Miners and Empire

by Alma T. C. Boykin

  Caedda shook all over. "That is pure evil, Master Aedelbert, pure evil. Next you'll remind me of those meat-filled hand-pies."

  "What meat? Cat's not meat."

  Dunstan and Master Ehoric Schneid scowled at each other, and Dunstan shifted his grip on his big hammer. Master Schneid scolded, "I told you this isn't fine work! Faster, man, if we are to get this wall done by snowfall."

  Dunstan shook the hammer at the master mason. "And I said that if you want the gate to close and open properly and still let water in and out, we've got to cut fine and careful. If you don't want the gate to work, then I'll hurry."

  Aedelbert shifted so that he stood with his back to the men and crouched once more. The hard, dark stone wanted to chip despite its fine, tight grain and even texture. He had to take his time, small blows and small bits of rock. At least the overnight rain had rinsed the blocks and eased the heat. The sun pounded his shoulders, baked his head under the hood, and reflected back from the stone. One or two of the apprentices had taken off their shirts and worked in nothing more than breeches. Aedelbert thought them fools. One nasty chip hitting chest or shoulder would put an end to it, as would a man-downing sunburn. Beside him, Ehric coughed, then resumed marking the next cut. They needed a channel for a timber to fit into the stone where the gate would attach. The carpenters had already shaped the timbers, thanks be, so they had the measure of the wood.

  "If they brain each other, do we get a rest day, sir?" Aedelbert almost didn't hear Ehric's words over the sounds of hammers and chisels and saws around them.

  "Just hope they don't ruin that block. I don't want to have to cut a replacement," Aedelbert warned. "Those curves..." For once Aedelbert sided with Dunstan, although not of his own free will. Master Scheneid would make any man side with the opposition just out of spite.

  "The rock don' like the curves," Ehric whispered. He straightened up for a moment, twisted left and right, then resumed marking the stone.

  "Do not look at the rock like that with the masons around us, please."

  Ehric ducked. "It just... the layers do not cut into curves, sir. The grain tears, like the carpenter was complainin' about that last timber, sir."

  Aedelbert relaxed. "That is true. Some stones do have a grain like wood, and the same problem. At least we don't have to wet the stone, raise the grain, plane it smooth, and then finish the block." A mason's apprentice passing behind him snickered.

  After some while, Ehric finished marking the channel and triple-checking the measure. "Sir, can you paint stone or varnish it?"

  Aedelbert had to think for a few blows of the hammer, then sat back and looked at his work. "Yes, but not most stone. Either the paint slides off, or it soaks into the surface the way water soaks into a millstone."

  "If you want color on a wall, you put a wooden wall in front of it," a journeyman mason announced as he passed the other direction. "Who'd paint a stone wall?"

  "Someone not wantin' water blown into the rock by storms, like they did with the town council's hall here," Boernrad told the younger man. "Are you finished with that piece?"

  Aedelbert heard a gulp and something stuttered that might have been, "Almost sir, I was just going to find a master to check my work."

  Sure he was. Aedelbert turned his attention to the channel Ehric had just marked. He saw a little extra notation half-way down, an X with a dot over it, their sign for a bad spot in the rock. Had the boy—? Aedelbert squatted down and studied at the rock in the light. He removed his chip hood and looked again. The color darkened a little above and below the warning mark, not much but enough to warn that the rock changed somehow. That I'll take, and no, that journeyman was not looking for a master, he was loafing, or trying to watch Ehric and I. By the rat's tail, I'm tired of that. Just because he was not a master mason was no grounds for the apprentices and journeymen to think they had to keep an eye on Aedelbert's work.

  He wasn't the only one. That evening, as the light faded to the point they could no longer cut safely, he heard Caedda's voice over the others'. "I am a certified master stone cutter. You have seen my ring of mastery have you not?" A pause, then "Have you not?" Aedelbert and Ehric set their tools in their bags and hurried to the sound. A round lump in a journeyman's apron seemed to be whining, if the color filling Caedda's face were any warning. "Do you insist on supervising your master this way?"

  "N-n-no, of course not, but a stone cutter's not as skilled as a mason!"

  Caedda turned his head and looked Aedelbert in the eye. "That's grounds to down tools, boy." His words brought all other motion to a halt. "You insult me, my fellow masters, and my craft."

  Master Schneid jumped into the argument. He grabbed the journeyman's arm and almost ripped it out of the shoulder, pulling him backwards so hard. "You did what?"

  "Answer him," Caedda ordered.

  "I just said that a stone cutter's not as skilled as a mason so I needed to check that his work was as good as ourn, Master Schneid." The whining tone made Aedelbert clench his teeth. Beside him, Ehric spat into the dirt with disgust.

  The master clouted the journeyman's ear so hard the round man staggered and almost fell. "Stone cutters shape and cut, start with raw stone in the cliff and work from there. We do finer work, but they do more kinds of it, oaf. We're all stone workers, all under the Scavenger's hand, and a master's a master. I should take your apron for insulting the crafts like that."

  "I will take it. I misjudged his fitness for the honor, Master Schneid," a lean man with no hair said. "I will not err so in the future. Come, boy." The watchers all turned their backs, Aedelbert and Ehric with them, and returned to cleaning up their work and preparing for the morrow. Caedda caught up with the pair as they staggered onto an outdoor bench at The Ore Cart.

  None of them spoke. Caedda raised one bandaged hand and the serving girl hurried up with two large and one smaller tankard. "Master Andatson's gift," she told them, then bustled off. They drank. The master had paid for the good beer, thick and dark with a hint of smoke under the sweeter first flavor. She returned with a platter of meat slices, crisp slices of vegetable, and flat bread. "I'll take payment when you want refills."

  "Busy tonight," Aedelbert warned, leaning to the side so he could see into the main room. Master Paegan himself was serving tables and cleaning after men left. "Very busy."

  "One of the apprentices said that he overheard a miner saying that Wulfric hit pure silver as he widened a gallery," Ehric reported after a few mouthfuls. "He's buying a round for all Scavenger Born in town tonight as part of his thanks offering."

  Caedda's eyes opened until Aedelbert wondered if he could see through his partner's head and out the back. "Scavenger bless, that's quite a find. Glad he recognized it."

  "Aye, and that Master Wassa was up looking at Blue Cliff and could certify it right then and there. I heard the same from Boernrad," Aedelbert said.

  "They'll need that silver," Caedda half-whispered, half-sighed. "And I need more bread." He grabbed the small loaf before Ehric could. Two more remained on the platter, and Aedelbert snagged the larger of the two, along with another chunk of meat.

  The next morning they heard the sound of stone scraping stone before they reached the work-site. "And heave!" More scraping sounds. "Heave!"

  Dunstan hurried past. "Finishing the top of the water gate. Inner side's done, lowering gate into place before we move the top stones."

  Aedelbert and Ehric both groaned. They couldn't help it. "As fast as we can until we get to the bad spot," Aedelbert warned. They'd decided the night before to take turns working on the channel, since it was a straight cut. Except for the bad place. "The one not cutting sharpens and gets water."

  "Yes, sir."

  Aedelbert cut the first section. After almost a hand's width, he stopped. "You go to the top of the colored area, then I'll take over," he ordered.

  "Yes sir!" Neither wanted to deal with the odd place, but better Aedelbert than Ehric. The boy worked with care, going slower than his master had.
That suited Aedelbert. What you did right would not have to be done twice. The dark stone cooperated, although frequent wetting and sharp chisels helped. Both Aedelbert and Caedda had commissioned new tools, as hard as they worked their current set. Thanks be the smiths in Garmouth were used to such work.

  As he watched Ehric, occasionally suggesting a different cut angle or grip, Aedelbert considered the water gate. The design seemed a little much. Instead of a single passage through the wall, the town had two gates per entry and exit. One in the main wall with an iron-wrapped wooden flow-gate, and then a small stone building outside the wall with a flow gate behind a solid gate. The solid gate would not stop the water entirely, but would keep adults and large things from coming in unless they could wiggle under it like minnows. Then they'd meet the iron and heavy wood flow-gate, which had teeth that touched the bottom of the channel. The moat did not have such things, of course, except for a flow-gate where the water entered the moat. Twice a year that opened and men cleaned out any trash. But four double water gates seemed excessive, two for the mill-stream and two for the other stream. If he were paying for the things, he'd have either a single gate in the wall, or a wooden structure behind the wall, not stone in front of it.

  "Something's strange," Ehric panted. He stepped away from the stone block and slid the hammer into his work belt, then removed his hood and shook the dust and chips out of it. "The rock," he caught himself. "It is not cutting the same, sir." The cut stopped just above the warning mark.

  "Hmm." Aedelbert pulled on his own hood, studied the channel, and set his chisel, then gave it a tap. Satisfied, he dealt a harder blow. The blade slid deep, almost too deep. "Ah." He cut the sides of the piece, and on a whim tried to pry it out. Poingk! The chunk popped clear, making both stone cutters duck. Ehric ran one finger from the side of the channel along the surface of the stone, following the discoloration. He looked a cautious question at Aedelbert.

  "I don't know, but this isn't my block." He would have rejected it as a single working piece, and instead used it as two. Perhaps the wooden beam would lock the piece so it wouldn't split if rain got in and froze, or if something hit it from the face. "I'll do this section, and then below, just in case."

  "Thank you, sir."

  The soft layer cut too easily, as if the stone were unripe in the center—like baking cheeses. They made far better progress on the channel than they'd planned, and lacked a hand-width of the bottom when the day ended. As he walked back to his and Caedda's room, Aedelbert mulled over the stone. How many of the wall blocks had that same flaw? Or was it a flaw in a wall block as opposed to a gate block, or just an odd spot? A man worked with what he had, when no better choice could be found, but... The stone bothered him, nagging a little.

  As the three resumed work the next day, Caedda stopped by, watching the last few cuts. "Good news. The stone is almost done, and the wood still good where the stone's not finished yet."

  "And the bad?" No more money to pay them, the silver find was a false find, Leoflaed had gotten Lord Heinrik to hand-fast her to Caedda by proxy, part of the wall had collapsed overnight, the price of beer was going up...

  "Garmouth's favorite noble sent a messenger yesterday evening. He arrived just before gate closing, read his warning, and then tried to leave by the unfinished section of wall."

  "Oh, sir, was that what my guardian meant? Something about a fool climbing the wooden wall?" Ehric sounded a little too pleased with himself.

  "Likely. No one else is so foolish as to try that." Caedda folded his arms. "Didn't make it, of course, which proves that the city can keep those inside in and the other way as well."

  That should prove to Lord Heinrik that the walls were real and solid. Although, given that he seemed denser than breadstone boulders... "I trust he left at dawn."

  "That he did, calling the gate guard all sorts of unkind things and suggesting that the man's parents both worked for a living, one on her back." Caedda smirked. "I don't think the guard appreciated the messenger's suggestion."

  That afternoon, Master Schneid called all the men together. "The council refused to obey Lord Heinrik. They say they have word from the Great Northern Emperor that he will come adjudicate the dispute." He held both hands up to prevent a roar of questions. "They also called in every man from the mines to take up defense. The messenger says that the lord has an army and is an eight-day's travel away."

  Aedelbert felt sick at his stomach. He wanted no part in this. He was not of the city. He picked at supper and ate only because his body demanded something, preferably an entire shaefhead of beer.

  He woke in the night to hear heavy rain pounding the roof and shutters, and something else, something deep and low that he felt more than heard. The heart of the storm was probably on the other side of the mountain, and he felt thunder.

  12

  Closing the Gates

  Despite the fine mist filling the air next morning, Aedelbert and Caedda both smelled something bitter and earthy. Aedelbert squinted up at the clouds covering the sky, then looked at the chimneys of the buildings along the street from the southern gate's heavy, round towers to the main square. He saw smoke trickles but nothing too dark or too white. Smooth creamy plasterwork covered every building, except where the owners had paid to have the plaster tinted rose with schaef blood, or blue with ground tailings from Blue Cliff. Well, at least it appeared as a sort of blue when it lurked beside a pink neighbor.

  "Not smoke. Something else, not dust, either." Caedda walked a few steps farther before adding, "I don't like the stillness."

  "No." They didn't hear birds, nor people moving around, nor wind in the trees on the slopes above Garmouth. Aedelbert thought he could feel the hair on his neck and arms rising. "Something not good happened last night."

  "You felt it too?"

  "Thought it was thunder behind the ridge," he nodded toward the Gift.

  Caedda licked his lips, then cleared his throat a little. "I'm thinkin' not." He looked a touch greenish above his collar, and Aedelbert's own stomach trembled unhappily. Had the Scavenger taken back the Gift and the men in it?

  They left their tools with the masons and joined half the town cramming into the little market square before the Scavenger's chapel by the northeastern gate, the one leading to the mines. A man in miner's clothes stood beside one of the Scavenger's priests on the small platform with the rat statue on it. The priest tapped his staff three times on the stone and everyone fell silent. He turned toward the miner.

  The bearded man coughed, then called, "A cliff between here and the Gift dropped in the storm. The miners are safe and the mouth of the Gift remains open. The shift supervisor triggered a set-spell to let the Fathers know." The crowd shifted as half the men and women went to their knees in thanks. "But the miners cannot return to Garmouth until they clear the slide. Master Jens Saxklar believes it will be four days, perhaps less, perhaps more if the rains return. They have food and water, and all men are safe."

  A sigh rippled from the crowd. Aedelbert eeled his way out of the edge of the people and returned to where the masons were working. "A slide last night blocked the mine road but the miners are safe and the mine mouth remains open," he informed them. "Shift supervisor had a set spell and used it to inform the priests."

  "Would that he'd told the rest of us," a woman grumbled. The men bowed as Alruna, Donwah's Daughter, swept up from the street leading to the water gate. "But such spells demand much, even when used by those with some magic in their blood, and the Scavenger's priests would know which families needed to be informed." The priestess turned her free hand palm up and gestured for the men to stand. "Thank you for the honor, good sirs. I have blessed the water gate as it stands. When you are finished, I will bless it once more, so that all will know that it was built with the knowledge and approval of the Lady of Waters."

  That was a good thing. A very, very good thing, because if she didn't someone might protest. Aedelbert had seen a man demand that a bridge be removed because it h
ad been constructed without consulting Donwah's Daughter. Since it had been a stone replacement for wood in the exact same location, no one had thought to ask for permission, they'd merely informed the temple of the improvements. Apparently that was not sufficient. Since the complaint was made by the man who operated a ferry just upstream of the bridge, the gossip and grumbling had told Aedelbert that he wasn't the only one to suspect that more than pure devotion to Donwah motivated the man's complaint. Aedelbert snorted a little. Lord Heinrik would be just the kind to do something like that, or some of the farmers downstream.

  Caedda returned a little later, but had no additional news. The masons and stone-cutters worked hard, the cooler air encouraging them. Fear of the approaching army likely played a part as well, Aedelbert knew. He allowed Ehric the honor of finishing the channel on the block, then called in Master Schneid to sign the work so they could get paid. "Are you ill, boy? You look pale?" The master mason turned to Aedelbert and raised his eyebrows, as if inquiring about the night before.

  "No, sir. I think I stood head-down for too long on the last cut, since we didn't want to rotate the block." Already Ehric's face had more color, and he drank more from his water skin.

  "That will do it." Schneid made his mark on the block and moved to the next completed work. The stone-cutters cleaned up and set about dressing their tools, inspecting them for chips and dull edges. No master let his tools go dull, that Aedelbert's own teacher had pounded into his skull with a stone-mallet. Nor did he depend on his apprentices and journeymen to do the task for him.

  Boernrad came over as the two finished sharpening chisels. "Master Aedelbert, you give your apprentice a great deal of responsibility."

  "Aye. The Scavenger blessed him with a natural eye for stone cutting, so once he learned the tools, Master Caedda and I started him on rock. Nothing fancy, and certainly not the touchy work yet." Aedelbert straightened up and stretched his back a little. "No point in wasting a third pair of hands when we only need rough work and plain cuts for a job. For finer work," Aedelbert folded his thumb under the fingers of the hand Beornrad couldn't see. "That he's not ready for yet. Another year or two, perhaps less, perhaps more if he grows much faster."