I honestly felt like Iberis went a bit overboard with his embellishments and probably made us sound like much more than we actually were. I didn’t think our celebrations were all that crazy, and surely they had to be similar to the kinds of parties they threw elsewhere. I liked to think that Iluk was a pleasant place to live, but I had to assume that some people would see our way of life and disagree with some of it, so I wasn’t sure you could call it paradise either.
That said, it felt real good to have someone praise the life we’d built for ourselves out here. I just didn’t want any of the other goblins feeling let down or disappointed by what they saw. But as I looked around at our new visitors, I didn’t get that sense from them at all—if anything they were completely taken by what they saw and loved the banquet we’d thrown for them.
But I wonder if our lifestyle seems lavish from the eyes of the goblin people?
In the end though, I just shrugged the thought off. If the goblins were having a good time and enjoying themselves, then that was enough for me. I turned my attention back to Iberis, who was still talking and still had plenty of energy to spare.
Some of Iberis’s entourage said they wanted to learn more about life on the surface and decided to stay with us a while. The rest elected to help unload the boat when it arrived with yet another round of the sea’s bounties. This time they brought salted fish along with cooked shrimp and shellfish.
Needless to say, Iluk saw its meal variety explode with new options, and among all of this was some other good news—namely that Joe and my war buddies were officially getting married to the onikin women they’d been spending time with. It had already pretty much been decided when the boys had arranged betrothal gifts of dragon materials, but apparently things weren’t final until the betrothal gifts were officially accepted, so this was just another step in the process.
As it turned out, the weddings were all going to be held at once, and preparations were already underway. Everybody felt it was better to give me one report on everything rather than inform me of each individual couple’s status as it developed.
I wasn’t sure I understood that logic, because good news was good news, and the more you got of it the better. Still, everybody was trying to be considerate and I wasn’t going to hold that against them.
There were eleven onikin women working in Iluk now, and some of them had chosen to do so because they wanted to think things through. Well, it seemed like they’d made up their minds, and every one of them was going through with their marriage.
The weddings were set for three days’ time. Three days might sound oddly specific, but that’s because the lostblood brothers had set off to buy some things that were needed for the ceremonies. But once we had everything, we’d invite all the families, hold the ceremonies, and then start sorting out the yurts in Iluk and the rooms at the border stations so the couples could start their married lives in earnest.
As for what the lostblood brothers were purchasing...well, it was livestock. With Joe and the others traveling between the village and the border stations, they’d need horses. Once we started talking about that, the onikin women said they wanted geese, goats, and white ghee so they’d have more options for food. Apparently that was part of why they’d stayed in Iluk before getting married—they’d wanted to get a feel for life in Iluk and what kind of animals they wanted to raise themselves.
Joe and my buddies had asked Ellie and the lostblood brothers to purchase what their brides-to-be wanted, and they were told it was going to take three days. The list of livestock was pretty long, all in all, and I found myself looking at our already-impressive stable wondering how we were going to make more space.
“For now, we’ve accepted the five goats, the four white ghee, and the thirty geese from Duke Mahati,” said Ellie, her jaw in her hand as she thought. “We’ll have some problems on our hands if we take on too much at once, so the rest we’ll bring in a little at a time. Still, the horses that the onikin women asked for aren’t on that list you’ve got.”
Ellie had the lostblood brothers going to the Beastland Nation to buy the horses. She hadn’t been sure we could do that, but Seki and his brothers had told her that Peijin would be able to cut us a deal.
“And they were right,” continued Ellie. “We sent a request and Peijin & Co. said they’d arrange things for us. That said, it’s a bit of a sudden request on our part so we won’t be getting any military-grade steeds—they’ll all be farming horses. Still, the onikin women were all happy with that, so I’ve got the boys buying eleven of them.”
“All righty,” I said. “If the women are happy, then I’m happy. Horses are horses at the end of the day, and farming horses will come in real handy when work starts to pick up in the wasteland.”
“Oh, which reminds me,” said Ellie. “The livestock we’re buying are all going to belong to the new couples...which is to say they’ll be personal property. I want you to bear that in mind, please. Until now everything we’ve bought has technically belonged to you, papa, but it’s been shared among us as a whole. But because the arriving livestock won’t belong to you, you’ll have to pay the owners when you want to use them. But don’t worry. The new couples will also have to rent space if they want to use the stables, so it should all even out.”
“Got it. I’ll make sure we’ve got the money on hand when we need to hire some extra help.”
I took another look around the stable and thought. Even if the new couples owned their new animals, they’d still need stable space and the equipment to look after them. All of that meant we’d need to expand things here or over at the border stations. If the new couples decided they wanted a stable of their own they could ask the cavekin, but they’d need timber, which they’d have to buy. That meant I’d have to think about how much our timber was worth.
I’d never had to think about prices for our stuff before. Until now, all our yurts and furniture and materials had been shared among us, so it just hadn’t been a necessity. Now it was. Our yurts were made with baar fabric, and that meant the price would probably change drastically depending on the size of the yurt.
Is that something someone can just easily buy? Would a wooden hut or cottage be cheaper than a yurt?
I found myself with all these new questions drifting about in my mind as I chatted with Ellie about what we’d need and what work we’d have to do in the near future.
And just like that, three days passed. I was waiting to the west of the village, expecting the lostblood brothers back, and soon I saw them riding their carriage along the road with horses and livestock in tow. The dogkin guards were all kept real busy running around because of all the animals really stretching things out, and that was when I realized that there were some hefty, powerful-looking horses coming this way. Not just a few either—there must have been about twenty of them.
Did the boys buy them at some kind of bulk discount...? Or were the Peijins feeling especially generous?
I was mulling over the possibilities when I saw Seki in the driver’s seat of the carriage, looking down and out. This was odd, because the lostblood brothers always came back with big, bright smiles on their faces, and they were always real happy to deliver their reports.
Bringing back this many horses should be a big win, so I gotta wonder, why the long face?
I waved to Seki and he replied with a somewhat stilted wave of his own. I started getting worried and wanted to run over to find out what was going on. Still, I held back, knowing that if I just waited the boys would get to me soon enough. When they got to me, Seki gave me a report the way he always did.
“Our trip to buy livestock went as planned,” he said. “We acquired everything we were after, and a lot of quality merchandise besides, but...I have some bad news. Things aren’t looking good in Beastland.”
“Welcome back,” I said. “And for starters, I’m glad you’re all safe. But what’s this about Beastland? What’s going on?”
For a second Seki looked troubled, like he wasn’t sure where to start. But he settled his resolve, took a breath, and replied.
“All we have at the moment is what we’ve heard from Peijin, but it looks like Yaten Raisei has lost his position...or is on the verge of losing it. The domestic balance of power is crumbling as a result, and we might be looking at something like civil war. The Peijins gave me a letter to pass to you. I don’t know the particulars, but they’re requesting your help.”
I was stunned—shocked stiff, in fact. Yaten had come to Iluk as an official representative of the Beastland Kingdom, and in our meeting we’d agreed to friendly relations. How’d the guy go from that to losing his position? And if he did lose his position, what did that mean for the agreement we’d made?