Chapter 7

John realized a day after the start of steel season that the old wizard had done him a huge favor, making him give up all of his hair. The wind was accompanied by a hard warm rain, which evaporated from his skin almost instantly on the side towards the fierce heat of the furnace, despite the steady and powerful winds blowing into the furnaces fiery maw. His hair would have been mostly singed off anyway, and held moisture to run down his back annoyingly. John had improved the system by putting up a silk awning, tied down well against the steady wind, quickened by the west facing canyon and forced through the blazing chimney, to shelter the caracoled branches.

This charcoal was no 'briquettes', but wrist to thigh thick pieces of wood blackened to the core, and in length about half as tall as John up to just a bit taller than him. The charcoal was created in house sized clay mounds with only a few fist sized openings at the base and a head sized opening at the top to provide air. The four men, well, only three of the actually tossing the charcoal 'loggettes' into the blazing blast furnace, the old wizard Yuffi merely being awake and directing the placement of the black fuel which quickly begrimed the men from head to foot, almost the entire twelve days.

He only took short naps when he was certain everything was going perfectly, and his apprentice Druan was wide awake and in charge. Even then, he seldom slept as long as four hours at a time the entire period. The men stayed on watch day and night, taking a six hour nap in turns every twelve hours. It was a grueling effort, but John proved his worth, having much similar experiences on the fishing boats, and Tuck manfully emulated his role model. The girls helped by having the meals ready as each man came off shift, and made certain that the old wizard always had something to eat and drink on hand.

John wondered how the blazes they had coped with only two of them working the furnace, especially since Master Yuffi was unable to pitch charcoal into the fire for six straight hours. Perhaps that explained his three to four hour naps. No wonder Druan was concerned that he would last four more years to be able to teach him his full measure. By the end of the twelve days, they were all blackened from head to toe, except where rain or sweat had washed lighter streaks into their coating. John coughed and spat a blackened glob of phlegm from his throat, and gratefully assisted in building a wall of rock and mud across the mouth of the furnace. A broad tile was put across the top as well, almost completely covering the chimney.

Then they used wooden shovels to bury the entire smelter in mud. The slower the furnace cooled down, the better it would be. Hearing this, John found all the packing straw used in the shipping of the crucibles, and put it against the mud on the front of the furnace, then added another few feet of earth, as Yuffi nodded approvingly. After that, they went to sleep for fourteen or fifteen hours. When they awoke, they ate a meal, and stood naked in the steady rain, washing off the worst of the grime.

The 'don't harm animal cults' hadn't taken among the steel workers, so no one was offended when John went hunting for some meat. He brought back an anteater, and several days later, took a large coffee colored deer, that was almost elk size. Druan called it a 'Sambuck', and it was very delicious. They feasted on the heart, liver and kidneys, roasted on an open fire.

After seven days, the furnace had cooled down to merely 'warm', and the dirt and then heat hardened clay was dug away, and the door was unsealed. All the previously fine grey crucibles had turned black from the heat, and they were removed and carefully sorted by type of steel. Once they were all sorted out, they were each given a stone hammer, and the smashing began. There was no easy way to get the steel buttons out of the bottom of the crucibles, so they couldn't be reused. Part of the magic was in the fresh crucible anyway, in the form of the white rice husks formed into the clay itself.

Soon a rhythm was found, and the crucibles gave way to the blows of the hammers, The freed buttons of steel, about the size of Zithrusa's fist, were heaped in a pile apart from the pottery shards. They were put into jute twine sacks, and labeled with a stick twisted up in the netting, with mystical wizardly marking. Master Yuffi had been doing this long enough to have a system. After all the steel had been freed from its clay prison, and the black glassy slag had been knocked from the top, Yuffi declared a holiday of sorts. They all were glad of the rest, and there was much laughter and playfulness.

Zithrusa played her erghil to the profound enjoyment of all, but especially the old wizard, who sat there with streams of tears running down his wizened face. He was very moved. He said later that her music evoked his memories of his youth. John made a kite, and the still strong winds lofted it high. Druan particularly enjoyed that, showing that at 21 he was still a boy at heart, perhaps because he had been living with the serious old man since he was 14, learning the chores and magic of a steel wizard.

After a few days of fun, a small forge was fired up, and the monsoon winds were put to use again. The two men each had an anvil, a two or three foot tall flat topped mushroom of hardened iron. It was the first project an apprentice wizard made, making a soft iron post of stacked buttons, then welding the harder top to it by pounding it repeatedly with a flat hammer as it sat in a hot fire. The quenching had to be controlled to only temper the outer layer, leaving the inside more resilient to the repeated blows of the metal being worked on it's surface.

To get going, at first they made small steel items, heating and hammering. Once they had made certain no imps were infesting the workings, they made more complex items, the knives they promised John and Vedeya. They each kept an eye on each other, Drugan to make certain he was following the proper steps, and Yuffi to make certain Drugan was following the proper steps. At times, the two swapped works, so that Yuffi's piece could get the power of Druan's blows, and so that Druan's piece could get the finesse of Yuffi's magic.

The two buttons of steel were heated to only dull orange, as too much heat would rob the steel of it's magic, and much hammering and reheating was required to turn the two buttons into one solid piece of steel. It was flattened wide, and folded into thirds, the two outside edges folded to the middle, slightly overlapping, and then it was heated dull orange, and pounded until the seam disappeared, and then it was turned over, and the process was repeated. This was done seven times, then the knife was formed. It was kept off to the side of the forge to cool very slowly, until at a certain blue color, the edge of the knife only was then quenched in fat, the burning smoke smelling like a barbecue. Then back off to the edge of the forge, to continue to slowly cool.