Location:Wild Confederacy — The Northern Flats, The Abandoned Bore Site; Settlement Windbreak, The North Gate
Date/Time:TC1858.02.28
The spikes came out of the frozen boards with a sound like something small being hurt.
Kestrel had a bar under the end of a deck plank and her whole weight on it, and every time she leaned, the old iron let go another finger's length with that thin rising squeal, and every time, she grinned. She'd been grinning since the first trip. Three days of hauling the lane in by sledge, board by doubled board, and she'd treated every one of them like a coin found in the road.
"Last of the deck," she said. "Then the spur. Then we're done, and the Speaker owes me a drink."
"He doesn't owe you anything," Esker answered. He was stacking. He stacked the way he pulled, at one speed, laying each board square on the last.
