Techromancy Scrolls: Adept (13 page)

We all looked between Donovan and my mother. Mom just smiled a fond smile and stepped to the Prime Techromancer, curtsied like she had done it all her life then laid a hand on his cheek, kissing the other. “Hello Donnie.”

He looked half shocked as he smiled and stepped back to look at her. “We all thought you dead or beyond the walls.” Then he straightened and gave a slight bow. “Welcome home Lady.” Celeste looked as confused as I was and she looked at my mother, her attire, and then gave her a slight, hesitant bow.

Donovan started looking between her and me then he tipped his head back and barked out an amused laugh. “I should have guessed.” Then he just smiled fondly at her, amusement twinkling in his eyes, “And now we know why we've been blessed with the second adept in our keep in the same lifetime.”

Celeste started to look annoyed. “Would you two care to clue the rest of us in as to what is going on here?”

Mother gave her a warm smile and 'Donnie' said, “This my dear daughter, is as the commoners called her so very long ago, the Lady of the Keep.”

He said it like a title and Celeste's eyes went wide as she looked at mother while she prompted her father, “This is THE Lady Margret?” She bowed lower this time to mother, who just laid a hand on her arm and coaxed her head back up with her own eyes.

I couldn't handle it anymore, I blurted out in frustration, “Who is the Lady of the Keep? What is going on here?”

Mother was blushing and Donovan looked at me. “You truly don't know?” He turned to mother, “You never told her?” Mother shook her head once and he looked back at me and grinned, “Surely you've heard the stories of the Lady who championed the castle feast on Holy Day, and opening the Great Meadow to the common folk? The Lady who's ideas of the possibility of opening a schoolhouse to educate the public freely and free medical care are still being hotly debated twenty five years later?”

I paled... everyone knew of the Shining Lady, or less commonly known as... that's right, the Lady of the Keep! She was generous to a fault and loved the villagers. She had been stripped of her title by the petty Duchess Lucia over twenty years ago when the Lady dared marry a commoner.

I paused again, not just a commoner... I swallowed... a herder. When she left the castle, she was never heard from again. I looked at the woman who raised me. The woman who was so knowledgeable about so many thing. The woman who taught me to work hard and appreciate life. Who taught me to live and love. To read, to stand tall, and never show weakness.

She had been a noble? She was the Shining Lady? My head was spinning. I asked in barely a whisper. “Mother?”

She smiled at me sadly and shook her head, hugging my arm. “That was another life Laney. I had a happier life as Margret Herder. Wife of Nicholas. Mother to the two most wonderful children who have done me so proud.” She looked down at Jace who still wasn't sure what everyone was talking about. She cupped his cheek and gave him a warm smile.

Mother closed her eyes and held on tighter to me, she looked dizzy for a moment. She said to our hosts, “I apologize. Can we sit? My strength has not returned to me.”

Celeste whispered into Donovan's ear, but I caught it just barely, “Wasting Syndrome.”

Donovan was suddenly by her side, pain in his eyes, supporting her as he would a porcelain doll. “Of course. We can send the girls off to do all the tedious things that are required. Why don't you and this strapping young man...”

“Jace,” mother offered.

He nodded, “Jace, come sit in my office? The girls can rejoin us when you are needed.” He looked at us, it was an instruction, not a question.

He led mother away and said, “Come young Jace. Tell me, have you ever seen a spyglass?”

I think my brother surprised him as he followed eagerly by saying, “Yes. Laney has one in her scavenging toolkit.” I grinned at his enthusiasm. Mother had given me the tool pouch before I went out on my first scavenging run. It was my father's, Nicholas. It was the only thing of his I had. I wish I had known the man. He had farmed chickens and still found time to go scavenging once a month to support mother. He was not a sensitive, he relied on his tool kit and a keen gut to find the treasures of old.

Then I was alone with the woman I admired. I was feeling awkward and I looked down, realizing I had a basket of eggs hanging in the crook of my arm. I clumsily thrust it out to her. “A gift for my Lady. As a thank you for your kindness.”

She graciously accepted, beamed at me, and looked inside. She pulled out an egg and shook her head. “I don't know how your family produces such large eggs. I'll be the envy of the barracks. The other nobles fight over these, none have the same taste.”

Then she looked in the direction her father had just led my family and then to me. “You are just full of surprises, Squire Laney.” The 'Squire' made me blush. Then she was all business, “We have a lot to get done today, are you prepared?”

I shrugged and she chuckled and offered her arm to me again. She treated me like a lady. I timidly placed my fingers on her arm and we started up a grand staircase to the third level where there were dozens of offices down one of the many halls we passed. She stopped a maid who was hustling past. “Miss?”

The maid bowed and asked, “Yes my Lady?”

Celeste handed her the basket. “Please get these to Cook. Ask her if she could please use them for something special for my squad? Courtesy of Lady Laney.” Lady Laney? Oh good lord. I swallowed but my mouth was dry. I was noble... bottom of the heap, but a noble.

I blurted, “And one for yourself, for your trouble Miss...” I left a question in the air.

The maid dipped her head to me with a smile as she saw the eggs inside. “Yvette, my Lady.”

I smiled and repeated, “Yvette.” Then added, “Laney please.”

She shook her head and said, “I don't know if I can do that Lady. But thank you.” Then she was off, hurrying down the hall.

Celeste looked full of herself as she grinned and started dragging me down the hall almost comically, as she said into the ether, “And she's generous too.”

Our first stop was in records. My Lady verified my station was registered and the clerk, Reinhardt, had me make my mark next to the Duke's signature. I think I surprised him by signing my name. He'd been looking down his nose at my attire the whole time. It made me feel like a charlatan.

Celeste seemed perturbed by the man's attitude. We moved over to the Assayer's desk in the back corner. The lady there seemed frazzled, and she had those same type glass lenses on her nose that Emily had in the library. The woman was around sixty, going on one hundred and her silver white hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, the frizzy ends shooting out wildly like a hissing cat. She was lanky and taller than me but not as tall as my Lady.

The area behind her seemed in a disarray. Stacks of maps and rolled up scrolls on every surface. A wall full of tubes behind the desk were stuffed with rolls of parchments and maps. She squinted up at Celeste and smiled like someone would to a grandchild. “You seem taller ever time I see you Celeste.”

The woman felt comfortable being familiar with her. She sort of reminded me of Emily in that way. So competent that nobody would correct her. I grinned. Celeste just chuckled, “No Bernadine, you're just getting shorter in your old age.”

The woman pursed her lips and waved that off, “Pish. I'm just reaching my prime.” Then she seemed surprised to see me standing there too, like she hadn't noticed me before. She squinted at me. “You, I don't know.” Then she straightened, “What can I do for you ladies?”

Celeste said, “Assayer Bernadine, this is Squire Laney, Techno Knight Ascendant.”

The lady brightened and offered her hand. “Oh yes, the herder girl. So exciting.” I shook and couldn't help feeling amused at the woman. Then she said, “So you're here to get her lands assigned, not visit?” She harrumphed.

Celeste chuckled at her, “No, just business I fear. Your gossip always leaves me exhausted.”

The woman winked at her, “You've always been a lightweight ever since you were small Celeste.”

The woman turned and went back to the ungodly mess and looked around for a second then said, “Ah.” And grabbed a map that was under a huge stack of papers. In one deft movement she whipped the map out from under the rest, leaving the stack undisturbed. That was kind of impressive.

As the woman smoothed the map onto the large desk the best she could over the mess on it. My knight leaned down toward me like she were confiding in me. “If you ever need information about anything that is happening in the keep, Bernie is the woman to talk to. Though she'll almost literally talk your ear off.”

The older woman didn't even look up, she just grabbed a melted glass glob from the desk and threw it at Celeste while she studied the map. It clanked on the armor below the knight's tunic and fell back to the desk. Celeste asked, “Ow?”

The silver haired woman looked up and just said, “Drama queen.” Then she looked to me and asked, “Which lands?”

I looked at her and shrugged. “They didn't tell me.”

A strong hand laid on my shoulder. “No Laney, she's asking you to choose. Your title gives you fifty acres. Any of the shaded areas of the Realm of Wexbury there are lands already assigned.”

I blinked. I got to choose my own lands? That was such a foreign concept, I would be a land owner? I looked at the map, two thirds of it were expertly shaded by thin lines drawn parallel to each other, thinly spaced. I looked back at the redhead with those mesmerizing emerald eyes. “What did you choose?”

She chuckled. “I didn't choose. As father's daughter, I am heir to his lands. Though he did gift me a small portion of them, The Scales and The Grove on my majority.”

I blinked again, I seemed to be blinking in shock a lot theses days. I blurted, “You own The Scales and The Grove?”

The Scales were a series of little islands in the middle of Dragontooth Lake. They weren't very large, the biggest being five acres with a little caretaker cottage and two small cabins. There were two small islands to the south near the shore that were also part of the Scales. Two years back, the Scales were declared a Treasure of the Realm by the owner and opened up for the use of any and all citizens, and the cabins made available for use by any fisherman who needs to overnight in them or take shelter from a storm. Two years? That was when Celeste reached majority. When they became hers. I smiled at her generosity to the people of the realm.

The Grove was the portion of the island that was formed by the Hawktail and Beggar's Creek outside of the walls of the keep. The portion inside was the Great Meadow. The Grove was a heavily forested area that had a patch of crab apple trees in the center of it. It had also been declared a Treasure of the Realm a couple years ago and opened to all citizens of the realm.

There were no bridges to it. The only way to access the island was by boat. This was by design as the castle bisected the island so it was more for defense than anything else that bridges were not built.

I had borrowed a small row boat last fall from a fisherman I had traded some feathers to tie flies with. And I gathered twenty pounds of crab apples to sell to the baker for pies and tarts. I got two pennies and an apple pie for my troubles. The island was beautiful in the shadow of the castle walls.

I smiled at her, she had turned her gift from her father into a gift for the people of the realm. I wanted to be as altruistic as her. I bit my lip and studied the map. Most of the taken lands paralleled the rivers since water was life. Also most of the north Grasslands were taken where large herds of deer and wild cattle roamed. I was seeing a pattern... water was life and food was life. Most people seemed to stay clear of the castle except to the south where the Realm owned Orchards, Farmland, and Ranches were between Wexbury Keep and Wexbury Minor.

Then I smiled as I looked at that buffer the other nobles were giving the keep, it was about five miles. And there, two miles away on the Hawktail, in the middle of the unshaded zone, was a familiar turn of the river where I knew there was a outcropping above.

I looked at both of the women then stabbed my finger at the location squinting an eye in question. They were quiet then Bernadine asked, “Are you sure you want lands that close to the keep?” Like it were distasteful or something. I'm sure I'd get an education later.

Celeste's eyes narrowed and looked at me. “That is where you faced the marauders.” I nodded and then paused a second, knowing I was about to give out a secret, a secret I didn't need to keep anymore, being a Squire meant my family would want for nothing.

I licked my dry lips. Then looked between the two women. “I... found it. When I was scavenging.” I exhaled and just spilled, “There is a settlement from the Before Times just below the surface there. That is where the wondrous salvage I have been bringing in to sell has come from. I think the village was named after the founders. Gus Davis Ford.”

They blinked at me and Celeste suddenly chuckled and spoke to the air, “And even more surprises.”

I stabbed the map again. “Can I. Can I make it a Treasure of the Realm and have it excavated?”

The smiling look I got from the elder woman as she bit the tip of her tongue told me nothing. She held up a finger and turned to the organized chaos behind her. Celeste chuckled, and said, “It is your land, you can do anything you wish with it.”