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 You re Casil Kinuqa13?
 Yes, yes, what y want? White eyebrows like woolly caterpillars
wriggled impatiently and the yellowed mustache bulged with the pursing of
his lips.  I got water on to heat, gonna boil over on me, you don t get to
it.
 The Herbwoman? Sekhaya Kawin? She told you about me. I am Lavan Isaddo, clan
Dashiliva, totem sala-mander, guild silversmith.
 So you finally got here. Come in. Come, come. Casil shuffled briskly away,
not bothering to check if Lavan were following.  We ll look at y stuff in the
kitchen, you don t mind. Don t matter if you do, it s where we re goin .
The kitchen had the neatness of a good workshop, ev-erything the old man would
need to make his cha laid out like a line of tools on the counter within easy
reach of the stove. The whistling kettle was puffing out threads of steam and
bouncing on the grate above the coals.  Sit y self at the table, ne mind
there s only one chair. Been used to doin for m self since m wife went, then
Kubalm got that kuq n fever. Only needed one chair, so that s all I kept in
here.
He set the cha to steeping, then bustled about getting down another mug and
saucer, rinsing them off and wip-ing them dry, cutting slices from a new loaf
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wrapped in a clean white cloth, getting out a plate with butter and a jar of
honey.
He put it on the table with the neat easy moves of a longtime craftsman even
though age had stiffened his stubby brown fingers.  If you ll fix me a slice
or two, I ll be back in just a minute, I like m butter thick and crust to
crust.
 Hah! Good way to start the morning. Na na, friend, keep y seat. Should we
come to terms, we ll do this turn and turn about, but till then you are my
guest, Lavan Isaddo.
When the table was cleared and polished clean, Casil bustled round to
Lavan.  Let s have your hands. I want to see and feel  em.
Lavan sat squirming with embarrassment as the old man washed his hands and
dried them carefully, prodding at them as he worked, checking the nails, the
conforma-tion of his palms, the elasticity of the joints.
Casil nodded, tossed the washcloth into the basin with the plates, and hung
the towel up. He pulled out the chair he d fetched in and sat down across the
table from Lavan.  So. Show me your pieces.
Casil turned the last of the pieces over and over, feeling every inch of
it, bringing it close to his yellow-brown eyes, holding it at a distance,
tilting it through varying an-gles. It was a brooch in the shape of a crescent
moon with a catseye set below the center, Lavan s prize, in his mind the best
thing he d done, elegant and simple.
Casil set the brooch on the velvet showing board.  It s good work. You haven t
gone for the obvious or the flashy in any of these pieces. You won t find a
quick sale, but the people who know what they re looking for should be willing
to pay premium for these. You have weak-nesses. I think you know them.
You re still feeling for line and you have a difficulty with negative space.
You ve countered that rather nicely with unusual forms and some
interesting color choices. I m not young ... his soup strainer
mustache twitched over a quick grin,  but I m healthy and m Da went
only two days short of his hun-dred. So, should you want to take the
chance, I m willin . Standard day wages and I ll see about locating what you
need for your masterwork.
Lavan relaxed. He d liked the old man from the begin-ning, and everything that
had happened since had in-creased his desire to work with Casil.  Thank you,
he said, struggling to keep his voice steady.
 These last years ... it s not been easy.
 I expect not. Any problem about moving down here? It s a long way from y
folks.
 Haven t got folks except for an old cousin. Lost  em in the kujuneh plague,
last time the kuj swept
 cross the plains. I m promised to a woman up my way. She s a weaver, just
made journeyman. But that s a problem we ll have to work out ourselves. In any
case her uncle, he s clan head, won t sanction a marriage yet, he says he has
to see me settled first.
 Ahwu, families, families, if there s trouble to make, they ll make it for
you. How d you get here, ride or by boat?
 Rode. I ve got a horse.
 Stable out back, han t been used in a while, you ll have to clean it out, get
in some straw and such.
There s a pump back there, don t know how well it works, froze a couple
winters since last I used it. If it s broke. I ll get it fixed. Where you
staying?
 Hostel.
 Pho! I ll show you your room and the workshop, then you go get y things,
hmm? Na na, I m wrong. Let s both go up town, see the scrivener, and swear
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