Rise of the Horde

Chapter 872 - 871

The first Ironbeard caravan arrived at Yohan’s southern gate on the seventh day of the cold season with twelve wagons, fourteen dwarven guards, two commercial assistants, and Durrek Stonepick riding the lead wagon with the composure of a man who had been looking forward to this particular morning for several months.

The gate log noted the caravan’s arrival, composition, and declared cargo with the thoroughness that Vess applied to everything. The declared cargo was six categories: high-temperature alloy ingots, void-seal compound in the sealed containers that the dwarven process required for transport stability, precision grinding implements, geological survey maps for three eastern ore vein systems, dwarven tool-steel in bar stock, and one category listed as miscellaneous commercial samples.

Vess wrote all of this down and then looked at Durrek.

"The void-seal compound," Vess said. "The sealed containers. What is the appropriate storage protocol?"

Durrek produced a document from his jacket. It was a single page, written in the common trade language. He handed it to Vess. "This explains the storage requirements, the handling precautions, and the conditions under which the compound must not be opened. The compound is stable within those conditions and unstable outside them. The conditions are straightforward." He paused. "Your smith will understand them immediately. If anyone other than your smith opens the containers, please ensure they read this first."

Vess took the document, added it to the cargo manifest, and completed the gate log entry.

Zul’jinn was waiting at the forge district’s main entrance when the caravan arrived.

The master smith had received word of the caravan’s approach via the morning Verakh report and had been in the forge district since before dawn, which was his standard schedule, but had been in the specific section of the forge district that contained the sealed storage room that he had prepared for the void-seal compound’s arrival, which was not his standard location.

He received the sealed containers personally. He signed for them, checked each seal’s integrity by the protocol the storage document described, and carried them to the sealed room himself, which was one of the few times anyone had observed Zul’jinn carrying something rather than directing the carrying.

Durrek watched this from the forge district entrance and nodded once.

"Three days," Durrek said to his commercial assistant. "That is how long it will take him to work through the documentation and implement the basic process. In four days he will be back with improvements."

"You said four to five days last time," the assistant said.

"I underestimated him last time." Durrek turned toward the market district. "Where are the highland goods arriving from?"

* * * * *

The highland goods were arriving from the north.

Drakk’s emerging trade connection had produced its first tangible output: a pack-train of twelve highland ponies carrying the first commercial consignment from the highland settlement’s growing production. Highland wool in bales, mountain herb bundles of the medicinal species that Vornak had identified as Yohan’s most practical import, and six stone-worked tool sets produced by the highland workers who had been learning from Tharuk’s construction sessions.

The stone tools were not refined. They were the first products of people who had learned a skill in the past two months. But they were competent. The chisels were correctly tempered, the adze heads correctly balanced, the drill points correctly hardened. They worked.

Drenn’ak received the pack-train at the market’s northern entry point and assessed the goods with the market administrator’s practiced eye. The mountain herbs went to Vornak’s pharmacy immediately. The wool went to the cloth merchant quarter. The tools went to a temporary display at the market’s center.

The tools sold within two hours.

The buyers were construction workers, primarily. Droktagar’s crews. They bought the highland tools not because the tools were superior to Zul’jinn’s forge output but because Zul’jinn’s forge output was allocated to weapons and infrastructure and the general tool surplus from that allocation was never quite enough. Highland stone tools were not as refined as forge-worked iron, but they worked for the tasks that did not require the iron’s properties.

The cobalt merchant from the old Broken Tooth Clan bought three herb bundles and paid in Yohan’s administrative currency without asking what the herbs were. He brought them to Vornak’s pharmacy and asked what they were. Vornak told him. He returned the next morning and bought eight more.

By midday, the first commercial day of the trade route was complete.

The calculation was simple and Sakh’arran had been running it in his notes since the preliminary agreement was signed: the Ironbeard caravan represented a commercial relationship with the most prolific manufacturing operation in the northern territories. The highland pack-train represented the beginning of a highland economy with a market for its output. Both of these relationships ran through Yohan.

Parties who prospered through Yohan’s continued operation had a reason beyond politics to want Yohan to continue operating.

The web was acquiring economics.

* * * * *

In the evening, Durrek Stonepick came to the administrative hall.

He came with the commercial assistant and a single document case and the specific bearing of a man who had conducted a successful first trading day and wanted to discuss it in a businesslike way without the formality of a scheduled meeting.

Sakh’arran received him, because Khao’khen was in a meeting with Kael and Vor’gath about the Arch situation, and Sakh’arran had been handling commercial matters since the preliminary agreement anyway.

"The void-seal documentation transfer is complete," Durrek said, settling into the chair across from Sakh’arran without being invited, which was his habit. "Your smith has the storage containers and the full process documentation. The Thane wanted me to note for the record that the documentation is provided in confidence and the specific process parameters are proprietary information." He paused. "I am noting this for the record because the Thane asked me to. I am not going to argue about it if your smith improves the process."

"Understood," Sakh’arran said.

"The geological survey maps are in the second case. Three ore vein systems. Your kobold mining teams will need approximately two weeks to reach the nearest system from Yohan at a working pace." He opened the case and produced the maps. They were detailed, the dwarven cartographic standards applying the same precision to geological features that they applied to everything. "The manginthor compound vein is the priority. Your smith confirmed this when he signed for the metal ingots."

"He spoke to you about it?" Sakh’arran asked, mildly surprised. Zul’jinn rarely spoke to people he had just met about his material priorities.

"He said, and I am quoting accurately: ’the compound ingots are useful, the vein access is essential.’" Durrek set the maps on the desk. "I took that as confirmation."

"It is," Sakh’arran agreed.

"One more item. The archive access reference numbers I provided in the preliminary meeting. Has your administration received the records from the Thane’s archive division?"

"We have. We are in the process of reviewing them." Sakh’arran chose his next words carefully. "The records contain information that is relevant to our current strategic situation in a way that I would like to discuss with the Thane directly when the moment is appropriate. Not through an envoy."

Durrek looked at him steadily. "You found something in the records."

"We found something in the records," Sakh’arran confirmed. "Something that concerns both our peoples and that I believe the Thane should understand fully. When the appropriate moment comes, we will request a direct meeting." He paused. "The Ironbeard Clan’s territory shares a border with a part of the world that the records suggest has been active before. That is as much as I can say at this point without the conversation that the full topic requires."

Durrek was quiet for a moment. He was not a man given to visible alarm, but something shifted in his expression that was not quite composure.

"The northern territory," he said. "The Iron Hills’ upper reaches."

"Yes," Sakh’arran said.

"I will send word to the Thane tonight."

"Please do," Sakh’arran said. "And Durrek. Tell him to send someone with authority to make decisions, not just to receive information."