Chapter 325: Offering Terms
"You may not need me in order to seize Airgead Mountain," Isabell admitted smoothly, refusing to back down in front of this young lord’s ire. When hadn’t she seen men blustering that a woman couldn’t be an engineer, couldn’t study the art of warfare, or couldn’t do any number of things she had already done? If she lost her temper every time some entitled man got his testicles in a twist, she’d never have secured her position as master of her guild.
"But you do need someone to help you keep it," she said, gesturing for the assembled masters to relax and waving a servant forward. Slowly, as if she was in no particular hurry and felt no pressure from Owain or his knights, she took a large, rolled-up piece of parchment from the servant before spreading it across the table. "This is a simple design for a mining fortress," she said, explaining the sketches on the parchment. "It can be built quickly using materials that are available so long as you bring enough laborers to clear trees and construct the earthworks."
"I’ve consulted with Master Tiernan’s Iron Mongers about what it would take to construct a foundry for the safe smelting of ore within a fortified mining operation," she added, pointing to sketches for several structures. "From what I’ve been told, digging out nests of demons can take years, if not decades. With my help, you can begin extracting the wealth of Airgead Mountain much more quickly."
"And the price you want for this is a peerage?" Owain said with a snort. "You’ll hide in safety behind fortress walls drawing your maps and plans and expect to receive the same rewards as the real knights who ride into battle?"
"Not every knight rides to war," Master Sebastion pointed out as he gestured at Sir Hugo with a crystal goblet. "Your steward there doesn’t look like he’s battle-hardened but I imagine that many of your plans rely on the battle he’s been fighting with that ledger next to him. Half a captain’s battles are the same, whether it’s laying in the right quantity of supplies for a voyage and accounting for spoilage to ensuring the men get paid before they mutiny, there’s more to it than swinging a sword. A battle at sea can be won or lost in the ship’s ledge before you ever set sail."
"And I suppose you’re looking for a peerage for yourself as well?" Owain said, trying to restrain himself as he looked at the aging former captain. He was glad to see the man had experience leading others in battle but instead of finding an ally in the other fighting man, it seemed like he’d found an opponent who wanted to use clever words instead of openly crossing swords. Perhaps he’d overestimated the man and he’d already gone from bold warrior to old coward.
"No, I want nothing of the sort," Sebastian said bluntly. "I’ll need the contents of that treasure chest of yours if I’m going to charter vessels and pay ship’s crews. I have no interest in lands or titles so far from the sea. It’s the others who you might have a chance to barter with, but for me, coin is king."
"I’ve prepared a draft agreement," Isabell said, producing a roll of papers bound with a crimson ribbon. "Lothian March would need to agree to grant deeds to sufficient acreage to most of the masters present, free of charge. In addition, the fees for title that are to be paid to the Marquis are to be waived."
"Of course, we would bear the costs of paying the tithe to the crown and the construction of our own manors on the lands we are granted, but in exchange for all this, you gain our support as well as an initial round of funding to prepare for a small scale war against Airgead Mountain," she finished with a smile as she handed him the documents.
"A small-scale war against Airgead Mountain?" Owain said with a brow raised as he snatched the documents from her. Once he held them, however, he couldn’t bring himself to bother reading them and instead shoved them into Hugo’s hands while he seized on Master Isabell’s last statement. "This is a Holy War. It won’t end with an assault on Airgead Mountain."
Hugo’s heart sank as soon as he took a peek inside the ’draft’ agreement. The handwriting was smooth and crisp with none of the inkblots that came from someone who was thinking while writing out a draft. This ’draft’ had likely been revised several times before being handed over to a scribe in order to produce an immaculate copy. Compared to his own preparations, it was frighteningly thorough with page after page outlining terms in exquisite detail.