Chapter 73: Tools
The bath was as terribly cold as it had been before, and Tulland was horrified to find he was getting used to it. It couldn’t hurt him, and his body seemed to be in the beginning stages of realizing just that and losing all of its normal reaction to the cold. In any case, he was able to rinse his clothes, scrub them to acceptable cleanness with river sand, wash the worst of the stink out of his boots, and scour his skin and hair to almost the standard he had kept them back on Ouros within just several minutes, all while never really getting fully naked.
That was town-standard, according to Licht. Most people were respectful, and local customs differed, but it was essentially agreed that nobody would get too mad about an accidental glance from the safe zone as long as nobody put on too much of a show.
In the distance, he could see White minding his shop, which meant that White could see him. It was the only reason he felt safe enough to do it.
Tulland carried his gear back under his arm, determined to stay in the house for the next few days anyway. He might as well be comfortable, and his armor wasn’t all that compatible with that. It was something he was hoping to remedy.
“Hey, Necia. Could you do me a favor?” Tulland asked.
“Sure. So long as you make more food.”
“Deal. Could you crush some of these? I want to see how they break.” Tulland dropped a bunch of the orange-tree pits on the ground in front of her. “I’m hoping they shatter in a sort of clean way.”
“Yeah, I don’t know.” Necia turned one over in her hand, looking at it from several angles. “There are no real joints in these things. It’s like they are rocks.”
“Give it a shot anyway. Hit it with your sword or something.”