Natan grinned. Zulio knew, annoyed, that he was thinking of the courtesan Vardrai. Well, what did his sniggers count for? He’d assuredly forget them in the morning. “I have therefore taken a rare coin, a virtual ingot, from my vaults and brought it hither,” Zulio said. “Observe. Let us talk.”
FAIRY GOLD
45
Discussion occupied an hour. Natan Sandana was not so rude to a prominent man of affairs that he tested the gold himself .. . then. He did ask for, and get, a certification of value. In return, Zulio accepted a receipt for payment in full. “Have a care,” he warned, as he put four hundred aureates’ worth of the finest diamonds into his satchelor better, because the jeweler had been still more anxious to deal than the slack market warranted. “Some evilly gifted thieves have been at work of late, I hear. Rumor goes that they employ actual witchcraft. That is why my attestation explicitly disavows responsibility for any effects of sorcery, as well as mundane malfeasance. You could open your strongbox and find nothing but a pile of rubbish, left as a jeer at you.”
“I thank you, but I doubt it will happen, and not just because I equate the supernatural with superstition,” the other man replied. A feverish intensity had come upon him. Zulio wondered why.
No matter. He had his profit, a clear fifty aureates above what he had paid out to Arvel Tarabine, in the form of gems negotiable piecemeal. Puffing, chuckling, jiggling, Zulio Pandric hastened back to his ledger and his sweetmeats.
“I must go out, dear,” Natan Sandana told his wife. “Don’t wait up for me.”
“What has happened?” she asked.
“An unbelievable stroke of luck, I hope,” he said, and kissed her fondly. “I’ll tell you later, if all goes well.”
46
The Unicorn Trade
As he stepped forth, the coin in his pouch dragged at his belt. He felt as if every passing glance lingered on the bulge, and pulled his cloak around it. Should he have waited for morning, when he could engage a guard? But that would have been to make conspicuous a transaction best kept secret. Tax collectors were as rapacious as any unofficial robber.
Besides, who would think that a drably clad little gray man carried a fortune on his person? Especially nowadays, when that fortune had been languishing for years in stock he could not sell.
Natan took Serpentine Street, the best-lit and safest way through Docktown, to the Longline. There he must pass a number of empty berths before he reached Sea Mule.
Fore and aft, the castles of the Norrener car-rack loomed darkling. Between them, her guns glimmered dully by the light of wharf lamps and lanterns of the watch on board; her three masts stood gaunt athwart a lately risen moon. Its glade trembled on the river, which murmured with currents and tide. Rigging creaked as hemp contracted in the night’s damp chill.
“Oh-hoa!” Natan called. “Lower the gangplank. I’ve business with your captain.”
The pikemen obliged, which relieved him. Haako Grayfellsson might have been ashore carousing. Instead, the big man slumped in his cabin, amidst the malodor of bear-tallow candles, and swigged from a bottle of rum.
“Well met, Master Sandana,” he said in accented Caronnean and a tone which all but added, “I suppose.”
FAIRY GOLD
47
“I’m happy to find you here,” Natan said.
Haako stroked his red, barbaric beard. “You wouldn’t have, if I’d not blown over-much money on a vixen I’d heard praisedEnough. What would you of me?”
Natan laid palms on the table and leaned across it. “No need to pussyfoot,” he said. “About our conversation the day before yesterday. I am prepared to buy your pearls at the price we mentioned.”
An oath blasted from Haako’s lips, but it was a sound of utter delight. Briefly, Natan recalled Vardrai. Poor woman; in a way it was a shame how she had missed her chance at this investment. Well, so much the more for those whom he held dear.
“Why, welcome again,” the courtesan purred. She undulated into a position where light shone through her shift and outlined every curve against a nighted window.
This time her pleasure and seductiveness were sincere. The Norrener seaman was a little uncouth, true, but he possessed a vigor which he used with some skill. She had been sorry when he told her that he could not afford a second visit.