They all nodded. In the new world that had grown up with them there were few places where a single family could live off by itself, for reasons ranging from defense to the sheer difficulty of heating water, if you wanted something better than hanging a bucket over an open fire. With the aches and stiffness soothed out of him, Rudi?s thoughts turned to the next necessity. ?I take it your sister-in-law Wanda is a cook of note?? he said respectfully; that was an occupation honored among Mackenzies, who admired skilled makers of all sorts.?She seemed to be putting her own hand to it, as well.?
The which I approve of, he thought.
His mother had always done her share of the chores in Dun Juniper?s hall, and seen he?d had experience of scrubbing dishes as well.
Otherwise I might have gotten above myself, with all the time I spent among Association nobles, and they looking down their noses at such. ?Yah. Wanda was a refugee herself-one of the first ones to get here,? he said.?Her family were brewers in Madison; she was their only kid. They called it a microbrewery then-God knows why, from the way she talks it was a hell of a lot bigger than the one here.? ?Which isn?t small,? Edain said. ?They were in a city, and lived?? Odard said, slightly surprised; that was a bit unusual, and much more unusual for such to end up with rank and position. ?They left Madison about three days after the Change-they had a big wagon and some horses, some sort of show-off thing brewers did back then. Turned up here… I can just remember it, mainly how excited I was… about ten days after that. With all the equipment they needed to make first-rate beer, sacks of good hop and malting barley seed, some of their workers, and six big draught horses, Clydesdales. You can imagine how popular they were!? ?I find it equally impressive that they arrived here without being robbed,? Ignatius observed. ?Just so,? Rudi said.?And then she married the heir of Readstown?? ?It was a bit more complicated than that, but yah hey, she did, six years later. She already ran our food supplies when I left besides the brewery, under Mom-not just cooking, you know, the storing and curing and smoking and salting and preserving side of things too.?
Rudi nodded gravely; that was a heavy responsibility, when sloppiness or lack of skill could ruin a year?s sweating-hard work and condemn an entire settlement to hunger, or at least a diet dull and unhealthful until the new crops came in.
More important still in this land of iron winters, he thought. ?You guys smell a lot better now,? a youngster?s voice said at the door.
Mark Vogeler came in quickly and closed it against draughts, leaning against the jamb with his hands in his pockets, elaborately casual but with a barely suppressed excitement. He seemed to have fond memories of Ingolf, and doubtless this was the biggest interruption of the round of seasons and lessons and chores he could remember. ?Hi, Mark,? Ingolf replied, and heaved himself out of the tub. ?Dinner?s on?? ?Pretty soon, Unc? Ingolf, und Mom?s chust looking after Jenny a bit before we start.?
He has that way of speech his father does, only stronger still, Rudi noticed. Mother would be interested; she always did like to place a man?s accent.
At Ingolf?s look of enquiry the nephew went on:?The youngest. There?s… well, you know about me, and Dave and Melly-only she wants to be called Melinda-in-full these days. There?s um, Ingolf.. . and Sue, and Jenny now too. Jenny?s not on solid food yet.? ?Ed?s been busy,? Ingolf said, and the boy blushed a little.? And Wanda.?
A hesitation, and then the youngster went on:?You really going to marry the pretty lady with the eye patch?? ?Yah, I am.? ?Cool!?
Ingolf?s grin was rare, but the warmer when it came.?You know, Mark, that?s exactly the way I feel about it too!? ?I mean, she?s gorgeous and she?s got a twin and wears that great stuff und talks dat strange language… and I bet she?s done all sorts of great things! Real adventures, like you have, Unc?, we heard a little about that. Not just hung around home, like… well.? ?Oh, Christ, don?t you start getting ideas about running off and having adventures, Mark!? Ingolf said.?I did that and ended up in the stupidest damn war since the Change, bar none, for years. Sheer dumb luck I didn?t get killed for damn-all nothing, like poor Bert Kuykendall. And he wasn?t more than a couple of years older than you are now when he came running out of his tent and caught an arrow with his eyeball.?
The boy flushed and looked a little mutinous; Rudi judged he was at the age when a youngster dreamed of doing the wild deeds for the deeds? own sake, and never considered the price of them, or the desperate need that made men willing to pay it. A chill took him despite the heat of the water.
And how many glad boys like him-on all sides-will lie sightless as a feast for the Dark Mother?s scald crows, before this is done? he thought. How many friendly garths like this will be roofless and burnt, their folk knowing exile and hunger even if they live? The necessity doesn?t change the black wickedness of it.
He rose and took one of the towels that heated on racks beside the boiler, hoarded pre-Change cotton kept for honored guests. The boy looked at him, then did an almost comical double take, looking in a way that took in the scars. The expression of awed respect went deeper, as he glanced at all of them in the same light, lingering on the purple weal that marked Odard?s left forearm. Now that Rudi thought about it, this was a collection of tried fighting men that would impress many a lad.
The more so, I judge, because we?re none of us impossibly older than he; Fred and Edain have only four years on him. Mark?s on the brink of manhood, and eager for it past bearing. It?s well I remember that feeling!
The Mackenzie spoke in a cheerful tone:?My sister Mary has indeed done much, things wild and deadly, but from duty and necessity, not from choice, my young friend,? he said.
Then he smiled:?She and Ritva are of the Dunedain, the Rangers who?re sworn to protect the weak and oppressed, and who travel and explore and fight their whole lives long. Which tends not to be all that much of a longness, as it were.?
Mark?s eyes went wider, and Rudi continued:?It?s their trade, a hard and difficult one; that and guarding travelers and hunting bandits and scouting in war. Now, at your age, I also wanted adventures, and I will admit it. Remember though, an adventure is someone else neck-deep in a dung heap, and that far, far away! Until the bards get to work on it.? ?Bards?? the youngster said, frowning in puzzlement. ?The songsmiths, the storytellers, you?d say. They can take anything and put a polish on it like hammered gold.? ?Says the man who laughed as he rode mad buffalo, jumping from beast to beast, one to the next, with enemies shooting arrows at him the while?? Edain snorted, rubbing his oak-colored curls vigorously with a towel of his own.?And it?s a wonder I don?t have white hair now, from the watching of it: what would I say to Da if I came back without you?? ?That was necessary. They were chasing us,? Rudi said quellingly. ?The buffalo were the best way to shake the pursuit.?
The younger Mackenzie winked at the Readstown boy.?But the Chief, he grinned amidst the million of them while he rode the wild bulls, that he did, while one slip would have meant being hammered to paste.? ?Afterwards I remember mostly snorting water out through my nose, and it half mud from the dust I?d breathed,? Rudi said, and threw the wet towel at Edain, who dodged with a laugh of his own. ?And you?re all too likely to have a war coming to you,? he went on to the boy.
Ingolf nodded soberly, but his nephew seemed to feel nothing but excitement at the thought. Rudi shook his head, sighed, and dressed. The two clansmen drew on clean drawers and then pulled their best saffron-dyed linen shirts over their heads, wrapped their kilts and pinned the garments and their plaids with the brooches kept for social occasions, silver wrought in knotwork or intricate running designs of elongated gripping beasts and geometric shapes, studded with turquoise and carnelian. ?Is that the way people dress in… in…? Mark asked. ?Montival,? Rudi supplied.?The some of us do-we of the Clan Mackenzie. It?s the style of our ancestors, so, from long before the Change, which our folk remembered after it.?