Chapter 594: Shallow Beach and Reunion
Tilly herself was coming.
Not a delegation of combat witches sent as military aid — Tilly Wimbledon, princess of Graycastle, was sailing for the Western Region in person. Which meant she had resolved the trouble on Sleeping Island, or settled it enough that she trusted the island to hold without her.
Roland received the news and found himself quietly pleased in a way he didn’t examine too closely.
The day after the letter arrived, he waited at Shallow Beach with Anna and several witches. What had been mudflat a month ago now showed the first outlines of something permanent. Wooden board houses and work sheds clustered around the slope, their windward faces painted a conspicuous orange — anti-corrosion coating, functional first, but the color was striking against the grey sky and grey water. Thirty meters of beachhead had been leveled and faced with brick; the natural deep-water harbor saved him the cost and time of a trestle, and even three-masted ships could berth directly.
Most of the witches had not been to Shallow Beach during this phase of development. They moved along the waterline with the unhurried attention of people who have nowhere urgent to be.
Anna came to stand beside him. The salt wind off the water shifted her hair across her face, and she pushed it back without looking at it, already pointing toward the far end of the beach. “Is that the collapsed shipyard? What are they doing there now?”
“You’ve heard about it,” Roland said, with the tone of a man who has already accepted his guilt in this matter.
“Nana told me the same day three workers broke their legs.”
The coke oven explosion in a test run he could classify as an acceptable cost of development — a price paid to understand a new process. The shipyard collapse was harder to excuse. Minister of Construction Karl had recommended building near the hills, where the ground was firm. Roland had overruled him: the time pressure was real, Thunder’s steam vessel needed to be in the water before the following year, and he had told himself the soft foundation was manageable if Lotus laid a steel skeleton and they filled it with poured concrete.
The walls had looked immaculate when the concrete set. He had been quietly proud of himself.
Then the portcullis went in.
The moment the arm-thick gate was released from Hummingbird’s hands — she had been keeping it weightless during installation — its full mass transferred to the vertical walls. The walls and one side of the gate assembly came down together, burying three workers in the debris. Nana saved all of them. The post-incident survey found the cause: during the pour, sand and mud had migrated downward beneath the formwork. The join between floor and wall had never properly bonded — only a thin skin of concrete, holding nothing.
In the modern world it would have been a career-ending failure. Here, the workers survived, and the nobles surrounding him registered nothing beyond mild curiosity at the lord’s odd new hobby. Only Roland kept the full arithmetic: three men nearly killed by a mistake he could have avoided.
He cleared his throat. “They’re installing earth-retaining walls. Timber posts cross-braced into the ground — friction anchors. Like tree roots.”
Anna considered this. “So the vertical walls can’t pull away from the floor.”
“This time I’m checking the concrete bond personally before anything goes in.”
“Look — a ship!” Mystery Moon’s voice came over the sound of the surf.
A sail had appeared on the horizon: pink flag, three masts, making for the beach on a broad reach. The Charming Beauty, rounding Southernmost Cape from the Fjords. It tracked along the waterline for a minute, adjusting its heading, before recognizing where the dock actually was.
The plank came down. Roland extended his hand and Tilly Wimbledon took it — and whatever formality the gesture might have carried between a king and a princess dissolved in the handshake itself. They had not seen each other for months. Both of them were smiling.
The witches managed the reunion in their own way, which was with considerably less restraint. Honey, Candle, and Evelyn attached themselves to their Sleeping Island friends before the plank had stopped swaying. Andrea bent an arm around Nightingale’s shoulders with the easy familiarity of someone who had entirely forgotten she was a noble lady. Wendy took Ashes’ hand and started asking questions.
Softfeathers stopped moving when she saw a pale, hollow-looking witch standing slightly apart from the Sleeping Island group.
“Why are you here?” Softfeathers approached her, voice careful. “Did Heidi Morgan send you because she hadn’t heard from Iffy and me?”
“No.” The witch shook her head. “Lady Heidi is on the ship.”
“She came to the Western Region?” Softfeathers’ exclamation pulled the attention of everyone on the dock.
Who is Heidi? The Bloodfang Association leader? What does she want?
Roland looked at Tilly. “Have you resolved your differences with her?”
“If you mean whether she’s currently secured — yes.” Tilly spread her hands with the air of someone summarizing a complicated document. “The plan worked. Heidi did attempt to kill the Annie we staged. But she refuses to say where the witches she expelled from the Association went. She says she’ll only tell you.”
“Me specifically.”
“She considers you her last useful leverage. You’re King of Graycastle — secular authority, formal power. I think she believes that if she offers you enough profit, you’ll intervene on her behalf. Perhaps help her reclaim standing in Wolfheart.” Tilly’s eyes were steady and direct, telling him everything before it could become a misunderstanding.
Roland laughed quietly. “You’re telling me this so I know what she wants before she says it.”
“I’m making an observation.” Tilly’s mouth curved.
“If I were the kind of man who trades in witches for political gain, you would never have brought her here.” He shook his head. “What witch am I meeting?”
“Nightfall. A combat witch of the Bloodfang Association. Without her Seed of Symbiosis sustaining Heidi’s life since the confrontation on Sleeping Island, Heidi would not have survived the voyage.”
Chapter 594: Shallow Beach and Reunion
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
“What a pleasant surprise,” thought Roland.
Out of his expectation, Tilly herself would also come here instead of just sending several combat witches to help him. That meant she had already solved the trouble on Sleeping Island, or that she did not have to worry about the stability of the island for now.
The day after he received the letter, Roland waited for Tilly at Shallow Beach with Anna and the other witches.
After half a month, traces of chiseling could clearly be seen on the beach of sand and mud.
Simple wooden board houses and work sheds had already been built around the slope, which were the prototype of the future warehouse and sailor dormitory. The windward sides of the wooden houses were painted with an orange anti-corrosion coating to protect them from the sea wind, and meanwhile, the coating also made the houses look very nice and striking. A 30 meters long beachhead was leveled, and its external side was made of bricks. It now worked as a temporary dock, and the natural deep-water harbor here even saved Roland the trouble of building trestle. Even the threemasted ships could berth here directly by the side of the dock.
As it was the first time for most of the witches to see Shallow Beach during the development stage, they all looked around with curiosity.
“Is that huge pit the collapsed shipyard? What’re they doing over there right now?” Anna walked to Roland and then pointed to a distant place where many workers seemed very busy with their jobs.
“Uhm, you’ve heard about it, too,” Roland said with a little embarrassment.
“Of course, Nana told me on the day that three workers broke their legs.”
The collapse of the shipyard and the explosion of the coke oven in a test run were both major accidents of this year in the Border Area. The latter could be considered as a price he had to pay during development and exploration. The former, however, was mostly caused by his own careless mistakes.
Given the soft ground condition in Shallow Beach, Minister of Construction, Karl, had proposed that the shipyard should be built near the hills as the place could provide them a more solid foundation. Roland, however, had refused Karl’s suggestion at once because of the time limit. As it had already taken a long time to build the slope by sinking the hills, if they built the shipyard in the old way, he would have to wait until the next year to begin building the steam vessel for Thunder.
As for the soft-foundation problem, he had thought it was not a big deal, as long as he let Lotus build a steel structure of the shipyard and poured concrete in to protect it.
The project had gone well as he had expected in the initial stage. The vertical walls which had been designed to protect the steel structure had seemed to be quite sturdy after the concrete had set. Roland had been very pleased with himself at the time, thinking that those civil engineering experts were just so-so. To his surprise, an accident had eventually happened when the workers had been installing the portcullis.
As soon as the one arm thick portcullis had been released by Hummingbirds, it had fallen down with the concrete walls on its both sides, burying the installing workers inside. Even though the Hummingbirds had immediately made the portcullis as light as a feather, the workers had already been heavily injured at the time. None of them could survive, if it was not for Nana.
Later investigation revealed that during the process of pouring the concrete, some sand and mud had sunk under the workers’ feet and fallen to the bottom, as a result, the vertical walls had not tightly clung to the floor and the
seemingly sturdy joining parts between the floor and the vertical walls were just a thin layer of concrete. The moment when the heavy portcullis had been set into the wall, the steel structure had failed to sustain the weight and collapsed with the walls suddenly.
In the modern time, that was a grievous fault of Roland. In this era, however, casualties frequently occurred during construction and no one would take it seriously, let alone blaming the lord for it. Only Roland himself would feel guilty and deeply sorry for the workers.
He cleared his throat to gather himself together and said, “They’re building earth-retaining wall with wooden posts.”
“To prevent the earth beside the shipyard from collapsing?” Anna soon got what Roland meant.
“Uhm, it’s just like roots of a tree. The wooden posts are crossed and inserted into the ground to increase friction, so the vertical walls won’t fall down,” Roland nodded and said. This time, he would carefully check whether there were sunk sands and mud in the structure when pouring the concrete in, as he had already got his lesson.
“Look, here comes a ship!” Mystery Moon shouted in a sudden.
All the people looked at the place where the sea and the sky met and saw a sailing ship with a pink flag moving slowly towards them.
No doubt, a ship traveling round Southernmost Cape to the inland of the Western Region must be the Charming Beauty from Sleeping Island.
When the ship got close to Shallow Beach, it teetered on the sea for a while to readjust the direction before it berthed by the beach. Apparently, they had not recognized Shallow Beach at the first sight.
Roland met Tilly Wimbledon, Princess Tilly of Kingdom of Graycastle, again.
He gave his right hand to her, and then shook hands warmly with her. They had not seen each other for several months, but seeing the smiling look on each other’s face, they still felt closely connected.
“What a wonderful reunion,” Roland thought.
The witches did not greet Tilly and her witches in such a reserved manner.
Honey, Candle and Evelyn immediately came up and hugged their old friends. Andrea bent her arm around Nightingale’s shoulders, completely neglecting the manner of a noble lady. Wendy held Ashes’ hand, asking about her recent situation. Softfeathers, however, was greatly surprised as she found that a witch of the Bloodfang Association also came with Tilly.
“Why did you come here?” Softfeathers walked to a witch who looked a little pale and asked, “Did Heidi Morgan send you here because she did not get any report from Iffy and me?”
“No, Lady Heidi is on the ship now,” the witch answered while shaking her head.
“What? You mean she also comes to the Western Region?” Softfeathers exclaimed in surprise, catching everyone’s attention.
It was not hard to tell from her voice that she was frightened.
“Who’s Heidi?”
“She seems to be the leader of the Bloodfang Association?”
“Ah, yes. Iffy mentioned her.”
“What’s she going to do here?”
Roland looked at Tilly and asked, “Have you settled your differences with her?”
“If you mean controlling her right now, yes I do. My plan worked and Heidi did try to kill the Annie we faked. But she refused to tell me where the
witches rejected by the Bloodfang Association went. She said she would only tell you when she saw you,” Tilly said, spreading her hands.
“Me?” Roland asked confusedly.
“Yes, I guess she considers you her last life-saving straw.” Tilly blinked her eye and continued, “Now you’re the ruler of Graycastle, representing the secular nobles. She probably thinks if she gives you enough profits, you’ll save her or even help her to regain her power in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.”
“Are you reminding me of what I should do?” Roland could not help but laugh. He had to admit that Tilly was quite cute when she pretended to be careless and beat about the bush. “Trust me. If I’m a man who’ll exchange witches’ lives for profits, you’ll never bring her here. Well, so who’s this witch I’m going to meet? I think I’ve never met her before.”
“Nightfall, a combat witch of the Bloodfang Association. If it’s not for her who uses Seed of Symbiosis to sustain Heidi’s life, I’m afraid Heidi won’t make it to City of Neverwinter,” Tilly answered.