“They named it for you?” asked Umbo.
“Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t,” said Leaky.
“This termite-supper town?” said Loaf. “They called it sixteen different things till we got here and told them that they had to settle on a name or we wouldn’t build the tavern here. I suggested they name it for me, and so they named it for her just to prove that they don’t have to do what they’re told, even though it was the best advice they’ve ever had. Population’s tripled in the fifteen years since they named it.”
“What does having a name matter?” asked Umbo.
Loaf rolled his eyes. “I can hear the land speculator saying, ‘Come and buy land here and build a house in a town so saint-forsaken that we don’t even know its name!’ or a traveler saying, ‘Let’s stop for the night at that inn in that town, you know the one, the town with no name?’”
“They get the point,” said Leaky.
Rigg wanted to know what the plan was. “So are we leaving for… the town with the banker named Cooper-”
“Does that town have a name?” asked Umbo. “Or are they waiting for you to move there and name it for them?”
“Leaky’s Landing is new,” said Loaf. “That city has had people there for twice five thousand years. It’s as old as the world. Nobody even knows the language it was first named in.”
“It’s called ‘O,’” said Leaky.
“And it has the Tower of O in it,” said Loaf, as if they should know all about it.
“There must not have been many cities in the world when they named it,” said Rigg. “Are there other old cities named for vowels?”
Loaf looked at his wife, rolled his eyes, and said, “It’s going to be a long trip.” Then he turned back to Rigg. “To answer the question you should have asked, I’ll say that before we set out for O, we’re going to buy you some clothes that won’t attract notice. Not too rich, not too poor, definitely not of woodsy leather, and equally not the latest fashions from upriver. You,” he said, pointing to Umbo, “will pass for my son, dressed like me.”
“I’m excited,” murmured Umbo.
“And like a son, you’ll get cuffed in the head when your mouth gets smart like that,” said Loaf.
“No he won’t,” said Rigg, moving closer to Umbo.
“If I wanted to get hit,” said Umbo, “I could have stayed at home. My father did it plenty. For free.”
Leaky laughed. “He was joking, you fools. This is a rough town with a lot of hitting, but Loaf never lays a hand on any, except when he throws troublemakers out.”
“I had my fill of hurting people when I was in the army,” said Loaf. “I won’t lay a hand on you.”
Umbo relaxed, and so did Rigg.
“Umbo is my son,” Loaf went on, “and Rigg will be my wife’s brother’s boy, your cousin, and his family have a bit more money than us. He was visiting us and we’re taking him to meet his father’s men in O.”
“Why all the lying?” asked Rigg.
“To explain why your clothes will be nicer than ours. When we meet Cooper, he has to believe you are what you say. The letter means something but not as much as you’d like, since it wasn’t addressed to him. He doesn’t know Wandering Man any more than I do. So he has to look at you and see a boy who might come from a family with money.”
“If the banker catches us lying about anything,” said Rigg, “then he won’t believe the jewels are mine.”
“We’ll tell him as much of the truth as he needs to hear. The lies are for nosy people along the way, to explain why you’re dressed different from us. And why you talk so much better than your friend.”
“He does not!” said Umbo, outraged.
“Are you deaf, boy?” asked Leaky. “This Rigg here sounds like he’s been to school. The way he pronounces his words so clear.”
“I’ve been to school!” said Umbo.
“I mean a downriver school,” said Leaky. “We get travelers like that now and then. You really can’t hear the difference in the way he talks?”
“He talks like his father,” said Umbo. “What do you expect?”
“That’s my point,” said Loaf. “You talk like a privick, and he talks like a snooty boy from the schools. He talks like money.”
“Well, I only know how to sound like who I really am,” said Umbo.
“And that’s why I’m calling you my son,” said Loaf, “and him my rich nephew, so why are we having this argument? Besides, I’m going to do the talking anyway. Don’t answer if anybody asks you a question, just look at me. Got it?”
“Yes,” said Rigg.
“This is so stupid,” said Umbo.
“You say that because it’s not your money,” said Leaky.
“Not yours either,” Umbo insisted.
“This boy never backs down,” Loaf growled.
“That’s what makes him a good friend,” said Rigg.
“Some of the money’s ours,” Leaky said to Umbo. “In exchange for the clothes we’re going to buy you two and the passages we’re going to pay for and the days Loaf spends away from here and the bouncers I’ll have to hire when he’s not here to keep the peace. If we don’t make a fair profit on this great and noble service we’re providing you, then he’s a stingy lad and you’re no better.”
“I’ll pay fairly,” said Rigg. “And just so you know, Umbo speaks like an educated boy from Fall Ford, but Father taught me to talk in several different accents and a few completely different languages, too. At home I talk just like Umbo, but for the last week I’ve been talking the way Father said they talk in Aressa Sessamo, cause people understood me better and laughed less.”
“Of course they did,” said Loaf. “That’s the imperial city. And your father sounds like a man who meant you to travel.”
Rigg remembered telling Father that he already knew everything he’d ever need to know-but Father knew all along that Rigg would not be spending his whole life trapping animals in the mountains. Father might not have told Rigg anything about his plans for Rigg’s future, but he’d certainly prepared him to speak wherever he went. Maybe someday Rigg would even have a use for all the astronomy and physics Father taught him. Maybe it would matter that Rigg knew that the Ring was made of dust and tiny stones circling the world, shining in the night because of reflected sunlight. Now that would be a journey!
They went to buy clothes right away that morning; the tailor measured and by evening the clothes were delivered-two of everything for each of them, in different fabrics. “Why do I need two?” asked Umbo.
“So you can wear one while you clean the other,” said Leaky. “Though it’s no surprise you don’t know about washing.”
Rigg interrupted before they could bandy words yet again. “So should I open up a seam and put the jewels back in my clothes? And if I do, which pair of trousers? I tell you I don’t ever want to be caught wearing the wrong pair if a thief steals the other, or if I have to run from somebody.”
“The jewels aren’t very big,” said Umbo. “Can’t you just keep them in a little bag in your pocket?”
Loaf wouldn’t have that. “Pickpockets take whatever they find. Never put in your pocket anything you mean to own for long.”
“I’ll make you a ribbon to put around your waist and tie right tightly,” said Leaky. “And you hang a little bag from the ribbon, inside your trousers, right in front. No one will see it, or if they do, they’ll think it’s your boy parts.”
“Your family jewels,” said Umbo, chortling.
But at that moment, Rigg caught something in Umbo’s eyes, some emotion he couldn’t identify, something that made his eyes shine a little. And he thought: He hasn’t completely forgiven me for letting Kyokay die. It was one thing before, when he didn’t know about the jewels. He could forgive me then, and share blame. But now that he sees me as rich, and knows I hid it from him, it changes everything. He thinks he has reason not to trust me. Does that mean I have reason not to trust him?
It took four days to make the downriver passage to O. First thing the boat’s captain said when they booked passage was, “Pilgrims?” and later Loaf explained that thousands of people a year go to visit the Tower of O. To
