Chapter 38
Her eyes lit up as she recalled something, and she fished eight silver coins out of her pockets. Staring down with some reluctance, she thrust four of the coins into his hands. "We each get four silver half-lucets per month. That’s worth about twelve copper lucets, and a copper lucet is...seven small coppers? So a silver half-lucet is, um, around a hundred small coppers?"
"Eighty-four small coppers, then." Out of habit, he rested a hand where his crystal had sat along his waistline for nearly three years even though he had left it at home. "How much does the average meal cost at one of the stalls?"
Anice blushed.
"Oh, of course," he nodded. "You’ve never paid before, have you?"
"I’ve paid!"
"Okay, then how about this? As punishment for sneaking into my room and stealing my clothes, go to that stall over there"—he pointed to a stall selling chunks of meat pierced with sharp needles of wood—"and buy us each one of those. Then meet me back here and tell me how much it cost."
"But we just ate."
"I saw you vomit up your breakfast when you collapsed. Even though you tried to hide it, admit it, Anne."
"Stupid Alie!" She turned and ran for the meat stall.
With his cousin preoccupied, Alistar wormed his way through clusters of jostling people and followed his memory to the stall that he had visited the day before.
"Ms. Stall Owner!" he called to the elderly woman, who was slumped over on a stool behind a spread of sugar sticks.