After a number of warnings about how hands and feet no longer could be regrown if you cut them off, the class was put to work sawing and forming the endless stream of logs that was coming from the surrounding forests. For the first few days all they did was move the logs, roll the logs, position the logs and eventually run them through the band saw. It was again backbreaking work using many muscles that had not been developed while cutting and there was very little time for interaction.
The class stayed in barracks a group of which had been set aside for members of the apprenticeship program who were in and around the town. The barracks were segregated by sex so Herzer was unable to determine if Shilan had actually been interested or if she had just been playing around with him. Or, as was just as likely, playing him off against Cruz. He invited her to the baths one night but she pled a rain check on the basis of extreme fatigue. Given how he was feeling, it could have been an honest answer.
The last two days they were introduced to woodworking tools, including lathing and drilling. There Miller proved that although he didn’t appear to like apprentices too much, he truly loved wood. He was a master at lathing and carving and didn’t laugh at their efforts. He simply commented that he’d been doing it for seventy-five years and couldn’t expect them to master it in one session.
At the end of the week they were paid off and only Mike got a bonus. He had shown a remarkable aptitude for woodworking and Miller had even smiled at one of his efforts. Herzer, on the other hand, could best be described as “inept.” He personally used the term “ham-handed.” When he wanted a deep chip he got small, when he wanted a small chip he got deep and when he tried to plane, he gouged. He and wood simply didn’t get along.
The first day they had been shown around the mill and seen the wooden turbine water wheel, the sprockets, the joins, and he had marveled that Miller and a few other similarly skilled craftsmen had been able to assemble it in a bare two weeks with nothing but hand tools. He didn’t have any particular envy for their mastery, but it was impressive.
As they were being paid off, he touched Shilan’s arm and raised an eyebrow. “Bath?”
“Oh, Herzer…” she said.
He held up a hand to forestall a reply. “It’s okay. I just wanted to know where we were at. Last week you seemed to imply that you wanted something more than just waving in passing.”
“Herzer, I’m kind of tired most evenings,” she said, frowning sadly. “And right now I’m just not ready for any kind of relationship.”
“Cool!” he replied with a nod. “Neither am I.”
“What?!”
“You don’t want just a casual roll in the hay and I don’t particularly want a long-term relationship,” he said with a shrug. “Cruz did, but I don’t. It’s not that I want to play the field, it’s just that I like you as a friend.”
“Oh,” Shilan said.
“I was trying to tell you without hurting your feelings. This makes it a lot easier.”
“Oh.”
“Friends?” he asked, sticking out his hand.
Shilan looked at it for a moment as if confused and then shook it absentmindedly. “Friends.”
“Hey, I plan on going to dinner with Mike and Courtney. Want to come along?”
“Uh, no,” Shilan said. “I’m going to… I’ve got to…”
“Okay,” Herzer said, waving. “See you when I see you. Bye.”
He walked over to where Mike and Courtney were waiting for him.
“So, you gonna get lucky, again?” Mike asked.
“Nope,” Herzer replied. Now that his back was turned to Shilan he smiled evilly. “I told her I just wanted to be friends.”
Mike turned his own back and grimaced. “Ooo! Score one for guydom!”
Herzer kept walking, forcing Courtney, who had put the boiler on the fire and was busy screwing down the pressure relief valve, to catch up to him.
“You told her that you just want to be friends and you don’t want to be friends?” she asked, furiously.
“No, no, I told her that I want to be friends and I do want to be friends. But I also want to screw her brains out!”
“Yes, yes, YES!” Mike said. “The shoe is on the other toe!”
“Why didn’t you just tell her?” Courtney asked.
“What, and give her the opportunity to play me off against Cruz? That seemed to me to be where she was going. That or dangle me around like a little marionette. I don’t know if that was what she was like before or if it’s from what happened on her trip. But she was trying to play squeaky-toy with me already in the baths. No thank you.”
“Wow, that’s almost as bad as a woman,” Mike said, only to be punched in the shoulder.
“Ah! You strike me to the quick, sirrah!” Herzer replied, grasping at his chest. “Tis not as wide as church door, nor deep as a well. But t’will do, t’will do!”
“You’re both terrible,” Courtney said.
“That’s why you love us, right?” Herzer replied with a smile.
“HERRICK,” a voice called from behind them. Herzer turned around and practically came to attention.
“Ah, Sir… uh… Edm… Mayor Talbot!”
“Rachel tells me that you played games in enhanced reality, specifically the Quest for the Third Throne. True?” Edmund said without preamble. But he did grace Courtney and Mike, who were standing by open-mouthed, with a nod.
“Yes, Sir Edmund!”
“Just yes will do,” Talbot said with a chuckle. “You played it as a paladin. True?”
“Yes… Mayor Talbot.”
“That requires riding. Did you use a horse?”
“Yes, Mayor Talbot.”
“Specifically, that requires some pretty God-damned tricky riding for a paladin character.”
Herzer had a sudden clear flashback of falling into an endless chasm, as he went right and his wildly flailing, and neighing, mount went left off of a narrow foot bridge.
“Yes, sir, I did.”
“And you used your mount throughout the quest?”
“Yes, sir, I did.”
“Just Edmund. Did you complete the quest?”
“Yes… Mayor Talbot, I did.”
“With your mount?”
“Yes.”
“And how many tries did it take for you to get across the ‘who is the son of a bitch who put this bridge here’ bridge?”
“I didn’t know it had a name, sir,” Herzer said with a laugh.
“Yeah, I know,” Edmund replied. “How many times.”
“Four.”
“How did you get your mount across?”
“Made a sling out of the ropes. Winched it across the chasm, kicking and squealing.”
Edmund thought about it for a moment and then chuckled. “Jesus. What did you do, bring pack mules in with gear?”
“More or less, sir.”
“Have you ever ridden a real horse? Or a mule for that matter.”
“Well, those were real horses, sir.”
“I mean one that wasn’t kenned. One that was born and raised and broken to the saddle.”
“Once, sir.”
“Any problems?”
“Not particularly, sir. Can I ask why you’re asking?”
“Okay,” Edmund replied. “That will do it for me. We’re doing the big hunt next week. Monday morning you need to report to Kane, the horse master, at the big corrals by the bridge while everyone else is spreading out to start the drive.”
“Oh, Lord,” Herzer said. “I’m afraid that means I’m not going to be mucking out.”
“Oh, I’m sure there will be some of that. But we need horsemen to help control the animals and run messages. And you’re on that detail!”