62. The Storm Passes
The Storm Passes
The storm ran the lane two days. When it broke he rode the property line at first light.
The bean canes had gone down in the corner plot.
He re-set the stakes and tied the canes back up while the dirt was still soft.
The pump screen had clogged with leaf-fall and he cleared it.
A tarp had come off the smokehouse roof and lay in the field a hundred yards south.
He hauled it back and weighed the corners.
Then he rode to town.
When it was over, both the red team and the blue team went their own ways, and more warriors came up the road to try their hand at the dungeon. The flow didn't slow. Kain watched it and didn't intervene past the work at the Kettle. What could he do.
He kept up the repairs. One morning he came in carrying a broken buckler, another broken shield, a handful of horseshoes, and a rusted helmet. Sasha looked up from the bar.
"Good morning, Kain."
"It's a morning." Kain dumped the load into the corner of the tavern on the growing pile of scrap he had been pulling out of the road and the alleys. "Send word to Garland. He's got more scrap if he wants it."
"His scrap bin is full of the last lot you took down."
"Figures." Kain set the empty mug back on the bar. "What fire am I putting out today. Somebody bring a pet slime back from the dungeon that's started eating the drapes."
"Thankfully no. I did hear a tamer talking about trying to domesticate one of the beetles. And maybe a stone crawler."
"Let's hope sense knocks him down before he tries." Kain came to the bar and picked up the coffee Sasha had poured. He drank it off. "That's good."
"I have a project for you today if you're up for it. The kitchen backsplash."
"Carol did that a few months back when we redid the whole kitchen."
"She did. I'd like it expanded. The kitchen's running heavier than it was set up for. More food. Bigger pans. Bigger messes."
"Expand the backsplash. Got it. Supplies."
"I ordered the plaster from Sam. Should be on his bench. Carol said she has a bit more tile from the original lot. You'll need to go down to help her carry it."
Kain nodded. "All right."
"I thought you might be willing." Sasha gave him a small smile and started up the stair. "I'll be upstairs tidying the rooms."
He squared his shoulders. Time to get to work.
The plaster at Sam's was on the bench. Kain hooked the bucket onto Roan's saddle and rode down to the Martinson farm.
Carol and Will were out front working on a wagon. Carol waved as he came up.
"They're right in here."
"What's right in where," Will said, looking up.
"Sasha's buying the leftover tile from the project we never got around to. Matches the tile she already has up."
"Strange. I thought we ordered it down from Greyhaven. Can't believe it's a match." Will set the hammer down on the wagon-board. "Well. If it works, it works. Run it down."
Carol led him to the barn. The two of them carried two large flat boxes out to Roan and walked the boxes up the road to the Kettle on foot. The tiles clinked. Neither of them said much through the walk.
At the Kettle they set the boxes off to one side and Kain looked at the section of wall that needed the backsplash.
"All right. Any tips on how to do it."
"Yeah." Carol handed him a notched tool. "Use that. Leaves the plaster on the wall in grooves. Smear it on. I'll pass you tiles."
"Your father doesn't need you back."
"He's good for a stretch."
Kain pulled the lid off the bucket of plaster and worked the tool across the wall. The grooves came up clean. He set the tool down. Carol passed a tile. He set it.
"Sorry, sorry, coming through." Sasha brushed past with a bucket of water. Matthew toddled behind her at the doorway. "Matthew, watch." She set the bucket down. Carol shifted to give her room. Carol's hip brushed against Kain's hip. Her elbow knocked his arm. "You mind if it's there a beat."
She turned and rushed back through the door after Matthew before either of them answered.
"Guess we're in tight," Carol said.
She picked up the next tile and passed it across. Her elbow kept bumping his. He didn't mind. He took the tile and set it.
The work went quick. He finished the first row, took the tool, and worked a second layer of plaster across the wall above the first. Carol had a tile ready. As she passed it across, her fingers brushed against his.
「Skill Updated: Handyman D+ → C-」
And they both stopped.
His fingers were halfway around the tile. Hers were halfway around the other side. Neither of them was letting go. Her skin was soft and firm at once. She had worked a farm since she could carry a bucket. Her hand wasn't the hand of the warriors at the bar.
They held the tile between them until Matthew came running through the doorway with Sasha behind him. Carol and Kain both dropped the tile. It hit the floor and broke clean across the middle.
For some reason they both laughed at that.
Carol passed him a fresh tile.
"I heard you defused a fight outside the Kettle the other day."
"I stood on the porch and told them onions were being served soon. That was the whole of it."
"They must've been hungry."
"They were. We cut and served just about every onion in the cellar. Sixty in all, give or take. Sasha made five batches of batter. They ate as fast as we could pull them out of the oil. Sasha charged a silver an onion. One of the red warriors paid for the whole bar."
"Incredible. Did you have any."
"Wish I had. Smelled fine. I'd never heard of fried onions before. Apparently it's a thing they do up the river country."
"Mid-country."
"Some place west of here, east of everywhere big. Beats me. The warriors couldn't get enough. Then they were sick of them by the time we ran out. Half of them fell asleep at the tables. The rest went back to the tents."
"You didn't serve much for dinner."
"They came right back for dinner." Kain pressed a tile into place. "I would've been bursting on the amount of food they'd put away. It only seemed to whet the appetite. We did record business. They wanted more of them. We were out of onions. Sasha put it on the weekly order."
"Well. I want to try one."
She held out another tile. As Kain took it, she deliberately brushed her fingers across the back of his hand.
Kain looked at her. He set the tile.
He wasn't looking at the tile when he set it. It went on crooked. Carol laughed.
"Whoops." He adjusted it and wiped a smear of plaster off the corner. Carol shook her head.
"You're good at pretty much everything except placing tile."
Kain shrugged and put on his most serious face. "I know."
Carol laughed again, louder than the joke deserved. She passed him the next tile. This one went on straight.
Behind them Sasha came into the kitchen with two mugs that needed cleaning. She looked at the two of them at the wall. Plaster in Kain's hair. Carol beaming from one ear to the other. The two of them practically on top of each other at the wall, knocking elbows and feet.
Sasha set the mugs down at the basin. She turned and went back out into the common room. She had other work that could be done.