Spice and Wolf - Volume 14 - Chapter Pr

PROLOGUE

“We need to talk.”

So she had said, and immediately upon entering the room, he was entranced by the sight that greeted him.

So lovely, he thought.

She was sitting on the bed, gazing out the window. That was all.

However, beautiful as it was, that was not to say it was simple. It was true that she had handsome features, and her brown skin gave her an exotic, foreign charm. But more than that, her profile had a clarity to it, like a crystal that had been polished round, until it was free of any edges.

If humans were prone to locking horns, both giving and receiving injury as they pursued their passions, then the profile he saw seemed somehow far removed from all those tragedies.

He spied a chair, and eased himself down onto it.

She did not look at him, but waited until he was seated to speak. “In Lenos, there’s a dealer of goods named Philon.”

Her words came suddenly, but he did not ask after her meaning. Something about that profile made such questions seem tactless.

“At least, he appears to be a goods dealer. But behind the facade, he’s a supplier of mercenaries.” She finally looked at him. “If you and your companion give him my name, I am certain he will tell you something that will be of use to you.”

“Should you—” he began slowly, as though not to destroy the delicate mood. “Should you really be telling me such things?”

The mercenary world had its own rules. It was governed not by the merchant’s calculations of profit and loss, nor by the knight’s bonds of honor, but by principles that were elusive to all who did not live in that world. How would things go for a merchant who intruded upon it?

At the very least, it might well cause problems for the one who was sitting on the bed.

“He owes me that much,” she said with a smile, still sitting on said bed. She looked out the window again.

He found himself thinking back to the nun who had lent them that battered old blanket when they had first set out, saying she no longer needed it.

“Philon procures goods, as well as the merchant marine reckless enough to carry them, for mercenaries. If fighting has awoken in the northlands, he should at least know where the money is flowing and from whom.”

Those who undertook bringing mercenaries necessary supplies were as important to them as their own hearts, and any fighter would surely try to hide them from outsiders as much as possible.

Given that, the girl who had given him this crucial piece of information had clearly decided to make a break from her past. Her profile at rest still somehow looked to be smiling, and it was certain that she was facing forward.

Perhaps that was why Lawrence chose his words carefully, if mischievously. “I thank you for this unexpected compensation.”

The girl made an expression of surprise and turned to face him. A charmingly wry smile appeared on her face in turn. “I said nothing about this being compensation. I fully intend to fulfill my original promise, whatever your doubts.”

Her words were compounded by a deliberate sigh of relief, then a laugh.

It was an exchange that Lawrence could have scarcely imagined mere days earlier. She had been utterly single-minded in her search for that place, her ultimate goal. Now that she had found it, her ability to smile the way she did made Lawrence feel as though he were witnessing the very essence of salvation.

“Still, given my state at the moment…,” she said, raising her right hand and looking very weak indeed.

Through the hole of her sleeve Lawrence could see the bandages that were wrapped around her torso, and although it was difficult to notice, her cheeks were actually rather sunken.

“So you’re saying it will take time?” Lawrence said.

“No,” said the girl with a soft smile. “I’ve asked him to draw you the map in my place. I’m having the necessary materials collected. He’s a good artist, so he ought to be able to draw a map from dictation.”

“You mean—”

“Yes. He, too, traveled the land with his brushes.”

Lawrence had no response, realizing that he had underestimated the man.

This was the home of an art seller, and the topic of their conversation was its master. Lawrence had assumed that the man lacked the courage to take up the brush himself and had settled for collecting the works of others.

But everyone has a past.

“When I said I wanted him to draw the map in my stead, he was terribly enthusiastic about it. Of course”—she said, smiling a mischievous smile—“he may have been enthusiastic only about my request to be allowed to stay here whilst I earn traveling funds.”

The girl was a crafter of silver goods whose quality put them in high demand among the worldly, wealthy, and powerful. Even Lawrence could not guess at how much her works might be worth.

“I’m sure you’re in a hurry, so I’ll have the map sent to you as soon as it’s finished. If I used a messenger on a fast horse, it may well be delivered to you as soon as you arrive in Lenos.”

It would take four or five days to reach Lenos by horse-drawn wagon. Not having to wait for the map to be completed would save a significant amount of time.

“Thank you, so much.”

She smiled pleasantly upon hearing the depth of his gratitude.

In other circumstances, he would have moved on to pleasant idle chatter, but she was still recovering from her wounds, and though she looked well enough at the moment, he could tell she might push herself too far.

He quietly indicated his intention to leave.

She smiled a tired smile, sighing as she sank back down into the pillow behind her back. So she had been pushing herself. It seemed her reputation as the former chaplain of a mercenary band was not just talk.

Lawrence opened the door behind him, stepped through with a respectful bow, and softly closed it.

“You heard her,” he said, facing forward as he strode down the hall.

Beside him walked his traveling companion, who’d come up beside him with footfalls as silent as some forest creature.

Her face was terribly sulky, as though she were deeply unamused with something. “Did I, then?”

She hid neither her tone nor her displeasure, but even after he had thought about it for a bit, Lawrence hit upon no obvious reason for it. Was she merely jealous that he had spent time alone with someone else?

As he was considering the absurd possibility, his traveling companion stopped in her tracks, and without waiting for him to turn around, she spoke. “I still can’t manage such a face.”

Lawrence was not exactly surprised, but her words still struck him with some force. He backtracked the steps he had walked past her, then stroked her downturned head through her hood.

“Worried your appeal is lessened by the demands you make?”

The snap sound that followed was the sound of his hand narrowly avoiding being bitten. Her red-tinged amber eyes glared at him, sharp.

“I am a merchant, and a merchant’s customers are never satisfied. If they were, they wouldn’t need anything from the merchant. It’d be the end of the business,” he countered.

For that reason, Holo had a powerful desire to see Yoitsu. Merchants craved customers with powerful desires, and as such, she was a perfect match for him.

Lawrence withdrew his hand, and she resumed walking sourly along. “Honest?” she said, clinging to his side.

“You’d know whether or not it was a lie, wouldn’t you?” he asked tiredly, and her hood rustled unnaturally. Among her strands of hair, out from under the hood peeked tufts of dark fur—her pointed wolf’s ears.

“I’ll believe you, just this once,” she said, haughty.

“Is that so.”

“Aye.”

Neither could hide their laughter at the silly exchange.

But just as laughing revealed the lines in one’s face, there was a shadow behind the conversation.

Lawrence’s companion could not imitate Fran’s face—her serene expression of having truly left behind all the things that haunted her. But that lack was also how Lawrence could continue traveling with Holo.

Yet was that only a momentary state of being? Or would it continue on, far into the future?

When Holo’s desire was satisfied, Lawrence would have no further cause to stay with her, but nonetheless, he had no wish to see her eternally unfulfilled. If it were in his power to do so, he wished to make her smile.

He knew his was a selfish hope, and he found his own all-too-clear wishes rather sickening.

In any case, it was not the merchant way to give in to hardship. Problems were simply opportunities for a solution.

They descended the stairs and walked down a hallway. “If we were to spice up our traveling rations a bit, what would you like?” Lawrence asked as he put his hand on the door to their room.

He caught a glimpse of the smile he loved so dearly. He felt a little proud of himself for being able to bring it out.

Without guilt or hesitation, his companion made clear her desire for the finest wheat bread and the clearest wine, and he could hardly fault her for it. She had not cut herself free from her past, nor did she likely intend to.

The map he had been discussing only moments before would lead them right to that past. That same map would soon be in their hands, and they might well count on its accuracy. So it was that his companion’s tail was puffed pitiably up, in a mix of anticipation and dread.

There was nothing he could do about her tail, so painfully bristled because of his words. Instead, he would try to fill her belly, and perhaps her tail would smooth itself in turn.

Hoping as much, he continued the preparations for their travels, dodging his companion’s constant demands as he worked.