I gestured to the pile of coins in front of me, slightly more than thirteen talents. “This is all the money I have in the world,” I said. “With it, I need to get myself to Severen with fair speed. A thousand miles with some to spare. That means passage on at least one ship. Food. Lodging. Money for coaches or the use of a post note.”
As I listed each of these things, I slid an appropriate amount of money from one side of the desk to the other. “When I finally arrive in Severen, I will need to buy myself clothes that will allow me to move among the court without looking like the ragged musician I am.” I slid more coins.
I pointed at the few straggling coins remaining. “This does not leave me enough to settle my debt with you.”
Devi watched me over her steepled fingers. “I see,” she said seriously. “We must discover some alternate method for you to square your debt.”
“My thought is this,” I said. “I can leave you with collateral against my eventual return.”
Her eyes flickered down to the slender, dark shape of my lute case.
“Not my lute,” I said quickly. “I need that.”
“What then?” she asked. “You’ve always said you have no collateral.”
“I have a few things,” I said, rummaging around in my travelsack and brought up a book.
Devi’s eyes lit up. Then she read the spine. “Rhetoric and Logic?” She made a face.
“I feel the same way,” I said. “But it’s worth something. Especially to me. Also . . .” I reached into the pocket of my cloak and brought out my hand lamp. “I have this. A sympathy lamp of my own design. It has a focused beam and a graded switch.”
Devi picked it up off the desk, nodding to herself. “I remember this,” she said. “Before, you said you couldn’t give it up because of a promise you’d made to Kilvin. Has that changed?”
I gave a bright smile that was two-thirds lie. “That promise is actually what makes that lamp the perfect piece of collateral,” I said. “If you take this lamp to Kilvin, I have every confidence he will pay a lavish sum just to get it out of . . .” I cleared my throat. “Unsavory hands.”
Devi flicked the switch idly with her thumb, spinning it from dim to bright and back again. “And I imagine this would be a stipulation you require? That I return it to Kilvin?”
“You know me so well,” I said. “It’s almost embarrassing.”
Devi set the lamp back on the table next to my book and took a slow breath through her nose. “A book that’s only valuable to you,” she said. “And a lamp that’s only valuable to Kilvin.” She shook her head. “This is not an appealing offer.”
I felt a pang as I reached to my shoulder and unclasped my talent pipes and slid them onto the table as well. “Those are silver,” I said. “And hard to come by. They’ll get you into the Eolian free, too.”
“I know what they are.” Devi picked them up and looked them over with a sharp eye. Then she pointed. “You had a ring.”
I froze. “That’s not mine to give.”
Devi laughed. “It’s in your pocket, isn’t it?” She snapped her fingers. “Come now. Let me see it.”
I brought it out of my pocket, but I didn’t hand it over. “I went through a lot of trouble for this,” I said. “It’s the ring Ambrose took from a friend of mine. I’m just waiting to return it to her.”
Devi sat silently, her hand outstretched. After a moment I put the ring onto her palm.
She held it close to the lamp and leaned forward, squinting one eye closed on her pixie face. “That’s a nice stone,” she said appreciatively.
“The setting’s new,” I said miserably.
Devi set the ring carefully on top of the book next to my pipes and hand lamp. “Here is the deal,” she said. “I will keep these items as collateral against your current debt of nine talents. This will last for the space of one year.”
“A year and a day,” I said.
A smile curved the corner of her mouth. “How storybook of you. Very well. This will postpone your repayment for a year and a day. If you have not repaid me by the end of that time, these items will be forfeit, and our debt will be cleared.” Her smile went sharp. “Though I may be persuaded to return them in exchange for certain information.”
I heard the belling tower in the distance and gave a deep sigh. I didn’t have much time for bargaining, as I was already late for my meeting with Threpe. “Fine,” I said, irritated. “But the ring will be kept somewhere safe. You can’t wear it until I’ve defaulted.”
Devi frowned. “You don’t—”
“I am not movable on this point,” I said seriously. “It belongs to a friend. It is precious to her. I would not have her see it on someone else’s hand. Not after everything I did to get it back from Ambrose.”
Devi said nothing, her pixie face set in a grim expression. I put on my own grim expression and met her eye. I do a good grim expression when I need to.
A long moment of silence stretched between us.
“Fine!” she said at last.
We shook hands. “A year and a day,” I said.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
All Wise Men Fear
I stopped by the Eolian where Threpe was waiting for me, practically dancing with impatience. He had, he told me, found a boat heading downriver in less than an hour. What’s more, he had already paid my way as far as Tarbean, where I should easily be able to find passage east.
The two of us hurried to the docks, arriving just as the ship was going through its final preparations. Threpe, red-faced and puffing from our brisk walk, hurried to give me a lifetime’s worth of advice in the space of three minutes.
“The Maer is old, old blood,” he said. “Not like most of the little nobility around these parts who can’t tell you who their great-grandfathers are. So treat him with respect.”
I rolled my eyes. Why did everyone always expect me to behave so poorly?
“And remember,” he said. “If you look like you’re chasing money, they’ll see you as provincial. As soon as that happens no one will take you seriously. You’re there to curry favor. That’s the high-stakes game. Besides, fortune follows favor, as they say. If you get one, you’ll have the other. It’s like what Teccam wrote, ‘The cost of a loaf is a simple thing, and so a loaf is often sought . . .’ ”
“ ‘. . . but some things are past valuing: laughter, land, and love are never bought.’ ” I finished. It was actually a quote from Gregan the Lesser, but I didn’t bother correcting him.
“Hoy there!” a tan, bearded man shouted to us from the deck of the ship. “We got one straggler we’re waitin’ on, and Captain’s angry as an ugly whore. He swears he’ll leave if he ain’t here in two minutes. You’d do well to be aboard by then.” He wandered off without waiting for a reply.
“Address him as your grace,” Threpe continued as if we hadn’t been interrupted. “And remember: speak least if you would be most often heard. Oh!” He drew a sealed letter from his breast pocket. “Here’s your letter of introduction. I may send another copy by post, just so he knows to expect you.”
I gave him a broad smile and gripped his arm. “Thank you, Denn,” I said earnestly. “For everything. I appreciate all of this more than you know.”
Threpe waved the comment aside. “I know you’ll do splendidly. You’re a clever boy. Mind that you find a good tailor when you get there. The fashions will be different. As they say: know a lady by her manner, a man by his cloth.”
I knelt and opened up my lute case. Moving the lute aside, I pressed the lid of the secret compartment and twisted it open. I slid Threpe’s sealed letter inside, where it joined the hollow horn with Nina’s drawing and a small sack of dried apple I had stowed there. There was nothing special about the dried apple, but in my opinion if you have a secret compartment in your lute case and don’t use it to hide things, there is something terribly, terribly wrong with you.