Free Arrows of Promise (Kingmakers Book 2) by Honor Raconteur Page B

foliage, and some gentle rises in the land. How
in the world did a man tell if there was ore anywhere nearby? “Ye have a spell
for this?”
    “Not precisely, but I have a spell that will work well
enough for this task. It just has a short range, so we will be doing a lot of
walking as I’m not sure how far out will need to go. And we will need to find
different types of metals to make money out of.”
    This part made sense to her immediately. Money was not
formed all out of the same type of metal, after all. The worth of the money was
dependent upon the metal it was forged from. Copper was not worth much, which
was why it was used for the smallest coin. Gold was worth quite a bit which was
why most used it for their most valuable coin. Of course they would not be able
to deviate from the system. “Ye think ye can find copper and silver and gold
here?”
    “I’m not as confident about gold and silver. But we should
be able to find copper and nickel at the very least. We’re more likely to find
gold along the coastline. It tends to collect around salt water.”
    She learned something new every day. “And silver?”
    “Silver’s the same. But copper’s easy. It likes to form in
the ground, and it’s usually found with lead and zinc. Well, it forms with gold
and silver too, but not in very large amounts.”
    While all of this was fascinating, she had to wonder, “How
do ye know this?”
    “Hmm?” He paused and glanced back at her, drawing a wand
from his belt as he answered, “My master is a strange man in some ways. Very
old fashioned. He never let us buy the materials we needed to make our wands or
tools. We always had to go mine the metals we needed and refine them ourselves.
He said that if, in a pinch, we were stuck without our tools or needed to make
something, we needed to know how to do it from the ground up.” Ruefully, he
added, “I cursed him at the time, but you know, all of that knowledge has saved
my hide more times than I care to recall. Now, for instance.”
    Now, indeed. “Ye probably never thought that what ye learned
under him would save a country someday.”
    “No, the thought never crossed my mind. Actually, if I had
known what I’d be doing ten years down the road, I would have paid a lot better
attention. The benefits of hindsight.”
    She let the matter rest there as he worked his magic,
searching about him for any hints of ore. He didn’t seem happy with the
results, as he didn’t find anything worth mentioning, and they trudged along,
heading deeper into the woods. Riana was automatically alert to her
surroundings as this was uncharted territory and she had no idea what dangers
might be lurking in here. She also had no faith in Ash’s ability to navigate
their way back. The man seemed to be a little lost without roads. City-boy that
he was, it wasn’t much of a surprise.
    It was turning out to be a blessing that Ash and Ashlynn had
figured out how to boost the caller system. They’d had to craft much larger
versions, connecting them in a way so they all powered each other, but they now
had roughly three times the range they did before. The instantaneous
communication made an already challenging job that much more manageable.
    Ash stopped again and cast his spell, but this time he
looked faintly hopeful. “I’m getting a ping over in this direction.”
    Riana followed his pointing finger and noted, “That be
towards the coast.”
    “Is it?” he asked, genuinely surprised by this.
    Thank Macha she had been paying attention earlier. He really
had no idea where he had been going. She fell into step with him as he cast the
same spell again in a continuous loop, and watched him work from the corner of
her eye. She would never, ever, let him go out into the woods alone. She’d
never find him again.
    In between renewing the spell, he observed, “I’m going to be
tied up with mining some of this, at least to start with, until we can get
miners established over here. It’s going