I did not expect to sleep but the next thing I knew Shiv was lifting me into the carriage and Geris was trying to arrange space for me between the baggage.
'It's all right.' I wriggled free of the cloak's folds. 'I can sit up front.'
Shiv smiled at me. 'Are you sure?'
I yawned. 'I can doze as we go, I've done it before. Ow!' The hard edge of a book dug me in the ribs and I yelped.
'What is it?' Geris looked around wildly.
'These.' I reached into my tunic and pulled out the books. 'I must have been tired to sleep on this lot!'
Shiv's eyes brightened as he saw the titles of the volumes but Darni reappeared as he was about to open the first one. He tucked them inside a linen sack and put them in this saddlebag.
'I've paid the reckoning, so let's be on our way. No one's seen Livak so let's keep it that way and leave everyone thinking we're the dyestuff traders we claim to be.'
That made sense of the locked coffers and setting a guard. I looked at Darni with the faint stirrings of respect; maybe he had hidden talents.
Geris drove off and I dozed. I can sleep anywhere as long as I feel safe, with the possible exception of the top of a carriers' coach, but this was no trouble since Geris was driving as if he had a cargo of eggs and the road was in good repair. By the time we stopped to rest the horses at noon, I was well refreshed and interested to see what the next stop on this deranged trip would be. I did not have long to wait.
We were not far short of the Eyhorne border when Darni led us off down a side road. We crested a rise to see a small knot of buildings beside a tree-fringed lake. The squat bulbous chimneys of kilns rose above the roofs of workshops and trailed plumes of dirty smoke into the blue sky.
'Darni!' A heavily built man in clay-stained shirt and breeches emerged from a low shed and waved to us. He turned and yelled across the water to a lad fishing from a low bough.
'Seyn, come here! My son will see to your horses,' he explained. 'Come on inside.'
He registered my presence and acknowledged me with a courteous nod. 'I'm Travor, welcome to my home.'
He helped Darni with the first coffer while Geris and Shiv took the second into the solid brick-built house at the centre of the cluster. I trailed on behind into a large kitchen where a pink-faced woman about my own age was kneading bread at a well-scrubbed table while a bevy of equally well-scrubbed children played around her feet on the tiled floor.
'Shiv!' Her pleasure at seeing him was obvious as she kissed him on the cheek, carefully holding her floury hands to one side. 'Hello Darni, and Geris, how are you?'
'Very well, thank you.'
'Geris!' The children swarmed round him and I saw there were five of them, ranging from a slender blonde miss who reached his waist to a determined crawler who seemed certain he could walk despite evidence to the contrary. One a year by the look of things, and from our hostess's thick waist I'd bet the potter had a firing in her kiln again. She wiped her hands on her apron.
'I'm Harna, you're very welcome.'
'Livak.' I offered my hand and she shook it.
'So, how long are you stopping?' She put the dough aside to rise under a clean cloth and turned to Darni.
'Tonight, then we'll be on our way.'
Shiv interrupted. 'We could do with a little longer, I think, Harna. Livak acquired us some books as well as the item, Darni. They could be very useful and I'd like Conall's opinion.'
Darni shot me the first sour look of the day. 'I see. We'll discuss it later,' he said in a tone which promised unpleasantness. He paused for a moment then stalked out into the yard.
Harna ignored him and looked at me more closely. 'You look tired, let me show you to your room. How about a bath?'
'That would be wonderful.' I followed her eagerly, leaving Geris sharing sugar-fruits out among the children and Shiv busying himself with bread and cold meat from the pantry.
'Everyone seems at home here,' I commented as we went up the narrow stairs.
Harna laughed. 'I've seen more of Darni in the last two seasons than I have in the last six years. I don't mind, it's for a good cause.'
I resisted the temptation to probe further.
'What are you doing with them?' She clearly had no such qualms.
'Oh, this and that.'
She nodded and let the matter drop.
'Here's your room.' Harna opened a low door into a small chamber tucked under the eaves. I breathed in the lavender scent of the spotless linen and nearly fell asleep on the spot.
'It's lovely, thank you.' It was too. The washstand had a jug and bowl of lustre ware that would have commanded top coin in Vanam, the walls were lime-washed a subtle pink and the small casement was framed by neat linen curtains.
'The bath's this way.' Harna showed me down another stair to a tiled room with a huge tub and a drain cunningly set into the floor.
'This is very fine,' I observed. She smiled.
'Travor likes to make things efficient. When you're bathing seven children, it can be like a ford on the Dalas in here.'
Seven? Drianon save me!
Travor entered with a huge kettle of steaming water. 'I'd say more like a storm on the Caladhrian Gulf myself.'
He poured the water into the tub and I looked at it greedily. 'Thank you. Are you sure I'm not taking too much hot water?'
Travor shook his head. 'The are kilns working today and I
built coppers beside them to use the heat. We can bathe you all and still have plenty over.'
He left and Harna reappeared with soft towels. 'Enjoy yourself,' she said as she closed the door.
I certainly did. There were bottles of scented oils on a shelf and I found some essence of Grassgild, one of my favourites. Soaking in the fragrant water and being able to wash my hair improved life enormously. When the water grew cool I dragged myself out reluctantly and dashed in a towel back to my chamber, where clean shirt and linen completed my transformation.
The house was quiet. I could hear the children playing somewhere off in the distance and a cart rumbled out of the yard. I stretched out on the goose-feather bed and reached into my scrip for the book I'd held back from Shiv. On the Lost Arts of Tormalin. Sounded promising, I thought.
I opened it and began to pick my way through the narrow script; it was not easy going. We all speak Tormalin in Ensaimin but it's the common tongue. This text was in the Old High dialect, the language that had held the Empire together. I frowned over the oddly accented words, trying to decipher the intonation marks over and above the lines. I yawned and rubbed my eyes. This was too hard so I contented myself with looking at the section headings: On Astronomy, On Mathematics, On Refining Ore, On Oculism, On Pharmacopoeia, On Oratory.
Not exactly intriguing. I'm not sure how soon I fell asleep but when I woke to a gentle knock on the door the sky outside the window was soft with the pink and orange of dusk.
'Livak? It's Harna. I'm just going to call them all in for dinner. Are you coming down?'
'Yes, thanks. I'll be with you in a moment.'
As I went down the stairs, I could hear Shiv and Darni in the kitchen. I waited to hear what they were saying.
'I don't like her making decisions on her own like that,' Darni was grumbling.
'Well she could hardly come and get our approval, could she? That old man was going to notice the thing had gone, wasn't he? Taking some of the books might just make the
Watch think it was a chance robbery, someone trying their luck. Recluses like that always get the reputation of being misers; I bet half the town reckon he sits on secret chests of Empire Marks. With any luck, they'll decide someone broke in and just grabbed the nearest things that might be valuable.'
'You think she thought that far ahead? Anyway, how many people in Drede would know the value of books like these?' Darni's tone was scornful.
'Who cares? She knew enough to realise these books could be useful and that's just with the half-tale Geris told her.'
'That's more than she needs to know anyway. She's a thief, remember, that's all we want her for.'
'I disagree.' Shiv's tone was calm but firm. 'She's good at stealing but she can think fast too. The more she knows, the more chance we have that she'll come up with something the rest of us might miss. Planir told us to use any means we could find.'
I grimaced in the gloom. Did I want to get any deeper into this? This was some wizards' chicanery after all. I caught a mental whiff of those hot coals I had started to forget. On the other hand, there was going to be money in this; half the value of that ink-horn would make a tidy pile of coin for a start. Information always had value too.
Darni started to speak but the opening door and a riot of children interrupted him. I stamped on the spot for a few paces then made my way loudly down the remaining stairs and joined them.
The meal was excellent and plentiful. Harna clearly had a lot of practice since, as well as our party and their seven children, she was feeding two other men, whom I gathered were Travor's journeymen in the potteries. If Ostrin ever decides to disguise himself as a mortal and go around testing hospitality like the legends say he used to, Harna won't have anything to worry about, other than the possibility of a permanent divine houseguest. The journeymen ate, thanked her and left for their own quarters, and Harna started threatening the children with bed.
'Please can we see Geris do some tricks?' the oldest girl pleaded, blue eyes wide open in appeal.
'I'd be happy to,' Geris offered.
Harna smiled. 'Just a few.' She began to clear the table while Geris proved remarkably competent at sliding coins round his fingers and making them appear out of the baby's ears. I resisted the temptation to join in and turned to Shiv.
'Are you sure those two won't gossip about their master's strange visitors over their ale?' I gestured to the door after the journeymen. 'Harna said you've been here a lot since Spring Equinox.'
Shiv shook his head as he took a long drink of Travor's excellent mead. 'They won't talk.'
'Can you be certain?' I didn't even attempt to conceal my scepticism.
'Absolutely.' There was no doubt in his voice.
Rather to my surprise, my instincts told me to trust him.
'Shiv, Shiv, can you do us an illusion?'
I stared at the boy who was asking and choked on my mead.
'Harna?'
'Oh, all right.' Harna smiled and filled a large flat bowl with water. Shiv rubbed his hands together and green magelight gathered round his fingers. My eyes must have been as round as any of the children's as I watched a pond appear, grassy banks, reeds round the fringe, lilies dotting the surface.
'Do ducks, do ducks,' one of the little ones begged. Shiv obliged with an improbably yellow bird with a tail of ducklings following her. The image nickered suddenly and the ducklings began hiding in the reeds and leaves, the mother trying in vain to round them up again.
Shiv suddenly burst out laughing. 'Harna!' he protested. I looked up to see green light flickering in her hands and amusement in her eyes.
Shiv got the ducks under control again. 'Right, that's enough. Bedtime for you lot.'
The children obeyed with remarkably little protest. Well, the trick with the ducks certainly left tales of the Eldritch
Kin looking pretty dusty as bedtime entertainment. Harna and Geris chivvied them upstairs and Darni and Shiv went out for a last check on the horses. I wondered in passing where the chests had disappeared to.
'Come into the study.' Travor rose and led me to a neatly furnished room next door. He lit the fire, laid ready and waiting, and then opened a polished cabinet and offered me a delicate ceramic cup.
'Wine? It's heathberry, we make it ourselves. Or there's some juniper liquor, or more mead.'
I've had some bad experiences with fruit wines. 'Juniper, please.'
He poured me the hefty sort of measure you only get from someone who doesn't drink the stuff himself then stole a sideways glance at a desk where a large slate lay covered in neat diagrams.
'Are you working on something? Don't let me stop you if you want to carry on with it.'
'If you don't mind.' He sat as he spoke, relieved to abandon social niceties.
'What is it?' I peered at the drawing but could make no sense of it.
'There's a new way of smelting being developed in Gidesta; the Mountain Men have come up with something called a blast furnace.' He frowned at some calculations, wiped a patch of his slate clean and started afresh.
I peered over his shoulder. 'Is Harna a mage then?' The liquor had me speaking before my brain caught up with my mouth.
'That's right.' Travor seemed unconcerned.
'So…' I could not think how to frame my next question.
He looked up and a grin relaxed his square, rather harsh features. 'So how does she come to be married to a potter in the arse-end of nowhere?' Clearly a question he was used to.
I laughed. 'Something like that.'
He shrugged and returned to his mathematics. 'She has the talents but what she really wants out of life is a good marriage, a happy home and lots of children. We met when she was travelling with another mage, we stayed in touch and when she fell for Seyn, we got married.'
I drank my juniper; it was quite beyond me.
A sudden commotion of dogs outside made Travor look up. 'I'd better go and see to the hounds.'
As he left, Shiv reappeared. 'Any problem?' I asked.
'A fox or something sniffing round the ducks.' Shiv poured himself a small measure of barley spirits and sat down with a sigh.
'So, how long are we going to be here?'
'I've sent a message to a chap called Conall who lives over in Eyhorne. He's been working with some of the early records from Hadrumal and I'd like him to take a look at those books you found. That was good thinking.'
'If you tell me what's really going on, I might be able to pick up more useful things,' I said casually. 'Unless Darni won't let you.'
Shiv laughed and ignored the bait. 'We'll probably be here for a couple of days, so make the most of the rest. We'll be heading into Dalasor next so it'll be camping and cooking on open fires not feather beds and clean linen.'
'I thought all Dalasor had to offer was grass, sheep and cattle.'
'Have you never been there?'
'I make a living gambling and moving on, Shiv.' I refilled my glass. 'There's not a lot of use me getting into a game where the minimum stake is ten goats.'
Shiv laughed again and took a sip of his drink. I looked at him in the soft lamplight and felt a warm quiver. He was quite handsome really, even allowing for the not inconsiderable glow I was feeling from the mead. I crossed the room and joined him on the settle by the fire.
'Harna was saying she's seen a lot of you since Spring Equinox. That's a long time to be away from home.'
Shiv stretched out and closed his eyes. 'It is,' he agreed, 'but Pered's very understanding.'
I blinked. 'Pered?'
A faint, fond smile curled round Shiv's lips. 'My lover. He's an illuminator for a copyist in Hadrumal. We've been together for six years now, so he's used to my being away.'
I took another drink to cover my confusion and sought wildly for a way of turning the conversation. At least I hadn't made a fool of myself.
'You're not from Hadrumal originally though, are you? Your accent's nothing like Darni's but I can't place it.'
'No, I'm from western Caladhria, the fens beyond Kevil.'
I remembered something Halice once told me; where everyone else tells jokes about Caladhrians, Caladhrians tell jokes about Kevilmen.
'Drianon! You must really have been a fish up a tree there!' My mouth was definitely running away with my brain tonight; I put down my goblet.
'What do you mean? Because I'm a mage or because I'm…' Shiv opened his eyes and gave me a wicked grin. 'How does a lady put it in Vanam nowadays? One who scents his handkerchiefs? A man who doesn't cross the dance floor? Or do you favour the more literal descriptions? Rump-rustler? Sack-arse?' he said with relish and a flash of his eyes.
Well if he wasn't bothered, why should I be? 'Both, I suppose.'
'Oh, Caladhria's not as backward as you people think.'
'Come off it,' I scoffed. 'Half the Caladhrian houses I've been to don't even have chimneys. How many people in your village used oil-lamps?'
'Rush-lights work perfectly well. Why should they change?' His serious tone nearly fooled me but I saw the glint in his eye. 'But you're right; my family did not know what to do with me. There was no unpleasantness, I just felt like a pig in a cowshed. My uncle had a cousin whose wife was able to recommend me to a mage in Kevil and he sent me off to Hadrumal.' Shiv's eyes looked inward. 'That was fifteen years ago, half a lifetime.'
I'd forgotten Caladhria was like that; if your grandmother knew a man whose brother's sons had once sold your cousin a horse, you're as good as related. It makes for a difficult place to work my sort of business but it has its good points; I've never seen children begging on the streets there. A memory struck me.
'Why've you been chatting up every serving-girl we've met, if you're — er — otherwise inclined?'
'They tend to expect it and a friendly girl can tell you useful things.'
That was fair comment; I've batted my eyelashes at enough men I've no intention of touching let alone anything more.
'Can you imagine Geris trying to spread a little charm around? Or Darni?'
I laughed at the picture. 'What about Darni? Just what is his problem? Does he have any family?'
'Oh yes. He's married to an alchemist who came to do some work for the wizards who specialise in fire magic.'
There was little to say to that. 'Oh.'
'They had their first child just after Winter Solstice and I think Darni's not too happy to be doing so much travelling at the moment.' Shiv's tone was sympathetic.
I sniffed. 'No need for him to take it out on the rest of us. So do you know Harna because she's a mage then? Is that why you stay here?'
'That, and she's Darni's cousin.'
'Isn't that awkward? I mean, if Darni couldn't be a real mage and she's…'
Shiv shook his head. 'There was a time when Darni would have given his stones for half Harna's talent, but he's moved on. Meeting Strell helped him realise there's a lot more out there than magic.'
He yawned and rubbed a hand through his hair. 'I'm for my bed. See you in the morning.'
I wondered about going up too but with my afternoon's sleep I wasn't really tired. I went to look at Travor's slate and was absorbed in trying to follow his calculations when the door opened. I jumped.
'Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.' Geris looked apologetic.
'Never mind.' I stared in fascination at the drawing of Travor's furnace. 'Have you seen this?'
'What? Oh, yes, it's very interesting, don't you think?'
I looked up; for someone who seemed to gather any stray scrap of useless information, Geris did not sound very keen. He was standing awkwardly by the fire.
'Everything all right?' I was curious.
'Oh yes.' Geris helped himself to a large measure of the wine and blinked a little as he drank it down. It apparently gave him the courage he was seeking. 'I really wasn't sure you'd be able to get that ink-horn, you know.'
'I'm very good at what I do.' I heard an unexpected edge in my voice.
'No, I didn't mean I thought you… that is, I thought it would be impossible for anyone.' There was no mistaking his wide-eyed admiration and I hid a smile under my gambling face.
'Oh?'
'Do tell me about it,' he urged.
Maybe this was my chance to feature in one of Judal's plays, if only at second hand. 'All right.' I smiled at him and we sat on the settle.
'Well, we went to look at the house first, and then we went for an ale…' I may have exaggerated the difficulties a little and I don't suppose Darni featured much in the tale but Geris' appealing face was hard to resist.
'I think you did marvellously,' he breathed as I wound up my somewhat colourful yarn. 'We can't thank you enough.'
'Sure. You're the only one who's thanked me at all.' The realisation hit me harder than I had expected and a tremor in my voice surprised me.
'No, we're all grateful.' Geris sounded quite distressed. 'When Shiv said he couldn't get to the piece, we thought we'd have to go back without it. Darni was furious.'
'And then I walked in and solved all your problems,' I snorted. 'Darni could show a little more gratitude.'
'I'll speak to him about it,' Geris said firmly and I could not help laughing.
'Don't worry about it, I've met his type before.'
'Have you?' Geris looked eager for more tales and I obliged, flattered by his interest and enjoying the chance to boast of some of my more spectacular successes.
I wasn't too surprised when he put a friendly arm around my shoulders as I was explaining Charoleia's latest plan to separate the Relshazri authorities from some of their revenues; I snuggled encouragingly into his side. I was quite happy to let him kiss me as we compared notes on the various ale-houses in Vanam; his breath was sweet with the wine and his lips firm and dry. I don't think he had expected to end up in his bed quite so soon, nicely brought-up boy that he was, but I had been sleeping alone for quite a while and I decided I'd passed too many solitary nights. It did cross my mind that, the last time I'd mixed business and pleasure, there had been tears all round but Geris's delicate hands and eager kisses soon saw off my reservations.
He may have been naive in some ways but there had been a few lucky girls back in Vanam, if I am any judge. He was a good lover, new enough to the pastime still to treat it with an awe I found quite touching, but experienced enough to know that pleasure shared is pleasure doubled. He was sensitive and responsive, and even did his best not to just roll over and fall asleep when we were done.
'Go to sleep.' I brushed the hair from his sweaty forehead and kissed him. He tucked the crisp linen around me as we nested together like spoons. I drifted off to sleep with his soft breathing in my hair.