Free The Thief's Gamble (Einarinn 1) by Juliet E. McKenna Page B

there's only so much countryside people can take before they get an overwhelming need to build a tavern.
    Geris shook himself and abandoned calendar calculations for the present. 'I'm not sure I should be talking to you about it,' he admitted.
    'If I'm going to be doing a job for you there, I need as much time as possible to plan it.'
    'I don't see how I can help.'
    'Well, what am I supposed to be lifting? Who from? Why are these things so important?'
    Geris shifted on the seat. 'It's an ink-horn,' he said finally.
    'A what?'
    'An ink-horn. You keep ink in it, it's made from horn.'
    'Yes, I know what one is. What's so special about this one? Darni could buy a handful in Col.'
    'We need this particular one. The owner won't sell so we've been wondering how to get hold of it. You came along at just the right time.' He gave me a wide-eyed smile.
    Geris could keep his attempts at charm as far as I was concerned. The timing could not have been more wrong from my point of view. I was suddenly tired of this game.
    'Look, either you tell me what's going on or I'm off this cart and into those woods before you can pick your nose. Try explaining that to Darni.'
    He blinked at the hard edge to my tone.
    'Darni said he'd tell you what you needed to know,' he pleaded.
    'Geris,' I said warningly. 'I can be out of sight before you can get Darni's attention.'
    'It's complicated,' he said finally.
    'We've got half a day before we're anywhere near Drede and I'm a good listener, so talk.'
    He sighed. 'Did I say my mentor at the University was an expert on the end of the Empire?'
    I nodded. 'Yes, Nemith the Reckless's reign.'
    'He collects old maps, temple ledgers, contemporary records, anything he can get his hands on. Dealers know him, and a few years ago he started picking up antiquities too, mostly things to do with scholarship — pen-cases, magnifiers, scroll-ends. Nothing very valuable, you understand, but interesting for their own sake.'
    Where was this leading? I kept quiet.
    'This is going to sound really peculiar.' Geris looked reluctant so I gave him a glare.
    'He started having dreams. Not just ordinary dreams, but really detailed, vivid ones. He said it was like living in someone else's life and he could remember every detail once he woke up, for days afterwards. I don't suppose anything would have come of it if he hadn't been at a mentors' convocation at Solstice last winter where they all got drunk. He started talking about these peculiar dreams, and it turned out two other mentors were having the same. Now, Ornale, that's his name, was thinking he was just working too hard, his sleeping mind was getting involved in his studies. He was telling the story against himself really, but the two others were actually quite relieved to hear about it. One's a geographer who's investigating weather patterns, and the other's a metallurgist who's trying to find out just how the Empire mints purified white gold.'
    Him and several thousand others, I thought. Life will get very interesting if someone rediscovers the secret of the white gold that makes Tormalin Empire coins the only unforgeable currency around
    'So?' I prompted.
    'Well, their studies had nothing to do with Empire history as such. The geographer was starting to wonder if he was going mad, I mean, he's a Rationalist and a real extremist; he says he doesn't even believe in the existence of the gods. The metallurgist was putting it down to too much exposure to mercury fumes. Anyway, they got talking and it soon became clear that these dreams featured people and events that Ornale recognised from his studies but that the other two had never even heard of. You see, the records about the end of the Seafarer's reign are pretty incomplete and Nemith the Reckless's reign was so short, what with the Empire falling apart around his ears, that there's virtually nothing to find. Anyway, there was a governor in Califer and Ornale, because of his studies, is just about the only person who knows