Free A Kiss of Fire: A Kiss of Magic Book 2 by Jacquelyn Frank Page A

walked into the room and into Sin’s eye line. “The usual nonsense.”
    “We have opened the frontier to whomever wishes to stake a claim and settle upon it. Of all things, dispute of land should not be occurring.”
    “There are those who don’t respect that which is already staked by another.”
    “And you mediated these arguments?”
    “I did indeed. And a small matter developed at one of the mines.”
    Sin raised a brow and finally looked up at his brother. “Which mine?”
    “The Golan Reserve.”
    “That is a very large gold mine. No matter is small where the production of gold is involved.”
    “This is true. The workers were threatening to walk away. Apparently they feel they are being poorly treated.”
    “That is not a small matter. It is a very serious one,” Sin said with a dark frown of disapproval. “In what way are they being mistreated?”
    “Oh, they complain that the work days are too long…that they do not get enough breaks in the middle of the work day in which to catch their breath. But you know as well as I do that any mine that does not reach its quota—“
    “Did you give them what they wanted?”
    “Why…no! We cannot be held hostage by a few disgruntled laborers. I told the foremen to dismiss any of the malcontents.”
    Sin’s frown deepened. “The effort it will take to replace those workers lost will slow down production of the mine just as much as having those people walk off the job would. The better choice would have been to shorten the day by and hour or give them an hour rest at midday. Lindo, see that those dismissed are returned to their jobs. I'm sure they will return as they have families to feed. Then instruct the foreman to provide an hour rest for the men at midday.”
    “If you give in to one mine’s demands news of it will reach the others. Your quotas will be destroyed.”
    “Then the quotas must change.”
    “But we have trade needs to be met!”
    “I am aware of that. I am aware this act will send ripples throughout our entire economy. But better a ripple than a wave. A wave is what we’ll get if the workers walk out of the mines in force.”
    “They wouldn’t do that! They need to feed their families, as you just said!”
    “The land act we have instituted that allows anyone to make a claim on fresh land will provide any family with new means to provide for themselves. Maybe not this winter, but definitely come spring.”
    “I never agreed with this land claim idea. Free land! When we paid so dearly for it…and will continue to pay for it every autumn in our tithe to the Sarens. A bad choice brother, to not buy the land outright.”
    “We did not have the means to pay the Sarens what they were asking for outright. We are a rich country, but we are not that rich and we were desperate for the land. It was a good choice. Or as good a choice as we were able to make. As it is it is taking us time to refill our coffers in the wake of the purchase.”
    “They will never refill if we have to pay a tithe every autumn.”
    “They will. It was not an unreasonable amount.”
    “I never agreed with the war, but since we were in it, it seems we would have been wiser to simply take what we wanted, purchase be damned.”
    “Of course you did not agree with the war. You never agree with any of my choices,” Sin said dryly. “But we were losing too many lives and too many battles. We were lucky the Sarens wanted to make the deal at all. It cost us less in lives and the expense of war in the long run. Now our country is enlarged by half. Is that not worth a small tithe every autumn?”
    “It is hardly small,” Vich said.
    “Neither is the land.” Sin was tired of this same argument. They had had it dozens of times since the agreement had been made. Raj Vich insisted that, had he been there they would have struck a better bargain. Raja Sin let this insult slide. He could care less about his brother’s opinions…however voluble they might be.
    “But to