Adventures of Jessa

71

"Jessa, word has gotten out what you've done," Frosnak tells her the next day as she comes in for their lesson.

"So?" Jessa asks yawning as she carefully sits up for her lesson.

"So, when you get ready to work once more, they will be wanting you, many of them."

Jessa looks at her blankly. "You mean all wanting me to work for them? The very same ones that wouldn't look at me to work for them before?"

"Yes, the very same ones, well at least the ones that still live, any way."

"Nathan," thinking about him still makes her chest ache, "suggested that I have them bid for the chance to have me work for them. But I don't understand why now? The pass has been taken care of and so there is no reason to go through Silva. I took care of the bandits so there shouldn't be many to mess with the merchants."

Frosnak looks at her smugly, "That's all true, but those that go with you still have the option of going through Silva, that cuts off several days on the trip. So that makes it worthwhile. Also there is no toll for the one that you are on. When the merchants found that out...well let's just say that your popularity sky rocketed. Although they doubt the words of the other survivors that saw the nasty ass fight you put up with the bandits. They don't believe that you could have dealt as much death as the other guards are claiming."

Jessa shakes her head. She's not sure that she wants to continue working as a guard at this point. She is missing her friend terribly and still feels like it is her fault that Nathan died. 

Frosnak seeing this becomes sober, "Jessa, your friend died doing something he wanted to do. How do you think he would have felt if you had died and he hadn't fought? If he hadn't fought the other guards likely would have stayed with the caravan as well. What do you think your chances would have been then? The guards didn't take many down, but they kept the regular bandits off your back. That allowed you to concentrate on the dragon kin. Nathan taking on the ones he did allowed you to take on the stronger ones and eventually the full dragon.

"Jessa, no one else could have survived that. No one. I'm not even sure your father could have survived against someone that old."

"He didn't. Alaric told me that the one I killed was the one that killed my father. He's been searching for that bastard for years to kill him. I don't understand why he was here though. Why did he set up that massacre?"

Frosnak looks at Jessa with compassion. "It's not known for sure. Blue dragons are chaotic and unpredictable. They like to cause problems and Castlerock made itself easy to take over by not protecting it's weakness. The king is a fool to allow his councilors such power over him that he doesn't pay attention to his borders. He likely sees it as a relief to not have to deal with it any more. What he doesn't realize is that the elves now control Castlerock. They will be able to starve them out if they choose. They will be able to destroy the monarchy here in a short time now that they control what does and doesn't come in. They will control the prices.

"They will destroy the merchants if they decide they don't like them. The elves now have control of everything here and the king handed it over to Dhiren like it was nothing." Frosnak looks at Jessa with a smirk.

"And guess who has control of the elves, Jessa?" Frosnak teases her a bit.

"What?" Jessa says more than a little dizzy on the lesson she just learned.

"Dhiren will do anything you tell him because he's doing all he can to prove that he's changed, that he doesn't hate humans, that he loves you. If you told him to raise the tolls impossibly high on the merchants, he would without a problem. If you told him to let someone in with a very low toll he would do it. If you told him to keep those bringing in food out, he would. 

"You have the power, Jessa. The people here have no idea that the one they consider a nothing guard just a few weeks ago holds so much power. You are, indeed a powerful person Jessa, in your own right, not just as the crown princess of the gold dragons, not as the crown princess of the elves. You, as a lowly caravan guard have a great deal of power. More power than the king of this city.

"How are you going to use this power, Jessa?" Frosnak asks her with her head canted waiting for the answer to her question.

Jessa too stunned to speak just sits there blinking her eyes, staring blankly at Frosnak at her words.

It takes Jessa some time to wake up from the shock. "Nathan told me that there would come a time when I could potentially earn more than a merchant master."

Frosnak smiles warmly at her, "You can indeed. Have them start the bidding at the highest you earned and go from there, at least this time. You can have that the lowest possible bid in the future."

"There are some that I would not want to lead, though." Jessa bites her lips in thought.

"Then tell them ahead of time that you reserve the right to refuse the top bid. Or let the others accept that bid as their bid and take one of them."

Jessa nods slowly as she thinks about it.

"I think I will do that. I don't want them to think that just because they bid high that they will be acceptable to me. I do want the right to reject them."

"You can always tell them ahead of time that you won't work for them before they waste time bidding on you." Frosnak shrugs her shoulders. "There are many ways to make sure that you don't work for someone you don't wish to."

For the rest of the lesson Frosnak teaches Jessa about the fragile economy that is now in place in Castlerock and how the actions of the elves have changed things. Ultimately how Jessa will be impacting the economy as well.

Jessa's head is spinning as the lesson comes to a close. She never truly thought about how her being a princess would impact anything. But now even as a normal guard she is impacting things far more than she ever thought possible.

"Jessa?" Dhiren asks her as he comes into her room after Frosnak leaves.

"Dhiren, would you really change tolls if I told you to at the pass?"

"Of course." Dhiren says nonchalantly as he comes to sit next to her on the bed.

Jessa looks at him incredulously. "You would just do it, without question?"

Dhiren shrugs, "I trust your judgement, Jessa. Some of those merchants are little more than walking snakes. Take that ass you signed up with on the last trip. I will be levying a large toll against him. He owes the elves a great deal and instead of being respectful and thankful he was disrespectful and arrogant. Far more arrogant than any human should be. Any one would think that he was a sun elf by his arrogance. But even my high handed cousins have more respect than he did."

"You understand that you now own Castlerock?" Jessa says disbelievingly at how calm Dhiren is.

"Of course. I would rather have us be in charge of that pass than let the incompetent fool be responsible for his border. It also gained us more land. We have no interest in this human city, but we can't be any worse caretakers than that idiot that sits on his throne."

"You are going to make even more people poor." Jessa says worriedly.

Dhiren shakes his head. "No, the food merchants will have low tolls. We aren't that cruel. Besides I've started the other program already that will help the people in ways their king should have already done. It is early yet, just a day in operation but already there is good reports."

"Thank you, Dhiren, for everything." Jessa tells him and snuggles up to him.

Dhiren holds her close, being careful of her wound and relaxes into her. "You are most welcome, Jessa."