by Liam Carrack
“Oh come, come.” He cut me off again! “Let me see them. We wouldn’t want anything to go amiss, now would we? This is your future livelihood after all.” He would second-guess my abilities? This was insufferable!
“Thank you, I’m sure everything is in order.” Oops, perhaps that was a little too curt. He was looking a little askance at me and probably wondering at my gall.
“I am only trying to help, here, let me take a look,” grabbing the parcel from my hands. Was that greed? Was he hoping to gain all through some loophole? He had those ridiculous half glasses that the elderly use situated at the end of his nose. He peered down at the sheaf of pages before him. So he thought to engender confidence through trickery? I could see through this rouse. He was probably looking right over the top of the silly things.
What was that? A frown? He looked up at me more shrewdly now. Maybe a little respect would ensue? “I see you had some help. Tell me who has been your advisor in this?” A very little respect. Insufferable prig! I wanted to tear his hair out.
“No advisor. I was taught by some very able people you must recall.” He didn’t believe me. I could see it in his face. Pull the trump card girl, get him off your back now or he is liable to cause more trouble than you can handle, and who will side with you over the Gemtrader’s Guild Head? “I do not need all that my Aunt left though, and have turned the Salassari Sapphire and Ruby lines over to the Guild once more for reassignment. Perhaps your handling will prove fruitful.” I was playing to his arrogance, but I needed him to back off.
They were not the least of my Aunt’s holdings by any means, but I was always leery of dealings with the Salassari, something about their eel skin adornments had always reminded me of horrible stories I had heard as a child. Through later searching I had found historical precedent for them; the proverbial kernel-of-truth one might say. It had not made my fears any lighter.
At this the little weasel was all smiles again and complimented me on my reason. Huh! At least I was able to retrieve the papers and begin making my exit. But alas it was not to be so easy. He was on his feet and in between the door and myself all to quickly. Perhaps my assessment of weaselhood was not so far off the mark. Yes, I think he shall forever forward be The Weasel in my mind.
I was horrified, and a feeling of claustrophobia (a feeling I have never suffered from before), began to close in about me. The look of horror would have been all too plain if not for the scant veil covering my face, as it was, he must have seen the color drain from my cheeks. In a moment of bewilderment, or at least it looked like bewilderment to me, he moved aside. I ducked out quickly making some excuse about all this being new to me, and feeling a little overwhelmed by the attention of the Guild Head himself, as he had guessed earlier. Yeah right! All the while I was moving backwards, indeed feeling as prey to a Weasel. I realized now, as I was being stalked backwards through his offices, that there were witnesses to these later events. A secretary sat at his desk, wide eyed at my retreat, while two older men of the Kells gave me sideways glances, and Gemsman Braddyn half leered at me. Upon seeing Braddyn’s face I turned tail and fled. I fled with decorum though. I was all swishing skirts, and quick even strides that carried me down the corridors. I did not run, but I moved quickly, and hopefully with what looked like purpose.
I rounded two corners before ducking into an alcove nearly panting with the remnants of my panic. I was cold all over, clammy, and completely uncomfortable. Get yourself together girl! You made it out alive, and no one was there to actually witness his condescension! Move on. Someone will see you like this. Get where you need to go and get out of here.
I picked myself back up, and moved on more slowly down the hall toward the records offices. I passed several groups of people idly chatting. Everyone seemed to hush as I got nearer, but no one approached me. Thank the Gods for small favors. In the records room what must be an under-clerk looked up and nearly fell over backwards upon sighting me.
“Umm, umm, yes, umm, what can I do for, umm. Did you know that, well …” It took him forever to get even this far. He was all pauses and false starts.
Harmless, yes harmless and humorous. I smiled at the fellow, probably the younger son of a younger son. He had to be a full Guild member to be allowed in such a sensitive area, but what a helpless example of a guild member. Surely this boy was only meant for clerical work. “Did I know what?” I paused and watch his mouth open and close like a fish’s, when nothing actually came out of his mouth I decided to continue. “I just came to bring the paperwork for reassignment of my Aunt’s properties. Have I come to the wrong place?” I felt all the fear and tension that had built in me ebbing. I had been more upset that I had thought.
“Yuh-you are in the right pl-place, yes, but …” He looked like a strong breeze might knock him over at any moment. I turned in place; casually looking about me for some strange anomaly, and when I found none, I faced him once more.
“But what? Is something wrong?”
“You were umm, well, you were glowing.” He looked ashamed like he had blurted something unseemly. His face reminded me of the time Garvyn had told Mistress Sasigalli (a trader’s wife from Salassari), that she had an ugly mole on her face, back when we were young.
“I was glowing?” Incredulous I looked down at myself and saw nothing amiss. “What do you mean? Glowing?” My Gift had manifested itself in odd ways when I was a child, but nothing out of the ordinary since I had learned control. I had thought myself near mastery. That my emotions had gotten that far out of control is cause for concern. This is something to bring up with Horice when I returned home, but to pass over as a trifle in the here and now.
He looked much less the cornered chipmunk, and more controlled again. “Well, I don’t know, there was this, well, glow about you. Are you all right?”
“I was going to ask the same of you, but yes, I’m fine. Do I just leave them with you, or is there another procedure for such things? I have never had any dealings within the Guild all these years.” I waved the parcel with its now loose pages about. His eyes followed those pages as if they were the last Dynally opals.
He looked more secure now, but incredulous as to why I should be in his domain. “Your name?” That was a bit punctilious.
“Daddyn’s Daughter, Llanalla the Gifted.” I wondered if that was a bit more formal than was needed, but he seemed immediately to humble himself.
“Oh mistress, I am so sorry to hear of your furthered misfortune. I was a friend to your brother once.” He bit off that statement and looked down as if cursing himself for saying so. He took the parcel full of papers gently from my grasp and handled them with great care. It was so unlike the snatching grab that Jespyrn had made that I could not help comparing the two. Then he moved off as far from me as he could get without being obviously rude.
“I know you. Your name is Tobbyrn right.” I was excited. I had wondered what had happened to the man before me now for quite some time. “You, he and Tes used to play tricks at the gatherings.” I smiled broadly now and I felt the color come back into my cheeks at my use of that pet name for Tesmydden and tears began to well in my eyes. I had not thought of him in years. Why had they run off to war? It was as if the floor had begun to shift of its own accord below me. I knew who this man was. Not just a name, but a significance in my life. “You were there that night. You brought the message.” I near mumbled in awe.
He quailed at this as if trying to hide from some fury I might unleash on him. “Thank you!” I gasped it wide eyed, reaching to clasp hands in friendship, but he was too far and there was a counter between us. “Thank you for not waiting until the official Sending came through. My Aunt wouldn’t tell me who you were, and I didn’t recognize you from your youth. You were so very thin and travel stained at the time. I had wanted to write and thank you personally, but my Aunt forbade it. She said it wasn’t appropriate at the time. You are the man, aren’t you? I only got a passing glance from the stair as you were ushered out, but...”
“How could I be? You risked much to come to us first.”
“I was a coward and a fool.” His anger was not only in his words, but in his stiffened posture. “I will pay for the rest of my days. Down here …” He raised his head and looked about us at the low ceiling and the musty vaults of filings and papers. “I will never be trusted out in the real world of merchant tradings now.” He looked at me then. This look held a disbelief that he had actually just uttered those words aloud and a pleading that I would not denounce him to others, but also in those eyes was age and sadness. He had lost much. A brother, friends, and stature I knew of, and now I could see a loss of pride. All that was there to be read in his eyes. He was not the boy as I had thought at first, nor the chubby young man I had known, laughing with my brother. This was a man. He had been weakened by indignity and sorrow yes, but he was still a man.
“You were courageous, and you risked much for my comfort. For that I can do naught but thank you.” I smiled, and went to lift my veil that he might see it, but he had half turned away. He looked down at the papers now and an eyebrow quirk told me he thought something amiss.
“Is there something wrong?” Please, don’t tell me that I really wasn’t equipped to fill out those sheaves of paper as the Weasel had intimated back there in his ostentatious offices.
“Well, I just think it odd that you chose to submit in this fashion.” He said, glancing at page after page of the documents I had come to file with the Guild.
This piqued my curiosity. “I was told that not to hand them in in-person would be viewed as disrespectful …”
“Oh no, I meant the forms. This style is seldom used any longer.” His eyes were for the records and he did not peek up from them to me as he spoke. “They are viewed as antiquated, far too flowery, and therefore more confusing. Did your aunt specify that she wished you to use the old ways?”
Now I understood the Weasel’s assumptions as to why I wouldn’t be able to complete these on my own. The dirty rat! He HAD been playing games. If I had taken too long, or filled them out incorrectly… “No.” My voice sounded cold and angered even to my own ears, and his head whipped upward to me in defense. “My Aunt was always one for progress and efficiency. I used those forms, so helpfully, delivered to me by Guild messenger.” He looked ashamed now as if begging my pardon for something I might think him responsible for. “No doubt our illustrious Guild Head meant only to honor my family,” I said with a wink and a bit of irony.
He looked relieved. And then gave me a sidelong glance. “I have heard, Lady, that your family may be aligning themselves with our, what was the word you used, illustrious leader. Is there any truth in this?”
I was trapped. Could I trust him? He could be in the Weasel’s camp. Someone had to be. I thought frantically about whether I should trust him or not. He had been a good friend to the family to my mind, but obviously he had received ridicule for just that decision. Would he hold that against me? The truth. Tell the truth. Make sure it was said in the right way though. Be oblivious, act the part the Weasel has assigned you. Be the guileless girl who knows nothing of business or the world, and if it ever gets back to him it would only reaffirm his assumptions.
“Not that I am aware. In what way do you mean align?” I hope that sounded as dim-witted and oblivious as I had endeavored to make it.
“Oh come now, you forget I knew you as a child. You were not so slow then. How could you have completed these so artfully without your wits about you?”
At least he credited me with the ability to handle my own affairs. That was surely something. I managed to lift my veil this time, that there be no confusion in his mind over my next statement. “Truly I wish no alignment, as you have so artlessly alluded to.” My face held a smile that he would not think me too harsh. The smile he flashed me in return was fleeting but worth it. Perhaps I had found an ally in the Guild after all. Albeit not a powerful one, but definitely well placed.
“Oh, Ho! I take it you have found him not to your liking?” he leaned forward and near whispered this.
“He is a bit … extravagant in his tastes. Surely I am too plain for his liking.” This is a tricky game you play girl. You trust him too quickly.
“Ah. So you have had the pleasure of visiting his offices I see.” He winked and sidled back to a desk. Picking up a pen, wax and an official seal he turned to face me once more. “I think it more plausible you find him … daunting then?”
“I admit I do not favor his tastes …” I gestured to my attire. Appropriately black, for my mourning, but without unneeded adornment, which is not to say it was completely plain. The gown Scinna had chosen boasted a tasteful, but costly, lace overlay. The veil was the height of fashion two years back, as was the hat it was attached to. I wore a simple chain with a large onyx set in silver around my neck and wore the rings of my family and the Guild on my right hand, and those of my Gift mastery on my left. “I prefer to think that one should be … less obvious with their wealth and power, but I see that such thoughts are no longer so widely accepted. The mode these days seems to tip toward the ostentatious to my mind.” I was smiling and trying to appear cordial, but it was at this moment that I realized that Gemsman Tobbyrn’s attire was indeed tasteful and of high quality though dust and ink smudged. He was staring down at himself as well and appeared to become more awkward. I had not meant to make him feel so, but alas, I could do naught but put my foot in it lately.
He was melting wax onto the last page, it was oddly translucent stuff, and pressing the seal over the date, time, my signature, and his own. It would appear that my business here was concluded. I didn’t want to leave with the impression that I thought him beneath me, but what could I do? Invite him into your accepted Mourning Assemblage. Aunt Trefalla was no longer here to forbid it, and with only those of my immediate household and the Weasel for company this next two years might be unbearable. The customary time frame for such invitations was not up until next week! Perhaps you should extend the invitation to Master Gorsynn as well. … “Gemsman Tobbyrn, would you do me the great honor of visiting me at Gellissarn Hall before the week is out, that I might thank you properly for the great kindness you once showed my family?”
He blanched. He swallowed, and opened his mouth to speak when we were interrupted by the entrance of three young men. They were all vying for his attention. As he had no opportunity for denial, I swept out before he could realize it. That was unfair, I had hated it when the Weasel had done it to me, but I couldn’t let the Weasel be my only acquaintance in this world, and I wouldn’t. My face took on a look of resolution that I seldom wore outside of my library as I confidently strode down another corridor toward what I hoped would be an easy exit onto the street, and away from this awful place.
I was lost in thought as I made a clean getaway from the Gemstrader’s Guild Hall.
A Witch from Dynal Emrys and Maersyn the Babe
18 days after The Fall of Whitelock Caverns
I knew I had waited too long for my escape. The loss of my tongue was nothing to me, but if something had happened to the babe? My shudder nearly woke the sleeping infant now physically tied to me. I drew my hand up to caress and soothe that angelic face. The babe is fine. He’s right here with me. Food. Where was I to come by food without alerting the authorities to my presence? To influence the minds of others was naught, but eventually they would remember. I could not say aloud what I wanted, and that would be my undoing. They would recall the strange little dusky woman who had put pictures in their minds. These Phirr worshipers had lost all sense of charity. Weren’t Phirr and Phorodda benevolent and charitable Gods? That is what I had always been taught in my youth. These “Phiriean” people certainly weren’t living up to their name these days. Things are supposed to be better in the cities nearer the heart of her capital. But how am I to reach those without provisions. This is impossible!
At that moment something alerted me to an obviously wealthy girl, drape
d in black, striding down the road totally lost in thought. A young tough was matching her step, and was about to strip her of her purse. Without much effort on my part his hand slipped, and he bounded away without his bounty in fear of being caught. I suppose with a loss of charity comes a hard heart. He would do well to keep clear of the law here. With a sniff and a rye smile I realized the silly thing hadn’t noticed any of it. The tough had even loosened a book from her grip and it fell casually to the dirt packed road behind her.
It seems my good deed may not go without reward! I quickened to retrieve it before another noticed the text lying in the road, and was thankful to reach it first. I crouched to rescue it carefully not wishing to disturb the babe, while glancing about to see where its harebrained owner had gotten herself to.
I was shocked when I looked down at the cover. I knew this text. It was a daunting treatise on the use of various rare Charmed substances. What was a young prima donna like that doing with such a thing? Carrying it to another perhaps?
I was near running to keep up with the girl. If nothing else she was fit, and tall. This slim, leggy, redhead, dripping with expensive black cloth was extremely tall, even for a Phiriean woman. As I got closer I realized that this girl, this child, had Power, lots of Power. I had heard that the Phiriean people had Gifted among them, but had seen very little proof of it. Here, here, was the proof, treading the streets before me. She slowed just outside an enormous compound of one of the Gemtrader families, from what I could see of the crest above the entrance, and I caught up to her.
I tugged at her sleeve, and she nearly fell over with the shock of it. She really had been oblivious to her surroundings! Harebrained twit! Anything could have happened to her on her trek here. She settled and stared at me for a moment as I held out the book to her. She immediately patted herself down, checking for the whereabouts of her valuables no doubt. Satisfied that all was accounted for she smiled hesitantly through a thin veil and I could see her face color in embarrassment. Don’t be embarrassed child; just don’t let yourself get so preoccupied again!
