The Wise Man's Fear Part 126

"At your earliest convenience," Bredon quoted with a dry chuckle. "That says quite a bit more than it seems." He set the letter down. "Still, it's probably better this way. If he left you with his favor you'd be a battleground for them: a peppercorn between her mortar and his pestle. They would crush you with their bickering."

His eyes flickered back to the wooden ring on my hand. "I don't suppose she gave it to you personally?" he asked hopefully.

"She sent it with a runner." I let out a low sigh. "The guards saw it too."

There was a knock on the door. I answered it, and a runner boy handed me a letter.

I closed the door and looked at the seal. "Lord Praevek," I said.

Bredon shook his head. "I swear that man spends every waking moment with his ear against a keyhole or his tongue up someone's a.s.s."

Chuckling, I cracked the letter open and scanned it quickly. "He's asking for his ring back," I said. "It's smudged too, he didn't even wait for the ink to dry."

Bredon nodded. "Word is undoubtedly spreading. It wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't sitting strong at Alveron's right hand. But she is, and she's made her opinion clear. Anyone who treats you better than a dog will doubtless share the scorn she feels for you." He fluttered her letter. "And scorn such as this, there's plenty to go around without worry of it spreading thin."

Bredon gestured to the bowl of rings and gave a dry, mirthless chuckle. "Just when you were getting some silver, too."

I walked over to the bowl, dug out his ring, and held it out to him. "You should take this back," I said.

Bredon's expression looked pained, but he made no move to take the ring.

"I'm going to be leaving soon," I said. "And I'd hate for you to be tarnished by your contact with me. There's no way I can thank you for the help you've given me. The least I can do is help minimize the damage to your reputation."

Bredon hesitated, then closed his eyes and sighed. He took the ring with a defeated shrug.

"Oh," I said, suddenly remembering something else. I went to the stack of slanderous stories and pulled out the pages that described his pagan frolics. "You might find this amusing," I said as I handed it to him. "Now you should probably go. Simply being here can't be good for you."

Bredon sighed and nodded. "I'm sorry it didn't work out better for you, my boy. If you're ever back in these parts don't hesitate to call on me. These things do blow over eventually." His eyes kept drifting back to the wooden ring on my finger. "You really shouldn't keep wearing that."

After he was gone, I fished Stapes' gold ring out of the bowl and Alveron's iron one as well. Then I stepped out into the hallway.

"I'm going to pay a call on Stapes," I said politely to the guards. "Would the two of you care to accompany me?"

The taller one glanced at the ring on my finger, then looked at his companion before murmuring an agreement. I turned on my heel and set off, my escort keeping pace behind me.

Stapes ushered me inside his sitting room and closed the door behind me. His rooms were even finer than my own and considerably more lived in. I also saw a large bowl of rings on a nearby table. All of them were gold. The only iron ring in sight was Alveron's, and that was on his finger.

He might look like a grocer, but Stapes had a sharp set of eyes. He spotted the ring on my finger straightaway. "She did it then," he said, shaking his head. "You really shouldn't wear it."

"I'm not ashamed of what I am," I said. "If this is the ring of an Edema Ruh, I'll wear it."

Stapes sighed. "It's more complicated than that."

"I know," I said."I didn't come here to make your life difficult. Could you return this to the Maer for me?" I handed him Alveron's ring.

Stapes put it in his pocket.

"I also wanted to return these." I handed him the two rings he had given me. One bright gold, one white bone. "I don't want to make trouble between you and your master's new wife."

Stapes nodded, holding up the gold ring. "It would make trouble if you kept it," he said. "I am in the Maer's service. As such, I need to be mindful of the games of the court."

Then he reached out and took my hand, pressing the bone ring back into it. "But this lies outside my duty to the Maer. It is a debt between two men. The games of the court have no sway over such things." Stapes met my eye. "And I insist you keep it."

I ate a late supper alone in my rooms. The guards were still waiting patiently outside as I read the Maer's letter for the fifth time. Each time I hoped to find some clement sentiment hidden in his phrasing. But it simply wasn't there.

On the table sat the various papers the Maer had sent. I emptied my purse beside them. I had two gold royals, four silver n.o.bles, eight and a half pennies, and, inexplicably, a single Modegan strelum, though I couldn't for the life of me remember where I'd come by it.

Altogether they equaled slightly less than eight talents. I stacked them next to Alveron's papers. Eight talents, a pardon, a player's writ, and my tuition paid at the University. It was not an inconsiderable reward.

Still, I couldn't help but feel rather shorted. I had saved Alveron from a poisoning, uncovered a traitor in his court, won him a wife, and rid his roads of more dangerous folk than I cared to count.

Despite all that, I was still left without a patron. Worse, his letter had made no mention of the Amyr, no mention of the support he had promised to lend me in my search for them.

But there was nothing to be gained by making a fuss, and much that I could lose. I refilled my purse and tucked Alveron's letters into the secret compartment in my lute case.

I also nicked three books I'd brought from Caudicus' library, since no one knew I had them, and tipped the bowlful of rings into a small sack. The wardrobe held two dozen finely tailored outfits. They were worth a heavy penny, but weren't very portable. I took two of the nicer outfits and left the rest hanging.

Lastly I belted on Caesura and worked my shaed into a long cape. Those two items rea.s.sured me that my time in Vintas had not been entirely wasted, though I'd earned them on my own, not through any help of Alveron's.

I locked the door, snuffed the lamps, and climbed out a window into the garden. Then I used a piece of bent wire to lock the window and close the shutters behind me.

Petty mischief? Perhaps, but I'd be d.a.m.ned if I'd be escorted from the estates by the Maer's guard. Besides, the thought of them puzzling over my escape made me chuckle, and laughter is good for the digestion.

I made my way out of the estates without anyone seeing me. My shaed was well suited to sneaking about in the dark. After an hour of searching I found a greasy bookbinder in Severen-Low.

He was an unsavory fellow with the morals of a feral dog, but he was was interested in the stack of slanderous stories the n.o.bility had been sending to my rooms. He offered me four reels for the lot of them, plus the promise of ten pennies for every volume of the book he sold after they were printed. I bargained him up to six reels and six pennies per copy and we shook hands. I left his shop, burned the contract, and washed my hands twice. I did keep the money, however. interested in the stack of slanderous stories the n.o.bility had been sending to my rooms. He offered me four reels for the lot of them, plus the promise of ten pennies for every volume of the book he sold after they were printed. I bargained him up to six reels and six pennies per copy and we shook hands. I left his shop, burned the contract, and washed my hands twice. I did keep the money, however.

After that I sold both suits of fine clothing and all of Caudicus' books except for one. With the money I'd acc.u.mulated, I spent the next several hours on the docks and found a s.h.i.+p leaving the next day for Junpui.

As night settled onto the city, I wandered the high parts of Severen, hoping I might run into Denna. I didn't, of course. I could tell she was long gone. A city feels different when Denna is somewhere inside it, and Severen felt as hollow as an empty egg.

At the end of several hours of fruitless searching, I stopped by a dockside brothel and spent some time drinking in the taproom. It was a slow night, and the ladies were bored. So I bought drinks for everyone, and we talked. I told a few stories and they listened. I played a few songs and they applauded. Then I asked a favor, and they laughed and laughed and laughed.

So I poured the sackful of rings into a bowl and left them on the bar. Soon the ladies were trying them on and arguing over who would get the silver ones. I bought another round of drinks and left, my mood somewhat improved.

I wandered aimlessly after that, eventually finding a small public garden near the lip of the Sheer looking out over Severen-Low. The lamps below were burning orange, while here or there a gaslight or sympathy lamp flickered greenish blue and crimson. It was as breathtaking as the first time I had seen it.

I had been watching for some time before I realized I wasn't alone. An older man leaned against a tree several feet away, looking down at the lights much as I had been. A faint and not unpleasant aroma of beer wafted from him.

"She's a pretty thing, innit she?" he said, his accent marking him as a dockworker.

I agreed. We watched the twinkling fires silently for a time. I unscrewed the wooden ring from my finger and considered throwing it off the cliff. Now that someone was watching, I couldn't help but feel the gesture was somewhat childish.

"They say a n.o.bleman can p.i.s.s on half o' Severen from up here," the dockman said conversationally.

I tucked the ring into a pocket of my shaed. A memento then. "Those are the lazy ones," I replied. "The ones I've met can p.i.s.s a lot farther than that."

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-ONE.

A Journey to Return FATE FAVORED ME ON the way back to the University. We had a good wind and everything was delightfully uneventful. The sailors had heard of my encounter with Felurian, so I enjoyed a modest fame for the duration of the trip. I played them the song I'd written about it, and told them the story about half as often as they asked me to.

I also told them about my trip to the Adem. They didn't believe a piece of it at first, but then I showed them the sword and threw their best wrestler three times. They showed me a different sort of respect after that, and a rougher, more honest sort of friends.h.i.+p.

I learned a goodly bit from them on my journey home. They told me sea stories and the names of stars. They talked about wind and water and wimmin, sorry, women. They tried to teach me sailor's knots, but I didn't have a knack for it, though I proved to be a dab hand at untying them.

Altogether it was very pleasant. The friends.h.i.+p of the sailors, the song of the wind in the rigging, the smell of sweat and salt and tar. Over the long days, these things slowly eased the bitterness I felt toward my ill treatment at the hands of Maer Alveron and his loving lady wife.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-TWO.

Home EVENTUALLY WE DOCKED IN Tarbean, where the sailors helped me find a cheap berth on a billow boat heading upstream toward Anilin. I got off two days later in Imre and walked to the University just as the first blue light of dawn was coloring the sky.

I've never in my life had anything like a home. As a young child I grew up on the road, endlessly traveling with my troupe. Home wasn't a place. It was people and wagons. Later in Tarbean I had had a secret place where three roofs came together and gave me shelter from the rain. I slept there and hid a few precious things, but it wasn't anything like a home.

Because of this, I'd never in my life enjoyed the feeling of coming home after a journey. I felt it for the first time that day as I crossed the Omethi, the stones of the bridge familiar underneath my feet. As I came to the tallest part of its broad arch I could see the grey shape of the Archives rising out of the trees ahead of me.

The streets of the University were comforting under my feet. I'd been gone for three-quarters of a year. In some ways it seemed much longer, but at the same time everything here felt so familiar that it felt like hardly any time at all had pa.s.sed.

It was still early when I got to Anker's, and the front door was locked. I briefly considered climbing up to my window, then thought better of it, given that I was carrying my lute case and travelsack, and wearing Caesura as well.

Instead I made my way to the Mews and knocked on Simmon's door. It was early, and I knew I'd be waking him, but I was hungry for a familiar face. After waiting a short minute and hearing nothing, I knocked again, louder, and practiced my best jaunty smile.

Sim opened the door, his hair in disarray, his eyes red from too little sleep. He looked blearily out at me. For the s.p.a.ce of a breath his expression was blank, then he hurled himself at me with a crus.h.i.+ng hug.

"Blackened body of G.o.d," he said, using stronger language than I'd ever heard from him before. "Kvothe. You're alive."

Sim had a bit of a cry, then shouted at me for a while, and then we laughed and sorted matters out. It seems Threpe had been keeping closer tabs on my travels than I'd thought. Consequently, when my s.h.i.+p had gone missing, he'd a.s.sumed the worst.

A letter would have cleared things up, but I'd never thought to send one. The thought of writing home was utterly alien to me.

"The s.h.i.+p was reported as all hands lost," Sim said. "Word spread around the Eolian and guess who heard the news."

"Stanchion?" I asked, knowing he was a terrible gossip.

Sim shook his head grimly. "Ambrose."

"Oh lovely," I observed dryly.

"It would have been bad coming from anyone," Sim said. "But it was worst from him. I was half convinced he'd somehow arranged to sink your s.h.i.+p." He gave a sickly smile. "He waited until right before admissions before he broke the news to me. Needless to say, I p.i.s.sed all over myself during my exam and spent another term as an E'lir."

"Spent?" I said. "You made Re'lar?"

He grinned. "Just yesterday. I was sleeping off the celebration when you woke me up this morning."

"How's Wil?" I asked. "Did he take the news hard?"

"Even-keeled as always," Sim said. "But for all that, yeah, pretty hard." He grimaced. "Ambrose has been making his life difficult in the Archives, too. Wil got fed up with it and went home for a term. He should be back today."

"How's everyone else?" I asked.

A thought seemed to strike Sim all of a sudden. He stood up. "Oh G.o.d, Fela!" Then he sat down hard, as if his legs had been cut from underneath him. "Oh G.o.d, Fela," he said in a completely different tone.

"What?" I asked. "Did something happen to her?"

"She didn't take the news well either." He gave me a shaky smile. "It turns out she had quite a thing for you."

"Fela?" I said stupidly.

"Don't you remember? Wil and I thought she liked you?"

It seemed like years ago. "I remember."

Sim seemed uncomfortable. "Well, you see. While you were gone, Wil and I started spending a lot of time with her. And ..." He made an inarticulate gesture, his expression was stuck between sheepish and grinning.

Realization struck. "You and Fela? Sim, that's great!" I felt a grin spread across my face, then saw his expression. "Oh." My grin fell away. "Sim, I wouldn't get in the way of that."

"I know you wouldn't." He smiled a sickly smile. "I trust you."

I rubbed my eyes. "This is a h.e.l.l of a homecoming. I haven't even been through admissions yet."

"Today's the last day," Sim pointed out.

"I know," I said, getting to my feet. "I have an errand to run first."

I left my baggage in Simmon's room and paid a visit to the bursar in the bas.e.m.e.nt of Hollows. Riem was a balding, pinch-faced man who had disliked me ever since the masters had a.s.signed me a negative tuition in my first term. He wasn't in the habit of giving money out, and the entire experience had rubbed him the wrong way.

I showed him my open letter of credit to Alveron's coffers. As I've said, it was an impressive doc.u.ment. Signed by the Maer's own hand. Wax seals. Fine vellum. Excellent penmans.h.i.+p.