"Queen, may I ask what it is?" Oryn asked, unsure what my whole solidifying foundation ant.
He was sure I was already getting at sothing great when I built the Nursery Palace, but there’s more?
That’s exactly what his expression read and I cackled.
"Hehe, we aren’t just building with logs anymore. We’re going to quarry blocks. Massive, square blocks of white stone."
I was talking fast now, the blueprints in my head finally bleeding into reality.
"I want to carve a path from the village gate all the way to that ridge. A road, Oryn. A wide, flat road made of crushed stone and packed earth so the heavy sleds don’t sink. And along that road? We’ll build houses. Permanent houses of stone and timber that will stay warm in the winter and cool in the sumr."
Oryn’s small, round ears twitched as he looked toward the northern ridge. He looked skeptical, but then he looked at my eyes. He saw the fire there—the sa fire that had built the Nursery Palace in a single day.
"Stone houses," Oryn rumbled, scratching his thick black beard. "It is a heavy task, Queen. The weight alone..."
"The weight is why we have beavers and bears," I countered with a grin. "And the precision is why we have Thalor. He’s going to mark the seams so your n don’t waste their strength hacking at solid walls. We split the stone where it wants to break and we use the sledges to move the stones. It’s heavy and taskful, but it will stay for a long ti."
Oryn seed to agree to my words that it would stay for a long ti. With stones, one wouldn’t need to worry about the winter. This was why people usually stayed in caves during winter.
Even if the rocks are cold, with the fire set indoors, it can spread well, and one does not need to worry about the house burning down if the roof is not made of dried leaves.
He brushed his chin. Stone houses. Why didn’t he think of it before?
His thoughts were like a blank slate and I could see it all.
Fenric shifted his weight, watching the way I gestured with my free hand, my face lit up with an excitent I hadn’t felt since Damar left.
He let out a huff—not a growl this ti, but a resigned sort of sigh. He could see that I wasn’t just ’walking’ with the rman; I was busy building a world. It made him feel sorry for getting jealous, if only montarily. While the rman was helping , what was he doing?
But he cheered up right away, knowing he had been given the most important task of all in all that ti. Being a babysitter.
"A road," Fenric murmured, his gaze drifting to the wild, uneven terrain. "You’re going to ta the very ground we walk on, aren’t you, Arinya?"
"I’m going to make it work for us, Fenric," I said, leaning into his side for a brief mont of comfort. "It’s the least I can do, haha."
Thalor stood a few paces back, watching the exchange with a quiet, observant stillness. He didn’t try to intrude on the family mont, but he didn’t look like an outsider anymore either.
He looked like a tool—a powerful, lethal, and necessary tool that I had just added to my belt. And he would rather have that position, than be just a
"Oryn, gather the sleds," I commanded, my voice ringing out across the square. "Fenric, run an errand for , will you?" he nodded without hesitation. "Go to the Nursery and tell Noah that I need the fastest runners from the kingdom because we are about to start a large-scale construction. And no, I do not plan to get permission from the Elders because this has nothing to do with them," I rolled my eyes and Fenric laughed at my remark.
Seriously, those old beasts should stop trying to intervene in my business and just let make the West Way a better place.
"What will the runners do?" Fenric asked.
"Ah, I need them to start clearing the bush for the path. If possible, I’d like us to start on the road tonight. I want the first block of listone in this village before the moon hits its peak."
"Got it," he picked up the basket from behind, covered with a leaf where Phina and Raiden had been peacefully asleep. Ah, so that’s why Fenric had a little peace of mind. They were also asleep.
Fenric handed the basket to , planted a soft kiss on my forehead and then dashed out of there, heading for the nursery.
I turned to Oyrn.
"Shall we go about the blueprints in the anti?"
The village began to stir again, and like always, I was the center of the storm, bringing about a flood of innovations to the world of these primitive beings.
The heavy lethargy of the afternoon broke into a frantic, purposeful energy.
I felt the pulse of the kingdom beneath my feet, and for a second, the ache of Damar’s absence was muffled by the sound of a thousand feets and padded beaver tails crushing on the rough Earth.
As the dust began to kick up from the first few beavers clearing the path, I didn’t even have ti to unroll the bark for the blueprints before I heard a collective clearing of throats behind .
I turned, Lyra, Phina and Raiden still snoozing in the leaf-covered basket at my feet, to find a small crowd of won.
Talia was at the front, her arms uncrossed for once, though her tail still gave an occasional, nervous flick. Behind her were the scarred woman and several others I recognized from the ’Committee.’
"You’re building a road," Talia said, her voice lacking its usual bite. "And houses made of mountain-bone."
"Listone, actually," I corrected automatically, then wiped a smudge of white dust from my cheek. "And yes. It’s going to be a lot of work."
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