Read The White Order for Free Online Page B

pine sawdust.
    "Cerryl!" called Dylert from the center aisle. "Where are you?"
    "Yes, ser?" Cerryl straightened and stood, using his left hand on the rack to keep his balance. "I was cleaning out under the pine racks."
    "Good." Dylert nodded as though he had personally ordered Cerryl to clean there. Beside him stood a burly man in brown, black-bearded with a dour look upon his face.
    "There's a handcart in the second lumber barn. Use it to bring three dozen of the narrow rough floorboards from the second barn. The best ones we have there, mind you."
    "Yes, ser." Cerryl set the broom carefully against the rack, watching Dylert.
    The millmaster turned toward the man in brown. "What will you be needing for timber? We have ..."
    Cerryl eased himself away from the rack, walking as quickly as he could toward the mill door, each step sending a knife jab up his legs.
    Outside was a cart, and between the traces was a brown mule, thin and bony. The mule's leads, and a halter rope as well, were tethered to the ring on the millrace side of the causeway.
    Cerryl glanced up at the thickening clouds, then staggered and put his hand on the door frame to steady himself.
    "Geeahh!" Brental guided the empty log cart back toward the mill, gesturing for the oxen to stop as they neared the mule cart.
    With a pleasant smile plastered in place, Cerryl tried not to limp, but his toes and calves knotted with every step.
    "Cerryl, what's the matter?" asked Brental.
    "Nothing. I was sweeping under the pine racks. I'm stiff."
    "Cerryl..." said the redhead firmly. "Sit down on the wall there. Next to the hitching post. Right now."
    "Dylert said I was to use the handcart and bring him three dozen of the narrow rough floorboards from the second barn." Cerryl stopped beside the hitching post but did not sit.
    "I'll help you if it comes to that. Sit down," Brental insisted.
    Cerryl sat.
    "Off with the boots."
    The youth looked stolidly ahead, as if Brental had not spoken.
    "Off..." Brental reached down and eased off one boot and then the other.
    Cerryl did not look at either his feet or boots.
    "Your toes are bloody." Brental shook his head. "Darkness ... how long you been like this?"
    Cerryl looked at the stones of the causeway, his face blank.
    "Your feet are too small for those boots."
    Cerryl kept looking down.
    Brental sighed. "You get chaos blisters there, and you'll not work again. You'll not walk again."
    "Your da said I'd not go unshod, not in a lumber mill." Cerryl managed to keep his jaw firm. "I almost have enough coppers for boots."
    Brental laughed, not harshly but ruefully. "Lad ... Cerryl... you'd not ask for anything, would you?"
    Cerryl met Brental's gaze evenly. "I'd rather not."
    "There are times to ask, and times not to. When you cannot walk, it be time to ask." The redhead shook his head. "I've got an old pair of boots. They'll do better than these. Wait here."
    "The boards ..." Cerryl glanced toward the mill door.
    "All right. You get the boards-barefoot. I'll meet you here before you go back into the mill." Brental stood and gestured. "Rinfur! Watch the oxen for a moment."
    Rinfur crossed the road. "Have to get the team."
    "I'll be back in just a moment."
    "Yes, master Brental." Rinfur shook his head.
    Before Rinfur could see his feet, Cerryl stood and began to walk slowly, if more quickly than if he had worn boots, to the second lumber barn. The handcart was inside the door, and he pushed it to the right. The floorboards were on the low rack on the far right, and barefooted as he was, he was glad that he'd swept the second barn the day before.
    He inspected each board, letting his eyes check it, and holding it a moment, trying to get a feel of the wood before stacking it on the handcart. Sort of a golden oak, somewhere between black oak and white, floor oak wasn't bad. Three lengths he set aside because the knots were obvious, and two because he could sense, somehow, that the boards were weak.
    Once he had the golden oak floorboards