Asher Converse's Arc

Chapter 17 of 30

The next night the floor was full again. Rowan worked the crowd, quiet and easy, and Tucker moved between tables with his tray. Then Asher heard a laugh from the far corner. He turned. Tucker had set his tray on the bar and was unbuttoning his vest. "Servers dressed like this draw more tips," Tucker said. He slid the leather off his shoulders and hung it on a peg. His two gold chains lay flat against his undershirt. "Sell more ale, too. Men buy from a man they want to look at." He grinned and spread his hands. "Wouldn't you tip me more, serving you like this?" A few patrons whistled. Tucker took a bow. Asher knew the trick worked. He also knew what it cost. Men would come for the ale and stay for the view. "But you gave me an idea," Asher said. He watched Tucker's chains catch the lamplight. "You don't need the vest off. You need them looking at you and not at each other. Rowan learned that. Lean in. Let the chain do the work. Keep them warm and keep them stupid." He glanced down at Tucker’s chest. Tucker looked at him. "Warm and stupid," he said. "I can do that with my vest on." "That's the job." Asher clapped his shoulder. "Charm them blind. But nobody remembers our walls." Tucker took up his tray and went back to the floor. He leaned close to a table of traders, let a chain swing, and drew a story out of the loudest one. Coins came. No one stared past him at the storeroom door. By midnight the till was heavy again, near as heavy as an open vest would have made it. Asher counted it and felt the trade was fair. He had turned Tucker's stunt into a rule. Elixir would sell warmth, not spectacle. It would draw men in and let them leave without a map of the place in their heads.