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 Any spikes? Nylan asked, knowing that Huldran wanted to know.
 A small keg-those were half a gold, and they wouldn t budge on that, but
you and Huldran put them high on the list.
 We can t finish the bathhouse roof without them, said the marine.  Not
without taking all winter.
 What else?
 Heavy wool cloth. Rough as a new recruit. Some tanned hides for winter
gloves, another eight barrels of flour and two of dried fruit. A bag of salt
for drying whatever we slaughter or bring in from hunting. Another big kettle
for Kyseen. A half-dozen needles-another half gold, but how can anyone sew
without needles?-and a roll or spool of heavy thread that s almost twine. And
a bunch of little things, some spices, and a big bag of onions and two sacks
of potatoes, and a barrel of dried corn for the livestock. The redhead
shrugged.  That doesn t leave too much in the Westwind treasury. They said
they d be back in an eight-day, if it doesn t snow.
 After that, we ll probably be on our own, I guess, said Ryba.  The snow
line is creeping down the peaks around us. She turned to Murkassa and
switched to Anglorat.  How& did you& come to Westwind?
 I was sold to be the consort of Jilkar. He is a hauler in Gnotos, and a
strong man. He beat his first consort to death because she angered him. She
gave him only daughters, and then she ran away with a trooper from Fenard.
Jilkar found them and let the man go. Murkassa shrugged.  He would have
beaten me. He beats everyone. I heard of the tower of women, and I ran. If I
did not find you, I would die in the Westhorns. But I did find you. A
fleeting smile crossed her face.
 You are welcome to stay as long as you wish.
 Can I stay forever?
 If you follow our way, Ryba answered.  No one said anything to Jilkar?
Ayrlyn s tone suggested she knew the answer.
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 No. He is the hauler. He takes the wool to Fenard. He is stronger than any
two men, and he has a house on the hill with guards.
As the others drew out the sordid social structure of Gnotos, all too
familiar a pattern, from what Nylan could tell, he sipped the tea and ate.
After the midday meal, Nylan returned to the north tower yard, and the cold
wind out of the northwest. Huldran, Cessya, and Denalle worked on the roof,
with Cessya lugging up the stones, Denalle placing them, and Huldran spiking
them in place.
Nylan studied the stone that he was supposed to turn into a conduit. There
had to be a faster way to cut the stone, didn t there? For a long time, he let
his senses range over the oblong of black rock before him. He d already
discovered that he felt uneasy, so much that his head ached and his stomach
twisted, if he even came close to mimicking the white lines of fire that the
local mages effected.
After concentrating on the stone for a time, he finally placed the chisel
and lifted the hammer. The reverberations seemed to be less when he didn t
worry so much about precise chisel placement, but the order of the stone.
His progress was better with the new technique, not anything to boast about
compared to the laser, but by the time the triangle clanged again, he had five
more lengths of conduit bottom.
After he stacked the conduit in the corner of the bathhouse, on the eastern
side under the completed roof, he flexed his sore and increasingly callused
fingers-only small blisters.
 You really got that in place, he told Huldran, looking up at the expanse
of completed roof tiling.
 Thank darkness that the healer came up with another keg of spikes. The
marine reached out and knocked on the side of the crude ladder-pole she had
just climbed down.  I never thought so, but you might get your bathhouse and
laundry, ser.
 I thought you wanted the showers, Nylan joked.
 Choosing between stinking and bathing in ice water isn t a choice I d want
to make. Huldran lowered the ladder-pole, and she and Denalle laid it down
under the completed roof, then gathered the spikes they had dropped.
Every single spike was valuable, Nylan realized, especially in a low-tech
culture where each had to be fashioned by hand. He walked around the tower to
the stream, hoping it wouldn t be too long before he could use the bathhouse.
After washing his hands and face, he walked back around the tower and, as he
neared the almost-completed archway from the bathhouse to the tower, he
whistled a few notes. What were the words?
 & an engineer s work is never done, / not even after the long day s run&  [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]