Rain Summoner Act 2

Han held his breath as long as he could as he crossed the long bridge to the capital gate. Debris moved sluggishly in rotting hills along the river bank below. It smelled even worse than it did in the hamlet.

He stopped at the end of the bridge to gather his courage. Attached to either side of the stone wall surrounding the city, the tall gate doors stood as high as Dol’s sentry tower.

Someone elbowed him in the back. He was holding up the line.

He started to move forward, but another passerby pushed him to the side. The woman ran through the gate doors and made a sharp turn left. She disappeared clutching an empty basket and burlap sacks to her chest.

Han stumbled until his back hit the hard lip of the bridge rail. A few more people hurried through the gates with empty market bags.

He was about to make his move when the creak of large wooden wheels on the bridge kept him pressed against the rail. He was afraid a wagon driver was about to run him down, but it was only a vendor pushing his wares into town.

The vendor inclined his head to Han with a curious frown from the shadow of a farming hat that had seen better days. “Having some trouble?” He had a thick accent that harkened both to the Aglian region where Han’s mother was from and somewhere else he didn’t recognize.

“Some,” Han said, still more worried about venturing into the Tooth Market than the people who had knocked him aside. He kept an eye on the black-and-rust-colored creature perched atop the vendor's cart.

The animal stared back at him with a discerning pair of golden green eyes.

The vendor kept one hand on the cart’s handles as he helped Han to his feet. The man adjusted his hat and seemed about to leave when another frown stole across his face. “Why are you alone? Your family, have you been separated from them?”

Han’s pride – the sort that led him to brag about earning coin at not-quite-nine – made him cross his arms in a show of importance. “I’m running errands for Lord Dol.”

The vendor’s eyebrows lifted high. “Oh? I heard he was in need of a new runner,” he said, sounding as if the news troubled him, “but you look a little young for the work. Isn’t there a great deal for you to carry?”

“I won’t be carrying it on my back.” Beyond indignance at the idea he wasn’t capable of completing his tasks, something else about the statement nagged at Han.

Dagny had only quit that day. The vendor must have known more than he let on.

“There,” he said, using the bulk of the cart to guard Han as they passed through the gate. “They cannot run over me.”

Han spared another glance at the strange animal watching him from the top of the cart. He had seen it somewhere before. He looked back to the vendor.

His features were hard to discern in the shade of his hat, but he had the same brown-olive skin tone and broad angles in his face as some of the Yunian merchants who traded in the capital. That was their only similarity. He was an odd sight in a leather overcoat and heavy green scarf in the early summer humidity.

It was the scarf that made Han recognize him. He was the vendor who had sold Han’s father a coughing tonic two years back. His Mardesalian had improved since then.

“I know you,” Han said. “You helped my father.”

“I did?”

“Gren. He lives in Dol’s hamlet by the river. You sold him a tonic for cheap, and it dried up his cough.”

The vendor’s eyes widened. “Oh, the old man. You were even smaller back then.”

“How come you’re still wearing your scarf in the summer?” Han stepped back. “You’re not one of those ghosts who have to wear a garment round your neck, else your head’ll fall off, are you?”

The vendor put a hand to his throat. “Not yet, no. My son, he picked this scarf as a gift for me, and so I never go without it.” The vendor was maybe thirty, much younger than Han's parents , so his son couldn’t be too old.

Han jumped at the chance to meet someone his own age. “Where is your son? Did you bring him with you this year?”

The wary look returned, and the vendor shook his head. He cleared his throat. “No, no. If you’ll be well enough on your own, perhaps I should be on my way.”

Han grabbed onto the cart to stop the vendor from leaving. “Do you know where I can get a mule outside the Tooth Market?”

“A mule? A mule. That’s the animal that looks like a horse?” The vendor thought for a moment. “Near the docks. The blacksmith there, the tall one with the many children, he has one for sale. I would get her for you, but I have a most urgent delivery to the castle.”

Han started. “The castle?”

The vendor’s smile froze as if he had said too much. “I must be on my way.”

“Wait!” Han had a plan. “Do you think you could do me another favor?”

The vendor leaned over his cart and inspected a small crate of jars and vials crowded in one corner. “More of the coughing tonic?” he asked.

Han was worried about what might happen to him if he spent Dol’s money on personal items. “No,” he said. “I was hoping you could get a crate of the Queen’s wine. I could pay you for the trip,” he added, hoping there was enough in the small coin purse to back up his claim.

The vendor’s frown lightened. “Ah. I know a delivery driver who likes to sell a few of his barrels on the side. You give me two coins, I can take care of the rest.”

Han’s chest felt lighter. Two coins was nowhere near what he expected to pay for the Queen’s wine. He opened the purse and withdrew the charge, but when he pulled the coins into the light, they weren’t the crystalline white of salt coins. They were silver.

Han’s hands turned sweaty. He was petrified of dropping them or spending more than Dol would anticipate. Before he handed them over to the vendor, he swallowed a wave of nausea. “Are you sure the wine costs this much?” he asked.

“The driver will expect more than the usual amount today.”

Vendors must have made more money than Han thought. He would never be as rich as an upper rank soldier or a scribe, but perhaps he could work his way up to become a merchant one day. Or maybe he would get whatever sort of job to which Dagny had just risen.

The vendor dropped the two silvers into a tin lockbox. “An agreement, then,” he said with a businesslike grin. He tapped his foot like he was anxious to get moving again. “A good while it will be before I finish my delivery in town. That well by your hamlet, meet me there, and I'll bring the wine by sundown. I wish you luck with your mule.”

Lightning flashed in the sky. Han tucked the coin purse safely in his shirt and raced along a corridor under the eaves as rain washed street muck into the gutters. With every step, the coins thudded against his ribs hard enough to leave a bruise.

The streets toward the docks roared with people. Han tried to worm his way through the crowd and got his feet stepped on twice. He couldn’t break through to the smithy.

He stood on tiptoe by the sea wall. A broken mast jutted from the beach, surrounded by washed up crates and driftwood. Harvesters scoured the wreckage as the tide surged farther inland. He wished he had the time to join them.

Down the beach, a stocky figure searched alone on a rocky stretch of the strand. Could it be they knew where a secret wealth had washed ashore?

Han got a funny feeling as he watched the figure. It felt as though a pair of eyes were burning through his back. He turned his head ever so slightly.

Behind him, huddled in the shadows of a narrow alley, a girl draped in part of a sail was staring at the lone figure on the beach. Her eyes were bloodshot and her black hair, which went almost to her knees, hung in wet braids tangled with seaweed. She didn’t look like she was there to grab salvage from the wreck.

The girl noticed Han watching her and gave a start. “Do you know that man?” she asked. Her voice was full of suspicion.

Han didn’t recognize her accent. “I don’t think so,” he said. “Has he done something? Is he a pirate?”

The girl's long face lost some of its severity. “He is no pirate.” She moved to walk away.

Han was intrigued by the girl and her animosity toward the stranger on the beach. He followed after her as she tucked herself deeper into the shadows. She tugged the sail closer to her face when townsfolk passed her by.

She frowned at him. Her voice was hoarse and scratchy. “Why do you follow me?”

Han didn’t have a good answer. “I’m only waiting for the road to clear.” He pointed to a smokestack climbing from the street down the way. “I have an errand at that smithy over there.”

The girl braced herself against the wall and scoured Han's threadbare appearance with tired eyes. She seemed to dismiss him as a threat and let her shoulders relax a little. She grew agitated again when a passerby glanced in her direction.

Han rocked on his heels. “Where do you mean to go?” he asked, certain she didn’t intend to stay out on the street all day. “You had to be coming here on that ship for a reason.”

The girl's large eyes widened, and her thick eyebrows shaped like arrowheads came together over her nose. She looked around to see if anyone else had heard him. She scanned the hazy skyline, but there was nothing to see but smoke and roofs that leaned too far to one side. She gave up looking. “Where is the embassy?” she asked him.

“The what?”

“The embassy for Niloufar,” she said, her voice growing weaker. She gestured with her hands as if she were placing a lid on a cooking pot. “It has a domed top and a fountain in the front.”

Han had never seen nor heard of such a building. “It's not around here,” he said. “Maybe it’s one of those buildings they knocked down a long time ago.”

The girl looked like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Knocked down? It was destroyed?” Confusion and despair leaked into her voice. She coughed and pressed a hand to her throat.

Han drew back from her.

“Wait,” she said, with something that approached desperation. “Where do you take residence?”

“Why do you want to know that?”

The girl glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching. She slipped further into the alley and rummaged in a bag hidden under the sail. She removed a gleaming coin from the bag and held it up for him to see. “If your family gives me shelter for the night, I will pay you.”

Han’s eyes felt like they might fall from their sockets. The gold coin flashed in the glow of lightning before the girl stashed it back in her satchel. What was she doing with such money? And what was she thinking, offering it to him? It was a crime to trade in gold with a serf.

Han shivered as gusts of wind sheared from the rain. A gold coin. He could work his whole life probably, and never earn so much money.

His stomach grumbled as he thought of all the things he could buy if he accepted her offer. He would never receive such an opportunity again. “You'll really pay that much?” he whispered.

“I will if you and your family say nothing of me to others.” The girl leaned on the alley wall for support and coughed into the crook of her arm. She looked faint.

Han couldn’t let the chance go by. “I'll do it,” he said, as fast as the words could leave his mouth. “But I still have to get over to the smithy. You can sit down there, if you want.”

The girl didn’t look pleased about the detour, but she nodded and wrapped herself tighter in the sail. Her clothes underneath were ratty and water stained. She had probably fallen ill at sea.

He glanced to the crowded street near the seawall. “How did your ship come to wreck?”

A fearful shadow fell over the girl's face, and she stared at the ground. “A nightmare,” she said.

Han couldn’t make sense of her answer. She didn’t seem to comprehend it, herself. Perhaps she had been asleep when it happened.

The girl dozed as they waited for the crowd to thin. Han crouched across from her in the alley, his legs tired and sore from walking. He kept thinking about the sudden wealth he had accrued, all in one day.

Part of him was concerned. He wasn’t going to give up on Dol’s errand in case the girl was lying and had no intention of handing over her gold. He was sure she could buy a house with it on her own. Why would she break the law by giving it to the likes of him?

He wasn’t going to test his luck by asking.

The crowd scattered as lightning crackled over the beach. Han glanced to the seawall and jumped back when he saw the mysterious stranger from the beach shuffling toward the alley.