Chapter 8

Liuz woke to a clump of fur covering his mouth.

With a groan, he sat up, Harveen's arm falling onto his chest. She was not cuddled with him or anything, for which he was grateful. Her short limbs were just splayed out in random directions. Her left leg lay over his sister's chest. Their Watu friend was weird. A good weird, but weird none the less. So different than the Kikker who seemed to be everywhere. The frog people, to his mind, were the bad kind of weird. Perhaps because the King dealt so closely with them.

He glanced at the window. Still night, although from this angle he could not tell if there was a hint of dawn on the horizon. Regardless, he should get home. Be ready for work. Carefully, he stood in the sea of unconscious Watu. After all the drinking he had witnessed that night, he seriously doubted Harveen's father would be leaving today. He hoped she stayed. She was a good friend.

The street was dark as he left the tavern, only one lit lamp visible down towards the harbor. Looking up at the stars, he judged it perhaps an hour before dawn. More or less. The stars moved. Not just every hour, like the sun, but started their journey at a slightly different time every day. That was annoying. No clock should have that flaw.

He stopped, an unexpected image in his mind. A painted circle attached to the large gear which moved the log into the saw at the mill. With each click forward, the markings on the circle advanced against some pointer. Calibrate the markings, and you had ... a clock! One which never slowed, or was inaccurate! Well, unless the flow or speed of the water changed. If you made it independent of the stream itself, fed it with some large reservoir...

Why hadn't someone ever thought of this? Maybe they had. Maybe such a thing had been invented long ago. But, so far as he knew nothing like that existed here. Not in Nowy Poland. Not among among the Poles.

What if he gave THAT to the King?

He began walking, mind whirling. Yes. Toy logs were just toys. His sister could do those. Had, in fact, already made the prototypes. But, THIS! To create some sort of water clock. That ... that would be fun.

By the time he saw Tymon and Rafal coming out of their home, Liuz had fixed in his mind the major components of his clock. The gears would be wood, naturally. Metal would be better, but neither did he know how to work metal, nor did he have any. Later. He could use metal later. The gear system would be simple. He knew how the saw worked, could replicate it with little problem. The water flow would be slow. Very slow. Just enough to tick the hand. And it WOULD be a hand. He had already decided that. Why move this large wheel against a marker, when you could move a small marker against a stationary wheel? Make it simple, his Father had said. Make it simple, and elegant.

"He's here!" Rafal's voice was surprised, and relieved. Tymon's face seemed to be warring between relief and annoyance. Liuz pushed his creative mind to the side, focusing on not pissing off their Master.

"Sorry I'm late! Kasia didn't want to leave, and I didn't want to leave her there alone."

"You left her there now," Tymon said, looking behind Liuz. The boy nodded.

"Sleeping Watu in a common room are different than drunk Poles in a tavern. She'll be fine."

The man regarded him for a moment.

"You're here, at least. Get something in you, meet us at the stable. Lots of work today."

The sigh from Rafal was both amusing and depressing. He truly did not like this job. Liuz tried to give a reassuring smile, unsure how much came across in the pre-dawn darkness. As one, Tymon and Rafal turned and began the trek to their wagon. Shaking his head, Liuz moved to enter the house.

Roda was awake and in the kitchen. He stopped in the open doorway, surprised. Her eyes mirrored his, hands stopping in the process of lowering a glass dome cover over a hunk of cheese. His eyes flicked to the closed door to the master bedroom.

"Baby up?" She nodded as he stepped into the room, closing the door. Roda placed the cover on the counter.

"Woke all of us up. Mom's feeding him."

Liuz really didn't want to deal with her just then. Moving quickly, he accepted the empty mug from Roda. Grabbing the kettle from over the fire, he poured coffee into it. Roda silently sliced both the cheese and yesterday's bread. She handed the two to him as he gulped down the drink.

"Thank you."

She stared at him for a long moment. Taking a bite of both bread and cheese, he chewed once then frowned.

"What?"

Her brow furrowed, arms crossing over her chest.

"You spent the night with tavern wenches?"

Liuz blinked. What an odd thing to ask. Chewing a bit more, he swallowed, taking a quick drink to help it down.

"We were with Harveen."

"At the tavern. All night."

"Yes." He shrugged. "Don't know what wenches have to do with anything." Liuz took another large bite. "Do you want to come next time?"

It was her turn to blink. Her hand went out to the counter, as if for support.

"What?"

"If Kasia and Harveen drag me there again. Do you want to come? I could use someone else to talk to."

"Is that all you do there? Talk."

He shrugged.

"What else would you do in a tavern?"

Kasia woke to a face full of sun.

She shut her eyes, hand rising to ward off the glare. Head rolling to the side, her only thought was of how late it had to be for the sun to be that high. She forced herself up, eyes cracking open again.

Harveen stood near the window, mirror in hand. Sunlight once again flashed in Kasia's eyes, the sound of a giggling Watu filing her ears. Kasia covered her eyes with her hands as she turned away.

"Stop it!"

"Sorry! Had to! You were sleeping too long!"

"You could have just shook me." Kasia slowly lowered her hands, blinking as her eyes regained focus. The room was empty. "Where is everyone?"

"Woke an hour ago. Father's looking for cargo to take back." The Watu squatted down beside her, wearing a different feathered vest. "We'll probably leave tomorrow."

"Aww. Wish you could stay here."

"I'd miss Mother." Kasia immediately felt guilty. It was selfish to want to keep her friend here, when Harveen had friends and family elsewhere. She looked around for her crutch. Harveen jumped to her feet, running over to the wall. She grabbed the crutch, bringing it back. "Here! I put it there to keep it safe!"

"Thanks." Raising her arms, she let Harveen help her up. Grabbing the crutch, she winced as blood flowed into her foot.

"What's wrong?"

"My foot hates when I change positions. It'll be OK in a moment." Placing a hand on her friend's shoulder, she got the crutch fitted snugly in position. "Thanks. What are we doing today?"

"I asked Father if we could borrow a wagon, because of your foot. He said 'yes'."

"Cool! Where did you want to go?"

"Ocean!"

"Whoa!" Harveen pulled back on the reins, the two Perd slowly stopping. Kasia had always found the four legged beasts unsettling. Mostly, she thought, it was how slimy they tended to be. How could something always be slimy? It was like they had running noses all over their body. Yuck! They were the beast of burden for both the Watu and Kikker, though, so they had to have some advantage over horses. Watching her friend dismount from the wagon, she figured most of it had to do with the smaller size. There was no way the short Watu could handle an adult horse.

"Here. Let me help you down."

Kasia handed her crutch down to her friend, then began sliding off the end of the seat. Strong hands grabbed her, easing Kasia down onto her good leg. She took the crutch.

"Thanks. It's like having my brother with me."

"Where is he? He was gone when I woke."

"Probably down at the mill. Lots of work." She looked down at her foot. Despite what the doctor had said, she was beginning to think things were not going to get better. Certainly, there had been no improvement. She most likely would not be returning to work at the mill. Which meant more work for her brother. That offset any other feelings she might have.

"Come on!" Harveen grabbed her hand. Holding her crutch tightly, she let herself be pulled towards the water.

They sat on a large, mostly flat rock jutting out from the shore. The sun bathing them in heat, they let their feet dangle into the cool water. It felt good on Kasia's injured foot, the back and forth of the small waves up to her ankle before retreating to just above her toes. Harveen was lying on her back, eyes on the blue sky.

"I love the ocean. So much better than a lake."

"Yeah."

"You're so lucky, living here."

"I don't see the ocean much, actually. Not this close. Just the harbor."

"That doesn't count?"

"Not really. There's the docks and the ships and the people working. It's not the same." Kasia leaned back as well, side pressed against her friend. "Here there's no one else. Just us."