Samut Nalir's Miraculous Elixir of Life

Chapter 2

Overall, the day proved to be productive.  I had made enough during the day to get an especially nice room at a nearby inn that night.  A voice in the back of my mind kept reprimanding me for wasting hard-earned money on luxuries, but I ignored it.  I deserved a bit of a treat now and again.

When I woke the next morning, it was to find the rest of the inn still asleep.  Understandable, since the sun hadn't yet risen.  But I was in the habit of waking up early.  It was certainly much easier to skip town before dawn, while the city still sleeps, so I could get a decent headstart before daylight came and dissatisfied customers came looking round.

The small lobby on the ground floor that doubled as the kitchen was bare but for the night clerk, who was resting his chin sleepily on his hand.  I rapped sharply on the desk to get his attention, and he came out of his daze, shaking his head irritably.  "I need to sign out," I told him.

"This early?" the clerk yawned.  "You're certainly in a hurry."

I hesitated for a moment, trying to see if there was anything else below the surface of his words.  No, he didn't sound suspicious; just tired.  "Well, I've got places to be, sir.  Nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"No, no, of course not," the clerk said, rubbing his eyes.  "My apologies.  If you'll just sign out?"  He pushed the registry book towards me, and I scrawled "Eris Lesado" out, trying my best to make it look as though it was the name I had been using as my signature my entire life.  Apparently I succeeded, since the clerk took the book back and waved me out.

I went around to the back of the inn to grab my merchant's cart.  It was set like a wheelbarrow, with wheels on one side, and a place to grip on the other.  I used to have a mule to pull it, until I lost him to a group of card sharks in a tavern.  Now, I was left to lug the cart along from town to town on my own.  The most that could be said for it is that it got the job done; luckily, that was all I needed.

A grunt escaped me as I tugged the cart onto the road, its wheel squeaking and its contents rattling.  I had hardly moved a pace, however, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.  I yelled out with a jump, dropping the handles of the cart and cringing at the loud crash it emitted.  I whipped around, and found myself face-to-face with Lapis, the skeptic-looking girl from the market yesterday.

"Leaving so soon?" she asked, smiling sweetly.

"What in the world are you doing?" I snapped, reaching down to pick my cart back up.  "Look, if your friend didn't like the earrings I sold her, all sales are final.  Now, I really must get going; you'd hardly know the busy life a merchant."

"Try me," she shrugged, "Besides, I didn't come about Tinandra's earrings.  They could have been made of paper and she'd still have been satisfied.  No, I tracked you down because I have a proposition to make you."

"Proposition?" I asked, dropping my cart back to the ground and gazing at her, probably failing to hide my curiosity.

"Yes," Lapis nodded.  "I'd like to offer you trade.  You see, I happen to run an antique store, and I think that some of your goods will prove more marketable than my own.  Believe you me, I have a few priceless wares myself."

"Well..." I glanced down the street to the horizon, where the first streaks of sunlight had begun streaking through the sky.  It was really better that I get going, but her offer of exchanging priceless goods for my own dressed-up junk was just too irresistible.  "Lead the way," I said, smiling at her in my best honey-sweet way.

She gestured me along the road, and we walked several blocks to her antique shop.  I had barely kept up with her dragging my cart along behind me, and I tried to check without her notice whether anything had broken at the sharp turns through which she led me.