Chapter 29

Roy did the math in his head. In a big city like Aldersberg, inns were not cheap; room and board ran roughly 3 Crown 40 Copper a day. If Letho was gone for a month and a half, that would eat up over a hundred Crown. Roy’s coin at hand was tight.

That did not even count other expenses, like learning Common Speech. He planned to use the time to study; he could not stay illiterate forever. Books and instruction were costly, especially in a place like Aldersberg. Learning would not be free.

Roy cancelled the overpriced inn room and set a plan in his mind. First, rent a cheap room, ideally under 1 Crown a day, with a roomy, secluded patch nearby for daily training. Second, find short-term work to earn money, he could not just spend without bringing anything in. Third, find a dependable, inexpensive teacher for Common Speech.

All afternoon he knocked on doors in the midtown, asking about rooms. Most landlords took one look at a provincial kid and quoted absurd prices; the cheapest he found was over 1 Crown a day, not even including food.

So he walked out beyond Aldersberg’s gates and asked around the surrounding homes. Before sunset he found a place that fit.

Behind Aldersberg’s south gate, across a swath of golden wheat, a thin man in his thirties led Roy to a large watermill and a few adjoining houses. The man wore white, a soft white cap on his head; his name was Henk, owner of the mill.

The late sun coated the four houses in a wash of gold; stalks of grain and the breath of wind filled the air with the scent of harvest. The waterwheel turned with a gentle clack; the mill by the stream looked like a moving landscape painting.

Roy followed Henk, drinking in the pastoral calm. Then, near the animal pens to the right of the mill, his eyes froze. A young girl with brown hair tied up, wearing a white apron, bent over with her back to them. She held a dustpan in one hand and scattered chaff for the chickens with the other.

She was small. That was not what made Roy stare; what caught him was the shocking hump on her back. She was markedly hunched.

Henk noticed Roy’s look and forced an apologetic smile. “Kid, my girl’s sick, she’s ugly to look at; does she frighten you? I’ll send her away right now.” He was eager for a tenant, any tenant; rooms at the mill had been empty because no one wanted to rent a place with such an odd child about. Henk did not want to let this chance slip.