LE Modesitt Recluce 14 Natural Ordermage v1.2

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You must be the new clerk.
Yes, ser. Rahl inclined his head politely. Are you Ser Shyret?
Director will do. Shyret was stocky, and the top of his head barely came
to Rahl s nose. The managing director was also clean-shaven, with iron gray
hair cut short, and he wore a loose-fitting white shirt decorated with
silvered embroidery and lace. Say something in Hamorian. The tone was polite
enough, but preemptory.
I look forward to working here and doing my best.
That will do. Shyret nodded brusquely, inclining his head toward the
thin-faced man at the high desk. Daelyt is the senior clerk. He will assign
your duties. You are to speak Hamorian at all times when anyone else is here,
even if you are addressed in Temple. The one exception is any ship s master.
You reply in whatever language the captains use to you.
Yes, ser.
Show him his duties, Daelyt. You can see me later. The senior clerk nodded.
Shyret turned and walked through a wide archway at the rear of the main
office. There was a faint chaos-haze about him, not as much as if he were a
white wizard, Rahl thought, but he wasn t sure about that.
We might as well get you started, said Daelyt: What do you know about
manifests and declarations?
I worked in the Nylan Association for several eightdays, and I was the
assistant to the purser on the Diev for the voyage here.
You can write Hamorian?
Enough for the forms.
You re going to make my life much easier. Daelyt smiled. There are some
differences in what the magisters want in Nylan and what the Imperial tariff
enumerators want here. Set down that pack, bring over another stool, and we ll
go through them.
Rahl carried a stool from the side of the room and set it close enough to
Daelyt s so that he could see what the older clerk was doing. He sat down,
then wiped his forehead with the cloth he d tucked inside the light tunic. Is
it always this hot?
You re fortunate, said Daelyt. You came in on one of the cooler days of
summer. But it s in the high season. Some days, even the locals don t go out
unless they have to. So the wealthier traders send their families to their
east-hill villas or their seaside places. Once we get into fall, Swartheld
won t be quite so uncrowded as it is now.
Daelyt took out a set of declaration forms and laid them on the desk before
Rahl. We ll start with the differences&
After going through all the variations on the forms, then making Rahl copy one
set, abruptly, the older clerk looked up. Time to get something to eat and
show you where you ll sleep.
I was wondering about food&
We get two meals a day from Eneld s. It s the cantina across the street,
beside the arms shop. We have to eat in the back, but the food s not bad, and
you don t have to use your own coins.
What about my pack?
Oh& I ll show you your alcove. Daelyt turned and walked through the archway
that Shyret had taken earlier, except he went through another door into a
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small storeroom. Here s your space. There s a water barrel for drawing your
wash water out the back door there.
In the corner on the right side of the storeroom was what amounted to a narrow
chamber without a door, but with a cloth curtain, half-drawn back.
Rahl glanced around the narrow area behind the curtain, little more than a
narrow pallet with shelves above the foot of the bed and a pegboard affixed to
the wall for hanging a few clothes. There was a bowl and pitcher on the
shelves for washing, and one thin worn towel folded beside it. There was also
a chamber pot against the wall.
The chamber pot wastes and water go down the sewer out the rear door. It s
the circular cover. Just lift it and dump. Don t toss wastes into the alley.
The patrollers catch you, and it ll cost you a silver the first time, and the
quarries the second.
That stopped Rahl for a moment. Finally, he said, Thank you for the warning.
Where do you&
My consort and I have rooms and a kitchen above the main warehouse. The
older clerk s eyes dropped to Rahl s belt and the truncheon. You can use
that?
Yes. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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