Everran sighed. “No doubt it is too much to expect, but if Dakon can extract or spark some discussion on the form and timing of the king’s aid, it would be easier for us to make plans – ah! Let’s talk about that later. Here’s the food!”
As servants entered the room carrying platters of food, glasses and flagons of wine and water, the visitors moved to the benches. Some struck up conversations with their neighbours as they ate, rehashing what they’d already covered. Dakon considered what he’d heard so far. He didn’t feel as though he’d gained much insight into how to approach the king yet. The talk had gone in circles.
As he looked at Everran, the man smiled and tilted his head toward his friends slightly as if to ask “Are you listening to this?”
Suddenly it became clear to Dakon what Everran expected. These powerful men did not like to be pushed or interrupted, especially when caught up in passionate discussion. No, it was up to Dakon to take note of what was said by whom, and select which men to approach later and ask more specific advice about the coming meeting.
And what would he ask? What he needed to know was how King Errik might react to certain approaches and suggestions. Sabin appeared to be, unexpectedly, the man closest to the king. Dakon would have chosen Wayel at first, but the man had asked some questions Dakon had expected him to know the answer to, so perhaps he was too new in his position. And the others?
When the discussions began again, Dakon decided, he would insert a few comments and questions designed to reveal more about these men. He waved away the offer of wine, opting for water instead.
As on every visit to the city Dakon had made before, it took some time to adjust to the more subtle ways matters were tackled here. This time he had to adapt fast, because the level of politics the king was involved in was a complicated and tortuous one indeed, and soon he would be meeting with the man himself.
Through the window flap of the wagon’s cover Tessia saw a frightening and thrilling sight. A great crowd of people and wagons filled the streets, all pushing in different directions. More people than wagons – and there were plenty of those. More people in one place than she’d ever seen before. The mass of them, the sense of gathered force, the roar of voices, set her heart racing.
The reason the Parade was so crowded lay at the foot of it. A mass of people had gathered there, and the sound of music rose faintly above the crowd. Flashes of colour promised strange sights.
The market.
“We should have left earlier,” Avaria said for the fourth time, sighing and smoothing her carefully pinned hair.
They had talked about Tessia’s childhood and upbringing, the reason her father had moved to Mandryn, how Tessia had discovered her powers (Avaria accepted that Takado had merely “given her a fright’) and all the interesting incidents on the journey to Imardin. Tessia was beginning to wonder if she’d used up all the significant stories of her life within her first day in the city.
She also felt as if she was talking about herself too much. But when she asked Avaria the same sorts of questions, the woman would begin an anecdote about her childhood or apprenticeship, only to be reminded of something else she wanted to ask Tessia.
“It might be faster on foot.” Tessia peered at the crowd passing the wagon.
“Not a good idea, I’m afraid. Aside from all the shoving and pushing, we’d be robbed before we got there,” Avaria said, shrugging gracefully.
“Robbed?” Tessia looked at her hostess in alarm.
Avaria smiled crookedly. “Indeed – though it is unlikely we’d notice at first. Pickpockets are very skilled in Imardin. And most are children – small and fast in a crowd. Even if you see them, your servants have no hope of catching them.”
“Children?” Tessia looked more closely at the crowd. She’d seen some appallingly thin, dirty children the day before. No surprise they were desperate enough to turn to thieving.
Her father had told her about the poor of Imardin. When she had asked him why they had no money his explanation had been long and complicated. He’d offered a list of reasons – too little work for too many people, nobody willing to offer work to people who were a bit strange in the mind, or crippled. Some people had nobody to care for them when they fell ill, and if their illness led to their no longer having work they might starve before they recovered. Some people were injured while working, and if their employers didn’t care for them they ended up in a similar situation.
It was not the first time, and certainly not the last, that she’d been told that few lords were as caring of their people and conscious of their responsibilities as Lord Dakon and his father had been. Some were fools. Some only saw their people as commodities. Some were downright malicious.
“Poor things,” Avaria said. “Born into poverty, raised to be thieves. If the city is plagued by such ills, it serves it right for not taking better care of its people.”
Tessia nodded, wondering at this way of referring to the city as if it were a person.
“But it can’t be as easy to care for a whole city as it is a village.”
“No.” Avaria smiled and her eyes glowed as she looked at Tessia. Perhaps in approval. Tessia wasn’t sure.
The wagon began moving. Tessia braced herself, expecting it to stop again, but it rolled on. Then it swung round a corner and came to a halt again.
“We’re here!” Avaria announced happily. Rising, she pulled the wagon cover open and climbed out. One of the two male servants who had ridden on the back of the wagon was already there to help her down to the ground. As Tessia stepped down the tiny ladder built against the side of the vehicle, the second servant moved forward to offer a hand. She didn’t take it, but smiled at him in gratitude anyway.
He smiled back politely and followed as she moved to join Avaria, who hooked an arm through hers.
Tessia looked around and blinked in surprise. They weren’t in the market, as she’d expected. They were in a busy side street, narrower than the main roads and lined with small shops.
“Welcome to Vanity Street,” Avaria said, patting Tessia’s arm. “Where most of the best shops in Imardin can be found.”
“Not in the market, then?”
“Oh no. That’s full of vegetables and grain and smelly animals. The only cloth you’ll find there is for making grain sacks or saddles, and the closest thing they have to books is wax accounting tablets.”
Avaria guided Tessia to one side of the street. The closeness of the other woman was unexpected, but reassuring. The street was crowded with finely dressed men and women. Musicians in pairs and trios played and sang at the side of the road and occasionally a passer-by tossed a coin into the iron cups at their feet. The cups, Tessia noted, had numbers painted on their sides.
“Come in here,” Avaria said, drawing Tessia through the door of a shop. Inside, the street noises were muffled. Two women were examining rolls of cloth laid out on a table. More rolls leaned up against the walls, in a dazzling range of bright colours. A man was standing in the doorway to another room. As Tessia looked at him he smiled and nodded politely.
“Oh, look,” Avaria suddenly exclaimed. “Isn’t this beautiful!” She led Tessia to one of the walls and tugged off a glove so she could run her fingers lightly over some smooth cloth in a deep, vibrant blue.
“I must have some of this. What colours do you like, Tessia?”
Looking around at the range of brilliant colours, Tessia couldn’t help thinking they were all a bit too gaudy. She tried to imagine each individually forming a garment, and found herself drawn to a dark green. It reminded her of one of her father’s favourite wound-salve ingredients, an oil from a tree that grew in the mountains, which smelled delicious.
Avaria picked up the bolt and held it up to Tessia’s face.
“You have a good eye,” she told her. “That will suit you very well.” She turned to the seller. “We’ll take both. Oh, and that would look wonderful on Everran.” She picked up another bolt of dark red then winked at Tessia. “Thankfully, the only bit of Sachakan bloodline left in his veins is the good one – he has such enviable skin.”
