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hrjHaving gotten around to working up all the proper names required for this passage, I thought I'd post it just for fun. Given my writing plan, everything is necessarily rough first draft at this point, and no guarantees that this bit will even survive in the final text. But I did rather enjoy writing it. Margerit has had recommended to her a book by Gaudericus that the more reputable booksellers decline to handle. So Barbara has gone off in disguise to deal with a somewhat less reputable vendor who is said to be likely to be able to supply it.
* * * * *
The place was entered through a door at the back of a wharfmen's tavern. It ran back through the building in a maze of linked rooms and passages. Barbara walked slowly through the dim entrance towards a light at the end of the first passage, trying to project an air of confidence and curiosity. The curiosity was easy.
The pawnshop's rooms were filled haphazardly with all the odd sorts of things one might expect, but every wall was covered with row on row of books. A surprisingly tidy little man greeted her from behind a table, cluttered at the edges with trinkets and ornaments of uncertain value. There seemed no particular order to the contents of the room, but Barbara suspected he was the sort who could lay hands on any item in his inventory without need to consult a ledger.
"I understand you might be able to supply me with a book," she opened.
His expression might have been amusement or indigestion. "Would that be for pleasure-reading or perhaps you have a table that needs propping up?"
"Gaudericus," Barbara answered. "I believe the title is something to do with visions.
He stared at her silently for a minute, stretching into two. Barbara felt she was being evaluated, but for what? The sincerity of her intent? As a possible trap? How deeply did his scrutiny go?
At last he turned silently, signaling her to wait, and returned in several minutes with two slender leather-bound volumes, and a third, much thicker, with broken binding and loose boards, held together by several wraps of cotton tape tied about it.
He laid the first two before her. "Fine, clean copies -- said to be the work of Raifrit back in the '60s. The first has some unfortunate damage due to damp, but there are some interesting annotations that appear to have been made by an owner with practical experience. The second is a lovely little piece -- an ornament to any library."
Barbara picked each up in its turn and leafed through it with the pretended air of one who is only a courier, verifying the identity of the cargo. "And the third?" she asked.
"Well," the main said. "It depends on your ... client. You strike me as an uncommon customer, so perhaps you would be interested in an uncommon item. Back during the wars there was a trunk left in the care of my predecessor with instructions that if it were not redeemed by the end of twenty-five years, its contents were mine to dispose of. As it happens, that term is recently up, and you are the first client to inquire about this particular item since it became available. It's highly unusual -- perhaps unique."
"Also nearly fallen to dust, I notice," Barbara interjected, recognizing a spiel intended to inflate the price to improbable heights. "My client wants a readable text, not a relic for a curio cabinet."
The man shrugged and made as if to return the tattered volume to its original resting place.
Barbara played along. "But since you've taken the trouble to bring it out, tell me what makes it so unusual."
He turned back and laid the book on the table and began carefully untrussing the ties. "I have my suspicions regarding the owner of that trunk ... but never mind that. The text of Gaudericus has been bound together with Petrus Pontis and Chizilek, quite some years ago from the look of it. There's some additional material added to the unused pages at the end. Probably by the last owner, as the hand is quite similar to a number of the more recent glosses and notes elsewhere. The text of Gaudericus is the usual one. Petrus is lacking the end of the fourth chapter. It appears to have been missing when the parts were bound together, but the lack can be supplied easily enough. But Chizilek includes several citations from Tanfrit that are not part of the standard text and, as you know, no originals of Tanfrit are known to survive."
Barbara hesitated before examining the features he had described. She could keep up the mask of a disinterested agent and take one of the finer volumes, which would adequately fulfill her promised errand. Or she could confirm the man's suspicions that he was dealing with a serious scholar -- agent or no -- and guarantee a higher price. She carefully turned the pages to confirm the presence of the promised citations.
"I think my client might be interested, but I also think your price will exceed what I'm authorized to pay."
"And what is your authorization?"
Barbara laughed out loud. It broke all the rules and customs of bargaining. On impulse, she named the precise sum she carried.
He gently closed the book and tied it securely again with the tapes. Barbara was just about to reopen negotiations for one of the slimmer, finer volumes when he pulled a sheet of heavy paper from a shelf under the table and began wrapping the book into a non-descript and sturdy package. After tying it up in an intricate net of string, he finally looked up again at Barbara with an eyebrow quirked.
She nodded and turned away slightly to extract the sheaf of notes from its hiding place. The two exchanged hands simultaneously and the money disappeared with a practiced motion. "If your client has any other needs, it would be a pleasure to do business again," the man concluded. But he didn't offer a hand to shake.
Barbara simply nodded once more and left.
* * * * *
The place was entered through a door at the back of a wharfmen's tavern. It ran back through the building in a maze of linked rooms and passages. Barbara walked slowly through the dim entrance towards a light at the end of the first passage, trying to project an air of confidence and curiosity. The curiosity was easy.
The pawnshop's rooms were filled haphazardly with all the odd sorts of things one might expect, but every wall was covered with row on row of books. A surprisingly tidy little man greeted her from behind a table, cluttered at the edges with trinkets and ornaments of uncertain value. There seemed no particular order to the contents of the room, but Barbara suspected he was the sort who could lay hands on any item in his inventory without need to consult a ledger.
"I understand you might be able to supply me with a book," she opened.
His expression might have been amusement or indigestion. "Would that be for pleasure-reading or perhaps you have a table that needs propping up?"
"Gaudericus," Barbara answered. "I believe the title is something to do with visions.
He stared at her silently for a minute, stretching into two. Barbara felt she was being evaluated, but for what? The sincerity of her intent? As a possible trap? How deeply did his scrutiny go?
At last he turned silently, signaling her to wait, and returned in several minutes with two slender leather-bound volumes, and a third, much thicker, with broken binding and loose boards, held together by several wraps of cotton tape tied about it.
He laid the first two before her. "Fine, clean copies -- said to be the work of Raifrit back in the '60s. The first has some unfortunate damage due to damp, but there are some interesting annotations that appear to have been made by an owner with practical experience. The second is a lovely little piece -- an ornament to any library."
Barbara picked each up in its turn and leafed through it with the pretended air of one who is only a courier, verifying the identity of the cargo. "And the third?" she asked.
"Well," the main said. "It depends on your ... client. You strike me as an uncommon customer, so perhaps you would be interested in an uncommon item. Back during the wars there was a trunk left in the care of my predecessor with instructions that if it were not redeemed by the end of twenty-five years, its contents were mine to dispose of. As it happens, that term is recently up, and you are the first client to inquire about this particular item since it became available. It's highly unusual -- perhaps unique."
"Also nearly fallen to dust, I notice," Barbara interjected, recognizing a spiel intended to inflate the price to improbable heights. "My client wants a readable text, not a relic for a curio cabinet."
The man shrugged and made as if to return the tattered volume to its original resting place.
Barbara played along. "But since you've taken the trouble to bring it out, tell me what makes it so unusual."
He turned back and laid the book on the table and began carefully untrussing the ties. "I have my suspicions regarding the owner of that trunk ... but never mind that. The text of Gaudericus has been bound together with Petrus Pontis and Chizilek, quite some years ago from the look of it. There's some additional material added to the unused pages at the end. Probably by the last owner, as the hand is quite similar to a number of the more recent glosses and notes elsewhere. The text of Gaudericus is the usual one. Petrus is lacking the end of the fourth chapter. It appears to have been missing when the parts were bound together, but the lack can be supplied easily enough. But Chizilek includes several citations from Tanfrit that are not part of the standard text and, as you know, no originals of Tanfrit are known to survive."
Barbara hesitated before examining the features he had described. She could keep up the mask of a disinterested agent and take one of the finer volumes, which would adequately fulfill her promised errand. Or she could confirm the man's suspicions that he was dealing with a serious scholar -- agent or no -- and guarantee a higher price. She carefully turned the pages to confirm the presence of the promised citations.
"I think my client might be interested, but I also think your price will exceed what I'm authorized to pay."
"And what is your authorization?"
Barbara laughed out loud. It broke all the rules and customs of bargaining. On impulse, she named the precise sum she carried.
He gently closed the book and tied it securely again with the tapes. Barbara was just about to reopen negotiations for one of the slimmer, finer volumes when he pulled a sheet of heavy paper from a shelf under the table and began wrapping the book into a non-descript and sturdy package. After tying it up in an intricate net of string, he finally looked up again at Barbara with an eyebrow quirked.
She nodded and turned away slightly to extract the sheaf of notes from its hiding place. The two exchanged hands simultaneously and the money disappeared with a practiced motion. "If your client has any other needs, it would be a pleasure to do business again," the man concluded. But he didn't offer a hand to shake.
Barbara simply nodded once more and left.
