01 Sinner by Sara Douglass

Author:Sara Douglass
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780006486176
Publisher: Voyager
Published: 2005-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

South, south, ever south. A week after she’d met the horse-traders Faraday veered south-west, heading for the province of Nor. With the coin the horse-trader had given her she purchased food from the isolated homesteads she occasionally passed, but otherwise Faraday kept away from habitation. She enjoyed her solitude. At night she wrapped herself in the ruby cloak and slept dreamlessly, a small smile on her face.

Once in Nor Faraday met many more people. Nor was the most populous of Tencendor’s provinces and, in many ways, the most intense. Its vividness showed in the characters of the Nors people themselves, in their clothes, the way they decorated their homes, and in virtually every aspect of their lives. Convention was anathema to the Nors people, they lived and loved at a pace and with a fervour the other Acharites often had trouble accepting.

Faraday loved it. These people were alive, and she revelled in them.

In upper Nor she decided she’d had enough of walking, her boot soles were growing ever thinner, and so she decided to find passage south on a merchant’s cart.

She waited for a day by the side of a road, watching trading traffic going by, waiting for the right merchant. Finally, towards evening, she spotted a man walking beside a cart loaded with pottery and pulled by four sturdy horses.

“Good sir,” she cried as the cart came level with her.

“Aye?” the man said carefully, looking her up and down. He was thin and brown-haired, still young, but with the hunched shoulders of one far older.

“Good sir, I wonder if you travel to Ysbadd. I would go there.”

The man’s eyes narrowed. He wondered how she would pay. He had no taste for whores, and she did not look as if she could pay him the coin such a journey deserved.

“You have lost trade recently,” Faraday said. “I can tell you how to find it again. That should be worth the cost of my journey.”

“What –”

“It is your brother’s doing. He was jealous at your initial success at carting these pots,” and Faraday waved her hand at the cart, “and has spread the tale that you trade only in weak and defective vessels.”

The man regarded her steadily. It would not be past Holt to do such a thing. “And how do I regain this trade, fine lady?”

“Guarantee your produce. Offer to replace every faulty vessel that you sell – or have sold – with a sound one.”

“But that would cost me –”

Faraday grinned. “Only if you have been trading in faulty vessels, Jarl.”

Jarl wondered how she knew his name. But he thought on what she’d said, then smiled himself. “You have a sharp mind, lady. What should I call you? It is many days travel south to Ysbadd.”

Faraday let him help her climb into a spare space on the cart. “My name is Faraday, Jarl. Have I earned my journey?”

“You have indeed, Faraday, you have indeed.”

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