Finding The Soul Bridge (The Soul Fire Saga Book 1) (5 page)

Zain didn’t skip a beat while he was working. “The customer is hard pressed for this stuff, it’s the most urgent. Please can’t you make another plan?”

Jem looked at the rolling tool that Zain was using. “It looks simple and easy to operate but if they are so behind then why not have a second one?”

Zain looked perplexed. “I don’t have time for this nonsense.”

“Fine.” said Jem, “Let me do one carriage tyre, so that I can see how difficult it is.”

Zain shook his head and threw his hands up into the air, “This isn’t a game boy.”

Jem bullied Zain out of the way and grabbed an unrolled iron bar, he was clumsy as he loaded the metal to be rolled and as he turned the handle of the roller he started to smile. “Now I know what Maxwell means by ‘Brain dead’. I tell you what Zain, help me out with my problem and I will fix this machine up to do three or even four wheels in one go.”

Zain wiped his brow and beckoned for the spikes that Jem need to be rolled. He rolled the long thin steel spikes into tight coils one by one and handed them back to Jem, when he was finished he started rolling carriage wheels again. Jem thanked Zain and walked away. “You owe me.” Zain shouted
.

Jem went back to the ring mail bench and put his coils down and returned to the store.  He asked the store man, “Do you have any of those rollers for the carriage wheel rolling machine?”

“Na-na-na no my buddy. Tha-that is a spe-spe-specialist item.”

“Can we make up a new one?”

“Ass-ass-ask Va-va-vance.”

“Vance? Where is he?”

The store man pointed to man wearing an apron but no shirt.

Jem went straight to Vance and as he approached him he called “Vance! Hi, Vance.” There was no response.

Vance sat on a low stool with his back turned to Jem as he was busy working on some nondescript piece of metal. Jem reached out and tapped his shoulder and called to him again. “Vance.”

Vance turned around and looked at Jem. Halfway through Jem’s sentence Vance put up his hand and pointed to his ear and his mouth and then made the slit throat
maneuver
manoeuvre
with his index finger meaning. ‘Deaf, mute.’

Jem was stumped, he had never needed to communicate with someone who could not hear or speak.

Vance raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders and raised his palms to the air level with his own face to make a ‘what?’ signal.

Jem thought it best to show him and beckoned with his hand for him to follow. Vance followed Jem to the carriage tyre roller. First Jem pointed for Vance to watch as Zain rolled one iron carriage tyre. Then he pointed at the set of three rollers that was the heart of the machine and made a gesture with his hands to make the rollers several times wider to accommodate four separate iron bars at once.

Throughout this exchange with Vance and Jem, Zain rolled iron tyres. Vance nodded and smiled and then gestured four fingers to his mouth and then swung his hand over head. This was lost on Jem and he looked at Zain who saw the gesture. “He says he will do it after lunch.” said Zain.

Jem went back to his post at the ring mail table and continued his own tinkering. As he worked he thought about Kaylah, and Thist, and what Thist was up to.

7

The hagget’s hands had turned black. It’s back ached and sweat poured from its entire body. It gritted its tooth as it tried to hide its frustration. Its new disguise was working well and all the townsfolk seemed oblivious to its presence. There were people all around him.
“Are they watching me?’
’ it thought.
“What if they find me out? What if my disguise fails?”

It agonized over the task at hand. The potion that it had brewed was a success. But it need not do any real labour, it needed only to look the part and act a role.

“I have to speed things up.” The hagget muttered under its breath.

The potion would last only ninety days at best and the mission would have to conclude before the potion expired.

8

Thist was holding his head. He had been having nightmares since they had returned from collecting hum and diamonds from the forest. Every night he would see in his dreams, people of all kinds, trying to escape from very small windowless prison cells. They were beating on the walls and screaming without making any sound. It was the same dream every night and no amount of reasoning could help him. All he could do was to get out of bed and get busy.

He dressed in a hurry when he realized he was late for his meeting with Tayah. He checked under his bed to see if the hum and diamonds were secure and decided to take the diamonds with him, just in case. They had decided to keep the treasure at Thist’s house, since he stayed alone.

His mother had died when he was born and nobody knew who his father was. His foster mother had beaten him too much for his liking, so when he was twelve, he ran away. Most people treated him with disdain and contempt. Only Jem, Tayah and Kayla treated him like an equal.

He ran to the kitchen and grabbed a chunk of bread. He had promised Tayah he would help her to pick the wild strawberries that grew in between the corn plantations at the far end of town. It was only a five minute run for Thist, as he crossed the small wooden bridge outside the gate. He could see Tayah sitting on an old tree stump feeding stale bread crumbs to a flock of finches.

Thist slowed to a walk so as not to startle the finches. “Having fun?” he said as he came up from behind Tayah.

“Oh!” exclaimed Tayah and startled the finches. “I didn’t hear you coming. Hey, you’ve hardly just woken up.”

“I know. It’s those nightmares again. They bothered me the whole night.”

Tayah put her palm on Thist’s cheek. “Aw! You poor baby.”

The two walked to the edge of the plantation and started gathering strawberries. Tayah sang as she picked. Thist was mesmerized by her voice. He wanted to compliment her, but he didn’t want to interrupt the sweet melody.

“What are you looking at?” asked Tayah.

Thist smiled, “You sing so beautifully.”

Tayah was a slender brunette with long straight dark hair, a cheerful face and large eyes. Thist loved the way she walked; she would take several steps and then skip, making her long hair flick over her shoulders and back. Tayah and Thist were smitten with each other and could often be seen wandering off on their love errands.

They had ambled deep into the corn plantations and their strawberry sacks were full. They sat down to rest. Tayah looked at Thist for a moment before speaking her mind, “You have an amazing voice too. It’s so… I don’t know... different.”

Thist just nodded his head as he chewed on a strawberry. He and Jem had not told anyone about their encounter with the bear. “Thanks. You should try these, they’re good.”

Thist picked a sweet looking one and held it out for Tayah. She came forward and took it with her teeth. Seductively, she leaned further and kissed him. Thist embraced Tayah, rolled her on her back and kissed her. His head spun and his heart raced.

He had been told about what it was like to be with a woman but nothing could prepare him for what he felt inside his heart. He felt like he couldn’t control his thoughts. Tayah started to pull her clothes off and then she pulled Thist’s shirt over his head. They made love. It was a new experience for both of them and when it was over Thist said, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m not. I mean, I didn’t bring you here just to pick strawberries.”

Thist looked surprised. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I wanted it to be like this, spontaneous.”

Thist gave Tayah a naughty grin. “Want to do it again?”

Tayah laughed and kissed him again. Thist wondered to himself what Jem was doing, and if he was getting this lucky. The thought didn’t last long as Tayah was persuasively distracting.

9

Sweat poured off Jem’s face. It was long past noon and he was exhausted, from dehydration, heat and boredom. He picked up another set of rings that needed to be joined. Kelvin had returned from shovelling coal and the two had been sitting and joining steel rings for three hours. His hands hurt from lack of calluses and his head hurt from all the noise. Often Maxwell would walk by and tell Jem to ‘pace up’ more as a matter of habit than actual instruction. He had admired Jem’s contraption for only a fleeting moment and had ordered them to test it for the rest of the day to see if it made a difference.

“How long have you been here Kelvin?” said Jem.

“Just over a year.” lied Kelvin.

“How long do you plan on staying?”

“Not one minute longer than I have to, but as I figure it I’m probably going to live my life to its end being a ring joiner and coal shoveller. How about you?”

“I’m so bored I don’t know if I’m going to come back tomorrow. I just don’t know how I’m going to get around my mother with that one.”

“What would you do if you left?”

Jem looked at Kelvin and grinned. “Oh, I have something.”

“What?”

“I can’t tell. Say, do you know your way well around this forge?”

“For someone who has been here only a year I guess I know an impressive amount actually.”

Jem nodded. He was relieved to have changed the subject so quickly.

“So, what is that thing for, and how does it work?”

Kelvin looked at where Jem had pointed. “Oh, do you mean the barrel see-saw? It’s one of the Maxwell inventions. The two barrels have enough water to fill only one barrel. Each barrel stands on one side of the sea-saw and the water runs from the top barrel through the siphon pipe to the bottom barrel via the copper pipes. The copper pipes, which you can see are in a zigzag shape, dissipate heat. It’s simple but it works.”

“How does the full barrel stay at the top and the empty one at the bottom?”

“You just transfer those weights from the bottom barrel to the top, one by one until it inverts, that way we always have cold water to cool off the hot irons.”

“That’s genius.” said Jem.

Jem went on to ask Kelvin about several odd looking gadgets and innovations in the forge. Kelvin was happy to explain everything to Jem. Outside the forge, there was a boiler that produced steam that drove a shaft with all manner of tooling upon it: a grinding stone, wire brush, extractor fan, cooling fan, furnace blower, polisher, and a crude machine that Kelvin called a lathe. Jem couldn’t guess what it was for or how it worked, but Kelvin said that it was what made the Iron family rich and gave them their reputation.

Jem watched as Maxwell carried several swords to the weapon store. As he opened the door, Jem saw the amount of weapons and armour in the store room. “Where are all these arms going to anyway?”

“That’s anybody's guess. Even the smith doesn’t know. He just turns them out and collects his gold.”

“How often do they make a delivery?”

“Once every two months when the trade caravan comes through here. They collect everything we make, pay Maxwell and give him orders for specific items.”

“What items?”

“Strange items mostly.” said Kelvin. “See that big steel fist? And those hinge and brackets? I don’t know. It beats me, probably for the king and his high horse.”

“What king?” scoffed Jem.

“Pace up cretins!” shouted Maxwell. “Kelvin, I told you yesterday. Don’t discuss the politics of my business with anyone. What goes on in this workshop has nothing to do with anyone, understood?”

Maxwell Iron picked up an iron bar and slammed it into the iron table, glaring at the two boys.

“Yes sir.” said Kelvin.

“Jem?”

“Yes sir.” said Jem.

The boys worked in silence until Maxwell had disappeared into the store room.

“What was that all about?” asked Jem.

Kelvin said nothing. He just tapped his lips with his index finger. Jem shook his head and carried on working, his fingers becoming tired but more adept to the rhythm of the work. He wondered how long he could keep it up. His last job at the baker had lasted a week. He was daydreaming instead of watching the ovens, and burnt a lot of bread. The baker had dismissed him for that. He had worked with the wood cutters but found it boring and quit after three days. Then he went to the saw-mill, which was understaffed and ended up doing too much work.

Jem looked at Kelvin, “What kind of job would you really want to do? I mean if you could do anything.”

Kelvin looked up into thin air. “I don’t know. I seem to be able to find out things about people that they don’t want found out.”

“You mean like an investigator of some sort.” said Jem.

“More like a spy.”

“Do you have a talent for that?” asked Jem.

“Yes.”

“Ha! Prove it,” laughed Jem.

“I know that you and your buddy went out one morning to the forest about a week ago and you brought back some strange things.”

Jem’s face flushed, “Like what strange thing?”

Kelvin looked around without turning his head and mouthed the word, “Diamonds, hum.”

Jem gasped, “How do you know about that?”

“I told you, I have a talent. Why do you think Maxwell came down on me so hard? Let me tell you why. He knows I know too much about stuff.”

“Okay.” said Jem. “You’re hired.”

“As what?” asked Kelvin.

“You can be my spy.” 

“So, Boss,” said Kelvin, “what’s the game plan?”

“You, Thist and myself, get the…uh, stuff. We go to Fineburg, find out what the stones really are and make a lot of money.”

Kelvin’s eyes glowed with excitement. “How do we get to Fineburg, Boss?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet, any ideas?”

Kelvin put down his tools and looked at the door, then at Jem, and said “Put down your tools and undo your apron.”

Jem did as he was bidden. When he was done unfastening his apron Kelvin said, “Let’s go,” and started for the door.

When the two boys were out of the door, Kelvin said, “Where’s Thist?”

“He is probably picking strawberries with Tayah.”

“Picking strawberries? I don’t think so. I think Tayah is picking Thist.”

Jem looked puzzled for a moment. Then he giggled as he realized what Kelvin had meant.

“Kelvin,” said Jem as they hastened to the cornfields, “have you ever…um, picked strawberries with a girl?”

“Sure, but it wasn’t very fruitful if you get my meaning.”

“So you didn’t get any strawberries?”

“Sure we got strawberries.” panted Kelvin. “She just never had any babies like she hoped to.”

“Kelvin, what are we doing?”

“We’re going to get Thist and then we’re going to Fineburg, all three of us.”

“What about your job?”

“Look, you said, ‘I’m hired.’ So this is my job. You just better pay me every full moon like a good boss.” said Kelvin. “There’s Thist and Tayah.”

“Thist!” called Jem.

Thist looked like the happiest man that Jem had ever seen. “What?”

“What were you doing?” said Jem.

“We were just picking the nicest strawberries, Jem.” said Thist. “Aren’t you two supposed to be slaving away at Maxwell’s?”

“Tayah, your mother sent us to fetch you.” lied Kelvin. “Thist, we need to talk.”

Tayah waved to Thist and ran to her house without another word.

“What’s happening?” said Thist.

“Run back to your house and fetch the goods,” urged Jem. “We’re leaving for Fineburg.”

“When? Now?” asked Thist.

“Yes, now. Meet us at the old sawmill.” said Jem “We’ll get the other stuff.”

Thist ran back to his house to fetch the hum. As he passed Tayah’s house, Tayah came out, fuming, “My mother’s not even home.”

Thist just turned and shouted, “She’s in the tavern.”

Tayah’s mother would never go into the tavern. He was just lying to buy more time.

Jem almost knocked Tayah over as he came careening past toward his own house.

Moments later Jem and Thist emerged from their houses each carrying a knapsack. “I snagged three loaves of bread and four jars of pickled mushrooms. My mother is going to kill me.” said Jem. “What about you?”

“All the food I own, and two sets of clean clothes.”

As the boys crossed the bridge they slowed to a walk, “Did you tell Kelvin about our stuff, and our plan?” asked Thist.

“No.” said Jem. “It’s the strangest thing. He just started asking me about the stuff as if he had known all along.”

Thist put his hand up to his face and rubbed his meagre moustache, “He is a strange fellow. What do you think?”

“I think we need him, to figure out things that he shouldn’t.”

Thist smiled, “I like the way you think.”

Jem scratched his head as they walked. He couldn’t help wondering what Kelvin had in store for them as a means of transport. He didn’t know much about him. He had only met him this morning. “Kelvin seems a quiet chap?”

“Snap out of it Jem.” said Thist. “You’re talking to yourself again.”

Jem looked up. “Oh here he comes now.”

Kelvin was driving a flatbed horse-drawn wagon. He had a strange looking hat on, and the horses looked like they were retired years back. The wagon creaked to a halt.

“Are you guys going to stand there all day, or are we going to Fineburg in a wagon?”

“Rickety old wobble wagon.” corrected Thist. “Where did you get it?”

“Does it matter? Whoever it belonged to didn’t care for it, or the animals.”

“You stole it?” asked Jem.

“More like doing the animals a favour, I was thinking. The owner is dead.”

Thist seemed undisturbed by the answer, as he rummaged through the back of the wagon to see what came with it. The town had been shrinking in population for years and there were a lot of excess items around that
were free to commandeer.

“How do you know the owner is dead?” asked Thist

Kelvin looked over his shoulder to where they had just come from. “I don’t know exactly how I know. I just know.”

Jem exchanged glances with Thist, who shrugged his shoulders. The wagon creaked as the horses pulled at their burden. Jem rubbed his head as if he had a sudden headache and looked up, alarmed, with one hand in the air, palm facing out. “Whoa! What are we doing, Kelvin? This is crazy. Who’s going to look after my mother, and Thist’s birds, and... Oh.” said Jem as he put his hand over his face. “Kaylah and Tayah! Turn around Kelvin. We can’t just leave like this! If we leave like this without greeting or at least planning properly we might never be able to return here and be welcome.”

Kelvin flicked the reigns to speed up the horses, but said nothing. Instead he just looked Jem in the eye without looking at the road. After a long silence between them, Thist said, “He’s right, Jem. We’ll be fine. Just let it go.”

“I never thought you would just leave Tayah like that, run away from the first person who really loved you the way Tayah does.” said Jem.

“If she really loves me, then she still will when we get home.” said Thist.

Kelvin said nothing as he drove the wagon over the hill. As they dropped down the other side, Jem and Thist looked back as the town disappeared. Jem sighed, “I guess I didn’t have the actual leaving and going to Fineburg figured out, did I?”

The other two said nothing. The road was bad and it took some concentration not to be thrown out as the wagon hit potholes and pebbles. Thist lay down in the wagon as the road evened out somewhat. Jem drank in the fresh air of the meadow. Lush grasses and dandelions grew in amongst small shrubs and saplings. A flock of finches flew from shrub to shrub as the wagon ambled past. Kelvin took up whistling a catchy tune and the whole mood in the wagon changed from insane denial to jovial and carefree.

It was long passed midday, the sun obscured by a thick cloud, making what should have been a blistering hot day, mild but sunny. Kelvin, sensing Jem’s thoughts, said “We can sleep under the wagon if it rains.”

Jem looked at Kelvin and just frowned.

Thist sat bolt upright and laughed. He laughed for a minute while the other two sat and watched him. Then they realized what was going on and they joined in. Tears were streaming down Thist’s face as he said, “We just grabbed our bags and ran away like a bunch of murderers.”

Jem was still trying to contain himself but managed to say. “Can you imagine what Maxwell’s going to be like?”

Kelvin remained silent. Then after the laughter in the other two subsided, they realized he was crying in earnest. “And now?” queried Jem.

Kelvin turned to Jem and smiled, “I’ve been longing to do this for years, and lately, I’ve been just yearning for the opportunity.”

“Why didn’t you just go?”

“I guess I could have, but I was held back, like a….”