Chương 166: Chapter 161 - Calvern meets Maggie

The streets became easier to use when people believed someone important might ride over them. Alric walked in the centre of his eight guards while Calvern and the four crown guards rode beside them. They were not moving quickly. The street simply arranged itself ahead of them. A handcart carrying onions was pulled halfway into an alley. Two labourers carrying a long plank turned around entirely.

A man leading a mule pressed himself against a wall while the mule remained in the road and watched on as if it was a very boring parade. Alric had spent months learning which streets became blocked at which times of day. Apparently, the simpler solution had always been royal colours, good horses and enough armed people. Calvern rode close beside him. The dark chestnut horse moved at walking speed without appearing pleased about it. Its polished tack still looked cleaner than most dining tables.

"You should get a horse," Calvern said, shifting one gloved hand along the reins while he looked down at Alric.

"Vale said I should buy a carriage," Alric said, stepping around a flattened cabbage while grinning.

"Vale is correct," Calvern said, inclining his head as the horse stepped neatly around the same cabbage. Two people being wrong about something, does not make either of them correct. People believed in bloodletting after all. Alric looked ahead, "I told him I would think about it," Alric said, drawing his cloak closer around himself. Calvern's mouth moved slightly.

"You are not buying one then," Calvern said, rubbing one thumb along the reins.

"I am thinking very carefully," Alric said, giving him a small nod, it was true, Alric was thinking deeply about not buying one. The river came into view at the end of the street. The distillery stood near it, broad and solid, with its old inn sign removed and several upper shutters open despite the cold. Stone dust covered the ground outside. Two men were carrying shaped blocks through the side entrance while another pair worked around a length of iron laid across wooden supports. Calvern raised one hand.

The mounted party stopped together. Alric's guards did not. They continued several steps before realising, then reorganised around him with the quiet irritation of men whose training had not included a noble's hand gestures. Calvern dismounted in the same smooth movement he had used in the yard. He passed the reins to one of his guards and studied the building.

His eyes moved over the river entrance, the upper windows, the workers, the stacks of stone and the wide opening on the water side where a door had not yet been fitted.

"You bought another inn?" Calvern said, settling one hand against his belt while he looked up at the roof.

"It was an inn," Alric said, gesturing toward the entrance.

"It is the distillery now. Oh but I did buy this one first." Calvern looked at him and said nothing more, he brushed dust from his sleeves and followed Alric inside. The smell of cut timber and worked metal met them first. Hammers struck from deeper inside. Men moved between the washbacks and the unfinished walls carrying tools, stone and lengths of wood. The work slowed when the crown guards entered. It did not stop entirely. The foreman looked toward Alric, received a small nod and turned back to his men.

Calvern followed and had taken only four steps before he saw the washback. He stopped. The great vessel rose from its stone base, its double walls held by thick iron bands. The upper edge was at his shoulder level. A trough crossed part of the platform beside it, with another section waiting on supports. Calvern walked closer, he peered inside, standing on his toes.

"What is this?" Calvern asked, resting one hand on the upper edge while he looked inside.

"A washback," Alric said, stopping beside him and pointing toward the open top.

"The grain and water, uh… rest in there before we distil it." Calvern turned slowly toward the second stone emplacement marked on the floor.

"You are building another?" Calvern said, lowering his hand from the band.

"Yes," Alric said, following his gaze. Calvern looked toward the raised boilers beyond it. He recognised them. Alric saw the recognition arrive and then watched the man trace the troughs, the washback, the platform and the open floor beyond. Calvern turned. He saw Maggie. His eyes began at the broad copper belly and travelled upward. They followed the tall neck to the arm, then across to the great thumper and the oversized condenser beyond it. His mouth opened.

"THAT'S A STILL?" Calvern shouted, throwing one hand toward Maggie. The building stopped for a moment. A hammer remained raised near the internal wall. One worker carrying a bucket looked around as though expecting a different still to answer for the accusation. One of Calvern's guards turned sharply toward him. Alric glanced at Maggie.

"Yes," Alric said, clasping both hands behind his back.

"That's Maggie." Calvern looked at him.

"You said it was large?" Calvern said, spreading both hands toward the copper body.

"It is?" Alric said, giving him a cautious nod.

"Large is a wagon," Calvern said, stepping closer while tilting his head back, his arm still pointed to Maggie.

"That won't fit in a house!" Stromni approached from the far side of Maggie. He had a folded cloth tucked through his belt and grey dust across one forearm. His beard was tied back, though several strands had escaped.

"Lord Calvern, this is Stromni," Alric said, opening one hand toward the dwarf.

"My business partner. He built Maggie." Stromni gave a formal bow, two fists closing against his chest.

"M'lord," Stromni said, straightening and hooking both hands into his belt. Calvern looked from Stromni to Maggie.

"You built this?" Calvern asked, lifting his gaze along the copper neck again.

"Aye," Stromni said, rocking back slightly on his heels; he had a smug expression. Calvern remained quiet for several breaths.

"That is remarkable," Calvern said, turning back toward Stromni and inclining his head. Stromni's chest lifted, his hands tightened around his belt, "She came out well," Stromni said, glancing toward Maggie while trying and failing to hide the size of his smile. Without saying anything Calvern approached Maggie, Alric and Stromni exchanged a glance before following. Calvern walked around the lower body. He touched nothing, though his eyes moved over every join and seam.

"How did we not know about this?" Calvern asked, stopping beneath the arm he reached out on hand to run it across Maggie's surface. Alric considered the question, tilting his head.

"Was I supposed to tell someone?" Alric asked, he rubbed his jaw and looked up at Maggie while doing so. Calvern turned toward him, his mouth opened, but he said nothing. Alric waited, trying the clerks trick against him. Calvern's eyes moved toward the workers, the stone, the washbacks and finally Maggie again. The building had been purchased openly, the copper had been ordered openly, builders had been employed for months. Wine had been delivered through city streets.

It had apparently placed all of it in accounts under the small inn until yesterday. Alric had not hidden anything. Technically.

"No," Calvern said at last, pressing two fingers against his temple.

"Apparently, you were using your authority." Alric looked at Stromni. Stromni had begun shaking his head. Calvern noticed.

"Do not look pleased," Calvern said, lowering his hand and fixing both with a long stare.

"Wasn't," Stromni said, pulling one hand from his belt and scratching at his beard. He was. Calvern turned back toward Maggie. His expression hardened as his gaze moved across the old inn walls and toward the neighbouring buildings beyond them.

"This cannot be here," Calvern said, spreading one hand toward the still while planting his feet.

"Not in the city. One fire in this place could take the merchant's district."

"Aye," Stromni said, folding both arms across his chest.

"If this were a noble's still this size, sure."

"A noble's?" Calvern asked, narrowing his eyes while turning his shoulders toward the dwarf. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Stromni pointed beneath Maggie.

"See a furnace?" Stromni asked, he looked sideways at Calvern. Calvern looked, the twelve empty positions waited beneath the broad copper body. No ash, stacked wood or coal. Nothing blackened by flame.

"Heating stones, the magical ones" Alric explained, stepping closer and resting one hand against the edge of an emplacement.

"They heat the copper without a fire." Alric retrieved one from his item box, where they stayed; he showed how the stones went into the slots. Calvern crouched and held one gloved hand near the nearest empty position.

"No flame at all?" Calvern asked, straightening and brushing one hand against his knee.

"None," Alric said, shaking his head and standing up.

"Could drop a stone into a cask of brandy," Stromni said, pointing one thick finger toward the collection side.

"Wouldn't catch."

"You are not doing that," Alric said, lifting one hand quickly, he also wasn't quite sure if it was true. He did suspect it was though.

"Didn't say I was," Stromni said, lowering his finger and frowning.

"You sounded like you wanted to," Alric said, turning toward him.

"I built it," Stromni said, spreading both hands.

"Course I want to." Calvern looked between them.

"Would it ruin the brandy?" Calvern asked, rubbing one thumb along the edge of his glove.

"Yes," Alric said, folding his arms. Calvern nodded slowly, as though the speed of that answer had confirmed something. Stromni led him around Maggie. He showed Calvern the joins, the heavy bracing and the repairs made after the first runs. He explained how the copper moved as it heated, where seals had needed replacing and which supports had been strengthened, how they had run with water at the highest heat first, how the thumper was filled with water. Calvern listened carefully.

"You came up with all of this?" Calvern asked, touching two fingers to one of the broad braces before drawing them away.

"Nah, the lad did that with drawings. He told me where it had ta go and what it had ta do," Stromni said, he gestured to Alric with his thumb when he said lad, then rested both hands against his belt.

"I made sure it stayed together while doing it." Calvern looked toward Alric. Alric tried a small smile.

"And this?" Calvern asked, gesturing toward the condenser while walking closer, the condenser was a thick coiled copper pipe currently in three stacked barrels of water.

"Lad kept telling me ta make it bigger," Stromni said, pulling at one side of his beard.

"Then bigger again. Thought he'd stop eventually."

"It cools what comes through," Alric said, pointing along the copper path.

"The vapour uh… Strange question, you know when a pot boils, it makes steam yes? You seen how water drips from everything then? This is similar, the 'steam' moves through and cools here." Calvern followed the route with his eyes.

"What stops that great thing from bursting?" Calvern asked, placing both hands on the back of his hips so he could lean back properly as he looked back at Maggie. Alric studied the arm. Well, it's not sealed for one, Maggie doesn't operate under pressure. The vapour can always go through the arm, into the thumper and onward to the condenser. Nothing is being forced to stay. How do I explain this without getting into modern physics?

"Nothing is trapped inside her," Alric said after a while, tracing the route with one finger.

"It keeps travelling until it reaches the end."

"And if it stops?" Calvern asked, narrowing his eyes at the thumper.

"We remove the heating stones," Alric said, lowering his hand.

"Then we find out why."

"Them hollow tubes are broad," Stromni said, knocking one knuckle lightly against the copper body.

"Wouldn't let me narrow any of them. Could've saved copper." Because narrow pipes restricted flow. That's the dangerous bit. Alric kept that part to himself. Calvern walked around Maggie once more before looking toward the unfinished internal walls, "What are they building?" Calvern asked, gesturing toward the nearest course of stone.

"A room around Maggie," Alric said, turning and walking toward it.

"She will be separated from the rest of the distillery." Calvern followed him along the wall. The stone already reached Alric's waist in places. Channels had been cut into the floor beneath it and sloped toward the river side.

"Where is the entrance from here?" Calvern asked, looking along the unfinished wall while resting one hand against the stone.

"There isn't one," Alric said, pointing toward the river. Calvern turned. Stromni led them toward the wide opening facing the water. Iron rails rested beside it, with a door frame laid flat across wooden supports.

"Metal sliding door," Stromni said, striking the frame with his knuckles.

"Only proper door. Opens toward the river 'ere. Won't burn, won't swell and won't need six frightened men pushing it shut while trying ta leave." Calvern looked through the opening toward the muddy river water.

"How does the what did you call it? Washback get in the still?" Calvern asked, turning back and lifting one hand toward the washbacks.

"The wash? Through there, there will be a window, there will be a metal flap above it that will swing closed." Alric said moving to where the wall was being built, he drew the shape awkwardly in the air while looking at Calvern.

"The troughs will pass through the window. People use the outside door." Calvern nodded, then he stepped toward the dug floor channels. They ran beneath the unfinished door frame and continued toward the river.

"And these?" Calvern asked, crouching and running two fingers above the cut stone without touching it.

"Drainage," Alric said, following the slope with his hand.

"If wash, water or spirit spills, it cannot pool around Maggie or run into the rest of the building. If spirit catches fire," he pointed through the river opening, "it goes that way. Stone behind it, metal beside it and the river in front." Calvern walked the final length of the channel himself. He looked out toward the water, then back at the internal walls. No cask storage inside. No timber floor. No doorway leading fire toward the washbacks or grain. The room did not make fire impossible Alric knew.

So they gave the fire nowhere useful to go. Calvern's shoulders lowered slightly.

"Why is the still cold?" Calvern asked, turning back toward Stromni while clasping both hands behind him.

"Won't run her till the walls are finished," Stromni said, gesturing toward the internal walls, "Mortar needs ta set. Trough window needs finishing, channels cleared and the door hung." Calvern nodded once.

"That is the first answer I have heard inside this building that has made my work easier," Calvern said, he tilted his head at the arrangement, he didn't frown.

"I make sensible decisions," Alric said, folding his arms and frowning.

"Name another," Calvern said, turning his head toward him. Alric looked around the distillery. He decided not to become trapped by his own argument. Calvern's attention returned to the washback.

"You said you'd put grain water wash in those?" Calvern asked, pointing toward the great wooden vessel.

"Grain to make wash," Alric explained, he used his fingers to show motion toward Maggie.

"Barley first, we want to make whisky in the winter." Calvern let out a deep breath and stood very still. It was the same stillness he had used in the cellar when Alric explained the reserve.

"How much grain?" Calvern asked.

"A fair amount," Alric said, rubbing at his jaw. Calvern waited. Alric sighed seeing the pattern.

"We bought the contents of a larger grain warehouse," Alric said, shifting his weight.

"Thirty-four wagonloads. It is for the brewery and distillery through winter but we should run through all of it."

"You bought a warehouse of grain?" Calvern asked, turning slowly toward him.

"The contents, yes," Alric said, raising one finger.

"We did not need the warehouse." Calvern closed his eyes.

"Of course," Calvern said, pressing two fingers against his temple. Alric glanced toward Stromni. The dwarf had become interested in one of the door rails.

"Use what you have already purchased," Calvern said, lowering his hand and looking directly at Alric.

"Alric, I say this in the interests of good relations with you and I say this personally, do not run this on local grain." His arm gestured to Maggie.

"I am a factor," Alric said, turning his head sideways.

"Wasn't that the point?"

"You can," Calvern said, folding both hands across his chest.

"The king gave you the authority, but this is pushing it." Alric frowned.

"What is wrong with buying it here?" Alric asked, opening one hand toward the city beyond the walls.

"You are going to be importing enough grain to make it look like we are preparing for war," Calvern said, glancing toward the washback while one thumb rubbed against his bicep.

"Merchants will notice, nobles too of course but foreign agents will certainly notice."

"Wouldn't importing more look worse?" Alric asked, tilting his head.

"Yes, it will look like preparation," Calvern said, smoothing one hand down the front of his coat.

"That can be explained, we will explain that. Empty markets though?" Alric looked back at the washback. Calvern stepped closer.

"If you begin buying heavily inside the capital, merchants will assume the crown knows something they don't," Calvern said, lifting one finger between them.

"They will hold grain back. Prices will rise before a single store is empty."

"It would happen that quickly?" Alric asked, lowering his voice while folding his arms again.

"Immediately," Calvern said, tightening his mouth.

"Raise the price of copper and smiths complain. Raise the price of grain and people riot, and not after winter. Immediately." Alric looked toward the river doors. He had thought of grain in tons, wagonloads, washback capacity and expected spirit yield. He had not thought of someone standing in a bread line being told the price had doubled because a brewer wanted whisky. That felt less abstract.

"I am telling you this in the interests of being on good terms, with you personally," Calvern said, lowering his finger and settling both hands to his hips.

"Bring it in from the provinces. Import it if you must. Do not drive grain prices up in the capital unless you genuinely wish to see people get hurt and you'd certainly upset his majesty."

"I won't," Alric said, shaking his head and raising both hands.

"Thank you," Calvern said, giving him a firm nod.

"Before this place consumes more than the grain you already own, speak to me."

"You want to approve the purchases?" Alric asked, lifting one eyebrow.

"No," Calvern said, turning toward Maggie and rubbing one hand over his jaw.

"I want enough warning to prevent your whisky from causing a bread riot."

"Not whisky yet," Stromni said, raising one finger from beside the door rail. Calvern looked at him.

"I'll let you explain that to the crowd with pitchforks and torches," Calvern said, giving the dwarf a flat stare. Stromni grinned widely before he started laughing, Calvern returned that with a grin of his own. Calvern gestured for Alric to walk with him. They moved toward the quieter river side of the building while the workers gradually returned to their tasks.

"My ordinary work is not tax collection," Calvern said, clasping both hands behind his back as they walked.

"I guessed," Alric said, glancing toward him.

"You stared at my cellar door more carefully than the brandy."

"People are difficult, I watch things." Calvern said, his gaze turned to a mason set another stone. Alric nodded. That seemed fair. He didn't say crown intelligence but that was the obvious guess. Calvern stopped near the edge of the unfinished wall.

"You concealed nothing," Calvern said, turning toward him and spreading one hand toward Maggie.

"Everything here has been done correctly."

"Hmm…" Alric said, trying the waiting game out, his hands went to his belt and rested his weight on one leg.

"And still," Calvern said, pointing toward the copper body, "the crown did not understand what you had built until you had filled a cellar with brandy." Alric considered that.

"No one asked," Alric said, giving a small shrug. Calvern stared at him before he started laughing.

"That is the problem, I couldn't have said it better." Calvern said, after recovering.

"The problem is we don't know what questions to ask, so please, in future, before you start something else, speak to me."

"Not for permission?" Alric asked, lifting one eyebrow.

"Just warning, please," Calvern said, his gaze drifted across the building and rested on the washback.

"So I don't learn of it walking through a door." Alric nodded.

"I can do that," Alric said, following his gaze.

"I am opening a tailor." Calvern's gaze snapped back to him, he waited. Alric waited back, until Calvern gestured to continue. Alric noted it as a new rule.

"Mostly women's clothing," Alric said, with a shrug, he gave Calvern a sidelong glance.

"The tailor will run it with support from me and my people, I am a business partner." Calvern continued waiting. Gestured with his hand again to continue. Alric thought that was cheating.

"That is all," Alric said, frowning.

"It is clothing."

"I do not care about the tailor then," Calvern said, closing his eyes briefly and rubbing one hand over his face.

"You asked me to tell you?" Alric said, spreading both hands.

"I care if the tailor threatens food supply or employs half a district or contains another copper monster," Calvern said, lowering his hand and pointing at Alric. Alric shrugged, "You asked me to tell you, I just did," Calvern let out a long, deep, heartfelt sigh. Alric suspected it came not from his lungs so much as his soul, "You are useful," Calvern said, folding both hands again.

"More useful than I believe even His Majesty understands." Alric shifted his weight.

"You are also dangerous," Calvern said, turning his gaze toward Maggie, "At the same time, I wouldn't want to make an enemy of you." Alric looked at the crown guards near the entrance. He gave Calvern a suspicious look. Calvern returned it with an equally suspicious look.