.

  "Yes, My Lord. The site for the town and the manor house. There is a hill that has enough room for a large home and a surrounding wall,” he said.

  "Good, can you let the road crew start gathering material? For the construction."

  I thought the conversation was over when Emily nudged me. I gave her a questioning look.

  "Remember what Benjamin said. Your next project is the manor,” she said sharply.

  "I didn't say-"

  She looked up at me a firm look in her eyes. "You were thinking it, though. You were thinking we could use the material elsewhere. And although I agree that it is the most practical solution, the manor is more important. Jarum's visit proved that. If he had come to North Cove rather than Plimgus, he would have left with a bad impression of you. I agree with Benjamin that we will soon have more curious visitors, and if we are looking for allies, we need to prove we are worth allying with."

  I blew out a slow breath. She was right. They both were. "Fine, we will start on the manor. You have seen the plans, though. This will not be an easy build. Even with the concrete and sawmill."

  The plan I had for my manor was a 1800s southern-style home with a round balcony jutting out from the front, supported by columns. I would blend it with a keep-style fortress.

  "I have the perfect site for your design. Also, it is very convenient for the…I believe you call it an aqueduct. The road crew can start digging the foundation today."

  *****

  We had arrived back in Pine Ridge the following day, and life continued on at a furious pace. With planting done, work slowed down just a bit for the farmers, and it allowed us to move some of that manpower to other projects. I asked families that were large enough to allow their children to help with other projects. Most joined the road crew due to our need for more labor to build roads and drainage canals, but a few also went to help with things like gathering plants or quarrying rock.

  Most were very happy to do so. The idea that their children could be sent off to help learn an additional trade, like soap making or blacksmithing, was a great boon to them. Not to mention the additional income it provided. One issue we were having, actually, was the coin in circulation. More of my people had it, but there were limited things they could spend it on.

  It was going to be rough, but I began to see a true economy forming. Things that were normally made at home were being bought. One group of people even pooled their money together and bought a book. It was, of course, sold at an extreme discount, and it wasn't the best-made book, but it was a symbol of pride to my people that they could own something that only nobles should be able to afford.

  People were also buying the cheaper paper. And would send notes back and forth to each other. A lot of the time, it was the children who wrote the notes for their parents, as the parents did not have as much time to learn to read and write. This, of course, started with people writing to each other in Cove Town, I thought was ridiculous, but it was their money. Some children left to go to Pine Ridge, the road crew, or even Bicman, and their parents started sending them messages.

  Of course, it wasn't like modern mail. The letters would only be sent out when I personally needed to dispatch a messenger. I drew out the design for a bicycle and passed it around, and also sent it back to Cove Town. I didn't know if anything would come of it, but it would be great for mail carriers.

  Everything seemed to be running smoothly until it wasn't.

  Tarrence came into the office with a grim expression on his face. "My lord, we have had an accident at the mine. Two men were killed."

  I closed my eyes and sighed. I always knew mining could be dangerous, but mining was a necessary part of civilization.

  "So what happened?"

  "It was apparently a black powder explosion. It did not go off like it should, but when the men went down a quarter bell later to check on it. It exploded."

  The mine was something I always left to the experts. I knew absolutely nothing about mining, so I just left them to it. Why should they stick my nose into something I had no knowledge about? Was that a mistake?

  *****

  When we got there, there were no bodies to be seen. The mine was nothing like I imagined it to be. It wasn’t a cave with wooden braces every ten feet. It was a big hole in the ground.

  Ronald, the Headman of Melnon's son, was standing nervously next to the pit alongside one of the demolition crew. Before I even got off my horse, he was running up to me apologizing. "I am so sorry, my lord. I should not have let the men go down there. We should have waited longer."

  I kept a stern expression on my face. I did not really think the blame was all his, but depending on how bad it was, I would not hesitate to remove him from his position. I had learned that coddling an individual helped no one, no matter how bad I felt for them. "Tell me everything. I want to know how do you utilize the black powder?"

  I looked over to the demolition guy, who was frowning but didn't show any sign of guilt. More disappointment.

  Ronald was the one who told the story. "We were doing a 60-centimeter hole and placed the normal amount of charge. Then we put in the fuse and covered it with clay. After lighting the fuse, it usually takes less than a fraction to explode, but nothing happened for fifteen fractions. So Adam and Steve went to check it. The next thing we knew, there was an explosion, and we rushed over to find both men with rocks pictured through them. It was…it was very bad, my lord.”

  I nodded. Trying not to show the grief I felt. There would be time for that later. “And why is this your fault?” I said seriously.

  “They," he said, looking over to the demolition guy, told us that sometimes there were delays in explosions when they first trained us.”

  “Did they say how long?"

  "They said the longest was over half a bell.” He said with a grimace.

  I glanced at the demolition guy, and I felt I understood why he was upset. I could have spent more time digging through this all, but I am not sure that is what we needed at the moment.

  "Ronald, I put you in charge here because I trusted your expertise and judgement. You knew that this was a possibility and ignored the warning. I will not demote you from your position as foreman just yet. You will learn from this and make sure you are never at fault for an injury again. And make no mistake, this is on you. You will have your pay cut by half for 6 months. That money will go to the families of the men. Next, I want you and your men to spend the next few days developing what I call 'Standard operating procedures for mining'. I will go into exactly what that means in a bit. Then you will create an SOP for working with explosives. I want a minimum of three hours wait. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. Embers can smolder for a while. If you feel you need longer in order to be safe, then do it. Start a second mine and work on it manually while you wait for the time to expire if you want. Add two fuses instead of one. If the first blow doesn't work, then light a second one."

  I turned to the pyromaniac. "I want your team to work on developing better fuses. This won't be important for just this."

  I thought about the waterproof fuses that we used for some fireworks and... toilets. I didn't think waterproofing was realistic at this point, but maybe we could get close.

  "I want something that will be resistant to being blown out or having moisture affect it. It needs a consistent burn rate. Stop trying to find a solution to the cannon if necessary. I want safe fuses that burn at a predictable rate."

  I thought he would be disappointed at the news, but his eyes lit up with excitement, and he nodded. "It shall be done, my lord."

  "Good, now let's discuss what standard operating procedures really are."

  I could tell everyone was pretty miserable, but giving them direction helped. Assigning responsibility to Ronald was important for him, as it would help him take ownership. I don't know if he would ever forgive himself, but if it didn't break him, it would make him stronger.

  We didn't get a chance to discuss anything, though. A messenger boy arrived before we had moved five steps. He was panting heavily, and when he bowed, he almost fell over. "My…lord. A…pigeon from Cooper's Mill tower. A ship was heading north off the coast.

  I turned to Tarrence, "Well, time to go figure out if we have a friend or foe coming for dinner. Get a cart and load it with the new spring steel crossbows." Then I turned to the unknown pyromaniac. "Looks like we may need to move some of those cannons earlier than we thought. Let's hurry, people. We have less than half a day before our guest arrives. We may be late, but if necessary, we will make sure they never forget their first encounter with North Cove."