Slathbog's Gold - Forman Mark L. Страница 46

Alex was stunned. Even with his limited understanding of treasure, he had not expected such an extravagant offer.

“You are too generous,” Alex replied slowly, thinking that one-in-ten of all the treasure would perhaps be a better number.

As this thought went through his mind, Alex saw Thrang out of the corner of his eye. Thrang was mouthing “one-third” wildly, while trying not to attract too much attention to himself. Alex considered again Andy’s words about dwarfs and their money, and what Thrang had said about not asking for too little. Not wanting to offend Umbar, he decided to take Thrang’s advice.

“I will ask for one-third of the treasure in the bag,” said Alex, looking Umbar in the eye.

“It is acceptable,” said Umbar, bowing low to Alex, a look of relief and happiness on his face.

Alex presented the bag to Umbar and bowed as well. The ceremony complete, both Alex and Umbar bowed to Osrik and returned to their seats.

“The payment for the bag’s return will begin tomorrow after the midday meal,” said Osrik in a commanding voice. “Now, let us feast in memory of Umbar, who was lost.”

“You did very well,” said Thrang as Alex returned to his chair. “I was afraid you’d ask too little and insult the heir.”

“I could see you saying one-third,” replied Alex with a smile. “And knowing very little about what might offend a dwarf, I took your advice.”

“You’ve done very well for yourself,” Thrang laughed. “A hundred true silver pennies and one-third of the bag’s treasure. That could be a fair amount.”

“We get the silver pennies as well?” Alex questioned.

“You do,” said Thrang, taking a long drink from his mug. “Your treasure room could be a respectable size once payment is made.”

“You mean, all of our treasure rooms,” Alex corrected. “After all, we are to share the reward.”

“We shall see,” said Bregnest, smiling at Alex.

Alex didn’t say anything, but it sounded to him like Bregnest and the others would not be willing to accept a share of the reward for returning the lost bag. This annoyed Alex, but there was a feast going on, so he held his tongue.

* * *

The next day, Alex asked Thrang about the true silver pennies.

“Long ago, true silver pennies were the standard currency in the dwarf realms, but true silver is too rare these days,” Thrang commented thoughtfully. “And not many of the

pennies are left now anyway, so they’re quite valuable.”

“Every penny would be worth at least twenty gold coins,” said Halfdan, taking a seat next to Alex. “Quite a bit more than that in some places.”

“Then Umbar has been extremely generous,” said Alex.

“As he should be,” Thrang replied with a smile. “You’ve done him a great service after all. The return of the lost bag is also a return of his family’s lost honor, as I told you.”

Alex sat quietly, thinking. He knew he had done a service for Umbar by returning his father’s bag, and he also knew his own honor had increased because of what he’d done. Still, he didn’t really understand what his friends meant when they talked about honor. Things they said were honorable seemed odd to him because Alex simply thought of them as the right thing to do.

After they had finished their midday meal, Alex tried to say something to his friends about dividing the reward, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything. One of Osrik’s officers appeared and led them all to a large room deep inside the dwarf city. When they arrived, Osrik was waiting for them with Umbar at his side. Both dwarfs smiled brightly as the company entered, and Osrik winked at Alex.

“You have done me a great kindness,” said Umbar, stepping forward and bowing to Alex. “You have been both kind and generous.”

“It has been my honor,” replied Alex, having been told in advance what to say by Thrang. “I am pleased to have been of service.”

“Then let the payment begin,” commanded Osrik, still smiling.

Umbar nodded and walked to Alex, handing him a leather pouch. Alex took the pouch without opening it, knowing that it held the one hundred true silver pennies that were part of the reward; he bowed to Umbar in thanks.

“The wardens have been up all night sorting and counting the wealth of Umbar,” Osrik said. “Now they will bring one-in-three of all the treasure the bag held.”

Alex bowed to the king and stood with his companions to wait. The wait was not long as several dwarfs soon began

carrying all kinds of treasure into the room. The dwarfs piled the treasure in one corner of the room and continued to go in and out of the room in a seemingly endless stream.

The room filled quickly with gold and silver bars and coins. Several of the dwarfs carried large bags into the room and placed them in separate piles against one wall, the piles growing nearly as high as Alex was tall. Each bag had a tag attached to it, and Alex guessed the tag identified the bag’s contents. There had to be at least three or four times more treasure here than they had taken from the troll. Alex was stunned.

“It appears Umbar was a successful adventurer,” said Thrang, standing beside Alex and watching the room fill around them.

“Indeed he was,” said Osrik with a laugh.

Alex thought he should say something about this being too much treasure, but a look from Thrang told him not to speak. He looked around at the enormous mounds of treasure; the room was almost too crowded to stand in. Alex wondered how long it would take to divide everything eight ways.

Finally the dwarfs brought the last bag into the room, bowing at Osrik before leaving. Osrik and Umbar turned to Alex.

“Do you accept your payment?” asked Osrik.

“I . . . I do,” Alex replied, his voice shaking slightly.

“Then we will leave you to sort your treasure,” said Osrik with a smile. “We will see you this evening at the heir’s feast.”

Osrik and Umbar walked out of the room, leaving Alex and his companions alone. Alex looked around in disbelief at the piles of treasure around him. He didn’t think he and his companions could possibly have it all sorted and divided before the feast began, and not going to the feast was out of the question.

“You’d better make a start then,” Skeld laughed, dropping onto a pile of bags in one corner.

“We all had,” said Alex.

“No,” replied Bregnest softly but firmly. “You had.”

“But we are to share equally,” Alex protested. “I said when I took the lost bags that all rewards would be shared equally between us.”

“But that is not the custom, as you should know from your reading,” replied Bregnest with a smile. “You are the winner of the bags. The reward is yours alone.”

“But I—” Alex began.

“It will do no good arguing the point,” Bregnest interrupted, holding up his hand. “We have decided on this, and I will not be moved.”

“You must take something,” Alex insisted. “I mean, what will I do with all of this?”

“You are kind and generous,” said Bregnest with a slight bow and a smile. “However, you do not know what your future holds, or how much treasure you may need some other day.”

“And you’ve not seen any really large treasures yet,” said Halfdan with a laugh. “What we took from the troll was a fair amount compared to what trolls normally have, but it was hardly a dragon’s hoard.”

Alex continued to object loudly as Skeld and Andy took him by the arms and led him to a pile of treasure.

“Best get started or you’ll miss the feast for sure,” said Skeld laughing.

“It will take days to get all this in my bag,” said Alex, hoping that would force the others to take some of the treasure.

“Nonsense,” Thrang replied. “Just hold your bag next to a pile and say, ‘treasure room.’”

Alex did as he was told, though with some doubts. He had only put single items in his bag before, and he’d never tried anything as large as the pile of treasure in front of him. To his surprise, the command worked and the entire pile of treasure vanished into his bag.