Free Destiny: Child Of Sky by Elizabeth Haydon Page A

his eye as two of the journeymen dashed to the well and lowered down the hook-stick.
    S -
    Esten's head appeared a moment later; one of the journeymen offered her a hand and hauled her over the edge of the well shaft. She brushed the loose clay from her dark clothing, the same plain black shirt and trousers she always wore on her monthly inspections, and shook her long, black braid. Her face molded into a glittering smile as she turned to the small group of a dozen ragged souls, huddled against the far wall of the foundry, surrounded by the armed journeymen.
    'Well done, boys; you're doing very well," she said soothingly. The eyes of the children, the only thing visible in the fireshadows from the open kilns, blinked in their dark red faces.
    She strode to the bag she had left by the door, snatched it up, and returned to the group. Almost every thin limb retracted as the boys recoiled at her approach. Esten opened the sack and dug deep, then drew forth a handful of sweetmeats and tossed them into the trembling crew. Instantly cacophony erupted, and she laughed in delight.
    'Aren't they sweet?“ she said to the journeymen, then crouched down to get a better look at the individuals of the group. "Omet, where's Tidd?"
    Omet felt his throat go drier than Entudenin. “Dead, mum," he said. The words came out in a croak.
    'Tidd, dead? Dear me.“ The glittering smile vanished, and Esten surveyed the group more closely. "What a shame. He had a fine sense of direction. Hmmm, now, who can we make chief?"
    A forest of sapling limbs shot up and began waving desperately, accompanied by thin cries for selection. Esten's smile returned, and she stood.
    'That's my boys! Such an enthusiastic lot. Let's see, Haverill, Avery, no, you're blind as a bat, aren't you, dear? Jyn, Collin, no; Gume, hmmm, not you, either; you're always doing everyone else's work; much too softhearted. Hello, Vincane, who have we here?" She stopped in front of a small, yellow-haired boy, with large eyes and an angled face, trembling violently, his arms wrapped around spindly bent knees.
    'That's Aric,“ Vincane crowed importantly. "He's new—in for Tidd."
    'Well, you weren't much of a trade, were you, lad?“ Esten turned again and smiled down at a tall boy whose hair had once been white-blond, but now bore the same red filth as the others. "Ernst—what about you? Would you like to be crew chief?"
    The tall boy smiled broadly, showing the few remaining teeth he had. “Yes, mum."
    'Good, good! Then come, lad, and we'll go back to the tunnel and discuss the direction I want you to take this month."
    After Esten had returned from the well shaft, and the child miners had been lowered back in, she went to the door and took her coat from the peg rack near it, then left through the double doors without a backward glance. Omet caught fragments of her parting words to the journeyman in the anteroom.
    'Have you seen how tall Ernst has gotten? What are you feeding him?"
    'Same as the others. They scrap for it. We don't dole it out or nothin'."
    'Hmmm. Well, that might be a problem soon. Tell the apprentices to be certain to guard that well shaft and to keep listening. We'll decide what to do next month—if we haven't broken through yet.“ Her smile glittered in the dark shadows of the firing room. "I suspect it's a moot issue. Have the journeymen summon me immediately when the time comes."
    'Yes, mum."
    In the distance Omet heard the door open, and the whine of the winter wind that lingered after it slammed shut. After a moment, he realized that the soft keening was no longer the voice of the wind, but came from the well shaft. Then it was gone.
    a distance it was difficult to tell whether the tile foundry was in full operation or all but abandoned. Smoke rose from the open chimneys near the center of the building, but after two hours of observation, no one came or left the complex. As night began to fall the furnaces continued to fire, but still no one came.
    'Strange,“