Joel Rosenberg - Keepers of the Hidden Ways 02 by The Silver Stone

Author:The Silver Stone [Stone, The Silver]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-02-15T16:11:30.422000+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Rumors

Torrie had been hearing the rhythmic chopping sound for an hour—he had checked his pocket watch—before they topped a hill and found Harbard's Landing spread out before them.

The weather was getting ugly, with the promise of getting downright mean before long. A storm was moving in from the west, a slate-gray mass driving fluffy puffs of cumulus ahead of it, like a massive pack of wolves scattering and then pursuing a few idle sheep.

The distant whack came to his ears over the dry, almost metallic rustle of the leaves in the trees. There were a few seconds of silence, and then another whack.

Torrie could visualize it all; the woodsman would set a piece of wood on the chopping stump, choke up on the hammer so he could set the wedge with a few taps, and then he would take one step back, bring the hammer down, back, around, and over, and—

Whack—

Then he'd take another piece of wood, set it up on the chopping stump, and—

Whack.

There it was again. Right on time, too. Whoever it was must have been in pretty good shape; he was keeping up the same pace, and had been for a while.

Or maybe there were two of them, working together, like Torrie and Dad did, one of them putting the wood on the stump and setting the wedge, the other simply swinging the hammer.

Chopping wood with Dad had always been Torrie's favorite chore. Even when he was a little kid, that was their time together—Dad would set the piece of wood on the ancient oak stump next to the barn, then steady the wedge on it so Torrie could bang on the top with the carpenter's hammer.

It had been a major rite of passage the day Dad had handed the sledgehammer to Torrie, and told him it was his turn.

Torrie smiled. "Sound familiar?"

"Very. Reminds me of home." He quickened his pace. "If we hurry, we should be there soon."

One of the hardest things for Torrie to learn about his father was that not only could he sometimes be wrong, but it wasn't just about matters of opinion that he could be mistaken, but matters of judgment, too. You grow up thinking that if Dad does make a mistake—and, hell, everybody makes mistakes—it's something that nobody could have avoided.

And then you find him about to make a tenderfoot kind of mistake like plunging ahead with a storm coming on.

"Dad?" Torrie said. "Let's take a break for a moment, eh?"

Dad's jaw twitched. "I think..." He let his voice trail off. "Very well, if you think it wise."

Torrie smiled.

Maggie—unflappable Maggie, who still managed to look fresh after two days on the road, just like she had through what had seemed like half the hiking trails in Europe—seconded the notion and shrugged out of her pack.

"If we can't afford a quick five, then we probably better take ten." She hung the rucksack from an out-thrust piece of bark on an old elm, then gave a quick tug to test it

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.