Chapter 459: The Work of the Fields
Lyria's POV
As I had anticipated, the townspeople of Gallowshill had every intention of rendering our labour as difficult as possible.
They did not refuse us outright. That would have been too open a defiance. Instead they permitted us to work, and thereafter employed a dozen subtle and not-so-subtle devices to ensure we accomplished as little as might be.
Duke Valenridge, Duke Thorncrest, Lucian, and several of the guards had descended to the lower fields, where the damage was most severe. The remainder of us distributed ourselves across the middle and upper ground. I remained in the middle fields with Debbie and Elara.
The lower fields were so thoroughly ruined that the men labouring there had little choice but to sink to their knees in mud, hauling away stones, broken branches, and great clods of earth that had collapsed into the furrows. The middle fields, though still much damaged, were somewhat more manageable.
