Former Champion (Vanderbrook Champions Book 5)

by Edmund Hughes

  “Prism fish,” he said. “To trade?”

  Food, and delicious food, at that. Let’s see if they speak the language of stomachs.

  He opened the bundle’s seal and pulled out one of the smaller ones. It was healthy, with good color to its fins. The entire bundle would be worth at least a dozen silver draigs in Malnia. Of course, that was supposing that they could make it all the way to Malnia without running into a storm or other hardship.

  The Luxian smiled. He had a thick beard, trimmed and well maintained. He took the fish out of Zak’s hand and brought it up to his nose, giving it a cursory sniff. After a moment, he looked back at his crew and said something in his own language. A few of the Luxian crew chimed in with comments that Zak could understand from the context alone.

  “All,” said Zak, gesturing. “We’re selling all of them.”

  He gave the bundle a tug, and then pantomimed handing it to the Luxian. The Luxian nodded, smiled, and reached toward his sword. A flash of fear went through Zak, and then dissipated as he saw the Luxian bring his hand back up with a small bag in it.

  “Take whatever he offers,” said Demetro. “Blood and thunder, just take his money so we can get the sog out of here!”

  “Relax,” said Zak. “We’re fine. Nothing’s wrong.”

  The Luxian dumped out a couple of odd-looking bits of money. Zak instantly recognized the gleam of gold, but it took him a second to understand what seemed off about it. Each one had intricate patterns set into it, and at the center, a tiny globular object had been pressed into the core. Zak gaped as the Luxian poured out ten of the coins, watching Zak’s expression, reading his reaction.

  “Those are… seeds.” Zak shook his head slightly, not fully understanding why any culture would set seeds into their coins as a standard for their currency.

  The Luxian frowned at Zak’s reaction and poured another two coins into his hand. He passed them to Zak, and said something resolute that spoke for itself. Zak closed his hands around the coins and watched as the Luxian tossed the bundle over his shoulder and then walked back across to his ship.

  The Luxian paused before stepping off the ship bridge. He looked back at Zak and smiled.

  “Shevat Natoyus.”

  Zak nodded slowly, at a loss for what to say back.

  “Yes… you’re welcome,” he finally said.

  Bartrand helped him swing the ship’s bridge back up into its resting position. The Luxians moved to active positions on the tree ship, several of them taking up positions on the various upward extending branches and angling the sails on each one into the wind. The tree ship pulled forward, cutting through the water into the distance.

  “They’re headed into the Stormy Sea,” said Hachia. “That’s… insane.”

  Zak shook his head and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

  “I don’t think there’s much that they could do now that would surprise me,” he said.

  He opened the bag in his hand and looked at the coins. Even though they were made of gold, the seed at the center of each coin made the weight feel off. Each coin could potentially be worth more than a Malnian gold draig of the same size, perhaps far more if they could find the right buyer.

  Zak flicked one of them to Demetro, who caught it easily, and then did a double take.

  “By the Worldmaker,” said Demetro. “Do you know how much each of these is worth?”

  “Tonight,” said Zak, “we celebrate.”

  Moons of Carnathia