White Order
VI
Clang! Clang!
At the first bell, Cerryl peered out from the blankets, shivering. His breath was a white cloud that billowed into the air.
“Darkness,” he murmured, trying not to move, not to let any of the cold air slip inside his blankets. There were no cracks in the heavy planked walls; the door fit snugly; and the window door was shut tightly-frozen shut, Cerryl suspected. But his cubby room had no hearth, not even a warming pan, though Dylert had sent him back down to bed the night before with two fire-warmed bricks.
Clang!
Cerryl clambered out from the blankets and began to shiver. His feet were cold and stiff as he wedged them, one by one, into his boots. Then he struggled into the patched canvas-and-leather jacket Nail had made for him. It was getting harder to tie shut. Had he grown that much over the fall and early winter?
He lifted the two warming bricks-cold as ice-then tucked them under one arm. He opened his door, stepped outside, and shut it quickly, trying to keep the little heat in the room from escaping. Beside the path that led across to the mill and then up to the house the snow was more than knee deep, sparkling despite the lack of direct light in the moments before dawn.
The smoke from the house's kitchen chimney was a thick white plume that climbed through the still air into the clear dark green-blue sky of predawn. A smaller plume escaped from the chimney at the far end of the house, the one Cerryl thought was the hearth for the mill-master's bedchamber.
One foot skidded on the packed snow of the path, and Cerryl staggered, trying not to let the bricks slip from under his arm as he tried to catch his balance. He walked uphill carefully, eyes on the slick and icy surface, hands thrust inside the bottom of his jacket. Even the porch steps were slick, with a thin coating of the more recent snowflakes over the ice.
Cerryl stamped his boots on the porch planks, trying to knock off all the snow, then reached for the boot brush. He could feel his toes jammed against the ends of the boots. He needed new boots, but the nine coppers he had saved wouldn't pay for them.
Bundled in a heavy leather jacket and leather trousers, Erhana opened the door. “Come on! Breakfast is ready, and you've a lot to do, Da says.”
Cerryl stepped into the kitchen, letting Erhana close the door. For a moment, he stood there, letting the warmth fill him. Then he walked to the hearth and set the bricks by those brought up by Rinfur. “Thank you,” he said, nodding toward Dyella.
“Little enough,” answered the millmaster's consort with a smile. “This be going on, and you all sleep in the kitchen.”
Cerryl slipped onto the middle of the bench, with Rinfur on his left. Viental, once more, had left to see his “sister.” Dylert sat at the end of the table, eating his gruel. On his right sat Erhana, still wrapped in her leather jacket.
Dyella ladled the steaming gruel into the chipped bowl in front of Cerryl. “Seen your uncle recently? Before the snow, I be meaning,” she asked pleasantly. “Or your aunt?”
“Aunt Nail, she stopped by coming back from Shandreth's vineyard last fall.” Cerryl took a sip of water from the cracked cup that was his. “I saw Uncle Syodor an eight-day ago, before the snows started. He'd been helping Zylerant raise a barn.” He quickly swallowed some more of the gruel, welcoming the warmth, and took a small bite of the muffin beside his bowl. He held the muffin for a moment, enjoying its warmth on his cold fingers.
“They see you a lot more regular than some,” observed Dyella, adding another ladle of the hot gruel to Cerryl's bowl.
“They've been good to me,” said Cerryl. “Good as they could be.” He ignored the glance from Dylert to Erhana, as well as Dyella's raised eyebrows as she glanced at the millmaster. Instead, he concentrated on eating, and before he could finish the last of the porridge in the bowl, Dyella had added more.
“You be needing this today. No sense in wasting it. Forgot Viental was gone.”
“Thank you, Dyella.” Cerryl smiled.
Rinfur cleared his throat. “I best be checking the horses, ser. Extra grain, you think?”
“Half cup, no more,” said Dylert. “No telling when I can get another barrel. Not in this weather. Can't hardly get to the road, except with the sled, and that's not much for carrying.”
“Half cup each, that be it.” The teamster stood, stretched, then fastened his jacket and tromped out of the kitchen and onto the porch.
Erhana, despite the heavy coat, shivered as the chill air washed over her. “Cold out there.”
“Be thankful you only have to fetch water, child,” said Dyella.
“I have to get more?”
“I have to cook, if you want to eat,” pointed out her mother.
“Mother...”
Cerryl smothered a grin by looking down at his bowl.
“Erhana-not another word.”
Cerryl slowly ate the second bowl of hot gruel, saving the rest of the muffin, but he finished the last bite of the warm muffin all too soon.
“Cerryl?” said Dylert.
“Yes, ser?”
“I was going to have you clean the pit today, seeing as things are slow.” He coughed. “Dyella, though, she pointed out how the roof of the chicken shed is sagging, and my bones tell me we might yet see more snow. I'd like you to clear that afore you come down to the mill.”
“Yes, ser.”
“Got an old pair of mitts.” Dylert glanced toward the narrow table by the door to the porch. “Need those, you will, lest your fingers chill.” He coughed. “Best you keep them till the weather warms.”
“Thank you, ser.” Cerryl nodded and smiled, trying to show that he appreciated the gesture. “Thank you.”
“Can't have you getting frozen hands. Darkness, this been a cold winter. Coldest in years.”
“Coldest I can recall,” added Dyella.
Cerryl eased off the bench and nodded to Dylert and then Dyella. “Thank you. The porridge was good.”
“Stick to your bones,” Dyella said.
After slipping the mitts on and easing out the door onto the porch, Cerryl took the slick steps carefully. Once his boots were on the packed snow of the path, he glanced at the mill. A thick plume of smoke billowed from the chimney.
At least the mill would be warmer than his cubby. He trudged toward the chicken shed, conscious of how much warmer his hands were in the heavy leather mitts, mitts big enough for a grown man.
Before he reached the chicken shed, his toes were cold, jammed as they were into his boots. The path went to the door of the chicken house, but the roof was slanted down to the left. Cerryl struggled from the path through the knee-deep snow around to the left side of the building, where he could reach the lower edge of the slanted roof.
The bottom edge was but chest high, and Cerryl stretched and used his right arm to sweep the snow clear-except the powdery stuff swirled into the air and came down on his face and hair, and sifted down the back of his jacket.
He brushed off his hair and face, then swept another heavy armful off the lower roof. More snow swirled around him and drifted down his neck, inside his jacket and shirt. Grimly, he swirled aside more snow, and more of the powder sifted around him, even getting into his nose and mouth.
He stepped back, all too conscious of cold dampness down his back and toes going numb, looking up at the snow beyond his reach.
“Here! Use this,” said Brental, handing Cerryl a small timber- quarterspan by quarterspan-perhaps six cubits long.
“Thank you, Brental.” Cerryl gratefully took the timber.
“No thanks. You be getting it done sooner this way. Da wants the sawpit cleaned later. Said he'd tell you, but Ma feared for the hens if'n the roof went.” The redheaded young man grinned. “I'm off to clear the barn roof.”
“Lucky you.”
“When you're taller, you can help.” Brental laughed. “Make sure you brush off that snow 'fore you go into the mill. It be getting warm there now, and you won't be wanting wet clothes.”
Cerryl nodded. No ... he wouldn't be wanting wet clothes. He took a firm grip on the end of the pine timber and began to sweep the rest of the snow off the chicken house roof.