Two days later, Garibaldi sat on a chair in First Cavern of Cloghlogan City. In front of him was a low table made of wood, which Sallina had rented in Cloghloganport. The chair upon which he sat was one of the chairs in First Cavern that everyone was welcome to use. The chair was made of cast metal, and in the back was written, in letters that Garibaldi could read himself, "First Cavern". Behind him was a two-wheeled cart that Sallina had also rented in Cloghloganport. He needed the cart to bring all Sallina's furs to First Cavern.
Garibaldi watched the dwarves walking by. He listened to the canaries singing. He watched the water in the fountain. He stared at the lights and at the sparkling crystals in the ceiling. He sipped a cup of coffee he held in his lap. The coffee was the type that Otis had told him to buy. He bought it for four shillings in the Diablo Coffee Bar. He was supposed to return the cup when he was finished, but each time he went back, he bought another cup. This was his third cup of the day. He was feeling wide awake. He wiped his palms on his trousers. They were feeling sweaty. Maybe it was the damp air of the cavern.
On the table in front of him were some of Sallina's furs. The black mink was on one side, and the white snow-rabbit was on the other. The wolf furs were underneath, covering the table. He was pleased with the display. Hanging from the front of the table was a sign giving the prices of the furs in shillings: one hundred for rabbit pelts, two hundred for wolf, and eight hundred for mink.
Leaning against the side of his chair was his axe. He stroked the end of its shaft every now and then. There was no problem bringing an axe into Cloghlogan. Lots of the dwarves had them: double-bladed battle axes. Many of them were made out of the same sparkling, gray metal as Sukh's battle-axe. He rubbed his injured leg. He wore a bandage under his trousers. His wound ached, but it had not opened on his way into the city, pulling his cart. He had expected the wound to open. But he came anyway. He had to come.
The clock in the cavern struck two times. It was two hours after noon. He had been there four hours. He had sold four rabbit furs for one hundred shillings each. That was a good price, because Sallina had paid Sukh only half a gold piece each for them, which was the same as fifty shillings.
One thing that Garibaldi had decided in the past four hours was that the light from the luminous stones above him was half as bright now as it was when he came in. They were losing their magic. If that was the case, and nobody seemed to be worried about it, then it must happen every day. If it happened every day, then at some time during the day, the lights must get bright again. He wondered when that was, and how it happened.
A dwarf man stopped in front of the table. His beard was uncombed and his hair stuck out in all directions. He wore a jacket made of black wool, and trousers to match. He said something to Garibaldi in Latin. Garibaldi heard Dan's wife's name, but did not understand the rest. Garibaldi did not speak Latin. Sallina had taught him one phrase, and he spoke it now.
"No speak Latin."
The man nodded. He walked away. A little while later, he came back, just when Garibaldi had decided to ask the sapien man at the next market stall to watch his furs again so he could go and get another cup of coffee. This time, the man with wild hair had another dwarf with him, a man wearing a white hat and holding a wooden spoon. The man with the wooden spoon pointed to the man with wild hair. "This man," he said in Weilandic, "Friend of Margaret MacLoghanlogh. He want to know if you are friend of her also."
Garibaldi thought for a few moments. The only time he had met Margaret was two days ago, when Sallina had brought her to the Reliant. Margaret had gone straight below and locked herself in the infirmary with Dan. Later, Margaret had ordered Jasper and Baat to carry Dan on a stretcher to the city. They did not like her telling them what to do. But when the Captain told them to do it, they did it. So off they went, Jasper and Baat carrying Dan, and Margaret walking beside them.
"No," Garibaldi said.
The man in the white apron shook his head. The dwarf with the wild hair frowned. He waved his hand at the man with the white apron. The man with the white apron looked at Garibaldi, rolled his eyes, and walked away. Garibaldi sat up in his chair. He did not like this man with wild hair.
The man picked up a mink pelt. He rubbed it on his nose. He ran his fingers through it. He took out a short rod of orange glass from his jacket pocket. He rubbed the fur up and down the rod. He held the rod over one of the pelts on the table. The fur on the pelt moved as the rod went over it. Garibaldi leaned forward. He had seen the pelts acting strangely before. They made sparks and the fur seemed to move on its own sometimes. Were they magic pelts? Had they been taken from a magic type of mink?
The man with the wild hair stood up and put his rod in his pocket. He picked up five mink pelts and set them on top of the rabbit pelts. He took some colored pieces of paper with writing on them from his pocket and gave them to Garibaldi. Garibaldi looked at each one carefully. These were Cloghlogan City Bills. He had bought some that morning at a bank. He paid ten gold pieces for one thousand shillings. The sign gave the price of mink pelts as eight hundred shillings each. This man wanted to buy five of them.
Garibaldi took a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. Upon it was a table written in black ink by Sallina. On the left were numbers of mink pelts, rabbit pelts, and wolf pelts, and on the right was how much they would cost. He found the line that said "5 mink" and saw that they would cost four thousand shillings. He put the paper down and counted the money the man with wild hair had given him. There were four red notes, each saying one thousand shillings. Four times one was four.
Garibaldi smiled and nodded to the man with wild hair. The man with wild hair took the pelts and walked away. Garibaldi put the notes in his pocket. He wondered how many cups of coffee he could by with that amount of money. He spent some time figuring the answer to this question in several different ways. Most of the time he came to an answer of two thousand, but once he came to three hundred. Mathematics was interesting, he thought. Maybe there is more than one answer to some questions, and only one answer to others.
A dwarf woman stood in front of Garibaldi's table. Her hair was gray, but there was a lot of it. It hung down her back to her waist in a single, large, braid. She wore thick glasses. Her nose was rather small for a dwarf. Her lips were thin and pale. She pushed her glasses higher up her nose. Garibaldi wondered if it was hard for her to find dwarf glasses that fitted her, because her nose was so small.
"I'm looking for a sapien woman called Sallina," the gray-haired woman said. She spoke Weilandic, so he understood her perfectly. "Do you know her?"
Garibaldi smiled. "Yes."
"Where is she?"
"She's down in Cloghloganport."
The gray-haired woman looked at Cloghlogan Avenue East. That was the way down to the main gates. Garibaldi thought it was interesting that the woman looked at the entrance to the avenue, because he would have looked east instead. Cloghlogan Avenue turned several times on its way from the main gates to First Cavern. When it entered the cavern it was going north, not west. He knew this because he had a compass with him. Otis had lent the compass to him that morning, saying, "You'll be glad of it." That was what Otis had said to Baat when he put the piece of wood in Baat's mouth before Baat was flogged. And Baat was glad of the piece of wood. So Garibaldi took the compass, and he was glad he did, because now he knew which way was home.
"Cloghloganport is that way," he said. He pointed east. "It's that way."
The gray-haired woman stared at him and frowned. "What's that you say?"
"That way to Cloghloganport," Garibaldi said, and pointed east again. "But you look that way," he pointed to the avenue.
The woman stared at him for what seemed like a long time. He raised one eyebrow. She turned and walked away. For a moment, Garibaldi thought she was not coming back, but she stopped and picked up a metal chair with one hand. Garibaldi was surprised that she could pick up the chair so easily, because the chairs were heavy. She carried the chair to the other side of Garibaldi's table, set it down, and sat upon it.
"If you lived in tunnels all your life," she said, "You would think of up, down, with the wind and against the wind, with the water and against the water. These are our directions. And besides, compasses don't work well underground sometimes, especially near iron ore. You can't trust them." She smiled. "So." She pointed to the entrance of Cloghlogan Avenue East. "That is my way to Cloghloganport." She pointed north-east. "And that is your way."
Garibaldi looked in the direction she was pointing. She was still pointing the wrong direction. She really did not know which way it was. He nodded.
"I understand."
The woman stared at him. Garibaldi stared back. She pushed her glasses up her nose. "Why isn't Sallina here?"
"She was banned from the city for a week, starting yesterday."
The woman tilted her head sideways. "She was banned? I thought it was the boy she was with who was banned because he attacked someone with a sword."
"No," Garibaldi said.
The woman seemed to be waiting for him to say something more.
After a while, she said, "The boy was banned, wasn't he?"
"Yes," Garibaldi said.
She sat back in her chair, folded her arms, and smiled. "You are an interesting fellow. Now let me see if I have this right. Sallina was banned, and the boy was banned, but the boy was not banned. Is that right?"
Garibaldi looked at the wall of the cavern. After a while, he understood why the woman was confused.
"Baat agreed to be banned for a week," he said, "So that he did not have to go to trial. On the day of the court hearing, that was yesterday, Lawrence and his sailor did not come to the court. So the judge offered Baat a deal, and Baat accepted the deal. The judge dismissed the complaint against him. Baat was banned for a week."
The woman nodded. "I take it that Baat is the boy, and Lawrence is someone who was on the other side in the fight."
"Yes."
This gray-haired dwarf woman was clever, Garibaldi thought.
"Why was Sallina banned?" she said.
"That was her punishment for running away from the police two days ago."
"I see."
The woman frowned and looked at the furs on the table. She reached out and touched one of the mink pelts with one finger.
"I am friends with Margaret MacLoghanlogh," she said. "I was at her home yesterday and she showed me a piece of mink fur, a very small piece, black like these. The fur was finer than any I have ever seen, and for my work, I need strong, fine fur."
Garibaldi picked up one of the mink pelts and ran his fingers through it. He smiled at the woman. "Is your work anything to do with glass rods?"
The woman sat up straight. Her eyebrows came together and her eyes narrowed. "What makes you say that?"
"Another man was here earlier," Garibaldi said. "He rubbed the fur with an orange rod. The fur acted strangely after that. He bought five pelts. He asked if I was a friend of Margaret's."
The gray-haired woman bit her lower lip. "Subtended Frood," she said. She looked at Garibaldi. "How did he find you so quickly?"
Garibaldi shrugged. "I've been here all day."
The gray-haired woman took a lump of orange glass from her trouser pocket. She held it up. "This is amber. Subtended Frood had an amber rod." She pointed to the mink pelt Garibaldi held in his hand. "May I?"
He handed her the pelt. She rubbed the amber lump against the fur. She held the fur close to her face. Her eyes were wide and her mouth half open. She moved the amber lump over the fur and the hairs moved as the lump passed over them.
"Remarkable," she said. She put the fur down. "How many do you have?"
Garibaldi stared at the pile of mink pelts. He started with forty, and he had sold five. He counted backwards from forty.
"Thirty-five. They are eight hundred shillings each."
The woman nodded. "I'll buy all thirty-five."
Garibaldi smiled. He took out his piece of paper with prices on it. He frowned. The table of prices went only to ten mink pelts. Sallina had not expected anyone to buy all of them at once. He put the piece of paper on the rabbit furs. He scratched his head. At the bottom of the paper something was written. "We must get at least 39,000 shillings for all of them." That did not help, because the gray-haired woman did not want the wolf or rabbit pelts, and he had already sold five mink pelts and four rabbit pelts.
He could figure out how much it cost for all the mink pelts, but it would take him a while to do that. The guy at the next stall, who sold spices, was a nice fellow. Garibaldi could ask him to check his sums. For now, he should say something to the gray-haired woman. She was watching him and smiling.
"Do you have the money with you?" he said. "Because it will cost a lot of money to buy them all."
The gray-haired woman nodded. "You really are an interesting fellow. What is your name?"
"Garibaldi," he said.
"Nice to meet you, Garibaldi." She held out her hand. "I am Pipette MacRoot."
Garibaldi took her hand and shook it. Her grip was firm and strong.
"Let me tell you something, Garibaldi," she said. "I don't want anyone else to get these furs, but I have to go to the bank to get the money. I'd like you to promise me that you will keep them here for me until I get back."
Garibaldi shook his head. "No."
Pipette's eyes widened. "No? Just like that, you say no? Aren't you even going to think about it before you say no?"
"No," he said.
She folded her arms. "How about this." She took her wallet from her trouser pocket and opened it. She took out a blue note and held it out to Garibaldi. "You take this, it's a two thousand shilling note, as a deposit. If I come back in an hour and buy all the mink furs, you give me back the note. If I don't buy the furs, you keep it."
Garibaldi took a minute to think. He wanted to understand what it was she was offering.
"No," Garibaldi said, "For two reasons. First, I will take only one-thousand shilling notes or smaller. Second, I don't want to."
Pipette laughed. "You don't want to!" She clapped her small, strong hands. "Marvelous." She leaned forward. "Look, Garibaldi, I really don't want Subtended Frood to come back while I'm gone and get the rest of these. I expect he's at the bank right now. We both need about thirty furs to perform an experiment. The first one who performs the experiment writes a paper and gets the fame. Do you understand? Science is a race."
Garibaldi looked at the furs. "I thought it was magic."
Pipette breathed out slowly. "Well." She shook her head. "I don't want to argue with you about what's magic and what's science. I just want the furs."
Garibaldi nodded.
The man in the next stall called out, "Cinnamon, sugar, pepper, nutmeg, chili powder, turmeric!"
"I tell you what," Pipette said. "Bring all your furs with you and we'll go to the bank together. I'll pay you there."
"No," Garibaldi said. He pointed to the rabbit furs. "I have to sell these too. I can't go with you and sell the snow-rabbit or the wolf at the same time."
Pipette rolled her eyes. "Are you serious?"
When she said "serious" she had trouble with the second half of the word. She did not seem to be able to get it out of her mouth. Garibaldi smiled.
"I am serious," he said. "I am glad you speak my language."
Pipette shook her head. "You are a charmer, aren't you? I learned Weilandic working in Rockport on a pump for their city water supply. I was there for three years."
"You speak very well."
"Thank you. Now, we still don't have a deal." She touched one of the mink pelts. "Garibaldi, do you want me to buy your furs or not?"
Garibaldi stared at the pelts for a while. If the dwarves kept buying Sallina's pelts like this, even the snow rabbit and the wolf pelts would be gone by the end of the day. That would be great, of course. But he was enjoying sitting here in First Cavern. It smelled good. The coffee was good. Everywhere he looked, there was something interesting to see.
He looked up. There was a dwarf in front of the spice stall. He had a cart full of rock. The cart was painted orange, red, and yellow, as if it were on fire. The dwarf had his helmet hanging from his backpack. His beard was waxed to a sharp point under his chin.
If Garibaldi sold all the pelts today, he would have no reason to come back tomorrow. He could come back if he wanted, just to look around, but he would have no business to do. He would be a tourist, as Otis called people like that.
Garibaldi looked away from the dwarf with the waxed beard and faced Pipette. She was smiling.
"Yes and no," he said.
She sat back in her chair. "Yes and no? You're like the oracle of Drakma!" She laughed. "Well, you tell me, Garibaldi, what do I have to do to get these furs before Subtended Frood gets them?"
Garibaldi stared at his piece of paper. The most important thing for him to do was to sell the furs.
"Buy all of them," he said, "Including the snow-rabbit and the wolf, for thirty-nine thousand shillings. If you do that, I'll put them all in my cart and come with you to the bank."
Pipette rubbed her chin with one hand. She looked at the sign for a while. She picked up a rabbit pelt and touched her neck with it. She ran the fingers of her other hand through the thick wolf fur.
"How many wolf?"
"Twenty," Garibaldi said. He pointed behind him. "Most of them are in the cart, along with the rest of the mink and snow-rabbit."
She put the rabbit pelt on the table. "How many snow-rabbit?"
"I started with one hundred," Garibaldi said, "But I sold four to the judge's tailor this morning."
Pipette pointed to her neck. "For that white fur thing the judge has on his gown?"
"I guess so," Garibaldi said.
Pipette picked up a rabbit pelt and rubbed her piece of amber against it. "It's very fine." She shook her head. "But no good for my work, not strong enough. It will wear off the belt in a few minutes." She stroked her face with the fur and looked at Garibaldi. "I could have a hat and a coat made out of them, for winter, when I travel."
Garibaldi nodded. "You could. A white coat."
The man in the next stall called out, "Mint, oregano, thyme, cumin, vanilla extract!"
Pipette held her hand out over the table. "It's a deal," she said.