by Derek Palmer
After some bargaining and then agreeing on the price for four nights, I was finally able to close the door behind me in my room. As soon as I snapped the latch into its place I collapsed to the floor, closing my ears with my hands and squeezing my eyes tightly closed. Of course, it didn't really help anything, but I could imagine that would help. Then, I forced myself to calm down by focusing on my breathing first. Then, only then, when I felt calmer, I really tried to do something with my sensing skills. The problem was that most of the time I had trained myself to sense more, more accurately and from a greater distance. Since the Elves around me had automatically hidden their magical signature, their presence didn't really bother me. A town full of people was quite a different thing.
The uneasy feeling didn't quite go away, but after some time, I decided that I would be able to tolerate it. Besides, I had a job to do and I needed to eat.
I decided to eat first. The inn offered breakfast and dinner but if I wanted to eat something during the day, I was on my own. However, I was on my best behavior when I greeted the owner's wife before heading outside. The story was that I was there working for my two aunts, finding new markets for their products. The woman had laughed when I had quickly described the benefits of the work when compared to working with my cousin, who was a fisherman. A smelly one.
I was almost terrified to figure out how easy it was for me to lie now while speaking Anglon!
However, when I had told the woman my problem of finding suitable business partners, she asked me to wait for her husband. After a moment, a man appeared and I could see him evaluating me. I got a feeling that I might have looked a bit under-dressed to be a representative of some businessman - or woman. I smiled at the man.
"I know the way I look, but I'd rather not be robbed while doing business. However, we aren't selling me, but our products. If the potential buyer cannot see past my age and looks, I cannot help it."
"What kind of products are you selling?"
I looked at the man, trying to estimate how much I could or should trust him. On the other hand, I needed to start somewhere and I had absolutely no idea where to go and who to meet.
"Some herbs, some honey - and wine. All premium quality."
"So they all say."
"Unlike them, I can meet the promises - do you want to taste them?"
"Why not? But we will not be able to buy huge amounts of those products."
I was able to see that the man a slightly interested. I made my decision.
"Tell you what - You'll sample what I have to sell and then, if you can give me some good recommendations where to go that I'll be able to make a good deal, I can make sure that you'll get some of the products at the same price as the merchant or distributor."
After that I opened my backpack and took out the two bottles of wine and the different honey and herb jars I was carrying. I couldn't help wondering if I was doing this just to avoid going outside to the streets filed with people. I pushed those thoughts to the background and concentrated on presenting the products we wanted to sell.
There were some top-quality herbs - more intense than those commonly available, thanks to thousands of generations of plant breeding. The top product was something that looked like a miniature sweet pepper. Except that they weren't sweet - but... tasty. Tasty like peppercorn but multiplied by ten. Or more. Sometimes quite a bit more. It was something that started as a tickling at the back of your mouth and if you weren't careful you ended up having your nose and eyes thoroughly cleaned. I knew, I had tried.
I took some of dried pepper from the jar and put it on a plate.
"If you have some bread... - or some slices of meat might be even better - you can taste this. I have to warn you, however - this stuff is hot."
"I've tasted some hot stuff before. Or something that was claimed to be hot."
I shrugged and looked at the man who went back to kitchen to get some meat or bread. His wife sniffed the honey jars and I noticed the way her eyebrows rose while doing that. I wasn't that surprised since I knew that those were really something special. When honey is collected during a period when almost all the flowers are of same kind, the aroma of the flowers can be smelled from the honey. Yes, they were special.
"Okay, let's taste that hot spice of yours."
My eyebrows rose when I saw how the man put that dried hot pepper on the thin piece of dark meat he had brought from the back. I was about the say something but then I saw the woman shake her head slightly behind him. So, I just shrugged and waited for the reaction that I knew would be coming.
I wasn't disappointed. It took a moment, as I knew it would, but then his cheeks started to turn red and I was able to see the sweat forming to his forehead. I remembered all too well my own first reaction to that spice and cleared my throat.
"Don't drink water, it only makes it worse. Any kind of milk or soft cheese will help. That spice, in fact, works very nicely if you want to spice some food that does have cheese or milk in it. Of course, you can also have a lot of fun with your friends while drinking."
The man's wife started laughing - to her husband's obvious discomfort. The man tried to glare at her, but it's hard to do that when you are uncomfortable, with your nose flooding and you need to wipe sweat away from your forehead. The man sneezed a few times and wiped his head one more time. After that he shook his head and looked at me.
"Okay, you gave me fair warning. However, there have been people before who have offered me something that should have been strong, but never before I have had a reaction like this. Damn, if possible I want to have some of that stuff."
"I can promise you some of that for sure, and probably for free if you are able to guide me to a distributor or merchant who we can use."
I was quite certain that I would be able to offer him the sample for free since that spice was something of which we really had some surplus. However, if that was going to be our top product, for sure, I would not be telling them that. At least it was something I hadn't seen or tasted before. Or before I moved to the 'Hidden Valley'. That's how the place was called out here.
"These wines, they smell and taste like real wines. How's that possible?"
"They are real wines, made from real grapes. That also reminds me that, as an exchange, we'd need empty bottles and some new barrels a bit later."
In fact, I knew that we'd like to have new barrels as soon as possible, but there was no way we could get those to the valley with the ponies we were using. That problem would be handled later.
"But that's just not possible. Grapes cannot be grown here." the woman objected.
I knew something about what she meant. Since one wasn't able to grow grapes here, those bottles would have had to be smuggled. Which in turn wasn't at all that uncommon - but it was risky and therefore very profitable. Since our Kingdom was in a more or less constant state of war with the countries that were able to easily produce wine, the only way to have wine available all the time was through smuggling. I shrugged.
"That's what people think, I know. I might be able to prove it untrue, but some things that we do are trade secrets which makes things a bit complicated. On the other hand, does it matter? I'm sure there's real wine available at the capital all the time."
I poured some of the red wine into two glasses and offered them to the woman and the man. The man shook his head.
"She knows more about wines than I do. Besides, right now I could probably drink horse piss and not notice it."
I shook my head. "Actually no, it doesn't work that way. But in a way, you are right, since that spice goes quite nicely with beer, but does not with wine."
His wife snorted then said, "You shouldn't have said that. Now he has a good excuse to open the new beer barrel that arrived yesterday. Damn, I guess I shouldn't have laughed at him."
As both of them smiled, I was quite certain that there wouldn't be any serious family quarrel coming. That might not have been good business. Since I didn't want a good wine to go waste, I took t
he other glass myself and raised it towards the woman before checking the color against the light and sniffing it - as I had been taught. I hoped that I looked like the professional I was supposed to be.
I followed the way the woman looked when she tasted the wine - real wine. I had been told that the quality didn't quite match the best imported ones - if those were available. But the Elven women had done a terrific job with the grapes and the wine. It was very good wine and the look on the woman's face confirmed me the fact.
"This is... this is something that we probably cannot afford. Or rather, something our customers cannot afford. No way."
I smiled at them. "Like I said about the spices, if our family can work out a deal - with your help - I cannot see why you couldn't get some products at a reasonable price, either for sale or for your own use."
"Why are you doing this? With this kind of products, you could probably make a deal with any merchant close to you."
That was something I was prepared to answer, since I had been sure that somebody would ask me that question at some point. I kept on smiling.
"Simple. You don't know exactly where I come from and therefore you aren't likely to follow me to our home. Like I said, we have some trade secrets that we'd like to keep for some time; or rather - as long as possible. The longer we are able keep those to ourselves the longer we are able to make good profit."
From their faces I could see that, as business owners, they were able to understand my reasoning. Again, I was surprised to see how fluently those little lies came from my lips. I wasn't at all sure if I really liked that development - even though it was necessary if I wanted to stay alive and protect the Elves.
"I can see the point. How about the rest of your products, are they equally impressive?"
"Yes - and no. The herbs are probably better and stronger than the ones you have here even if they are familiar to you. This other wine is a bit sweet but also somewhat stronger because of some added brandy. Very suitable as an exclusive dessert."
That special wine was also something the Elves themselves favored and there had been some long discussion whether it could be sold or not. It was also the reason for the need for new barrels, since the wine was stored in those barrels for years. It had been agreed that the best barrels would not be sold and they would start 'cheating’, and some oak chips would be added to the barrels to speed up the manufacturing process. Making those wines was something the Alfar took seriously.
While explaining the making of the wine I also poured some of it to another glass for the wife to taste. After seeing her approving nods, I asked the question.
"Okay, do you think that you can help me to find a distributor or some merchant we could use?"
The wife looked at her husband and then back at the glass with the sweet wine.
"It doesn't matter if this wine really is local or not, since everybody will think that it's smuggled."
I was about to protest, but she raised her hand and stopped me.
"Like I said, it really doesn't matter. In a way, it makes things easier for you since nobody will come after your gardening secrets if they believe that you have some fisherman friends with some side-business. Some may even think that the idea of marketing it as a domestic wine is just a way to make things look legal."
The man put his hand over mine.
"Why don't you go to walk around the town and look around for a while, while we talk about this. I'm quite certain that we know some suitable person who might be willing to do business with us."
That last word chimed something inside my head. Not just the word 'us' but also the way it was said. I got the feeling that they wanted some part of this, they wanted access to the stuff I was able to deliver. Maybe Anglon was not a magical language but, by living with the Elves, I had had to tune my ability to listen how things were said, not just what was said. Now I had a feeling that I could trust this couple. Like at the stables, I had had the feeling that I could trust those people to take care of Luna. The woman looked at her husband.
"Are you thinking about Birgit? She could use some new business, for sure. We could ask her to come here for dinner."
I took a step backwards.
"I guess that you may want to have this discussion without me and that's okay for me."
The man stopped me and offered his hand.
"Before you go - my name is Erik and my wife is Dagny."
I took his hand and smiled.
"I'm Arne. I guess I was lucky when I chose the stable for my horse since those people there were the ones who guided me here."
I thought that maybe I shouldn't explain my logic about mixing the treatment of horses and the treatment of people.
When I walked out of the inn and onto the streets of the town, I forced myself to tolerate the presence of the other people. First, that was done by simply blocking everything from my senses the best I could, but still, after a while, I found myself on the bank of the river, away from the larger groups of people.
On the high bank of the river there was an old tree and I was leaning on it and watching the river slowly flow by when I wondered if this was the way my father had felt while close to a big group of people. As soon as the thought entered my mind, it was like I had been slapped on my face. In a way I had already known it, but it wasn't until now I really figured it out. My father had had some magical skills, too. The Magicians had known about magic before incident that brought the Elves and Trolls here - and some natural human Mages, too. In a way I had known about it, I just hadn't understood all the ramifications of it. For sure, I didn't understand them that well now, either, but from now on I would think differently about it.
I was so deep in my thought that I didn't first notice the young girl who was watching me from a few steps away.
"That's my place."
The young girl staring at me couldn't be more than six or seven summers old and the look on her face was huffy, if not angry. Only then I realized that the roots of the old tree probably formed an almost perfect place to sit for somebody smaller than me, such as a girl of her age.
"I'm sorry, Princess. I must have missed the sign, and your lackeys have also been lazy and failed to keep me away from your throne."
After saying that I bowed to the little girl who was now giggling when I moved away from the tree and made a gesture with my hand for her to sit between those roots.
"Thank you."
She dropped a curtsy while still giggling when she moved past me to her place. That little girl had been taught some manners, too.
"Your highness, wouldn't you mind telling a hungry visitor where he could get some decent food in the middle of a day?"
Now the girl who had looked so angry in the beginning was giggling so much that she had difficulties in speaking.
"I'm not a princess."
"For sure, you look like a princess to me, your highness."
She was now silent for a moment.
"My mother makes good food and she also sells it to customers."
I made sure to look horrified.
"Mother Earth! I wouldn't have believed that the queens themselves do cooking."
"You're silly! My mother is not a queen."
"But I'm certain that the mother of a pretty and well-behaving princess has to be a queen."
Suddenly the girl looked a bit sad.
"I shouted at my mother when the bread I made looked funny, and she laughed about it."
"Is that why you came here?"
The sitting girl nodded at me.
"Listen, princess, even if your bread looks funny, I'm sure that it tastes good. Why don't you show me the way to your mother's place - maybe I can get something to eat there, and perhaps I'll get the chance to taste your bread. I promise not to laugh at it."
I had already seen a woman looking for her little girl and, as soon as she noticed her little girl come out of her hiding place and take my hand in hers, she took a few steps back. I had made a gesture to her with my free hand and
she disappeared into the building closest to the river. It wasn't much longer when we entered the eatery through the front door that was facing the street.
"He's Arne, and he'd like to eat. He also wants to taste my bread even if it looks funny."
The little girl introduced me to the few customers and her mother as soon as we were inside the room. I bowed slightly to the girl's mother when she looked curiously in my direction.
