“Sure, what is it?” she asked over her shoulder.
“Would you keep an eye on Smoke for me, feed him and such? I shouldn’t take him on the study. It would just be too much trouble to keep an eye on him and study bison at the same time, because he can be a handful at times. Besides which, Master Canneth said I couldn’t take him.” He had a sardonic grin on his face.
Sharrah laughed. “Absolutely. He’s a great dog; I’d love to.” She could see Smoke below on the ground wandering around, tail wagging, poking his nose into this and that, intensely interested in what everyone was doing.
“Thanks so much. I know he’s not really my dog, he’s more of the hall’s dog, but I take care of him.” He moved to the next lash he was checking. “He stays at the barn at night so you don’t have to worry about taking him to the dorms. Just keep him fed and watered, keep him company or spend some time with him when you can.”
Sharrah smiled and said, “I will.”
“Martin! Are you done checking your side yet?” Master Canneth asked.
Martin made a scared face at Sharrah, quickly finished with the lash he was checking and shouted back, “Yes, sir, I just now am!” Quickly and quietly to Sharrah he said, “And check with Mallory. She keeps some meat scraps for me to feed Smoke.” With a quick smile of thanks, he dashed out of the wagon to stand with the rest of the team.
Sharrah laughed silently at him and continued checking her side.
“Excellent,” Master Canneth said. “Once Sharrah is finished,” and he bowed his head at Sharrah, “I think that’s the last of the checklists. Well done all.”
He looked over his team members and the people gathered to see them off. “I want to share how much I appreciate all the inquires about joining the study team. Even though it made it difficult to narrow the team down, the enthusiasm for this important study further demonstrated the dedication we all have in common and made me both happy and proud. As many of you know, the reason we are studying the bison is to see whether we can use them to supplement our food supplies. Caer Baronel is growing, and anything we can acquire responsibly from nature will help us stay a viable Caer.”
Sharrah finished checking the last lash on her side, so she quietly made her way down and out of the wagon and moved over with the other people who were seeing the team off.
“When some of the other masters and I first arrived at the holding with Lord Baronel,” Master Canneth continued, “which was before the majority of people, we all spent several weeks canvassing the area for resources. A cursory examination had been done by Lord Baronel’s search team when they located this ideal spot, but we masters had been charged with doing a much more in-depth census. It was then that I noted herds of bison that had migrated into our large valley for the winter. Our first field study, performed nearly two years ago, resulted from that observation.
“And now, we are off to perform a second field study. Comparing data from the two will give us an idea of how the bison have prospered these past years. With luck, we should find that the herds fared well and we can begin plans to use them for the Caer. All-in-all, a very exciting opportunity.
“We should be back within four weeks, if all goes well. In the interim,” and he paused to scan the faces around him, “could you please try to keep the place from falling into complete ruin while I am gone?”
Laughter arose from everyone.
Master Canneth smiled, then raised his voice. “Alright everyone, mount up!”
The four guards who were going with the team moved ahead a few paces on their horses. The team members who were riding mounted their horses, and a few, including Martin, climbed up onto the wagons’ seats. Sharrah noted that Martin had tied his horse at the back of the wagon with a long lead rope, next to what she assumed was the driver’s horse. Martin’s, named Strider, looked none too happy about it, but he followed the wagon when it started moving.
“Have a safe trip out and back,” Sharrah yelled, waving. Everyone around her was yelling well-wishes to the team as they headed off. The team members waved back, full of high spirits.
Smoke started after Martin’s wagon, and Sharrah quickly called to him. “Smoke! Come here boy, come here!”
The excited mixed-breed looked back at her, then at the wagon slowly pulling away. He whined a moment, then ran over and sat next to her, still watching the wagon.
Master Canneth shouted back, “We’ll see you all back here in about four weeks!” He made a last wave and rode out to the head of the team.
Sharrah sighed and patted Smoke on the head. One day I’ll get on a field study, she thought.
After they disappeared out North Gate, she made her way back into the hall and checked the chore roster. Sure enough, she only had half her former tasks. She hurried off to complete them so she could get back and start work on the report.
The chores today weren’t so bad, she thought. Help distribute hay and feed to the horses, which included marking what was used on the inventory logs, check the chicken coops for eggs, delivering them to the dining hall, and return from the dining hall with any scraps they had for the pigs.
On her way back with the discards for the pig pens, she stopped in at the barn and put the meat scraps she got from Mallory for Smoke into his food bowl. He came over and sniffed the bowl, eating a couple of the bits of trimmings. She thought he looked sad and felt sorry for him, so she squatted next to him and gave him a hug. He wagged his tall.
“Aw, you miss Martin don’t you boy,” she said, still crouched and looking in his eyes. “Well don’t you worry. Martin will be back, and I’ll take care of you while he’s gone. Deal?” She put out her hand. Smoke looked at her hand, put his paw on it, and barked. Sharrah laughed and said, “Good boy!” She gave him another hug, scratched his ears and headed off to the pig pens. Smoke followed her out the barn door.
After her chores were done, she used the wash basin in the animal hall work area to wash her hands, arms, and face. Chores were dusty, dirty work, but they had to be done or the halls and Caer would, as Master Canneth had phrased it, ‘fall into complete ruin.’ She smiled and dried off. She felt much refreshed and ready to start digging into the files.
Smoke followed her to her desk. Jorge raised an eyebrow and looked at Sharrah. She cocked her head and raised her own eyebrows in inquiry, a defiant sparkle in her eyes daring him to say something about Smoke. He chuckled, shook his head and returned to his work.
She looked down at the lovable mongrel. “Alright boy,” she whispered. “You can stay with me, but you will have to lie there and be quiet. Understand?”
Smoke cocked his head at her, wagged his tail, and then lay down to the side of the desk. He looked up at her a moment, head on his paws, then closed his eyes for a nap. Sharrah smiled at him, glanced at Jorge, who was still working, then looked at the large stack of files on her desk. She scrunched her nose, grabbed the first folder and began reading the reports within.
After skimming a few of the reports, she came up with some ideas of what to track and how to do so. She then conferred with Jorge to find out whether he had any ideas to add. Once she had a plan, she dug into the reports in earnest. The previous team kept very detailed records, which made her job both harder and easier. It was harder in that there was a lot to get through, and easier in that the amount of detail would make it very simple to get all the information she wanted. In fact, the amount of detail was giving her more ideas to add to the summary.
“Hey, aren’t you going to lunch?” Jorge was at the door looking back at her.
“Hmm? Oh! Is it midday already?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes. You’ve had your nose jammed into those reports so deeply, you haven’t noticed anything else!”
She blushed and smiled guiltily. “They’re actually very interesting, the bison.” She stood up and stretched, letting out a yelp. “Yes, I think I will definitely need to take breaks. My back just twinged from sitting there so long.” She noticed that Smoke was gone. He must have w
andered off at some point. She really had been deep into the files, she realized.
“Well, come on, then. I’ll walk you to the Dining Hall.”
Once they had their lunch trays, Jorge smiled, said, “See you back at the hall,” and headed to the journeyman tables.
Sharrah nodded and went to look for Aeron and Willem. She found them sitting and talking.
“No, they weren’t ready,” Willem was saying. “The smith explained that they won’t be ready until Leday, after the weekend. Apparently they are very busy now, lots of orders. Still, I’ll be able to start on the soles after lunch. I can actually do the first two layers in preparation for the steel plates.”
“Hello,” Sharrah said as she sat down.
“Hi,” and “Hello,” Aeron and Willem said.
“That’s good news about the shoes. How much will you make off that commission?” she asked, taking the last of her lunch off her tray.
“Two marks,” Willem said, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“That’s great!” Aeron said around a mouthful of stew.
“Very nice,” Sharrah said, smiling. She put her hands on the table, looked at them excitedly and said, “I have some news too.”
“Hmmph?” Aeron asked, mouth full of stew and corn cake.
“Oh? What is it?” Willem asked.
“Master Canneth selected me to do a summary report of a field study they did last year,” she said, beaming. “I’ve been working on it a bit this morning.”
Aeron swallowed and looked at her, his brows knit in disgust. “Uh, yeah. That sounds like a great deal of fun.” He looked at Willem with a dubious expression.
Willem looked at Aeron, then turned back to Sharrah and laughed. “I have to admit, it doesn’t sound like the most exciting thing to do.”
Sharrah sighed, looked from one to the other and said, “You two. It’s a very important report. It will be used, along with a summary report from the field study they just left to conduct, to see how the bison herds did the past couple of years. If they did well, we might be able to use them to supplement our food supply. Apprentices are hardly ever chosen for such a duty.” She looked at Aeron, raised an eyebrow, and said, “As much as you like eating, that should be good news for you.”
He laughed. “Yes, I do like food. And I suppose if it will help with that, I am in full support! Congratulations, I guess?”
She smiled at his ‘enthusiastic’ change of heart and said, “They’ve got me on half chores until I finish the report, which should take me about a week or so.”
“Where did the team go?” Aeron asked.
“To the bison’s winter range, the north-eastern edge of which is about twenty miles west of the Caer,” replied Sharrah. “It’ll take them a day or so to get to their base camp.”
“Winter range?” Willem looked at her, confused.
“Yes, it’s the area the bison spend the winter in. They wander about that area, or range, throughout the winter. It’s sheltered from the major winter storms by our valley, and by the trees.”
“I see,” Willem said. “I guess we aren’t the only ones who aren’t fond of raging winter blizzards!”
Sharrah nodded. “It can get pretty brutal out on the plains, and finding winter forage, food, can be tough as well.”
“I’m glad we live in the Caer. It keeps us safe and warm during the winter,” Aeron said. “And if a really nasty storm hit us, we could even take shelter down in the caverns.”
“You know, I’ve heard about them, but I’ve never been down in them,” Willem said.
Aeron grimaced. “I have now, what with the new chores I have to do.”
“Oh?” Willem asked. “What are your chores now?”
“This morning after breakfast, before I had even begun my chores, Master Doronal said I might as well know more about the lightglobe process. So he changed my chores. As of this morning I get to assist the moss harvesters.” Aeron made a face. “I wish he’d assigned me to help the seeders instead. It’s much easier.”
“Seeders?” Sharrah asked.
“Yes. We don’t actually harvest the wild light moss in the caverns, at least not any more. There are specific caverns where moss is farmed. And once light moss is harvested from a crop cavern, seeders take spores, which are produced in a cultivar cavern, and seed the crop cavern with them to grow more moss. Other teams mist newly seeded moss, tending to it and other crop caverns over the months. They tell me it takes about four months for light moss to mature once it’s been seeded.”
“That’s interesting,” Willem said. “All this time, I thought wild light moss was harvested.”
“The first couple of months it was, but not anymore. As you know, Lord Baronel wants us to be a self-sustaining Caer in all aspects we can, so we do it this way.” Aeron sighed. “Seeding would have been easier, but instead, I have to go out with the guys into the harvest caverns, help harvest the light moss, load it onto the carts, and then help unload it into the large tanks for extraction.” He made a face. “It’s long patches of sheer boredom as we head out and back, sprinkled with hard work harvesting, loading, and unloading the light moss. Then there’s removing the moss leavings from the tanks and hauling that back to the caverns for reuse as compost.” He paused and shrugged. “At least the moss carts are enchanted with float. That makes it a little easier.”
“Float?” Sharrah asked.
“You know, sort of like moving chests. The enchantment lets the cart float. It’s not float-and-follow like moving chests, but just having it float makes it much easier for us to haul the cart around on its track.”
“I see,” Sharrah said. “I’ve never heard the moving chest enchantment combination called float-and-follow. A very good description though.”
“I came up with it myself,” Aeron said, grinning. He took another bite of his meal and said, “They tell me it’s not practical to use wagons and such to haul moss down in the caverns, so the float carts are used. More efficient.”
“Makes sense,” Willem said. “If the haul animals got spooked down there, that would be bad.”
“Very,” Sharrah agreed. “I know I’d be nervous down in a dark cavern.”
“Actually, some of the caverns aren’t dark at all,” Aeron said. “The guys showed me an amazing cavern after we were done harvesting today. It is on a lower level than the farming caverns, along with two more they mentioned. We didn’t have time for all three, so I’m going to visit the other two later. But the one they did show me was spectacular.
“Light moss isn’t the only thing that produces light down there. Light moss gives off white light, which is why it’s used in lightglobes, but I’ve seen green, yellow, purple, pale blue, even red and pink. There are all kinds of plants and mushrooms down there that glow. Even some of the bugs and lizards give off faint light.”
“That does sound incredible,” Willem said. “I’d love to see that.”
“I can show you around some of those caverns, if you want.”
“Well you can leave me out,” Sharrah said, a look of distaste on her face. “Caverns sound dangerous to me.”
Aeron smiled. “Fine, miss animal lover who is scared to see what kind of animals there are underground.”
“I have plenty of above-ground animals to study and love, thank you. Someone else can deal with the underground ones.” She paused, looked at them both and said, “Just, can you do one thing for me?”
“What’s that?” Aeron asked.
“Let me know when you two go and when you get back.”
“Why?” Willem asked, confused.
“That way, I’ll know whether I need to send a search party to find you two after who knows what sort of . . . thing gets you.”
Aeron laughed and said, “Wow, you really are scared of the caverns. I guess I shouldn’t mention the cave rats then.”
“No, not scared. I have a very healthy respect for caverns and caves, is all.” Her expression changed then, became haughty. “And I actually
think rats are cute.”
“Right,” Aeron said, still smiling.
“Anyway, I need to get back and work some more on that report. I’ll see you two at dinner.”
“See you,” Willem said.
“Have fun,” Aeron said. A sudden realization made his eyes open wide. “Oh! You two need to come and see my room after dinner!”
“Oh, yes! Count me in,” Willem said.
“That would be great! I’ll plan on it,” Sharrah said. She smiled, gathered her dishes and left the table.
Aeron turned to Willem and asked, “So, when did you want to go see the caverns?”
“Actually, I’m going to be busy for the next few days,” he replied. “What with finishing up the commission and then working on your carry-all. But after that, any time would be great.”
“Alright. Let me know when you’re free. In the meantime, I’ll plan the sightseeing trip.”
“Excellent. I’ll do that,” Willem said and smiled.
Chapter 6
Minday, Duody 7, 1873
Morning
It was ahead of Aeron, somewhere. Though he couldn’t see it yet, he could sense it. Black, darker than the deepest darkness of the caverns, it moved toward him slowly, deliberately, steadily. It was after him, but he sought it as well, was chasing it. His desperate search wasn’t going well, however. Part of his difficulty was the thick fog that swirled around him to well above his head. That, coupled with the odd darkness, made it impossible to see very far in any direction.
To his left he saw an opening in the mist. A wall of the room was visible through the gap, so he ran for it, hoping for a clearer path along the walls with less fog. His feet were sluggish, however, barely able to move, as if caught in deep, thick mud. He looked down to see what had his feet mired, but there was no mud below, only a wooden floor and the edge of a rug barely visible in the swirling mist. Struggling to move faster, he had to strain and pull his leaden feet up one at a time before taking a step, which hampered his progress. How did he ever think he would be able to accomplish this task alone?
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