“This is exquisite,” she murmured as she held it up to the sunlight coming through the window. “Where did you acquire this?”
“It is from a mine in Tyronia,” answered Natia. “I have been instructed to take it to Despair to sell, but I wouldn’t mind selling it sooner if possible. Going as far as Despair would add days to my journey.”
“Of course it would,” the queen agreed quickly. “There is no need to go that far. I would very much like to add it to my collection.”
“I was hoping that you would,” smiled Natia. “Now it is only a question of price.”
“Let us sit,” smiled the queen as she rang a small bell. “I haven’t been the proper hostess. Forgive me.”
A servant entered the room and the queen ordered refreshments. She sat in a stuffed chair and waved Natia towards the couch facing it. The queen looked at Tedi standing stiffly with his decorated staff and smiled at him.
“Have your…whatever sit as well,” smiled the queen. “There is no need for formalities here.”
“Tedi is my husband and partner,” smiled Natia as she looked at Tedi and patted the couch beside her.
“How interesting,” the queen said with surprise. “I took him for an attendant of some sort.”
“He is quiet,” smiled Natia.
Two servants entered the room with trays of tea and crackers. They served everyone and then quietly withdrew. Natia politely sipped her tea, waiting for the queen to make her move.
“It is a shame about King Myer,” stated the queen. “Did you know him?”
“Oh, yes,” answered Natia. “He was always kind to me. I have never met his son, though.”
“Was there much turmoil when Tyronia joined the Federation?”
“I don’t know,” answered Natia. “I was on the road when it happened, but I imagine that there was no turmoil. Why would there be?”
“I thought King Myer was opposed to it?”
“Perhaps he was,” shrugged Natia. “I never get involved in politics. I am a business woman.”
“I see,” murmured the queen as she stared at the diamond, which she had placed on the table beside her chair. “How much is the diamond?”
“I believe that it is the largest diamond to ever come out of the Tyronian mines,” answered Natia. “My target price in Despair will be sixty-thousand gold.”
Tedi almost spit his tea on the floor.
“Sixty-thousand?” gasped the queen. “You can’t be serious. No diamond is worth that much. You must mean six-thousand.”
Natia calmly sipped her tea and set the cup on the table. “Judge Julius in Giza offered me twenty-thousand, but he was not surprised when I turned him down. Do you know him?”
“I have met him,” frowned the queen. “You cannot seriously expect to find a buyer at such a price.”
“Perhaps not,” conceded Natia. “If you would like to make an offer, I will remember it. If I do not get my price in Despair, I will backtrack to the highest offer I received.”
“Then you will be going all the way back to Giza,” scowled the queen. “No one will offer more than twenty-thousand for it.”
“There we disagree,” smiled Natia. “I may not get the full price for the diamond, but I will easily get forty-thousand for it. It is unique and easily worth the cost of forty DeCardia figurines.”
“DeCardia figurines?” echoed the queen. “What are they?”
“You haven’t heard of DeCardia?” Natia asked with surprise in her voice. “Surely, you are having fun with me.”
Tedi needed no prompting. He opened his pack and pulled out a figurine. Natia took it from his hand and gave it to the queen.
“DeCardia is a master in woodworking,” explained Natia. “His works are eagerly sought after everywhere. Of course you probably already know this, but I am proud to have been with Garth Shado when he discovered the artisan.”
“Ah, DeCardia,” nodded the queen. “I thought you said something different. He certainly does have talent. Is that mahogany?”
“Prime mahogany.” Natia nodded. “Each figurine is made by the master himself. That is why the figurines are so rare. I wish he would take an apprentice to learn the trade. As it is now, when he dies there will be no more figurines. They will soar in value.”
“How many figurines do you have left?” asked the queen.
“Twenty,” answered Natia. “That is the last of them until DeCardia makes more, if he makes more.”
The queen placed the figurine next to the diamond. She gazed at the diamond for a moment with desire and then looked back at Natia.
“Let’s get down to business,” the queen said in a determined manner. “I want the diamond, but I will not pay forty-thousand for it. What is the lowest price that you will accept?”
“As I said…” Natia began.
“Do not forget who you are talking to,” Queen Samir said threateningly. “I am the Queen of Spino. If you force me to pay forty-thousand for the diamond, I will enact a twenty-thousand tax on diamond transfers before you can get out of this country.”
“That would not bode well for the future of merchants in Spino,” retorted Natia. “I am sure you could also arrest me and take the diamond, but is one diamond truly worth that kind of trouble? I am not trying to be unfair with the price of this gem. Even you must admit that it is unique.”
The queen sighed with frustration. She truly could have them arrested or killed, but she was sure that every important person from Giza to Valdo had already seen the gem. She would not be able to wear it like the other gems that Renzler got for her. Her subjects were afraid to say anything, but that would not hold true for neighboring countries.
“It is unique,” the queen admitted, “but your price is far too high.”
“Perhaps I could sweeten the deal,” smiled Natia. “How about forty-thousand and I will throw in a couple of DeCardia figurines? They are worth one-thousand each.”
“Thirty-thousand and all twenty of the figurines,” bargained the queen.
“That is half of what Judge Julius offered,” frowned Natia.
The two women stared at each other in silence for several minutes. Finally, Natia smiled.
“Here is a deal that you cannot refuse,” grinned Natia. “I will give you the diamond for thirty-thousand. I will throw in ten figurines, but you must supply me with a senior officer for an entire day.”
“An officer?” frowned the queen. “Whatever for?”
“If you take the diamond and half the figurines,” explained Natia, “I will have little reason to continue my trip. I can sell the other figurines easily. I had planned to stay here in Valdo for a while and explore it, but there will be no reason for me to stay. So I will use your senior officer to get a personal guided tour of the entire city. We will both be happy,” she added with a grin.
The queen looked at Natia and laughed. “You are a hard bargainer, Natia. “I like that in a woman. You have a deal with one condition.”
“What is the condition?” Natia asked anxiously.
“Get rid of that horrid gown,” chuckled the queen. “It looks terrible on you.”
“I know,” laughed Natia, “but it was the only thing in my size in the shop up the street. I didn’t think you would admit me in my traveling clothes.”
“Certainly not,” laughed the queen. “Let me see the other figurines. I will take my pick of the lot.”
* * * *
Natia stripped off the green gown and threw it on the bed in her room at the Greystone Inn. She pulled her traveling clothes out of her pack and dressed.
“I don’t get it,” frowned Tedi. “Why was thirty-thousand and ten figurines any better than forty-thousand and twenty-figurines? If the figurines are one-thousand each, that means that you got twenty-thousand for the gem either way.”
“Your math is sound,” grinned Natia, “but you have forgotten about inflation. The reason that Queen Samir wanted the figurines is to resell them. I would wager that she plans to sell
them for double the price. So either way she would end up paying the same price for the gem, but we end up making more. By keeping ten of the figurines for ourselves, we can sell them after she inflates their price. We will end up making fifty-thousand instead of forty-thousand.”
“I see.” Tedi nodded. “So the figurines will sell for two-thousand each now? Isn’t that a bit steep?”
“Considering that they were only five-hundred when we left Giza,” chuckled Natia, “I would say that is very steep indeed, but these wealthy people have nothing to spend their gold on except items to impress their wealthy friends. They will boast about how much they spent to get them. I can’t wait to tell Judge Julius how much the figurines are selling for in Giza.”
“You like this game, don’t you?”
“Buying and selling is a gypsy’s way of life,” chuckled Natia. “What other game can you make up the rules as you go along?”
“I can sort of understand what you have done with the figurines,” Tedi said. “You have created a demand by making people think they are worth more, but you cannot do that with everything.”
“Why not?” asked Natia. “Value is something that one perceives in his mind. I could take two identical knives and sell one for double the price of the other by making the buyer believe that it was more accurate. The average buyer would continue to believe that one knife was more accurate even if he bought both of them and used them continuously. Gypsies do it all the time with horses.”
“I guess I could see that with horses,” replied Tedi, “but other things have set values. Like the diamond. I almost spit my tea on the floor when you tried to sell it for sixty-thousand.”
“That was stretching a bit,” laughed Natia, “but it got me to where I wanted to be.”
“Do you mean you planned to sell it for thirty-thousand all along?”
“I am extremely happy with the deal,” smiled Natia. “Sidney thought we would get ten to fifteen-thousand for it.”
Tedi shook his head in amazement. “Prince Oscar might learn a thing or two from you. What do we do with the queen’s notes?”
“We put them into Sidney’s account here in Valdo,” answered Natia. “You can use the funds to pay Strangler and whatever uses you find for it. The twenty-thousand we get from the sale of the figurines I will take with me to Giza.”
“Neither of us will be hurting for money,” commented Tedi. “What is the tour for?”
“Primarily to get into the reeducation center,” answered Natia, “but I will tour the palace and the army camps as well. It never hurts to see what we are up against.”
“They won’t let you into the center, will they?”
“Would they deny the queen’s instructions?” smiled Natia. “I don’t think so. When the queen instructs the officer to show me around, she won’t be thinking of the center. I am sure of that. The officer might balk when it comes time to go there, but I will remind him that the queen promised me a complete tour. He will give in.”
Chapter 17
Blind Man
Sparky tossed and turned. The fairy couldn’t seem to get comfortable in the elf’s pocket, and he finally stood and cast a faint fairy light. He scowled when he saw the hard, stale bread crumbs in the bottom of the pocket.
“No wonder I can’t sleep,” the fairy said to himself. “This elf is a slob.”
Sparky picked up the largest of the crumbs and threw it out of the pocket, but he still was not happy about his new home. Frustrated and irritable, the fairy climbed out of the pocket and hovered in the air. He cast a slightly brighter fairy light, and the dwarven sleeping chamber came into view. It was not much of a room. It was a chamber carved out of rock with two sleeping mats on the floor. A small table with very short legs sat in one corner, and a solid wooden door divided the chamber from the rest of the dwarven mine. Sitting on the table were two ale mugs, a writing tablet, and a small piece of cloth. The fairy settled onto the table and arranged the cloth like a sleeping mat. He dismissed the fairy light and settled down onto the cloth to sleep, but he was still irritated about having to leave the nice warm pocket. For several minutes, the fairy tossed and turned until he sighed with frustration and rose to his feet. He paced back and forth on the table for a few minutes, and suddenly, a devious thought entered his mind.
The fairy leaped onto the rim of one of the mugs and cast a fairy light. He peered into the cup and found it empty. Sparky leaped to the rim of the other mug and saw some ale still in the bottom of it. He grinned broadly. Jumping down to the table the fairy grabbed the cloth and started ripping a small piece off the edge of it. Leaping back to the rim of the ale mug, the fairy dangled the strip of cloth into the mug that still contained some ale. He felt the cloth get heavier as the ale soaked into the fabric. When the fabric held as much ale as it could, Sparky beat his wings furiously and shot upward. He flew back to Morro’s pocket and lowered the strip of cloth into it. Bracing himself on the edge of the pocket, Sparky started wringing out the strip of cloth. The ale dripped into the bottom of Morro’s pocket, and the fairly giggled in delight. When the cloth was completely wrung, the fairy threw it towards the wall where it wouldn’t be noticed.
Morro woke with a start. He quickly sat up, nearly tossing Sparky to the floor. The elf’s hand immediately came up to his breast pocket and felt the dampness. Sparky leaped into the air and hovered.
“That is disgusting,” scowled Morro as he stripped off his tunic. “No one warned me about this.”
Sparky grinned as the bare-chested elf grabbed his tunic and rose to his feet. Morro opened the door to the corridor beyond. Sparky retrieved the damp strip of cloth and flew to the table to wait. A while later the elf returned. He hung his damp tunic on a pointed stone coming out of the wall and rummaged through his pack to find a dry tunic. He pulled the tunic on and glared at the fairy on the table.
“I hope this one doesn’t have stale breadcrumbs in the pocket,” complained the fairy. “If it does, I will be forced to pour ale in that pocket, too.”
“Ale?” frowned the elven thief as he stared at the strip of cloth in the fairy’s hands. “You made me wash my tunic for some spilled ale?”
“The crumbs might not bother you,” glowered the fairy, “but I have to live in that pocket.”
Morro looked at the tiny defiant face before him, and he started laughing. “You could have just explained the problem,” Morro said. “I have never carried a fairy before. I would have cleaned out the pocket.”
“That might have worked once,” retorted the fairy, “but now you will never forget again. Is that tunic clean?”
“Ready for your inspection,” chuckled the elf.
Sparky shot to the pocket and peered in. He nodded in approval. “Now we can get some sleep.”
“Actually,” replied Morro, “it is nearly time to get up anyway. Let’s go for a walk so we don’t wake Karicon.”
The dwarf opened his eyes and gazed into the fairy light. “Do you really think a dwarf could sleep through such a racket? Sure glad I don’t have a practical joker living in my pocket. Go for a walk. Maybe I can catch another hour of sleep.”
Sparky extinguished the fairy light and slid into the pocket. Morro apologized and slipped out of the chamber. He wove his way through the maze of tunnels until he reached the work zone at the extreme northern end of the mine. The dwarves were digging the tunnel night and day, and the elf stopped to watch their progress for a while. It amazed him how efficiently the dwarves moved tons of stone and how quickly the length of the tunnel grew.
“Careful there, elf,” called one of the miners as he pushed a heavy cart loaded with stone. “You don’t want to get caught in the way of one of these. They don’t stop too quickly.”
Morro pressed his back to the side of the tunnel as the dwarf pushed the loaded cart past him. While the dwarves were safety conscious, Morro still recognized the work zones as a dangerous place to dawdle. His mind wandered to the dangers of the mine and eventually fell on the ability
of the hourglass to save him in an emergency. No sooner had he thought about the magical artifact when another thought entered his mind. He stirred the fairy to life.
“I feel as if I just got to sleep,” complained Sparky.
“You have an excellent sense of time,” smiled Morro. “How adventurous are you, Sparky?”
“Adventurous?” echoed the tiny man. “Fairies love adventure. Where are we going?”
“I want to perform an experiment,” explained Morro, “but there is potential danger in it for you.”
“I can defend myself,” the fairy said bravely.
“There will be nothing attacking you,” replied the elf. “I have the means to make time stop. The problem is that it only stops for me. Everyone else will appear frozen in time while I will be able to move about.”
“So what is the danger?” the fairy asked with confusion.
“What happens if you are in my pocket when time stops?”
“You would move and I would not,” frowned the fairy.
“But that is impossible if you are in my pocket.”
Sparky pondered the situation for a few moments. “If I was in your pocket when time stopped, where would I be if you moved in the meantime?”
“That is the question I seek the answer to. You might move with me, or you might stay behind only to drop to the floor when time started again.”
“Can you really stop time,” asked the fairy, “or is this some kind of prank to get back at me for the ale in your pocket?”
“It is no prank,” assured the elf. “I have done it before and there were problems with it. One time I had planned to ride a unicorn when time was stopped, but the unicorn was frozen.”
“I did not know that you were a mage,” frowned the fairy. “I am glad that you did not use magic on me for my prank.”
“I am not a mage,” chuckled Morro as he produced the hourglass. “I have a magical artifact that stops the time. If I press this tiny lever, time will stop until the sands run out.”
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