human
All this meant something once--this array of silver and jewelled glass, the tapestries on the walls, the fur cloak about my shoulders. Think of it, Nanna! These things must have been the envied treasures of the rich, the luxuries of life. And now any one may possess them who cares to fight their battle with moth and rust.
gpt
While a single one of Dom Gillian's brass tokens outweighs it all, rejoined Nanna, nodding her head wisely.
human
It is not hard to understand why, for with the token any one may buy a quarterweight of flour at the public stores or a fore-shoulder of mutton.
gpt
And bread and meat mean life, don't they? Well, and suppose one doesn't happen to possess a long purse-string laden with these wonderful, miracle-working bits of token-money, what then? A woman can't put on a quilted coat and steel cap and go out with the raiders to earn her share of the loot. Fancy my teaching a fat House-dweller how to dance on a red-hot plate or riding the toll roads of the West Inch in a jacket full of arrow-holes.
human
That is true,
gpt
It's just hopeless, Nanna, to stay on here in this city of the dead.
human
So I have decided; I am going back to my mother's people. There is a chance in their world for a woman to secure her own living; here she can only starve or accept some man's protection.
gpt
Listen to me, Nanna. You know that Messer Hugolin, Councillor Primus of Croye, is my uncle, my mother's own brother. She ever insisted that in his charity I had a final resource. He might not offer it, but surely he could not deny me, if I sought it. Nanna, you recall what the mother herself said--how she always believed that the message would reach him. My own uncle and Councillor Primus of Croye,
human
But, Esmay, it is impossible, she exclaimed.
gpt
You could never escape from Doom.
human
But I will.
gpt
You cannot. The High Bridge to the north is always guarded, and on the other three sides of the city there is deep water.
human
I shall manage it, returned the girl, confidently.
gpt
It is simply a question of my going empty-handed to my uncle's house. Now gold among the House-dwellers has a value that it does not possess with us; so Ulick once told me. They use it as money.
human
Here in Doom it is nothing, assented Nanna,
gpt
Precisely; and as you know there is not much of it in existence, even here in Doom, where silver is almost as common as iron.
human
Well, and then?
gpt
Don't you see? If only golden tongues could plead my cause in Croye I should be independent, even of my uncle Hugolin. Now there is store of this gold somewhere in Doom. It must be so, for the war-galleys always carry a money-chest when they sail to the northern colonies.
human
A treasure, said Nanna, slowly.
gpt
Who would know of it here in Doom? Dom Gillian himself--or perhaps----
human
Master Quinton Edge,