The Burning Stone by Jack Whyte

Author:Jack Whyte
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Published: 2018-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

Throughout the month that followed, Varrus spent most of his time head to head or side by side with Demetrius Hanno, bent over an anvil as the big man hammer-welded metal strips or gazing down with him at drawings on a workbench as Hanno sought to perfect the tapered outline of a cutting edge or an emerging sword blade. Varrus seldom spoke, but by that time, whenever he did say something, his words were heeded, and though his opinions might later be dismissed, Hanno always discussed their dismissal with him, analyzing their weaknesses so that his student was constantly learning.

The true beginnings of his comprehension of where his studies might be going, though, came on a morning when he had been watching his mentor finishing a blade, shaping it effortlessly into a long, slender, flawless weapon with a barely discernible leaf-waisted flair in the first third of its length. Varrus had been watching the birth of this particular piece, admiring the care and attention with which Hanno had used a round-nosed chisel to fashion the delicately graduated twin channels flanking the central spine, and he was now anticipating the pleasure of watching the giant start smoothing and burnishing the lovely blade and adding a hilt. He was astounded, then, when Hanno hoisted it up to eye level with the tongs, studied it for several moments, hefted it speculatively, and then turned away to bury it in the coals of the forge again.

“What are you doing?” Varrus made no attempt to mask the horror in his voice, and Hanno glanced sideways at him.

The giant selected a long, slender rod from the pile beside him and thrust it, too, into the forge beside the blade. “It needs to be a little heavier,” he said.

“But it was perfect!”

Again came that sideways glance. “No. Had it been perfect there would be no need to add more weight. It was flawed—too light. What frightens you?”

“Frightens me? Nothing frightens me. It simply seems like a waste—a waste of time, more than anything else.”

The giant turned down his lips and tilted his head sideways. “Time well spent is never wasted. This will be a better blade next time. Are you afraid the metal will grow soft, with too much forging?”

“No! That’s nonsense. You know that’s not why I objected.”

“Then why did you object?”

“Because it was done! It was beautiful and you threw it back into the fire. Some soldier might have taken great pleasure in owning that sword.”

To Varrus’s astonishment, Demetrius Hanno began to smile, and his gigantic features were transformed. He stood up and flexed his enormous shoulders, then bent his elbows and clenched his fists, twisting slowly from the waist, first left, then right. When he was done, he picked up his tongs again and removed the barely heated sword blade and the fresh metal rod from the charcoal, setting them side by side on the brickwork edge of the firepit. “We can reheat these later,” he said. “For now, walk with me.”

He crossed directly

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