Chapter 41
Two Sides of a Coin
The next morning the three of them were out early.
The inn door opened and heat, dust, and noise hit them together. The street was packed—men and women moving fast. Stalls were already up along the curb, prices chalked on boards. Farther off, cart bells mixed with the snorts of mules.
Nova had barely stepped out when a food stall stopped him cold.
At the stall beside them, the vendor kept shouting while he flipped thin cakes on an iron griddle.
"Hot egg flatcakes—two apiece!"
The skins already smelled toasted. Off the pan he smeared on sauce, scattered a pinch of chopped saltwhisk scallion, and kept a basket of thick-shelled ground-hug chicken eggs at his elbow.
Saltwhisk scallion grew in thin round tubes. Snap one and lick the cut—salty, good for seasoning. Ground-hug chickens were squat mutant stock, fluff-balls running low to the dirt, steady even in a hard wind.
Lila saw Nova staring and dug out a few small coins. She bought three and passed him a rolled cake.
Nova bit in, hissed at the heat, and still wouldn't let go.
"Boss—where's the town notice board? We just got in. Looking for work."
"Straight ahead, two streets. Crowd around it—that's the place." The vendor added, "Plenty looking for work, though. Jobs are tight."
They hadn't gone far when the notice board stood at a crossing. A dozen or so people clustered around it, clearly hunting work.
Eren stayed at the edge and scanned from the top down.
- Crystone processing plant. Ongoing hire—cutting, rough polish, sorting. 520–680 Crystone coins a month. Three-month minimum.
- Accounts clerk and assistant. Bookkeeping experience required. Must keep ledgers. From 620 Crystone coins a month. Local guarantor needed. Ten-day trial.
- Northern mine dig crews. Underground shifts. Two meals included. From 880 Crystone coins a month. Related experience required.
Lower down there were more—craft apprentices, outskirt ranches, warehouse odd jobs—sheets layered over sheets.
Day labor and short gigs were scarce. Most of those papers looked old, as if they'd hung forever. Pay was poor. Almost no one glanced at them.
People at the fringe kept talking.
"Tried the plant day before yesterday. Interview washed me out."
"Still better than that ledger job. No local guarantor, you're done. They figure you'll cook the books."
…
The three of them stepped aside from the crowd.
Eren glanced at the notices. "Not much casual work here."
"Yeah," Lila said. "Steady jobs pay all right, though. We could do a month or two, finish our business, and go."
"That big-company stuff already makes my head hurt. No experience, no guarantor—we're not getting in anyway." Eren shook his head. "If it falls through, we find a village nearby and see if we can settle."
Lila laughed and patted his shoulder. "Don't rush. We just got here. Something'll turn up. And Nova wants to look around more anyway."
Nova was still working on his flatcake. He wiped sauce from the corner of his mouth. "Yeah. I can help too."
Eren didn't answer at once. He thought of the red-haired big man on the road, and the last thing he'd said: "Grab a mine hand and have him pass word. Tell them you're looking for Red Tea."
"All right. If nothing else works, we ask that Red Tea we met on the road," Eren said. "He told us—once we're in town, find a mine hand to pass word. We don't know this place. Better ask him than walk into a pit."
Lila nodded. "Makes sense. If he's got connections, maybe he can point us to a job."
They left, asked around until they found one of the mining company's warehouses, and headed that way.
The crowd was thicker here. Handcarts jammed the curb. Rope, crates, and canvas-covered ore sacks covered the ground. In front of the loading shed a young clerk hugged a ledger and counted, face burned red by the sun.
Lila stepped half a pace ahead. The strap of the crossbow at her shoulder brushed the press of bodies; she drew it in. "Hey—we're looking for Red Tea. Mine-guard captain."
The clerk blinked, eyed the crossbow on her back. "Red Tea? Which Red Tea?"
An older man in the shed looked up at once. "How many you know? Mine-guard captain."
The young clerk went a shade tighter. "Captain's at the east warehouse today. Follow this road to the place with the gray-blue flag. Tell the man at the door with the armband."
"Thanks." Eren nodded.
They followed the clerk's directions. Sure enough: a gray-blue flag, a shed outside the courtyard wall, long tables in a row. Men behind them bent over ledgers, stamps coming down on paper one after another. At the door stood a staffer with a short club at his hip and an armband on his left arm.
The three of them had barely drawn near when he stepped across their path.
"What do you want? This isn't a place to wander."
Before Lila could speak, he flicked a look at Nova and snorted. "Bringing a kid to find his daddy? We don't handle that."
Eren stayed put, shook his head, and said only, "Red Tea told us to pass word through a mine hand once we hit town. Say Eren and Lila are looking for him."
The man's brow creased. A laugh already rolled out of the shed.
"Let them in."
Red Tea rose from behind a long table. When that bulk shifted, the light in the shed seemed to lose a strip. He still wore a shirt and waistcoat. An iron staff leaned by the table.
The man at the door changed color at once and forced a smile. "Captain's friends—sorry, sorry. Come on in."
Nova gave him one look and followed Eren and Lila inside.
Red Tea stepped out of the shed and shook hands with Eren and Lila in turn—palms rough, grip careful. "Only yesterday on the road I said we'd find time. Didn't think it'd be this quick. Settled in?"
"We have," Eren said. "Didn't mean to bother you." He paused. "Only—we don't know this town. Need to earn a meal, and we'd rather not get fleeced."
Red Tea waved it off. "You're too polite. Trouble? I liked how you two stepped in on the road. Wanted to make friends for real." He glanced at the street traffic, then at the man in the doorway. "Can't talk details here, though. Come on. Little place I know—my treat. Local dishes. We talk while we eat."
The man edged forward at once. "Captain—want me along to run errands?"
"This is personal. I'll go myself." Red Tea clapped his shoulder. "You keep an eye on the work."
The smile stiffened, then he nodded quick. "Got it. Got it."
The little eatery sat on a back street—small, tables wiped clean. Red Tea took a private room, ordered no wine, only a pot of hot tea, and told the waiter, "Two bass—one roast, one steamed. Stew a chicken too. Not too spicy, not too oily." He added, "One cold dish. And something sweet for the kid—warm him up."
Once the order was in, they sat and traded a few polite lines. Nova's eyes kept drifting toward the kitchen curtain. Before long dishes came out in a run, oil and scallion-garlic rising with the steam.
"Here. Try the fish." Red Tea lifted a tender piece from the belly of the steamed bass into Nova's bowl. "River fish from around here. Not many bones, not fishy. Taste it."
The three of them ate with real appetite. A few bites in, the heat off the table eased what stiffness was left between them.
Red Tea talked easy. "So how'd you three end up together? Family?"
Lila's chopsticks didn't stop. "Met on the road. Kid's with us now."
"Got it." Red Tea didn't push. He sipped from his tea bowl and turned the subject clean. "All right. Business. What kind of work are you after? Any experience?"