Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
I scraped my teeth over my bottom lip. If it wasn’t for last night and my misgivings, I would’ve avoided this whole conversation. As it was . . .
“What’d you hear?” I finally asked.
He licked his lips, glancing behind him. “It’s just . . . Well . . .” He hesitated.
“Tell me,” I pushed.
He took a deep breath. “Apparently Granny has got the blessing of the king and queen.”
I shook my head. “What does that mean? Blessing for what?”
“To sell it, what else? Right out in the open.” He grimaced. “Not front and center, mind. Her booths have to be in the way back corner of the royal market in a shaded stall, but everyone knows where she is. She has a guard and everything, and the line is a mile long.”
“Wait, wait.” I held out my hand, trying to process this information. “No, selling unlawful products in the royal market, the main kingdom market, is absurd. That can’t be right.”
His eyes widened, nodding. “That’s what Alexander said.”
I frowned at him before going back to my work. “When Alexander is in the middle of a journey, he fabricates.”
I had no idea if that was true, but given what Xarion was saying, it must be.
He pushed closer to the gate. “He wasn’t even that far along. Jennece was fondling him, how he likes, and he was just underway on the journey. He was letting it all spill out. He said that Granny got in to see the king and queen—she’d made special contacts or something—and for a sack of gold, a sack, they’d let her sell in the market. In the corner, I mean. Like way in the far corner.”
I stopped working again to level him with a look.
“Xarion, be reasonable. This product is against the law of the land. The law that the king and queen uphold. There is no way they’d let it be sold to common folk in the main market.”
“They’re not doing it for everyone. None of our competitors are getting this sort of perk.”
“Which tells you that this is all false. They wouldn’t give us special perks and not the others.”
“Yes they would. For enough gold.”
“They have their own gold. They’re the king and queen, Xarion. They have all the gold in the world. What would they need with the few bits Granny has to offer?” I shook my head, dismissing all of this. “There’s just no way. I mean . . .” I stopped again, my mind whirling. “A person exploring our product needs to take some care. It’s not lethal, but it is habit forming. They need to know what they are getting into. Stalking the shadows and hunting down the seller means the buyer has to have heard about the product from word of mouth and gotten a caution in the process. There’s an element of danger in that, both finding the seller and exploring the product. They’d know the whole experience came with a certain risk. Selling in the main market, where there are children and random people stopping by to have a gawk . . .” I shook my head adamantly. “That just can’t be. He’s leaving out some details. He must be.”
“Well . . . I don’t know.” Xarion shifted his stance, more confident now. “But he did say that they’re packing the product up real nice now.”
“They’ve been doing that for years.”
“Even nicer, though.”
I rolled my eyes. “A nicer package and a bit of gold isn’t going to make the king and queen suddenly decide that our unlawful product is totally fine for common people. That doesn’t make sense. He probably just wanted to impress you all and keep Jennece’s hands on him. I wouldn’t put my faith in what he has to say, and I definitely wouldn’t keep passing it along. As far as how I feel about all this, I sleep just fine at night, as always. We’re giving people the option of escaping their lives for a while. We’re not forcing it on anyone and there are no lasting effects. Meanwhile, the village is no longer poor and the children are safe and getting an education—everyone wins.”
He watched me work for a silent moment, thinking that over.
“It’s not like we’re the only ones doing it, either,” he finally said.
“Granny says we have steep competition, but our product has gotten so much better we’re now beating out the others.”
“Right. And we’re not even outlawed anymore.”
I sighed heavily. “Sure, fine, yeah. If you want to believe that, great.”
His boyish grin worked its way back. “You just don’t like him.”
“Who, Alexander? No, I don’t. That’s not why—“
“And it isn’t our product. It’s your product, Red.”
I gave him a flat stare at the name. “I just make it. I don’t grow the ingredients.”
“You create it, refine it—“
“Okay, okay.” I grappled with a grin and waved him off. “Stop. You’re going to give me an ego.”