5.Death of Chaos
XXV
AFTER KRYSTAL ENSURED that I got some rest, although certainly not all of that could have been called rest in any language, by the next day I was looking over my workshop, and she was back hard at work in Kyphrien.
While Krystal and the autarch and the new subcommander, a woman named Subrella, who'd been the district commander in Ruzor, worked on the logistics and the detailed plans for exactly how to recover the brimstone spring, I went back to the chair set for Hensil.
Before I'd left, I'd gotten all eight chair backs done, rough-finished, at least, and it was time to start in on the seats and legs. The leg design was all turning, rather than steaming or bending, and time-consuming. I had to use the first chair as a sort of template for the rest of the set. In between times, for a break, if harder work were really a break, I went back to the time-consuming chiseling of the insets for the diamond-shaped back-plate with the inlaid initial H.
Of course, the turning part got delayed because the band on the foot treadle broke. After I fixed that, I had to stop to sharpen the chisels. I'd been gone long enough that it seemed like every edged tool in the shop needed to be sharpened.
About then, I wondered when I was even going to start on the desk for Antona. I hadn't even figured out what I'd need for the woods, let alone the bracing and thickness. I took a deep breath, and wiped the sweat off my forehead. While it might be chill outside, I'd built the shop snug, and the hearth helped, not only for heating and mixing glues or steam, but for keeping the woods from getting too hot or cold.
Rissa hammered on the door. “Master Lerris?”
She stepped inside and held a stool with a broken leg.
“Can't it wait?”
“It's been waiting since the day after you left, nigh on three eight-days, and I need this to get to the higher shelves. I told you those shelves were made for a giant.”
I took a deep breath. “Set it over there.”
“Thank you, ser.”
The stool leg was easy enough, and I even had a leftover piece of oak that I turned down quickly. Then it was three holes with the brace and bit, some smoothing, and some more cleaning out, and then the glue.
It wasn't a problem, but I knew I'd spend more time dealing with Rissa's gentle reminders than it would take to fix the stool if I didn't get it done soon.
Then I went back to turning down and shaping the chair legs. I looked at the only partly begun cedar carving, but it would have to wait. Carvings didn't pay for wood or tools or food.
Then I thought about my parents, again, and the letter I hadn't written. I took a deep breath.
It was almost mid-morning before Rissa tapped on the door again.
“Ser, we're near out of stove-length wood. I can split, but-”
“You can't saw,” I finished.
I didn't have time to saw, either, and I'd need someone on the other end of the big blade anyway. With another breath, I unlocked the storeroom and rummaged in the hidden cabinet for some silvers. After locking up again, I handed her four silvers. “See if you can get Gelet and Hurbo to saw the second stack behind the stable. Or someone else.” I paused. “Take the stool. The glue needs to set until tomorrow.”
Rissa looked at me for a moment. I looked back. “Sawing wood does not finish chairs. If I don't finish these, I don't get paid. If I don't get paid, I can't afford the food you want to cook on that stove.”
She took the coins, not quite rolling her eyes, and I went back to the turning. When my foot got tired, I took out the narrow chisels and started the inlaid channels on the third and fourth backplates.
Rissa put her head in the door. “I'll be taking the mare to find Gelet, Master Lerris.” I just nodded, not taking my eyes off the chisel. “I said I'd be taking the mare-” I had to look up. So I did. “Fine, Rissa. Take the mare.”
“I hope it doesn't take too long to find someone to do the wood.”
So did I, or I'd be getting reminders for days. I really wanted to get as much done on the chairs as I could. For however long the campaign for the spring took, I wouldn't be doing woodwork, and those would be days where no coins were being generated. I had some coins left from Kasee's purse that I hadn't given back, more than a few, but I felt bad about keeping them in some ways.
That was another thing I needed to talk to Krystal about- among other things-if we ever got much time together. Sometimes, we were just too tired to talk. Sometimes, we did a lot of holding, and that was good, too. But we weren't talking about what the white wizard was doing, and that wasn't good.
I took a deep breath as I heard the mare carry Rissa out of the yard and readjusted the foot treadle before I went back to turning the chair legs. Even with sharp blades on the chisels, it was a slow, slow business. Cherry is tough. That's what makes it good furniture wood.
By the same reasoning, that was what made reading The Basis of Order valuable. It was tough, and I still didn't understand half of what was in it. I understood that there might be an order-based way to use chaos on Gerlis, if I understood what the book said, if I could figure out how to make it work, if I could survive to get close enough to Gerlis to try it...
I readjusted the chisel and pumped the foot treadle. Turning cherry-tough as it was-was a lot easier than handling order and chaos.