“There you are,” he shouted over the wind as Josef and Nico stood up to look as well. “Home.”
They were on the edge of a wide, shallow valley, and below them was a village. At first glance, it looked very much like the other villages they had passed, a small cluster of stone houses arranged in a square around a well. But the more one looked at the village, the stranger it became. For one thing, each of the stone houses was at least two stories, well kept, and prosperous looking. There was glass in every window, all the shutters were painted in bright colors, and every door sported a cheery lamp with a colored-glass shade. The square between the houses, which in the other towns had invariably been little more than a stretch of hard-packed dirt, was a carpet of bright green grass. Little fields, just as green as the grass in the square, dotted the slopes all around the village. There were gardens behind the houses as well, each boasting an amazing variety of plants, from common plains wheat to tropical fruit trees. Large herds of fat cattle, fluffy sheep, and dancing goats grazed on the hills above the fields, tended by woolly dogs and boys on horseback. The whole picture was, in short, beautiful, pastoral, prosperous, and amazingly out of place on the empty, rolling plains.
“Come on,” Eli said, jumping out to lead the mule down the hill. “We should be in time for dinner.”
A crowd had gathered by the time they reached the edge of town. Villagers flowed out of houses, some young, many old, but all plump, well dressed, and healthy looking. They gathered around the well, and a cheer rose up as Eli walked the cart into the square.
“Welcome back, Mr. Mayor!” A great man with a bushy red beard pushed his way through the crowd to grab Eli’s hand, shaking it fiercely. “It’s been too long.”
“Good to be home, Derrik,” Eli said and grinned back. He turned and grabbed Nico, pulling her forward. “You all met my swordsman on my last visit. Now I’ve added another hand to the game. This is Nico. Make her feel welcome.”
Another round of applause went up. Nico tried to pull back, away from the attention, but Eli’s hand on her shoulder held her firm, and she could only look down at her feet as the people began to chatter.
With a final squeeze, Eli left her to mingle with the crowd, all of whom seemed to be falling over themselves to shake his hand. Josef stepped up to take Eli’s place beside her, and they watched in silent fascination.
“What is this place?” Nico whispered as the people began to fawn over Eli. “They’re as bad as spirits around him.”
“Of course,” Josef replied quietly, shifting the enormous sword on his back. “Eli owns this town.”
Nico frowned. “Owns it? Even the people?”
“Especially the people,” Josef said, stepping away from the cart as a horde of people swarmed over it, opening bags and sorting through the various priceless treasures inside.
Nico didn’t follow him. She stood where she was, watching with a mixture of horror and amazement as the townsfolk ravaged the cart. They opened bags and spilled the treasures out onto the grass, sorting the coins, gems, rings, bracelets, crowns, and so forth into piles. Each villager gathered up a collection, and then went to the man with the red beard who made a note in his ledger of what each person had taken. Once it had been accounted for, the people carried their armfuls of treasure, Eli’s treasure, things Nico had helped him steal, into their houses, and all with Eli not five feet away, still chatting and shaking hands while Josef stood solemnly beside him, neither of them doing anything about it.
All across town, doors were being thrown open so the people could move the goods into their houses, and what Nico saw inside made her eyes go wide. Every house in the square was absolutely full of treasure. There were tables set with golden plates and gem-encrusted cutlery, ready for dinner. Famous paintings that belonged in king’s halls hung over stone fireplaces, protected from the soot by makeshift wooden mantels. She saw young children sitting on silk carpets playing with rubies the size of their fists. One house even had a lamp inlaid with gold coins instead of mirrored reflectors nailed to its front entry, the round coins turning the light butter yellow. Everywhere she looked, the wealth of nations had been reduced to simple home furnishings, and Nico, who didn’t say much under the best of circumstances, was at a complete loss for words.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” said a soft female voice beside her. Nico whirled around to find a woman not much taller than herself standing beside her. She was very pretty, in a demure sort of way, with dark blond hair and delicate features. She smiled at Nico and gestured toward the cart, which was almost empty.
“I had the same reaction you did when I first saw it,” she said. “But that’s how the mayor likes it, and so that’s what we do.” She turned and held out her hand. “I’m Angeline. I run the school here. Derrik is my husband.” She nodded at the man with the red beard who was still taking inventory from a line of people with armfuls of treasure. “He’s the deputy here. He keeps Home running when the mayor is out.”
“The mayor?” Nico said, taking her offered hand shyly. She wasn’t offered handshakes much. “You mean Eli?”
Angeline put a slender finger to her lips. “Don’t use that name here. It’s bad luck. Even in the middle of the plains surrounded by friends, we don’t want to take any chances.”
“I don’t understand,” Nico said, lowering her voice. “What is this place?”
“It’s Home,” Angeline said simply. When it was obvious this explanation didn’t make things any clearer for Nico, Angeline took a breath and tried again. “You saw how there was no road into town, right?”
Nico nodded.
“Well,” Angeline continued, “there used to be a dirt trade track going across the plains, and that was what supported this village. Then, eighteen years ago, the Council of Thrones completed the Great Road, its first large building project. The Great Road connected the southern kingdoms with the northern half of the Council, becoming the world’s longest trade highway and, in turn, completely eliminating the need for the little dirt track that ran by the village.
“The village deteriorated. The land here is hard, and with no money from traders, the young people left. Eventually, there were only a handful of families still living here, and it looked like the village would vanish altogether, like so many others on the plains. But then a miracle happened.” Angeline’s face grew wistful. “One day, or so my husband tells it, the mayor walked in from the plains. Just appeared from nowhere, leading a cart almost exactly like the one he brought today. The mayor brought everyone together in the square and made the village an offer. He would buy everything, our houses, our land, our well, everything. He wanted to buy the town.”
Nico nodded. It sounded exactly like something Eli would do.
“Several of the people were angry, of course. It was all family land. Where would they live if this stranger bought it? The mayor answered that he would buy them too. Everyone in the village, old, young, whole, or crippled, was to be put on his payroll. In return for his money, all he wanted was our secrecy, a safe place to rest every time he was in town, and the pledge that we would keep all outsiders away. Of course, this just made people more skeptical than ever, but that’s when he unveiled the gold.” Angeline chuckled. “After that, there were no more objections. He was voted mayor that night, and he renamed the town Home. We’ve flourished ever since, and not just with money. Our fields have produced with hardly any work on our part, doubly so after one of the mayor’s visits. The well stays full even in drought, and we don’t have trouble with storms or wild animals. We live a blessed life here, and it’s all because of the mayor.”
Nico squinched her eyebrows together. “And how often does he—”
“He brings in a cart like this once, maybe twice, a year,” Angeline finished for her. “Until two years ago, he was always alone. But then the swordsman joined, and now you.” She gave Nico a very serious look. “I know you’re one of his trusted companions. Please know that everyone in this village would die before betraying the mayor. No one wants to go back to how things were, or risk our great fortune. We spend only the coined gold, and only far away. We never trade any of the unique treasures. We follow his orders to the letter, always, so don’t worry, you’re all safe and welcome here.”
Nico wanted to tell the woman that she hadn’t been worried, but Angeline seemed so concerned that Nico think well of them, she had no choice but to smile and nod. Satisfied, Angeline gave Nico’s hand a final squeeze and walked over to her husband, handing him a fresh ledger just as his was about to be filled up. The cart was almost empty at this point, and Eli, having shaken hands at least four times with every one of the two dozen villagers, wandered over to stand beside Nico again.
“Well,” he said, “what do you think?”
She gave him a sideways look. “It’s quite an extravagant setup.”
“I would settle for nothing less,” Eli answered, and then he sighed. “I’m only sad the Duke of Gaol is dead and can’t see this. He would have turned purple.”
