“Lhandor,” ordered Quaeryt.
More of the hump vanished, and the white mist was thicker as more of the overburden appeared on the eastern slope.
“Elsior, see what you can do.”
“Yes, sir.”
The trainee managed to move a fair amount for his age and experience, perhaps a fifth part of what Lhandor had done.
Even after just half a glass, Quaeryt could see that the more precise massive imaging, if that was the correct term for what they were doing, was going to take longer than he’d anticipated. Doesn’t everything?
By the time Quaeryt and the other imagers were too tired to do any more imaging, without totally exhausting themselves and risking collapse, they had completed the drive up to and from the entry and almost down to where it would meet the circular road, as well as a paved circular carriage plaza south of the entry portico. They had bowed to the reality of the terrain by creating stone steps up to the entry to avoid the massive earth-moving that would have been necessary to keep the drive to and from the entry from being too steep for carriages and wagons.
They also had imaged away part of the higher ground to the west of the Chateau Regis so that the circular drive would be level-and that, in turn, would require stone drainage gutters.
Quaeryt also realized that they would need a paved service drive to the west side of the chateau to replace the rutted lane currently being used. But then, there’s always something you’ve forgotten.
After riding back to the de facto Telaryn headquarters, and dismissing the imagers and the company from Eleventh Regiment, Quaeryt turned his mount over to an ostler, then crossed the courtyard and made his way into the library. From what he could tell most of the volumes remained.
After a quick study of the shelves, under the watchful eye of a junior squad leader, Quaeryt began with the thin volumes with the greatest height of spine. The first volume he took off the shelf was entitled Plants of Varia and contained drawings of various plants. The title, he realized, if belatedly, must have referred to the area around Variana. From the paper dust that rose when he opened the folio to the drawings, he wondered if “Varia” had been a separate land at one time. He didn’t recall any histories that mentioned that, but then he hadn’t read that much history about the western half of Lydar. Was there ever that much written?
Then he forced himself to move through the volumes quickly. The seventh or eighth bound folio that he opened contained maps of Bovaria, although he had the impression that they had been drawn at least several decades earlier. He set that volume aside on a reading table and continued to look. After close to half a glass, he found two other volumes of maps, one of which included maps showing hills and mountains and even roads, although it was clear it had been drawn before the Great Canal had been built.
He picked up the three volumes and walked to the squad leader. “I’m taking these maps for duties required by Lord Bhayar. They’ll be at the Chateau Regis.”
“Yes, sir.”
Carrying the three volumes, Quaeryt walked from the library toward the stables where a half squad waited to escort him for the ride south to the Chateau Regis.
18
Quaeryt woke early on Solayi morning, out of uneasy dreams he could not remember. At least, there was no ice … no dead troopers staring at you. Rather than wake Vaelora by moving, he lay there, thinking, for what was likely a glass, trying to work out in his mind all he needed to do in the week ahead.
After dressing and a leisurely breakfast with Vaelora, in their chambers, he took out the three map folios he’d taken from Paitrak’s library, and he and Vaelora pored over them together.
Less than a quint into studying the maps, Vaelora looked at Quaeryt. “There aren’t any provincial or regional boundaries shown for Bovaria.”
“But the maps have the old provincial boundaries for Telaryn,” added Quaeryt. “If the mapmakers knew about those, then they would have drawn provincial boundaries for Bovaria … if Bovaria had provinces.”
“No one said they didn’t.”
“People don’t mention what doesn’t exist,” Quaeryt said dryly, “except for food and golds.”
“You thought they didn’t, though.”
“I did, but Bhayar’s going to need provincial governors, or the equivalent. That’s why I got the maps together. I wanted to see if we could figure out reasonable boundaries for governors before he’s forced into agreeing to governors’ territories by Deucalon or Myskyl … or just by necessity.”
“How many governors are you thinking about?”
“Telaryn had six, counting Tilbor. Bovaria isn’t as spread out, and a lot of the north doesn’t have many people, especially in the Montagnes D’Glace. I was thinking four, but I wanted to look at that map that shows the hills and mountains…”
“You know … this is just another thing…”
“I know. But you married me, and because of that, most of what we do will be forgotten or attributed to others. Calkoran mentioned that again the other day. The problem is that the alternative is worse.”
“He said that in Khel, too.” Vaelora smiled. “We’ll just have to make sure that brother dear gets the credit and not Deucalon or Myskyl.”
Somewhat more than a glass later, Quaeryt and Vaelora had sketched out rough boundaries for four regions of Bovaria, each with a larger town or city from which a regional governor could administer the surrounding area. Laaryn was one of those, and that would make an easy transition for whoever followed Meinyt, assuming Bhayar agreed to something at least similar to what Vaelora and Quaeryt had sketched out.
After that, he sent a messenger to have the duty squad ride to the Chateau Regis to meet them at the first glass of the afternoon. During the interim, he and Vaelora toured the Chateau Regis, taking notes on the still-vacant chambers of the large structure and determining where the best place for administration and logistics might be.
Both Quaeryt and Vaelora were on the front steps of the chateau a quint before the glass. The sky was slightly hazy, and a cool but not cold breeze blew out of the northeast.
“The entry and the drive look much better,” observed Vaelora.
“They should.” Quaeryt still didn’t like the raw dirt around the carriage park and bordering the new drive, but imaging wasn’t good for creating the growing plants for gardens and parks. That took gardeners and time.
“Where are we riding?”
“From the Chateau Regis along the road we’ll have to rebuild all the way to the River Aluse, then down along the west shore to the isle of piers.”
“You want to have a good look at what the imagers will need to do.”
“And a better look at this part of Variana. You might recall that I didn’t see all that much of it before we set out for Khel.”
Before long a squad from Eleventh Regiment rode up the west drive and reined up.
“Good afternoon, Lady, sir,” said the squad leader, inclining his head and motioning for a ranker to lead the black mare and gelding forward for Vaelora and Quaeryt to mount.
“Good afternoon,” replied Vaelora cheerfully before mounting.
Quaeryt just nodded, smiled, and mounted. Then he and Vaelora led the way down the eastern drive toward the old road and the north bridge over the River Aluse. Although the calendar date was the first of Avryl, the midpoint of spring, most of the trees were still leafing out, and many of the spring flowers were still budding.
Was that because of what you did? Quaeryt half smiled at the thought, reminding himself that the trees and flowers had been leafing out just as slowly all the way along the last hundred milles of their ride along the Great Canal.
For the first half mille from the Chateau Regis, there were no dwellings, just the smoothed over remnants of earthworks that had been dug into what had been Rex Kharst’s park surrounding the chateau. Closer to the river there were modest shops and dwellings, and while some still showed damages, most of them seemed to be occupied, although there were few people on the streets, unsurprisingly for a Solayi afternoon.