Jack looked at Mr. Randam as the two of them stood near the guard post.
"Did you bring money?"
Randam looked at him. "What?"
"We didn't stop anywhere. If we're going to bribe someone we need to actually have something to give them."
Randam patted the inside of his coat. "I came prepared. Ten Albus, just in case."
Ten Albus.
Jack did a quick calculation.
One Albus is a hundred Flora. Ten Albus is a thousand Flora. At fifteen Flora a day that's.. more than three months of work at the port.
Speaking of which. Aldric still owes me fifteen Flora from earlier.
He filed that thought away with a small amount of irritation and looked back at the guard post.
Randam began moving toward the entrance. Jack put a hand out.
"Not Aldis."
Randam stopped. "Why not? He's the captain, he has the authority."
"He also might already be on Compes's side. We don't know. And even if he isn't, a captain of the town guard has money. He's harder to move." Jack looked at the post. "We wait for someone whose shift is ending."
Randam considered this for a moment, then stepped back.
"Alright."
The two of them found a spot nearby that gave them a clear view of the post without being obvious about it. The afternoon light was getting long and the shadows from the buildings had started to stretch across the cobblestones.
While they waited they caught fragments of conversation drifting from the guards. Apparently earlier in the day a knight from the Count's estate had come to the port.
Higher rank than Aldis.
He had taken Captain Varen with him, up to the estate, to begin negotiations over lifting the blockade.
So Varen is already at the estate. That's moving fast.
A little while later one of the guards near the post removed his helmet and tucked it under his arm. He said something to the man beside him before entering the building, then a little while later he came back out in normal attire and began walking away from the post.
Jack recognized him. He had seen him earlier while they were waiting — the man had taken his helmet off then too, rubbing his forehead in the heat.
"That one," Jack said quietly.
They gave him a little distance, then followed.
He moved through two streets before turning a corner that took him out of sight of the post. The street he turned onto was narrower, quieter, the kind that connected two larger roads without being important enough to have much foot traffic.
Jack and Randam came around the corner after him.
Randam straightened up slightly as they approached and Jack let him take the lead. Watching him shift into the register of a merchant making a proposal, Jack made a quiet decision to stay out of it.
He's better at this than I am.
The guard turned when he heard them and looked at the two of them with the blank caution of someone who had been approached by strangers before and was deciding how worried to be.
Randam opened with the problem. Calm, clear, not too much detail. A business matter that had gone wrong. A competitor. Someone pulling strings behind it. He needed one guard, a few hours, nothing dangerous.
The guard's expression did not change much but he was listening.
Then Randam mentioned the number.
Seven Albus.
The guard went very still for a moment.
His exact train of thought was
"At twenty Flora a day that's.. seven hundred Flora. More than a month's wages. A lot more."
Jack watched the man's face do its calculation.
"When?" the guard asked.
Jack stepped in.
"Tomorrow. A few hours. We need you in armor to help us question someone on Worker Street. That's it."
"Worker Street is on my patrol route." The guard frowned slightly. "But I walk it with a partner."
"Can you separate from him for a short time?"
"Maybe." He paused. "I'm keeping all of it. My partner's not involved."
"Fine," Randam said without hesitating.
The guard exhaled through his nose. Then he nodded.
Randam reached into his coat and counted out two Albus into the man's hand. The guard looked at them sitting in his palm with a slightly dazed expression. Then he grinned and shook Randam's hand with the kind of enthusiasm that meant he had already spent it in his head.
"Tomorrow, Worker Street. I'll spot you first and greet you. Name's Gardam."
"When you greet us," Jack said, "make it look like we're old acquaintances. That gives you an excuse to break off from your partner for a while."
Gardam thought about it. "Might not work depending on my partner."
"A few Flora should handle that."
Gardam's grin widened slightly. "Yeah. That'd do it."
He tucked the two Albus away and headed off down the street at a noticeably brisker pace than before.
Jack watched him go.
Gardam.
. . .
The two of them stood in the quiet street for a moment.
"We should also bring someone from Mardrago's church," Jack said.
Randam looked at him. "The matter isn't about a curse anymore."
"Doesn't matter. If what we find points to sabotage, a church witness gives it weight. And depending on what Compes tells us, Mardrago might decide they have a reason to claim jurisdiction." Jack looked at him. "Either way it helps us."
Randam considered this and nodded slowly.
"Then we meet tomorrow morning in front of the church."
Jack opened his mouth.
Then closed it again.
I don't know where the church is.
"The clock tower," Jack said. "At the notice board. I know where that is."
Randam looked at him for a half second, then decided not to ask. "The clock tower then. Morning."
They parted ways.
Jack began making his way back in what he was fairly sure was the direction of home.
After two wrong turns he was less sure.
The streets were getting quieter as the evening settled in. The light had gone from yellow to the beginning of something darker. A few of the windows in the buildings he passed had lit candles in them.
I still don't have candles.
His stomach made a sound.
And I haven't eaten since the bread this morning at Bren's.
And Aldric still owes me fifteen Flora.
He turned down another street, recognized the shrine at the far end of it, and finally knew where he was.
He walked toward it with his hands in his pockets and his stomach making its opinions known.