They waved goodbye to the Trifling Impost three days later, the morning after a last dinner together. Verhassin received their thanks gracefully, Hassani showed off her pirate outfit (two red sashes, a short kilt and knee-boots) and Yuli and Juin were pleased with the sets of brushes Chrys had found at a local silversmiths. Then it was off to the Shipwrights’ Bank to see if statements and messages had completed passage to this outlying branch.
They had. Chrys flipped open her statement of account first, glanced at the total, looked again, then asked Rakt if he could read the messages, please. He opened the first.
“This is from, hmm, Qavzhin Khashmeis… something I won’t try to pronounce.. Staff-Holder of Justice for Khuaqe...I give up...Hold. We hereby acknowledge a debt due and payable on behalf of Hold-Sharer Heuch something, something, in that we released the said Heuch whatever from unlawful imprisonment and prevented his demise…and have therefore transferred the sum of thirty-three thousand, eight hundred and seventy-two silver leaves and nine seeds, in full payment of the above debt...It goes on for a bit more, and there is an attached list for Heuch and each item of his gear and so on. All very dwarvish.”
“I told you they might pay,” said Aitonala.
Chrys looked at her balance again, did some sums in her head and asked Rakt to open the next message.
“This one is from Ferrzhe Jiaghin, in Verdu. He’s the dwarf who was negotiating to sell some treasure we found,” he added aside to Skaia and Bajur. Both were open-mouthed. “He says,… usual greetings, he has sold all the silver, one piece to a collector and the rest to dwarvish holds... itemised list….his commission….deposit of...three hundred and forty-three thousand, nine hundred and two silver leaves.” This last sum was said in a hushed tone.
“I’m sticking with you guys,” said Skaia.
Chrys thought ‘We are rich! I am rich!’ and came to an abrupt decision. “I am cashing out. I have made my pile, and now I am going to buy a house and study magic.” She looked around. “I’ll miss you all, and I promise to keep in touch. But this is where it ends for me. Not today, of course, but no more ventures.”
Bajur looked troubled. “I am still called west. I had hoped you would accompany me but, if it is not be, it is not to be.”
“I’m still short a few hundred thousand, so I’m with you,” said Deyilan, clapping him on the back.
“And I,” said Skaia. “I mean to return to Dravishi.”
Cardnial bit his lip in indecision, then “Oh well, you will need a magician.” Chrys smiled inwardly.
Rakt leaned back. “I’ll sleep on it and let you know tomorrow.” Aitonala added “Me too”.
Chrys checked her personal messages. One from her aunt, with all the gossip from distant Tsitiev. Another from Ido, who had been in the garden of the Overlook when all this started. It was an invitation to her wedding. A third, forwarded from the Etheric Practice Association. She flipped it open, read the contents and laughed aloud.
“Remember Salko’s notebooks? I carted them around and then left them in storage at the Association in Dtlag. This is a letter from someone called Stephni. He wants to buy them. He’s offering twenty thousand.”
Rakt laughed too. “It’s not carnival eve, and yet it’s raining gifts.”
“I am so sticking with you guys,” said Skaia.
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In the end, only Aitonala went east with Chrys. They took a boat around to Umma, another to the mainland and bought horses for the journey across the Saka lands. They rode across the fertile coastal plains, up the long rise to the Kanna Saka uplands and into Verdu. The fairground outside the walls was deserted, Ferrzhe Jiarghin’s stone hut shuttered. They stayed one night at a modest inn and continued east, passing forest and field, into Awa Saka land and then down the winding road to the Haghar lowlands and under the old grey walls into Dtlag city. The first showers of the rainy season dampened their cloaks as they came down from the hills. It was, Chrys thought, less than a year since she had left Dtlag for the Wild. She spared a thought for Venalse, who rested quiet under the snake-fruit tree in the Wild.
Ido’s wedding was a success. The couple were happy, the relatives restrained and the food and drink plentiful. Chrys gave them a sumptuous present and had a hangover that took three spells to cure. After some thought, she accepted Stephni’s offer, then booked passage to Toul. She owed her mother a visit.
* * * *
South of Toul, the coast is studded with small islands and fretted with bays, inlets and channels. In a bay sheltered from the north several rocks thrust upwards from the water, vegetation clinging to ledges. In a house carved into the top of one of these Chrys was pottering about in her workroom when a chime announced an expected visitor. She crossed to the hall, peered into the view-panel to see a familiar face.
“Aitoni! Welcome. Shall I bring you across?”
“Don’t bother. Just open a door or whatever you use to go outside. Which way does it face?”
Chrys hastened to fling open the door to the balcony, then went outside to brush aside the hanging vines and lean over. Aitonala was walking across the air as if it were a path. She waved, climbed a few steps up to the rail, stepped down and gave Chrys a great hug.
“Nice place. Great view, quiet. I love it.”
“All of that. Plus I get into Toul or Tsitiev quite often. You’re the first one of the old group to visit though.”
“Give me a drink and I’ll fill you in.”
They sat on the balcony, watched the sun go down over the forested hills and chatted.
“You know Bajur, Deyilan, Skaia and Cardnial were going back to Dravishi? Well, they did, and had a run-in with some demons up in the hills. Cleaned up three places and recovered a lot of stuff. They picked up an Archivist and another magician. Bajur got quite a reputation, which attracted new entrants to his order. It got bigger when he defeated two Red Hand knights and then saw off a Brahnak who said his god was rubbish. Flattened him in front of a crowd in Brafa.”
“Good for them. I had letters from Kosohona and Rakt. She says she’s well on the road to full recovery. He set up a ship’s guard company, which is doing well. But he wrote to say he’s met the love of his life, a lady warrior from Kaber, and they plan to get married in the autumn. Or earlier if she falls pregnant. We are all invited. He does not know where yet, as he wrote from the Fire Islands on his way to another contract.”
Then Chrys asked “How about you?”
“I’m too young to run a chapter-house, so they gave me a roving commission. Aitonala the trouble-shooter, that’s me. I escorted a princess up to Daruz Alman. Well, she thought she was a princess. Anyway, she was important enough that I had to off three assassins on the way. Then it was rescue a village and take some presents to the Bird-Queen. So I was in the neighbourhood, more or less, and thought I would contact you.”
Chrys smiled at her fondly. “And I am glad you did. By the way, the walking on air thing says you are pretty powerful.”
“You must be up there with the best yourself, what with all this study.” Aitonala gestured at the books and instruments in the workroom behind them.
“I manage. Apart from what I do here, I spend a week a month with a magician further down the coast. Lydissa put me in touch with her, and I’m learning crafting.”
They sipped their drinks and talked of this and that as the sun went down over the Pia-Pia Wild. The last rays were still on the higher peaks when Chrys remarked “Of the seven of us who set out to find that book, one died, one would have died but for good fortune and four have left off Wild-running. Only you are still out there. Yet we were among the lucky ones, from all I have heard. Bajur, Deyilan, Skaia and Cardnial - I doubt all of them will live to retire.”
They sat there a further while, contemplating the the dangers they had escaped.
Finally, Chrys asked “So how long can you stay?”
“I can manage two nights if you’ll have me. Then I have to be off. Somewhere up on the northern steppe a Rai tribe has reported that their Menghen neighbours are sacrificing young women to evil powers at a ruined temple on a lake. I’m supposed to check it out.”
Chrys’ eyes brightened. “Rai, eh? Tell me more.”