The Totem-Maker (part seventy-seven)

The Totem-Maker

Chapter Eight

Use for Use

(part seventy-seven)

I slept dressed, no longer feeling so unlikely to be disturbed that I didn’t half expect it. I sat, and reached for the poker to stir the fire’s embers. To stand would be yielding.

“You are my only customer today. Soon you will have rivals.”

I stood. At the table I picked up, returned a few items. I made a place aside and began filling it. “I will have these things for my larder.” I thought he might want me to go wrong; he might be a Prince’s man after all, measuring the depth…to which I would plunge my arm in the Tollkeeper’s takings.

“Some of your sheep will soon be lambing.”

“I know nothing about it,” I said. “Do they need help to lamb?”

He laughed. “Unlikely. But you’ll need to milk them. Can you do that?”

“I don’t think I care to.”

“And do you know how to make cheese from milk? And do you know how to spin yarn from fleece?”

“Peddler, I believe I am in need of a servant.”

I hadn’t expected to answer him this way. So many pictures crowded to me, of chores added to chores…

“A servant helps to avoid learning what you don’t care to. You may find labor in Balbaec.”

“I doubt I will, as I don’t speak the language.” We bickered, but I could see my path. “You are an old visitor here. You have spoken to the Keeper before me. He… She…?”

He shook his head.

Meek now? I don’t believe it. I said this to myself, and crossed my arms. “He died? Having his affairs in order? Not regarded as a thief, or a bungler? Why not,” I stopped the Peddler’s answer, “let me know his name?”

“For that I didn’t myself. He was the Tollkeeper. He may have died, I can’t speak to it. I am not so knowledgeable about people I at times pass by, as you would like.”

“But will I be an offender if I go down to the city? I have no one to mind the post. Or, does the Keeper have duties there? You may as well tell me, whether all this shepherding and spinning is how I live, and whether I trade with the traders?”

“If you trade with anyone, it is you who set the rules. You may sell such goods as you see profit in. Go gather the flowers from the meadow. There are flower sellers in the town. Ride your pony down and trade him for an ass.”

I thought of a rejoinder. But my rude guest spoke with some justice. “No. I can do as I like, of course. I can do my own thinking too. But what of the coins? I have been told they go to the Collectors. The Collectors are of the Alëenon? Or they are of the Prince?”

“They are of the Tollhouse.”

“Bhe!”

“Instead, would you have me teach you a thing or two of archery?”

81

Use for Use

The Totem-Maker (part seventy-eight)

(2018, Stephanie Foster)