City in the Sky Read Free Page A

took three black-wrapped shapes from the shelf. “If you're wanting sky steel to go with that, it's a half-gold per stock bar.”
    “You carry sky steel?” Erik asked, surprised. He needed sky steel, and it was almost pointless to use forge crystals for anything other than sky steel, but he'd figured he'd need to go deeper into the Quarter for it. As far as he knew, Jaron only carried crystals.
    “Some. Not much,” he admitted, “and I wouldn't normally sell it, but it is you. A half-mark is a quarter less than they'll charge you in the Quarter, too.”
    Erik nodded slowly. “I need twelve stock bars, if you have them.” If everything went right, he'd only need ten, but he was experienced enough to know that he was going to make at least one mistake.
    Jaron nodded. Laying the crystals on the counter, he knelt down behind it and opened something, presumably a box. He quickly laid out a dozen of the twelve-inch-long stock bars.
    Erik picked one up and ran his fingers along it. It was sky steel all right. The white tinge was there, and both the weight and feel were right for the crystal-purified metal. “Eighteen marks, then?” he asked, removing his money pouch from his belt.
    “Yes,” Jaron replied.
    Erik counted out the coins and laid them on the counter. Jaron swept them off the counter and into the drawer beneath it and Erik regarded the significant pile of items on the table for a long moment.
    “You'll want these delivered to your grandfather's smithy, I presume?” the storekeeper finally asked into the silence.
    His eyes on the metal and his thoughts on Rade's still disturbing order, Erik merely nodded.
     
     
     
    Erik laid the first bar of sky steel on the anvil and regarded it levelly. The forge he and his grandfather shared was supplied with every amenity of the blacksmith’s trade. They could afford the best coals and charcoals for their work. All told, this forge could produce the hottest heat possible.
    The fires in the forge were cold. It took more than natural heat to make sky steel forgeable. No number of bellows or quality of coal could do more than cause it to heat to the touch.
    He removed the first forge crystal from their velvet casing and laid it on the anvil, next to the steel bar. It looked innocuous enough, a piece of crystal about the length of his hand, glowing gently silver. Innocuous-looking or not, that crystal could provide a level of heat the forge's fires couldn't.
    Erik picked the crystal up and held it above the bar of sky steel. He concentrated, and the silver glow intensified. Carefully lowering the crystal closer to the bar, he focused on the bar through the crystal. The silver glow intensified even more then jumped from the crystal to the bar as he brought it close enough.
    Even through his thick leather gloves, he could feel the heat radiating from the bar. The crystal, however, remained cool. Encased in the silver glow, the bar of sky steel slowly began to glow red with heat.
    The bar's glow edged slowly towards the bright orange of forgeable steel and Erik removed one of the tools from the thick leather belt he wore over his apron. With a quick and precise strike, he neatly broke the glowing bar. The smaller piece he tossed aside onto a bed of sand by the forge, to cool for later use.
    The larger piece he left on the forge, glowing even brighter in the light of the forge crystal. It reached a pure orange hue, and Erik lowered the crystal and took up his hammer. With swift and sure strokes, he began to shape the first of the weapons the Draconan had ordered.
     
     
     
    It took Erik two days and almost all the materials he'd purchased to produce the Draconan's order. He used up two of the forge crystals entirely, and the glow of the third was faded far from its original hue. A single complete bar and a handful of scraps remained of the sky steel, but Erik had the man's eight stilettos, two poniards and small-sword.
    Once he'd finished, he turned to the other orders he'd