Spice & Wolf III (17 page)

But there was no guarantee that a merchant would report his assets to the city council accurately, so it was better to assume he had some amount hidden away. In any case, as a merchant, most of his worth would exist in credit with other sources.

But Amati wouldn’t be able to easily produce a thousand silver pieces to buy Holo.

Which meant that if he truly planned to fulfill the contract, he would have to resort to either borrowing, gambling, or some other method of realizing short-term gains.

“Where’s the town gambling hall?”

“Hey, just because we keep the Church in check doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. It’s pretty much limited to cards, dice games, and rabbit chasing. There’s also an upper limit on how much you can bet. He’s not going to raise the money gambling.”

Given the precision and detail with which he had answered the short question, it seemed Mark, too, was trying to work out how Amati could possibly raise the funds.

After all, Amati was essentially proposing to spend a thousand silver pieces on something he would never be able to resell, so any merchant would be curious as to the source of such wealth.

Lawrence was deep in thought, trying to decide what to investigate next, when Mark suddenly spoke.

“Oh, that’s right. Apparently there’s another bet on—about what’s going to happen after the contract.”

“After
the contract?”

“Yes, if Amati wins the contract, who will be the victor
after
that.”

Mark grinned provocatively; Lawrence turned away, his face betraying his irritation.

Holo had evidently taken an interest in the grain and flour laid up in Mark’s shop, and she wandered about, listening to the apprentice’s grand explanations.

She seemed to hear Mark and Lawrence and looked their way. “But you’ve got the advantage as far as the odds go.”

“Maybe I should demand the bookmaker give me a cut.”

“Ha-ha-ha. So what are you actually going to do?”

Mark was obviously trying to get some information that would allow him to make some money on the wager, but he also seemed genuinely curious.

Lawrence only shrugged, not giving a proper answer to the question, but then Holo (who had evidently approached the two at some point during their conversation) spoke.

“Even if a question has a proper answer, sometimes one cannot simply give it away. For example, the mixing of your flour there.”

“Erk—” Flustered, Mark shot his apprentice a sharp look, but the boy merely shook his head, as if to say, “I didn’t tell her anything!” The mixing of the flour surely referred to its purity. Mixing in cheaper grades of flour with wheat flour to increase its volume was a standard merchant trick.

Even a merchant that dealt with flour day in and day out would probably have a hard time noticing small fluctuations in purity, but for Holo, whose very spirit resided within the wheat, it was simplicity itself.

She continued, “You want to ask what I’ll do if he truly pays my debt, do you not?”

She gave the unfriendly smile that was her specialty.

Mark now shook his head frantically, much like his apprentice, as they looked to Lawrence with beseeching eyes.

“At this point, all we can do is observe our opponent’s actions,” said Lawrence.

“How treacherous.”

Holo’s sharp appraisal pierced Lawrence’s heart.

“I’d be happier if you called it a hidden contest. He’ll certainly have someone watching our moves as well, you know,” Lawrence said.

Mark recovered his composure enough to differ. “I wonder about that. Amati ran away from home and came alone all the way to this town, achieving all his success independently. And there’s his youth to consider. He’s very self-confident. Not only does he not give much thought to the connections between merchants, he would probably consider tricks like that beneath him.

He trusts only in his eye for good fish and his ability to sell them.

That and the protection of the gods.”

Amati sounded more like a knight than a merchant to Lawrence, who found himself envying the boy’s ability to achieve such success on his own.

“That’d explain why he’d fall so hard for a charming girl who’d Just arrived in town,” Mark continued. “The townswomen are even more closely connected than the merchants. They seem to care only about reputation and are always watching each other. If one starts to stick out a little more, the others beat her down. I’m sure he finds it distasteful. Of course, not
all
women are like that, as I found out when I married my Adele.”

As a traveling merchant, Lawrence well understood Mark’s explanation. The town could certainly look that way from the outside.

Lawrence glanced sideways at Holo. He felt that yes, if he was in similar circumstances and saw a girl like Holo, he might well fall for her instantly—all the more so if he thought she was just an ordinary girl.

“Amati may well be as you say, but I will not hesitate to use any connection I need to. Treachery may be forbidden when knights duel, but there’s no crying in a contest of merchants.”

“I surely agree,” said Mark. He looked at Holo.

Lawrence likewise looked at her again. Holo put her hands to her cheeks in a gesture of embarrassment, as though she had been waiting for the moment, and spoke.

“I wish just once someone would attack me from th
e front”

No doubt Mark was finally realizing, Lawrence mused, that there was no winning against Holo.

In the end, Lawrence decided to use Marks connections to gel more information on Amati. He made sure to mention to Mark the peddler Batos’s hint regarding Amati’s potential reserves of capital.

Lawrence trusted Holo, but there was no telling what she would do if he rested on his laurels in this contest. And there was always the possibility of being able to make some money in Amati’s wake.

Holo and Lawrence couldn’t very well hang around Mark’s shop all day long, so after Lawrence asked Mark to help him with information, they put the stall behind them.

The town was becoming livelier and livelier, and the crowds did not diminish at all as they passed from the market to the plaza.

Midday approached, and people lined up in front of every stall alongside the road. Holo was not shy about lining up herself, clutching the money she’d relieved Lawrence of.

Lawrence watched her from afar, thinking it was just about time for the midday bell to ring, when he heard a low, lazy tone sound.

“A horn?”

The horn’s sound made him think of shepherds, and for a moment, he remembered Norah and the danger they had faced together in Ruvinheigen. If the keen-eyed Holo saw through him, though, it would be trouble.

Lawrence chased the thought from his mind and tried to see where the sound came from just as Holo returned, bearing the fried bread she’d managed to successfully buy.

“Did I not just hear a shepherd’s horn?” she asked.

“You did. I wasn’t sure, but if you call it a shepherd’s horn, then it must be so.”

“It fairly overflows with the scent of food here. I cannot tell if there are sheep or not.”

“There would be sheep aplenty in the marketplace, but there’s no need to blow a horn in town.”

“And no comely shepherdesses.”

Lawrence had been expecting the jab, so he was relatively unaffected.

“Hmph,” said Holo. “When you fail to react, it does rather feel like I am trying to win your affection.”

“I’m just terribly delighted.
Scarily
so.”

Holo happily bit into her bread with an audible crunch. Lawrence chuckled and looked out over the plaza again, realizing that I he crowd seemed to be flowing in a particular direction. People were heading for the center of the city. Perhaps the horn had been the signal for the opening of the festival.

“Sounds like the festival has begun. Shall we go see?”

“’Twould be boring to do naught but eat.”

Lawrence’s smile was a bit forced as he started walking; Holo took his hand and followed.

They moved with the crowds, bearing north along the marketplace’s edge, until eventually they began to hear cheers amid the sounds of drum and horn.

All manner of people were gathering—town girls dressed much like Holo, apprentice craftsmen (their faces black with soot after having snuck away from their work), itinerant priests with the customary three feathers pinned to their robes, and even lightly armored men who might have been knights or mercenaries.

The noise seemed to come from the intersection of the two main streets that quartered the town, but the crowds made it impossible to see. Holo craned her neck to try and catch a glimpse ahead, but even Lawrence couldn’t see past the crowds, and he was much taller than Holo.

Lawrence remembered something, and taking Holo’s hand, he ducked into an alleyway.

Once they were a few steps into the alley, things were much quieter, unlike the clamorous street. Here and there were beggars clothed in rags, dozing away as though to proclaim their disinterest in the festival, along with craftsmen who busily prepared the wares they would sell in their stalls, their workshops open to the alley.

Holo soon seemed to understand where they were heading and silently followed.

If the festival was being held in the main streets, they would be able to see the sights perfectly well from their room at the inn.

Holo and Lawrence walked easily down the uncrowded back alleys, entering the inn from its rear door and climbing to the second floor.

It seemed that someone else had the same idea and was making a business out of it. As they arrived on the second floor, they noticed several of the doors along the hallway leading to their room had been left open and a bored-looking merchant sat on a chair in front of them, idly playing with a coin.

“We’ll have to be thankful to Amati on this count anyway.”

Upon entering their room and opening the window, they immediately had front-row seats.

To see everything that was happening at the large intersection, Holo and Lawrence had but to lean a bit out the window, and even without leaning, they had a perfectly acceptable view.

The musicians playing pipes and drums in the intersection were clad head to toe in ominous black robes that obscured even their sex.

Behind the group in black walked another strangely dressed troupe.

Some of the costumes consisted of sewn-together pieces of clothing large enough to cover any number of people. Such a costume had several people hidden underneath it and was topped with a mask where the head would be. Other performers wore robes that concealed what must have been one person riding on another’s shoulders, their head popping out of the top of the garment. Some carried great swords made from thin pieces of wood; others had bows taller than they were. They brandished the weapons wildly to great cries from the crowd.

But just as Lawrence thought that was all there would be, there was a noticeably louder shout from the crowd, and a new set of instruments could be heard.

Holo gave a small cry of surprise, and Lawrence leaned his head out the window so as not to block her view.

The inn sat at the southeast corner of the intersection, and it seemed another group in strange costumes was emerging from the east.