Nedric swatted the insect and then wiped the sweat from his brow. The relentless heat was a distraction to his concentration. He had another ten planks to process today and he was behind target, which meant working late again. He wouldn’t have minded but he had promised the village children that he would teach them some more juggling skills this evening. He wondered if he could get one of the others to work in his place, although he knew that they were all at least as far behind target as himself. The demand for planks was getting greater and the number of impressors was still limited. Still in a few weeks time the next bunch of students from the keep would be joining them and that should make life easier.

He idly wondered what would happen to him if he were to just give up for the day. They were unlikely to get rid of him as they were short of trained staff. He really wasn’t very worried about them fining him as he was earning quite a lot and had hardly anything to spend his money on, as the company provided food and shelter. He decided that if he were in the position of his supervisor that he would probably give a hefty fine the first time and get rid of him for any repeat occurrence. At the moment Nedric couldn’t see any other job that he could undertake and so was loathe to give his supervisor any reason to get rid of him.

The job itself was boring, repetitive and isolated. It might not have been so bad if he had been stationed in Elseth and had the distractions of the city to look forward to in the evening. As it was, Nedric and five other impressors were living in a village in the middle of the largest forest on the continent, with only a few carpenters and the local villagers for company. The village had arisen as a place to supply the needs of the local loggers and as such had only the basic amenities. Someone higher up in the company had decided that the village was unsuitable for women workers and so the only females were the whores that worked the local saloon. None of these appealed to Nedric in any way. They tended to be unattractive, unhygienic and extremely coarsely spoken.

The children of the village were far less objectionable. They had been drawn to him when he practised his juggling skills in the evenings. At first they had just watched but then one brave lad called Kelwin had asked to try and Nedric had found himself with a group of around a dozen children all wanting to be shown how to keep three balls aloft. In return the children had introduced him to a toy consisting of two flat disks of wood connected by a spindle which was made to rotate by a piece of string attached to two wooden handles. The device could be launched into the air to a considerable height. Nedric had found that there were other tricks that could be done and was having to rapidly come up with new ideas, as the children seemed to learn them faster than he could think them up. It was now the case that he was being taught almost as many tricks as he could devise himself and he wouldn’t be surprised if a few of the children became considerably better than him.

Anyway Nedric was not going to get anywhere by thinking about juggling, he had a load of planks to process and the day was drifting away. He decided that he would have to speed up, using a little trick that he had discovered by accident one day. He first made sure that there was no one to watch him. Nedric believed that if it was discovered that he could work twice as quickly then he would be forced to do so and he wasn’t that dedicated a worker.

He had to move the planks next to each other, which was awkward as they were not exactly short or manoeuvrable. Nedric had noticed early on that the planks were always left apart before the impressing process began so that they would not be forced apart and possibly cause damage to the planks as the process developed. He had realised that there was no need for this at the start as there was no repulsion. Then he had accidentally started working on a plank that had yet to be properly positioned and was still next to another one. The nearness of the two planks had meant his mental picture had needed to include both planks and he had found that it was then much simpler to perform the process on both planks rather than just one at a time. He was aware that the length of the planks was determined by several restraints, one of which was the capability of most impressors of visualising them. He didn’t want to be thought of as a freak. He was already getting more planks to process, as he was a faster visualiser than most of his colleagues.

He finished moving the planks back shortly before finishing time and took a short break before walking over to Supervisor Alhern to declare himself finished for the day. The supervisor was also one of the carpenters, whose job it was to prepare the planks by shaping the ends for a tight linkage and coating them to prevent damage from the weather. On the first track built, the effects of changeable weather hadn’t really been thought through and many of the planks had been so damaged that they needed to be replaced. This meant that half of the impressors were working on planks for a track that was less than ten years old. If the same techniques had been used with the newer track then it would probably never be finished, as it was so much longer. In fact it was the new processes that had led to Nedric being exiled in this out of the way place.

The job of supervisor was not particularly onerous. It involved noting the number of boards the impressors declared to have processed on the one day and actually checking the number of impressed boards the following day. He also had to check the numbers of planks worked on by the carpenters and send the details off on the weekly carriage that brought the supplies and any messages for the workers. Occasionally one of the higher-ups at the boardway would make an inspection visit or one of the workers would be allowed a few days leave to visit their families. Alhern was one of the men who were less than happy at being away from his family for such a long time.

The supervisor was in quite a good mood when Nedric strolled into his office. Nedric assumed that he had received a letter from his wife as that normally cheered him up for a day and then depressed him for the following two days. Alhern surprised Nedric by having a letter for him, in his previous year he had only had three and two of them had been from his mother. The other had been from Rialto who had been absorbed into his father’s rapidly growing clothing business. Apparently the idea that Rialto had developed in Elseth was not only workable but extremely profitable, they were producing clothing at a fraction of the normal price as each worker was much faster when they didn’t have to work to a different pattern every time.

As he walked away from the office Nedric recognised Rialto’s handwriting and looked forward to reading it. He walked over to his room and placed the letter in his desk, he would have plenty of time to read it in the late evening, after his juggling tuition. First he had to get some food and then make his way to the village green. This was a small patch of land in the centre of the village that had been cleared and grassed over by one of the more industrious past inhabitants who didn’t want to be always looking at trees. There were a few flowerbeds around the edges and a couple of benches and that was about it. In the heat of the summer the flowers were looking less than fresh as no one now had the inclination to water them.

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Nedric had acquired a large canvas bag from one of the carpentry sheds and used it for carrying his juggling equipment around. The amount of equipment had grown, as different children turned up without equipment and then had to wait to have stuff made for them. Working with carpenters meant that Nedric could always get things quicker than the children. This evening the group of children numbered about a dozen with ages ranging between eight and thirteen but there was also an adult present.

“Good evening, I’m Carrite, thought I’d come along and see what my kid has been going on about for the last few weeks.”

“Good to see you, I’m Nedric and you should be proud of the progress that your son Kelwin is making. I’m not sure what he can do with his skills but he has certainly improved since I started giving lessons, half the time he teaches me!”

“I’m not surprised the amount of time he spends practicing. From what he tells me you’re fairly good yourself.”

“I’ve got nothing better to do than practice. It’s not like there is a lot to do around here and I don’t feel too comfortable in the tavern. The villagers don’t seem to like my workmates and me.”

“Well there are quite a few of the loggers who appreciate you folk. You’re bringing money to the area and that means change, some of the folk here aren’t too keen on change. Come along to the tavern on a end-week and you’ll get a warmer reception.”

“Thanks I might just do that.”

“Seeing as you like this juggling stuff I’ve got an old toy at home that just might interest you, it’s a difficult thing to use but you might enjoy the challenge.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“I’ll talk to you later, can’t get in the way of these young ruffians.” He smiled at the youngsters.

Nedric showed the children a trick he had discovered by mistake. If he dropped a ball he could kick it back into the juggling pattern in one smooth motion, he could also bounce a ball off of his knee, which was actually easier. Some of the children had tricks of their own that they wanted to show to the others, most of them were just simple variations on tricks they had learnt before. Some of them looked quite impressive, whilst others were less than spectacular. Nedric tried to show enthusiasm for all of them and was rewarded by smiles in return for praise.

One of the children had come up with a totally different trick with the spinning discs, or diabolo as it was known, instead of throwing and catching it on the string they threw the diabolo only a short height in the air and then caught it on an angled hand stick. The diabolo stayed on the stick as the spin of it up the stick opposed the pull of gravity down the stick. Nedric was immediately impressed and started practicing it. The group spent maybe an hour and a half swapping tricks and talking. Sometimes the children would start playing a game, which Nedric didn’t mind as long as they didn’t start throwing his juggling equipment around. He had found out painfully that they were less than perfect in their aim.

After the meeting Nedric returned to his room. He could have joined the rest of the workers in their social area and most nights he would head over there, to enjoy a few drinks and either play cards or throw a dagger at a target. Unfortunately all of these games involved minor betting and he wasn’t particularly good at them. It made him more popular with his workmates as he would generally lose more than he won. The side effect was that Nedric was often short of small change and was loathe to change down golds to lose more money. As a result he spent a few evenings either practicing his juggling or going for walks in the nearby forest.

That evening he planned to do neither. He had a letter to read and then write a reply if the light held out. He got it from his desk and cut open the seal. The writing was in his friend’s rough scrawl and was therefore difficult to read without several attempts to ascertain the words in each sentence. Nedric was fairly good at deciphering it but the long gap between the last letter and this one had meant the skill had lapsed a little.

The letter read: -

Nedders,

Sorry it’s been so long since I replied to your last letter, business has been better than father expected and he has had me travelling around the country sourcing new materials. It’s likely that I’ll be travelling even further afield in the near future as we reckon we can get better prices if we go straight to the source. I don’t suppose you would happen to own a couple of boats we could borrow, as we will be needing them if we have to transport material from other countries.

You are probably more aware than I that they are extending the boardway in the opposite direction. This will be a distinct advantage to the business traveller, that is me, as constant horse travel is endurable rather than enjoyable. Perhaps I would do better if I weren’t always given the most boisterous animals to ride.

I ran into Marryn the other day in Tomin, he asked to be remembered to you. It seems that he has been rather successful with his book. He found a printer who was fairly cheap and kept the price low. It seems that the country was crying out for new recipes as the first editions sold much more rapidly than he expected. Of course it helps that his mother is one of the largest distributor of books in the country. Anyway he is now on his way to being independently wealthy and is travelling around collecting more recipes for a second book.

Did you hear the news about Strawn? It seems that after he joined the army he was positioned up by the northern border. He was in a local tavern and got into a fight with one of the local tough guys and Strawn pulled a knife on him, gave the man a leg wound. The problem for Strawn was he was in uniform at the time and when the local guards turned up he was instantly arrested. I guess Strawn forgot the regulations about drawing weapons on civilians and he was given the harshest sentence possible, he’s been transferred to the death guards.

Nedric had to stop reading at that point. The death guards were the group of soldiers who went into battle first. The mortality rate was extremely high, even for those who survived a few campaigns. Being placed in the death guards was little better than being given a death sentence, in fact most of the people in it were those who had chosen it as the only alternative to being hung for one horrendous crime or another. Strawn must have really offended somebody important to be sent there for his relatively minor crime.

On a lighter note, I am about to become an uncle, as my sister is expecting her first any day now. My mother is now suggesting that it is my turn to find myself a partner and settle down. I told her that I am only seventeen and that father was twenty-two when they met but she doesn’t listen. I think she just wants more babies around the place and as my two brothers seem reluctant to find partners, she feels she can badger me as the youngest.

I might well be passing through Esteril in my travels and if I can I’ll try to detour to visit you, even if it is a long way out of my way. If I didn’t know better I would swear they put you in the most out of the way place they could find just to get rid of you. Of course it is rather convenient for the timber so you won’t be running short for some time.

Anyway I’ll catch up with you when I can, if you send a letter to my parents they will see that it reaches me but it might take a while.

Have Fun!

One of Nedric’s regrets was that Rialto had not come with him to work for the boardways. As it was, the four classmates who were here with him were people whom he could talk to about unimportant matters but not friendly enough to give advice or to share more intimate information. He had hoped that Elsebeth would be working with him as they had started to get closer in their last few days at the keep but she was still in Elseth and had not replied to the one letter he had sent to her.

He took out parchment, ink and a quill from his desk and used the dagger he had bought in Elseth to sharpen the pen. Although he had little to write about he should be able to find something to say about his group of trainee jugglers, most of which had tried to brain themselves with the diabolo and with some the clubs as well. He dipped the pen in the ink and began his reply.