[Shadowed Path 01] - A Woman Worth Ten Coppers Read Online Free Page A

the sun rose and the wagon halted. Someone pounded on its door. The pounding continued until the man atop Yim moaned. Then he shouted, “Stop yer noise!” He moaned again. “Oh my head!” He rose, pulled up his pants, found his dagger, and sheathed it. Then he gazed down at Yim with bloodshot eyes. She was still half naked. “Well Ribbon Girl, did I tup ye proper?”
    Yim faked a smile. “Yes.”
    “Good,” replied the man. “Wish I remembered it.”
    The pounding resumed, though more softly than before. “I found a buyer for the oats and grain.”
    As Yim wiggled in an attempt to pull down her shift, her abuser swung open the wagon’s door. Outside were one of his accomplices and a man who was missing an eye. “What’s yer offer?”
    “Afore I say, I want to see the goods.”
    The man in the wagon extended his hand. “Then climb up and take a look.”
    By the time the one-eyed man entered the wagon, Yim had managed to get her shift over her legs and was looking out the open door. She saw low, squalid buildings packed tightly together. They were built of timber and wattle and flanked both sides of a dirt lane that reeked of sewage. At the lane’s edges, men and women seemed gathering for an open-air market where all of the goods for sale were used.
    Yim glanced at the buyer and saw that he regarded her indifferently, as if he were accustomed to viewing bound women. Soon he turned his attention to the goods for sale, kneeling to examine the grain spilled on the wagon’s floor and fingering the contents of a slashed oat bag. Having done that, he gave Yim’s captor a disinterested look. “A copper a sack fer the oats, two coppers fer a sack of grain. Half that fer any sack that’s slashed.”
    “That’s robbery!”
    The buyer grinned. “Aye, no doubt ’tis. But I didn’t do the robbin’. If ye don’t like my price, take this lot to Lurwic and see what it fetches.”
    “Bahl’s headed for Lurwic.”
    “They say his army’s already there,” replied the buyer. “War ruins the market fer bulky goods. Yer lucky I’m buyin’ at all.”
    Yim’s captor sighed. “Sold. Count the sacks.”
    The buyer called out to the street. “Nabs! Tomby! Move quick and empty this lot.”
    Two ragged boys came over and the buyer tossed the sacks to them as Yim’s captor counted each one. Since the robbers had sold the provisions, Yim doubted that she would be journeying farther. Otherwise, she had no inkling of her fate. Once the sacks were emptied, her captors left the wagon’s door open and drove up the lane, stopping periodically as men and women appeared to haggle for the remaining goods. The wares dangling from the wagon’s eaves were sold, along with the pot that Yim had cooked in. The brandy went next, with the robbers keeping a few bottles for themselves. After much dickering, two ragged men purchased the barrel of salt mutton for eleven coppers, and then chortled as they rolled it away. It made Yim surmise that either her captors were poor bargainers or very anxious to leave town.
    When the wagon was nearly emptied out, Yim discovered that the robbers had taken the Seer’s boots. She spotted them, along with his bloodstained cloak, among a small pile of her and the Seer’s clothing. A pinched-faced woman arrived and began rummaging through the garments. As she held up Yim’s cloak to inspect it in the light, Yim’s captor said, “Twenty coppers for the lot.”
    “Twenty! Do ye think I shit money?”
    “’Tis a bargain, lovey. Ye know it.”
    “Ten coppers.”
    “Pah! There’s two pair o’ boots here and a cloak what’s nearly new.”
    “Twelve.”
    “Fifteen and I’ll throw in these ribbons.”
    As the woman made a show of deliberating, she glanced at Yim, who had retreated to a corner. “And the lot includes her shift? It goes with the cloak.”
    “Aye, lovey, ye can have it.”
    “And the undershift if she’s wearing one.”
    Yim’s captor reacted with mock horror. “’Twill leave