by Andrew Elgin
Torrint flashed his blue-stained teeth at Javin briefly. "Every place has something to trade. Always something. Here we are going to buy good plait which can be made up into bags or hats or belts by those who've a mind to do it." He pointed across Javin at a tall crop of red and yellow flowers growing a pace or two back from the track. "Those? They are a type of flake. Good for nice smells if you burn the dry leaves. They are not the best quality this year, but good enough. There'll be some hides as well." He shrugged. "Depends. But there's always something. Even if it's just information."
"Information? What sort of information can you buy or sell?"
Torrint tilted his head and smiled. "Whatever is valuable, obviously. News from one place to another. Between people. Good crops in one place, or bigger numbers of pests. Whatever is valuable. You, for example. You are information. New information."
"How am I information?" Javin wasn't sure whether to be interested or offended.
"You have stories to tell." Torrint shrugged. "So, you have only some memories, but they are new here. That's information. Whether you want to tell them to others is up to you. And if you want to trade them, that's for you to decide."
Javin couldn't help but be intrigued. "How can I trade my memories, even if I had any worth trading, that is?"
"Trade is exchanging things, yes?"
Javin nodded.
"You have memories, which are really just new stories for people here. And people here have food and shelter. Which is not what you have." Torrint looked him squarely in the eye. "You have a ride. But that's all. You help with the mandria and that's payment at the moment." Torrint pointed back and forth between the two of them. "We are trading. But perhaps you didn't know that?" Then he lapsed back into silence and left Javin to mull over the idea that, perhaps, he could end up as a story teller. After all, people here never went anywhere (apart from Torrint and Banith, of course). He remembered the eagerness with which Tarla had questioned him. Would it really be possible for him to make a living off his past? No matter what, Javin had to regain his memories.
The distance between the homes lessened as they went on. In the place of fields of crops or small herds of animals, there were gardens with brightly colored plants and what passed for trees growing in them as well as some smaller animals moving around. The occasional dog cart was also seen moving along paths off in the distance. The dogs, Javin noticed, even from that far away, really were as big as Tarla had intimated. They pulled small carts at a steady pace with one or sometimes two people in them, much faster than Kesit's steady plod. Eventually, some time before midday by Javin's estimate, Torrint led the wagons a couple of paces from the center of the path and brought them to a halt. There was nothing to suggest any heavy regular traffic. It was a quiet place. But then, Javin reminded himself, the whole planet was quiet.
He had not really known what to expect about actually trading. Javin thought that there would be a lot of people and there would be some pushing and shoving, loud voices and generally a crush of people.
The reality was entirely different. Torrint and Banith eased the wagons so that they were back to back, about five paces apart. The mandria had been led off and hobbled in an area where they could graze and then some boards were laid across two trestles and Torrint placed what seemed to be an arbitrary selection of goods on them. That done, he and Banith sat on small stools and put their feet up. Javin was relegated to either the ground or anywhere on the wagons he wanted.
While they waited for anyone to show some interest in their arrival, Torrint offered some unexpected insights into his life.
"You might as well know, probably guessed, that Banith and me have talents?"
Javin nodded.
"Guess mine."
"I don't know." He was genuinely puzzled. "Able to guess the right price of something?"
Torrint smiled, showing those unsettling teeth. "Try again."
Javin shrugged. "I have only heard of some talents. I can't guess." In the face of Torrint's amusement, he blurted out, "You can see the future?"
To his amazement, Torrint nodded. "More or less. Yes. And Banith? What do you reckon his talent is then?"
"Look, that was a lucky guess. I have no idea what talents there are. So, if you really want me to guess... ," Torrint nodded, "then I'd say Banith can move things with his mind."
It was Banith's turn to grin. "That would be fun, I think. But, no, that's not me. I can pick up something and get a glimpse of its past." He shrugged as if there was nothing else to add.
"I look forward. He looks back, said Torrint. "I look for trade and he looks to see if the trade is a good one, if what is offered is really as it is said. So you can see how such things can be helpful in what we do?"
"I suppose so. But what's more puzzling is why are you telling me?"
It was Torrint's turn to shrug. "Could be useful. If you end up trading. Could be something you do. And, we're together now. It's right that you should know how we work."
Javin didn't know how to respond. Here was Torrint, the taciturn trader, sharing secrets with him. Almost as if he were expecting Javin to be a trader. With Torrint and Banith. It was acceptance. It was a gesture which meant much more than what was said.
"Thank you! I am very grateful for you telling me."
Torrint pointed one long finger at him. "And if you tell anyone else... ." His voice tailed off into an implied threat. Javin raised his hands to show his agreement to secrecy.
And as suddenly as that conversation had started, so it stopped, leaving Javin to consider how much two such talents could be useful when trading, and wondering when, if ever, he would develop a talent and what it would be.
Shortly after, a couple of women ambled towards them, chatting and carrying a large, shapeless leather bag between them. One was tall and rangy with a permanent frown on her tanned face whilst the other was only a little less tall but sturdy, with strong, stubby hands and eyes that looked like they had laughed a lot. They both had long, loose hair tumbling down their backs. The taller of the two had kept her brown hair from her face with a strip of cloth tied at the back of her neck. The other woman had plaited her hair in a complex style so that three separate braids; one on each side and one down the middle of her head, met at the back where they were tied off with a piece of leather, allowing the rest of it to swing free. They arrived seemingly by accident at the improvised table where Torrint nodded affably at them. They seemed not very interested in what they saw and neither Torrint nor Banith seemed anxious to speak with them. It was not at all what Javin expected.
Finally, the sturdy one heaved the bag onto the table and asked, "What will you give us for this?"
Torrint leaned forward without getting up and opened the bag with one finger, inclining his head and squinting to see inside. "Is that all, Elissa?"
"Of course it is," she smiled. "And you won't find better while you're here." Jerking a thumb at her companion, she continued, "Serrine and me, you know our work. We make the best plait and have done for years. In fact, with all those years of experience, our plait's not just the best here, but probably there's none better. That'd be my guess. Well?" And she folded her arms, her whole body challenging Torrint to disagree with her assessment.
Javin now watched with interest, wanting to see how this would play out. Torrint made a begrudging nod with his head, but his face made it abundantly clear that he was still not totally convinced of the truth of Elissa's argument. He peered once more into the bag. "Is this the same amount as last time?" Elissa and Serrine both nodded. "Hmmmm. Credit or trade?"
"Bit of both would be fine."
Torrint paused, more for effect than anything else was Javin's opinion. Finally, he placed his hands flat on the table and peered up at Elissa. "Start with the trade and we'll see about the credit." And Torrint nodded at Banith who stood up, took the bag inside his wagon and returned with it empty a moment later, handing it back to Elissa.
Then the real haggling began. So much of thi
s spice, or that dye or some fresh deadspread. 'And what about these herbs? Or that cloth? And that's a ridiculous amount for all that work we've done and why are you being so mean? And as for those feathers, they're damaged surely?'
And from Torrint it was all, 'But I have costs as well, you can't get better than those, this is the freshest you'll ever find, here, if you don't believe me, taste it yourself'.
On and on and to and fro, and a pile grew slowly in front of the women until they were satisfied. The finale came in the shape of a transfer of some carved wooden pieces, each with a splash of blue on them. The women appeared to want to haggle further, but under Torrint's steady stare, they backed down and scooped the pieces up with a quick flick of fingers to forehead. Torrint responded by tapping twice on his chest and extended the hand palm up to them.
Elissa and Serrine bagged their goods and wandered away again, deep in conversation, passing the next people arriving to trade.
"What are the wooden things they took? I've not seen them before," asked Javin when they were out of earshot.
"Credit."
Javin gestured him to explain further.
"My credit. The blue is me," he said pointing to his distinctive teeth. "Next time we come through here, they'll bring them out and we'll disagree on how much we agreed they were worth, and then we'll end up agreeing and I'll get them back until next time."
"What about other traders? Would they take them?"
Banith grinned. "There are no other traders. Only us. Worked metal is rare. Very rare. Credit is easy. As long as everyone agrees what it is. It could be worked stone. That's valuable because it's rare to have good crafting in stone small enough to trade. Anything that can't be eaten or planted or which will rot or dissolve. We made our own from a wood that we got from the south a long time ago. Doesn't grow here, so it's what we use."
Javin could see how simple and sensible the process was. It worked. That was the main thing.
As time passed and Javin had nothing to do, he decided to look around. As he was about to go, Torrint called out to him, "Here. Buy some fresh bread for us," and he tossed a small bag which rattled as Javin caught it. He made a 'what now?' face at Torrint who merely smiled and said, "Go and look around. You'll find it," before turning back to his latest customer.
Javin wandered aimlessly for a while. He opened the leather bag Torrint had given him and saw a strange collection of several tiny pieces of gold, half the size of a fingernail, a few equally small circular pieces of metal he thought were probably coins of some kind, and a variety of other objects: a large black pebble, or maybe it was a seed, something that looked like a bright red shell and two or three of the credit tokens, but smaller than the ones he had seen earlier. He had no idea what any of it was worth.
Red River looked and felt like a small place. The center of it, where he had left Torrint and Banith, had patches of green and the tracks leading into and out of it were wider, but they were still tracks. There were few people around. The whole place seemed... so small, so quiet, so strange. The few people he did see were off in the distance. Everyone else seemed to be either inside or perhaps were now trading with Torrint.
Javin began to feel hungry and turned a corner only to nearly bump into a woman. She avoided him neatly by stepping smartly to one side, her lined face further creased in a wide smile, blue eyes sparkling with good humor.
"I knew it! There you are! Right on time!" she chortled.
Javin, having regained his balance from nearly colliding with her, just stared at her in confusion.
"Right where I saw it. Never fails." She peered more closely at Javin and became a little more serious. "I saw you," she explained, speaking more slowly now. "I knew you'd be there. I was ready." Another pause, then a sense of confusion. "Are you ill? Why are you looking that way at me? You don't look ill." She sized him up before continuing a little more gently. "Do you mind?" She reached out to rest her hand on Javin's arm. He was still unsure how to react to this woman and her initially cheerful foreknowledge of his being there. She closed her eyes for a moment and then frowned before opening them again and taking her hand away.
"I don't mean to pry, but there's something missing, something not quite right." She wrinkled her nose as she tried to find the right words. "It's like there's something, some connection, missing. It's like, and I don't mean anything bad by it, but it's like you can't hear Harmony." A nervously apologetic smile flashed across her face.
Javin had begun to relax his body, but he opened his eyes wide at the diagnosis he had just received. "You're right. Absolutely right. I'm not from here, from Harmony." He pointed up to the sky and felt vaguely foolish as he did so. "I'm from Haven. The other planet? I got kidnapped and dumped here. And everyone tells me I should be hearing Harmony. But..., " he shrugged, "I can't seem to. So you're exactly right."
"Haven? Hmmm. Not heard of that place. But it's good to know," said the woman, before hurrying to correct herself. "I meant, it's good to know I was right, not that it was good you can't hear Harmony, or not knowing of Haven." She reddened in embarrassment but found a way out of it by introducing herself. "Sharna. Sharna Messilna." And she made the same gesture he had seen before of touching her forehead with her fingers and turning them out towards him. "Everyone here knows I'm an eye, that I see things. It doesn't bother them. I'm respectful. They all know that. I saw us, just before it happened, nearly walking into each other and I thought this one was close. I didn't really take the time to look at you properly." Her gaze swept over Javin a little more carefully this time. "I am so sorry." Her voice took on a sweetly sad tone as if sorrowing gently for his lack of understanding.
Javin remembered something that Paysa said about one of the talents being called an 'eye'. "Are you saying that you saw us meeting like this? You can see things that are going to happen?"
The woman nodded and smiled at Javin as if he was a very young child who had just discovered something so obvious as to be not worth mentioning.
"So you saw us talking like this as well, then?" Javin asked.
The woman shook her head. "I shut it off after seeing the near miss. If I kept looking all day, I'd never get anything done, would I?"
"But how do you know when to look or when to stop looking?"
She made a puzzled face. "I just know. That's all there is to it. It's as if I'm nudged to look." And she made small movements with her hands to emphasize her words. "And your name?" she prodded.
"I'm Javin. Javin Sarnum." he said, nodding gravely in return, unsure now what to do with his hands.
She held his gaze for a moment before shaking her head. "You don't really know very much about us, do you?" She hurried on before he could say anything. "Where are you heading after here?"
"I don't think Torrint said. We were hoping there's a healer here."
"For you?"
"Yes, I... would like some help. Nothing serious. It's about me being able to be more comfortable here, that's all."
"We did have one. But Harmony took her back a while ago now." In response to Javin's obvious confusion, she clarified by adding, "She's not here. Dead? Back with Harmony." She stamped one foot. "On our legs on the surface, we're here like this. In the ground, we're with Her." She changed topic abruptly. "Maybe the next place will have one. A healer." She pointed over Javin's shoulder. "That way is going to Blackeye and Sweetwater, I think. Maybe five, six days' walk? Could be more. I've never been there. Maybe Torrint is heading there. Blackeye's small, I think but Sweetwater is bigger, so I've heard. Maybe you'll be lucky there."
Javin's head dropped as he heard her speak. He hadn't realized until now how much he had hoped he would find help here. And now, nothing. Only maybe's.
Sharna reached out and patted him gently on the arm. "I'm sorry for you. I'm sure it will work out in the end." She cocked her head as she looked at him. "You don't look ill, if that's any help. So maybe it will be something that will heal itself?" She smiled hopefully.
Javin sighed an
d grinned mirthlessly back. "Maybe. I can hope so. You've been kind." He turned to go and remembered the mission he was on. "I forgot to ask. Where can I buy some bread?"
Sharna pointed back the way she had come. "Down there. There's a turn to the right and a small home facing you. He often has extra. Just tap on the door if it's shut. And, Javin...?"
"Yes?"
"Harmony will help you. You will hear Her. I know it." She flashed one last smile at him and carried on her way.
Javin didn't really know how to make anything of what she had said, so he just watched her walk away. It was only as she was turning another corner that he realized she had no shoes on. But then, he recalled, neither had Elissa and Serrine. He shook his head at the strangeness of it all and tried to shrug off his disappointment and focused, instead, on buying bread.
He had no idea what to pay with and simply tipped the contents out into his palm and offered it up to the baker to pick what he wanted. "I'm buying this for Torrint, who sent me, if that's any help."
At this, the baker drew his hand back and then looked more carefully at what was being offered. "Torrint, you say? In that case, I'll take this here," picking one of the small blue credit tokens, "and I'll add another loaf in to make it up." Returning with the extra loaf, he added, "Tell Torrint I will not be wanting anything this time, but to make sure he has some of that blane brandy next time. Keeps the chill out in winter."
Javin assured him that he would. By the time he returned, Torrint and Banith were re-packing the wagons and generally tidying up. He passed on the baker's message and Torrint raised his eyebrows in surprise at the mention of the brandy, but then nodded to show he'd remember. Banith smiled and sniffed the bread appreciatively. "That's going to be very good to eat." He tucked it away and carried on packing.
Javin handed the bag back to Torrint who didn't bother to check the contents. "There's no healer here."
Torrint nodded. "I know. Apparently she died not too long ago, and they haven't a good healer to replace her. Haven't anyone to replace her, actually."
"I met someone who said that there's a place not too far away where we might find one," Javin said.
