Shadow's Son by Shirley Meier, S.M. Stirling and Karen Wehrstein ...

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stand here watching, I have to do something . She settled for helping a Yeoli, placing the logs on his
chopping block so he wouldn't have to put down his axe.
"You want to learn how to do tsaht," a voice close behind her whispered. "Wahtch him, howhe does it,
closely, with tseh unthinking gaze, like you wahtch you' war-teacher show you a move."
She did for a while; then it occurred to her that she didn't know who the yoice, cracked with age and
broadly Yeoli-accented, belonged to, and perhaps she ought to turn around and check. Its tone had been
so sincerely friendly and helpful that danger hadn't crossed her mind.
It was an old Yeoli man, grinning wrinkly at her with the same expression as his voice had held, bald but
for a fringe of thick white curls, and stripped to the waist to show a thin chest stringy with muscle, and
arms with veins standing up underloose age-lined skin, the whole marvelous network of them showing.
By the sawdust sweat-pasted to his shoulders, he was obviously helping here; but she'd never seen a
squire that old. His crystal was tight-tied, close to his neck, not dangling, as Yeoli warriors wore them,
but he had no wristlets, and besides he was too old for that as well. "Nye'yingi," he said, sticking out
gnarled ancient hands, and grinning wider, the grin going all the way up past piercing pale green-gold
eyes, up into his thick-lined forehead. "I'm Azaila Shae-Chila."
"I'm Sova. Called Far-Traveler." She'd never taken the hands of someone so old before; they were hard
and bony and dry, but had a warm grip.
"Good! Pleasedtomeetyou. Look attsaht ." She found her eyes back on the youth with the axe almost
without knowing it. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to do what the old man said, stranger or
not; he hadn't said it like a command, but more like a little boy calling a little girl's attention to something
wondrously fascinating, with an enthusiasm too strong not to share. "You see how he's bending his knees
when tseh ahxe comes down? Ahn' whipping his body, with his stomach? It's tseh same as anything, you
put you' whole body into it, use tseh best form, it doesn't mahtter how small or weak you arrhe… Well,
you cahn't really learn without trying it yourself, ahn' all tseh ahxes are taken; we better do something
before we get caught shirking. I need someone for tseh otser end ofa saw, shall we?" As if he were a
handsome swain gesturing to the dance-hall; she followed, entranced.
He took up the first unused saw to hand, a long arm-length of toothed steel with wooden handgrips at
either end, and went to the first felled log whose branches had been hacked off enough to saw.It's not
much less wide than the saw is long , she thought.I don't know if I can do this, and what about him,
so ancient ? But without a thought the oldster positioned the saw and looked at her, her hands went to
the handle, and they started.
Don't get out of rhythm with him, she told herself. Easily enough she fell into it, then tried directing her
strength at different angles and times in the stroke, until she found the one that made the saw-teeth chew
through the wood fastest. Then she enjoyed it. Then her arms were tired; her exercises didn't include any
that used exactly these muscles so steadily for so long. Then her arms were hurting, and sweat poured
from her face; she wanted to let go to wipe her forehead, but Azaila kept going. In fact he hadn't even
stopped grinning.We're going to take a break soon, I hope …He's an old man, he's got to rest. Well
, I'mnot going to call a rest until hedoes . He didn't; soon her arms felt near to breaking, and he didn't
even slacken the pace.He must've been a lumberjack all his life , she thought, swallowing back tears
of pain.I'm notgoing to stop. We're not even halfway through… No, wrong thought, we're almost
halfway through. It'll get easier after that .
As they worked down to the narrowing bottom curve of the log, just knowing it would soon be finished
eased the pain, and she found her second wind. Finally the saw broke through, and the section fell off