“Never mind that. The unsightly mole on my wife’s… chest has been there for over ten years. Now it has vanished without a trace, because she came to see you. She is ecstatic -and she says you did not even touch her.”
“Not quite true,” Strick told him. “I did see the mole, and later I did put my hands on her shoulders. It was sufficient.”
Shafralain shook his head. “Such power-and can you heal? Are you a physician mage, is that it?”
“Not really. Can’t raise the dead and wouldn’t strike dead an enemy of yours, not for all your fortune. Couldn’t heal a dagger wound in your belly either,
Shafralain.”
Shafralain made a face at the image that brought to mind. “My lady wife is the happiest of women, and yet you took from her a single piece of silver. Now-“
“No. I asked for something of value, in advance, and a silver coin was what she my third client here-chose to give me. Another gave me water and wine; another a worthless belt. But it was of value to her, you see.”
“Now my wife tells me I should give you a hundred more!”
“I have what I want of her and of you, Shafralain,” Strick said, omitting the other man’s title for the second time. “How many of high station has she told?”
He smiled. “I hope she exaggerates the amount paid but not my ability! Because of her, others will come. I will have my hundred pieces of silver! But-is she totally happy? There is always another Price; a Trade. I paid mine. A person who was infatuated with one much older and driven to drunkenness now has a craving for sweets that will become trouble. Fulcris’s wound healed swiftly without a scar. I had only a little to do with that, but he will have some small complaint by now. The reverse effect; the Price.”