First lessons (Medieval Tale Book 1)

by Lina J. Potter

  He bowed. “So do you, My Lady.”

  “If you find anything else of interest, let me know. I am the Countess of Earton.” Lily smiled. “And I like how you prepare your wares.”

  “My granny taught me.”

  “I see.”

  “She died this spring. She was a fine herbal healer, My Lady. I do not know nearly as much as she did.”

  Lily sighed. A missed opportunity. “Well don’t forget to find me if you come across anything good. I’m staying at the Pig and Dog.”

  “Yes, My Lady.”

  He bowed his head low, but his eyes sparkled with fire. They didn’t look like the eyes of a peasant.

  He’s an interesting boy, but I don’t have time to learn his story.

  ***

  Lily rented an extra room at the inn so that she and Ingrid would have space to sort and pack all the herbs she had bought. She wished she had a coffee grinder. Then she could have put the ground herbs in labeled jars. Without noticing it, she began to design a hand-operated mill.

  I’ll have to talk to the blacksmith about making something I can use to grind up all these dried herbs quickly.

  But when Lily tried to explain her idea to Ingrid, the Virman woman did not react as she had expected. She looked thoughtful. “My Lady, the blacksmith will make this thing for you. And then what?”

  Lily stopped laughing and did some quick thinking. Ingrid was right. Her rough design was lightweight and easy to use. She probably shouldn’t go around showing it to just anyone.

  But I doubt our blacksmith back in Earton can make what I need. What should I do?

  “My Lady, I’m sure you know best, but…” Ingrid hesitated. For the millionth time, Lily reflected on how lucky she was to have found these Virmans.

  “I suppose I could try to hire the blacksmith to go home with us,” she said, thinking aloud.

  Ingrid shook her head. “If he’s a master, he won’t go with you. He’ll have a home here and a list of customers.”

  “But what about an apprentice?” Lily wondered.

  “That’s a possibility. An apprentice will be glad of a chance to become a master. They’re always hungry, and they need to make money to pay the guild fees.”

  “I’ll do my best,” said Lily.

  With that thought in mind, she went to see the blacksmith. His workshop was near the city wall. It was a stone building with a sizeable, clean yard. Lily liked the looks of it until she heard a man’s voice from the forge. “You stupid son of a pig!”

  A boy raced out into the yard, followed by a huge, muscular giant swinging a hefty stick.

  Before Lily could react, her guards stepped forward and pulled out their axes. “Watch your manners in front of her ladyship,” Leif warned in a cold voice.

  The giant stopped on the spot. He blinked. Then he bowed low and begged her pardon. The boy took the opportunity to put some distance between his back and the hand of vengeance. He was obviously an apprentice. His arms were skinny but muscled from working the bellows and swinging a hammer. Lily wasn’t sure what exactly a blacksmith did, but she was sure it involved hard physical labor. The giant before her had never seen a protein shake and was none the worse for it. He wasted no money on his apprentice, that much she could see. The boy’s clothes were so torn and dirty that a beggar would have pitied him.

  She interrupted the giant’s attempt to beg her pardon. “I need a blacksmith. Is that you?”

  He fell over himself working to convince her that he was the best blacksmith in the region. Lily had taken an instant dislike to him when she saw how he treated his apprentice, so she waved her hand to interrupt him again. “I need something made. If you can do it, I’ll make it worth your while. If you can’t, you won’t be paid. Now, show me your best steel.”

  Half an hour later, Lily grudgingly admitted that the giant knew his business well. The knives he made shone icy blue and easily sliced through the sacking she held up.

  Lily asked for a piece of birch bark and began to draw what she wanted: scalpels, clamps, wound retractors, forceps—both regular and cylindrical—and several other useful items. The blacksmith gaped over her shoulder as she sketched. When she handed him the piece of bark, he scratched his head.

  “My Lady, how big are these things supposed to be?”

  Lily sighed. She held out her hand and began to show him which things should be as long as her ring finger and which should be as long as her pinkie. So much for standard sizes! I wonder how I can explain to people that they need units of measure… I don’t even remember who developed the metric system. And good luck teaching them about meridians. The earth is flat, end of discussion. Any other opinion will get me beheaded.

  “My Lady, how soon do you need these tools?”

  “When can you finish them?”

  “In about ten days, if I hurry.”

  Lily nodded. “No sooner?”

  “My Lady, I have other orders to sort out first.”

  Leif spoke up. “I see. You would rather make horseshoes for the local peasants than important tools for the Countess of Earton?” His voice was soft, but Lily got goosebumps down her spine listening to him.

  “My Lady, in the name of Aldonai, I beg you!” the giant sank to his knees. “I’ll have to buy more steel, but I’ll do your order in eight days!”

  Lily narrowed her eyes. “And how much will this cost me?”

  The giant did some mental math. “Eight gold coins, My Lady, and three silver ones.”

  Lily laughed. “You must have knocked your head on the anvil in there. Your whole outfit isn’t worth that. I’ll give you two gold coins, but only because I’m in a hurry and the order is an unusual one.”

  “My Lady, I’ll soon be a pauper if I do intricate work like this for such a price!”

  “Such a price?” Lily lost what patience she had left. She hadn’t slept well, which never improved her temper. Using the choicest phrases she had learned from warrant officer Sviridenko, she explained the blacksmith’s business to him. In the end, she told him that if he didn’t use the best steel for her tools, he would receive a visit from her friendly Virman guards.

  ***

  Leif watched her haggle with the blacksmith. He was curious about her motives and plans. She was an odd woman, but she was also very interesting. She did not know many simple things, and yet she had deep knowledge in other areas. She had calmly paid in silver for a cartload of dried herbs that morning, and yet she was fighting for each copper coin with the blacksmith. She could be equally generous and tightfisted, and he had yet to understand why. It was strange but interesting. Leif was tied to the Countess by his curiosity, as well as by his perception that she would lay down her life for her people.

  She haggled down to three gold and two silver coins. Her victory complete, they left the blacksmith moaning over her drawings and headed off to find the glass blower.

  ***

  There was just one glass blower in town, and his workshop was not far from the blacksmith’s. When she found it, she saw that it was also a stone building with a sizeable yard, but she noticed that the windows had glass panes. Like the jeweler’s windows, the panes were full of bubbles and had a greenish tint that made them hard to see through, but they were panes of real glass. She couldn’t wait to get started improving the process. She already knew how to color glass with cobalt, nickel, lead, silver, and gold.

  Leif hammered on the gate. “The Countess Lilian Elizabeth Mariella Earton wishes to see the master!”

  A few minutes later, the gate was opened by a pale young boy dressed in rags.

  It must be fashionable for all the artisans to keep their apprentices worse than their dogs.

  When the apprentice ran off to find his master, Lily took a few copper coins out of her purse and handed them to Leif with whispered instructions. He nodded and sent one of his men on her errand. The idea was simple and worth trying; they would pay the blacksmith’s apprentice to keep an eye on his master and let her know if any
of the work wasn’t done right. She would do the same with the glass blower’s apprentice.

  The glass blower took his sweet time coming out to meet her, and when he finally appeared, Lily realized she couldn’t work with him. He looked her over with an arrogant expression and gave the slightest of bows, as if to say, “Aristocrats are thick on the ground, but there’s only one glass blower here.”

  Lily straightened herself and got to business. “What is your name?”

  He bowed again, ever so slightly. “Master Veldey, My Lady. Joannes Veldey.”

  Lily narrowed her eyes to slits. “They tell me you make things from glass. Is that so?”

  “Yes, My Lady.”

  “I need some glass beads. Will you sell me some?”

  She really did need beads for some lace she was planning to make. “Of course, My Lady. Please, come into my shop.”

  Lily followed him inside. She was soon disappointed. His beads were all the size of olives. Apparently, nobody had invented tiny seed-sized glass beads for thread lace yet. The muddy colors were also disappointing.

  “Is this all you have?”

  “I have several vases for sale, My Lady. Basins for washing the hands and face, cups, panes of glass for use in windows…” As he recounted everything he knew how to make, Lily looked around the shop and sighed. Even as a schoolgirl, she had done better glasswork.

  I wonder if I could set up my own workshop. All I need is an oven and a metal tube. The glass she saw in the workshop was all at least a quarter of an inch thick, dark green and full of bubbles. Completely useless.

  “My Lady?

  Lily started. Did I say my last thought out loud? “Master Veldey, can you make glass in different colors? I want a green and white vase.”

  “My Lady, that would be very expensive…” The glass blower stalled.

  Lily nodded. “I know. If I draw the things I need, will you make them for me?”

  “My Lady…”

  In the end, he said he would do custom work, but not for cheap.

  “Is your glass fire-safe? Can I pour hot liquids in it?”

  He admitted that his wares were not fire safe. Lily thought to herself that Master Veldey wouldn’t have lasted long in a medieval glassworks in her own world. The Venetian masters might have taken him on as an apprentice, but even that was doubtful. She ordered a couple of glass coils in a range of diameters and left the workshop feeling despondent. If she wanted good glass, she would have to make it herself. Why not? She would need an oven. They didn’t have muffles, of course, but any blacksmith could make the tubes she needed. Finding chemicals to color glass would be a problem, though.

  Lily had never been strong in geology. I know how to get potassium nitrate, but what about copper sulfate? Nickel compounds? Cobalt? She remembered what they looked like and how they reacted with other elements, but she had no idea where to find them in nature.

  “My Lady?”

  It was Leif. He had watched as she halted her horse in front of the inn and sat staring into space, and he decided to interrupt her thoughts.

  “I’m fine.” Lily slid off her horse and went inside to eat. It was afternoon already, and she wanted to be sure to eat her largest meal during the day.

  The boiled beef was as tender and juicy as shoe leather. Lily used her knife to cut it and poke the pieces into her mouth. She would ask the blacksmith to make her some forks with four tines instead of two, and she had a couple more ideas to discuss with Helke. She wondered if anyone in her new world knew how to make metal wire and if they had discovered the many uses of springs.

  Leif and Ingrid wouldn’t eat at her table—they felt they would be out of place—but they were sitting at a table nearby. She called them over and told them what she had in mind. Leif scratched his head, but Ingrid was overjoyed. “My Lady, what a wonderful idea! We have a blacksmith on the ship.”

  “You have your own blacksmith?”

  “His name is Olaf,” said Leif. “And he’s not really a blacksmith.”

  Lily questioned him further and discovered that Olaf was, in fact, a blacksmith of sorts. He couldn’t make chain mail or jewelry, but he could do basic work and repairs. She waved away Leif’s doubts. “That doesn’t matter. I’ll tell him what I need.”

  Then she tried to explain to them about the chemicals she wanted to find. It was slow going, but once they understood that she needed colored crystals that dissolved in water, and liquids that burned everything they touched, their eyes lit up.

  “My Lady, you will have to ask dyers or tanners for those things.”

  “Where do I find them?”

  She discovered that dying and tanning were always done far outside the city walls because of the smell. Lily was amused. Nobody was worried about chemicals poisoning them, they just didn’t like the smell. How could anything smell worse than the human waste they toss out in the street?

  She made a mental list. Once she had the necessary chemicals, she would consider where to put her glassworks. Then she remembered that she needed to check on her patient.

  ***

  Ali Akhmet din Tahirjian was still in bed. His first wife was helping him sip a glass of milk. Lily had told them to give him as much milk as he would take. She had discovered they had decent cottage cheese and sour cream, but they hadn’t heard of yogurt and didn’t know how to whip cream for desserts.

  When Lily walked in, the women jumped up. Lily smiled and approached the bed. “How do you feel?”

  “Not so good.” He said something in his native language, and the women all left the room. Lily took his pulse and then put her lips to his forehead.

  “I thought it would be worse. You barely have a fever.”

  “Is that good?”

  “It’s excellent. You have a strong constitution. Are they giving you lots of milk to drink?”

  “Yes. Why did you order that?”

  “Because milk contains something that will help your bones heal faster.” She didn’t bother trying to explain about calcium. She wouldn’t have told a rabbit about quantum physics, either.

  “What is this thing in milk you speak of?”

  “Bones are white, aren’t they?”

  “They are.”

  “And so is milk. That’s how it makes your bones stronger.”

  “What about salt? Salt is also white.”

  Lily thought quickly. “But it isn’t a liquid.”

  Ali Akhmet nodded, satisfied. Then Lily examined his leg. The splint was straight, and his leg was still stretched and tied to the end of the bed.

  “I will tell your wives how to massage your leg in another ten days. Once you get out of bed, you won’t even remember that it was broken.”

  “I will be in debt to you forever, My Lady.”

  Lily waved away his thanks. “Not for long, you won’t. I have some items I would like to sell, but I can’t do it myself. If you help me do the selling, you stand to make a fair profit.”

  “Do you mean the inkwells?”

  “I do. Don’t you think they will sell?”

  “I’m sure they will. It’s a lovely design.”

  Lily smiled. He couldn’t even guess how many good ideas she had. In the meantime, she asked him if he had ever seen anything like the chemicals she would need for her glassworks. He admitted that he had not seen anything of the kind, but he went on to describe a strange substance he had recently encountered since she was interested.

  “It is a liquid that burns all it touches, and its fire cannot be put out with water,” he said.

  Lily turned to him, excited. “What color is it? Does it shimmer like a rainbow when you pour it out? And does it have a terrible taste?”

  “Yes, My Lady.”

  Lily was overjoyed. The liquid he was describing had to be oil. Crude, unrefined oil, but oil nonetheless!

  “We value this liquid highly and use it for warfare now. It burns whatever it lands on, and can even burn in water.”

  “Where can I buy some?”
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  “I have several barrels of it on my ship. I will tell my men to bring one of them to you.”

  Ali Akhmet was rewarded by the look in the Countess’ shining eyes. He realized that this woman had highly unusual interests. Lily took his temperature again and then went off to mix an herbal remedy.

  Ali Akhmet called for his guards and sent one of the men back to the ship with a note for a barrel of oil to be delivered to him that same evening. That way, he could at least partially repay his debt to the Countess. He looked forward to making her happy.

  ***

  The two lovers met in secret, around the corner from the inn. “My love, this is our only chance. You can do it, can’t you?”

  “Of course I can.”

  “He has his own room. Those fools are in there with him most of the time, but I have a sleeping potion. They will sleep like the dead.”

  “And I will…”

  “It’s on the second floor. I’ll open the window for you. In the morning, let everyone blame that fat woman who has been taking care of him.”

  “Why not? Sounds good to me.”

  “That’s the only way we can ever be together!”

  The man thought to himself that money was also an important consideration, but he saw no reason to disappoint his lover too soon. If she thought he planned to marry her, she would work harder to make the plot work. He could always get rid of her later before she started causing him trouble.

  ***

  Lily had just sat down to work on her herbal remedy when Helke Leitz was announced. He would have come straight into her room if the Virmans hadn’t stopped him.

  “My Lady, I did it!” Lily took the package he handed her and felt his fingers tremble. She opened the package. It was a dip pen, just as she had drawn it, just like the ones she had played with as a child. “My Lady, I have already tested it. It writes beautifully!”