I did, in fact, count.

After a quick inspection to ensure that all the double-large beads were all marked with the same denomination, I counted numbers of columns and rows. It all added up to less than half of the amount owed us for the wispbeads, just under fifty-thousand bead-tani. We'd gone above what would have been our profits if we'd only had salt, skins and furs to trade, but that was only because I knew we could, otherwise I wouldn't have bought so much wire, more mesh screens, bound tools—even with no beads to fuel them, they were still relatively expensive—and cloth.

Really, the bolts of cloth in the amounts I'd brought had been bought with the intent of averting a clothing crisis. Trousers were wearing out, and the children were outgrowing their clothes. It was only a matter of time before someone found their clothes too tight for them to wear and I wanted to get ahead of it. The same for the materials to repair and make shoes. All our footwear were getting a bit worn, and while we could make do with trying to make footwear from reeds, that was only good for the warmer months.

"Thank you," I said once I confirmed the amount of beads. "This… it's not going to cause problems, is it? Having so many high-denomination beads ?"

"I'm touched by your concern, but you need not worry," Ravia said. "There is sufficient supply, as such high-denomination beads were never used for bound tools. Each merchant house has the right to ask the Central Bead Storage for high denomination bead when making large-value transactions."

I considered that, looking at the orderly rows of beads that had been restacked in the storage box. "Well, we shouldn't have to repeat this next time," I said. "We'll be bringing a smaller amount of beads."

"That will help," Ravia said. "Still, I'm sure that matters will settle in time."

"Provided I don't do anything silly like lose this chest in the ocean," I said dryly.

"Well, I didn't want to say anything, but since you did…"

The two of us exchanged a look of amused understanding.

"The chest looks very beautiful," I said. "Very solid and well-made."

"Thank you. Consider it a gift from us to your demesne," Ravia said.

"A useful gift. I'll have to remember to bring something nice for you when we come back." At least it wasn't something too hard to match. The chest itself was simple, it was the skill that it was made with that distinguished it as being a quality product. While it seemed too well-made to have been made in the last few days, I couldn't rule it out, though there was a good chance Emborin and Sons had a pile of these in some store room that they had touched up before giving them out. "By the way, did you manage to find a bound tool that blew out cold air?"

"Unfortunately, one wasn't part of the bound tools we were able to acquire," Ravia said.

"Ah. You know, now that you have beads, it shouldn't be too hard to have… what was his name? Endlew? It shouldn't be too hard for Whisperer Endlew to make a binding of airwisps to cool the inside of the merchant house and imbue it with the beads. Properly positioned you could keep the entire interior cool. The wispbeads used to imbue the bindings would be a sensible business expense, especially if you use it to attract more people to your business because it's more comfortable to wait there."

Ravia tilted his head thoughtfully, then smiled. "Hmm… intriguing. I'll suggest it."

The merchant redid the knot with another length of rope before handing me the chest, which I had Cyuw and Cottsy very carefully carry down to the lower deck. I'd move it into the front room later. "Well, it's been a pleasure doing business with you again, Master Ravia," I said cheerfully as I reached into my beltpouch and drew out a mican, which I handed to him. "See you again in a few weeks."

"The pleasure was all mine," Ravia said, accepting the fruit and looking at it with a smile before he slipped it into his own belt pouch. "I look forward to our next meeting… Binder Rian." The last was said in a low voice.

It took me a moment to realize what he'd said. "Well… this is awkward," I said.

Ravia's smile became reassuring. "You need not worry, Rian. I can assure you of our discretion on this matter."

"Please stop, you're making it even more awkward," I said, struggling not to laugh. "Ravia… I'm not secretly our demesne's Dungeon Binder. I'm just a lord."

The merchant stared at me. "Ah…" he said. "Well, this is awkward." He tilted his head. "A lord?"

"Believe me, if I were our Dungeon Binder, I wouldn't be needing to ask for authorization to take up that proposal to have a boat built," I said. "The only delay would be getting a good design down on paper."

"How very strange. The demesnes outside of Covehold don't normally bother with lords and ladies, save for the older ones."

"We have our reasons," I said. "Such as having someone to send out to a trading trip like this so our Dungeon Binder can stay home in case of a sudden dragon or any other emergency."

"Ah. Yes, I suppose a lord would need to be sent if they were negotiating directly on the Dungeon Binder's behalf."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Well, there you have it. I would appreciate you not spreading the fact around, though you'll probably be telling your family."

"Of course. Have no fear, however, the knowledge will not spread beyond them. Though Royt will be very disappointed. He was the one who put forth the theory."

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With our business with Ravia concluded and the chest stashed in the front room, I went to collect Taeclas, Lidzuga and Kutago from the warehouse. We faced some difficulty, as they was a thick crowd of people around them.

"Taeclas, Lidzuga, Kutago, finish up, we're leaving soon!" I called out. They glanced towards me, and I pointed at the ship. Kutago nodded in acknowledgement, but the other two went back to their conversation, speaking more hurriedly.

Shrugging, I headed out, Cyuw and Cottsy following after me. Hopefully Yhorj and Hans could take care of things in the boat.

One last visit to the bakery, using some of the smaller beads from the chest that I'd taken before Ravia had tied it shut again, and we were walking back with more meat buns and bread. Hopefully the bread will still be edible at dinner time, and if not we can add it to whatever meat we cook. The meat buns will be for lunch.

We passed the warehouse again to find Ravia there, also talking to several of the new arrivals. From the sound of it, several men were getting ready to set out, looking hopeful. Multaw and Liggs, spotting us passing by, informed the three with them, and Kutago interrupted the conversation her brother was having. While I couldn't hear what it was, it was probably along the lines of 'come on brother, we're going'. I also saw Taeclas start making her excuses.

Once the meat buns had been set aside for lunch—it was only just coming on late-morning—and our three new recruits finally returned—Taeclas was the last to arrive, looking satisfied with herself—we began unmooring the Coldhold from the dock.

Despite myself, I turned to our four new recruits. "Last chance to change your mind," I said, ignoring the little Lori-sounding voices in my head telling me to not give them the chance. "We can still let you off. If you change your mind later… well, we won't be able to bring you back until the next time we go to Covehold to trade."

"No, I'm going through with this," Lidzuga said excitedly. "This is what I came to the new continent for, not working some carpentry workshop. I came here to have an adventure and learn. All the beasts and bugs and fursh that haven't been properly studied and catalogued!"

"And I came to make sure he didn't get himself killed having his little adventure," Kutago said. "Where he goes, I go."

I turned to Taeclas and Rybelle, who both shook their heads.

"We're already here," Taeclas said. "Besides, I found some nice people who seemed interested in our old room, and a few others who might be able to find a job there. So… even if we stayed, we won't have anywhere to live and people who work faster than me working at the places that usually hire me. So… uh… " She trailed off, looking embarrassed.

I nodded. "All right, then. Why don't the four of you sit over there?" I gestured towards the cabin's benches. "Later we'll teach you how you can help us around the ship, but right now…"

"Stay out of the way?" Kutago said dryly.

I shrugged. "Hey, you're getting better seats than you'd have gotten in there." I jerked my thumb at the ship further down the dock. "If you have any questions, we can talk once we're underway and have less to focus on, all right?"

They went off to seat themselves, and I gestured to Cottsy before I went down below. The front room was still latched shut, so I opened it and turned, kneeling down and reaching behind some bags of beads to get the large bead that we'd been using to imbue the steam jet driver. Throwing back the bedding covering it, I placed the bead into the bound tool's receptacle. Then I took hold of the control lever and moved it into 'reverse'.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt the tell-tale vibration of water turning into steam and driven through the long tube that passed through the ship. Good, the bound tool was still working. It had been my greatest fear during this trip that one day we'd try to use the driver bound tool only to find it no longer worked. Fortunately, today wasn't that day. If Covehold Demesne's Dungeon Binder had noticed the bound tools, they hadn't interfered in a way that was obvious.

After I went up, Cottsy went down to take his usual place operating the bound tool and I headed to sit with our new recruits. "Now," I said, partly to distract them, "we'll be heading out. To keep from distracting anyone, please don't speak too loudly while we're maneuvering." On either side, Multaw and Liggs were taking out the oars and using them to help guide the ship away from the dock next to us. Yhorj had taken his position at the rudder and I could feel the vibration of the driver bound tool activating. "Once we reach cleaner water, we'll stop and give everyone time to have a quick bath."

I coughed, and deliberately lingered on the embarrassing subject as an added distraction. "Now, I'm sorry to have to ask this, but… well, there's not really a lot of privacy to be found here, so we'd best figure out what bathing arrangements we need to make…"

"Ah… how do you bathe here?" Taeclas asked. She didn't seem discomfited by the subject.

I gestured towards the outriggers and the walkway between them and the ship. "Well, to keep water from getting down into the ship and getting things wet, we usually bathe over there. Just use the buckets and dippers we have, scoop up water and wash ourselves, use soap if we're feeling particularly filthy, and then wash again…"

What followed was an embarrassing discussion—at least it was for me—that I stoically bore as part of my duty as a lord to see to it the people I'm supposed to take care of are… well, taken care of. It was decided that a sheet would be hung and the men would be on the outrigger on one side, and the women on the other. The discussion of how the sheet would be hung went on for long enough that Yhorj was able to back out of the docks and get the ship turned around to point at the opening out of the bay.

It was Kutago who brought it up first. "Aren't we moving too fast?" she said, looking around and no doubt noticing the wake we were leaving behind us.

"Please stay seated," I said, looking ahead of us. "The water's about to get a little rough. But yes, we are. Cottsy's taking care of that."

"Oh, he's a Whisperer?" Lidzuga said. "I've heard some of the salt boats use Whisperers to propel them and help with collecting the salt."

"No," I said. "He's just operating the driver bound tool that moves the ship."

There was a pause, and the four of them turned to stare at me as we passed through the mouth of the cove and started turning towards.

"There's a bound tool on this boat?" Lidzuga asked.

"Ship," I corrected, pointing towards the salt boats. "Those are boats. Anything that's big enough to carry one is called a ship."

"Oh, is that what that means?"

I nodded.

Kutago frowned as she looked towards the lighthouse we were passing. "Wait, where are we going? I thought you said the demesne we're going to is upriver?"

"Oh, yes," I said. "Just not that river. The river we're on is a little ways along the coast."

"Huh. I didn't know there was another river nearby," Lidzuga said.

"Ah. Perhaps I should clarify a few things…" I said as we headed towards home.

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