Heritage of Cyador

XLIX

While Lerial, Strauxyn, and Eleventh Company leave the headquarters gates well before seventh glass, it is closer to eighth glass by the time they have met Norstaan and his squad outside the palace and ride westward on a paved avenue that is barely half the width of the merchanters’ avenue. The shops and dwellings close to the palace are neat and well kept, but they exude a feel of age that Lerial can sense as well as see. Farther west, but still within Swartheld, the dwellings are less ancient, but not recently constructed, somewhat larger, and exhibit a differing range of style and size, as if some older buildings had been removed and replaced or rebuilt. In places, it appears that odd additions have been built onto older structures.

“Who lives here?” Lerial asks Norstaan, riding on his left.

“Tradespeople, crafters, some of the more successful artisans, those who do not need a patron or those who have chosen not to rely on one.”

“Isn’t that chancy?” asks Strauxyn from where he rides on Lerial’s left. “An artisan not having a patron when they could?”

“Swartheld is large enough to support quite a number of artisans. There are always some well-off tradesmen who would like to boast of having a painting or a bronze or a small sculpture. The smaller merchanters can easily afford art, but may not wish to limit themselves to a particular artisan. Maintaining a well-known artisan is not cheap.”

Another glass passes as they ride through more shops and dwellings, and the farther they are from the river, the poorer both houses and shops become. The amount of poor and modest houses they pass again reminds Lerial, perhaps because of his visit to the cloth factorage, just how little he has come in contact with most of the people his father or Rhamuel rule. And you’ve likely seen far more than Rhamuel or Lephi. But that, he reminds himself, has largely been because of his father’s and his aunt’s requirements in teaching him healing … and working with rankers for years.

The street gradually narrows but remains stone paved. After a time, Lerial can see that the ground is rising and that, several hundred yards ahead, the houses thin abruptly and only extend partway up the dry and sandy hills.

“This is where Swartheld ends, then?” he asks Norstaan.

“Yes, ser.”

“What about the road? What is it like beyond the hills?”

“It gets narrower. It is paved all the way to the lakes.”

All the way to the lakes? “Is there that much trade this way? How did that happen?”

“There is the date trade, and timber. Besides the duke, there are also quite a few prominent merchanters with villas on the lakes. The road was paved in the time of the present duke’s grandsire. That’s all I know.”

Lerial nods. Looking to his right, he can see that the low hills that define the western border of Swartheld angle to the east as they run northward, which explains why they are closer to the bay near Maesoryk’s tileworks.

It is well after noon before Lerial and his force finish crossing the low, dry hills and descend into a wide and flat valley that appears to contain little beside circular palm orchards, at least that is what they seem to be, linked by narrow stone canals, and surrounded by sandy, sparsely grassed flat land.

In one orchard, and then another, Lerial notices figures climbing the tall palms. Finally, he asks, “What are they doing? It’s a bit late for pruning any tree, isn’t it?”

“I think that must be the second pollination,” replies Norstaan. “The first one is usually around the second eightday of spring. The winds aren’t strong enough to assure that all the trees are pollinated, and having too many male trees just wastes water.”

“How…?” Strauxyn breaks off the question.

“My uncle grows dates. I overheard some of the talk when I was growing up.”

Lerial looks westward, but as far as he can see, there are only the date orchards and the sandy grasslands. “How far west do the date orchards go?”

“Another ten kays. Before too long, we’ll see the hills that mark the west side of the valley. They’re not very high.”

“Does any one merchanter own all this?” asks Lerial.

“Most of these belong to the House of Haen, I’m told. Merchanter Jhosef owns the orchards south of the road for the last two kays before the Low Pass. Those are the best lands, because he has the water shares from the river.”

“We haven’t seen a river,” points out Strauxyn.

Norstaan laughs. “You won’t. Jhosef built a dam, and all the water from the reservoir goes into the canals, according to who has how many water shares.”

“What happens if someone takes or gets too much water?” asks Lerial. “I’d think it would be hard to gauge that.”

“All the canals have to have the same width and depth, and there are special gates at the reservoir. One of the growers deepened his channels, years ago. Jhosef kept track of the extra water he took for two years. When it amounted to an entire year’s supply, he shut the man’s gate and demanded he buy another water share or do without for a year. The man could not afford the share. Many of his trees died. He could not afford to keep growing. Jhosef bought his lands for a fraction of their worth.”

Very controlling and very well thought out. Lerial keeps those thoughts to himself, although he wonders into how many other areas Jhosef’s fingers and golds reach, particularly since not a single person has mentioned the dates or even produce as a part of what Jhosef controls, almost as if a mere few kays of date orchards are insignificant.

More than a glass later, after the road turns slightly southwest, Lerial catches sight of a line of gray against the reddish-colored low hills … or rather between two hills. As they ride closer, he can see that the gray is comprised of stone blocks, and that at the base of what must be a spillway is a stone-lined pond, from which runs a wide stone-lined canal, beside which runs a narrow graveled lane. The dam between the two hills extends hundreds of yards, perhaps a third of a kay, and at one end is a structure that resembles a stone fort.

“That looks like a small Afritan Guard post.” Lerial points.

“That’s where Jhosef’s guards and workers live. They patrol the canals,” replies Norstaan.

“How many guards does he have?”

“I couldn’t say. I’ve been told that there are a squad’s worth posted there. They don’t get paid as much as an Afritan Guard, but, after they serve a year, they can leave with two eightdays’ notice. A lot of bravos get their start with the private guards of the wealthier merchanters. A few Afritan Guards have, too, but the smarter ones just start with the Guard and stay.”

“Because there’s no real hope of advancement?” asks Lerial.

“That … and who wants to beat up helpless peasants and land-croppers?” Norstaan shakes his head.

Lerial only nods slowly. The more he sees of the Afritan merchanters, the less he cares for them … and he didn’t feel that charitably toward them in the beginning.