Irons in the Fire (3 page)

They reached a small courtyard with darkened windows looking down on three sides. In a door's recess on the far side, Tathrin saw shadows surround a candle lantern. Pewter clinked and a girl's giggles gave the lie to her coy protests. Not love, just festival's passing pretence of devotion. Such sweet nonsense wouldn't silence the echoes of distant death still ringing in Tathrin's head. He knew. He'd tried.

"Still got your purse and your ring?" Wyess pounded loudly on a solid wooden gate set in the wall on the fourth side of the courtyard. "Mind them both. The city's full of thieves at festival and any number could be drinking in here."

That prosaic reminder recalled more immediate concerns. Tathrin felt the solid silver of his scholar's ring secure on his finger and the discreet lump of his purse belted not merely inside his doublet but within his shirt. "Yes, sir."

A hatch in the wooden gate slid open. "Who's knocking?" someone growled in the darkness beyond.

"Lastel Wyess."

"Fair festival to you, Master."

The unseen voice turned cheery and Tathrin heard the bolts withdrawn.

"Come to drink Raeponin's health?" A grizzled man with a hefty cudgel opened the gate.

"Not tonight." Wyess shook a coin out of his glove and tossed it to the porter. "My compliments to Master Avin, but we're just cutting through."

As Tathrin followed Wyess through the narrow garden and into a paved yard, the damp scents of brick and soil were the closest he'd come to a breath of fresh air all day. The quiet after the cacophony of the festival streets prompted happier memories of peaceful days at home. He gathered his wits, resolutely setting aside the pig's death and the unwelcome recollections it had forced on him. "Master, where are we?"

"Taking the back way into the Dancing Stoat." Wyess laid a hand on the latch of a door. "Start learning your way around the back alleys of the lower town." He turned to wag a finger at him. "Make some friends among the lesser classes, especially among our countrymen. I'm relying on you."

"I know, Master." Tathrin found it ironic. He'd spent two years striving to soften his Lescari accent, finding it so often disdained by the university's mentors. Then he had completed his studies and been forced to look for employment, and his despised birthplace had proved to be as much of an asset in Wyess's eyes as his proficiency with mathematics.

Although Wyess's own voice no longer betrayed his Lescari origins. Did he ever think of whatever family he had left behind? Tathrin wondered. Did he recall the constant fear and uncertainty? The quarter days when paying the ducal levies meant everyone going hungry to bed? There were no festival feasts for paupers in Lescar.

But who was he to judge Wyess? How many days went past when he barely spared a thought for his own mother and father, for his sisters? Ashamed, Tathrin hurried through the busy kitchen after the merchant.

The noise in the vast taproom struck him like a physical blow. Every conversation seemed to be trying to outdo the ones on either side. Rune stones were cast in trios across the scarred tables, gamblers shouting blessings to Halcarion or pained laments that the fickle goddess's favour had deserted them.

"Fair festival! Come and join us!" Cries of delight from all sides greeted Wyess. Gesturing hands invited him to sit, brandished flagons slopping incautious ale.

"Fair dealings and Raeponin's blessings!"

As far as Tathrin could see, Wyess acknowledged every hail with a cheery smile and a wave. The merchant didn't slow, though, as he threaded through the crowded tables and benches. They soon emerged onto the wide thoroughfare in front of the tavern.

Tathrin took a moment to orientate himself. As the lower town sprawled around the great lake's margin, it wasn't always easy to see the slope of the land towards the water. It had been much simpler when he was living in the upper town. Streets either had to scale the undulating hills or bridge the steep gullies between them.

"That's saved us fighting through the crush around Misaen's shrine," Wyess said with satisfaction, straightening his hat, "but you do need to visit the booksellers before the end of festival. Buy a good book of maps and start making notes in it. A sound one, mind. The cheap ones are only good for wiping your arse."

"Yes, Master." Tathrin focused resolutely on the challenges that lay ahead this evening. He mustn't let anyone think him a fool, even if his two years at the university hadn't given him half the knowledge he was going to need in Master Wyess's fur-trading business. These first two days in the merchant's employ had already taught him that much.

How could Vanam's scholars be so wilfully ignorant? Granted, they grudgingly respected their rival university in the southern city-state of Col and acknowledged some of the learned societies in Selerima and Drede. Beyond that, the mentors largely ignored the towns threaded along the high roads. Unless one of them happened to be the birthplace of some particularly notable scholar.

Whereas even the junior clerks in Wyess's counting-house could list every trader's speciality, not just in the major towns like Peorle and Drede, but in every remote corner of this vast region between the western forests and those countries to the east that had once made up the long-fallen Old Tormalin Empire. At least, that's what it felt like to Tathrin. Furthermore, as they laboured for the master merchants, those apprentices so scorned by the scholars of the upper town learned to cannily negotiate the complex web of obligation and alliance connecting the Guilds in Vanam with trading partners everywhere. And how to judge the likely outcome of a prospective business deal.

At least that was something Tathrin had learned from his father. A good innkeeper gets the measure of a man inside a few moments. But he was starting to wish he'd had the leisure to spend more time in the lower town when he was studying at the university. Then he might not have felt at such a disadvantage at that moment.

"Write down everything you've heard when we get home tonight, before you go to sleep." Wyess shot Tathrin a glance as a coach rattled past. "We'll discuss your notes tomorrow and I'll tell you what you've missed."

"Thank you." Tathrin recalled one of the other clerks assuring him that Wyess would examine him as closely as any of the mentors he'd studied under. Only the merchant's tests could happen at any time, not just at the quarter-year festivals, and mostly without notice.

As they crossed the high road something stung him sharply on the cheek. As he slapped a startled hand to his face, more pale missiles pattered on his chest and fell to the ground.

"Enough!" Wyess waved a hand at some giggling boys clutching lengths of reed. He chuckled as he tossed them a handful of halved and quartered pennies. "I take it there are no rains of peas at this season back home."

"No one would be so wasteful," Tathrin said curtly. Nor could anyone afford to discard cut-pieces, even if the Vanamese scorned tokens of such slight value.

Wyess halted and laid a hand on the younger man's arm. "Have you truly never come down to the lower town for any festival?"

"No, Master, on my honour." Tathrin cleared his throat. "The university prefects advise students to keep to the upper town."

"Short of a riot that gives them the excuse to lock the citadel gates, they can hardly insist." Wyess regarded Tathrin for a moment. "So you were a student who abided by the prefecture's wishes." He started walking again, chuckling. "That must make you as rare as a fox with no taste for ducks."

"I travelled home for any festival I could." Which was true, even if he'd only ever got home for Winter Solstice. It took him all year to save up the price of a seat on a courier's coach.

The merchant nodded. "Ah, yes, of course you'd want to see your family."

Tathrin hoped the shadows hid the colour rising from his collar. He didn't like being less than honest with Wyess, but telling him the full truth would mean questions, and avoiding awkward answers could mean lying outright and he really didn't want to do that.

"Scented hair powders." As the street broadened into a marketplace, peddlers eased their laden trays through the crowds. Horns and drums sounded above the din of the milling throng, different tunes rising and falling, competing with exuberant snatches of song.

"Ribbons and combs." A huckster planted herself in front of Wyess. Her hair was ornately dressed to display the wares in her basket. "A fairing for your lady?"

"Not today," Wyess said courteously.

Tathrin recalled the other clerks' gossip as they combed their hair and polished their shoe-buckles. If he'd thought they might envy him, the newcomer, for having this duty as Master Wyess's attendant tonight, he'd soon learned different. The other clerks had very different amusements in mind. His gaze followed the huckster as she accosted another prospective customer.

"Ribbons and combs is all that she's selling, in case you're wondering," Wyess commented. "If you're fancying a touch of lace, don't go looking for it on the streets, especially not at festival time. I can introduce you to an accommodation house with nice clean girls."

"No, Master." Embarrassed, Tathrin tried to explain. "I was just thinking I might buy some ribbons for my sisters."

He should have thought of that sooner, he chided himself. If he hadn't been so wrapped up in moving from his old lodging in the upper town to his new place in Master Wyess's counting-house.

Wyess didn't hear him, intent on pressing on. They soon reached the portico of the largest hall on the far side of the marketplace.

"Timing is the key to so many matters of trade, my lad." The fur merchant looked up with satisfaction as the bells in the tower united to proclaim the first of the night's ten hours. "Arrive too early at a gathering and people will think you don't have enough business to occupy your time. Arriving late smacks of disorganisation, and no explanation for that will do you any credit."

He shrugged to settle his mossy green mantle on his shoulders and smoothed the sable fur trimming the front. His amiable face turned serious.

"Now, lad, this gathering will be mostly those of us with Lescari blood. As a rule, we've left all those quarrels behind us, but sometimes wine reminds a man of old grudges. Think before you speak, and don't give too much of yourself away."

"Yes, Master." Tathrin tugged at the hem of his new grey doublet to make sure it hadn't ridden up to reveal his well-worn shirt.

The gates to the lower floors were all locked, the storerooms where visiting merchants could warehouse their goods securely barred. Only the stairway to the upper hall was open. A handful of Furriers' Guild servants waited by the door, warming their hands over a blazing fire-basket.

"Master Wyess, Raeponin grant you fair festival." The steward bowed low before studying Tathrin. "And this is...?"

Tathrin noted the quarterstaffs propped just inside the door. These men were ready to deter anyone keen to sample the Guild's hospitality without an invitation.

"Tathrin Sayron, newly accepted into my counting-house," Wyess said with satisfaction. "A scholar sealed by the university this last Winter Solstice."

"Master Scholar." The steward inclined his head.

"Fair festival to you." Tathrin bowed.

Wyess started up the stairs as a coach drew to a halt behind them. "Right, let's see who's already here."

Tathrin took a deep breath and followed.

Chapter Two

Tathrin

The Furriers' Guildhall, in the City of Vanam,

Spring Equinox Festival, Third Day, Evening

Most of the merchants invited to this festival gathering apparently shared Wyess's opinion about arriving nicely to time. As Tathrin reached the top of the broad stair opening onto the long hall, he saw that four other men and two shrewd-faced women had also just arrived. They were still handing their cloaks and gloves to their own attendants.

"Shall I take your hat, Master?"

"No, we'll only forget to fetch it back at the end of the evening. Why do you think I said not to bother with a cloak?" Wyess was scanning the room. "Let's see what we can learn before dinner's served."

If Wyess hadn't told him this was an occasion for the Lescari living in the city to gather together, Tathrin would hardly have known it. All were dressed in Vanam fashions, few of the overlapping conversations betraying accents learned elsewhere.

As the merchant headed purposefully for a trio of richly dressed men, one of their attendants whispered in his master's ear. The man broke off from whatever he was saying. "Wyess, it's good to see you."

"Fair festival, Malcot. How's business in the cloth trade?" Wyess smiled and bowed, so Tathrin did the same.

The first merchant shrugged russet shoulders, his broadcloth mantle embroidered with scarlet. "Ask me when I know how many customers haven't settled their accounts by the fifth day of festival."

"Garvan, Kierst, fair festival." Wyess looked at the other two men. "Any news you care to share?"

"I hear the ice has broken above Ferile," a thin-faced individual in a black velvet robe observed.

Tathrin knew he must remember that. It meant that the first boatloads of raw skins would be coming down the river from the mountains. The stink of tanning and curing would soon hang over the city, reaching even the university's lofty halls when the wind was in the wrong quarter.