The Pen and the Sword (Destiny's Crucible Book 2) (7 page)

Filtin
accompanied them to other shops, and they finished briefer tours of the kerosene
and soap facilities by mid-day.

“Would
you like to return to the abbey for mid-day meal, Sen Keelan?” asked Yozef. The
dray and the driver remained near the distillation shop.

“I
believe the cannon foundry is next,” said Maera, “and then gunpowder and the
bank. Perhaps there’s somewhere to eat here in the Abersford. Where were you
planning on mid-day meal?”

“Oh,
I usually just drop in on whatever shop is next, and the men and women give me
something.”

Give
him something? How odd
.

“In
that case, if they could spare a little more, perhaps we should just proceed to
the next demonstration.”

“Okay,”
said Yozef and turned away to a worker checking a new glass column.

Oh-kay
?

Filtin
saw her puzzlement. “It’s an expression from Yozef’s homeland, Sen Keelan.
Okay
means something like ‘yes’ or ‘in agreement’ or generally positive. You’ll find
the expression has become common here in Abersford.”

“Thank
you, Ser . . . er . . . I didn’t get your family name.”

“Fuller,
Sen Keelan. Filtin Fuller.”

“Thank
you, Ser Fuller.”

Maera
hadn’t missed Fuller’s surprise when she suggested she eat with Yozef and the workers
at the foundry. Her forthrightness came to the fore.

If
you want to know something, silly—ask!

“Ser
Fuller, you looked surprised when I suggested I accompany Ser Kolsko to the
foundry to eat there. Please tell me why?”

Fuller
was obviously ill at ease with the question. She looked straight at him and
waited, with the “I’m the hetman’s daughter and you need to answer” look she
had cultivated.

“Well,
you’re the
hetman’s
daughter. One doesn’t expect someone like you to eat
mid-day meal with workers, particularly sharing their food.”

“But
Ser Kolsko does it?”

“Yes,
but Yozef is . . . different.”

Maera
could tell she was on to something.
What
she didn’t know, but her
instincts told her she needed this man to open up.

“I’m
very curious, Filtin . . . may I call you Filtin?” she said, in as friendly a
voice as she could manage.

Filtin
blinked several times in surprise that the hetman’s daughter wanted to call him
by his first name, something usually reserved for after persons were better acquainted.

“Why
. . . that’s fine, Sen Keelan.” It never occurred to either of them that he
would use
her
first name.

Confident
that she had established personal rapport with Filtin, she continued. “So, Filtin,
obviously Yozef is an important person, not only here in Abersford but for all
of Keelan, due to the many innovations he has introduced. Yet all the workers
seem more familiar with him than one might expect. Why is that?”

“Well,
he’s just . . . Yozef,” drawled out Filtin. “I don’t know, exactly. I know he
gets annoyed if we are too formal with him.”

“So,
he prefers the familiarity, that’s it?”

            Filtin’s
defensive posture and tone changed to ones more assertive, though still respectful.
“Pardon me if I seem presumptuous, Sen Keelan, but Yozef doesn’t see himself as
of a higher stature than anyone else. He’s just Yozef. He’s respected for what he
does and who he is but doesn’t expect different treatment. Pardon again, Sen
Keelan, but many people expect to be treated differently, if only because of
their station.”

Maera
was momentarily taken aback. This was the bluntest statement she had heard of
the distance among the different peoples of Keelan by status. She didn’t like
what Filtin said but recognized that he might be taking a risk in being so
blunt with her.

Is
Fuller’s forthrightness the influence of Kolsko?

“I
appreciate your honesty, Filtin. I also recognize such honesty may not always
be welcomed by the receiver, but I assure you that’s not the case with me. I’m
curious, though, and I’d like similar honesty: is my family treated with respect
only because my father is the hetman?”

Filtin
shook his head. “Certainly, that’s part of it, but there are few people of
Keelan who don’t recognize how fortunate we are to have Culich Keelan as hetman.
We hear too many stories from other clans not to appreciate him and know his dedication
isn’t common everywhere.”

Filtin
hesitated, then continued, “You’re given respect and deference because you’re
of the hetman’s family, and respect for him transfers to you. Of course, there’s
always awkwardness for some people when they interact with people of status
well above their own. What you don’t see in Keelan is deference given out of
fear of angering someone of higher status. And then there are those who will
act cautiously around you, because they’re uncertain about saying something or
acting inappropriately.”

Hmmm
. . . this needs some careful thinking
.

“Thank
you, Filtin. Again, I truly appreciate your honesty.”

As
Fuller had indicated, the mid-day meal started awkwardly. Kolsko escorted Maera
to the cannon foundry, where his five workers were joined by the soap-making
staff, and the men paused in their work to eat. Maera’s reservation about
eating food donated by the workmen was ameliorated when, on the way, Kolsko
stopped at a bakery and bought several loaves of fresh bread and fruit at a
street market. Their arrival at the foundry was greeted with a similar welcome
as in the distillery shops, with casual and friendly greetings to Kolsko,
followed by a more distant manner when he introduced her.

They
sat on boxes around a temporary table made out of sawhorses and boards. Kolsko
broke out the bread and the fruit, and friendly banter ensued, while he
“bartered” for cheese and dry sausage. They ate, while he gave Maera a briefing
on what they were attempting at the foundry and their progress. As he did,
different workers added updates and comments, and before long, Maera felt they
had forgotten her presence and engaged in their usual working discussion.

Interesting
.
He laughs
when he recounts what he sees are mistakes he made, and he readily listens to
his workers. It’s like they work
together
and not
for
him
.

As
for the cannon project, Maera could see the arguments Kolsko summarized on why
cannon could be important, but she hadn’t the experience or the basis to
evaluate the ideas.

Father
needs to hear more about this. Father and Vortig Luwis.

After
the foundry, Kolsko walked Maera to the bank and left her with Cadwulf, who explained
the rationale for a “bank.” Cadwulf also strongly expressed the need to have
formal procedures for handling the coin coming in from Kolsko’s trades. It was
the first time she had any clue about his finances.

Merciful
God! This Kolsko might already be the wealthiest man in Keelan, and getting
more so all the time! He might even have as much coin as our family’s direct
possessions. The extent of his workshops here is only a shadow of all his enterprises
now that he “franchises,” as he calls it, to shops elsewhere in Keelan and
other provinces. I doubt Father has any clue to any of this and needs to be
more aware of what is happening here in Abersford.

Maera
had also recognized the prosperous look of the entire area. Not just Abersford,
but the farms and the abbey complex.

It
must all be interrelated. From what Cadwulf says, most of the coin that comes
in goes right back out for Kolsko’s different shops and projects. Certainly,
the foundry is not bringing in any coin, but he supports it, because he thinks
it may be important in the future. That’s something Father might do, but few
other hetmen.

After
her introduction to Kolsko’s finances, the rationale and operation of the bank,
loan procedures, and double-entry bookkeeping, Maera returned to the abbey,
escorted by Cadwulf. There she spent the rest of the day in the abbey library. Her
intention to read faltered, as she stared out a window for several hours and went
over in her mind what she had seen that day.

Her
impression of Sen Kolsko had definitely changed. At mid-day meal yesterday,
when the Beynoms introduced them, she’d thought him quite unimpressive. That was
wrong. Maera still didn’t have a strong feeling for him as a person, but what he’d
accomplished here in Abersford in a relatively short time was nothing short of
extraordinary.

Father
ABSOLUTELY needs to pay attention to what’s happening here and meet this Kolsko
.

Genes

Maera
discussed Kolsko often with Diera Beynom. The abbess was simultaneously
enthused and frustrated by the new knowledge that dripped from him.

“Yes,”
said Diera, “the ether putting patients to sleep and ethanol for antiseptic have
been God’s blessings to us, not to mention what he’s told us of his people’s
understanding of the human body.”

“I
hear a big
but
in your voice, Diera.”

“Yes,
but
it’s also maddeningly frustrating dealing with him. Sistian and I
both believe him honest and honorable, yet half the time I think he’s hiding
pieces of knowledge from us. Why, I don’t know. The other half . . .”

“The
other half, what?”

Diera
shook head. “I don’t know. He acts like single pieces of information suddenly
come to him. I’ve heard it said that it seems he’s hearing something no one
else does, although I think it may be he’s searching his memory. At times, he
says he simply can’t remember the answer to one of our questions, and he’s
always apologetic when that happens.

“Sistian
told me that Yozef once came to him for advice about revealing beliefs and
knowledge of his own people and how not to arouse trouble here on Caedellium if
he did. He worried for both his safety and disturbing our society. Sistian and,
more recently, I have advised him. I think you’d find it interesting to come to
a meeting tomorrow with me, Yozef, and one of our scholastics, Brother Willwin
Wallington, who studies Anyar’s animals and plants. Yozef has had Willwin
growing peas to study their flower colors. They’ve both been secretive,
although Willwin is floating on air recently. They’ve asked to show me the
results of whatever they’re doing.”

The
four met in a small greenhouse, another of Yozef’s introductions. Pots covered one
table, each one growing a single pea plant with white or purple flowers.

Brother
Wallington spoke, with Yozef standing to one side, his face impassive.

“Yozef
came to me one day and asked how we thought characteristics are passed from
generation to generation. There are practical examples of how we assume this to
be. A herder breeds with a specific bull because the offspring are better than
those of other bulls. A wheat farmer saves the seed of better-yielding plants,
in hopes future generations will also have higher yields.

“He
posed the question of how to explain the basis of these expectations. It was
hardly a novel question, and one neither I nor, as far as I know, anyone else
has a good answer. This led to a related question dealing only with humans. How
can a husband be certain his wife’s children are his? Ignoring simply her word
she’s been faithful.”

Wallington
shuffled his feet and stole a glance at Maera. “I hope I don’t offend you, Sen
Keelan, but this gets into facts about the relations between men and women.”

Maera
smiled. “Please don’t worry, Brother Wallington. I’ve studied medicant texts,
plus I’ve been around animals at Keelan Manor enough to know the basics are the
same for humans and animals.”

Wallington
blushed. “Yes, well, anyway . . . a common belief, first proposed by the great
Landolin scholastic Churnwicmon, is that the essence of the fetus is in the
male’s semen and transferred to the female’s womb to be nourished and grow. In
this proposition, everything that the new life is to be is contributed by the
male. However, there are obvious fallacies.”

“I
know of Churnwicmon’s proposition and the counterarguments,” said Maera. “I can
see them in my own family. I and my two younger sisters look more like our mother
than our father, while my sister Ceinwyn clearly has our father’s nose and
ears. And when our stable master breeds horses, he doesn’t just consider the sire,
but also the mare.”

“Right,”
enthused Wallington, “and that brings us to the fundamental problem of
explaining how both the father
and
the mother contribute to offspring. That’s
when Yozef came to me and suggested breeding this wild pea you see on the
table.” He waved his left arm over the plants. “In fields, we see these two
colors in different ratios, depending on location, but only these two. Yozef
showed me how to breed pea plants and urged me to keep detailed records of the
offspring. Peas grow fast, and it’s only taken four generations of data to see
three clear relationships. When I showed my results to Yozef, he confirmed them
the same as found by one of his people, a man named Mendel.”