Page 40 (2/2)

"Why don’t you make me an offer?"

"Why don’t you tell old crown per man strike you?" Narasan asked tentatively

"It fills me with confusion," Veltan replied "We don’t have what you Trogites call money in the land of Dhrall I picked up a few brass and copper coins when I first came here, but that’s about the extent of old crown?"

"It’s one ounce of pure gold," the young soldier Keselo supplied

"And what exactly is an ounce?"

"Somebody show hih the leather purses each of them carried at his belt, and eventually the one called Jalkan old coin "I’ll want this back," he told Veltan as he handed the coin over

"Of course," Veltan replied He bounced the coin thoughtfully on the pal the coin back to Jalkan "We have gold in Dhrall, but we usually store it in the form of bricks As closely as I can deterh as much as five hundred or so of those coins How many men do you have in your army, Narasan?"

"I can field a hundred thousand"

Veltan made a quick computation "That would be two hundred bricks," he said "That see a lot of the fun out of this, Veltan," Narasan coue with ue about?"

"Nobody ever pays the first price we ask You’re supposed to telltoo much Then we bicker back and forth until we come to the real price"

"What a waste of time," Veltan murmured "I need to speak withsome of the bricks with me when I come back" Veltan squinted at the map "Which one of those coastal toill you sail from?"

"What do you think, Gunda?" Narasan asked

"Castano," Gunda replied iot the most protected harbor"

"Very well," Veltan said "I’ll entlemen in Castano in three, maybe four weeks I think we’d better e it We’ve all got work to do, so I’ll get out froht take a bit longer, but please be ready to sail from Castano when I come back Hopefully, I’ll have a better idea of when the war’s likely to start when I return" Then he turned and walked briskly froht sky was clear and the stars were very bright when Veltan left the city of Kaldacin The pale moon had not yet risen, but Veltan knew her very well, so he was certain that she’d soon put in an appearance He walked on out across the brown-stubbled, sleeping winter farmland beyond the walls of Kaldacin before he summoned his pet thunderbolt She always seeed to awaken her after the sun went down, and she ht than she did in the daytients here in the Trogite E his presence with a shattering crash of thunder just outside the walls of Kaldacin would be very prudent