CHAPTER 42: A LETTER FROM BLACKWOOD

Simon sent his first letter only a few weeks after leaving.

It came with a merchant returning through Green Hollow, folded several times and already softened around the edges from the journey. The paper itself was rough and slightly yellow, but what surprised Joe was how much paper Simon had used.

Apparently paper was not nearly as troublesome to obtain in Blackwood.

That was the first thing Joe learned.

The second was that Simon remained perfectly capable of filling several pages when given the opportunity.

The family gathered around the hearth after dinner while Joe read.

Simon had passed the guard examination without difficulty. For now, the new recruits are doing more training than actual guard work. They practiced formations, moving together through streets and open ground, changing positions on command and learning how not to turn a ten-man patrol into ten separate people fighting whatever happened to be closest.

Mike nodded when Joe read that part.

"Good."

Pam looked at him. "What's good about marching around?"

"Means they aren't throwing him into the forest on his first day."

Lily visibly relaxed.

"Keep reading."

Most sections of Simon's letter were not about danger anyway.

It was about Blackwood.

Brick houses lined many busier streets. Larger buildings used a hard gray material between the bricks that Simon described as almost stone once it dried. Some of the richer shops and houses even had glass windows.

"Real glass?" Mary asked.

"That's what he wrote."

"Our window could have glass."

Lily gave her a look. "Are you paying for it?"

Mary returned her attention to the letter.

Several central roads were paved with fitted black stone rather than packed earth. Carriages passed often enough that people did not stop to watch them, and permanent shops stayed open every day. Simon mentioned warehouses, eating houses, larger smithies and a market that did not vanish whenever the traveling merchants left.

Joe tried to reconstruct the town from the description.

By the standards of his previous life, Blackwood sounded less like a city and more like a developed town.

Compared with Green Hollow, it might as well have been another world.

What interested Joe most was what that implies about places farther inland.

Blackwood was still a minor town near the edge of a poor state.

If this was Blackwood, what did a true city look like?

Simon had found Alex too.

Joe paused before reading that section.

Pam noticed immediately.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Then read."

Joe continued.

Alex had apparently acknowledged Simon without much enthusiasm and moved on.

Simon described him as more arrogant than before.

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That surprised nobody.

Alex was now serving directly under the guard captain as some kind of squire. He trained separately from most ordinary guards, handled tasks for the captain and had apparently become much more important than the other village recruits who arrived around the same period.

Simon had followed Joe's advice and tried speaking with him anyway.

The result had not been promising.

Lily asked, "Did Alex help him?"

"Not really."

"Then Simon should leave him alone."

Joe continued reading.

Alex might not care much about Simon personally, but he had become important in another way.

Over the years, enough people from Green Hollow and nearby villages had entered Blackwood through Theodere's arrangements that they had formed a loose mutual-help group. New arrivals were shown inexpensive places to live, introduced to useful people and sometimes helped with small amounts of money when things went wrong.

Several former Talent Hall trainees were involved.

Alex was one of the central figures.

Simon seemed impressed.

Joe was less convinced.

It sounded useful for ordinary problems. A new guard needed somewhere cheap to sleep, someone knew a landlord. A trainee needed medicine, someone knew a shop. A person needed a few bronzelets until payday, and several members contributed.

Joe doubted the arrangement would remain equally generous once someone's problem became genuinely expensive.

Still, the network had value.

And Alex seemed to understand that better than most.

Helping people create obligations.

Being connected to the guard captain made his help more useful.

The more people depended on him, the more important he became.

Joe smiled slightly.

Apparently Alex had learned more than martial arts in Blackwood.

Simon had also made friends among the new recruits and stayed close to the other two Green Hollow trainees who traveled with him. His letter remained overwhelmingly positive.

Lily read it herself after Joe finished.

Then again the following morning.

The difference in her mood was obvious.

Simon had reached Blackwood safely.

He had work.

He had people from Green Hollow around him.

Most importantly, he sounded happy.

That made Joe's own plan much easier.

Before Simon left, Joe had told him that he intended to follow a year later.

At the time, it had partly been reassurance.

Joe also meant it.

He had simply known better than to announce the plan to the entire household before Simon even reached Blackwood.

A few weeks after the letter arrived, Joe brought it up over dinner.

"I still plan to go next year."

Lily stopped eating.

Pam looked up immediately.

Mike said, "You told Simon that?"

"Yes."

"You didn't tell us."

"I am now."

Lily's eyes narrowed. "How old will you be?"

"Fourteen."

"No."

Joe had expected that.

Instead of arguing, he stood.

"Come outside after dinner."

That changed the conversation enough that everyone followed him later, including Mary, who clearly believed something interesting was about to happen.

Joe demonstrated.

Not everything.

Nowhere close.

He allowed the family to see what looked like Late Skin Tempering.

The difference was difficult for ordinary people to measure precisely, but Mike had watched both sons train for years and knew enough to understand what Joe was showing.

He stared for a while.

"Late?"

Joe nodded.

Pam looked toward Lily.

Lily looked more annoyed than impressed.

"You hid this."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I wasn't leaving yet."

That answer did not help.

Mike stepped between the argument before it properly began.

"How long?"

"Long enough."

Lily folded her arms. "That's not an answer either."

Joe did not elaborate.

What mattered was that they now understood he would not be leaving Green Hollow at the same level Simon had possessed at fourteen.

Joe let them think Late Skin Tempering was the truth.

It was already enough.

Mike was the easiest to convince.

Blackwood offered opportunities he understood their family could not provide.

Joseph asked fewer questions, but the ones he asked were practical.

"Where will you stay?"

"With Simon at first if possible."

"Money?"

"I've saved some from Merek. If I enter the guard, I'll earn more."

"And if you don't?"

"I come home or find work in Blackwood."

Joseph nodded.

Pam remained uneasy.

"What about those animals outside town?"

"I'm not planning to walk into the forest alone."

"People don't plan to get eaten."

"That's true."

Pam frowned because agreeing with her took away the next argument.

Lily was harder.

"You don't need to go at fourteen."

"No."

"Then stay."

"I could."

She waited.

Joe continued.

"But another year here gives me more of the same things I already have. Blackwood has more medicine, more martial practitioners, more work and more books. Simon is already there."

That last part mattered most.

Lily knew it too.

Joe was careful in a way Simon was not. He kept track of money, planned before acting and generally noticed trouble before walking directly into it. Sending Joe to Simon was frightening.

It was also, in an uncomfortable way, reassuring.

Lily looked at him for a while.

"If Simon tells you to do something stupid?"

"I'll tell him it's stupid."

Mike laughed.

Lily did not, but some of the resistance left her face.

Mary had remained unusually quiet.

Joe looked toward her.

She immediately said, "No."

Joe sighed.

"We haven't talked yet."

"No."

"I'll write."

"No."

"I'll bring you something from Blackwood."

Mary hesitated.

Joe noticed.

"What?"

"A good thing."

"What kind?"

"I'll decide later."

"That's dangerous."

Mary smiled for the first time.

It eventually cost Joe regular letters, sweets when possible and a promised gift from Blackwood.

Mary still did not approve.

She merely accepted the terms of surrender.

Joe considered that enough.