"Yes, sir!"
The block had not only cracked all around, but looked as if it might even have cracked free, thanks to the ice that had built up behind it. Aedelbert studied the ice, peering into the shadowy gap behind the block of stone. That should not have happened so fast. Had he missed a flaw in the rock?
Chunk-sss, chunk-sss. "Ugh."
"Don't load your shovel so heavily. We're not trying to rebuild a sea-dam during a storm," Aedelbert warned Ehric. He took his own shovel and loaded it a third full of the waste rock and debris from around the base of the block. "Like so." Then he carried the chips and lumps well away from the slope and piled them in a bare area. The apprentice did as ordered and the three quickly cleared the base of the block. "Huh." Aedelbert squatted down and squinted at the stone, trying to puzzle out what had happened. "Is this—No, I don't, ah."
The water had found a weak pocket in the stone, and had pooled, then frozen. Now that a little light reached the gap behind the stone, Aedelbert could see the change in the line of the back of the stone. Scavenger be thanked, Donwah be praised, the weakness had saved them almost an eight-day's worth of labor. Granted, they still had to get the stone out of the face and away from it, and that would be pure muscle from men and great-hauler. If the weak pocket extended farther, he might be able to trim several days off their time. He straightened up, turned, and looked at the next section of face.
"Change of plans. Given the weather signs and how this split off the face, we are going to mark and open the next six lachtern of stone now. Not all today." Aedelbert scowled as Caedda pretended to die of exhaustion. "But we'll concentrate on that, then come back and free and shift this to start cutting it smaller."
As they measured the stone and Ehric got a fire started, Caedda glanced to the boy and muttered, "Perhaps I should show him how to measure and score the blocks from the slab. He can do that while we drill, once he gets tired enough to be useless on the drill."
Aedelbert considered the idea. They'd be working almost overhead for one section, and Ehric didn't have the stamina yet to hold the bar or hammer at that angle for long. Aedelbert stomped on the gravel and debris on the ground around the base of the cliff. They could add more and rise themselves, but that took work and time he preferred not to waste. "Do that, after the noon rest. Scavenger willing, the pry bar will be ready tomorrow and he can do that as well."
"What, no stuffing him behind the stone and telling him to push with his legs?" Caedda tapped the drill twice, then pounded.
Aedelbert rotated the drill-bit a quarter circle before the next blow, and the next. He could feel it in his arms and palms. He'd done this without gloves as an apprentice, but not any more. The padded leather palms got in the way of finer work, but they'd saved his hands more than once. He'd never enjoy this part of the work—no man did. Aedelbert let himself focus on the rock under the drill, sensing the cracks spreading a little with each blow, but not too much. Shatter stone would shatter under the heat of the smelter fires as badly as it did under the drill.
They managed to mark four lachtern that day. "No, no wedges today. I want to get everything started, and then go through with the wedges all at once." Aedelbert sniffed the wind and looked at the hard blue sky. "Something's in the air. This dry weather won't last."
"Ah, it's not smart to be working high in rain and cold, is it, sir?" Ehric leaned back and studied the way the cliff came down from under the grass and trees.
"No. At best you'll get a face full of wet and sand." At worst something would shake loose and the trees and grass would drop down to join them. Aedelbert chewed his sausage-in-bread and considered how long they should work. He didn't want to get caught outside the gates at dark, so it they stopped when the sun was two hands above the trees. . .
"The rock wants to come loose, sir," Ehric said a few bites later.
The men both raised their eyebrows, and Aedelbert nodded to Caedda. The younger man swallowed his mouthful and asked, "What do you see?"
The boy wrinkled his nose and frowned, pulling heavy brows even lower. "Not see, sir but feel? The block, it wants to move away from the face. As if it's not happy and wants to be somewhere else. I..." He stared at the small fire. "I'm sorry sir, I don't have good words."
Both of Caedda's brushy blond eyebrows rose at that. "No, you're right, we don't have good words, but you have the right sense of things. Rocks— They're not like people or animals, but some are more likely to move than others, even in the same rock face, like this one. That's why they crack certain ways. As you work more with the stone, you'll start to see those places the way Master Aedelbert does."
Aedelbert nodded his agreement. Caedda spoke better than he did. He couldn't describe what he saw and felt, he just knew what he knew. It didn't matter, since masters read stone either through experience or the Scavenger's touch. What did matter was getting the first blocks free so they could work on turning them into smaller blocks. And then loading them into wagons, and hauling them up to the mine and then smelter site. His legs ached at the very thought.
Once they finished the meal and their drinks, Aedelbert heaved himself to his feet. He and Caedda resumed marking the top line of the next two blocks while Ehric set about scoring the first side cut, one lachter into the width of the block. The sun felt good for the moment, and the wind had faded a little. Even so Aedelbert wanted to hurry more than was wise. He forced himself to go slowly and carefully. Never rush rock. That way lay death or worse.
The next day, they pried the first block loose. The pry bars and wooden wedges proved enough to shift the rock away from the face. After four hard pushes, Caedda yelled, "Ware!" Crunch-thud! The block fell forward onto the debris pile, sending dust and other things billowing as the men ducked away, shielding eyes and mouths.
Ehric patted the rock, eyes unfocused a little. "It's happier?"
Aedelbert and Caedda exchanged shrugs. Caedda found the proper measures and picks to use for scribing, along with a mostly-straight edge. Aedelbert eyed the straight-edge and shook his head a little. Caedda and the carpenter had gone several rounds over how straight was sufficiently straight before Aedelbert had intervened. They weren't building a wall or temple, not yet. A man could be too precise.
"Good," Caedda said. "Now, this is how we start marking the smaller blocks."
As Caedda taught, Aedelbert took a middling-large hammer and a handful of chisels to the workface. He considered the stone and what it had done thus far. Great and dark Lord, master of stone and cold, lord of shadows and what is unseen, guide my hand if You will. Aedelbert set the end of the chisel against the stone face and began hammering, first straight, then a little down, then a little up, making a wedge-shaped hole. Cracks extended out behind it and to the sides. Aedelbert imagined a curtain or clear wall between himself and the rock, not putting any of his own inner strength or gift into the stone. He'd do that tomorrow. Today he needed to mark the cuts for the wedges.
He'd gotten half a lachter or so before Caedda returned with the larger hammer and a drill. Without speaking Aedelbert shifted over, put the smaller hammer and chisels into his belt, and grasped the drill bar. Caedda waited for him to get set, tapped the bar twice, and whang!
They changed places four times before day's end. To Aedelbert's great delight, Ehric had gotten three lines of pecked holes cut into the back of the slab of freed rock. "Good. Very good."
By the end of the next day, Aedelbert could still walk but not easily. He trusted Caedda to guide him and the cart both as they plodded back to Garmouth. They'd used the great-hauler to drag the freed slab farther from the cliff, and the bird acted as tired as the men. The last bit of rock had fought against the wedges and fought hard, draining the stone-cutter. Clouds hid the sun, giving the wind more of an edge than their tools had. But the slabs had started to take shape. Now, could they work the next day or not? Aedelbert's mind wouldn't hold the thought, and he stared at his dusty boot toes as one foot rose and swung in front of the other, over and over an
d over.
"What happen to you? Lose a fight with a pard?" Aedelbert recognized the guard's voice. They were at the city already?
"Some of us have to work for our food," Caedda joked. "The work fought back. Rock's hard, ye ken?"
The bent-nosed man looked them over, checked the contents of the cart, and passed them through the gate. "Men's heads are harder."
"No argument here, sir," Aedelbert managed, then coughed. He tasted grit and the faintly bitter flavor of the local stone.
How he didn't drown at the bath he never could remember. Nor did he recall getting from the bathhouse to his and Caedda's room. The sound of thunder woke him, as did a full bladder. He emptied the latter and went back to sleep.
"Urgh." His hands refused to open, his left elbow burned and one leg cramped. He spread his fingers with care, flexing them slowly until they warmed and loosened, then extended his right leg. The muscles burned and pulled, trying to tighten again. He wiggled his foot and winced at the result. He'd slept too long. That or the Scavenger had beaten him in the night for complaining about the rock. Both hands throbbed. The elbow just ached, a counterpoint to the pulsing pain.
"Here. Mistress Wigmunda sent this up for us. She must have heard me whimpering." Caedda offered Aedelbert a steaming tankard. He took it with great care, but only after he sat up. Caedda nursed a second tankard, holding it in both hands and snuggling it as if it were his first-born child. "It's almost noon, and the rain is warm. That's the good news. The not as good news is that it is still raining hard enough to drown a fish, and the streams are all rising. About half the men are taking turns watching the water-gate on the northwestern part of the wall to see if it rips loose." He drank, slowly, and Aedelbert took that as a warning. "The rest are grumbling about fools who stand in the rain and get in the way of everyone else. Master Rognor is keeping Ehric today and tomorrow in exchange for meals and some socks. He needs help moving flour barrels and other things to make room for the harvest."
"Good. We need to work on tools." The spiced wine was as hot as it seemed, and Aedelbert sipped with care, blowing on the surface a touch before drinking a very little bit at a time.
"Aye, and we might get called into working on the gate, if it lets go, but likely not." Caedda tipped his head back and studied the beams and slats overhead. "That's number one. Number two is that a messenger from Lord Heinrik Aldread made it into the gates before they closed yesterday. Yesterday?" he looked down again. "Yesterday, yes. Lord Aldread is not pleased about the walls."
"Which walls?" Had the city encroached on the noble's land?
"All of them. Garmouth's not supposed to have any walls at all." Caedda drank, then chuckled. "You look like a sucker fish when you do that."
Aedelbert closed his mouth and drank. Now he truly felt awake, as awake as when he heard that tiny cracking, clinking sound that heralded the beginnings of a rock fall. No walls at all? Shit! How long had the lords of Aldread ignored Garmouth that they'd managed to build what now stood?
"Mistress Godgifu says that the messenger told the council that Garmouth is not a city and has no right of defense, and that the walls need to come down, and two sevenths of all revenue needs to go to him to pay for the defense of the city and his noble right, since there is no Great Northern Emperor." Caedda's mouth stretched into a cold something that was not a smile. "And the city owes the farmers for the bad water."
Aedelbert drank. Not his fight unless someone made it his fight. "I don't want to be between the Emperor, if he is really coming this far, and anyone else."
"No, and that's apparently what the council said. Or so I heard." Caedda moved to the warm space by the chimney and sat on the stool. "Market rumor should be entertaining by sundown."
By sundown the gossips would likely claim that Lord Heinrik had declared himself emperor and would bring an army to reduce the city. Aedelbert drank more spiced wine and contemplated the complications. Or were they complications? No, not for his work. He and Caedda had contracted with the mines, not with the city. The hot tankard eased the aches in his hands. 'Twould be nice if the heat flowed as far as his knee and elbow. The only ones enjoying the weather were probably the fire miners, because no one would be fretting about sparks from the mine traveling up and setting the woods ablaze. Aedelbert still could not really believe that last spring's fire had begun that way, but he wasn't a forester or miner, so what did he know? And strong enough wind from the right direction pulled embers up a chimney, that all men with any sense knew.
He risked a slightly larger sip and said, "Tools today, then work tomorrow if the weather allows. The slab needs to be cut and the first delivery made."
After they finished the hot wine and Aedelbert dressed and tossed the slop-water out, the stone-cutters spread a scrap of canvas on the floor and worked on their tools. The hammers appeared sound, but Caedda re-wrapped the leather grip on a smaller one-pfund hammer just in case. "I don't trust that bit of wood," he explained.
Aedelbert shrugged and continued grinding the little burr off a small chisel. How had it gotten damaged? They'd not used it for a while. One of the wooden wedges had cracked, but they could make more of those and probably should. He checked the smaller of the two axes. It needed sharpening. "Whetstone?" Caedda found the rougher of the two and passed it over. Aedelbert set to work. The familiar soft schring, schring of stone on the blade brought a little smile to Aedelbert's lips. How many years had he spent learning to care for tools before being allowed to try his hand on the stone? A very long time it had seemed to him then. A craftsman who couldn't care for his tools was no craftsman. Worse were those who refused to do it, who thought that mastery meant they were above such things. That might hold for a tapestry maker or fine-weaver, but a carpenter or stone-mason who left tool care to others? That was how men lost hands and legs.
The rain continued as they worked. Would it bring the trees and grass down from the cliff? Probably not, but Donwah worked as She willed. "No plowing today," Aedelbert said at last as he confirmed the blade on the larger ax.
"No, nor planting." Caedda peered at the large hammer, eyeing the handle and wiggling it a little. "What think you?" He handed it to Aedelbert.
Aedelbert set the hammer down on the scrap of canvas and wiggled the handle as he held the head. Did he feel a tiny bit of play? He stood, picked up the tool, and carried it to the window for a little more light. One of the wedges seemed loose as he poked at it with the tip of his knife blade. "Needs more wedge."
" 'S what I thought. It felt a little off yesterday." Caedda set it aside for the moment, until they could get some wood to whittle down to the right size.
Once they finished with their task, they carried the canvas out the door and shook the shavings, dust, and dirt into the yard. The rain fell steadily, not drowning-heavy but not growing any lighter, either. Room cleaned, they put patens on over their boots and clomped to the Golden Loaf. Waves of heat washed from the door, and Caedda smiled. "Baking day," he declared, an enormous grin on his face. "I'll just stay here tonight."
"Huh. And Mistress Godgifu will charge you for the privilege of smelling her wares and for stealing her heat," Aedelbert warned as they went in. They added their patens to the row by the door and hung cloaks as well.
"Only if ye don't buy at least two loaves," the matron warned. Flour dusted her clothes and she coughed a little. "Stew. Salt-fish and golden root."
She'd better have soaked the fish first, or they'd be using it to hammer the wedges into the rock face rather than eating it. Caedda and Aedelbert both took their mugs and very full bowls to the trestle table, then returned for two loaves of heavy bread. "You bring the saw?" Aedelbert murmured as he discreetly thumped the crust. It thumped back.
"No. Should I get chisels as well?" The crust yielded to knife blade, revealing a proper dense loaf inside the dark brown crust. A maid paused long enough to leave a pot of mustard and a small jar of pickled vegetables. Caedda sampled one of the bits of radish and blinked hard, then took a
large bite of bread. "Good pickle."
The vegetables fought back. They must be last season's end, that or Mistress Godgifu had been distracted and had added a handful or two more of mustard seed than she'd planned. However it was, it cleared Aedelbert's head and made his ears sting. The stew tasted of fish but not brine, and hot cider helped take the edge off the damp cool.
He and Caedda were half-way through the loaf when one of the townswomen came in. "Gember be praised," she sighed. "Two loaves of wheat heart, please. Orden's going to need both of them."
"Problem?" Mistress Godgifu asked as she weighted the loaves.
"Water gate's tearing out, he says, and they are going to salvage what timbers they can from downstream. The millers are diverting water away from the wheels in case anything more comes down from the mountain." The matron nodded as the baker's wife showed her the weight and passed over a quarter copper in exchange for the loaves. "Lord Heinrik's messenger left with dawn. I wonder how far he'll get?"
"The first ford, likely, Donwah have mercy." Mistress Godgifu's sharp tone and compressed lips belied her invocation.
Despite his better judgement, Aedelbert wanted to see how high the water had come thus far. The water gates had seemed solid that last time he'd gone into that part of the city, but wood could deceive just as stone did. He and Caedda finished their meal and nursed the remains of their cider. "I'm going to get the hammer and take it to Master Actulf and see about getting that wedge replaced."
Aedelbert blinked at his partner, then shrugged to himself. Caedda probably wanted to see if the master's daughter was working in the shop that day. She painted some of the fine chests and cabinets her father built. She was comely enough, and likely had a good dower. "I'll see if the water gate is as bad as rumored. And see if there's any messages from Harnancourd."
"Probably a tax bill," Caedda snarled as he stood. He lowered his voice and hissed, "Count's due and past due for a hunting accident."
Miners and Empire Page 5