Agreement: A Place at the Stall
Northpoint market, Leaffall, 181.

I, Mira, let one place at my stall to Pell, merchant of the Long Road, for this market and the next two markets.

Pell may sell apples, carrots, honey and wool. He may not sell fish from my table. The fish belong to Edda, and she has a sharper knife than I do.

Pell will pay three emeralds for each market. He will keep his goods under the stall at night. The stall roof leaks near the left post. I showed him the leak. He put his hat there to catch the drip.

Pell says the apples are from Ambrook and were picked this season. I accept his word, and I will count them before he leaves.

If either of us cannot come because the road is closed, the payment waits until the next market. No one pays for snow.

Pell may leave his empty boxes in the relay house shed. He must take them away before the first deep snow. The shed is not a second stall.

Witnesses: Edda of Northpoint and Tavin, keeper of the wool scale.

Mira, keeper of Northpoint
Pell, merchant
%%
Agreement for the broken wall
At the Lowmarsh market, Ash agrees to sell a chestnut mare to Brin for twenty emeralds.

Brin will pay ten emeralds today and ten after the mare has carried his cart through Apple. Ash says she is strong, but slow on the hill. Brin says slow is fine. His old mare ran off whenever the frogs began their evening noise.

Ash will give Brin the saddle, the halter and a small bag of oats. Brin will keep the mare at his house by the west boardwalk. He will not tie her to the fish weir posts. Those posts are for nets.

A creeper blew up the low cobblestone wall behind Brin's shed last night. It left a hole wide enough for a cart. No one was hurt. Brin says the mare heard it and pulled hard at her rope. Ash says most horses do. They agree Brin will mend the wall before he leaves the mare there overnight.

They shook hands beside the market board. Brin asked whether Ash would bet that the mare could pull his cart up the hill. Ash said he would bet one apple, but only after the wall was mended.

Brin says a man from Saltreach told him the ships are leaving with families aboard. A woman at the fish stall says the ships are only taking nets and timber. Brin bought two fish and did not ask either of them again.

Ash
Brin
%%
Agreement: One Field for Autumn
Northpoint market, Leaffall, 197.

I, Mira, let the little field below the relay hill to Orra of Northpoint for one year.

Orra may plant wheat and carrots. She may cut no oak from the hedge, and she may move no stones from the water ditch. The field is narrow, but the ditch is useful. Orra says the stones lean toward her side. I say they were there first.

Orra will pay four emeralds after harvest. She will leave one sack of wheat in the relay house store for the keeper. The wheat is not rent twice. It is the keeper's share of the harvest.

The field has a scarecrow with a pumpkin head. The head fell off in the last wind. Orra will put it back, or replace it with another pumpkin. The scarecrow may not be used as a seat.

The hedge has a gap by the north post. Orra will mend it with branches. I will provide the branches and carry them from the shed.

If frost comes before the wheat is ready, we will count what can be saved. No one owes a full payment for a lost crop.

Witnesses: Pell, who says he knows a good field, and Tavin, who says Pell has never planted one.

Mira, keeper
Orra, tenant
%%
Notice: apprentice to hire
Hesk of Copperhold lets out his apprentice Clank for the winter.
Clank is a good worker. He carries, he hauls, he sorts stone. He does not talk, but he does what he is told.
The hire is for the cold months, from the first snow to the thaw. Pay is four emeralds a month and a place by the fire.
The one who hires him must feed the quickeners and keep them cool. Snow is fine. Water is fine. Do not let them run warm.
Clank sleeps in the tool store. He does not mind the cold.
If Clank is hurt, send word to Copperhold. If Clank is lost, send word too. We will come.
Signed at the mine gate, Hesk, with his mark. I keep the mines, not the papers. The clerk wrote this down for me.
%%
Agreement: North Shore Net
Northpoint market, Leaffall, 188.

This is the agreement between Edda and Joss, both of Northpoint.

Edda owns a fishing net with one long tear near the lower edge. Joss will mend it before the next market. Edda gives him two emeralds and a basket of potatoes when the net is ready.

Joss may use the net for four days after mending it. He may keep one fish from each catch. The rest belong to Edda. If the net catches a boot, a branch or a wet glove, Joss keeps none of those things.

Edda will supply the cord. Joss will use his own needle. He says the needle is not bent. It is bent. He says this helps it turn corners.

If the net tears again at the same place, Joss will mend it without payment. If it tears somewhere else, they will speak before the next market.

Mira read the agreement aloud. Edda asked for the part about the glove to stay. Joss agreed, since the glove was his.

Witness: Mira, keeper of Northpoint.

Edda
Joss
%%
Agreement: the north fence at the Oak
Written at the Oak Post, on the Long Road, in the second week of Frost, 203.

We, Hal the baker and Dorn the carter, agree to the following.

The fence along the north side of the inn yard has stood there since before either of us came to the road. Since Leaffall, Dorn's horses have knocked it down four times. Hal's pig has walked through each gap and eaten the carrots from the inn garden. Both sides agree this is a bad habit in a pig.

1. Dorn will mend the fence before the first snow. He will use oak posts. Birch rots in the wet, and Hal says so.
2. Hal will keep the pig on the far side of the yard, in the pen by the well. The pig has agreed to nothing, but it can be moved.
3. The apprentice Dib will carry the posts from the cart. It is not quick, but it does not stop, and it does not drop posts on anyone's feet.
4. If the fence falls again, the one whose horse or pig was on the wrong side pays for the new posts.
5. Neither of us will say the word "pig" at supper, because Sella has asked us.

Hal says the pig started it. Dorn says the horses were there first. We have written it down anyway, so it is written.

Hal, baker of the Oak Post
Dorn, carter, of the north road

Witnessed by Sella, who keeps the inn, and who wants everyone to stop talking about the fence.
%%
Agreement for the north field
At the Lowmarsh market, Ash agrees to hire his brown mare to Sella for work in the north field until the end of Reaping.

Sella will pay eight emeralds. She will water the mare at the well each morning and give her hay at noon. She may use the mare to pull the cart and turn the soil. She will not take her onto the boardwalks. The boards are narrow, and the mare has already stepped through one.

Ash will bring the harness after the market. Sella will return it with every strap and buckle. If a strap breaks, she will tell Ash before the next market day. If the mare is hurt, Sella will call Wren and send a child to find Ash.

They shook hands beside the fish weir. Sella's son asked if the mare could carry him to the school house. Sella said no. Ash said the mare would be glad to carry a sack of turnips instead.

A boatman said the grey cough came from the water by the east reeds. Wren says she has heard the same cough from people who have not been near the water. Sella bought honey for her son and said she would keep the well bucket covered.

Ash
Sella
%%
Agreement: Share of the Boat
Northpoint market, Leaffall, 193.

I, Harl, own a small oak fishing boat. Its name is Quiet Water, though it knocks against the dock in every wind.

I agree to sell one quarter of the boat to Sella for eight emeralds. Sella may use it on four mornings each month, if the water is calm. She will mend the nets she uses and bring the boat back before dark.

Harl keeps the oars, the sail and the little iron pot. Sella may use the pot for fish stew, but not to boil her wool. Last time she boiled wool, the pot smelled of sheep for three days.

The boat is kept on the north shore. Its left plank needs pitch before the deep frost. Harl will bring the pitch. Sella will bring the brush.

If either of us is sick, the other may use the boat, but must tell the market keeper. If the boat is damaged, we share the cost by our shares.

Sella paid eight emeralds today. Harl counted them twice. Sella counted them once and said he had already done the work.

Witnesses: Mira and Pell.

Harl, owner
Sella, owner
%%
Agreement: Two Sacks of Beetroot
Northpoint market, Leaffall, 174.

I, Mira, keeper of the north relay, have agreed with Tam of Kettle Ridge.

Tam gives the market two sacks of beetroot. Mira gives Tam one jar of honey and six emeralds.

The beetroot is sound. I checked the bottom of both sacks. Tam said the small holes were for air. I said beetroot does not need to breathe. He tied them shut.

The honey is from Northpoint. It is clear and sweet. Tam may keep the jars.

The goods change hands before the lamps are lit. If snow comes first, we use the relay house.

Witness: Sella, seller of wool.

Mira, keeper
%%
Contract: bread for the carters, a year
Written at the Oak Post, in the last week of Longnight, 206, and to hold until the next Longnight.

The carters on the north road will buy their bread at the Oak Post for one whole year. The bread will be baked fresh each night, and carried out before dawn in the bread cart, which squeaks on the left wheel and everyone knows it.

These are the terms.

A loaf of the plain sort is one copper for a carter who pays on the day. A carter who pays by the week pays four loaves for three coppers. Dorn the carter says this is an insult to his arithmetic. Hal says it is the same sum written differently.

A carter who is late to the bread cart gets the heel of the last loaf. The heel is the best part. Dorn says he does not like heels. He has taken one every morning since Frost.

The bakery will keep a loaf of the dark sort aside each day for the children at the post house. Hal says this is not a term. It is simply what he does, and so it is written here, so he cannot forget it.

The bakery will not sell bread to anyone who brings a dog into the yard. There is a rule about dogs at the Oak Post, and Sella made it, and nobody has yet argued with her about it.

Dib carries the sacks from the mill, and when it is ready Hal will say so.

Hal, baker
Dorn, carter, for the north road
Sella, who keeps the rules at the Oak Post
%%
Letter: Hesk to the mine hall
To the mine hall at Copperhold,
This is my account of the winter at the hamlet by the old well, in case the clerk wants it for the board.
The well is dry. We carry water from the stream. It is hard work and nobody sings about it.
The stone in the Deep Works was warm when I left it. I put my hand on the wall by the eighth and it was warm, like a stone left by a fire. I do not know why. The humming is loud at night. I do not go below the eighth now, and I have told the others not to.
A tutor came through with a box of crystals and asked questions. She said a mind could learn to find water. Maybe it could. We have no mind to spare. She went on to Copperhold and asked there. I did not go with her.
I keep my lamp lit and my tools dry. Clank is hired out for the winter, and the pay is four emeralds a month and a place by the fire. He is well. He does not talk, but he works.
Some folk say the warm stone and the dry well are the same thing. Some say the cough came up from the marsh and the ships took the young ones over the sea. I do not know. I write down what I saw and leave the rest to the clerk.
Hesk, at the hamlet by the old well, in the winter.
%%
Agreement: Dib, hired for the winter
Written at the Oak Post, on the Long Road, in the first week of Longnight, 204.

The bakery at the Oak Post has an apprentice from the tutor house at Vell, on loan for the winter. Its name is Dib. It is copper, with a green patch on one shoulder, and it is very good at carrying flour.

These are the terms, as Sella and Hal agreed them.

1. The apprentice works in the bakery from dawn to the evening bell. It carries flour, water and firewood. It stacks the sacks by weight, heaviest at the bottom.
2. The inn gives the apprentice wax for its joints, twice in the winter, and oil for the hinges of its arms.
3. Dib sleeps in the apprentice hall at the back, on a dry shelf above the oven flue. Its spare crystal lives in the dry box beside it. Nobody moves the box.
4. Hal tests the apprentice each week before it goes near the ovens. He gives it a row of sacks it has never seen, with the labels turned to the wall. Nessa's note says to do this. Hal says Nessa is right about most things.
5. The wage is one loaf a day, and a hot bath on the coldest days. The bath was Sella's idea.

The first test, at the start of Longnight, went like this. Hal laid out twenty sacks: ten of barley and ten of wheat. Dib sorted them and got nineteen right. The one wrong sack was barley with a wheat label. Hal says the label was wrong. Sella says the label was wrong, and Hal should have checked it first.

Hal said: that will do. We are not sending it to the ovens yet. Next week it carries the salt.

Hal, baker
Sella, innkeeper
%%
Notice: the hamlet meeting
A meeting was held in the hamlet by the old well, in the winter, in the barn, because the school house is cold.
1. The well is dry. We will dig a new one in Thaw, by the oak, unless someone has a better place. Speak now or bring a spade later.
2. The tutor who came asked for a mind to spare. We have none. If any family wishes to send a crystal to Vell for drilling, say so to Mara.
3. The stone in the mines is warm. This was said by the tutor and by two miners. Nobody knows why. It is a rumor. Write down what you saw, not what you heard.
4. The lights in the north were seen again by the shepherd. He says they fell slow. A child says they were looking at us. We do not know. We will keep the torches lit.
5. Some folk are leaving. Some are staying. Both are allowed. If you go, leave your name on the board so we know who is gone.
6. No pigs in the barn. We mean it this time.
Written down by the clerk, for the hamlet, in the winter.
%%
Agreement for the grey mare
At the Lowmarsh market, Ash the horse keeper agrees to lend his grey mare to Fen for the summer.

Fen will give Ash six emeralds at the end of Melon. Fen will feed the mare each morning and brush her before dusk. He will not ride her through the reed beds.

Ash will bring a saddle and a clean blanket. Fen will bring the mare back to Ash's stall by the west boardwalk.

If the mare is ill, Fen will send for Wren. If Fen is late, he owes Ash one basket of carrots.

Both saw the mare eat a carrot. Both agree she looked pleased.

Ash
Fen
%%
Agreement: Hire of an Apprentice
Northpoint market, Leaffall, 203.

I, Mira, keeper of the Northpoint relay, hire one small apprentice from the tutor house at Three Wells for the season of snow.

The apprentice will carry lamp oil from the relay house to the tower room, bring water to the quickeners, and sweep the stair landings. It will not climb above the lamp room without Lantern beside it. The tower has ninety steps, and even Lantern counts them when tired.

The tutor has tested the mind on carrying, fetching and staying. The apprentice carried a bucket without spilling it. It stayed when told. It fetched a loaf when asked for a lamp, so I will keep bread away from the lamp shelf.

The tutor will receive ten emeralds at the end of the season. I will provide an iron tool, dry shelter and two meals each day. The apprentice does not eat, but the tutor says this line belongs in every hire agreement.

The apprentice will sleep in the dry box when it is not at work. It may not be left outside overnight. The tutor will take it back at the end of Deepsnow, unless we both agree to a new term.

Orders used for the test:

> bring me the lamp oil
= fetch lamp oil

> stay by the door
= stay

> bring me some bread
= fetch bread

Mira, keeper
Nessa, tutor
%%
Agreement: The Late Fishing Boat
Northpoint market, Leaffall, 206.

This agreement was written after Edda's boat came home late from the north shore.

The boat left before dawn with Edda, Harl and two baskets. It was due back before the market bell. The bell rang twice. Harl said it rang once, because he was still out on the water for the first ring.

Edda and Harl came home at dusk with a full catch of fish, one broken oar and a wet bag of carrots. They said the wind had turned them past the bay. The carrots belonged to Pell and were not improved by the trip.

Edda will give Harl half the fish for rowing. Harl will mend the oar. Pell will take back the carrots, though he says they now smell of the sea. No one agrees that salt is a fair price for carrots.

They have agreed to leave the boat tied above the lower stones when the wind is strong. They will tell Mira before they leave, and leave a mark on the market board if they expect to be late.

The apprentice from the relay house carried the message to the dock. Mira had given this order:

> take this note to the dock
= fetch the note

The apprentice took the note, returned to Mira, and stood by the door. It had obeyed the meaning it knew. Lantern carried the note after it.

We will write the next order more plainly. The apprentice will be tested again before it carries a market message.

Witnesses: Mira, Lantern and Pell, who was there for his carrots.

Edda, fisher
Harl, rower
Pell, merchant
%%
Agreement: the broken wheel at Coldbeck
Made at the mill at Coldbeck, in Frost, 205, after the spring flood of the year before had finally been paid for.

The big wheel of the Coldbeck mill cracked in the spring flood. It lay in the race for most of a summer, and the mill stood still. Three families use that mill: the Oak Post bakery, the Brown Hen and the carters' yard. Each of them had flour to find, so each of them agreed to help.

It was agreed that:

The wheel will be made again from oak, the way the old one was. The carters will bring the timber down from the ridge, in four loads, before Thaw.

Each of the three families pays a third of the cost. The cost is written on the back of this sheet. Hal says it is too high. The miller says it is the right price for oak. The miller is right, and Hal knows it.

The Brown Hen will hold the spare ropes, and the Oak Post will hold the spare pins, because Hal has the good bench for it.

Nobody will take a sack from the mill without writing it in the book. Last year, a sack went out of the mill that no one could find again. The mill wheel had to wait for it. This year everyone has agreed to write.

The wheel is to be raised at the Frost fair, and the first flour is to be ground by the Brown Hen's own apprentice, Lark, who has been waiting all year to do it.

Signed at the mill, with flour on every hand.

Hal, baker
Marda, the Brown Hen
Corby, miller
%%
Lease: the low field behind the Oak Post
Let in the first week of Thaw, 207, from the miller at Coldbeck to the Oak Post inn, for one year and one winter.

The low field lies behind the inn, between the mill race and the north fence, the one that was mended in Frost of 203 and has stood ever since, mostly. It is a field of good black soil, which floods in spring and dries in summer, and which is best for beetroot and for carrots, and which Sella has planted with potatoes for three years because she likes them better.

The terms of the lease were agreed by the miller and by Sella on the bench by the well, with Hal sitting beside them, as is his habit.

1. The inn takes the field for one year, and the winter after it. The inn may plant it as it likes, so long as the mill race is kept clear of weed. The race is the miller's business, and he has complained about the weed since Leaffall.
2. The inn will pay the miller four sacks of flour at harvest, and one sack more if the field gives twenty baskets of anything at all. Twenty baskets is a good field. Sella says it is a good field. The miller says it is a field that has never once given twenty baskets, and has no reason to start.
3. The fence along the north side of the field is the inn's to mend. Everybody knows whose fence it is. Dorn has agreed to help, but only for the posts, and only if they are oak.
4. The pig shall not be let into the field. The pig was not consulted on this, and is not pleased.
5. A ditch of water will run down the middle of the field, as the miller wants, and the inn will keep the hedge along its north side, of birch, as the miller also wants. Sella points out the birch rots. The miller says the hedge rots slower than the ditch. They have decided to disagree about it next year.
6. Dib, the apprentice from Vell, may work the field in the daylight hours, with the spade and the hoe, under the eye of the miller's helper. It has been taught the rows. It has been tested on the rows, and it got every row right but one, and the wrong row was not really a row at all.
7. Any torch used in the field must be set on a post, and not on the ground. The miller says this twice, because a torch in the wheat burned his brother's barn, and he does not want to talk about it.

The first planting was made in the third week of Thaw. Potatoes went in the top half, beetroot in the bottom, and carrots along the ditch, where the soil was wettest and they grew best. Hal planted a row of beans by himself, for his own supper, and was told off by Sella for bringing the bean seed out of the bakery's store.

Signed at the bench, in Thaw, with the ink still wet from the first rain.

Corby, miller at Coldbeck
Sella, innkeeper of the Oak Post
Hal, baker, witness
Dib, apprentice, witness (its mark is a green patch)
%%
Field let for the year
This is the agreement between Hesk of Copperhold and Mara of the hamlet by the old well.
Mara lets to Hesk the small field on the slope, the one with the low stone wall on its north side, for one year from the first of Thaw.
Hesk pays three emeralds at the start and two at the harvest. Hesk may keep what grows. He may not cut the oak at the corner.
The ditch of water must be kept clear. The wall must be mended where it falls.
Mara keeps the right to walk the field to reach her goats.
The well by the field is dry and has been dry since the summer. Nobody knows why. Both of us have asked, and nobody knows. The goats drink from the trough now, and we carry water up from the stream.
If the field is left bare, Hesk still pays. If the mine takes all of Hesk's days, Mara may let the field to another and keep the pay.
Signed by both, in the winter, with two marks and the clerk's hand.
%%
Agreement: Hire and Winter Work
Northpoint market, Leaffall, 208.

This agreement is between Mira, keeper of the Northpoint relay, and Nessa, tutor at Vell. Nessa has brought a small apprentice for the winter season. Its mind is in a crystal, and the crystal is fastened inside its copper chest. The apprentice walks well on snow. It walks less well on ice. We will keep it off the harbor stones.

Mira will pay twelve emeralds for the season. Nessa will provide the tested mind and the order cards. Mira will provide a dry place in the relay house, a tool rack and daily care of the iron joints. The apprentice will carry lamp oil, sort the keeper's stores, and haul wood from the shed. It will not tend the signal lamp alone.

The work will be checked each evening. If it brings the wrong thing, Mira will show it the right thing and write down the mistake. If it has learned no better by the next market, Nessa will take the mind back for more drills. There is no shame in a wrong answer. There is shame in pretending the answer was right.

The apprentice was tested this morning on pages and things it had not seen before. It brought a coil of copper when asked for copper wire. Nessa says the two are close in the drill. Mira says they are not close when a lamp must be mended.

The order cards for the first week are:

> fetch lamp oil
= fetch lamp oil

> haul oak to the shed
= haul

> stay at the stair door
= stay

> bring me the store list
= fetch the store list

The apprentice may use the covered path to the tower. It must not carry water in the oil pail. Lantern will show it which pail is which. The oil pail has a dark mark on its handle. The water pail has a blue mark. The blue mark was painted by Lantern and is too large, but no one has mistaken it yet.

On the last evening of the season, Mira will return the order cards and the apprentice to Nessa. Mira may ask for another term before then. Nessa may refuse if the crystal needs rest.

The apprentice worked well today. It fetched the store list, then brought the empty board as well. We will write a shorter card tomorrow.

Signed at Northpoint market, after the last bell.

Mira, keeper of Northpoint
Nessa, tutor at Vell
Lantern, witness
%%
Agreement for the boat share
At the Lowmarsh market, Ash agrees to take one share in Lute's fishing boat for the summer.

Ash pays four emeralds now. Lute will mend the net and provide the boat. Ash will row on the slow water at dawn, and bring the catch to the market board.

After each trip, they divide the fish in two equal heaps. If one heap has an extra fish, they give it to Wren's healing house.

Ash will not take the boat past the old willow post. Lute says the water is safe there, but the post is a fair place to turn.

Both agree the boat stays tied to the south post at night. The new rope is Ash's. The old rope is Lute's.

Ash
Lute
%%
Letter: Mara to her sister
Dear Sena,
The well is still dry. We have carried water from the stream all winter, and my back knows it.
An old man from the north came through and said the water went down to the mines and the mines drank it. A woman from Lowmarsh said no, it was the cough and the bad air and the ships. They argued by the well a long while. The well did not fill.
A tutor came to the hamlet. She had a coat too thin for the snow and a box of crystals. She asked to see the field and the old well. She looked down the well a long time and wrote in her book. She said a mind could learn to find water if she drilled it, and asked if we had a mind to spare. We have no mind to spare. We have Clank, and he is hired out for the winter.
The tutor stayed the night and went on to Copperhold. She said the stone up there is warm. I said stone is not warm. She said this stone is.
Hesk says the humming is worse at night. He does not go past the eighth level now. I did not ask him about the ninth gate. He would not have said.
Keep your torches lit. It is creeper season, even in the snow.
Your sister, Mara
