Fall of Angels (The Saga of Recluce #6)(121)

He shrugged. With little soap, soaking helped. He wondered if some of the recently cut and split wood had found its way into the bathhouse warming stove. Why not, now?

The water was beginning to flow more regularly, and Nylan drank from the laundry tap, trying not to spill too much on the floor, then used the jakes. As he walked back, he passed Siret, carrying Kyalynn, as he started through the north tower door.

"You have the laundry detail?" he asked.

"Yes, ser. It's better that way now that I'm so far along. I still do my blade practice and exercises, though."

Nylan shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Letting the water warm to room temperature probably helps get things cleaner, too."

"I hadn't planned it that way . .."

"Don't tell anyone." With a grin, Nylan held the door, then closed it after them.

"You took long enough," said Huldran.

"Some things take a little time." He took up his end of the saw, looking at the third or so of the trunk that remained to be cut.

Before they finished cutting two more lengths, the kitchen crew had carted off all the split wood, and Nylan had asked Jaseen to carry one armful out to the bathhouse stove.

"You might get cleaner clothes that way . .. also warmer wash water," he told the medtech. Except she's more like a healer now. No medtechs on the Roof of the World, he thought.

"Sounds like a good idea." Jaseen winked at him.

Nylan ignored the wink, wondering why she had offered the gesture, and kept sawing. After they finished sawing their fifth trunk, with the sun starting to drop behind the western peaks, they began splitting.

Whheeeee . . . eeeee . . .

At the sound of horses, Nylan glanced uphill. Fierral led the three horses over the ridge, each dragging two mid-sized trunks.

Huldran and Nylan looked at each other, then at the three trunks piled by the trail road.

"We're never going to gel caught up."

"Just think of it this way. We're working on next winter. So we can burn wood all winter long and be warm," said Nylan. "And have warm showers and water that's only cold, not liquid ice."

"It does sound better when you put it that way." Huldran picked up the axe again and split a half-trunk section into quarters, then the larger quarter in half, before handing the axe back to Nylan.

"You're going to be stiff, Engineer," laughed Fierral as the logging crew stacked six more long trunks beside the trail path.

"Since you're done for the day," grunted Nylan, splitting another section, "let Huldran have the other axe so we can finish this. Then, your people can take down the split wood when they go in."

Fierral unstrapped the axe, and Huldran took it.

Denalle, winding up one of the hauling ropes, groaned.

"You want to do what the engineer's doing?" asked Fierral.

"Been doing it all day ..." mumbled Rienadre.

"You got breaks. There were six of us." Fierral raised her voice. "Denalle, Rienadre, and Berlis-you don't have to climb to the stable, but you get to cart in wood. Selitra, Weindre, and I will stable and rub down the horses."

Several groans echoed around the causeway.

"You want to be warm-you cart wood."

Fierral, Selitra, and Weindre started up the shadowed snow trail to the stables with the horses. The other three guards carried sets of skis into the tower, then straggled back across the causeway to stack wood in their arms.

Huldran held her axe for a moment and looked at Nylan. They both grinned. Then, Nylan set down his axe and massaged his right shoulder with his gloved left hand.

"I'm already sore, and there's two days' work stacked behind us."

"We want to be warm next winter. Someone told me that," returned the stocky blond guard.

Nylan looked at the four cut, but unsplit, trunk sections. "There aren't too many left here."

"Here comes Gerlich," said Huldran, "but I don't see Narliat."

"Maybe he's following the great hunter."

"Maybe . . . except he always likes to get to the food first." Huldran brought the axe down again.

Nylan followed her example, and by the time Gerlich dragged his bundle up to the causeway, they were cleaning the axes. Rienadre was stacking another armful of wood, but the other guards had not returned for their third load.

"Where's Narliat?" asked Huldran.

"Gone," answered Gerlich. "I was trying to pack this boar-thing up the slope, and when I stopped, he was gone." The hunter gestured to the dead boar. "This is heavy. Maybe not quite as heavy as a red deer, but there's a lot of meat there."

Again, Nylan could sense the wrongness about Gerlich's words, and he instinctively looked for Ayrlyn, but the healer was nowhere around, not that she had any reason to be out in the twilight and cold.

"It does look like a lot," Nylan temporized.

"Sneaky little bastard, anyway," said Rienadre as she staggered away under a load of wood.

"He was born here, not on Heaven," said Gerlich, setting his skis against the wall by the door. "I'm going to get Saryn, to see if she can help me butcher this."

As he went inside, Kadran came out to ring the triangle. She looked toward the carcass. "The hunter's back. What's that?"