Dragon Blood (Completed)

Down to Business

Ignoring Talbot's disapproving look, she picked up another paper and studied it for a long time, while Zane was looking over the paper nearest him. It was a log of the gold that Theo Bluescale had removed from the vaults in the time before his health started to fail. The old king had taken more than thirty thousand pounds of gold, but the ledger had no record of what Theo had done with all the gold.

"Zane, how much is your guard paid?" Paige asked, distracting him from the mystery in front of him.

"Last I heard, our upper-level guard are paid twenty pounds of silver and seven pounds of gold each month."

"Ash, how much are you paid?"

"About half that, My Queen."

"Someone get Byran please," Paige requested.

When Byran arrived, she asked him several questions about the guard's pay. At what rate did new members start? How often did they receive increases, and what ranks were paid the most?"

Zane asked a few questions as well, which Paige actually seemed to appreciate, making follow-up inquires of her own that complemented his. They worked well together. It was a flow of ideas that seemed to feed off one another, growing until they both seemed to reach the same conclusions at the same time. Working with her one on one like this was different than listening to her translate documents. He felt for the first time that they were equals, that her knowledge of Balaan's language and the Earth realm had been evened out by his upbringing and his insight into the ways of running a castle.

"Effective immediately, I want everyone's pay doubled and half again for any positions deemed hazardous, such as the members of mine and Dean's personal guard."

"My Queen, do you understand that will offset our income, creating a deficit which will force us to tap into the reserves in the vault?" Talbot asked.

"Yes, I know," Paige said, then turned to Byran. "With the increase in pay, do you think we could recruit more members of the guard?

"Yes, I believe so."

"What if you put in a signing bonus?" Zane asked. It was something he thought his father's army should do, but Titus had never tried to expand their forces, even though they'd been at war for thirty years.

"My Queen, Theo Bluescale believed that the citizens of this kingdom should find more honor than wealth in serving his Highness."

"Be that as it may, I think the citizens that serve this kingdom will find more honor if they can afford to feed their families in the process." She turned her attention to Byran. "What would be a fair bonus to catch their eye?"

"Ten pounds of silver," Byran said. Zane smiled when Talbot rolled his eyes.

"Make it happen. We need to build up the guard. We are at war, and we need the numbers." Paige said the last part to Talbot. "We will start looking into increasing our revenue as soon as I'm feeling better. Besides, when the Firth harvest is increased, that will help."

Paige dismissed Byran and Talbot after another hour of going over the finances. Talbot took the stacks of scrolls, leaving Paige with only the notes she took.

"So, which one of my suiters do you hate the least?" Paige asked, tapping Zane's leg with her foot.

"Paige..." Zane hesitated.

"I know, they're all pretty awful." Paige smiled, as if it was a silly joke. From the corner of his eye, he saw Ash frown. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "Do you think anyone else will come?"

"I don't know." Zane reached out, placing his hand on her arm. She turned her head away from him, hiding her face. He wanted to tell her that there were more dragons on the way, that these were just the first greedy lowlifes, hoping she would hurry up and pick one of them. But he couldn't give her false hope if it meant watching her be let down later. It was better to be honest; he knew she respected that more.