The Bronze of Eddarta Read Online Free Page B

settled … or begun.
    The next morning, Tarani and I walked downhill to the market area of the city, and bought the few supplies we thought we would need. We were still Molik’s guests, though the coins Tarani had grabbed out of his lockbox after Thymas had killed the roguelord were dwindling fast. I had been wishing that we could buy some extra clothes to take along, but it looked as though we couldn’t quite afford it.
    Tarani was holding the parcels which contained bread and dried meat. When she saw me counting, she said: “You are welcome to use Volitar’s money.”
    I pulled the drawstrings of the pouch and tucked it into my belt. Then I picked up my parcels—fruit and the roast fowl we would eat on the first night—and led her away from the market stall.
    “Thank you, Tarani,” I said, “but I don’t think that’s wise. Why didn’t your uncle—”
    “My
father
,” she corrected me, with sudden sharpness.
    “Why didn’t Volitar spend them?” I asked, after a second or two. “You said yourself, he never lived more than comfortably.”
    “They are Eddartan coins,” she said. “Perhaps they were a memento of …”
    Her voice trailed off, and I knew she was thinking about the mother she had never met. It was a romantic notion, that Volitar had kept that wealth secret, in memory of Zefra. It seemed to be a romantic story, what we knew of it. I knew Tarani believed she would meet her mother in Eddarta. I hoped, for Tarani’s sake, that such a meeting would live up to her expectations.
    “Volitar showed his love for Zefra in much more concrete ways, Tarani. I think he held on to those coins because spending them would be dangerous.”
    “But I have seen many Eddartan coins in Dyskornis, Rikardon.”
    “Gold twenty-
dozak
pieces? Bearing Pylomel’s likeness?” I asked.
    “I haven’t seen many of the gold pieces, but … no, now that I think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen coins like the ones we found with Zefra’s letter. Do you think Volitar was afraid he could be traced here, if he spent the coins?”
    I nodded.
    “Then what shall
we
do with them?”
    “Take them with us.”
    We were still in the marketplace, and just then I spotted a stall with leather goods and tanned, uncut skins.
    “Here, hold these a minute,” I said, and walked over to the leather dealer, who was seated under an awning supported by thin poles. On the ground around him were his wares. The worked goods—boots, belts, baldrics, vlek harnesses—were displayed on colored cloths. The skins—taken from
glith
, the deer-size food animal—were laid out in long lines, overlapped slightly so that a portion of each skin was visible. I walked around, bending over to look at the skins. When I found what I wanted, I sat down.
    The dealer, who hadn’t said a word (although he’d kept a wary eye on me), suddenly came to life.
    “Yes, sir, how may I serve you this morning?”
    I touched the glith skin I’d selected, asked him the price, and we started haggling.
    “Sorry I took so long,” I said, when I got back to Tarani with my new purchase. I took some of the bundles back, and we started walking northward, heading back to Volitar’s shop. Tarani took the skin, which the dealer had rolled and tied, and looked it over skeptically.
    “This is ugly,” she said finally. “Thin and discolored—surely you could have afforded a better one. What are you going to do with it?”
    At that moment, we were moving through the shopping crowd. “That’s going to give me something to do along the way,” I said. “Let’s hurry, shall we? If we don’t get back soon, Thymas is liable to leave without us.”
    She laughed at that, and I took pleasure in the sound of her laughter.
    But I hadn’t been far wrong. Thymas was waiting, with Ronar, at the downhill entrance to the living quarters attached to Volitar’s shop. He had our saddlebags and backpacks laid out on the ground, open and ready for packing.
    “Half the day is