Part V<\/p>\n
The next day, marching once more at the head of his company, dusty, unable to see farther than the Crown Prince’s entourage ahead of him, he was caught between annoyance and amusement at himself.\u00a0 Who did he think he was, indeed–as he’d heard others say–he who did not know, could not name, either of his parents, or his place of birth or anything remotely respectable in his past until his arrival at Aliam Halveric’s home as a starveling.\u00a0 How could any of these people respect, let alone admire him?<\/p>\n
Yet here he was, with an independent contract, and the promise of a chance to earn–in good time–a grant of land.\u00a0 He had seen it, even.\u00a0 “Go take a look,” the prince had said.\u00a0 “It’s empty, cold, near barren.\u00a0 But it’s the largest area in my father’s realm not already occupied, or at least claimed. No one has wanted it.\u00a0 No fields, no orchards, no towns: barren, some say, and too much work, say others.\u00a0 Yet it is my father’s, and I would see it useful and well-governed.\u00a0 Go see.”<\/p>\n
And he had borrowed a horse–after the horse-master had checked with the\u00a0 Crown Prince yet again, and given him, he was sure, the worst horse in the royal stables, gray about the muzzle and eyes, with splints in both forelegs and a hitch of some kind in the off hock.\u00a0 He had ridden, at a pace that let the old horse loosen up and enjoy the trip, day after day through forest and hills, until on a wet day the view had opened to a broad plain with hills off to either side, a brisk little river…that might, someday, run a mill.\u00a0 Hills on three sides, then, and a wide, presently soggy, plain rising slightly to the north, where it disappeared into a dank mist.<\/p>\n
His mind produced an image of the mill on the river, near a town\u2026here.\u00a0 A bridge over the river, wide enough for wagons to carry supplies and troops to march. Another town over there–out of sight except in his mind.\u00a0 He rode out onto the soggy plain: even this early in the year, it had grass the old horse was glad to eat.\u00a0 And ample room for any number of troops to drill.\u00a0 He could see it all: a big walled fort to guard the land and the track–that would become a road–to V\u00e9rella.\u00a0 His mind built it quickly into what it could be.\u00a0 A base for protection and for training.\u00a0 Aliam’s home was crowded between a mountain and the dense Lyonyan forest of elventaig: this would be open.\u00a0 Colder, yes, but then his troops would be fit to fight Pargun over there to the east in those hills, hold off the horse nomads, if any threatened.\u00a0 His horse’s hoofprints and the grass showed that the land was fertile enough for grain.\u00a0 And in the shelter of the hills the towns would have walled gardens and fruit orchards.<\/p>\n
He rode back to V\u00e9rella, treating the old horse so carefully the horsemaster was amazed at the difference in the animal.\u00a0 “He’s not limping at all–what did you do?\u00a0 What poultice?\u00a0 A special herb?”<\/p>\n
“No, just careful riding, never fast and not too long at one time. He’s a good fellow, this one.”\u00a0 He patted the horse and it rubbed its head on him.<\/p>\n
And so the offer of a chance at a land grant had become a promise of one…in good time, which meant at the Crown’s convenience, but at least it would not be given away, he was assured.<\/p>\n
Reason enough to keep his temper with those boys and their arrogance, reason enough to keep a smooth tongue to all.\u00a0 Aliam would be happy with him, if he knew, but he was not minded to write Aliam about it, not until the grant was actually his.\u00a0 Still the dust was annoying, and he did wish the nobility would not make it worse by galloping past him every time they wanted to come to or leave the Crown Prince’s presence.\u00a0 If he’d had a horse–he’d sold his along with all the other gifts Aliam had given him to outfit his troops for this very mission–he could have seen over some of this dust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part V The next day, marching once more at the head of his company, dusty, unable to see farther than the Crown Prince’s entourage ahead of him, he was caught between annoyance and amusement at himself.\u00a0 Who did he think he was, indeed–as he’d heard others say–he who did not know, could not name, either […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,73,102,5],"tags":[22,39,107],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-characters","category-excerpt","category-story-2","category-the-writing-life","tag-characters","tag-story","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2886,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions\/2886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}