From Londoner To Lord-Chapter 185 - 182. Coal And Wood
Duvas explained, "Before you had provided braziers to so many places in the village, I was quite sure that even without restarting coal mining in the winter, our two coal barns would easily last us for the whole season, maybe even with some coal still left over to sell after the snow melts. But at the rate we have been burning coal so freely for heating all over the village - including the longhouses and all the construction sites - and without any new coal being mined in the past few months, that's not the case anymore."
The majordomo continued, "Our servants had already emptied one of our two coal barns a week ago, and these days the coal stored in the second one is being used. That should still last us for the rest of the winter, but we have to start thinking about restarting coal mining soon, otherwise we won't have any of it left to start selling to the visiting merchants after the winter. That's our only source of revenue at the moment, and our expenses will go through the roof in spring, since we will also have to pay taxes to the Count at that time."
Gorsazo pointed towards the stone fireplace where tall flames were flickering above a few branches, "I noticed that these days we are already burning wood here instead of coal, can't we do that in other places too?"
Duvas shook his nearly bald head. "I have already told the servants to use any recently cut branches and stumps wherever possible for heating - especially in the open - since they aren't going to be of any use as logs anyway. But it's just not feasible to do it indoors unless there is a stone fireplace. So we still have to use coal inside the longhouses, as well as to provide it to most of the villagers as part of their payment, since none of them have a stone fireplace inside their homes. That means we will have to start mining coal soon."
At that moment, the outer door opened again and the guard captain walked inside while brushing some snow off his huge shoulders. Giving a nod to Kivamus, he took a chair near the fireplace place as well.
Kivamus began, "I've been thinking about clearing the coal mines of water in the past few days, but I don't think we will get enough workers to do it manually bucket by bucket, with them being busy clearing the forest and other projects in the winter, and they will also have to start sowing the seeds after that." Before he continued, he thought of another possible problem. "I am also concerned if the water logging inside the mine shafts might already have turned into ice in this weather. That would make the task much more difficult if not impossible."
Duvas waved it off, "No, my lord, that's not a concern at all. Those mine shafts go deep under those hills, and the temperature inside those tunnels is much warmer, enough that it doesn't go below the freezing point there. You can trust me that the water inside those shafts will still be liquid, but the problem remains that even if we could spare enough workers to clear that water, the sheer quantity of water inside the mines would mean that it will take weeks to clear it. That's why I said that we need to start doing it as soon as possible."
Kivamus gave a nod. "If the water is not going to be frozen inside the shaft, then I think I should be able to think of a better solution." He gave a knowing smile to Gorsazo who was the only person who knew about his real origin. "This was the first problem I was told when I arrived here, so I've been working to sketch the design of a simple water wheel which can make the task much easier. But I still need to visit the mines before I can finalise the blueprints." He looked at the guard captain. "Let's do it tomorrow then. We have already postponed this long enough because of one reason or another."
Hudan nodded. "As you wish. But to ensure your safety, we'll have to leave early in the morning, since I don't want it to get dark on the return journey in case we got late for some reason."
"That works," Kivamus said. "It should only take me a couple of days to finish the design after that, but we will need a capable woodworker to build it. I think Darora should have the required skills for it, so I'll show him the designs once I have it ready."
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"Let's hope it works," Duvas replied. "That being said, it was a good idea to separate the tasks of both of the carpenters in the village. Taniok is already getting better and more efficient in the construction of buildings, while Darora seems to be more interested in building weaponry."
"That's certainly true," Kivamus agreed. "Unlike Taniok, who has lived here in the relative safety of the village for more than a decade, Darora was quite fearful of bandits from his time at the quarry, and he knows what life as a slave is like. A while ago, he had told me that he will do his best to build anything which can help us defend the village better, since he has no intention to become a slave again if another bandit raid happens and we can't repel them successfully." He added with a shrug, "Anyway, he already used to work building warbows in the past, which means making weaponry does interest him already."
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"But we have to wait for him until he reports with the final result of his current project." Kivamus continued while looking at the guard captain, "What about the hunting groups? Was it a good idea to make a fourth group with our limited number of guards?"
Hudan nodded. "It wouldn't have been possible if you hadn't decided to recruit women as guards. By now they can be trusted for watch duty at the gates of the manor, which frees up more men to be sent out for hunting. Of course, if you are really successful with making a crossbow, and if they are as good as you claim, then we would be able to send women out to hunt as well, but for now they can still work at the gates here, which doesn't require too much fighting skills because there are other male guards nearby anyway."
"You will find out soon enough about the crossbows," Kivamus commented. "How many female guards do we have now?"
"You had told me to recruit fifteen female guards," Hudan replied, "but as you know, the recruitment has been slow. But we still have eleven of them in our guard force now. That's why I had to start putting them on watch duty at the manor gates, because we couldn't afford to keep that many people sitting idle."
"I agree with that," Kivamus said. "Even including the new arrivals from the quarry, our village population is still only around three hundred and eighty." He continued, "But I still have a better idea for you. Now that we are close to our targeted strength of guards to defend the village walls, you should start putting them on duty at the gates of the village, even if it's only a gap in the walls at the moment. With the rest of the walls ready, those gaps are the only places to enter the village, so putting our guards there would help in quickly detecting any wild beast or bandit attack in the future."
Hudan gave a slow and thoughtful nod. "That's true. We already had to defend against three different attacks from wolves and such beasts near the village. Our nightly patrols had caught them on time so there weren't any injuries to villagers, but at least we haven't sighted any adzee nearby so far."
The guard captain rubbed the small stubble on his chin. "We are sending four hunting groups out now, which means we still don't have as many people as we expected to man the gates as we had thought at that time. We also can't afford to put our guards only at the village gates while keeping the manor gates undefended, since there is also a risk of untrustworthy villagers coming inside, now that there has already been a murder here of that bandit." He added, "I'll have to think more about it, but it might still be doable using the women guards."
"There is still no progress in the search for the culprits of Sejkil's murder, is there?" Gorsazo asked curiously.
The guard captain shook his head. "Not really. Feroy does have suspicions on a few men, so he's keeping an eye on them in the village, but there is nothing to prove anything yet."
"Let's hope he does find it out in the future," Duvas muttered. "May the goddess not have mercy on the murderers."
Kivamus knew that this time he would have to be very strict with the culprit, if they did find them. But he could only wait for now.
He glanced at the flickering flames inside the fireplace for a while. Then he looked at Hudan again. "What is the progress with the hunters?"
The guard captain answered, "Oh, that's what I had wanted to report to you when I came here. The hunting group which came last night came with another two nodors they found in the forests, taking our total to four of them in the manor. With the help of the compass you had given them, as well as the sledges they are using now, they are bringing in a lot of big games as well."
Kivamus nodded with satisfaction. All that meat had meant that the guards who had been skinny when he had arrived were starting to get a little more muscle on their frames now. The hunters were also selling what they couldn't consume within the manor to the butcher at the market square, but that was only a small amount since the butcher refused to buy too much meat because he didn't expect too many customers these days. "What about sheep though?" he asked.
Hudan shook his head. "Nothing so far. One of the hunters thought he saw a sheep a few days ago when his group had gone quite deep into the eastern hills, but we still can't be sure what he saw. I have already told him to go towards that area again on their next hunting trips. We can only hope that these hills have some sheep for us to gather."
After a while, Duvas suggested, "I never thought I would say something like this a few months ago, but I think it would be a good idea to make a smoke house in the village now."
