Heroes' Reward (28 page)

“That’s wrong.”

“You’ve claimed
every option is wrong. You didn’t provide a correct size.”

“If you knew
what you were doing, you would have been able to see the right one
immediately.”

“So you did
claim the right one was inappropriate.”

“You’re not
getting near my animals with nails, woman.”

“Farrier
Goldman, that’s enough!” Firen snapped.

“I’m not letting
her cripple one of my animals.”

“It wouldn’t
cripple the animal. A farrier of your quality would be able to repair-”

“I’m not having
this noble creature suffer pain just because I might be able to heal her after.
The contenders are supposed to prove their worth by demonstrating competence.”

Aryne,
meanwhile, was hammering some minor adjustments to her shoe.

“You’re running
to the line of treason,” Firen warned the farrier.

Goldman didn’t
seem to care. “You want to hurt my animal? You have to buy her, first. Except I
wouldn’t sell her to you.”

There was a bit
of a staring match between Goldman and Firen. After a few moments, Firen
ordered, “Hand over the correct shoe.” He put up a hand to halt her further
objection. “You clearly misinformed Her Ladyship when she chose the correct
shoe. You’re interfering with the code. Comply or all of your animals will be
placed in hands you wouldn’t desire.”

Goldman clenched
her teeth before snatching a shoe from the table and shoving it into Green’s
hands.

Maybe Goldman
should escape from the city as soon as we left her premises. It was no longer
impossible, what with most of the wall destroyed.

I really hoped
choosing the shoe was the only mistake Green made in this task, whether it
meant she won or lost. I hated the thought of seeing an animal in pain.

I focused on
Aryne. She wasn’t an expert, of course, but she was careful. Goldman was
anxiously splitting her attention between Aryne and Green, but she seemed a
little more comfortable with Aryne. Aryne nailed the shoe on, then cut off the
tip of the nails and clinched them flush with the hoof. She let the hoof settle
on the ground. The horse placidly shifted its weight onto all fours with no
sign of discomfort.

Aryne rubbed the
horse’s neck.

Fortunately for
all concerned, Green completed the rest of the task without any obvious mistakes.
So, thank Zaire for that.

“What are your
judgments?” Firen asked the adjudicators.

“Her Majesty
triumphs,” Ogawa stated loudly. No shock there.

Then Lady Ovan
stated, “Lady Aryne triumphs.”

That
was a surprise to me. And to Green, who jerked and stared at Ovan.

“Lady Aryne
triumphs,” said Trader Thax.

Everyone gasped.
I was stunned. They were going to let Aryne win this one?

Green was
furious.

“Lady Aryne
triumphs,” Firen called out. “The contenders may return to the court room for
the next test.”

The next step of
the code, as Aryne revealed, involved each contender being provided with a
modest amount of money to determine which of them could purchase the most
valuable collection of goods, both in quantity and quality. This was the
exception to the rule requiring everyone supply to the contenders whatever they
demanded. This part of the code was meant to demonstrate that the contenders
could properly manage money.

The number of
coins, a mere handful, was dictated by the code, and represented a scanty
amount of money. Determined by someone who had never had to worry about making
money stretch, I would wager.

The thing with
the merchants in Erstwhile was that they didn’t barter. The price was the price
and if you couldn’t pay it you could get the hell out of their shop. Not that
Aryne had had any recent experience bartering. It wasn’t something she had had
the opportunity to practise in the Academy.

Her choice of a
jewellery shop disturbed me. Did she understand how little she had been given?
Did she really understand how money worked after so many years in the Academy?
She’d never had to use money in the northern continent, which worked so
differently than in Flatwell.

She went
straight to the display with the most expensive items. I pressed my lips together
to prevent myself from giving unsolicited advice that might have disqualified
Aryne anyway.

I was startled
by a crash on the other side of the room, and Druce let out an uncharacteristic
stream of oaths. The table beside her had been tipped over. She righted the
table and the merchant lugged up a sizeable iron security box that had clearly
been on top of it, its contents spread across the floor.

The whole set up
had clearly been heavy. How the hell had she managed to knock that over?

While everyone
else was watching Druce and the merchant clean up the mess the Source had made,
Aryne slipped a diamond cascade up her sleeve.

Oh, for … one of
the oldest tricks in history.

And yet the
impatient merchant had his attention fully directed to scooping up the jewellery
that had spilled out of the box, and barked at everyone who tried to help.

How could they
not know? It was so obvious.

Well, a lot of
the witnesses were of high station. Perhaps they had never experienced this
sort of crime.

Once the table
had been straightened out, Aryne asked, “What are the prices of these harmony
bobs?”

The prices he
gave her, his voice sharp with irritation, would have been ridiculous outside
of Erstwhile. “Ah,” Aryne said dismissively.

“The merchant
who supplies the Empress with jewellery can demand any price from his other
customers,” Taro suggested.

The merchant
snorted. “Then she can come back when she’s the Empress. If she becomes the
Empress.”

It had been
worth a try.

“What are you
playing at?” I hissed at Aryne after we left the shop.

“Not against the
rules,” she whispered back.

True but,
“That’s not the point.”

“The point is
winning.”

“Do you honestly
think he won’t notice and know it was you?”

“I’ll give it
back.”

“Not before he
notices.”

“You have to
have more faith in me.”

This was going
to be a disaster. No one would want a thief as a monarch.

We went to the
next jeweller in the lane. I was afraid Aryne and Druce would pull the same
stunt. Instead, Aryne asked for the price of the cheapest pair of earrings,
which was still too high. Five shops later, Aryne found a tiny gold pinkie
ring. There were cheaper materials, but Aryne insisted that it had to be gold.
The most valuable metal in existence.

From there, we
went to a tailor, where Aryne managed to dig out a small swath of plain cotton
that the tailor had probably ordered by accident. She bought a small shovel, a
sack of grain, and four cubes of peat. That consumed all of the money she had.
We returned to the palace and were led back to the court room. A table had been
brought in, and Aryne arranged her items upon it.

Everyone’s shock
was audible when Aryne added the diamond piece.

“Where did that
come from?” Green demanded.

“That doesn’t
matter,” Firen interjected.

“You remember
your place!” she snapped.

“I think we should
all remember our places.”

What did he plan
on doing if Aryne lost? Sneak out one step ahead of a slew of Imperial Guards?

The thing was,
Green clearly couldn’t think of a response. What was wrong with her?

“If the
arbitrators would consider the results,” said Firen.

Green had bought
a map. Maps had their uses, of course, but they were ridiculously expensive.
The average person could go their whole lives without ever seeing one.

Green hadn’t had
enough money to buy one, I was certain. Had she been able to bully someone into
selling it to her for less than the usual price? Or into giving it to her
outright?

Green had also
bought a pair of boots that had probably seemed practical to her, and dried
meat.

“The map is of
the entire continent,” said Trader Thax.

“The most
valuable map one can own,” Ogawa pointed out quickly.

“It’s no use to
anyone hoping to purchase land, or build roads. Only the largest settlements
are marked. It’s no use to most travellers or traders.”

“This is the map
a monarch would need,” Lady Ovan added. “This task is to determine the
potential monarch’s understanding of the needs of the people, not the monarch.”

“Which people?”
Ogawa challenged.

“People I have
more familiarity with than either of you,” Thax said shortly. “
I’ve
had
to work all my life.”

Ogawa flared up.
“I risk my life every day.”

“Erstwhile
doesn’t suffer any events,” Thax pointed out. “No Erstwhile Pair has ever had
to commit a single day’s labour while they were stationed here.”

This was true,
and everyone knew it.

“Enough,” Green
ordered.

Ogawa and Thax
glared at each other.

“Your judgments,
please,” said Firen.

“I find in
favour of Her Majesty,” Ogawa announced.

“I find in
favour of Lady Aryne,” said Thax.

Lady Ovan
prodded at the diamond piece with her index finger. “With my limited
experience,” she drawled, “I would guess this would buy everything else on the
table several times over, and would be useful to anyone to wear or to barter. I
find for Lady Aryne.”

They had allowed
Aryne to win another task. Were Thax and Ovan actually going to be objective
through the entire code? Who had picked them for their roles? Had they been
chosen with clearly mistaken expectation that they would find for Green no
matter what happened?

“It is
impossible that you bought that piece with the funds you were provided,” Green
said to Aryne. “Did you use your status as a Shield to compel a merchant to
give it to you?”

“Did any among
the witnesses observe Lady Aryne using her position as a Shield to force items
out of the merchants?” Firen asked.

Everyone
murmured in the negative. What was surprising was that no one was mentioning
that they didn’t know how Aryne had gotten the piece at all, that they hadn’t
seen her buy it. Maybe no one had actually seen her take the jewellery, but
surely they could guess how she’d managed to acquire it?

“Lady Aryne is
triumphant.”

Two tasks out of
three. Not a bad start. And only one more to go that day.

“The contenders
may withdraw until the seventh hour, at which time we shall all convene in the
Emperor’s dining room.”

Amid the rustles
and clatters and scrapes of so many people leaving a single room, Aryne palmed
the diamond cascade and whispered, “Do you want to watch me fix it?”

“You’re going to
do it now?”

“Needs to be
done before he closes.”

All of our
official witnesses had left. That didn’t mean there weren’t people who needed
to be ditched. “I need to go back to one of the merchants,” Aryne informed the
Commissioner and the others who trailed behind us.

“For what
reason?” Sato asked.

“You’d probably prefer
not to know.”

“You can’t be
permitted to wander about Erstwhile unescorted.”

“I won’t be
alone. Shield Mallorough and Source Karish and Source Steeler will be with me.”

“With all due
respect, Lady Aryne, they could hardly provide adequate protection against a
physical attack.”

That was true.

Aryne sighed and
shrugged. “Fine. It doesn’t really matter, anyway. Come along.”

The merchant
scowled when we entered his shop. “The prices haven’t changed.”

Aryne pulled out
the necklace. “I’m here to return this.”

The merchant’s
eyes widened and he whirled towards the display in which the piece had been
held. Then he turned back to Aryne, his face reddened with anger, and thrust
out his hand. As Aryne laid the necklace across his palm, he growled, “Plan to
steal whatever you want like the other one?”

Was he referring
to Green in that cavalier manner? Brave man.

“Borrowed,”
Aryne corrected.

The merchant
snorted.

“I returned it
to you, didn’t I? In good time?”

“Borrowing
implies permission. You sought none.”

Aryne tilted her
head in a slight bow. “You are quite correct. I apologise. It won’t happen
again.”

Ah.
Acknowledging an inappropriate action and apologising for it. A sign of basic
human decency and maturity, a demonstration of respect. But would it work?