Exploitable Weaknesses by Brian Keller (red queen free ebook txt) 📗

off an’ tell someone. Guards’re still lookin’ for us, I’d wager. From the quarry, I mean.” Naro had finished checking the welds on one side of the basket. He made a low noise, almost a grunt, then looked at Cooper and added, “He’s got a point...” Cooper shrugged and told them, “We’ll be bringing cargo off a ship and we don’t want to bring it through the port. There are chains hanging down the cliffs to the water below. We’ll be bolting this basket to those chains so we can lower the basket to the water’s edge, load it, and raise it up here. Clear enough?” The men looked from him, to the basket, and then to the edge of the cliffs and the water beyond and below. Their expressions varied between disbelief and awe. One of the men seemed to sum it up, “Well, I ain’t never heared of such a thing.” Naro had his back turned while he checked the remaining welds so Cooper couldn’t be certain, but he thought he heard Naro chuckling.

It took most of the remainder of the day to pull up the chains, determine where best to secure the basket and then stretch out the chains so they could use the horses to control how it was lowered back into position. If they simply rolled it off the edge of the cliff, any number of things could go horribly wrong. The bolts could shear off if they had bolted it too high, or one of the chains could snap or worse yet, the chains could be pulled from their mooring points and everything could disappear into the churning water below.

By the time the basket was in position, the shadows were already growing longer. As they returned to the city, they passed around the food Cooper had bought earlier. Each man sliced off what he wanted and everyone ate in silence while they were jarred and tossed around in the back of the wagon. Cooper wondered how many of his own teeth he might lose before reaching a road that would lead them to Miller’s Flats.

After returning the horses and wagon, Cooper collected the coin they’d been required to provide as collateral. From that he counted out a generous day’s wage for a porter and paid each man. The men were reluctant to accept payment at first, until Gaff mentioned, “Now that you gents have recovered, you’ll need to work to ‘pay their own way’. You’ll earn a ‘stipend’, so to speak, but anything you want beyond what the Guild provides, you’ll have to pay for yourselves.”

By the time they’d returned to the Ruins, it was dark and the work crews had finished for the day. Areas near the cistern had been walled off as temporary cubicles for bathing. They took turns drawing water from the cistern to wash off the accumulated sweat and grime. Cooper had just dumped a ladle of water over his head when he heard the clatter of hooves on cobblestones. He slicked back his hair and dressed himself without drying off. He stepped out into the open in time to recognize Balat trying to tether both horses with his one good hand. His other arm was still in a plaster cast. Loryn was nowhere to be seen but he could hear her voice from inside the Main House. Cooper walked straight to Balat and asked bluntly, “Well? Were they there? Did you deliver your message? How’s your arm?” Balat opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted as Loryn burst from the Main House, saw Cooper and blurted, “Are they already here? Why are you dripping wet?” Balat was torn between trying to maintain control of the horses and trying to answer Cooper’s questions. The horses were agitated and still breathing hard, grunting from their exertion, with their sides heaving like a blacksmith’s bellows. Balat ended up simply looking sheepish and a little defeated as he tilted his head toward Loryn, “They were. We did. I think it’s healed. Are we too late?”

Cooper answered Balat first, to Loryn’s impatience, “No.” He turned to Loryn, “Not as far as I know, and you interrupted my shower.” Loryn looked past him, toward the cistern, her eyes big, “We have showers?!” Cooper chuckled as he wiped a wet hand across his face, “Yes, a ladleful at a time. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to finish my bathing and get to the Waterfront to see if the Sundancer has sailed in and find out whether the Prince’s flagship sailed today. How was Captain Rigel?” Loryn complained, “You might have at least mentioned that his head and face were covered with burn scars!” Cooper shrugged, turned and called back over his shoulder, “I can’t imagine why that would be important.”

Chapter 23

Once clean and dry, he dressed in his leathers and flexed all his joints to make sure he didn’t feel restricted anywhere. He continued to gain height and with the regular physical work on the reconstruction, it felt like he might have added a little muscle as well. “I’ll never be a big as Kolrem”, he thought, then he glanced east and added a silent plea, “Hang on, buddy. A few more days and we’ll get you out of there.” He found Loryn and Balat, not a difficult chore since they had a small crowd around them, everyone eager to hear tales of Temidan. Cooper interrupted the discussion, “A couple of questions then I’ll leave you all to spin epic tales to your heart’s content.” He directed his attention to Loryn, “How long ago did you leave Temidan?” Loryn counted quickly, “Eight- no, eight and a half days ago.” She looked to Balat for confirmation and he nodded in agreement as he added, “It took us almost eleven days to get there. I hope we haven’t ruined the horses coming back.” Cooper smiled at Balat’s sudden concern for horses, considering it had been a