Fenn Hallows's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Fenn tucked the button into his sleeve and started the walk home. The paste on his lip had gone dry. The luma squirrel sat up straight on his shoulder, watching the road behind them. He had delivered the paper. He had survived the ridge. Now he wanted his own bed and a cup of anything hot. He had gone maybe twenty steps when a woman was walking beside him who had not been there before. She was small and dark-haired, in purple and gold robes, with a heavy necklace of mismatched coins across her chest. She matched his pace exactly. The squirrel did not startle. That told Fenn more than her clothes did. "You did the work," she said. "I'm here to walk you back." Fenn kept his eyes on the path. "And who are you to me?" "Penny. Goddess of commerce." She tapped one coin on the necklace. "That paper you left on the stone was mine. The goat was mine. You held up your end." Fenn stopped. His knees were glad of it. He had spent years wanting a god to speak to him plain. Now one did, and his mouth was dry. "You could have carried it yourself," he said. "No. I couldn't." She did not explain. They walked. The low road smoothed under his feet in a way roads did not usually smooth. The fungal ridge was already behind them, though he did not remember passing it. Dusk held off. He understood he was being escorted, and that the trip home would cost him nothing he could count. His stall came up out of the trees before he expected it. The weathered hut with its charms and hung trinkets, the stall front piled with bottles and boxes. His door. His step. Penny stopped at the base of it. "I need to hire you," she said. Fenn set his hand on the rail. "Hire." "Someone stole gold from my treasury. I cursed the gold to come back on its own. It hasn't. The thief knew a counter-magic almost no one remembers." She touched the coins at her throat. "That gold holds up every fair trade in this world. Without it, the scales tip. I've already felt it." "Why me." "You buy and sell what other traders won't touch. Cursed gold will pass through a stall like yours before it passes through a bank." She looked at him straight. "Name your price. I'll meet it." Fenn's chest went tight. This was the thing he had wanted. A god at his counter, waiting on his number. He thought of the coat traded for a blessing that cost nothing. He did not want that trade. He wanted the other one. "My price is a standing arrangement," he said. "Gods come to my stall and bargain by my rules. Starting with you." Penny's mouth moved. Not quite a smile. "Agreed," she said. "Start looking tomorrow."