Everyone looked at him. The mill in the dell next door did draw attention, but Tant said nothing. The everyday problems of the community did not concern him. Marletta knew this and immediately seized the initiative, obliging Limburg to start buying hand mills.– When did Gerd promise to return? Kord asked, putting more porridge on the plate. - How long was he gone?- A week.“ Forgive me, Lady Eternal, but I don’t think he will come back one day,” Gotfrey lamented. - Painfully brazenly this worm behaves. Previously, he traded in fake relics, but now he almost breaks into houses.- You yourself are a worm! He gave us a dozen followers,” Marletta reminded, shaking her head. “This bloodhound is more useful than you and your windmill!”The woman threw her hair behind her back and made a face at him. Tanta looked at his wife with a smile. Marletta was right. Trickster Gerd had really helped since they found him battered a year ago on the Old Road. In the community he was called "The Bloodh

At the end of spring, two troubles happened at once on the lands of Baron Orwald. The first - trifling, according to Landlord himself, concerned the death of six peasants. The drunken plowmen could not drag their feet to Nomar's farm and decided to spend the night in the wheat; they drank diluted wine, enjoyed the light of the stars, after which they were cowardly eaten by earth-biters. Giant insects resembling beetles, in dry weather, multiplied on arable land like cockroaches. Six sucked skeletons, which the peasants found in the morning, immediately pointed to the perpetrators of the crime. Orvald himself met this news with no less cowardice, ordering a detachment of mercenaries to deal with the voracious monsters.The second trouble was connected with the good, but not with that which people do to each other, but with that which they earn. Orwald, like no one else, knew a lot about this. He took a place at the table in the master's office sixteen years ago, after his father, Baron

Even on the approach to the domain, he saw a figure running towards him. A bearded man in a green jerkin rushed between the fields along the road, leaving behind him a dusty train. Grog and Bod immediately recognized Orwald's right hand. Jagins was considered the most literate peasant in the valley. It was said that his father was an alchemist in the island of Kenovia and taught his son everything he knew, except for sacred formulas, because he was too careless and burned his own mother during experiments with fire. Grog didn't believe it. Jagins was too stupid to conduct any experiments, and the ability to read and write still did not make anyone wise.From the captains of the ships, he heard that in the jungles on the mainland there were strange birds that could imitate the human voice. The Almers and the Welyncrones called them "sulats". Jagins was no different from them. An ordinary performer, a pretender and just a pathetic little man who repeated word for word the orders of his

Skif and Brick were not thrilled with the idea. Distenza rightly pointed out that whores and the dead are incompatible. Both long denied, coming up with different excuses. Even the phrase "order of the baron" did not immediately affect them. After giving them time to get ready, Grog returned to "Leaky purse", which by that time was just right to be called the "Bubbling Cauldron". He noticed a third companion in the kitchen. They became a former inhabitant of the desert, a dark-skinned nomad named Renan. On the farms, he was considered a savage, as, indeed, all Almers. At six and a half feet tall, Renan despised bladed weapons. Swords and axes were too heavy for him, so the warrior got the hang of handling a long spear, which in his hands resembled a mast. In the morning, the lanky Almer managed to plant three earthbiters on such a pole at once. It was one of the baron's best warriors. Today, as usual, he received a double salary and was going to wave to the city. Grog gladly took him

The basement was dark. The only source of light was a flame that flickered at the end of a thick candle. Orvald stood in the center of a vast room, lined from top to bottom with goods. The surrounding walls were made of massive granite blocks, so powerful that it was impossible to break through them from the outside. The floor was covered with cracked patterned tiles. There were chests with padlocks everywhere. On top of the lids lay bags and boxes. Each of them held something of value. In addition, there were six special chests that Orwald treasured above all others.These chests stood in a semicircle at the far end of the basement, on a special stone pedestal. There was also a bench carved from a single piece of marble with an elegant back, where he could sit. On the right hand rose a round rosewood table on one leg, on which he could place a candle or food. Everything was thought out to the smallest detail and subordinated to a single goal.Orwald stood motionless, delaying pleasur