Miners and Empire

by Alma T. C. Boykin

  He found Caedda waiting for him as he felt his way along the wall to where the stairs to their apartment joined the tiny work-yard. "We're needed on the wall," Caedda breathed.

  "Why?"

  "Something's moving. One of Korvaal's priest-mages ordered me to find you and bring you with me." Caedda stood from where he perched on the wooden stair. He wore black, or dark brown. "Here. Your shirt's an arrow magnet as well as a dirt magnet." Caedda handed Aedelbert a jacket. "Priest gave it to me."

  The jacket fit. "I do not care for this, for any of this," Aedelbert whispered as he followed Caedda down the street. The itch grew even worse, threatening to bloom into a headache worthy of the morning after a journeyman's elevation to master. How had the priest known? "Ugh." he managed to dance sideways into a doorway and avoid the rest of the night soil in the street.

  "Someone's going to get a visit from the watch," Caedda observed, skirting more night soil. "Tanners will want it even if the farmers don't."

  Aedelbert risked glancing up toward the walls. Clouds hid the stars, but instead of black, he saw the bottoms of the clouds, red-black over the sky and brighter to the south and west. "The sky." He almost forgot his headache.

  "Army campfires. Don't know if they are Imperial or Aldread." Caedda concentrated on finding a way in the darkness.

  They reached a small block of houses close to the wall, and edged along until they found a covered passageway leading to the wall itself. Caedda tapped at the wooden gate, then scratched twice like a rat would. Two scratches answered, and a horrible squalling cut the dark quiet of night as rusty hinges protested. The pain in Aedelbert's ears almost dwarfed the itching in his head. "Tal's gonna feel my hand for that," a deep voice hissed. "Supposed to grease those." Caedda eased forward, and turned sideways. Aedelbert copied him and squeezed through a gate barely open enough for a rat to scoot through. "Cover your ears," the low voice ordered, and Aedelbert did. Screeaaaaaaawump. "Tal has latrine duty from now until the mountains wear flat, Korvaal be my witness. This way, duck, then climb."

  The roof sounded lower than some of the mining tunnels. Wood creaked and thudded underfoot as they climbed steep ladder-steps up onto a wooden platform. "Here's the stone-readers," the deep voice announced.

  "Good." Darkness spoke, even with torches here and there, and a mage lamp. "You sense magic?"

  Aedelbert guessed. "Yes, Honored Father. Fire spells and light spells."

  "Stay here. Tell the watch should you sense something drawing near." The hooded form gestured with a black-gloved hand and his staff, then faded into the shadows of night.

  Just before dawn, Aedelbert reared up, shaking. Something had hit the wall. Caedda stood as well and they pushed past the watch, racing down the walkway, ducking a few blows and curses as they ran. "By the south gate," Aedelbert called "Something's moving."

  "Aye." Caedda hesitated and called to the watch, "Movement at the south gate!" Then he raced and caught up with Aedelbert. They clattered down to the street, and sprinted through the darkness toward the gates.

  They slid to a halt in time to feel the ground shifting. Donwah's Daughter panted as she joined them. "He owes me, if the Lady leaves anything of him. I hate running." She shifted position, standing with her feet shoulder-width apart, staff held sideways in both hands. "Support me." Her voice grew richer and more flowing as she repeated, "Support me, stone under water."

  What was he supposed to do? Aedelbert braced against the wall, back to it, closed his eyes, and imagined hard stone, that tool-killing pale rock with darker flecks in it, under a stream, keeping the water out of the soil. The itchy ache grew worse, and worse. Pain flared like a torch in a mine and the wall shook, rocking.

  "No you don't, impious brat," the priestess intoned, her words pushing and rushing like flood waters.

  He felt the stone behind and under him shaking and wanted to run. Please, great Scavenger, help me find the cracks and the sound stone. Beside him, Caedda panted as if being chased. Aedelbert couldn't think for the pain, the itching, a buzzing like standing beside one of the great honey-fly hives that lurked in the oldest of forests and caverns. The not-sound grew louder and louder, filling the world.

  "Now!" The woman slammed the butt of her staff onto the stones and something ripped inside Aedelbert's head. He fought to hold himself, to keep from tearing.

  "Enough!" The Great Northern Emperor's words lashed out with physical force, slapping the men down. Aedelbert felt something ripped out of his very self, draining him more than a day's hard labor ever had. He groaned and staggered, then collapsed. Caedda caught him and lowered him to the ground before he fell, then sank down beside him.

  "Enough, we say." How did he know it was the Emperor? How did he hear that voice? Pain rippled again with each word. Aedelbert felt and heard the voice in his rock senses. The Emperor shone blue white like sun on snow or on smooth-polished white stone, painful bright under the noon sun at the day of summer's turning. Aedelbert closed his eyes, tried to, covered his ears, and prayed for darkness. Even Rella's great sky light shone dimmer than the Emperor's magic. "Enough," echoed again.

  Quiet. Not silence, but quiet. A bird sang. "Kill it," Aedelbert groaned. "Make it be quiet."

  "You catch it, you can kill it," Caedda murmured. "I'll help. But we saved the walls."

  Aedelbert opened his eyes a tiny bit. The priestess thumped onto the ground beside him, staff across her knees, head resting on her staff. "Yes, we did, Lady be praised." She inhaled, then exhaled, and inhaled again. "And the next time my cousin says that the god-touched lead easy, pampered lives, I'm going to thump her until her head hurts as badly as mine does."

  Oh good. He wasn't the only one with wishing someone would cut his head off so the rest of him wouldn't hurt so much. Aedelbert wanted to know what had happened, so he could stay away from it for the rest of his days.

  "Here they are!" The shout made Aedelbert's head ring. Beside him, Donwah's Daughter hissed something about drowning the speaker before his birth, a sentiment Aedelbert shared with hearty agreement. "They look half dead."

  Caedda groaned, "No, because I wouldn't hurt as much if I were half dead. Although I'll strangle him full dead if he doesn't shut up."

  "I'll help, if I live that long." Something had ripped Aedelbert's stone-sight. It ached the way he'd hurt after that rock fell on him and had broken his ribs and bruised his guts. Worse than a stab, it burned and the rest of him ached almost as much.

  A deeper, colder voice—cold as the inside of the mountains, as dark as a mine shaft at midnight on a night without stars—said, "We shall have a word with Mimir Borghindson. He has no right to draw from those who have not given consent and who do not belong to him or to our sister." Aedelbert managed to move enough to shift forward and onto his stomach. No man dared sit when the Scavenger Himself walked the earth.

  "True. And Garmouth now has no mages, and will have none for at least an eight-day." The woman's rich, quiet voice carried a touch of humor and a hint of wind rustling through ripe grain. "Perhaps we should let those feeling the lack of services present their case to His Most Imperial Majesty."

  Donwah's Daughter chuckled. "Aye. I look forward to seeing the emperor face down Goodwife Pakson." She leaned over and patted Aedelbert on the back. "Please sit. Becoming one with the cobbles is not needed any longer."

  "Better idea. You and you, help Master Aedelbert to his quarters, Master Caedda as well. Yes, you," the Scavenger's priest sounded irked, but only the priest. The god had gone. "I don't expect the stones of the wall to provide that sort of aid. You do not want to see the stones of the wall provide aid." His tone implied that rocks had moved once in just such a way. Aedelbert did not want to see stones moving in that fashion. All he wanted to see was nothing, the same thing he wanted to hear and to do.

  The Great Northern Emperor made Aedelbert ache just with his presence, and Aedelbert wondered again what the man had done to him. The Emperor was a man, he kept reminding himself, albeit a tall man wi
th very fair hair and skin who wore strange blue and white clothes and had a cat that made the Scavenger's rat seem petite in comparison. The cat blinked green eyes at Aedelbert, then yawned. He had very large, sharp teeth. So did the Emperor.

  "There is nothing in any record to show that Garmouth has been aught but an independent city since its founding," the Great Northern Emperor stated.

  Lord Heinrik looked as if he wanted to protest, but did not dare. He shrank away from the emperor without meaning to, his shoulders hunched and head held low. He knelt—no, crouched—in the great market square. The emperor stood under the portico of the council hall. Instead of cloth-of-gold and other signs of rank, Lord Heinrik wore dull red and brown. The material looked very fine, finer than Aedelbert's best jacket, but not as gaudy as the noble's own herald's garb. He did carry a sword and wore a silver coronet on dark brown hair, but otherwise might have been a merchant or prosperous miner on Eighth Day.

  The Emperor gestured with a blue-gloved hand to a stack of books and papers on the ground beside him. "These are false. The seals are too new. I can smell the wax on the seals, and no notary signed them as witness."

  Caedda smiled a little, not quite a smirk but a very knowing look. "Not the first time someone's tried that trick," he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

  "Garmouth is self-supporting." After a pause of two heart-beats, the Emperor continued, his voice carrying to all within the city's walls. "It's citizens have walls and can defend themselves. They show industry and prosperity, and have governed themselves for three generations. They are a free city in right and under imperial law."

  Lord Heinrik ducked, then straightened up. "But Most Imperial Majesty, the walls are new. The old ones were not proper defenses. And they still tolerate corruption of the waters!"

  The Emperor scowled. Aedelbert bit his tongue, fighting to hide pain as something touched his rock-sight, then faded away. "Walls are walls. Wooden walls and a moat are walls, and that changes none of the other conditions. We grant full free city status to Garmouth and her residents. In honor of her new status, we rename her Hirschar, 'Copper Town' in the oldest speech."

  A sigh floated up from the watching and listening crowd. There was something else in the name, something Aedelbert felt. He glanced at Caedda, who frowned a little and nodded. He sensed it too.

  The Emperor grew taller, colder, and the large cat swelled as well. Aedelbert squinted, then looked away. The white cat hurt his eyes, like sunlight on snow. "You, Heinrik Aldread, have abused magic and opened books that should have been left closed. For this we strip you of all revenue for this year and next, and remove Our favor for ten years. Be glad we do not do more."

  Lord Aldread's mouth opened and closed like a landed fish. The big white cat stood and stared at the man. The noble cringed away, mouth closed, and turned his gaze back down to the paving cobbles. Aedelbert risked looking to the cluster of priests standing off to the side. Several nodded, and none smiled. None were the senior members of their temples, he realized, other than Donwah's Daughter. She leaned on her staff of office, looking as tired as he still felt.

  "Hirschar, we disapprove of your failure to compensate the farmers for the corrupted waters." Councilor Colar looked as if he had been slapped, but Aedelbert was not the least surprised. Nothing came without cost, and the city and mines would have to make some payment. Radmar turned His Wheel for all. "One fourteenth of the mine earnings this year and next go to pay for the damages. The following year we expect to see an agreement between the mines, the city, and those farmers closest to the Gar, now called the Wimdere, for compensation and usage." Aedelbert glanced back at the Emperor, who held up one blue-gloved hand, palm out. "The Iron Stream ran foul before your founding, but proper care has not been taken. Your patron is not an excuse for stealing extra benefit and ignoring others' losses."

  No one looked happy, including the farmers clustered off to the side in the front of the observers. One of them opened his mouth, and then closed it when the woman beside him said something behind a large hand. She looked as if she could heft an entire great hauler carcass with one arm while beating laundry with the other. Her husband appeared equally sturdy. The man's face reddened a little, but he kept his peace. In fact, his expression almost matched Colar's frown. A good bargain left all satisfied and none completely pleased. That fit the faces of the men and women around him, Aedelbert decided.

  The gathered priests and priestesses gestured their agreement, although Donwah's Daughter and the priest of Korvaal glared at the emperor. Or were they just squinting into the sun? A man Aedelbert knew as a light mage also scowled. The emperor said a few more words, which Aedelbert ignored in favor of grabbing the wrist attached to the hand trying to lift his purse. He bent the hand backwards, digging his thumb into the spot between the bones until he heard a whimper of pain. Aedelbert turned, twisted the girl's arm up behind her back, then shoved her down and away from him. He planted his boot on her rump to encourage her departure. She almost fell, caught herself, and ducked a buffet from a weaver's wife.

  "Your patron is not an excuse," Aedelbert reminded the thief. Other people added their own quite comments, none flattering, and she scuttled away. Aedelbert turned back around in time to bow with the others as the emperor pivoted and stepped into the shadows of the council hall.

  The imperial court had taken over the building for the duration of the Emperor's stay. As much as his beasts and courtiers ate, the farmers should be delighted, as were the fine bakers and others. The tax remission for the next half-year in lieu of cash payment for their hospitality pleased most town citizens, although the mine revenue going to the farmers probably stung. Not Aedelbert's problem. Finishing the last smelter before the snow fell was his problem.

  "Master Aedelbert Starken," a woman in white and blue inclined her head toward him. "Master Caedda Quaedel."

  Aedelbert licked dry lips. "Yes, Mistress?"

  "I have been sent to ask you to come to a small, and short, mage convocation. His Most Imperial Majesty insists." Something in her voice and hard blue eyes warned against refusing. A large white cat stalked around until he stood behind Aedelbert, blocking his escape. The combination was most persuasive, even though the Emperor was in gross error if he thought Aedelbert was a mage. The woman pointed with one hand toward the council hall. "Now, please sirs."

  "You going to argue with the cat?" Caedda inquired, but very quietly.

  Aedelbert shook his head. The beast came almost to his mid-thigh, and he was not a short man. Ten claws and several large teeth outnumbered one long belt-knife. The two stone-cutters followed their guide into the council hall. They went up the stairs and were ushered into the main meeting room.

  Someone had shifted the furnishings, removing benches and council table. Now a very large, blue and white chair dominated the room, as did the man seated in the chair. The green-eyed cat loomed beside the chair on a smaller, cushioned platform. He washed one paw, a paw as large as Aedelbert's own hand. The priests and some of the city's mages stood along the sides of the room, or along the back wall.

  Something felt wrong. Very wrong. Aedelbert's confidence faded and sweat dampened his hands. When no one else moved or spoke, Aedelbert and Caedda knelt to the man in the chair.

  "You may rise." They stood. Brilliant green eyes met Aedelbert's own and he felt something moving around him, shifting like a flow of air, or stone about to crack. His headache returned and nausea with it. The gaze shifted and the pain faded.

  "We have been informed, at great length and in some precise detail, that we erred in not considering the effects of Our work on un-vowed magic workers."

  What did he mean? Un-vowed magic workers? Mages who were not sworn to the gods as clergy? That made sense, but something told Aedelbert that he was missing the point.

  "Why are you not vowed?" The Emperor's voice carried no hint of emotion.

  Aedelbert blinked. "Ah, Most Imperial Majesty, I have not been called to serve a god other than th
rough worship as all men are."

  "Likewise, Most Imperial Majesty." Caedda gestured a little with his right hand.

  One white-blonde eyebrow rose over the green eyes. "Mage vows. You are both magic workers and have not taken mage vows as is required of all magic workers not called to serve a god."

  But he wasn't a mage! Aedelbert protested silently, not certain how to safely explain without angering the emperor.

  Caedda coughed. Before Aedelbert could pull together a safe response, Caedda said, "Most Imperial Majesty, we are not mages. There is no mage known who reads rocks and stones for weaknesses, who carves them, builds with them. We have a knack for understanding rock, Most Imperial Majesty, but that is not magic. Is it?"

  The cat sneezed. "Hugan, cover your nose and maw when you sneeze, like a civilized beast," the emperor admonished the cat. "We've had this discussion before." The cat gave the man a look of pure feline disdain, sniffed, and curled up on the padded platform, back to the emperor. The emperor studied the underside of his hat and shook his head a little. Yoorst's priest smiled with the corner of his mouth.

  Then the Emperor's green eyes turned their attention back to Aedelbert. "You worked magic when you supported Donwah's Daughter and assisted Us," the Emperor pointed to his own chest, "in defeating Aldread's battle magic. The young pup had no idea what he could have wrought had we not deflected the energies he ripped from the land and returned them to the soil where they belonged." The Emperor frowned and ice filled the air. "Stripping the goodness and life from the farms for a decade would have been the least damage, along with ruining the city and the mines. Even We have no idea what sort of echoes might have rung from that folly."

  The Scavenger's Daughter inclined her head toward the Emperor. "If our oldest accounts are correct, Most Imperial Majesty, he would have brought down several hillsides, and possibly have warped the waters and the beasts of the field that drank from those waters. If the accounts are correct."