Reidier

15: Araldia

"Ral, where're ya, ya little bugger?" Tallos yelled. Araldia rushed to his side, carrying bellows. They were connected to the wall by a thick hollow tube, and when the furnace master forced the air into the furnace, the fire would leap at least twenty strides high- or so it seemed to her. The work at the furnace was hard, but much more interesting than dull kitchen work or worse, latrine cleaning. 

On her first day there, Duck Face- his real name was Ghilb, he asserted, but everyone round these parts called him Duck Face anyway- he had gave her a a few words of warning. 

"Master Tallos, yes, he's a real stern bugger. He'd scream and shout at you till he's red in the face, but that's cause he takes his job seriously. He told me once, he said, 'If I don't do my job right, the whole damn place'll blow, and I'll be damned if you lot don't git killed along wit' the rest of 'em, Quis or not.' And he doesn't want to kill anyone, no matter what he says, he's a good man, Master Tallos." 

The furnace ran merrily. Ghilb stumbles into the furnace, panting, the open door temporarily sending a rush of cool air into boiling room. 

"Kitchen says the dumbwaiter ain't working, reckon we need gas there." 

"Ral, you try," Master Tallos commanded. He gestured to the empty burner- though, Master Tallow had insisted that they call them 'dormant', not empty. 

Araldia's heart sped up. She'd never been allowed to start a flame by herself before, never in the month she'd worked here so far. 

Master Tallos had explained the basics to her as she watched him fiddle with the many valves and cranks that controlled the gas flow to the burners. It was imperative that the gas stayed on always when it was needed, and never when it wasn't, because escaped gas, in large quantities, will start an explosion. Master Tallos' constant warnings, - "You can't smell it, can't see it, so you never know," - rang in her head as she knelt down next to the valve and turned the handle. 

She checked a pressure guage mounted on where the pipe entered another. She didn't know much, but she did know that as long as the needle pointed away from the bits coloured red, then there would be no explosions. The needle was hovering dangerously close to the red, so she twisted the crank beside it and watched as the needle moved back away from the red.

Feeling Master Tallos' eyes on her back, she checked the other ones that laid in the semi-circle around the burner. All normal. 

That meant that it was time to light the burner.

She picked up the match box they all kept in their pockets, - just part of the job- struck one, and watched as it came to life. She threw it into the hollow that was the burner- and as though by magic, a column of flame appeared, ignited by that tiny match. 

She turned back to the valve, glancing every so often at the rising red in the glass tube above the burner. She had to be careful. Above the burner was a water tank, and she had to make sure, once again, that there was just the right amount of heat, or they'd all be blown to kingdom come. Tallos has told her many times that the furnaces were the most dangerous parts of every modern household. 

She glanced at the furnace master, and he nodded. "That's enough. Go replace the gas cans."

To Ghilb, he said, "Duck, you go check the kitchens, see if it works- then go help Raldy. Ral, You have the paint, right?" 

Araldia only nodded. Ghilb scowled. "The name's Ghilb!"

Master Tallos kept his eyes on the dials and valves and ignored him, entranced, as usual, by the gasworks and the furnace and the fire. Araldia had no idea what he thought of her work, and the thought that she might have blundered made her a little ill. This was, after all, dangerous business.