Free Hidden Ability (Book 1) by Aldus Baker Page B

marching in line down the length of the building fascinating. The walls are only framed. There is no siding or interior paneling in place. It is possible to look at the entire skeleton of the building. The floor planks are all laid. Master Enmar says Lady Darla must have spent a good deal of silver to get all the glass paper he and Jalan use to smooth the floor. The interior is huge. Six men could easily stand in a row with their arms outstretched between them and not touch each other or the walls. And, that is only the width of the building. The length would be ten men at least. From the floor to the bottom of a roof truss is nearly the height of two men. Jalan could not understand why the room needs to be so tall, but when he mentions it to Master Enmar his teacher simply gives him a knowing smile and leaps up to touch a roof truss. Jalan thought he imagined it. Surely no one can jump that high. Master Enmar simply turns to him and says, “That’s why.”
    When Jalan is not training, he watches the workmen build the Hall. It is a much larger effort than repairing the windmill. The list of materials and plans are far more complex. Men start by leveling the site. Then wagon after wagon of large stone blocks arrive from the quarry. They are laid as the foundation for the building’s walls and floor. Framing is done in sections and once one end of the structure’s wall frames are standing the work begins on raising cross beams, and each triangular roof truss is constructed using a cross beam for its base. The skill needed to cut post joints and assemble, wedge and pin the trusses together is amazing to see. In less than a month the building is proclaimed structurally sound and the toil of smoothing the floor begins.
    The first day of rubbing the glass paper carefully back and forth is not bad. Jalan has some soreness over the next few days, but his shoulders and arms become use to the work. Then only Jalan’s knees ache. Although today even his knees seem to have toughened enough to take another day of crawling across the plank floor.
    Smoothing is tedious. Jalan can see that some of the floor planks were planed better than others. They require less work on his part. He would like to thank the craftsman that took more care with the lumber, but he has no idea who it was. The glass paper is very coarse. It is a parchment like sheet with ground sand glass glued to one side to act as an abrasive. Jalan has to be careful not to spend too much time in a small area because he can rub away too much material and add to any unevenness in the surface of the floor plank.
    After another day of rubbing the floor, Jalan, Master Enmar and Cress, one of the Carpenter Doon’s apprentices, finish. Masons are infilling the lower third of the exterior walls with stone and mortar. The upper sections of the walls that are not left open for windows and doors are filled with panels of woven sticks that are covered with a material made from all kinds of things. Jalan watches as men mix clay, limestone dust, dirt, sand, straw, flax fiber and even some horse dung together. They tell Jalan that this mixture will be spread over the lattice of woven sticks to finish each wall panel. It is hard to imagine the men’s churned up glop could ever be part of a wall, but as he sees the men fit the lattices and apply the daub, the real name for their glop, Jalan realizes that many of the buildings he sees everyday have walls made this way.
    Jalan has to be satisfied with learning about these various building techniques bit by bit. He is back to a regular training routine now that his work on the floor of the Training Hall is done. Master Enmar adds a new exercise. It involves squatting down and then jumping up. It reminds Jalan of how a frog hops. The frog hops are difficult. It does not take long before his legs give out and he has to rest. Master Enmar assures him this is the secret to jumping high. It does not seem likely that Jalan will be touching the