Something sounded off to Aedelbert. "Would the priests really declare the household goods of the family as salvage for the god?" That didn't sound like the laws he was familiar with, but Garmouth was not Platmouth or Harnancourd.
Paegan leaned forward and winked. "Aye, they would but then they'd give the true household property—leb-goods and her dower—back to Hildi and her children as a mercy gift. Hardrad would have to pay salvage tax on the rest to get it back. If he doesn't buy it back, then folks at the auction will bid low and give the goods straight to Hildi under dower and leb. Temple takes the money for mercy coin."
"Ah, that fits other places, just different order of things." It wouldn't be the first time the temples or neighbors had upheld the law and then granted mercy to the innocent parties. "The fire, though..."
The other man nodded, a cold anger in his eyes. "Town watch's talkin' to people, and looking at who came in but is not a legal guest or citizen. And the masons are hiring anything that can pull a stone saw."
"Anything?"
"Almost anything. Apparently schaef are too careless, and great-haulers keep wantin' more pay." Both men chuckled at the very idea.
"Wonder which guild the great-haulers would pay membership to—stone workers or carters?"
Paegan stood and laughed again. "Priests of Yoorst and Scavenger can sort that out."
Aedelbert finished his smallbeer and mulled the question over as he went to the bath. What would you do with a great-hauler? They were born for Yoorst, that all men could see, but if one were born to the Scavenger? How would it handle tools and stand upright? No, he'd not be the one to ask the priests, but the question amused him.
Talk among the men in the soaking tub centered on the fire. "Not sky fire, that we know," a man with notary's callouses stated.
"Likely not a schaef with a grudge, either," one of the masons grunted.
"Never seen a schaef could climb that high and don' want to see such," another man stated, slapping the water a little to emphasize his point.
"Then stay away from Mistress Leoflaed's tinctures, because schaef in the trees are the most sensible of the things you'll see," the notary warned. "She makes 'em strong. They work, but they're strong."
A tanner shook his head, then leaned it back against the edge of the tub once more. "My lady wife says steer clear of Leoflaed herself unless you have business with her. She's out for Wassa and not to marry. And she's been talkin' bout how the farmers have the right of it, and they have first right to the water from Iron Spring and Wimdere River."
"Korvaal be my witness, Wassa had nothing to do with that case," the mason stated.
"You know that, I know that, the gods know that, but she won't accept it. All Wassa did was stand for his brother when his brother filed a wild-woods claim and the priests and court upheld it." The tanner heaved a sigh. "She should be crying for justice for the judge who refused to accept the papers claimin' the castanea trees as wild wood."
The notary nodded and closed his eyes, soaking in the heat from the water. "Her father should have had the record notarized and witnessed, but no, he couldn't be arsed, and the judge refused the testimony. Yes, she should have gotten proper payment for cultivated land, or been given the usufruct at least. No, Wassa had nothing to do with it aside from confirming that his brother was his brother and paying the notary until his brother could repay him." He sighed. "She needs to just drop it. I am so tired of hearing about those damn trees, Korvaal forgive me. She keeps tryin' to find legal recourse and the time's past and gone."
"No one carries a grudge like a woman scorned," Aedelbert observed.
"Women and Heinrik Aldread," the tanner snorted.
"Point," Aedelbert replied. After another while he forced himself to get out of the warm water before he fell asleep and drowned.
Caedda and Ehric met him at the corner of the beast market. "Good thing we were in the bucket line," Caedda told him. "The watch is making certain everyone with a resident permit is accounted for last night."
"I heard. But everyone?"
Ehric kept glancing over his shoulder, then nodded. "Yes, sirs. They asked my guardian for the names of all the guests and what their business was, where they were after fire-cover hours."
A larger group or small herd of men and women hurried past, boots and clogs clattering on the cobbles of the market pavement. "They what?" a voice demanded.
A man replied, "No idea, but I want to hear for myself."
"Wonder if he's claiming the Gift?" The woman sounded scared.
"If he does, he'll have the Scavenger Himself to deal with. Don't think even a noble wants that." The third man sounded more confident than Aedelbert would have been.
The two stone cutters and their apprentice shared a shrug and followed along. "Might as well hear the original version for ourselves, so we can hear the embroidered versions later." Caedda's voice held a little laughter and Ehric smiled. But not as much as usual. Was he falling ill?
The three joined the crowd gathered in the main market square between the Scavenger's Temple and the Council Hall. The younger boys clambered up onto the iron frame over the well and were pulled down by sensible adults. An overdressed man wearing a tabard heavy with thread-of-gold embroidery stood in front of the Council Hall, up on the third step. He carried a large roll of paper or parchment in his hands. Two men in farmers' clothes stood on the step below him and heavily-armed men in livery lurked in the shade of the covered porch. "The Aldread arms," Ehric said pointing with his thumb to the messenger.
Whatever they were, Aedelbert couldn't make out the design for the gold and show. "Hear the words of Lord Heinrik of Aldread, protector of the Ore Mountains, Count of Garmouth, Wassala, Newfield, and Esterbrook, lord of the eastern reaches." Several men folded their arms and mutters about "What protector?" flowed around the stone cutters.
"His lordship has been patient during the past fall and winter, knowing the hardships of cold and labor. However, the persistent inability of the people of Garmouth to understand the law, and their refusal to accept the truth of their position has pushed matters to their end." The messenger breathed, then called even louder, "Garmouth has no city right, has never had city right, and belongs in its entire to the Lords of Aldread. The Aldread lords provide all the defense needed by Garmouth and the mines around it.
"The walls must be torn down and the materials turned over as a harm-payment to Lord Heinrik. Furthermore, because of the cost he has expended in defending the lands from intruders, three sevenths are to be paid to him. There is no emperor, and no point in paying the lord's monies to an imposter. Hear these—"
Whatever came next disappeared under a furious roar of denial. "You lie," was probably the mildest retort. Several people waved hammers or laundry bats and suggested what Heinrik could do with said implements. The farmers and soldiers with the messenger drew closer to him, as if fearing an attack by a mob.
Stithulf Cwenson, the bergmeister, stepped out of the crowd and raised his hands. Something closer to quiet returned. "Did Count Heinrik send proof of the Emperor's non-existence? Because that contradicts what other people of good repute and knowledge have stated for a year and more. And we have not had either his lordship or his honored sire come to provide justice or to defend us for two generations. By mining law, that negates ownership."
The messenger tried to look down his nose at the bergmeister. He failed. "His most gracious lordship has provided both within living memory as records will show. That is, if anyone here can read." Stithulf raised his hand again, forestalling another roar. "Remove the walls, pay your taxes, show proper deference to your lord, and cease fouling the waters, any waters. No water is to leave the mines, or to enter it."
"I want to see him enforce that," Caedda chuckled so quietly that Aedelbert almost didn't hear it. Indeed, that would be entertaining to watch. A noble ordering rock not to piss or weep, and enforcing that command. Even the Scavenger's priests never tried that.
"And if we do not
comply with his lordship's requests?" The Bergmeister kept his tone civil and mild.
"If you refuse to obey these commands, the walls will come down by force and all water will be diverted from Garmouth. His most noble lordship commands powers you cannot imagine and will use them if you defy his just and fair commands." The farmers with the messenger looked eager, almost predatory, and Aedelbert wondered who they thought would buy their crops if the city and mines were abandoned. It would not be the foresters and charcoal burners, or the beasts of the mountain and the air.
The stone cutters worked their way out of the crowd. Aedelbert had seen crowds turn into mobs, and neither he nor Caedda cared to be anywhere near that. "So, what stories will fill the air by tomorrow?" Caedda asked.
"Oh, probably that the farmers were training great haulers to attack on command, or something, and that the lord is a battle mage," Aedelbert snorted.
Ehric gulped. "Battle mage? What's that, sir?"
"There are stories that before and after the Great Cold, some men could use magic as a weapon. And there are stories that the men of the north have cats as large as a schaef because the rats are even larger." Aedelbert gave both the same weight of truth, that being none.
The next day, Ehric acted so distracted and nervous as they were preparing to return to the work site that Caedda stopped him. "What is going on?"
"Nothing, sir."
Caedda downed tools right there and folded his arms. "Nothing. The same nothing that has you tied up in more knots than a fishing net."
"Um, well, sirs, ah," the boy gulped hard, head down, shoulders hunched. "Um, this way." Aedelbert liked this less and less and he almost refused. Caedda shook his head and mouthed something, then followed the boy. They wound their way through a less-than-prosperous group of houses and one of those taverns that a wise man avoided. At last Ehric tapped three times on the top of a low door, then twice on the left side. The men folded their arms, waiting. An answering tap sounded, then they heard a door bar sliding. The half-cracked wooden boards slid to the side and the boy eased in. The men followed.
"Trwiss!"
"Hush, Bonna," a girl hissed back in the darkness.
Bonna? The great-hauler that the farmer's daughter had used. Oh no, she'd stolen the bird from her father and had run away. Mildthryd had been her name. Aedelbert almost groaned aloud. What had Ehric gotten himself—and them—into? If he'd dishonored her...
"Master Aedelbert, Master Caedda, I can explain," Ehric began.
"I asked him to hide Bonna and me," the girl interrupted. Aedelbert could just see her where she sat beside the bird, holding the great hauler down in a nest-like pile of straw. "Father, that is, father said he was going to kill Bonna and beat me again for not being a boy. He said it was my fault that the his crop isn't growing well and that I'm not a proper woman and if I was I'd have been a boy and brought money in even though Bonna and I work as hard as we can and please don't tell anyone I'll work for my keep I promise." She gasped for breath. "I promise I will work for my keep."
Scavenger have mercy, what now? Aedelbert rubbed his forehead.
"Sirs, I saw her father beating her, a public beating," Ehric said. "He just walked up to her and began strapping her, then hit her with his open hand. That's not right." He stood between the men and the girl, feet shoulder-width apart, fists clenched, a determined look in his eyes. "It's not right."
"Were there other witnesses to the beating?" Caedda sounded calmer than Aedelbert felt.
The boy nodded. "Priestess of Gember told her father to stop. He almost threatened her too, raised his fist, then stopped before anyone could step in."
"He said he has father right and he can do what he wants, when he wants." Mildthryd gulped again. "Does the law allow that, sirs?"
"No." Aedelbert did not know much law, but that he knew. "A father may discipline his children, but not a public beating without very good cause." Now that his eyes had grown used to the darkness, he observed that Mildthryd looked even leaner than she had in the fall, and her clothes sported more patches. "Child, has your father fed and clothed you to the honor of the family?"
"No, sir. He tries, I think, but no." She whispered. "He won't remarry, says there's no woman with enough property to be worth it."
"Do you have any brothers?" Caedda asked.
"Three, sir, but they all left as soon as they could take hire, and I don't know where they are."
That told Aedelbert far more than he wanted to know.
Caedda's face hardened. Ehric backed up a half-step, hands coming up as if he held a staff. "No, Ehric, I'm not going to attack you or demand that Mildthryd return to her sire. But she can't stay here for much longer without falling ill or someone finding her." He gave Aedelbert a significant look. "That shed beside Mistress Godgifu's ovens. The one we rent to hold tools and a rented great-hauler and cart."
They hadn't but apparently they were about to. Mildthryd brushed her hair back from her face and he saw a horrible bruise and cuts on her forearm. Aedelbert wanted to hit her sire. "I'll move some tools and there'll be room. If you can keep Bonna quiet."
The girl nodded hard.
Aedelbert understood frustration, but no man had a right to hurt his women, not unless they attacked him first. And he highly doubted that Mildthryd had come at her sire with a knife or fists.
What a complicated job this smelter contract had become!
Mildthryd looked from Caedda to Aedelbert and back, then ducked her head and whispered, "Ah, and my father says the farmers and soldiers are going to humble Garmouth once and for all. Do I have to stay in the city? I don't think I will be safe."
Oh dung and rat droppings. Now what?
9
Dung and Solutions
"Master Winfrith needs great-hauler dung, aye?" Ehric said, vibrating with an idea. That or he needed to empty his bowels.
"Aye. What does that have to—" Aedelbert saw where Ehric signaled. "Right. No renting the shed. The great-hauler and handler come up to the smelter site and work, and provide great-hauler dung for the brasque."
"How do we get said great-hauler and handler out of the walls, pray tell?" Caedda inquired.
Aedelbert grinned and raised one eyebrow. "How do all Scavenger Born do things?"
Not long after, a boy and great-hauler, and the three stone cutters, walked out of the eastern gate by the Scavenger's chapel and started the long trek up to the smelters. Aedelbert looked around for watchers, and saw none—No, wait, a woman in the shadows. She ducked away and he caught a glimpse of her buckets and shoulder yoke and relaxed. Just someone out late for water, probably cleaning things and had to fetch more.
The great-hauler wore her harness but pulled no load yet. Aedelbert studied the harness as they walked. It had once been an excellent piece of equipment, perhaps when Mildthryd's sire's sire purchased it. The girl had patched it as often as she patched her clothes. She carried the clothes and another set of women's things in a bundle tucked into an old miner's back-basket. "Has the bird ever pulled a drag?" Caedda asked.
Mildthryd blinked several times, stepped over some rocks, and said, "Yes. A stone-boat once and we've dragged wood and other things not worth wear on the cart."
Where had those rocks come from? More littered the road up to Blue Cliff and Aedelbert stopped, shielded his eyes with his free hand and peered up at the cliff. Something... More pieces of small stone littered the toe of the slope, and holes—or were they just shadows—pocked one layer of the wall. "I don't like the look of that, above the white. Move faster."
The others sped their steps. The Scavenger had revealed His Gift after a series of storms, sweeping away part of the mountain and baring the end of the veins. He'd taken three farms and who knew how many beasts as a partial payment. Aedelbert did not care to be part of the toll for another mine if he could help it. Besides, basic sense told a man that if something were falling other than rain and snow, standing and gawping up at it led to nothing good. "I don't care to be this sea
son's horrible warning."
"No, sir," Ehric averred. "Anyone who stops to stare up when stones are comin' down's probably got less sense than a great-hauler. No offense," he told the bird beside him.
They paused at the grinders beside the entry to Blue Cliff and warned the men and two women sorting and grinding the raw ore about the debris on the road. An old woman looked up from separating good ore from waste rock and sighed loudly. "We're overdue for a drop. Been too quiet. M'lord Scavenger's not touched the stones for over a year."
"You take a new apprentice?" one of the supervisors inquired, eyeing Bonna and Mildthryd.
"No, sir. Turold hired the lad and bird, Turold and Winfrith both. Two of the smelters need great hauler-dung during the firing." Aedelbert held up both hands. "No, I don't know why. But it costs less to bring the bird and handler up to the smelters than to haul loads of dung."
The one-armed man smiled with one side of his mouth and shook his head a little. "Metal men are strange. Never met a smelter or smith who wasn't a little," he touched his thumb to the side of his head, fingers folded, "ye ken?"
"Agreed, sir, agreed."
The four humans plus bird reached the smelter site just before dark. Mildthryd disappeared around some rocks, then returned, settled Bonna, and fell asleep beside the bird, almost dropping on top of the great-hauler.
Caedda intercepted Winfrith and Turold before they could say anything. "The 'boy's' a girl, been beaten and neglected by her sire, mother's dead, brothers all hired away from the farm and never returned. The bird is hers, she's used to working. The bird can pull a drag."
"You have proof?" Turold sounded—Aedelbert couldn't quite read the other man's voice.
Ehric made the sign for god-oath with his left hand. "I swear by the Scavenger's Rat that Mildthryd suffered a public beating with at least four witnesses, including a priestess of Gember. The girl bears the marks of that and other beatings, and her father has not cared for her to the honor of the family. May the Dark God hear my word and strike me if I swear falsely."
Miners and Empire Page 12