Chapter 8

Everyone gathered around the wooden table in the private dining room they’d used the day before. Corec waited while Ellerie described the proposal. He and Treya occasionally interjected comments when they thought of something important.

Boktar had paced around the room while Ellerie was speaking. When she was done, he asked Corec, “What’s this Varsin fellow like? Can we trust him?”

“I guess you could say I’ve been working for him for years, but only in the sense that he’s in charge of Senshall’s local caravans. Before today, I’d only met him once. The company’s always paid me on time and I’ve never had any real problems with them, but as for Varsin personally, I just don’t know. If he decides to stab us in the back, his family’s powerful enough that he could get away with it. I didn’t get the impression he would, but I can’t promise he wouldn’t.”

“If he does, we’re not exactly helpless,” Ellerie pointed out.

“No, but I’d rather not have to avoid Tyrsall for the rest of my life.”

Treya said, “I don’t think Varsin would do anything like that. I don’t know him any better than you do, but Renny trusts him. Plus, his other brother—not Burton—is having some trouble with the Three Orders. The company wouldn’t want to risk another incident by breaking a contract that was brokered by two Sisters.”

“Trouble?” Ellerie asked. “What sort of trouble?”

“It’s ... a personal matter, but it’s caused some embarrassment for the family. It doesn’t affect Varsin, though. Renny insists he wasn’t involved.”

“I don’t have a problem with him either,” Corec said. “I just want to make sure everyone’s aware of how much influence he has before we go making a deal with him.”

“Should we make a deal?” Katrin asked. “It seems like he gets everything he wants first, while we do all the work.”

“That’s true,” Bobo said. “Is he loaning us the money or is he investing in the search? Why does he get the loan paid back while still earning shares of anything we find?”

“I don’t think we can change that part, but the other terms are generous,” Ellerie said. “If we don’t find anything, we don’t have to pay back the money, and between the three investors, they’re willing to cover the full cost of the expedition.”

“Plus, we don’t have to give him what we know about Tir Yadar,” Corec added.

Ellerie nodded. “I insisted on that, so Varsin can’t cut us out of the deal. He wanted to know the route we were planning to take, but I told him that couldn’t be part of the bargain. He knows we’re headed east of Nysa, and that we have directions that may or may not get us to Tir Yadar, but he doesn’t know the details and he doesn’t know about the amulet.”

Boktar frowned. “He’s willing to give you that much money without knowing where we’re going?”

“To a man like him, it’s not much money. He must have decided it’s worth the risk.”

“How will he pay for everything if we don’t know what our expenses will be yet?”

“His factor, Marco, will be able to borrow money from Senshall’s operations in Cordaea. Up to two hundred gold, minus whatever we spend before we get there.”

“Two hundred?” Boktar asked, his eyebrows raised. “That’s more than twice my highest estimate.”

“Some of the extra will be used to pay the other people he’s sending along, and the rest is meant to cover delays or unexpected expenses.”

“Do you really think it’s worth it?” the dwarf asked her seriously. “This has always been your plan. If you want to bring in someone else, I’ll back your decision.”

Ellerie hesitated. “The truth is, we still don’t know if we’ll ever find Tir Yadar, and if we do, whether it’ll be worth it. Do we spend months trying to scrape together enough money to actually go, or do we take the offer and go now? We’re not really giving up anything to let him be part of it.”

“We were going to do the work anyway,” Corec said. “This just means we’re not paying for it ourselves.”

Boktar nodded.

“How will the shares be divided?” Bobo asked.

“Evenly, of course,” Ellerie said, “though the Senshall employees will get partial shares rather than full shares.”

“That’s not what I meant. Who decides the worth of everything? Varsin? Or this Marco fellow, who works for him? If you find a bunch of pottery shards and a single intact vase, how is it divided up? Do you sell everything before cashing out the shares? Do you sell things in Cordaea, where the prices may be lower, or haul them back to Tyrsall? What if you find something you want to keep? Is it Marco, again, who decides how to count that against your share?”

“You know as well as I do that we’re not likely to find anything worth arguing about. Varsin just wants bragging rights in front of the other trading houses.”

“I’ll remind you that we found that in Tar Navis,” Bobo said, pointing to Corec’s sheathed sword, which he’d left propped up against the wall behind him. “Now, I’m no expert on enchanted weapons, but I’m reasonably certain something like that could pay for the expedition ten times over ... provided you can find someone who’s got that much coin to spend. If you’re in a rush to sell it just so you can pay back the investments, you’ll have to take less than it’s worth. The investors might get their money back while the rest of us end up with nothing.”

Corec shared a concerned look with Ellerie. They hadn’t considered that. “Varsin kept saying we could discuss the details when we negotiate the contract,” he said. “We should probably bring you along for that.”

“Indeed.”

“Well?” Razai asked. When she’d told Renny she was leaving, and that she needed a job that would take her away from Tyrsall, the girl had begged her to stay for a few more days. She’d insisted she had a big deal in the works, and could provide the escape from the city Razai was looking for.

“The contract is signed,” Renny said. “You’ll go along to represent my interests, as well as serving as an extra guard and mage. Four silver per day plus expenses, and if the expedition makes a profit after paying off its loans, you’ll earn an eighth of a share as a bonus.”

“That’s generous.”

“Well, you shouldn’t count on the bonus, but your pay is guaranteed regardless of what happens, and there’ll be someone along from Senshall to ensure you get it. We expect the trip to last four to six months. You’ll be paid until you land back in Tyrsall, even if the search fails. It should come out to a fair amount.”

Razai nodded. “When do we leave?”

“The ship is due to arrive in three days, but then it’ll take another three to unload, resupply, and give the sailors shore leave.”

Razai grunted. Another week stuck in the city, with Corec possibly hiding just around the corner. She could still leave instead, but Renny was a useful employer ... and a friendly one. Razai didn’t want to burn that bridge unless she had to.

“I guess that’ll do,” she said.

“I wish you would tell me who you’re trying to get away from,” Renny said. “If someone’s trying to hurt you, maybe I can help.”

“It’s nothing like that. It’s just someone I’d rather avoid running into.”

“I think I understand,” the girl said with a knowing smile.

Razai very much doubted that, but she’d found it was sometimes easier to let Renny believe what she wanted to believe.

“Do you want me to keep working as your bodyguard until I leave?”

“You might as well,” Renny said, “though I don’t think I’ll need to look for a replacement once you leave after all. Stavo should be enough. Did you know that someone caught Dallo and turned him in for the bounty?”

Razai hid a smirk. “I heard something about that.”

The concubine suddenly ran forward and wrapped her arms tightly around Razai. “I’ll miss you! It’s been so fun having you around!”

Razai stiffened, forcing herself to take her hands off the hilts of her knives. “I...” She couldn’t think of anything to say, so she awkwardly patted the other woman’s back.

“It was great having another girl to talk to! Kelsa’s nice, but she and I don’t really talk much, so normally it’s just Eva.” Eva was Renny’s lady’s maid, and Kelsa was Varsin’s wife.

Razai hadn’t considered herself as being good company. In the weeks she’d been guarding Renny, she’d mostly just listened to the girl chatter nonstop.

“I’ll miss you, too,” she said, trying to be polite. But it wasn’t entirely a lie. The concubine was more interesting to spend time with than Vash, who was always focused on finding his next woman, or Wotar, who rarely spoke about anything other than work.

Renny said, “With you around, it’s been like having my old roommate Treya back. You’ll like her. I’ve met some of her friends too, and they seem nice.”

Razai nodded, then froze, her blood running cold. “Did you say Treya?”

Ellerie found the bookshop in the middle of the Tailors’ Quarter, wedged between a cobbler’s stand and a seamstress’s shop. Inside, a young human man was dusting the bookshelves.

He smiled at her. “Welcome to Deshin’s Rare Books, Lady Elf. I am Deshin. How may I help you?”

“Someone told me you sell spell books.”

“It’s not my stock in trade, but I do have a few ... for qualified buyers. May I ask who sent you?”

“Corec. Corec Tarwen of Larso. Tall human with dark hair and a big sword.”

“Ahh, yes, I remember Corec. You’re a friend of his, then?”

“Yes.” Was she? She didn’t think of him as an enemy anymore, but a friend? That was hard to say.

“Then tell me, what are you looking for?”

“Are you familiar with an arrow shield spell?”

“I believe so. It’s similar to a regular shield spell. It can be maintained longer, but it only stops arrows, crossbow bolts, and the like, yes?”

She nodded. “Yes, but I’m hoping to find a version that can be cast on others. Or on a large group of people at once.”

“Arrow shield spells tend to be passed down from battle wizards, who weren’t known for being generous with their spell-casting. But let me think ... I do have part of a spell book that once belonged to a Nobitari mage who rode to war with his king’s army. If I remember right, that may have what you’re looking for.”

“Part of a spell book?”

He shrugged. “It wasn’t completely warded from the magical flames that killed the wizard. That was back during the last war between Nobitar and Valara. Let me go in the back and find it.”

He left through a door in the far wall, and Ellerie took the opportunity to explore the bookshelves. She laughed when she reached a row of historical treatises and found a complete copy of the nilvasta scholar Yishara’s works, all in original handwritten Elven. She considered buying it, but she’d already read the complete set, and it was seven volumes long—seven heavy volumes.

Deshin returned then, thumbing through a scorch-marked tome bound in leather. “It was partly protected, so it’s still intact, but the first two-thirds of the pages are mostly unreadable due to fire damage. You can see a few words here and there, but certainly not enough to reconstruct the spells. Let’s see ... Oh, a mage lock spell. That’s always handy.”

“I already know a locking spell,” Ellerie said, hiding her impatience.

He flipped through more pages. “Hmm, a few wards, a lore spell...”

“What’s that?”

“The lore spell? It gives you impressions of an artifact’s history. I use a similar spell when I’m hired to examine the authenticity of a piece of art.” He flipped to the next page. “And here we go, just as I thought. An arrow shield spell that works in a circle surrounding you, and protects anyone within that circle. It takes a great deal of power to be useful, though. It was designed for protecting small military units, and it wouldn’t do much good if it only blocked two or three hits like a normal shield spell.”

That made sense. Even a regular shield spell could be strengthened to last longer, though Venni was the only person Ellerie had ever seen do so.

“Let me see it,” she said.

The shopkeeper handed over the book. Ellerie read the description of the arrow shield, then glanced over the first page of the spell itself. It looked complicated, but she thought she could manage it. Whether she had the strength to make it worthwhile would be another question.

“Is there anything else in here?” she asked, skipping over the next few pages. “What’s this? Magic opposition field?” It was the most complex spell she’d ever seen, but the description merely said, ‘for stopping enemy mages.’

“I tried reading through that one when I first bought the book, but I wasn’t able to figure it out.”

She nodded. “What’s the price?”

“I suppose I could let it go for three gold.”

“Three gold? For less than half of a book?”

“Spell books don’t come cheap, I’m afraid, and this one has several rare spells.”

Ellerie stared down at the book, frowning at the cost. Corec had suggested that Deshin’s services came cheap, but apparently the man still knew the worth of his goods.

If she’d been in Terevas, she could have simply gone into the wizardry archive in the Glass Palace and copied the spells she needed—that was how she’d painstakingly constructed her own spell book during her apprenticeship. But she wasn’t in Terevas. She’d tried to find a better arrow shield spell in Snow Crown, but the stormborn didn’t sell spell books. They only traded them amongst their own wizards.