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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] had resisted her every attempt to comprehend it. She was always too honest to engage in a purely mechanical exercise, and so when faced with the mechanical exercise of choosing a glyph to act as her mark of certification, she could not do it. Without a mastermark she could not be a mastersmith. So Karis never opened a smithy of her own, and never took apprentices, and never went to stand behind her work at major fairs, and never dressed in silk or soaked her hands to leach out the soot ground into her skin. She kept working file:///C|/Users/User/Downloads/Laurie%20Marks%20-...lemental_Logic_01]_-_Fire_Logic_(V1.0)_[html].html (121 of 404) [04/08/2010 12:57:08 a.m.] FIRE LOGIC - ELEMENTAL LOGIC BOOK 1 - LAURIE MARKS where she was, and her old master paid her five times an apprentice s wage to keep her from going somewhere else. When the word got out in early winter that she was making a blade, the work of Meartown practically came to a standstill, as the mastersmiths of Meartown sent all their best apprentices to learn Karis s secret. Metalsmithing, a dramatic and dangerous profession, was never practiced in solitude, especially not in Meartown. But Karis would rather have made Zanja s blades in private, for she engaged in a private conversation as she shaped them. She could have made a model of Zanja s right hand, including the blood vessels and the nerve endings, but to fit the blade to the hand was the easy part; it was the less tangible matters that preoccupied Karis to the point that she forgot her rapt audience and lost all track of time. She had never seen Zanja in her strength. Forging a blade to match Zanja s fighting style when Karis s only information came from an intimate knowledge of Zanja s wasted muscles and compact skeletal structure was a matter of the purest kind of speculation. People fight the way they talk, Norina had said once, and so Karis made a blade for a gracious and graceful fighter whose manners were the velvet that covered the steel. Zanja would win by talent and persistence, not by power, so Karis gave the blade an edge that would slip m and out on the moment of inspiration and be gone before the recipient of that moment could know that he was dead. It was indeed an artist s blade, and that worried Karis. She realized as she forged it that if Zanja fought the way she talked she didn t belong in a war at all. Karis loved the work of making the dagger and its companion knife, but hated the aftermath. A half dozen people were injured trying to imitate her methods, and many others demanded that she show them again how to do one thing or another, and explain it this time. She couldn t have explained file:///C|/Users/User/Downloads/Laurie%20Marks%20-...lemental_Logic_01]_-_Fire_Logic_(V1.0)_[html].html (122 of 404) [04/08/2010 12:57:08 a.m.] FIRE LOGIC - ELEMENTAL LOGIC BOOK 1 - LAURIE MARKS what she was doing even if she had been willing to do the demonstration. For a while her relationships with nearly half the townsfolk were in disarray, and various people had to go around reminding other people that she wasn t like the rest of them. Later, when the blades had been delivered, Norina admitted that when Zanja unwrapped them she had nearly been in tears. She admitted that Zanja fought as if she were dancing, and that it was a beautiful but not completely impractical performance. Now, with the spring mud season not even half over, Norina had come to visit. Her face was familiar in Meartown, and the people there at least vaguely understood her role as Karis s protector. The rain prevented them from walking the barren heath as they usually did, so Karis left the forge to spend the day in a tavern instead, and the metalsmiths who constantly sought her advice soon began to find her there. After one of these interruptions during which Karis solved a problem with a new kind of door latch that the smith was inventing, Norina commented, Meartown s reputation has become practically legendary in the last ten years. While the people of this town conspire to maintain you in obscurity, the entire town has become notorious instead. Karis pushed away the remains of a meat pie Norina had made her eat. For years you have been congratulating yourself for your cleverness at hiding me here, one talented artisan among many. Norina made a face at hearing her own words quoted back at her. Well, this year I am less pleased with myself. Perhaps the Sainnites will never come here looking for an earth witch to slaughter, but surely they must be desperate to eliminate the metalsmiths that supply the Paladins with their fine weaponry. With Meartown so famous, how could the Sainnites not know where those weapons are coming from? They will come, Karis, and file:///C|/Users/User/Downloads/Laurie%20Marks%20-...lemental_Logic_01]_-_Fire_Logic_(V1.0)_[html].html (123 of 404) [04/08/2010 12:57:08 a.m.] FIRE LOGIC - ELEMENTAL LOGIC BOOK 1 - LAURIE MARKS when they do, I fear you will not flee. And leave Meartown to face its attackers without me? Of course I will not flee. Norina sighed. So I was not so clever as I thought. Now, Karis Don t waste your breath. I can already recite your arguments in my sleep. These people have been loyal to me. They admire and rely upon your skill, but would they die for you? Why should they? Karis asked. Exactly! Karis glared at Norina, exasperated. Well then, Meartown will have to rely on the Paladins, as we always have, to keep the Sainnites away. Do you know what lies between Meartown and the Sainnites? Karis said, A couple of rivers, a small mountain range . . . And fifty farmers who think they can fight. And two fire bloods, Karis said, for Norina had told her earlier that Zanja s new commander was also a fire blood. And what s that worth? Zanja may be a fire blood, but she never won a single blade match against me. She added, grudgingly, I suppose that Paladin commander might prove more difficult to defeat, despite his game leg. You re awfully surly, Karis said. I m pregnant. I noticed. It s your fault! J han and I have been lovers for years, but the one night you sleep under my roof. . . Karis began to laugh. She couldn t help herself. Norina glared at her. I want file:///C|/Users/User/Downloads/Laurie%20Marks%20-...lemental_Logic_01]_-_Fire_Logic_(V1.0)_[html].html (124 of 404) [04/08/2010 12:57:08 a.m.] FIRE LOGIC - ELEMENTAL LOGIC BOOK 1 - LAURIE MARKS neither a child nor a husband, and I intended to get an abortion. Yet here you sit with your belly swelling. It s too late for an abortion now. J han wants the child. Norina s blunt, strong fingers tapped the tabletop. It was rare for her to betray any sign of upset, and Karis looked into her face more closely than usual. This was her friend, reliable as steel but much less pliable. It must have been a stunning moment when Norina decided to bear the child for her lover s sake; Karis regretted that she had missed it. How can I make amends? Shall I give you a painless birth? I don t know a better midwife than you. But J han wants to be with me. I ll go to my sister s house when the time comes, so she can foster the child. Her youngest will be just about due for weaning, and I have already written [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |