The Taleweaver

Departure, part one

During the days that followed Arthur was left to his own means most of the time. He dined with William on two occasions and made certain to meet with a few of the other traders from Earth. Questioned about his sponsorship he simply told them one half of the truth. He could make more money by making his money work for him. Another deed breaking with custom, he knew. It would be months rather than years before Terran traders started sponsoring each other, but that was hardly his problem.

He used William's help to set up a totally different kind of business. William was more than helpful for all the wrong reasons and Arthur decided not to disclose the entire truth. He knew he was playing a dirty trick on Harbend when he hired a translator in secrecy.

Day by day, after Harbend had left to cover a day's worth of errands in preparation of his venture, Arthur stole out to meet his new contact. There had been preciously little time to plan what he had in mind, but within hours discreet spies reported what Harbend was doing and Arthur copied the actions as best as he could.

He was being used by everyone he hired, paying double or even triple the amount of money he should for the services he bought. It mattered little at the moment. Gambling that his position as an outworlder would protect him from anything more sinister than a scam, Arthur poured out coins making sure those receiving the excesses never learned that what they stole from him was less than what he had sometimes spent during a single day on Earth.

In two weeks he would have been forced to go back, but then Harbend's problems arrived like a gift from heaven. When that day arrived Arthur intended to be missing, and Harbend, even though he knew nothing about it now, would have much more of a trading partner than he had bartered for.

The frenzied activities served another purpose as well, one Arthur avoided thinking about. The days were always better than the nights. The days carried small problems he could solve rather than the nightmares he could but endure while he slept.

He even managed to set up a kind of bank account with one of the money houses making business with the traders' hall. It had been touch and go a couple of times, but his experience from long years of buying expensive services paid off, and even though he never knew if he was overplaying his part of a haughty outworlder trader he was secure that neither did his counterparts.

Less than a week after he started his underhand affairs reports told him that Harbend apparently was finished. Arthur promptly paid his hirelings off and booked a room for two in the excellent restaurant he by then paid a daily visit to. Harbend at least deserved to get the dismaying news in a stylish environment with a precious bounty of gorgeous food to cushion the strike.

On his way out from the hotel Arthur paid a messenger to run with a request for the meeting and briskly proceeded down the streets whistling happily to himself. He paid no attention to other pedestrians giving him surprised looks when he passed them by, leaving the unfamiliar tune like a whiff of perfume behind him. It might have been unfamiliar to them but it was immediately recognized by a majority of the fifteen billion populating the Terran sphere of influence as the theme framing all of his Golden Secrets shows, and Arthur only saw it as fitting on his way to a meeting where he would indeed disclose a golden secret.

The day was pleasant. Summer giving way to early autumn and not even the hours around noon were uncomfortably hot now. Feeling a bit lightheaded he picked up speed. He raced along a shortcut he'd found the day before and bumped into a group of children playing precariously close to the busy street. He excused himself but they didn't answer and scurried away shrieking with delight.

Suddenly suspicious he looked down and saw he was lacking his purse. That was the second time since he'd started to wear local clothes pickpockets had made away with his money.

He never thought of using the small handgun all traders were now equipped with after an especially ugly mugging several years earlier. He felt uncomfortable carrying a weapon among people, and like most traders he usually left it in his room.

It didn't matter as he only kept several copper and a few silver coins, matching the looks of his expensive outfit, in the purse he had dangling at his waist. Most locals carried the coins called shields, valuable enough for most casual transactions, in such purses. Arthur had a waistband where he kept most of his silver shields and all the gold marks he decided to bring.

He slowed his pace and started searching for a shop that could fill his needs. A few blocks along the street he found what he was looking for and purchased one velvet and one leather pouch to have a spare one.

The conversation with the shopkeeper was awkward to say the least, but with broken De Vhatic, shrugs, smiles and a lot of pointing he made his wishes known. He pocketed the leather pouch, dropped a few coins into the other and tied it to his belt. Hopefully he wouldn't run into another gang of pickpockets in the course one day, but nevertheless he felt a bit uneasy having more silver than copper hanging by his side. The real danger, he had been told, lay not in loosing a few coins, but rather in loosing coins of too high a denomination. That could turn a cutpurse into a mugger.

Unfortunately there were no money traders in the part of Verd he was in so he decided to take his chances and he sauntered away in the general direction of the restaurant.