The redhead carpenter and the bald blacksmith gave quick nods and turned away to continue their tasks at their workshops.

  “Let us return too,” Alden said to Vusato. “Roderic, let all your men practice with the crossbow as much as they want. But tell them to bring it back inside the manor before dark. You follow me for now."

  They started walking back towards the manor, when Alden asked, “We have a fletcher in the village, right?”

  Vusato nodded. “Yeah. He's the one who makes all the arrows for our archers and the village hunters. He's the one who made the crossbow bolts too.”

  “Then tell him that we need 100 such wooden bolts to start,” Alden ordered. “These will serve as the practice bolts. He also needs to make iron-tipped bolts after that. Let’s say 100 pointed ones, and 100 broadhead bolts. Can he do it?"

  “For sure,” Roderic answered. “He already makes those pointed and broadhead arrows for the archers. Making such a bolt will be simple enough. Although that is a big order, so it will take him time."

  “That’s okay,” Alden replied. “Making enough crossbows is also going to take time anyway. Give him the order today, and Vusato, you will negotiate a good price for it and make the payments."

  “As you wish,” the majordomo said.

  Alden made the final turn towards the manor, noticing some of the villagers looking at him from their houses with frowns easily visible on their faces. He realized that it wouldn’t be easy for them to see someone younger than them as their lord, just as it wasn’t going to be easy for him to manage everything. But it had to be done.

  There was no other choice.

  ***

  It was the early morning of the next day, and Alden was sitting in the main hall after having breakfast, and was talking with Roderic, Kirol, and a few other off-duty guards about some changes in their training regime. These guards were fit enough, but none of them were experienced in dealing with the hordes of monsters which would come in the winter. So he had been discussing adding some stamina-building exercises with them, mainly regarding morning runs for at least an hour just inside the village walls, while circling the whole village. He was a regular gym-goer in London and had participated in a half marathon a few times, so he knew some basics about it.

  He was thinking about it when he heard quick footsteps from near the outer door, and saw Vusato walking towards him with a frown.

  “What is it?” he asked when the majordomo reached closer.

  “Uh… there has been a theft last night, milord. A big one.”

  “What are you talking about?” Roderic growled. “What was stolen?”

  Vusato answered, “The thieves hit many of the shops in the market street overnight. The shop owners usually sleep on their upper floors, while their shops are barred shut for the night. But many of them have reported that when they opened their shops this morning, their coin satchels were missing."

  “How could this have happened!” Roderic growled. “I have a few guards patrolling the streets every night."

  “I think,” Vusato added, “it could be that group of people who wanted to abandon Sarnok, fearing they wouldn't survive the winter here. They might have stolen coins from their neighbors to buy shelter for their own families in Garitus."

  Alden connected the dots. Those few patrolling guards couldn’t be everywhere, so of course the thieves would have gotten a chance to steal something. That wasn’t the difficult part. The point was that such a thing was extremely rare in this village, with most people being good friends with their neighbors. Without having the peace of mind of getting safety from something like Garitus' mighty stone walls, all the villagers trusted and dependent on their neighbors, knowing they might be the ones helping them in need, even from monsters. But after the news spread about Garitus charging for shelter, people were getting more and more desperate, which must have led to this.

  “Don’t worry,” Roderic said. “I will search every single house of the village to find those bastards! I'll bring the thieves here by noon."

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  Alden thought about it and shook his head. “No, that’s not a good idea. People are already scared and desperate. Seeing guards enter their home to search through their belongings, even when they are innocent, is not going to make them feel safer. The thieves might also have hid the stolen coins away from their own homes. We need to try some other way."

  He asked Vusato, “Have the miners left for the northern hills yet?"

  “It's just after sunrise, so not yet,” Vusato said, “but it wouldn’t be long now.”

  It meant those thieves were still within the village.

  “Then let’s do this,” Alden said, looking at the captain, remembering that all the miners only left from the western gates of the village to the dirt path going north towards the hills. “Roderic, send two runners to the west gate, and tell them to make a full body check of all the miners who leave from there. This is a safer method than checking their homes. And let the guards at the other gates know that they aren’t to allow anyone to leave from there."

  Roderic shook his head. “I don’t think it will work. News about the search will spread around immediately the moment people see that guards are checking them. And those thieves will hide their stolen coins elsewhere instead of carrying it on themselves.”

  Alden smirked. “I know that we're not going to find the thieves this way, but that’s not the point of doing this. I want every single person in the village to know that no matter how desperate it seems, we are together in this. And I will never allow something like this to happen to my villagers. So doing this search will let those thieves know that they simply cannot leave the village with their stolen coins."

  “I get that,” Roderic said, “but how are we going to find the thieves? We really need to recover that coin, otherwise the situation will get much worse in the market street.”

  Vusato agreed with a nod. “Those traders and merchants are the ones who are the most important to our village’s survival in the coming winter. If they decide to leave the village because we couldn’t keep them or their belongings safe, it will become much harder for us."

  “I know,” Alden said, “which is why we are going to send a few runners to make an announcement on the market street and throughout the rest of the village. Tell them to announce that, as per Lord Alden’s orders, the moment we find those thieves, we will put them outside the walls in the night, without any weapons."

  “It's already autumn, so that’s a definite death sentence,” the captain said. “You sure you want to do something like that?"

  “Let me speak first," Alden said. "They will also make an announcement that I understand that the thieves have only stolen because of desperation and to protect their families, so as a one-time offer, I will give them a chance to come clean without any punishment."

  Vusato said, “I still don’t think people will want to let their neighbors know that they were the ones who stole it. It won't work."

  “Just listen to me!” Alden said with exasperation. “The announcement will say that whoever has stolen anything can put everything they stole right outside the manor walls in the cover of the night. This way they can remain hidden and return the hard-earned savings of their friends and neighbors without any repercussions at all. Tomorrow morning we will tally up everything kept outside the walls, and will distribute it to the original owners. The announcement will tell them that as long as everything is returned, I will forget about this matter, assuming it doesn’t happen ever again. But if every single coin which had been stolen is not returned by tomorrow morning, we will start a thorough search of the whole village, and when we eventually do find the thieves, they will be put outside the village walls in the night as dinner for monsters."

  Vusato scratched his beard for a moment, before he nodded. “Since it's their first offense, you've given them a chance to come clean without any punishment. But if they don’t, the punishment is as harsh as it could be. This is a smart idea."

  Roderic grinned. “I agree. You are already following in your father’s footsteps about looking after the villagers with a strict but caring hand. I’ll send the runners immediately."

  “Let’s just hope it works,” Alden nodded.

  ***

  In the afternoon, Alden was sitting in his father’s study—no, in his own study room now—and working on the blueprint of the scorpion. Caelen was sitting on a chair on the other side of the room, reading a book, while Lira was sitting near the window, gazing down at the courtyard.

  It felt good to Alden seeing his siblings nearby. It made his resolve harder to make sure that the village remained safe in the winter. He looked at the huge parchment spread on the table, thinking if iron would be enough to take the stresses involved in making the scorpion parts—including the torsion springs it needed. In his London office, he just used the software on his office computer to calculate it, but here he had to do everything by hand.

  Taking a deep breath, he picked up his quill and began writing the formula to calculate it, when Lira called out, “What is that!"

  Alden glanced at her, and saw her pointing outside the window.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  Caelen immediately ran there, and leaned outside the window. “Is that… Is that a dragon…?”

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