by Unknown
Also present was another industry that hadn’t been as common in Irador: that of the masons. The sheer number of stone or fired clay bricks available startled Cora, and it was them that Joy’s attention seemed to be focused on, as she watched a human woman squaring a limestone block. They continued past the hawkers, and Cora’s eyes brightened as she saw a sign ahead of them, hanging in front of a squat but well-constructed building. It was relatively small, but next to a large warehouse, and the sign proclaimed it the ‘Clarion Mining Guild.’
“I think that’s it,” Cora said happily, and glanced toward the horizon to gauge how much time they had. “The sun’s going down, but hopefully they haven’t closed yet.”
“If all else fails, we can always come back tomorrow,” Brianna said, a hint of distraction in her voice as she looked at a rack of weapons in front of a smith on their right. “Is it wrong I half-wish we’d come here to look at gear first? Resha’s stuff is good, don’t get me wrong, but I kind of wish I’d been able to browse a little more.”
“You just love ogling weapons,” Stella replied dryly, shaking her head. “No wonder you want to become a Weaponmaster!”
Joy giggled as Brianna flushed, and Cora couldn’t help her own smile. They moved forward at a more sedate pace, and Cora glanced at Joy, considering for several seconds.
“You like constructing buildings, Joy?” Cora asked, tilting her head slightly. “You seemed fascinated by the construction of the Shadebough embassy, and now there’s this.”
“Because it’s neat! I did a lot of building before I became a forager, making cells and other walls,” Joy said, pulling her gaze away to grin at them. “I don’t know how to build things like your people do, either! If nothing else, the shape of your buildings feels really strange to me. Six walls just feels sturdier.”
Cora smiled at that, replying softly. “Perhaps, but it isn’t quite as easy as a square building.”
“Maybe we could get you a book about architecture? I’m sure that there would be some around here,” Brianna suggested, causing Joy’s face to light up with enthusiasm, and she clapped her hands together.
“That would be amazing! They write books with things like that in them?” Joy said, bouncing on her toes eagerly as she moved forward with renewed vigor. It was drawing a lot of attention, Joy noticed, and a wry smile crept across her face. Joy seemed to be the center of attention far too often, and without even trying.
“I think they write books about virtually anything you can think of, Joy. Even about gardening and cultivating flowers,” Cora replied, and was startled to see the apis’s eagerness increase even more.
“I have to buy some. Those would be incredible!” Joy said, glancing back down the street speculatively, her wings fluttering experimentally, only to have Brianna rest a hand on her shoulder.
“We’ll go looking for a few books tomorrow. Right now we need to see about getting the iron ore we’re here for,” Brianna said gently, exchanging an amused look with Cora. “I know the idea excites you, but you don’t need the books right now, Joy.”
“Alright, I just would love to learn more about growing flowers!” Joy exclaimed, though her antennae drooped slightly.
Cora laughed and stepped up to the door of the building they were here for and rapped firmly on the door. It was heavily built, with numerous iron bands reinforcing it, she noticed, which she suspected made it rather heavy.
“It’s not locked!” a man yelled from inside, his voice deep enough that she was surprised the door didn’t vibrate in response.
When she pressed down on the latch, though, she got another surprise, as the door opened smoothly at a light touch, rather than requiring the effort that Cora had expected. Putting aside her surprise, Cora stepped inside and looked around, taking in the office with just a bit of surprise.
She’d expected the office of a mining concern to be rougher and a little dirtier, but that would be a disservice to the room she’d stepped into. Oh, it wasn’t immaculate or anything of the sort, but it was clean, well-maintained, and had been well-constructed as well. Paths may have been worn into the hardwood flooring, but it was still in excellent repair, and shelves on the walls displayed everything from a worn pickaxe and helmet to samples of different types of ore, and on one wall was a large parchment with what looked like a contract of some sort written on it. There were two people in the room aside from Cora and her friends, one of them a human man and a dwarven woman who were behind a broad counter.
The dwarven woman was wearing half-moon spectacles and a finely tailored blue blouse that showed a slim figure for a dwarf, while her brown hair was combed back and held in a bun. Her eyes were a light brown that shone with intelligence from behind her spectacles, which she adjusted so she could look over them at Cora and the others. Conversely, the human had a bald head, a deep brown beard, and a barrel-like build, while he was wearing relatively mundane clothing that was immaculately kept. He looked at them and frowned, his darker eyes going over them each in turn.
“Adventurers, are you? This is a surprise. Are you certain you have the right place?” the man asked, straightening from where he’d been examining a document in front of the woman.
“Guildmaster, please,” the dwarf said firmly, looking up at him chidingly. “Guests are guests.”
The man opened his mouth, then shut it as she gave him a firm look, and Cora couldn’t help thinking back to Viperbite and Silverhoof’s relationship. She did wonder why secretaries wore spectacles so much, but it could just be a useful item for their profession.
“My apologies for the intrusion so late in the day, but we’ve only just arrived in Clarion and had business to discuss with you,” Cora said, nodding respectfully to the Guildmaster as she pulled out a letter. “My name is Cora, and with me are Brianna, Joy, and Stella. I have a letter of introduction from Duke Dorma, as we’re currently looking to purchase a large amount of iron ore.”
The dwarf smiled warmly at that, while the Guildmaster blinked in surprise, then the woman spoke. “May I see the letter? I doubt that you have any need to lie about such, but it’s best to check your credentials.”
“Of course,” Cora replied, stepping forward to hand it over, while Brianna and Stella hovered near the front door, mostly out of the way. Meanwhile, Joy had started examining the different ores, her wings fluttering behind her off and on, something which drew the attention of both of their hosts. Neither commented about her, though the Guildmaster did clear his throat while the secretary opened the letter.
“How much iron ore are you looking for, that you needed a letter of introduction? We sell a good deal of ore to merchants and smiths as it is, though that’s slowed down with the attacks on caravans,” the Guildmaster asked, a finger tapping the counter slowly.
“One thousand four hundred and two chunks of ore,” Joy replied precisely, before Cora could even open her mouth. The apis looked away from a green-hued stone with a grin as she added, “It’s for the Shadebough Hive!”
“The what?” the human asked, but the secretary cleared her throat, handing the letter to him.
“I believe this will answer some of your questions, Guildmaster,” the woman said pointedly, waiting until he’d taken it before continuing. “The amount of ore they were looking for isn’t specified, but it does mention that they need a great deal of it. I’m not certain what you mean by the Shadebough Hive, however.”
“The apis who live in the Teeming Jungle, a short distance south of Bearton, call their hive the Shadebough Hive,” Cora explained, feeling a little more at ease as the Guildmaster read the letter. “We need to get them a total of fifteen hundred pieces of iron ore for a trade, and already acquired ninety-eight earlier. Unfortunately, we don’t have an enormous amount of time to acquire it, which is why the duke pointed us in your direction.”
“Mm, I think I understand the basic situation. Is there some particular reason you’re after ore, rather than ingots? Five hundred ingots would be far easier to transport
,” the Guildmaster said as he lowered the letter to the counter, then paused, shaking his head as he added, a little exasperated, “No, no, introductions first. I’m Clifford Carpenter, Guildmaster of the Clarion Mining Guild. This is Jenna, official secretary and bookkeeper for the guild. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”
“It’s our pleasure, Master Clifford,” Stella replied politely, bowing her head gently. “To answer your question, the apis have a way of working ore into their innate weapons, so ingots are of limited value to them.”
“That’s right,” Cora said, happy that she wasn’t the only one talking, and continued calmly. “They were fighting army ants at the time we visited, and the lack of iron ore was severely hampering their defense.”
“Interesting,” Clifford murmured, looking at Jenna with a considering look, then shrugged and said, “Well, why don’t you come back to my office? We can discuss things further while Jenna figures out what we have on hand.”
“Not that it’ll take too long,” Jenna replied, standing up and stepping over to the section of the counter. She shuffled something around, then pulled out a large, well-worn ledger as she smiled.
“Of course, Guildmaster,” Cora said, following the man as he led them toward a back door, which he opened to reveal a well-appointed office. On the wall was a painting of a younger-looking Clifford, back when he had at least some hair on his head, and beside him was a stockier dwarven man with a bright red beard and hair, reaching up to rest a hand on Clifford’s shoulder.
Clifford followed Cora’s gaze to the painting and smiled warmly, pulling out his chair, which was a stuffed leather piece that had seen years of use. When he spoke, his voice was filled with respect. “That’s my predecessor and old master, Farl Deepspike, more commonly known as Guildmaster Red. He’s Jenna’s uncle, and owns one of the larger mines in the area. Please, sit down, though I’m afraid I don’t have enough chairs.”
“I’ll stand!” Joy volunteered, and Cora nodded in turn.
“As will I. I don’t want to scuff them, and my gear is likely to do that. More likely than Stella’s, anyway,” Brianna said, examining the two wooden chairs in front of his much-scarred desk, which had several polished stones sitting on it, one of which was serving as a paperweight. “You have nicer furniture than I was expecting, but I’ve never been to a mining concern before.”
Joy was looking at the desk as well, and belatedly Cora took a seat as Clifford chuckled, shaking his head as he settled down.
“I think you misunderstand what this is. Most of the mines around the city are independent, run by different miners and such. I doubt many of them have anything as nice as this, in any case! I’m just the head of the guild, and we help negotiate with the government and the other guilds. We also sell ore and ingots on behalf of many of the mines, so that they don’t have to worry about finding purchasers,” Clifford explained. “That’s why you’d even be able to get ore from us. Now, normally we don’t sell more than, say, a hundred units of a material to those we don’t have an agreement with, but the duke’s sponsorship means that I’m willing to make an exception… assuming that we have the stock, and that you can pay for it.”
“That’s good to hear,” Cora said, slowly relaxing as she smiled at Clifford. “Our biggest problem is that we have no more than four months to get it to the apis at this point, so we aren’t able to go much farther afield.”
“Indeed? May I ask why you aren’t able to wait?” the man asked, settling back in his chair as he looked between them. “While I don’t see the harm in selling the ore, it just seems odd to me.”
Cora opened her mouth, then hesitated, wondering how to approach the subject, when Joy spoke again.
“I’ll die in five months!” Joy chirped, then corrected herself. “About five months, give or take a little… I don’t know exactly when I hatched, after all.”
“What?” Clifford demanded, sitting forward again rather abruptly. Cora pinched the bridge of her nose as he looked at her and demanded, “How would iron ore help with that?”
“Apis are quite different from humans, elves, dwarves, or any of the other species I’m aware of, Guildmaster. Aside from their queens, it appears that all of them live for approximately two and a half to three years,” Cora said, letting out a sigh as she smiled at him. “Believe me, finding out Joy didn’t have much time left was an immense shock to us. Especially since Joy used the item that would have allowed her to extend her life to save me from death.”
“It was the right thing to do,” Joy said, folding her arms in front of her. “I’d do it again.”
“Which is why we’re so concerned about replacing it, Joy,” Stella replied, shaking her head slowly as she picked up the explanation. “The apis have an item that allows them to raise queens, but which can also cure virtually any poison below level… seventy, I think it was. If an apis uses it when they’re level twenty or higher, they can evolve into an apis queen, and they gain the lifespan of a queen, which is around a century. We found a hive that was willing to trade us one.”
As Clifford’s eyes lit up, Cora quickly added, “I should note that they were giving us an immense discount when doing so. They normally wouldn’t trade the item at all, not when it takes a minimum of three months to create a single dose of it.”
“Ah. Well, there goes my idea of trading a lot of ore for the item in question. That sounds like it would sell for a huge amount on the open market… but it does explain why you need ore, and as quickly as you’re wanting it,” Clifford said, pausing as the door opened to admit Jenna. The dwarven woman was carrying the ledger, a ribbon in place to mark the spot, and he smiled as he asked, “So, you’ve determined whether we have the stores on hand?”
“Of course I have. As I said, it didn’t take long,” Jenna replied mildly, circling around the desk to hand him the ledger. “Due to the current disruption, there is more than enough stock to cover their request and all outstanding deliveries.”
Clifford opened the ledger and ran a finger down a column, his eyebrows rising slightly as he looked over the numbers, but he didn’t say anything immediately, so Cora waited as patiently as she could. It wasn’t easy, but she managed, and without giving any of the others more than three nervous looks.
“Alright, as I said, this isn’t something we normally do, and since you aren’t one of our regular partners, we’re not going to be giving you a discount for buying in bulk,” Clifford said, then smiled wryly as he added, “Though the prices are a bit lower since some of our members would really like to offload their stock, so you’d be getting a slight discount either way. Jenna, how much would their request run, at nine point three coins per chunk? Rounding up to the nearest coin, of course.”
Jenna paused, tilting her head for a moment, then spoke calmly. “Thirteen thousand thirty-nine coins.”
Relief rushed through Cora, but she struggled not to show it on her face. Any one of them could probably cover that amount, but she was certain he wasn’t done yet. Clifford looked at her speculatively, almost as if he knew what she was thinking, then spoke again.
“Obviously, that’s simply the cost of purchasing the ore. While I’m certain you could figure out the issue of transporting it yourself given some time, we do have contacts with a number of teamsters. The biggest problem you’d be looking at is the current threat of war,” Clifford said, his smile fading as he added, “The attacks over the past week have shut down all of the caravans, and I sincerely doubt you’d be able to convince any teamsters to transport two wagons of ore absent heavy security. Even without that, you’re likely looking at around a thousand coins to transport that to Irador, on top of the cost of the ore.”
Cora looked at Brianna and Stella, and the looks on their faces told her a lot about how relieved they were. On the other hand, Joy looked mildly interested at best. Since none of them looked like they disagreed, Cora cleared her throat and sat forward.
“Fortunately, the ore is within the price range we were expecting
. As for transporting it, that shouldn’t be a problem… though we were intending to wait until the invasion is resolved,” Cora told Clifford, meeting his gaze levelly. “We’ve learned enough that it sounds likely that the war will be over relatively quickly, one way or another.”
“Hm, fair enough. But that means you’ll probably want to secure the ore before anyone else learns that and snaps it up. If you’re not planning to move it immediately, your choice is to store it elsewhere, or we would charge a storage fee. Not a huge one, but it would add up,” Clifford warned, a smile playing across his lips. “We’re a business, and we intend to make a profit for our members.”
Cora let out a faint sigh, then nodded. “Of course. In that case, could we hear how much it’d cost to store the ore for, say, a month?”
The resulting conversation wasn’t terrible, but Cora was well aware that she wasn’t able to secure the best deal in the world. On the other hand, compared to Joy’s life?
It was positively cheap, when she looked at it that way.
Chapter 24
“Morning, Cora!” Joy’s voice came from far closer than Cora was expecting, and she began opening her eyes groggily.
Cora caught a glimpse of their inn room, the sun barely peeking through the window, but her view was obscured by a rapidly approaching apis bosom. Then Joy hugged her, in the process pinning Cora’s head to the bed and her pillow. The incredibly sudden lack of air sent a surge of adrenaline through Cora, waking her up quite thoroughly. But, considering how she was tangled in the blankets and unable to breathe, she couldn’t do much more than flail helplessly and make muffled sounds, as she tried to tell Joy to let go of her.
It took several seconds for Joy to let go. Several seconds that felt like an eternity to Cora, but then the apis let go, and Cora sucked down lovely air, reeling from the shock of her awakening.
