Chapter 28
The next morning, he went to Paige's room, surprised to find her in bed with papers spread out all around her. Normally, she got out of bed and met people in the workroom, but this morning she was looking more rundown. The poison must be having a greater effect on her than the day before.
She looked up when he walked in, stopping whatever she was doing, her hand hovering over a paper she was about to grab. Her eyes shifted to solid yellow as she studied him.
"Do you want to talk or work?" she finally asked.
"Work," he said. Sitting at the foot of her bed, he leaned back against the tall bed post. "What is all this?"
"Bluescale finances."
"You're going to tackle this now?"
"I need to know how much is here before my lifesaver decides to start acting like all these assets are community property."
"All right." Zane pulled a stack of papers over so he could help her. "What are we looking for first?"
"I need to know the basics: how much is in the vaults, how much, if any, we have coming in, by what sources, and how much is going out."
The castle's gold monitor, Talbot, sat at a small table by the fireplace with a stack of scrolls, answering all the questions Paige put to him. Zane was impressed by Paige's shrewd understanding of the finances. She kept a log of her own for quick reference.
Surprisingly, Bluescale didn't actually have very much coming in anymore, but they had the largest gold store Zane had ever seen. As each Bluescale died and the inheritances started to consolidate, the majority of the family gold was returned to one of the vaults in the castle.
They also had relatively little going out for a castle this size. Since Theo Bluescale had cut the staff back as far as he could, their real expense was the guard, with a current standing of three thousand, to police the entire Bluescale territory.
"Before we were targeted, one of our major exports was Firth, correct?" Paige asked.
Firth was a plant that grew under water and was used as a binding agent in most potions. Without the plant, most potions were rendered ineffective.
"Yes, My Queen," Talbot said.
"What has happened to the Firth harvest?"
"Well, My Queen, as the members of the Bluescale line were, uh..."
"Assassinated?"
"Well, yes." Talbot made an unpleasant face. "Anyway, without a Bluescale to let the harvesters know where the Firth was growing, we didn't know where to move the harvesters once the current location was depleted."
"The price of Firth has become exuberant," Zane advised. "I'm sure as soon as you're well, you can locate new Firth fields to harvest."
"Yes, I'm sure after all this time the harvest will be abundant," Talbot agreed.
"Why are we not employing Bluescale Dyad's to assist the harvesters?" Paige asked tiredly.
"King Theo only allowed the Dyad to become members of the guard. He didn't allow them to have any other function in the kingdom, fearing that their presence would cause too much tension in the towns."
"See if we can hire some Bluescale Dyad's to help the harvesters. Their skills should be put to good use. Besides, I'm sure there's a captain or two out there already doing so, or the harvest would have stopped completely."
YOU ARE READING
Dragon Blood (Completed)
Fantasy"He's dead, and we're all going to die." The words haunted Zane, their truth could not be denied. His days and those of every other dragon in Ethiolan were numbered. Seven months was the best he could hope for after that he knew there would be no h...
