“I apologize for that.”
“Sure,” I said. “Sounds great.”
“You should not deny what small kindnesses we allow you,” the voice said, falsely sympathetic, and I bit the inside of my cheek. “You are in a disadvantageous position. Please, take off her blindfold.”
Aw, shit
, I thought,
don’t go doing that
, but it was too late and now I could see everything: dim light and shadows and rock, like we were in some kind of storage cellar. If this was the famous magicians’ city, then I was one disappointed commoner right now. Then again, maybe Hatty had been full of it when he’d told me that was where we were going.
I’d never seen a magician up close before, but if I had to guess, I’d say I was looking at one right now. The man standing in front of me was dressed simply but I knew by the way he held himself that he was somebody important, even with how young he was. He was holding my treasure—I guessed I should call it a compass, not having any other name for it—and I focused my eyes on that because it was something I recognized, at least.
“I suppose it is clear by now that we wish to know where you found this,” he said. His robes were blue, the color of a real Ke-Han patriot, and his head was shaved down to the bone. That look worked on some people, but his skull had too many knobbly bits.
“It’s garbage,” I told him. “Some people collect that.”
“You’re a profiteer,” he said. “You seek to benefit from the empire’s loss.”
“Somebody needs to, all due respect,” I replied.
His lip twitched at the corner. He wasn’t a soldier and he wasn’t nobility, because he had real facial expressions—the sort of thing you never saw in people who carried themselves like he did. “There is no respect in that,” he said, touching the curved body of the compass gently, in a way that made me uncomfortable. He could stop making love to it anytime now and I’d feel a whole lot better. “You’ve sold parts—parts like this one?”
“Not really,” I said, and gritted my jaw. “No use in selling the good stuff.”
“And why is that?”
“I think,” said my old friend, Hatty with the scar, “she hopes to make a greater profit when there is greater profit to be had.”
The stranger whirled on me without further warning—he was trying to intimidate me physically, and he had the element of surprise on his side, so damn me if it didn’t work. “Do you have, or have you had, in your possession, any pieces similar to this one?” he demanded.
“Nothing like that,” I said. “You want me to swear on something?”
The stranger smiled. “Your life will serve.”
Great. A fucking crazy person was in charge of me now. At least with Hatty I’d known where I stood since it was easy to know where you stood with a soldier: Keep quiet and they’ll usually do the same. Safest thing to do with a crazy person, I reasoned, was to go along with whatever craziness he was spouting and hope he didn’t change directions midthought just to trip me up.
I held out my hands, palms down like I was bowing, only I wasn’t about to get on my knees in a place like this. No telling
what
was on the ground in a storage cellar, even a storage cellar that attracted men as fancy as this one.
“On my life,” I said. “I
swear
I only found that one. But it seems to me like it’s the sort of thing you only find once, if you don’t mind my speculating.”
“Indeed,” my interrogator said thoughtfully, turning my prize this way and that, the way a squirrel might fiddle with a nut until he found the best place for sinking his teeth in. “So there is some humility in that head of yours, after all. Still, perhaps I ought to have phrased my question better.”
He raised his head. I hadn’t looked into his eyes before, but just as I did it seemed to me that something passed over the surface of them, flickering and pale as a ghost. I’d have jumped backward if Hatty hadn’t been standing beside
“Sure,” I said. “Sounds great.”
“You should not deny what small kindnesses we allow you,” the voice said, falsely sympathetic, and I bit the inside of my cheek. “You are in a disadvantageous position. Please, take off her blindfold.”
Aw, shit
, I thought,
don’t go doing that
, but it was too late and now I could see everything: dim light and shadows and rock, like we were in some kind of storage cellar. If this was the famous magicians’ city, then I was one disappointed commoner right now. Then again, maybe Hatty had been full of it when he’d told me that was where we were going.
I’d never seen a magician up close before, but if I had to guess, I’d say I was looking at one right now. The man standing in front of me was dressed simply but I knew by the way he held himself that he was somebody important, even with how young he was. He was holding my treasure—I guessed I should call it a compass, not having any other name for it—and I focused my eyes on that because it was something I recognized, at least.
“I suppose it is clear by now that we wish to know where you found this,” he said. His robes were blue, the color of a real Ke-Han patriot, and his head was shaved down to the bone. That look worked on some people, but his skull had too many knobbly bits.
“It’s garbage,” I told him. “Some people collect that.”
“You’re a profiteer,” he said. “You seek to benefit from the empire’s loss.”
“Somebody needs to, all due respect,” I replied.
His lip twitched at the corner. He wasn’t a soldier and he wasn’t nobility, because he had real facial expressions—the sort of thing you never saw in people who carried themselves like he did. “There is no respect in that,” he said, touching the curved body of the compass gently, in a way that made me uncomfortable. He could stop making love to it anytime now and I’d feel a whole lot better. “You’ve sold parts—parts like this one?”
“Not really,” I said, and gritted my jaw. “No use in selling the good stuff.”
“And why is that?”
“I think,” said my old friend, Hatty with the scar, “she hopes to make a greater profit when there is greater profit to be had.”
The stranger whirled on me without further warning—he was trying to intimidate me physically, and he had the element of surprise on his side, so damn me if it didn’t work. “Do you have, or have you had, in your possession, any pieces similar to this one?” he demanded.
“Nothing like that,” I said. “You want me to swear on something?”
The stranger smiled. “Your life will serve.”
Great. A fucking crazy person was in charge of me now. At least with Hatty I’d known where I stood since it was easy to know where you stood with a soldier: Keep quiet and they’ll usually do the same. Safest thing to do with a crazy person, I reasoned, was to go along with whatever craziness he was spouting and hope he didn’t change directions midthought just to trip me up.
I held out my hands, palms down like I was bowing, only I wasn’t about to get on my knees in a place like this. No telling
what
was on the ground in a storage cellar, even a storage cellar that attracted men as fancy as this one.
“On my life,” I said. “I
swear
I only found that one. But it seems to me like it’s the sort of thing you only find once, if you don’t mind my speculating.”
“Indeed,” my interrogator said thoughtfully, turning my prize this way and that, the way a squirrel might fiddle with a nut until he found the best place for sinking his teeth in. “So there is some humility in that head of yours, after all. Still, perhaps I ought to have phrased my question better.”
He raised his head. I hadn’t looked into his eyes before, but just as I did it seemed to me that something passed over the surface of them, flickering and pale as a ghost. I’d have jumped backward if Hatty hadn’t been standing beside
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