Fenn Hallows's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Fenn slept four hours and woke stiff. Penny was gone, but the deal she left behind sat on him like a wet coat. Before he could chase cursed gold for one god, he owed a report to another. Juno Brass had given him the paste that kept the fungal ridge from killing him. In return she wanted him back at her door, alive, with the story. If he made her wait, she would take back the goodwill he needed to bring gods to his counter at all. He fed the luma squirrel a nut, shut the stall, and walked out past the town to the herb woman's edge of the woods. Juno was on her knees in the yarrow, hooves folded under her, antlers dragging a low branch. She did not look up when he stopped at the row. "You took your time," she said. "I took a day," Fenn said. "I came as soon as I could stand." She pulled a weed and set it aside. "Sit. Talk." Fenn sat on a stump. He told it flat. The paste had held on the ridge. He had reached the split arch by dusk. He had left the paper on the stone. A cream-colored goat had carried him across and vanished after. The goddess of commerce had walked him home and hired him for a second job. Juno's hands stopped in the dirt. "Penny," she said. "Penny." "You took her coin?" "I took better than coin. A standing arrangement. Gods bargain at my stall by my rules." She looked at him then. Her eyes were the color of wet bark. He could not read what moved behind them. "That was the trade you wanted your whole life," she said. "Yes." "And now you've told me." She wiped her hands on her dress. "Debt closed. Paste paid for. Ward paid for. Your survival witnessed." Fenn's shoulders eased. "Then we're square." "We're square." She pulled another weed. "Fenn. A word, free of charge." "Go on." "Penny's gold is older than most of the gods who'll come sniffing at your counter for it. Whoever took it knew a counter-magic. That means someone with patience. When word gets out you've made yourself the place gods deal, you'll get the thief too. Dressed as a customer." Fenn thought about that. The squirrel shifted on his shoulder. "Why tell me?" "Because I liked being paid on time." She bent back to the yarrow. "Go home. Open the stall. They'll come." He walked back the way he came. The goodwill was kept. The debt was shut. But Juno's warning walked with him now, heavier than the paste jar had been. Somewhere out there, a customer with a counter-curse in their pocket was already deciding when to visit his counter.