Seeker of the Four Winds: A Galatia Novel by C. D. Verhoff

engineers’ specifications.
    “In order to maintain sanitation, the
proposed sewer lines, which may just be a fantasy at this stage in
the game, will go here,” Barrett told the Bulwark. “The structural
engineering team is still ironing out the details. Housing
districts one and two just need interior trim, right?” The Bulwark
nodded. “The Deerma framing team can begin work in district three.
Are you with me so far?”
    “Yuh,” replied the Bulwark.
    Barrett handed him the paper version of the
plans. “If you have any questions, come see me before you dig. By
the way, has the rumor about Blanche Steelsun being a sorceress
died down among your workers?”
    “Nuh,” the Bulwark said, shaking his head.
“But I’ve convinced my workers to stay, so long as she stays her
distance, and you keep the money flowing our way.”
     
    ..............................
     
    (Michael Penn)
     
    News of the superb quality of Galatian
jewelry had spread across the land. These were the pieces I had
collected as a boy, built by modern craftsman with centuries of
experience, many precision cut by lasers. Couriers for kings and
queens arrived with gold, silver and promises of goods in exchange
for coveted pieces. Red wasn’t naïve, though. He knew the couriers’
secondary purpose was to report back to their employers on the
city’s progress. The whole world seemed to be watching, waiting,
and wondering if one of the kingdoms, in a move independent from
the Alliance, would attack Galatia for its treasure.
    Red often pressed me about my charismatic
visions, wanting to know if I had inside information about any
upcoming attacks. All I knew was that blood would flow—but where,
when, whose, how much, I didn’t know.
    While all of this was going on, the docks
were expanded to accommodate all the imports. According to the
Regalans, there weren’t any towns upstream from Galatia worth
mentioning, just a loose collection of primitive villages.
Nonetheless, Red sent a party to explore the region and they came
back verifying the Regalans’ claims. Having money to spend endeared
Galatia to the wealthy merchants downstream in the heavily
populated cities downstream, enough so that they were willing to
ferry anything we asked for upstream, some of it inconveniently
bulky. However, true to his bunker roots, Red’s goal was to make
Galatia as self-sufficient as possible. We wanted to grow our own
food, grind our own grain, mill our own lumber, and forge our own
weapons.
    The facilities were drawn up in the
blueprint, the supplies ordered, and there were plenty of workers
to go around. For a while, there were more non-Galatians in Galatia
than Galatians, a fact that worried both the mayor and the sheriff.
But another winter was on its way, and many Galatians were still
living in tents, so what choice did we have?
    They mayor had also made a large trade for
weapons, because the issue of First Rights hung in the air like the
blade of a guillotine over Galatia’s neck. The arms dealer didn’t
want his name to get out, so everything was done on the down-low.
After the transaction was complete, Red and I sat in his temporary
office tent to discuss the future.
    “My humanoid advisors tell me that the other
nations are just biding their time,” Red explained to me across his
new office desk. “They are letting us go to the expense of building
the city, and when it’s complete, they plan to swoop in and take it
from us.”
    “Then why do we keep building?” I asked.
    “Because the pillar of fire led us here,” Red
said. “This is our home.”
    “But how are we going to defend it?”
    “The power resides in the golden breath of
God, which rises above the mouth, day and night, calling my name.
But not just mine—the many. With the rising of his angelic army, we
will prevail.”
    I didn’t understand his words, and was too
befuddled to form a question, so I said nothing.

Chapter Thirteen
     
    Three Months Later
     
    My family’s house,