"They have been rather frequent recently, haven't they?" Aedelbert muttered back. They reclaimed cloaks and patens and went their separate ways. Rain, snow, sun, business continued and Aedelbert nodded to a few people he recognized. That was one advantage the miners had—they could work all year, all weather, unless it was one of those wind-mines. And he'd heard stories that some of the westerners had devised a way to dig vertical shafts with devices on them to bring fresh air into the adits even when the wind shifted. Probably silver mines, he decided. Over the sound of the rain and of people walking, a new muttering roar came through the streets. Donwah had spoken, or so it sounded, and Aedelbert lengthened his stride. He wanted to see the water gate, not get caught in flooded streets. He'd endured enough of that in his youth.
Creeeeeaaaaaaaak. Creeeaaaaaaaaaaak. The sound of straining wood gave him pause. A number of men and boys stood at the end of the side street, well back from the water gate and the inner wall. He could see the wood of the outer wall leaning where it should stand straight. Had the stream undermined the wall? Or had someone started doing Aldread lord's work of removing the wall? That should not happen either. Aedelbert stopped where he was, far enough away to get a head start if the waters decided to claim more than just the gate and the mill-wheels.
"What says the priestess?" a nervous voice asked from among the men.
"Which one? We don't have a priestess of Donwah, not since the winter cough took the last one," Wassa said. Aedelbert wondered what the mine master was doing in town. "And the Lady of Waters does as she will."
The water gate groaned as the inner wall shifted farther. The crowd backed away and Aedelbert got ready to run. CrrreeeaaaaaSplash! Wood and iron failed as Donwah's waters shoved them aside. The inner wall's timbers and daub slumped farther, clay starting to dissolve under the rain's constant wearing. The roof over the wall didn't help when the wall tilted so badly. Wassa retreated farther, joining Aedelbert in the protection of an oriel window's overhang.
"The stone masons will have more work," Aedelbert observed, arms folded. That was, if they rebuilt in stone. There'd been arguments about that.
"Aye. And the diggers as well." Wassa shook rain off the hood of his miner's coat. "Council wants a true moat, not just water gates for the mill-races."
Aedelbert closed his eyes and tried to imagine what that would look like. How did that sketch of the new outer wall run? "So, ah, moat, outer wall, mill-stream, inner wall?"
"Outer wall, moat, inner wall, mill stream," the mine master corrected. He scratched his nose over his mustache and smoothed his beard. "Move the outer wall ten lachtern west, inner wall where the outer wall is now, all stone. Water gates in both walls, but not so many in the outer. And catch-pools for ochre downstream of the moat."
Aedelbert calculated the cost and boggled. "Scavenger be blessed, but that's a lot of stone work."
Wassa folded his arms. "Aye, but Sithulf's working with Colar and the merchants. The seventh from the new mine, plus what the lords never claimed will pay for half now," he pointed down. "Scavenger willing, two years will pay for the rest."
"Scavenger willing." The number still made Aedelbert's head reel. "But that," he nodded toward the gap in the inner wall, "comes first."
"Yes. Should have been stone from the start, but the millers wanted wood so they could put the gates in and out more easily." Wassa spat onto the wet stones. "Might change their minds now."
Millers changed their minds half as fast as their mill-wheels turned, or so it seemed to Aedelbert. But Wassa knew the men better than he did, and Donwah's work might inspire a new view of the matter.
"Probably going to need you to work on the walls," Wassa added.
Aedelbert opened his mouth to protest. Then he closed it again. "Smelter stones come first. That's the contract."
Wassa raised one hand and tipped his head down a little. "Easy, Master Aedelbert. Contract work first, then anything else. No argument here. Without the smelters, there will be no lead and copper to pay for anything."
A harsh voice from beside Wassa hissed, "Can't do anything anyway until the water drops and they see how much earth and ore the Lady has taken." Aedelbert and Wassa both leaned away from Turold's anger. The former fire-miner's maimed hand clenched. "Saw the men stopping early as I came down-mountain. Told the bastard not to leave the grinders uncovered. Jens says 'e didn't listen."
Wassa's eyes flashed open. "Who did that?"
Aedelbert eased away, then hurried out of range before Wassa and Turold grew any angrier. Whatever it was, it sounded bad.
Two days later, Aedelbert studied the remains of the water gate and the wall. One of the twins—Dunstan, Aedelbert guessed—leaned on a staff and watched the brown water. "Should have been stone, not half-rotten wood."
"Rotten?" That would explain a great deal.
"Someone did not take care of the gate posts," the mason said. "So they get to repair the mill canal, and we get to build a wall and a half, weather permitting. Probably get started and then have to cover everything for the winter so it doesn't split." Resignation colored his words and his shoulders drooped. "Man plans and the gods decide."
"Aye that." Still not his problem, Aedelbert told himself, but something nagged in the back of his mind, perhaps a warning? Not to get too proud, lest the Scavenger take offense?
And what if Lord Heinrik decided to remove the city's freedom? Surely he'd wait until spring to do anything. Wouldn't he? That same nagging something made Aedelbert wary as he returned to his room.
5
Stone and Stone
The stone-cutters worked all the slabs free of the cliff, and had managed to cut the first slab into building stones before the heavy snows began. "What now, Master Aedelbert?" Ehric asked as they looked at the snow covering their work area and the neat stacks of finished bricks. The light white powder glowed in the cloud-softened sunlight, and the men wore their chip hoods just to ease the glare.
Aedelbert pointed back to the cart. "We sweep the stones clear and then cover them. Then we load what we can into the cart without overloading the bird, take it to the Scavenger's Chapel, and return for the rest."
Ehric's head turned from the slabs to the pile and back. "Ah, so we don't tempt anyone into borrowing the stones for their house or shed, sir?"
"Exactly." Although some men and women had to steal, all the gods frowned on tempting people into mischief. There was a reason why fruit and nuts on limbs over the right-of-way belonged to all men, but trees within fence belonged to the land owner. "Sweep and cover, then load."
Once they had cleaned the creamy, gritty slabs, Caedda and Aedelbert studied the faces, examining them carefully for surprises. They seemed to be cracking nicely where cracks should be, and Aedelbert risked letting himself "read" the third slab. One corner would shatter, was shattering already after hitting a harder stone when it came free of the cliff. Otherwise all the cracks fell along the lines the men had made. He sat back, closed his eyes and gave thanks. Then he opened them again and returned to work. Their labor meant nothing if they left the slabs exposed to all weathers where ice could find any and every pocket and chip. He'd seen slabs that lost half their thickness from being left uncovered in a wet, cold winter, and he preferred not to have that happen because of carelessness.
Ehric began moving blocks of stone into the cart while Caedda used some of the brush and limbs to cover the intact slabs and Aedelbert added dirt and loose stone over the brush. Then they piled dirt around the edges, sloping it and packing it a little. Caedda checked on Ehric every so often, in part to ensure that he didn't overload the cart. Once the men had covered the slabs, they took axes and blazed the trees closest to the site as well as piling stone into a cairn. Blaze and cairn, and signs of work—by law that marked the site and no one should try to claim it from under them. They'd also registered it with the Scavenger's temple, but not everyone went into Garmouth to look for claims before they began working.
"That's plenty. Good," Aed
elbert heard Caedda say as he finished piling the last stones around the cairn. "You want the load evenly balanced so we don't break the cart or hurt the great-hauler. He's got enough work as it is." So did the men. They'd have to help get the cart moving, and they'd be shoulders to wheel at least twice before they got to the gates. Yoorst frowned on those who didn't make allowances for the needs and frailties of His beasts.
As he thought about it, none of the gods had much patience for people who assumed someone or something else should do all the work. Aedelbert pondered the matter as he made certain that all the tools had been loaded, including the brooms and shovels. Caedda did likewise, just in case, while Ehric coaxed the great-hauler back into the cart's poles and harnessed him. Had it been different before the Great Cold? Had that been the reason for the Great Cold, that people had rested too much on the gods and on animals like the long-lost wagon-pherds and large kine? Perhaps the gods had gotten tired of people lazing around and had punished them the way a master disciplined lazy apprentices and journeymen. Or perhaps the world had giant seasons the way it had smaller ones, and it would get even warmer in a very long summer, then colder again.
"How many trips will we need, sir?" Ehric asked, breaking Aedelbert's musing and pulling his mind back to where it ought to be. The great-hauler fussed, as Aedelbert had guessed it would, and the men had to push while Ehric tugged to get the bird moving.
"At least three to the city and back, each a little lighter unless we change birds. Then two wagons to the grinding site near the Gift. After that? It depends on the weather and how many stones we can carry per load." Muddy or icy trails meant more trips because if a man fell with heavy weight on his back... Aedelbert wouldn't risk other people's necks for the amount they were being paid.
They were into their first return trip before Ehric spoke again. "Master Aedelbert, why do we always move rocks up and never down? The miners, the masons, us, we always move rocks up and not down."
"There are some places where stones are moved down, especially mill stones and gold. But... what do you recall about the making of the world?"
Ehric frowned with concentration, one eye half closed as he thought. "Ah, that is, um... Oh! When the gods made the world, Donwah and the Scavenger finished Their tasks last, and so got the last choice of lands. But," he scrunched his brow and nose. "Ah, the Lady of Waters only claimed what She had created and gave all the magic in the waters away to men. And the Scavenger, um, something about taking what the others could not see?" He walked a few more paces, then admitted, "I'm sorry sir. I don't remember."
Caedda and Aedelbert both chuckled. "You are not alone in that. It is said that as the gods divided up the world, each with what they did the best and interested them the most, the Scavenger was not present. And so when He did come to the council, nothing remained. So He was named the Scavenger, the god of scraps and remnants." Aedelbert paused. "Except."
"Except what, sir?"
"Except the others had forgotten what they did not see. 'I claim all that is unseen, save what my sister's waters conceal,' the Scavenger told His brothers and sisters. And so it is." Aedelbert waved one hand toward the mountains to the east, carefully, lest he spook the bird. "All that is below the ground is His, as well as what His servants Scavenge. Because He knew that without someone to take the unwanted, the used and broken, the world would become so piled and covered that nothing could grow, just as in the cities if no one collects night-soil or other waste and broken bits."
Now, how He became a god of death, that Aedelbert did not know, nor did he want to learn. Some things were better left to the priests. "And we still have stone to move."
They barely made it into Garmouth before the gates closed. "Is this why we are leaving everything at the chapel, sir?" Ehric asked Caedda as they unloaded the cart for the last time.
"Aye. For a blessing, and because it is easier to load the wagons from here." The priests had given them leave to put the stone on a waist-high platform beside the chapel over-night. In summer, they built a booth there and rented it to one of the beer-brewers for a summer tavern. Now it stood vacant and available for a small fee.
"Scavenger be praised," the boy exhaled. He'd worked hard. Aedelbert had decided that he would buy the boy's contract outright come spring. Especially since Caedda seemed to be developing an itch to marry and settle down. Aedelbert wished him well, so long as he waited until after they finished the smelters!
When they returned the rented cart and great-hauler, Aedelbert asked about wagons. The wagon master's eyes narrowed and he studied the stone cutter from the top of his cap to his boots. "How far and what load?"
"Two three-bird hitches carrying a hundred and fifty miner's-pfund to the ore-grinding area at Blue Cliff." He'd changed his mind about staging the stone. Blue Cliff was closer to the smelting site, but the road was not as good as the one leading to the Gift.
"When?"
"Day after the Eighth Day, if it remains dry." He was not going up there in heavy weather.
The wagon master's heavily lined face unwrinkled a little. He reminded Aedelbert of last season's apple from the bottom of the barrel, the ones you couldn't reach without tipping the barrel over. "We can do that. Cash."
"Cash." His money pouch screamed in agony as he said the words, but they had to move the stone somehow. The men shook on the bargain.
The next day the stone cutters joined others at the temple of the Scavenger. They brushed their fingers over the head of the carved rat outside the door, then bowed and removed caps and hoods as they entered the dim space. It smelled of stone and a little damp, and a dark, spicy, earth-touched incense. A seated hooded figure watched over the alter, one hand holding a black wooden staff, the other resting on the head of another oversized rat. Aedelbert hoped they were oversized. Even though he was Scavenger Born, he preferred not to meet a rat that large. Only two women joined the men, both hard ladies with cold eyes and work-scarred hands. One wore a miner's hooded coat. Was she a widow or did she work in her own name? Or was she a widow who sorted ore? He'd heard of some women who did that work. The other woman's brilliant yellow and crimson dress announced her profession—she ran the Red Schaef.
"Greetings, sons and daughters of the Lord of the Depths," a priest called.
"Hail, Lord of the Depths," the miners and others called back, bowing in ragged unison. "Hail, great Scavenger."
When they'd come to Garmouth, Aedelbert and Caedda had both been surprised to learn that the miners and others all met together on the Eighth Days. But then they'd never been any place with so many Scavenger Born prior to coming to Garmouth. Birth to or for the Scavenger was not a sign of shame or suspicion, not in the mining towns. Caedda preferred to pay his honors privately, but Aedelbert welcomed the chance to join with others of his kind. To be Scavenger Born in a port and trade city...
"The Lord of Shadows blesses thee, sons and daughters of His hand."
"All honor to the Lord of Shadows," came the reply.
After worship and the final blessing, the men and women departed, leaving their offerings if they had any. Then they broke into little groups in the courtyard, talking and doing a little casual business, nothing requiring more than a handshake contract. Aedelbert had no plans, but hesitated beside the rat statue, debating what to do next. Wassa, one of the twin masons, and Jens Saxklar approached where he stood, hands waving as they talked. Did they need him to settle a wager?
"Are you done for the season, Master Aedelbert?" Wassa asked without preamble. Beside him, Boernrad tipped his cap back from his low forehead, an annoyed frown on his plain features.
Where was this going? Aedelbert considered for a moment. "Once we finish moving two wagon loads of cut stone up to the smelter site, we will be, unless the weather turns fair for an extended sweep of days."
Boernrad blurted, "We need you to work on the wall, day contract."
Wassa and Jens both folded their arms. "Boernrad, patience," Wassa ordered. He pointed to himself. "We need a
stone-cutter in the mine, someone who can work on opening a connecting adit between shafts and not get distracted by shiny rocks." Beside him, Jens snorted and rolled his eyes.
"And we need a master stone cutter to work on the wall and water gate. We're continuing through winter, Scavenger willing," Boernrad told Aedelbert, giving Master Wassa a sideways look as he spoke.
Aedelbert considered his options. He needed some work. He did not care to use all his money over the winter, especially if he might needed to flee come spring. Should Lord Heinrik attack the city, Aedelbert did not intend to stay. Caedda could sleep for a season—and probably would if give the opportunity—but he couldn't, and they'd need to keep Ehric busy as well. "You do know that Caedda and I are work partners, and we have an apprentice."
"Yes, Master Aedelbert," Wassa said.
"You are?" Boerndrad blinked hard. "We thought you were just free contractors."
Aedelbert gritted his teeth but pointedly did not snarl. "We are work partners with an apprentice. I cannot speak for Caedda, but I will speak with him. However," he nodded toward the mountains north and east of them, and the mines tucked into their stony folds. "If the weather turns dry, we must cut stone for the smelters. That is why we are here."
The mason's face tightened as if he'd just bitten a mouthful of sour-melon thinking it was candied gold-ball. "Ah."
Wassa and Jens looked smug. Had there been a wager, or a fight? Probably the latter, and Aedelbert wondered if the masons were trying to poach miners or convince them to work on their days off. Good luck getting the fire miners to do that. They earned too much to risk losing confraternity benefits, and Scavenger knew they needed the rest days. "I will speak with Caedda," he repeated.
That evening, after they'd had two rounds at the Ore Cart, he broached the subject. Caedda ran a hand through his hair, then settled his cap again. "I was wondering when they'd ask us." He drank more of his beer. "I'm not going into the mine unless I have no other option. That's not my place. And I suspect you'd prefer not to work with the masons." Caedda raised one eyebrow until it brushed a flop of pale brown hair.
Miners and Empire Page 6