Daav settled on his heels, bringing his attention-- and Aelliana's-- once more to the study of the crack.
"The question is," he said, conversationally, "what to fill it with. Gravel? 'crete? Stumps?"
"Dirt," a rough voice said from nearer than he would have thought likely. Their new neighbor moved on his own land like a scout. Daav hadn't heard the disturbance of so much as a blade of grass.
Once again, he raised his head.
Across the gully, and somewhat further removed from it than Daav was on his side, a man squatted on his heels. His clothes were rough, but well-mended and clean. The brown eyes that watched him out of the shadow made by the cap's peak were wary to the point of being feral.
"Good morning," Daav said, pleasantly, but without any needless emphasis.
The man nodded, jerkily, bony fingers gripping his own ankles.
"Morning. Name's Shaper-- Yulian-- Yulie Shaper. I hold the land here." He looked down, as if to emphasize which land, exactly, he meant.
"I am glad to meet you, Yulie Shaper," Daav said. "My name is Daav yos'Phelium."
The man gave another one of his jerky nods. "You're Boss Conrad's Da."
"I am Boss Conrad's uncle," Daav corrected, gently. He glanced to the gully. "So you think dirt alone will seal this?"
"Could put riprap-- that's your gravel. Take a might of it, though, and the likeliest gravel pit in these parts is underneath where you're setting."
"Ah. I see that we may have been hasty."
Yulie Shaper frowned slightly and shook his head, as if levity were a pesky insect worrying at his ears.
"Problem with stumps is they rot and crumble up, so's you gotta keep hauling in more. 'crete...that might work, same as riprap-- but, see, nothing grows in rock. You wanna match up the edges, fill with dirt, then the grass'll grow the same on both sides. Hold it all together."
That, Daav suspected, was something of a burst of eloquence for Yulie Shaper. And a non-trivial effort it was; the man was breathing hard, as if he'd run a good, long distance.
"I think your advice is sound," he said, soothingly. "I wonder, though, how we would arrive at a quantity of dirt sufficient to the task. Have you any that you might wish to sell-- or barter?"
Yulie Shaper frowned down at his land, brow furrowed. Daav waited, arms crossed on his knees.
"Melina," the man said abruptly.
He looked up at Daav and nodded once, decisively. "You want Melina Sherton. She's been moving a lot of dirt lately, on account of the new road." Another nod. "I got to go down her turf next day, two-day, for market. I could maybe let her know there's an interest."
"That would be...neighborly of you. I cannot commit Boss Korval, of course, but I will ask after intentions. When I have an answer, may I bring it to you-- here? Or is there a place I might leave a note?"
"Gotta get the nod from the Boss, sure," Yulie Shaper said, coming to his feet in a lurch. "If I ain't obvious when you come 'cross here, leave a note up the house, on the door. I'll find it." He took a hard breath, seeming about to say something more. Daav kept to his crouch, looking toward, but not directly at, the other man's face.
"You don't hurt the cats," Yulie Shaper said finally.
"Indeed, no. I am very fond of cats; all of the family are."
It seemed that some of the tension left the man with that assurance, though by no means all of it. He nodded again-- "That's good, then. Good cats, I got."-- and without further ado, he spun on his heel and marched off, grabbing the rake from its lean against the tree as he went by.
Daav counted to thirty-six before rising, grimacing slightly at the complaint of stiff muscles.
"Well," he said lightly, to the grey sky, or to the spitting snow, or to his lifemate. "Perhaps we should go inside and find some tea."
#
Jelaza Kazone
Surebleak
It was not, upon inspection, a very good road.
In point of fact, it was less a road and more a track the farther Yulie Shaper's land fell behind him. Daav walked along slowly, compiling mental notes in order that he might offer the fullest report possible to his delm. He also, so it seemed, walked alone; Aelliana had withdrawn from his awareness almost the instant he had stepped into the morning parlor in search of tea, to find his son and his son's lifemate at breakfast.
The children had been in spirits, and interested in news of their closest neighbor. Of the road a-building in Melina Sherton's territory, they were sanguine; it would appear that Boss Sherton had confided to Boss Conrad her vision of forging a route to the sea, which Daav thought, recalling his Surebleak geography, was an undertaking of no small ambition.
It pleased the delm to accept Yulie Shaper's neighborly offer to act as ambassador to Boss Sherton, and also to make Daav's return trip into double-duty. So after breakfast, saving a moment to write a note, should there be reason to have one, Daav had once again set off into the sullen day.
Yulie Shaper had not been "obvious" when he returned to their rendezvous point of the early morning. He paused a moment before making the minor leap over the gully, walking toward the gnarled tree with hands in plain view, and held slightly away from his body.
While not precisely a boulevard, the route "up" to the house made by the farmer in his rounds was obvious enough even to the eyes of an old scout. The weeds by the side of the path quivered from time to time, as if he were being paced, and he twice saw the gleam of cat-eyes among the straggling stems. No one approached him, though, either feline or human, and at last he came to the house, a tidy dwelling built of hardened wood.
Three steps rising to the door were rough-cut stone; the topmost adorned by a well-furred grey cat with upstanding ears, front legs tucked beneath white breast, eyes closed. Those strong ears twitched when Daav put his foot on the first step, and mint green eyes opened when he achieved the top. Apparently, he resembled neither dinner nor a threat, for the eyes closed again, the cat sighed and re-entered its rest.
There was a peg on the right side of the door, just above the latch, where a man entering the house would have a hard time missing it. Daav fetched the note out of his pocket and stood for a moment, holding it in his hand, head tipped, the back of his neck prickling.
He was, he was certain, being watched, and by something other than a cat.
"Yulie Shaper, good-day to you once more," he said, keeping his voice even. "Boss Korval thanks you for your care and accepts your offer. The note is here." He pressed the unfolded note gently over the peg. The paper broke and he slid it down until it seemed secure, absent a vigorous wind. He brought his hands to his sides, straining his senses, without, yet, turning around.
The watcher was behind him and to the right. He thought it might, indeed, be their skittish neighbor. If not...
Well, there was but one way to learn.
Daav turned on the step, keeping a careful eye out for the cat, which continued to drowse, as if all were as it should be. That was, he decided, comforting, and perhaps also a stroke in his favor. He looked out over the yard, carefully showing no particular interest in the large bush at the near right corner of the house.
"Boss Korval has asked me to walk the road between your land and ours, to determine what repairs may be needed," he told the yard pleasantly. "I will do my best to give you notice in advance of the arrival of work crews, so that you may gather the cats close in hand. The road work ought not to inconvenience you in any way."
He waited then, briefly, but their neighbor seemed to have nothing to bring to the conversation. That being so, he bowed slightly and went down the steps. The map in his head located the road directly in front of him, at the end of the gravel path leading to the house. He therefore walked down the path, scout-trained senses still registering a hidden observer, who nonetheless, and happily, seemed inclined to let him go.
The path curved slightly 'round a portly shrub, and there before him was the road.