“Okay,” Edmund said with a laugh. “Sorry.”
“What’s ‘tansy’?” Daneh asked.
“Oh, an herb,” Edmund replied. “That’s really all that I know about it. And that it’s an abortifacient that’s apparently pretty strong.”
“There’s so much I don’t know,” Daneh said with a sigh and a shake of her head. “Edmund, please, the next time you talk to Sheida, tell her that she will sustain a sister’s curse if she doesn’t figure out some way for me to get access to medical texts.”
“I’ll tell her,” Edmund promised.
“It shouldn’t be all that power intensive,” Daneh argued.
“I’ll tell her.”
“And we really need it.”
“I’ll tell her,” he said.
“Okay. And another thing, people are working themselves to death.”
“Some people are working themselves to death,” Edmund corrected. “What is your point.”
“We need to start briefing people on safety. We’ve got people who have never held an axe before in their lives doing lumberjack work and people working with heavy machinery who have never done that. The major amputation was a person working in the mill who didn’t have the sense to use some sort of lifting device to pick up one end of a huge beam. He’s lost the bottom of his foot permanently; it was too crushed to even think about repairing. I know in the old days nobody really cared about safety except for ‘try not to get yourself killed.’ But I think we can do better than that, can’t we?”
“I’ll look into it,” he said, pulling out a bundle of paper and a pencil. He held up his hand to forestall her outburst. “I’ll look into it. You’re right, in the old days nobody tried because nobody cared except the people getting hurt. And it might be possible to do better. But I can’t guarantee it. Cutting down trees is inherently dangerous unless you have power systems and a cage. And even then accidents happen. So is farming. It never got much better the whole time men were doing it. So I don’t know what exactly we can do. But we’ll try. Okay?”
“Okay,” she answered. “Last thing for you; we need to schedule a rest day.”
“Daneh…”
“Every society in history had a rest day,” she continued, ignoring the interruption. “Mostly they were religious in nature but they don’t have to be. People working this hard have to have some time off. I’d suggest one day in seven since that was the old standard and it seemed to work.”
“Sunday perhaps?” he said, amused.
“I don’t care which day of the week you choose, as long as you choose one,” she answered, firmly.
“All right, I’ll figure out which one is the most prevalent. We do have a couple of Jews and at least one Muslim, I think they take Fridays off.”
“Saturday,” Rachel interjected. “For the Jews anyway. Friday night to Saturday night if I remember correctly.”
“Saturday then,” Edmund said with a shrug. “We’ll want to think about holidays as well. Not many. But you’re right, people need some time off.”
“Kane’s brought his herd in. Tomorrow get a horse from him or from Tom Raeburn,” Daneh said to Rachel. “Take a bag with some bandages and go around to the camps. Brief the women on what’s happening and check on everyone’s overall health. There’s a lot of minor injuries here in town; I imagine there are out at the camps too.”
“Yes, Mother,” Rachel said, tiredly then looked up with a blush. “I’m sorry. You’re right. And it’s a responsibility. Thank you.”
“You’ll do well,” Daneh said. “If there’s anyone seriously hurt who hasn’t been reported in, get them to me.”
“I will.”
“I think that’s it,” Daneh said.
“In that case, get some rest,” Edmund replied. “Get up to the house. I don’t want you getting up in the middle of the night unless it’s a clear emergency.”
“I’ll stay here,” Rachel interjected. “That way if there’s something minor, I can take care of it.”
“Good idea,” Talbot said with a nod. “Now, milady?”
“I’m coming,” Daneh replied. “Good night, Rachel.”
“Good night Mother, Dad.” She waited until they were gone, then finished cleaning up the infirmary and looked around. The only place to lie down was the rough wooden surgical table but it would have to do. Putting a couple of blankets on it, she made herself as comfortable as she could and then rolled over on her side. She knew there was no way she could get to sleep but even as she thought it she found her mind wandering into dream.
In the morning, Herzer felt like a basket case.
He woke up to a hand shaking him awake and groaned. He was curled in a fetal ball on his side and every muscle in his body protested movement.
“Come on,” Jody said, not unkindly. “Breakfast is on and there’s only thirty minutes to eat. You’d best get to it quick.”
Herzer did not feel hungry in the slightest but his enforced starvation of the day before was vivid in his mind so he stumbled to his feet and made his way to the chowline.
The meal was cornmeal mush again with a side of some sort of herbal tea. But this time many of the people did not feel they could eat much. Many of them had only taken a half a bowl and some who had taken whole bowls, like Courtney, did not finish. There was enough left in the huge kettle that Herzer, Mike and a few others could have seconds and after the first bowl settled, Herzer felt drastically hungry. Not only did he get an additional bowl but by waiting by the pail for the used bowls he was able to cadge leftovers from several of the people, most of whom passed them over with every sign of bemusement. The exception was Nergui who when she saw his intention dumped her nearly full bowl out on the ground. This drew a furious reprimand from Dorsett.
“You don’t waste food,” he snarled, striding up behind her. “We don’t have enough as it is. Do something like that again and you can skip the next meal!”
Herzer, at that point, was starting to feel as bloated as a tick so he reluctantly dumped his empty bowl in the bucket and went over to pick up his axe.
He looked at his hands doubtfully. Skin was already starting to spread across the ruined flesh of most of his hand, but much of it was still exposed and dirt had mixed in with a yellow goo that had appeared on the surface. It was an unappetizing sight and his stomach briefly regretted the hearty meal. Wielding an axe was going to be painful; even holding his bowl and using a spoon had been unpleasant — but there didn’t seem to be much of a choice. He was contemplating a bleak day when he heard the clip-clop of horse hooves approaching.
“Hello, Herzer,” Rachel said, dismounting and tying off the horse to a convenient branch. She took a set of saddlebags down and waved at Dorsett. “Jody, I’m here to see about any medical attention anyone needs and then I have to talk to the females you have here.”
“How long is this going to take?” Jody asked. “We have a lot of ground to clear.”
“That depends upon how much I have to do,” she answered, snappily. “Do you have any major injuries?”
“No, but there’s a few of them that have bad hands,” Dorsett admitted, waving at Herzer. “Start with him and I’ll get the others.” Jody started gathering up the ones that he knew had blistered their hands the worst the day before.
“Hey!” Earnon yelled. “I can barely move and my back feels like it’s on fire!”
“I’m not here to deal with sore muscles,” Rachel said, looking at Herzer’s hands. “Good God, Herzer, what were you thinking?”