“But I’m sure he didn’t know we’d be spending so much,” Alex protested. “And I can honestly say I don’t know how much we’ve spent.”
“You don’t know how much we’ve spent?” Andy asked in a puzzled tone.
“I don’t know anything about the money here,” Alex admitted.
“What do you use at home, then?”
“We have metal coins, but we also use paper money.”
“Paper money?” said Andy, the smile on his face showing he thought Alex was joking.
“It’s true,” Alex insisted. “We don’t use gold or silver coins at all.”
“It’s easy—one gold coin is worth thirteen silver coins. Didn’t the adventurer who took you to the Oracle explain about money and treasure?” Andy asked.
“I didn’t go to an oracle.”
Andy stopped dead in his tracks. “Then how were you chosen as an adventurer?”
Alex explained about seeing the sign in the shop window and what had happened at Mr. Clutter’s shop. He was happy to go over all the details again for Andy because it helped him get things straight in his own mind as well.
“No wonder Thrang and Arconn asked you to join us,” said Andy, sounding impressed. “I’ve only heard of two other people seeing the sign and that was years ago.”
“That’s strange,” said Alex. “The sign was in plain view, anybody could have seen it.”
“I doubt that,” said Andy with a laugh. “The sign may have been in plain view for you, but I doubt that anyone else—even another adventurer—would have seen it.”
“Why?” Alex questioned.
“I’m not sure I can say,” answered Andy. “It might have something to do with magic, or maybe it was your fate to see the sign when you did. Whatever the reason, I’m sure it was good fortune that you saw it.”
Alex thought about Andy’s answer, but he wasn’t sure what to think. He shook his head and pushed Andy’s explanation to the back of his mind for now, more worried at the moment about Thrang and the money they’d spent. He told Andy his feelings but he just smiled at Alex’s concern.
“I guess you don’t know much about dwarfs,” said Andy as they started walking again.
“No, I don’t,” Alex admitted.
“I know a little, and I’ll tell you this,” said Andy, catching a package as it slipped out from under Alex’s arm. “Dwarfs are careful with their money. They’re not cheap or miserly or anything like that, but they’re careful just the same.”
“And we’re spending Thrang’s money quickly,” said Alex.
“What you need to understand is this,” Andy continued, taking no notice of Alex’s comment. “If a dwarf offers to stand good for you, he expects you to spend freely.”
“I don’t understand,” said Alex, trapping a package under his chin.
“Once he’s offered to stand good for you, he’ll expect you to take advantage of his offer,” Andy explained. “It would be an insult to him if you didn’t buy everything you needed—and the best of everything you needed at that.”
“An insult?” Alex wondered out loud as they entered another shop. “I would insult Thrang if I didn’t spend as much of his money as I could?”
“You’re not spending as much as you could,” Andy laughed, piling Alex’s packages in the corner of the shop. “You’re not spending like there’s no tomorrow, or buying more than you need. You’re just spending as much as you need on what you need.”
“But it seems to be a lot.”
“And it is,” Andy agreed. “But if you don’t have the best of everything you need, Thrang will take it as an insult.”
“But can he afford what I need?”
“As long as you spend it on what you need, Thrang would happily let you spend all the gold in his bag—down to the very last coin,” Andy replied. “And between you and me, I don’t think we could spend everything in Thrang’s bag in a lifetime of trying.”
“That’s crazy,” said Alex, stacking packages on top of the pile Andy had made.
“It may sound crazy to you and me, but that’s how dwarfs are,” Andy replied, turning to look for the shopkeeper.
Alex thought about what Andy had said, but it still didn’t sound right. Thrang had been extremely generous, and Alex couldn’t help feeling he was taking advantage of the dwarf.
Knowing that every gold coin was worth thirteen silver coins didn’t help at all.
“What will it be then, gentlemen?” asked a round shopkeeper in square glasses. “Something in a deluxe model with a pool? Or maybe a nice garden?”
“Nothing so grand, master bag maker,” replied Andy. “My friend needs a top quality bag, but hardly a pool or a garden.”
“Ah, yes,” the shopkeeper said, looking at Alex. “Something in a three- or four-room model I should think. That’s always the best place to start. You can add on later as you need to.”
“Okay,” said Alex slowly.
“Sorry, Alex,” said Andy, noticing the confused look on Alex’s face. “You’ve never seen a magic bag before, have you?”
Alex shook his head.
“Do you have a demonstration model that my friend and I can look at?” Andy asked the shopkeeper.
“Oh, yes,” the shopkeeper replied. “I have a lovely four-room model that you can look at right over here.”
Alex and Andy followed the shopkeeper to the back of the shop. On a table was a leather bag with a long strap attached to it and silver fastenings at the top. The bag was about twice as long as it was wide, and Alex thought it looked like a postman’s bag.
“Standard passwords,” said the shopkeeper, nodding to Andy, before leaving to help another customer.
“Right,” said Andy. He turned to Alex. “All you have to do is pick up the bag, open it, and say ‘enter.’”
“What?” Alex asked.
“Just do it,” Andy laughed. “It will be all right.”
Alex hesitated for a moment before reaching for the bag. The leather was soft and flexible, but the bag appeared to be empty. He was sure this must be some kind of joke, but he couldn’t see what the joke was.
“Go on,” urged Andy. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Enter.”
Everything went dark. Alex felt like he was dropping from a high place and spinning slightly as he fell. Then, as quickly as the feeling started, he felt himself come to a sudden stop. He could feel a stone floor under his feet, but everything was still dark.
“Lights,” Andy’s voice said from the darkness next to him.
Several lamps sprang to life, and Alex could see he was standing in a large square room made of stone. The room was empty except for a doorway in one wall.
“Sorry about that,” said Andy, moving toward the doorway. “I thought the lamps would be burning. If I’d known they were out, I would have come first.”
“Where . . . where are we?”
“In the bag,” Andy replied happily. “Let’s see the other rooms.”
“Wait. What do you mean, in the bag?”
“We’re in the leather bag on the table,” said Andy, as if there was nothing strange about his answer. “It’s a magic bag after all. What did you expect?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” said Alex.
“I’ll try to explain,” said Andy, motioning for Alex to follow him into the next room. “You can tell by how much gear you already have that we will have a lot of things to carry with us on this adventure. But there are only eight of us to carry it all, right?”
“Right,” Alex answered.
“And we’d need a lot of horses to carry all of our gear and supplies if we were going to carry it the normal way,” Andy continued.
“Yes, I suppose so,” Alex agreed.
“That would attract a lot of attention, wouldn’t it?”
“I suppose it would.”
“So instead of all that extra attention and the extra work of taking care of so many horses, we use magic bags,” Andy concluded with a smile.
“I still don’t understand,” said Alex.
“What’s not to understand? A magic bag lets you carry all your gear in a very small space. And believe me, it makes life a lot easier.”