Passage by Lois Bujold

Author:Lois Bujold [Bujold, Lois]
Format: epub
Tags: sf_fantasy
ISBN: 9780061375330
Published: 2008-04-03T20:00:00+00:00

14

To Fawn's bemusement, Remo tagged along on the trip to the mint, which made her wonder what Dag had been saying to him last night. She'd thought Remo had been too terrified of the town to set foot in it. He started the tour with a set look on his face that could more easily be mistaken for disapproval. Which made her wonder in turn what emotions some of Dag's grimmer looks masked--a Lakewalker bride would not have to guess, she reflected with a sigh. At the last moment, Dag thought to ask Hod if he wanted to come along, which made the boy turn red with pleasure and nod mutely and vigorously.

Disappointingly, the mint was not in operation that day, but in return for a few copper crays a man took visitors around, answered their questions, and, Fawn suspected, kept an eye on them. He certainly eyed the pair of Lakewalkers askance. Even idle, the coin-stamping presses were fascinating, almost as complex as Aunt Nattie's loom, and much heavier. "Sessile," Dag muttered, staring at them over her shoulder with profound Lakewalker suspicion of sitting targets. Remo nodded agreement.

On the walk back through town, she and Whit were diverted by a shop selling tools and hardware--not a blacksmithery, as nothing but small repairs were done on the premises, but more like a goods-shed. Most of the items for sale seemed to come from upriver, including a fascinating Tripoint stove cast entirely of black iron, with an iron pipe acting as a chimney to take the smoke away. It was like an iron hearth-oven box turned inside out, made to stand out into a room with the fire on the inside.

"Look!" Fawn told Dag in excitement. "It has to be so much better for heating, because a fireplace only shows one face to a room, and this thing shows, what, six. Six times better. And you wouldn't have to bend and crouch to cook on it, and it wouldn't blow smoke in your face, either, and you're less like to catch your clothes or hair on fire, too!" Oh, I want one!

He stared at it and her in mild alarm. "You'd need a wagon and team to shift it, Spark!"

"Naturally you wouldn't cart it around with you, any more than you would a fireplace. Fire pit," she revised, thinking of Lakewalkers camps.

"It would have to be planted someplace permanent."

"Hm," he said, looking at her with one of his odder smiles. "Farmer tool."

"Well, of course." She tossed her head, imagining someplace permanent where you could plant such a stove, and a garden. And children. Not a Lakewalker camp, they'd proved that. Not a farmer village, or at least not West Blue. A town like this one? Maybe not, as such a big concentration of folks plainly made Lakewalkers deeply uncomfortable. Where, then? Regretfully, she allowed Dag and Remo to drag them away from the fascinating emporium.

Back on the Fetch, they found a crisis brewing as Berry and Bo were ready to cast off, but Hawthorn's raccoon kit had disappeared.

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