Chapter 7

The day was taken up with sight-seeing and shopping.

The flickers decided to hang around the hotel. They had a comfortable place to sleep, a safe garden to roam around in and an abundance of good food. Basil informed Gazza that he could find plenty to amuse himself with and flashed a picture of one activity he planned to spend some time perfecting.

Gazza chuckled and decided to leave the newlyweds to their bliss and bonding exercises. He did remind Basil to change the towel on the couch if things got messy. He wouldn’t have minded spending the day in bed with Bette but they did have shopping to finish.

He was surprised that they didn’t waste the whole morning shopping. It seemed Bette wanted to visit some of the places her father had taken her when she was last in this city. Gazza was happy to learn anything new about the people here, their cultures and the Islands that they inhabited. Learning about new places had been one of the reasons he had agreed to go to Afghanistan.

Bette wanted to go look at the ships and boats in the bay. She told Gazza that sometimes ships came to the Island from as far away as Dori, which was the continent to the east and even some from Oron, which was to the north-west. The ships often brought exotic spices and interesting wares to the Sister Islands.

Gazza found a place to park and they strolled down the waterfront. It was a very busy bay. Bette informed him that the docks on the east side had very deep water and the bigger ships were able to tie up over there. The west side docks were for local shipping and the fishermen that worked the bay. So, they headed to the eastern docks.

Bette was excited and pointed out what she considered a huge ship. The crew were busy unloading cargo and the Captain and several of the crew had set up an area to display some of the goods they had to sell. Quite a few well-dressed people were checking out the crates of spices, bolts of cloth, kegs that contained alcohol of some sort and many other items.

The couple happily poked their noses in to see what was what. Bette stopped to look at the bolts of cloth and other haberdashery items they had on display. Gazza turned when he heard two men arguing at the crates that were near them. It seemed they had a communication difficulty.

From what he understood, the coinage here was the same on every continent and had the same value, so he knew that wasn’t the issue. It appeared that the local man wished to barter rather than pay with coin. It seemed that they had a difference of opinion as to the worth of items being exchanged.

“Sir, I don’t want Black Ants, no matter how easy they are to feed and clean up after. I don’t have room for animals unless we can eat them,” the Captain told the small man in the black suit.

“But in your country, they would be a novelty, you could sell them for five times, no, ten times the value I have put on them,” Black Suit tried.

“No deal; coins, gems or gold,” The Captain replied tersely. He knew that, unless the Queen Ant was established in the area, the worker ants would pine and die. The Queen’s pheromones could cover a very large area; they would keep the workers docile as long as they stayed within that area.

Gazza could see the Captain was getting quite agitated with the local man. After a few more words, Black Suit scowled, grumbled and then stomped away. Gazza went over to see what it was the man had wanted to buy so badly. The crates had tightly woven hemp like bags in them.

From what he could work out by the letters stamped on them, each bag weighed roughly ten kilos. They had something called Kaffe Beans in them. Intrigued, Gazza bent down and sniffed the bag. His heart rate climbed rapidly and he had to sniff the bag again.

“Captain, tell me they are unroasted green beans,” he asked.

The Captain frowned, before replying, “Of cause. They only retain their flavour for a month or so if baked. Packed this way they can last several years as long as you keep them cool and dry. Personally, I like the beans to have been dried for several months before I roast them. These beans can also be planted. Do you know anything about growing Kaffe?”

“Not really, I do know the seeds come from small shrub-like trees,” Gazza replied.

“If you are interested in buying some, I can supply some basic instructions. They do take three to five years to grow to maturity, and here, this variety would grow better in the higher altitudes,” the Captain advised.

“That is nice to know. So what is your price?” Gazza asked.

“A rotak a bag,” The Captain promptly replied.

Gazza did some quick arithmetic. A rotak was five dollars here. Back home, the equivalent value would buy about twenty times that or it would have the value of a hundred bucks. Gazza determined that he would be paying the equivalent of ten dollars a kilo. He was more than happy to pay the local price. “How many bags in a crate and how many crates do you have to sell?” he asked.

“Four to a crate and I have five crates that I can sell,” the Captain replied.

“So a Quaz for the lot?” Gazza asked.

“Yes,” the Captain agreed.

“Sold,” said Gazza. “Do you want coin or gold at the current going rate?”

“Coin would be fine,” grinned the Captain. He knew that the local rate for gold was higher than at home, whereas the coins had the same value in both places.

He was surprised when Gazza opened a coin bag and handed him five tris coins. He looked at them closely and noted the markings. “These are Keltrian coins, sir. I can’t accept them.”

“Why not?” Gazza asked in surprise. To his untrained eye, they looked the same as the ones Bete had.

The Captain knew he was cutting his nose off to spite his face but he still had to tell the truth. “Sir, these coins are very rare. At home, one of them would have nearly twice the value to a collector than what you owe me.”

“Thank you for your honesty. Would a Keltrian ques have similar value to a Taran one?” he asked and showed the Captain one of his ten dollar coins. The Captain nodded as it had the same markings as the others. “Will you take one of each denomination as payment? What you eventually get for them would be your problem,” Gazza offered.

The Captain chuckled, “That is a fair gamble. I also suspect you are not trying to cheat me, are you Mage?”

“No Captain, I am a fair man and expect to deal fairly with others,” Gazza replied.

“Do you have transportation?” the Captain asked as he accepted the two coins.

“Yes, I believe I can bring my Auto close enough so that I can load the crates. I shall be back shortly,” Gazza replied. They shook hands and Gazza turned to try and find Bette to tell her what he had purchased.

‘Oops,’ he thought as he saw the raised brow on his girlfriend’s face. She had been standing just off to one side watching him deal with the Captain. He walked over to her and softly kissed her lips. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I have missed decent coffee something awful.”

Bette knew that he called kaffe ‘coffee’. His kaffe wasn’t one of her favourite beverages, as she preferred black tea. Gazza got all the sachets of kaffe from his packs of food.

“How are we possibly going to fit all that in the Auto?” she asked him. They had greatly increased their possessions and it wasn’t as if the boot was that large a space.

“I’ll find a way,” he promised as they walked back to the Auto.

Gazza opened the boot of the Auto and stared at the space it provided.

He stood there for several moments contemplating the problem. Then a wicked little grin lit up his face. He stepped back, removed his magical spellbook from his pocket and opened it. “How do I make a small space hold more?” he asked remembering he had seen such a spell in the book.

He studied the spell for several minutes. He checked the pages near the spell he had been shown and settled on a variation that he liked. He removed four small crystals from his sweets box and place one in each of the top corners of the opening of the boot.

He lifted all of the items out of the boot so that it was empty. He checked around to see if anyone was watching him. Satisfied, he pointed his wand at the space and recited the spell under his breath. He then placed the items back in the boot. Chuckling to himself, he went and opened the door for Bette to get into the Auto.

After he climbed in and started the Auto, Bette said, “I gather it worked.”

“Yes, I have more than enough room for my crates and the bolts of cloth you wanted,” he informed her.

Bette gave him a sideways look. She hadn’t mentioned the bolts of cloths at all. “What was that about the coins?” she wanted to know.

Gazza explained that his coins were apparently collector items because they were not locally made but real Keltrian coins. He handed Bette his bag of coins so she could inspect them. She immediately knew what he was talking about. “We can’t use these until we get them valued.”

“I guess not. Do you have sufficient funds for your purchases?” he asked.

“Yes, we may need to get some more coins from the bank before we leave,” she replied.

Gazza agreed that they would.

If anyone had been watching them pack the boot of the Auto, they would have been perplexed.

As it was, Bette and Gazza were surprised by what they managed to stick in the boot of the little Auto and it didn’t seem to affect it at all. They ended up spending all of Bette’s money bar a que or two. They stopped off at the bank, refurbished their funds and then went back to the hotel to check on the flickers.

Two, tired and sweaty flickers were sprawled on the couch. Gazza went and filled the bath for them so they could wash off the smells of sex. The silly grin on Basil’s face suggested he’d had a wonderful morning.

The bath seemed to revive them and Gazza decided to take them out for lunch at a cafe down the road. The flickers were delighted with the plan and washed quickly. Bette had ordered some fresh towels and once they arrived, they used them to dry the flickers.

Bette had also purchased two soft brushes and she and Gazza brushed the flickers coats for them. Petal and Basil loved being brushed and the smooth sheen their coats had afterwards. They happily claimed a shoulder to ride on and the two couples headed for the cafe.

Along the way, Bette showed Gazza the two small rings she had found while they were on the docks. “I have no idea why I picked them up,” she exclaimed. “I mean, they look like they were meant for children and I don’t plan on having any for a few years at least. Admittedly, they were ridiculously cheap. I suppose I can try to resell them in Avilla when we get there.”

Gazza looked at the rings. One had a diamond, a ruby and a yellow gem he suspected was a Quaz crystal. The other had a tiny agate in place of the ruby. He stopped walking and grinned at Bette. He took the ring with the ruby and placed it on the middle finger of Basil’s right hand.

Basil stiffened for a moment and then whistled in surprise. Gazza chuckled and placed the other ring on Petal’s right hand. She chirped out her surprise before she reached over and kissed Gazza’s cheek. “I think they belong to them,” he told Bette before they walked on.

Bette looked at Gazza quizzically a time or two but she didn’t object to or question his decision. She was not sure why she had felt compelled to buy them at the time. Now, she was sure they were where they belonged. It did irk her a little that Gazza had determined their significance before she did. It also gave her some interesting ideas to think about.

The cafe had outside tables and the waitress didn’t bat an eye at the flickers joining the people at the table. Unbeknown to the little family she was a sister to the waiter who had served the flickers their dinner the night before so she already knew about them. She did ask if they would prefer some higher stools for them that they offered their smaller customers.

Gazza agreed and she swapped two of the chairs. Petal and Basil were delighted with the swap. They had all finished their meal and were discussing what to do next when they heard a crash and a high pitched squeal of pain. Gazza turned to see that two carts had collided. One of the carts had turned over and the Black Ant that had been pulling it was in a tangled mess.

Gazza couldn’t help himself and he ran over to see if he could help. He was surprised that Bette and the flickers had come to help too. While he untangled the harness with Basil and Petal’s help, Bette soothed the terrified Ant. The Ant whimpered in pain when Gazza tried to move one of its legs.

Gazza stopped to examine the leg more closely and was dismayed to find one the segments had been badly cracked. He knew the exoskeleton was made of a protein and mineral combination called chitin. He wondered if he could bond the chitin back together. He placed his hands gently over the crack.