Jace looked at the shopkeeper in confusion, but the man just returned his bewildered expression before going back to bluster at the woman again.
“It’s still your money,” he said. “For a job that should go to a guild-affiliated shop. I’d be in just as much trouble for taking it from him as I would be taking it from you.”
“Ignoring the fact that I am not a guild mage, if the boy works as an intermediary you can always claim not to have known who was hiring you at all,” Iskondra said.
“An intermediary from three feet away?” the shopkeeper said. He dropped his voice. “Look, you’ve got the right idea, but you need to be more circumspect about it. Go down to the docks and hire a messenger, someone I’ve never seen with you, and have them bring me the volume.”
“You think I’m going to entrust an ancient tome of incalculable value in the hands of some anonymous dock thug? I am not letting it out of my sight,” the scaled woman said. “Er, a favorite tome of incalculable sentimental value, that is to say.”
“If it’s as delicate a thing as you say it is, you’d have to let it out of your sight,” the man said. “That kind of work takes time and care.”
“You know, I daresay that you aren’t being very helpful towards a potential customer,” Iskondra said.
“Well, I’ve dare said that I don’t dare accept your custom,” the man said. “So why don’t you go be about your business and let the boy get to his?”
Iskondra Devalion stood very straight. She snapped her fingers and her sword vanished from the counter and reappeared in its sheath.
“I suppose when I locate the next unaffiliated bookmaker, I know now to omit my customary introduction,” she said. “Oh course, he might prove to be a slightly better listener than you, but I can ill-afford to waste the time finding out. As soon as my tome is in good enough shape to stand up to a sea voyage, I must leave this island, and the sooner I have accomplished that, the better it will be. Since you are unwilling to help me towards my goal, I must bid you a terse farewell.”
The spiny-quilled bookbinder watched her go out through the door and then vanish out of sight up the stairs before turning to Jace.
“Now,” he said. “Were you picking up a book?”
“No, I have a list of things,” he said. “A grocer with a shell sent me.”
“Oh, well then,” the shopkeeper said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
He took the list from Jace and looked it up and down. He gave a low whistle.
“Well, now… somebody is clearly a scholar of some earnestness. Do you have the tetrae for this?”
Jace hefted the purse Katryn had given him, nodding.
“Very good. This shouldn’t be any problem, any problem at all,” the shopkeeper said. “Inks, paper, blotter… nothing I don’t have, except… well, we don’t carry much Alekabassian crimson here. The pigment is too expensive outside of their ports, but I have a vivid red dye made from a local root. It looks very similar and is half what your master will be used to paying. Otherwise you’ll have to pay smugglers’ rates.”
Jace looked uncertain. He didn’t understand the difference between two inks, if there was one.
“I’ll tell you what,” the shopkeeper said. “I’ll give you my local variety, but you make sure you tell your master what it is and that I’ll take it back from him if it doesn’t suit his purposes. But mind you make sure to tell him about the substitution… I don’t want anyone coming around my shop thinking I’ve sold them a cheap imitation.”
“Yes, sir,” Jace said. He didn’t bother to correct the shopkeeper on Katryn’s gender. He wasn’t planning on volunteering any information about his employer, as he didn’t know if there were any more rules on who the man could do business with. “I will, sir.”
“Good lad,” the shopkeeper said. “Most unaffiliated shops on the island would take an order for Elakebassian crimson and fill it with plain red ink without blinking, and charge a considerable markup for the privilege of being defrauded. But my integrity is all I have… I keep my nose clean, I keep my head down, I keep out of guild business, and I keep the customers coming back. Now, if you’ll give me a few moments I’ll just make up a parcel for you.”
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