Laryn stared at the three men standing on the sand before him.

  “What do you mean ‘it’s big,’” he said, dropping down onto the beach to face them. “Another settlement, like Jardensvale or Orfswell?”

  “No,” Mat said. “Big. We counted three kingdom cores. It’s expanding, too.”

  “There’s nothing that big in the wildlands,” Laryn said. “I heard nothing of a large kingdom like that when passing through Townshold. There are [Outposts], [Encampments], and the occasional [Homestead]. Someone would have mentioned a [Ruler] with three kingdom cores!”

  “Sir, just reporting on what we saw,” Mat said. “But I doubt they’ve been there for a very long time. The void has been thick here for the last few months, but if they’d been there for longer than that, we’d have heard about it.”

  “I get it,” Laryn said. “They were struggling with fighting the void, and it kept them from growing. When we killed the seeding bloom near Orfswell, the pressure on them let up and now they’re expanding.” He rubbed his brow. “I guess it’s a good thing they were there, to help keep void pressure off of us.”

  “They’re not far from the pass,” Mat said. “You can see the edge of their domain from the Townshold road.”

  Laryn groaned. This was exactly the kind of thing that he wanted his councilors for, but his first council meeting hadn’t exactly gone well.

  “Okay,” Laryn said. “I understand. Let me work through this and figure out what our next best steps are. They may not be hostile. They might be friendly.”

  “Sir,” Mat said. “If I may offer an opinion?”

  “Go on.”

  “I’ve lived in the north for half my life. I’ve seen this occasionally, once every year or two. A young princeling will come from one of the southern kingdoms to prove himself in the wildlands.”

  “Why?” Laryn asked, and Mat gave him an odd look.

  “I assumed you were doing the same, yourself, my lord,” he said. “They wish to challenge the position of the heir to the throne, perhaps because the heir has died, or been incapacitated. Or maybe because they think they’d do a better job, and wish to prove themselves. They come to the wildlands, establish and rule a kingdom for a time, fight goblins and void, then return to the south with the riches they have gained as proof of their capacity as a leader.”

  Laryn scoffed. “We do not do things that way, in Eltar. It’s not something I’ve heard of on all of Endara. It must be a Catarian tradition.”

  “Yes my lord,” Mat said. “Still, I don’t expect that they would be particularly aggressive toward us. It might be a good opportunity to establish trade with them.”

  “They’re looking for wealth?” Laryn said. “They will want the gold mines.”

  “We could trade with them,” Mat said.

  “Do they have many soldiers?”

  Mat glanced to his companions.

  “My guess is some few thousands,” Hober said. “Working to clear the land, construct buildings. I don’t know if they’ll ever extend this far,” Hober said. “But they’re going to take control of the old road. We won’t be able to get to Townshold without going through their territory.”

  Ollen nodded. “I agree that they’ll claim the road. The place was swarming with guards and soldiers. We were nearly caught a few times by scouts on horseback. I don’t know that we’d even be able to hide here. When they find the old road, they’ll have scouts everywhere.”

  “They would overrun us in an instant,” Laryn said. Thinking back to his training on negotiations, he added. “We can’t trade with them from a position of weakness. They might simply take everything that they want at the tip of a spear!”

  The three men shrugged.

  “Anything else to tell me about the kingdom you saw?”

  “We didn’t scout it out very well,” Mat said. “We thought you would want to know, and hurried back urgently.”

  “I’m glad you were able to find the pass. It will be important for our future,” he said. “And the mines?”

  “Many of them,” Mat said. “All along the base of the cliffs.” He lifted a sack, looking at it in surprise as though he had just remembered he held it.

  Laryn took the bag and peered inside. Gold sparkled within. He reached in and pulled out a coin.

  “Processed?”

  Mat nodded. “Goblin work. It’s not the purest but they were smelting on site. I don’t know why they abandoned it. There’s more.”

  “They did all the work for us,” Laryn said. “Why does it feel like a trap?”

  “Gold is a good bait for humans,” Mat agreed with a grin. “But greedy goblins would have fallen prey to their own machinations before they caught any of us.”

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  “Strange that it was all abandoned, though,” Laryn said.

  “I’m not complaining.”

  “Me either. We’re going to want to get our hands on that gold, before that other kingdom figures out what is there. If their [Ruler] is really just a southern prince on a quest to prove himself, how long do you think he’ll stay?”

  “Could be a year or two,” Mat said. “Depends on when he decides he’s proved himself. Trading a lot of gold with him might help with that.”

  “What will he do with his kingdom and cores when he’s ready to leave? He must have brought a coresmith with him?”

  “That’s beyond me,” Mat said. “I don’t know much about [Rulers] and cores. I just know they’ll pack up and leave when they’re done.”

  “So it’s a race to the gold,” Laryn mused. “And we’ve got the head start, but they’re faster…”

  He dismissed the men and sought out Korwin.

  He’d assigned her to investigate all the materials and skills they had access too, and determine the products they could produce with the most profit potential.

  He walked inland, looking for her, and found himself drawn to the highest point of the island. Here, the foundation of their shrine to Ishtoran took shape. Vand and Conor worked there, building the stone base.

  Conor came from Orfswell. He was a friendly, slow moving man who liked to take his time with things. He was the only other active worshiper of Ishtoran on Vallor, so Laryn had assigned him to work with Vand.

  Laryn knew that the others were mostly Catarians, and worshiped the minor gods popular on the continent. So far nobody had mentioned anything about raising shrines. That was good, because it raised issues that Laryn did not have time to deal with at the moment.

  He watched the two men working. Conor carted stones of various sizes, collected from the banks of the river. Vand selected the stones and fit them together, using mortar in the joints. They’d carted in some large chunks of limestone from an outcropping nearby, and heated it into a kiln to form quicklime. The powdery grey chunks were mixed with sand and water to form the mortar which Vand now applied.

  “How is the work?” Laryn called. Vand and Conor turned to look at him, then returned to their labor. “How long do you think it’s going to take?”

  “Going well,” Vand said. “This platform should be done soon, and then we can get to work on the wooden structure. Conor mapped it out for me.”

  Laryn sighed. “Great. Keep up the work.” He wasn’t going to be able to stall for that long. He prayed that Ishtoran would be willing to grant him guidance, even though he hadn’t yet completed the god’s shrine.

  As he continued walking the island, he wondered what Keldin would do if he were here. His brother was, intelligent, insightful, and clever. He wouldn’t wait around, hoping for something good to happen. He’d see the strategy and know the right move to make would be.

  Laryn wished that Keldin were still here. He could use some guidance from his brother right now.

  His search for Korwin lead him across the bridge to the north shore of Vallor. There, Gall had cleared out a space where men and women trained with weapons.

  Laryn approached, resting his hand on his sword. Perhaps a bit of light sword training would help him clear his mind and better be able to approach the issue at hand.

  Gall was not there, but a few men sparred with staves and false spears. In the shade of a large tree rested several racks with weapons. Laryn walked over to the shady area and picked up Coril’s sword.

  He turned to see the sparring men. Widan and Gaten, his two mages, were practicing with their spells. One of them would fire an Elemental [Dart] of water, and the other would intercept it with an Elemental [Shield]. They had brought several buckets of water up to help them practice, and the ground around them was now muddy.

  Laryn couldn’t force them to slave away using [Sift] all day long, especially when he wasn’t doing it himself. But a part of him didn’t like seeing them away from the core.

  Thatch and Jarik worked with bows, shooting arrows into a sack, working with a few of the Orfswell men and women. Gall had asked Thatch, as the master archer, to work with the Orfswellers and see who had a knack for the bow.

  One Orfswell man, a stout, broad shouldered fellow, took aim and loosed an arrow.

  It flew far wide of the target.

  “Move your foot back, Korv” Thatch said, “and remember to exhale.”

  The man reddened, and tossed his bow to the ground. “It’s stupid,” he grumbled. “I’d rather wait until they’re close and stick’em with a spear.”

  “You’re not great with a spear either,” Thatch pointed out, tactlessly. “You haven’t been putting in much effort since you got here…”

  “What?” Korv exclaimed, clenching his fists. “Why, I… I’ll show you what I’m good at.” He sent a flailing punch toward Thatch’s head, but the tall, lean man stepped easily out of range. “You Jardensvalers think you’re so special because your village burned down first or something,” Korv spat.

  Laryn intervened.

  “Hey,” he said, and both men turned. Thatch nodded respectfully, and Korv tensed. “Take a break, Korv,” Laryn said. “Come spar with me.” He tossed Coril’s sword to the burly Orfsweller.

  The man drew the sword from its sheath and admired it. Thatch gave Laryn an appreciative nod and turned back to working with the other archers.

  Korv charged in, swinging the blade around wildly. Laryn met him in water stance, flowing with the man’s moves, blades crossing occasionally as Laryn guided him around the clearing.

  Korv was not a competent swordsman, but merely going through the motions helped Laryn fall into a meditative state. He didn’t try to beat Korv, though he did disarm the man a few times.

  After a dozen minutes, Laryn stopped for a breather, sheathing his sword.

  “Hah,” Korv said. “You’ve got some fancy footwork, sir, but you couldn’t keep up with me in the end!” He sheathed his own sword.

  "Say, I’ve been looking for a chance to chat with you. These people that are here, the Jardensvalers; you’re not one of them, right? They stumbled upon you when they were fleeing through the wilds?”

  “True,” Laryn said, suspicious.

  “And that was only what, a few days before all of us came from Orfswell?”

  “Something like that,” Laryn said.

  “So why are they so uppity, and acting like they’re in charge all the time?” Korv asked. “You’d think that they build this place themselves!”

  “They did build a lot of it.”

  “They eat first,” Korv said. “They sleep in the best shelters. They blame us when things don’t work well. Like it’s my fault that your blacksmith broke his leg.”

  Laryn folded his arms, but Korv’s complaints continued. The stout man’s short beard did little to hide the emotion on his face.

  “And let’s not forget, the only reason they’re here first is because they ran from the void, like cowards. We fought it. As long as we could. They’ve always thought they were better than us, you know.”

  “Is that true?” Laryn asked. “They eat first?” He hadn’t noticed, but then again, he hadn’t been paying attention. He would tell Kenna to make sure that didn’t happen.

  “They always get the best stuff,” Korv complained again. “It’s like we’re second class or something. I hate it. They pick on and bully us. Never give us a chance to talk to you!”

  “Thank you for sharing your concerns, Korv,” Laryn said. “I’ll look into it.”

  “If they keep acting like pricks,” Korv spat, speaking louder and looking in Thatch’s direction, “Some of us Orfswellers are going to have to show them what’s what. We aren’t just going to lie down and take it!”

  “Thank you for sparring with me, Korv,” Laryn said. “I wouldn’t recommend starting a fight with anyone though.”

  “Oh, I won’t. But I’m going to defend myself if they start one, mark my words!”