Slave Line (The Young Ancients) Read Online Free PDF

here, the servants and a few extra for gifts, but that won't take all of you. Farlo, you have that right? Batches of fifty for each... Have it done in five hours or so?" She wasn't that fast, and couldn't do that many at once yet, her best being a batch of twenty every three hours or so. She'd done that once at least. It meant she could do it though, if she tried.
    "The rest of you should set up copies of everything else. Get carriages and what not. A house like this one maybe?" Those were complex fields, even when it came to making copies, but they could do them, if they were careful.
    Farlo looked at him like he'd lost his mind though. He knew it was pushing her a bit asking for that many copies, but it seemed like it might be something else. Finally he stared back and just asked about it.
    "What?"
    "You'd let us just make copies of your work for ourselves? I mean... to keep?" She actually looked troubled by the idea, as if it were wrong or something.
    Tor didn't get it, not at all. Why wouldn't he let his friends have some copies of his stuff? Especially since he wanted them to make more of it for him. It was Sam that explained it to him, Guide, the other first year boy and Mark the third year guy agreeing with him with some half vigorous nodding.
    "I know Farlo, it seems strange, but I think it has to do with the fact that the Counselor is trying to form an army of Builders for the Kingdom. We can't do that on the same ground that we've normally worked as a group. Builders tend to be a little coin hungry, but it doesn't have to be that way. He's setting a good example for us. We should probably do the same with all our own work too, at least with each other." He shrugged, which looked forced, not being something he normally did. It was a thing Tor associated with Burks Green really, though he also did it himself.
    "So if anyone wants a table mill, just let me know and I'll get one for you to make a copy of."
    Farlo shook her head, but the words she used next were happy enough.
    "I... That's... Millions of golds worth of stuff. Potentially at least. What if I just took it and started selling it?" She seemed pleased enough by the idea.
    Tor held Trice's hand absently, stroking it just a little not realizing he was. It was comforting. After a few seconds Lyn spoke up, her voice sounding a lot older than it normally did. Decades at least. So... still youthful and full of life but slightly commanding. She looked as young as almost anyone in the room, except Weasel, who at twelve really was the youngest. Eleven. He shouldn't turn twelve for a few weeks Tor thought.
    "But Farlo, that doesn't matter... don't you see? If you, personally, took all of our work and started making copies of it for sale, all that would do would result in would be a lowering of the overall price, meaning more people could have it. Even if you gave it all away for free and all of us worked on it all the time, doing nothing else, we couldn't provide enough for everyone even in this one land, not to mention Vagus, which of course we should all be doing too. Everything there is measured in horses and animal hides though, not gold, so not nearly as portable." A serious look covered her face as if to let them know she was dead set on the idea. As far as she was concerned they should be sending part of their things to her people. Probably for free.
    It sounded reasonable to Tor.
    "Besides, how much do we really need? If you all start today you can have all your housing, transportation and clothing needs taken care of by tomorrow. Possibly for the rest of your lives. Then all you need is some land and a way to grow or buy food. Since most of you already have enough gold for that, well, anything you really want past that you can pretty much learn to build. It might take time, but in a way this group is probably pretty close to the richest collection of people in the Kingdom right now. Maybe the world." OK, so it was in an odd way, but once they had what they