behind the feed sacks.
He shrugged
carelessly. ‘You’d prefer me to live a lie? Keris the dreamer, who
doesn’t like to face the facts. I’m damned if I’ll be a mapmaker,
and I don’t care who knows it. The shop is going to be a tavern.
We’ll continue to sell maps until the end of autumn, as usual. But
I shan’t be going off into the Unstable. Come winter, this place
will be a public house. I’ll be calling it the Mapmaker’s
Rest.’
She was so
angry she was choking on it. ‘But Mother—’
‘—will be dead
by then,’ he said brutally. ‘A fact which she knows full well.’
‘Unstable take
you, you’re a heartless sod, Thirl.’
‘Not
particularly, I think. Just practical. And being practical means
facing facts. I’ll never make a mapmaker and I’ve never intended to
be one. Mother will be dead within weeks, if not days, and you have
got to find a niche somewhere. If you want to hang around and be a
housekeeper for me, well, you can—but bear in mind firstly that I
intend to marry as soon as I find some pretty and willing maid, and
secondly that I won’t be paying your fifty golds in dowry to just
anyone.’
‘That money’s
mine!’
‘No, it’s not.
It was intended to be your husband’s. The moment Dad died it
legally became mine, as long as I undertake to care for you and
Mother. And I do. But I’m under no obligation to give you a dowry
of more than two golds. I intend to have that money to help pay for
the expense of refurbishing the place as a tavern. And to pay the
bribe. The rule-chantor is not going to accept this for anything
less than ten golds. And so I shall take the money directly, or it
can come to the business, indirectly, through your dowry to Harin.
I thought to help you find a husband, that’s all.’
‘I don’t want
a husband—least of all someone like Harin!’
‘There you go
again, being impractical. What else can you do? You can’t be a
mapmaker because the Rule won’t allow it, even if anyone would buy
maps from a woman, and anyway, a woman wouldn’t last a handful of
days out in the Unstable alone. Moreover the Rule says you’re
supposed to marry, but you show no signs of even trying to find
someone. Keris, a woman who looks like you will never do better
than Harin.’
That hurt. Her
fury poured out and Ygraine, unsettled, blew noisily down her
nostrils. ‘He’s as slimy as a river flatworm! I wouldn’t marry him
if he was willing to pay me a hundred golds for the privilege.’
Thirl
shrugged. ‘That’s your choice. I don’t care. I reckon to win either
way.’
His
indifference deflated her. She took a deep breath, cocked her head
on one side and considered him with all the growing wonderment of
making a bitter new discovery about a familiar object. ‘Why, that’s
right, isn’t it! You really don’t care, do you? I wonder why I
never saw that before. There’s no feeling there inside you. You
feel no grief about Dad, or Mother, do you?’
‘Why should I?
They never asked me how I felt about anything. It was always: ‘Do
this, Thirl. Do that, Thirl. Learn how to draw maps, Thirl. Carry
the theodolite, Thirl. Come with me into the Unstable, Thirl.’
Well, now I’m saying no. And I feel no grief that their time is
over and mine has come. No grief, and no compunction. I’m no Minion
though, Keris. I’ll do the decent thing by both of you, but no more
than that. No more.’
She felt an
odd fascination with his utter lack of feeling. ‘And me? What did I
ever do to have you dismiss me so lightly?’
‘You really
don’t know, do you? Didn’t it ever occur to you that a boy might
resent the fact that his younger sister did just about anything one
cares to name better than he did? Well, he did, Keris. He hated you
when you drew more accurate maps, when you threw Piers’ knives
better, when you shot arrows straighter, when you beat him swimming
across the river pool… Count yourself lucky, Sis. If you’d been a
boy, I might have killed
He shrugged
carelessly. ‘You’d prefer me to live a lie? Keris the dreamer, who
doesn’t like to face the facts. I’m damned if I’ll be a mapmaker,
and I don’t care who knows it. The shop is going to be a tavern.
We’ll continue to sell maps until the end of autumn, as usual. But
I shan’t be going off into the Unstable. Come winter, this place
will be a public house. I’ll be calling it the Mapmaker’s
Rest.’
She was so
angry she was choking on it. ‘But Mother—’
‘—will be dead
by then,’ he said brutally. ‘A fact which she knows full well.’
‘Unstable take
you, you’re a heartless sod, Thirl.’
‘Not
particularly, I think. Just practical. And being practical means
facing facts. I’ll never make a mapmaker and I’ve never intended to
be one. Mother will be dead within weeks, if not days, and you have
got to find a niche somewhere. If you want to hang around and be a
housekeeper for me, well, you can—but bear in mind firstly that I
intend to marry as soon as I find some pretty and willing maid, and
secondly that I won’t be paying your fifty golds in dowry to just
anyone.’
‘That money’s
mine!’
‘No, it’s not.
It was intended to be your husband’s. The moment Dad died it
legally became mine, as long as I undertake to care for you and
Mother. And I do. But I’m under no obligation to give you a dowry
of more than two golds. I intend to have that money to help pay for
the expense of refurbishing the place as a tavern. And to pay the
bribe. The rule-chantor is not going to accept this for anything
less than ten golds. And so I shall take the money directly, or it
can come to the business, indirectly, through your dowry to Harin.
I thought to help you find a husband, that’s all.’
‘I don’t want
a husband—least of all someone like Harin!’
‘There you go
again, being impractical. What else can you do? You can’t be a
mapmaker because the Rule won’t allow it, even if anyone would buy
maps from a woman, and anyway, a woman wouldn’t last a handful of
days out in the Unstable alone. Moreover the Rule says you’re
supposed to marry, but you show no signs of even trying to find
someone. Keris, a woman who looks like you will never do better
than Harin.’
That hurt. Her
fury poured out and Ygraine, unsettled, blew noisily down her
nostrils. ‘He’s as slimy as a river flatworm! I wouldn’t marry him
if he was willing to pay me a hundred golds for the privilege.’
Thirl
shrugged. ‘That’s your choice. I don’t care. I reckon to win either
way.’
His
indifference deflated her. She took a deep breath, cocked her head
on one side and considered him with all the growing wonderment of
making a bitter new discovery about a familiar object. ‘Why, that’s
right, isn’t it! You really don’t care, do you? I wonder why I
never saw that before. There’s no feeling there inside you. You
feel no grief about Dad, or Mother, do you?’
‘Why should I?
They never asked me how I felt about anything. It was always: ‘Do
this, Thirl. Do that, Thirl. Learn how to draw maps, Thirl. Carry
the theodolite, Thirl. Come with me into the Unstable, Thirl.’
Well, now I’m saying no. And I feel no grief that their time is
over and mine has come. No grief, and no compunction. I’m no Minion
though, Keris. I’ll do the decent thing by both of you, but no more
than that. No more.’
She felt an
odd fascination with his utter lack of feeling. ‘And me? What did I
ever do to have you dismiss me so lightly?’
‘You really
don’t know, do you? Didn’t it ever occur to you that a boy might
resent the fact that his younger sister did just about anything one
cares to name better than he did? Well, he did, Keris. He hated you
when you drew more accurate maps, when you threw Piers’ knives
better, when you shot arrows straighter, when you beat him swimming
across the river pool… Count yourself lucky, Sis. If you’d been a
boy, I might have killed
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