Chapter 32
Proof of Concept
Sarah breathed into her cupped hands to warm them, then looked around at the morning sky and the tree line in the distance. “It's a nice morning,” she murmured. “We don't get mornings like this back home. I could get to like this.”
“Yeah, yeah, it's lovely,” Mat said distractedly. “So he's just going to lift it up.” He eyed the empty town from the front of the partially awake crowd of villagers.
“Yeah, he says he can do it all in one go,” Ezra answered, sounding doubtful, “but according to my calculations,” he pulled out his wormhole device and engaged the display, “the energy required for something like that would be...”
Someone gasped behind them. Sarah somehow managed to step hard on Ezra's foot, elbow him in the stomach and slap the back of his head, all while covering the console and hissing, “Take that out again, and I will shove it so far up your ass that you won't see it again for a month.”
“Oh, right, sorry,” he quickly disengaged the hologram and stashed the technology. “I was just showing...” Sarah glared a little harder and twisted her heel harder into his foot. “N-Nothing,” Ezra gulped, “sh-showing nothing.” Mat chuckled under his breath.
“All right.” Gaav's voice carried over the crowd. “Let's finish this and get on with the day.” He knelt down and reverently placed his hand on the ground, head bowed. As the big man was only a few feet away, Ezra was close enough to hear him murmur, “Earth, protector of all, who sustains us when we are weak, grant me strength to lighten the burdens of those here.” The front few rows of townspeople whispered, “Let it be so.”
Gaav remained motionless for a solid two minutes, then suddenly nodded his head and stood. His right foot lifted and stomped heavily to the ground, then slid outward, widening his stance as his hands came to rest at waist height, palms upwards. With a grunt he lunged a half-step to the right, striking out. The ground in front of his foot suddenly began to pour downwards, shifting like sand in an arced line, shooting out around the town. He took a huge step forward and repeated the motion to his left, sending another line arcing around the other side of the town.
The Sanctuary team gaped.
Gaav stepped back and centered himself again, eyes closed, a slight smile playing over his craggy features. He waited, completely still, until both concentric lines had finished racing around Southedge and joined up with their starting points. Ezra inched forward to examine them. They were precision cuts in the earth, a few centimeters wide and most of a meter apart, sharp edges leading down to untold depths. Gaav's eyes snapped open. “Right,” he said softly, exhaling and nodding to himself again.
He slowly drew in a breath, lifting his hands. With them, the entire town rose. There was no rumble of displaced rock, no grating of stone straining against stone. It all happened in almost complete silence. In fact, the only sound Ezra later remembered hearing was Gaav's slow, measured breath. At about twenty five centimeters, Gaav made a quick pushing motion, then once again lifted his arms. The platform came to rest for a moment, then the inner platform began to rise, creating a small step. Gaav glanced to the road off to his right, flipped his right hand over and brought it down. A ramp formed over the steps along the road at both ends of town, smoothing the way in and out. He gently made a wiping motion with his left hand, and the cuts in the earth filled in, leaving seamless steps up from where they stood with townspeople.
Sarah sank to her knees. Mat took a numb step forward, pulled a flask from his shirt, unscrewed the top and took a shaky drink. He looked down at the flask, then up at the earth-crowned, nudged him and held it out. Gaav smiled broadly and took a generous swig before handing it back.
Ezra watched the ground intently as the tiny rivulets of water running off the blight line behind them found a wall of rock and clay in place of an easy way into Southedge. He looked around with a stupid grin on his face, then yawned loudly. Gaav's smile exploded into a huge laugh as he thumped Ezra on the back while the townspeople cheered. A few of the men Ezra had seen piling sandbags the day before were dancing gleefully in the mud, while many others came up to offer Gaav their heartfelt thanks. Ezra beamed around at everyone, then lowered himself onto the step. He was asleep before he touched the ground.
==
“Fine then! Just leave!” Ezra was startled awake by the sudden shouting, his chair rocking back and balancing just long enough for him to see Jenna Haldis slap Mat squarely across the face. The seat overbalanced and tipped, depositing Ezra on the floor. The scowling girl gave him a disgusted look, then stormed toward the tavern door.
“She, uh, needed some personal medical attention the past few days,” Mat said sheepishly, rubbing the side of his face. “I guess she got a little attached.”
“And I never want to see you again!” she screamed, slamming the door behind her. Mat winced.
Two young women with the same reddish hair prowled up on either side of Mat, trailing their fingertips across his shoulders. Ezra rubbed sleepily at his eyes, recognizing one of them as the girl with the water pitcher.
“But if you are in town, be sure to stop by,” one of them purred.
“We always enjoy entertaining creative young doctors,” the other whispered huskily as the first brushed a kiss over his cheek. They each gave Mat a smoldering look, then turned and swayed across the room after their retreating sister.
“I'm going to miss this town,” Mat moaned forlornly, eyes glued to the young women. “Ezra, if I asked nicely, would you go break something so we can stay another day or two?”
“Pervert,” Sarah muttered darkly, shouldering past Mat and heading for the door.
Mat helped Ezra to his feet and pushed a traveling sack into his hands, sighing as he shouldered his own pack and followed Sarah outside. Ezra hurried after them and out into the mid-day sun, struggling to secure his pack as he went.
Sarah stood squinting critically at the windows, then shot a glance at a group of nervous looking young men near the forge who were watching her intently. Ezra saw his opportunity to lighten the mood. “Looks like you've got some admirers of your own there, huh?” He nudged Sarah playfully with his elbow.
She glared at him, then growled, “Ugh, show them one trick and drink a couple of them under the table, and suddenly everyone thinks I'm some wanton barmaid begging for their attention.” She stomped off toward the forge, scattering the group, Ezra and Mat hurrying to keep up. A gruff looking old man was carefully wrapping up a few glass figures as they approached. He handed them to Sarah with a nod, then went back to his work. She smiled wistfully at them, then dropped her pack to the ground to secure them inside.
“Um, Miss Sarah?” A boy had broken away from the pack and stood shifting from foot to foot, hands behind his back. “I know that you have somewhere to go, and I know that you must have suitors with money and power,” he blurted out, “but, well, I... I wanted to give you this token of my affection!” He thrust a freshly picked flower out toward her, eyes scrunched closed and head bowed.
Sarah sighed loudly and took the flower. “My, how lovely,” she said in a completely flat voice, “I imagine that you have something else to say.” She rolled her eyes as she picked at the flower's petals.
Obviously emboldened by her acceptance of his gift, he looked up and gave her a bright smile. “Well, I know that you turned down Phillip Thompson, but you see, I'm different! My father owns this whole smithy, and, well, that is, grandpa said that you're like a goddess of the forge come down from heaven to us, and that any girl with half your fire is more woman than he's ever seen. And, you see, I was wondering if maybe you could stay for a few more days and you and I could, um, you know, get to know each other a little better or–”
Sarah laid a hand gently on his shoulder, interrupting him. “Maybe you should go tell your grandpa to come talk to me himself,” she said in her gentlest voice. The boy began to squirm as her grip tightened. Her gentle smile turned brittle as she continued to talk thr
ough clenched teeth. “Then he and I can have a nice long talk about how much fire I have.”
The boy yelped as she squeezed for a moment then released him to scamper away.
“I swear, if one more thundering idiot proposes to me because someone's blighted grandpa told them that I was a woman like no other, I'm going to bind every one of his skin cells to a high density geosynchronously stable carbon helix then laugh as planet's rotation tears them to little tiny bits.” She continued to detail what Ezra could only assume were even more dreadful fates. Fortunately, he lacked the knowledge of material chemistry to understand them.
A thump sounded behind Ezra, then a huge, meaty hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. He felt a moment to panic before he was crushed in a hug by Mr. Wellward. After a few air deprived moments, the big man released him, then patted him firmly on the shoulders and grunted, nodding to several enormous sacks of potatoes at their feet.
“Oh, uh, there's really no need,” Ezra wheezed, “I mean, after everything that happened...”
“No, no dear,” Mrs. Wellward bustled up, shooing her husband back toward the inn. “We really just can't thank you all enough. After what you did, getting our little girl off to lord Gaav and having him speak to the lady seer about things, it's really the least we can do. Can't have folk saying that the people of Southedge don't honor their debts.” She pressed a firmly wrapped loaf of warm bread into Ezra's hands along with a jar of some preserves, babbling incessantly all the while. “And after all the hard work that you put in, it's really the least we can do, the very least! I'm just glad that you cleared up that little misunderstanding, fine young people like yourselves. Now you take care and drop by again some time. Really, just skin and bones on you, like you never ate a decent meal in your life.” She poked at Ezra's ribs to demonstrate, making him lose hold of the jar.
Ezra juggled the jam and bread, somehow managing to save both, then glanced around sheepishly. “Um, about what Kelly may have...”
“Oh, and the imagination on that girl, you wouldn't believe!” Mrs. Wellward continued as if he hadn't spoken. “Fighting with earth-crowned and water-seers, flying around on a sky ship like some kind of wind-scarred pirate!” She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “She must get it from my husband, bless his heart, with all those elaborate bed time stories. He just doesn't know when to stop, chattering on all night. Why just last night, I had to go and pull him out of that room my very own self, and I told him, sometimes you just need to be quiet and let these things work themselves out instead of filling a little girl's head with nonsense. Because that's all it is, nonsense, right?” She gave Ezra a pleading look.
“That it is!” Mat stepped in and elbowed Ezra, making him fumble his armload again. “But you know how children are, always exaggerating their stories.” He smiled and shook his head. “Life was certainly a fine adventure at that age.” He gave the Wellwards a dazzling smile, then spun and snatched the bread and jam from Ezra, tossing the jar to Sarah. She caught it deftly, glanced at Ezra and giving the potatoes a meaningful look.
Ezra blinked at her, then the potatoes, then sputtered in dismay, “What? No! That must be a hundred pounds of...” He looked appealingly at Mat, who barked out a laugh and started walking away. “But, but I've been sick! Bedridden!”
“A whole day sitting around in bed,” Sarah drawled, shaking her head, “can't let you get soft now, Hawkins.”
Gaav strolled up just then and casually picked up two of the sacks. “I believe I'm heading the same way you are,” the earth-crowned rumbled, “and this seems a fine day for a little walking.” Without any particular effort, he scooped up the third sack and tossed it to Ezra, nearly knocking him over. “Perhaps I can help with your burdens for a time.”
Ezra sighed and lifted the heavy sack up to his shoulder. Just as they turned to go, Kelly came running out. “Wait!” she cried. Panting to catch her breath, Kelly bowed respectfully to Gaav, whispered a quiet “Thank you” to Sarah and Mat, then glared at Ezra. “You better come back and take me on a real adventure,” she told him. “And I'll want to know what kind of magic you were doing in that room too. Deal?” She stuck her hand out.
Ezra grinned at the little girl, then solemnly shook her hand. “Deal,” he said, then, without another word, turned and headed down the road.
About twenty steps out of town, Mat jostled Ezra lightly. “Look at you, two times out of Sanctuary and you're already stealing girls' hearts.”
“Your little girlfriend's gonna be pining after you for years, Hawkins,” Sarah chimed in, laughter in her voice. “Especially with a dramatic exit like that. I'm surprised she didn't swoon.”
Ezra glanced over at her. “Well,” he said self-righteously, “we can't all be fiery, grandpa wooing goddesses of the forge, you know.”
Sarah punched him in the arm. Hard. Ezra yelped and dropped the potatoes while Gaav and Mat burst into uproarious laughter, slapping him on the back as they walked past. Ezra grinned, picking up his sack of potatoes and jogging to catch up with the others, heading home.