‘No, no, darling. In fact, the mystery is… intriguing. But that won’t survive my actually knowing ‘
‘That’s true. Which is why I won’t be asking you about anything. Where you’ve been, what you’ve done.’
‘But that’s different!’
Her brows rose,
‘No, really,’ Torvald said, walking over. ‘What I told you last night, I wasn’t exaggerating .
‘If you say so.’
He could see that she didn’t believe him. ‘I am stung. Crushed.’
‘You’d better get going,’ Tiserra said, returning once more to the lump of clay on the wheel. ‘You’ve got a debt to clear.’
“ The loot’s not sticky?’
‘It’s all clean as can be, I made sure. Unless Gareb’s scratched secret sigils on every coin he owned he won’t know either way. He might suspect, though.’
‘I’ve got a good tale to explain all that, if necessary,’ Torvald said. ‘Foreign investments, unexpected wealth, a triumphant return.’
‘Well, I’d tone down the new version, Tor.’
He regarded her, noting her amusement, and said nothing. What was the point? That giant whose life I saved more than once, his name was Karsa Orlong. Do you think I could make up a name like that, Tis? And what about these shackle scars? Oh, it’s the new style among the highborn, enforced humility and all that.
Oh, it didn’t matter anyway. ‘I don’t plan on meeting Gareb in person,’ he said as he walked to the front door. ‘I’ll work through Scorch and Leff.’
The lump of wet clay slid off the wheel and splatted on the wall, where it clung lor a moment, then oozed down to glom on to the floor.
Surprised, Torvald turned to his wife and saw the expression that he hadn’t seen in… in… well, in quite a while. ‘Wait!’ he cried. ‘That partnership is over with, I swear it! Darling, they’re just acting as my go-between, that’s all-’
‘You start scheming with those two again, Torvald Nom, and I’ll take out a contract on you myself.’
‘They always liked you, you know.’
‘Torvald-’
‘I know, my love, I know. Don’t worry. No more scheming with Scorch and Leff. That’s a promise. We’re rich now, remember?’
‘The problem with lists,’ Scorch said, ’is all the names on ’em.’
Leff nodded. ‘That’s the problem, all right. You got it dead on there, Scorch. All them names. They must’ve had some kind of meeting, don’t you think? All the loansharks in some crowded, smoky room, lounging about with nubile women dropping grapes in their mouths, and some scribe with stained lips scratching away. Names, people down on their luck, people so stupid they’d sign anything, grab the coin no matter how insane the interest. Names, you got it, Scorch, a list of fools. Poor, dumb, desperate fools.’
‘And then,’ Scorch said, ‘when the list is gone, out it goes , for some other poor, dumb, desperate fools to take on .’
‘Hey now, we ain’t poor.’
‘Yes we are. We been poor ever since Torvald Nom vanished on us. He was the brains-admit it, Leff. Now, you tried being the brains ever since and look where it’s got us, with a damned list and all those names.’
Leff raised a finger. ‘We got Kruppe, though, and he’s already given us six of ‘em.’
‘Which we passed on and you know what that means? It means thugs kicking in the door in the middle of the night, delivering threats and maybe worse, People got hurt ’cause of us, Leff. Bad hurt.’
‘They got hurt because they couldn’t pay up. Unless you decide to run, and I do mean run, as in out of the City, as in hundreds of leagues away to some town or city with no connections to here, but people don’t do that and why not? Because they’re all caught up, tangled in the nets, and they can’t see their way clear be-cause they got husbands and wives and children and maybe it’s hard but at least it’s familiar, you know what I mean?’
‘No.’
Leff blinked. ‘I was just saying-’
‘What did they think they were doing, to get caught up in nets-swimmin’ the lake? Besides, not all of it’s loans, is it? There’s blackmail, too, which gives me a thought or two-’
‘No way, Scorch. I don’t want in on anything like that.’
‘I’m just suggesting we talk to Tor about it, that’s all. See what he conjures up in the way of plans and such.’