The Marquis Read Online Free Page B

work immediately. The first item built was a beacon to direct Njil and the other two ships to head this way, and it wasn’t long before the three ships were anchored in the bay.
    The village would quickly return to life. By midday the next day, the dock was repaired sufficiently for the first of the ships to dock, and unloading to commence. After a few days of unloading, Njil and the three ships with skeleton crews, departed for the return journey to Meshech. Conn wanted backup, and the over-twelve-week round trip would see them arrive in midwinter – not the best time to be sailing the ocean, but it couldn’t be helped.
    Although initially returning to their own village, Wystan and Efilda soon returned to watch work in Subari, curious to see what Conn was doing. They had also brought with them every spare worker they had. Conn had provided assistance for the harvest, as small as it was, and it was Efilda’s opportunity to return the favour.
    She arrived to find a vastly different village to the one that she had left a week earlier. Conn’s wiga were very experienced in engineering work and as well as the repaired dock, the village had dozens of buildings under construction – as well as guard towers and an unusual arrangement of palisades. Work was also commencing on the layout and drainage of a much larger settlement. Conn described where new houses would be constructed for all of her people in due course.
    She wasn’t so sure. ‘I don’t understand why you are convinced that your village will survive the attack that will arrive soon…’
    Conn guided her inside some of the new fortifications. One was sitting as close to the water as possible, and although from the outside it looked like it was made of timber; inside the veneer were walls of stone, and inside those walls was the largest catapult that Efilda and Wystan had ever seen. It was one of five that Conn had brought with him. The others sat in the second tower further down the bay. This one was a trebuchet, and had arrived in pieces and had been assembled on site. The other units were mangonels.
    They were speechless. Wystan inspected the weapon and saw the collection of “balls” waiting for deployment.
    ‘What distance is it effective at?’ he asked in awe.
    ‘This is a small unit – only over a hundred yards.’
    He thought for a moment. ‘But further than the mangonel on their ships.’ Wystan shook his head. ‘I see now why you aren’t concerned.’
    After lunch in the renovated main roundhouse, Conn guided them to the new Medical Centre where the Medical Corp was busy treating some of her people. The sterile conditions, the new medicines and the almost cult like practices of the Medical Corp made them hesitant at first, but they soon flocked to seek cures for their accumulated illnesses, as reports of the Medic’s skills spread rapidly.
    Everywhere, manpower was spread thinly. Even in the fields, too few men led the horse teams attached to the twenty ploughs had been on board the ships; a special order for Rila that would go unfulfilled. By the end of the season, they would be able to plant five hundred acres of winter oats, wheat, barley and beans. An extensive market garden was also under construction. With a good winter, it would adequately provide food for the current population in the summer – for winter they would have to make do on what they had, and the inevitable deliveries from Meshech. At least they had lots of fish.
    As well as the whaleboats, Conn always carried a small Pinnace on his ships. Larger than the whaleboats it was capable of a multitude of tasks - including that of a fishing boat, and its daily expeditions providing more than enough food for everyone.
    When they had all returned to the roundhouse for dinner, they sat and drank more of Conn's dwindling supply of wine. Confused from her day's tour, Efilda mused out aloud.
    'This is all very bewildering. Just who are you really? You are no normal Marquis or