Fall of Angels

XCI

THE ALLOY IN the tongs began to change color, getting redder under the influence of the coals. Above the open doorway to the unfinished smithy, a fly droned, circling toward the sweating smith-engineer.

Arrowheads! Nylan was already sick of dealing with them, despite the acclaim the product had received from Istril and Fierral. Roughly two hundred had been finished. Nylan smiled. That meant two hundred that Fierral and the marines had to smooth and sharpen and fletch-and that also meant netting birds. Relyn had proved helpful there, explaining how to net them and which ones worked better.

With the tongs, Nylan flipped the red-hot metal onto the now-dented makeshift anvil, then began hot-cutting the shape of the arrowhead with the chisel and hammer while Huldran took over the tongs.

The hammer rose, and fell, and Nylan moved the chisel. Sparks of metal flew with each impact. One rough shape lay on the anvil, and Nylan began the cutting on the next. He concentrated on following the hidden grain of the metal, letting his senses guide him, even more than his sight.

That guidance resulted in stronger arrowheads, but each was subtly different from the next-not enough, Nylan hoped, to affect their flight.

Through the roof beams, the sun beat into the smithy, and sweat dripped down Nylan’s face. He brushed back a fly,twice, before it buzzed across the meadow toward the smelly sheep from whence it had probably come. Nylan blinked back sweat. While he and Huldran forged, around them Cessya and, surprisingly to Nylan, Nistayna had worked on getting the roof timbers in place, but the roof had to wait for the completion of the forge itself.

Each day, after completing forging, Nylan mixed up some mortar and added to the hood and chimney of the forge. The door and windows could wait.

Before the metal cooled enough to need reheating, he had five shapes cut. With each day, his strokes, while probably crude compared to the local smiths, had gotten surer, and the finished product needed less and less smoothing.

Nylan nodded, and Huldran swung the uncut section of metal back into the coals. The smith-engineer brushed the sweat off his forehead with the back of his forearm, then took the tongs. “Need more air, Huldran.”

The stocky blonde began to pump the bellows. While some air wheezed out through the sides of the bellows, most came up through the air nozzle, and the coals glowed hotter.

Nylan walked out to the dwindling pile of charcoal-another problem-and used a shovel to bring in another scoop, which he distributed evenly. Then he flipped the metal to get a better heat distribution.

He lifted the metal onto the anvil and turned to Huldran. “You try one.”

Huldran just nodded and slowly picked up the hammer and chisel.

Clung!

Nylan winced as he felt the shiver up the guard’s arm. “Angle the chisel a shade-to the outside. It cuts cleaner, and it doesn’t hurt as much.”

The second blow did not ring quite so off-key. Huldran finished two rough arrow-shaped forms before Nylan lifted the metal back into the forge.

“Harder than it looks, ser,” Huldran admitted as she pumped the bellows.

“Yes. You didn’t do badly. My first were pretty crude. I’ll do the next batch, and then you can do some.”

“You’re a lot faster, and Fierral needs a lot of arrows.”

“I know, but you need some practice, too. Westwind needs more than one person who can handle things like this. Otherwise, an accident-or an arrow from one of the locals-could wipe out everything I’ve learned.”

When the metal came out of the forge again, cherry-red, Nylan resumed cutting. The two kept working until past mid-morning, when they came to the end of the sheet of alloy. All that remained were a few scraps that Nylan swept into an already battered wooden bucket.

“Someday, I’ll work on reforging the scraps into stock. I think that’s what they call it.” He wiped his forehead. “We need a break, and I need to find another panel in one of the landers that won’t take forever to unfasten.”

“I’ll bank the fire,” Huldran volunteered.

“Thanks.” Nylan blotted the sweat out of his eyes again, then began to walk downhill along the trail he hoped would someday be a real road.

To the south, by the cairns, grazed the handful of sheep. Desain and Ryllya were weeding and working the fields, along with Selitra, who was supervising while weeding and cleaning out the small irrigation ditches.

A cart, carrying a stack of rough-cut planks for the smithy roof-slate was out, now that the laser was gone-creaked down from the ridge. Weindre walked beside the cart horse, one hand briefly touching her blade.

On the flat exercise area beyond the causeway, two figures sparred.

One was Cessya, the other Relyn. Relyn was using the knife and clamp over his hook, but had fashioned a wooden cover for the blade.

Nylan stopped and watched for a time as the wooden wands flashed.

The two paused, and Relyn turned to Nylan. “It works. I have much to learn about using a blade left-handed, but the knife helps.”

“He’s … better … than that …” puffed Cessya. “Glad he wasn’t this good back when he attacked.”

“I must be better,” Relyn said. “My left arm is not as strong as my right.”

“Manure,” responded Cessya.

Nylan offered a wave that was a half-salute and started across the causeway. His arms still ached. Would he ever get used to the heavy labor involved with smithing-or everything in a low-tech culture?

He crossed the causeway, but stopped short of the tower door, thinking about the children and their mothers in the great room. He didn’t want to face company, not when three of the four children were his, and he’d be obligated to comment on each, play with each, and possibly even sing a lullaby to each. He did most of the time, anyway, since he’d finally made his uneasy peace with himself, if not with Ryba. Her high-handedness still made him seethe, but that wasn’t his children’s fault. Still, he wasn’t up to infants this particular morning.

Their mothers don’t have any choice. He pursed his lips, then, after a moment, headed for the sheltered comer formed between the bathhouse and tower walls. He just wanted to be alone.

That wasn’t going to be. As Nylan neared the corner of the tower wall, he heard the sound of the lutar. He stopped and listened, recognizing Ayrlyn’s clear voice.

Oh, Nylan was a smith, and a mighty mage was he.

With lightning hammer and an anvil of night forged he.

From the Westhorns tall came the blades and bows of the night,

Their lightning edges gave the angels forever the height.

Oh, Nylan was a mage, and a mighty smith was he.

With rock from the heights and a lightning blade built he.

On the Westhorns tall stands a tower of blackest stone,

And it holds back the winter’s snows and storms all alone …

When the notes died Nylan stepped around the comer and looked at Ayrlyn, sitting on a stone above the ditching.

“That’s awful,” muttered Nylan. “Just awful.”

“Who was it that told me the songs that people remember and love to sing are generally awful?”

“Those weren’t about me.”

“That makes it different?” asked the healer.

Nylan eased himself onto the ground. His feet and legs were tired, too, and it wasn’t even midday.

“You’re still doing arrowheads?”

He nodded. “I wish I could get the coals hot enough to melt the metal and cast them, but when I try that it takes green heartwood, and the metal burns, and I can’t damp it. With plain charcoal, it’s hard enough just to get the metal hot enough for cutting them. Some of those arrowheads are going to rip up the people they hit.”

“Isn’t that the idea?”

“Unfortunately, but I still have trouble with the idea that people only respond to force.”

“It’s especially clear on this planet.”

“It’s clear everywhere, but in a high-technology setting, it’s easier to ignore. On the powernet, you see a de-energizer beam, and a mirror tower, and, poof, the tower’s gone. You don’t see the demons die. If someone commits a murder, the government carts them off, and, poof, they’re lase-flashed into dust. Here it’s obvious and slow. I seem to feel it more and more.” His eyes turned to Ayrlyn. “I suspect you do, too.”

“I get so nauseated I can’t hold anything down.” Her eyes dropped. “It seems so … weak. I tell myself it must be in my mind, but the reaction’s so immediate, so physical …”

“It’s more like a splitting headache for me. The last few times, it’s been so intense I couldn’t see or move for a moment or two.”

“Great survival reactions for a violent culture.” Ayrlyn’s tone was dry.

“It’s more violent here because Ryba’s changing things, and change usually is violent.”

“We’re part of that change,” Ayrlyn said. “And there’s not much way to get around that.”

After a long silence, Nylan finally asked, “You’re really not going to sing that song, are you?”

“No. I’ve got another trading run to make.” Ayrlyn laughed. “So I won’t be singing it. Not now. I’ll teach it to Istril. It’s simple enough, and she’s actually getting passable with the simple lutar we built. It doesn’t have the depth of tone this one does, but it works.”

“Why are you going to teach her that song?”

“Why not?” answered Ayrlyn. “As many untrustworthy people have said, ‘Trust me.’”

“I guess I have to.” He stood. “But the song’s awful … ‘a mighty mage’? You have to be joking.” He paused, then asked, “Is it safe for you to keep trading?”

“It’s as safe as sitting here waiting to be attacked, if I’m careful. We avoid the larger towns, and I’ve got some ideas where this Lord Sillek has his garrisons.”

“I don’t know. I don’t like it.” He shook his head.

“I’ll be all right.”

“Be careful.”

“I will.”

“And try not to sing that song anywhere.”

“As these things go, it’s a good song.”

“Try not to have it sung for a while.” Not until I’m dead, preferably, and I hope that’s a long while, he added to himself.

“After I teach it to Istril … we’ll think about it.”

“Please don’t.” Nylan frowned. “I’ve sat around too long. After I get something to drink, I’ve got to find another lander panel to turn into low-tech weapons of destruction.”

“Good luck.” Ayrlyn rose. “I’m going back down to the loggers. It’s amazing how experience changes people’s views. After the cold of the winter, now all they can think about is making sure there’s enough wood for next winter. That bothered them more than the short rations.”

“Food wasn’t that short. How are we doing now?”

“Those horses have helped a lot, and so have our local recruits.There’s more out there in the forest than we knew.” Ayrlyn shrugged. “For now, we’re all right, but we’ll need a lot more coin for supplies-a lot more.”

Nylan started back uphill, conscious that Ayrlyn’s eyes stayed on his back for a long time.