“You make it sound easy,” Mike said.

“Easy. Yeah. Only took me a year and a half.” Herzer shook his head again and took another bite of the pork. “Nice. So what’s been happening around here?”

“It’s been quiet, thank God,” Courtney replied. “We had a petroleum prospecting party through here.”

“I’ve heard about that,” Herzer said. “They sold some processed product to the Academy and we’ve been experimenting with it.”

“Doing what?” Courtney asked.

“Well, it burns a treat,” Herzer said, grimly. “Useful if we can figure out a way to get the burning stuff over there where the bad guys are,” he continued, pointing in a random direction. “There’s a device called a flamethrower that we’re working on. If we perfect it we’re going to have to figure out a new way to fight because it’s going to make tight formations suicidal, especially wearing armor.”

“Ouch!” Courtney said. She shook her head and changed the subject. “The town’s pretty much stopped growing. Hotrum’s Ferry has been drawing off a lot of people. We’re starting to sell a lot of produce down the river.”

“Getting good prices for it, too,” Mike said. “They can ship it up river to the dwarf mines from there more easily than we can truck it from Raven’s Mill.”

“I hope they’ve got decent defenses,” Herzer said. “Paul’s going to make a grab for Norau sooner or later.”

“Well, that’s their beef,” Mike replied. “Were the Tarson brigands working for Paul?”

“We never were sure,” Herzer replied. “If I had to guess I’d say yes. Paul and Chansa have got their fingers in a lot of the pies that are causing us trouble.”