Secondhand Sorbet - Seventeen Coin Stew
Partially revised from an original post over at watermelontail. I still want to know what happens to my damned scoundrel, but he's a tricksy one. Which is probably why I like him.
Seventeen coins, both the good and bad that had stewed together in his pockets, rolled and scattered across the table in front of the old man. Honest pay for a honest man, even if his honest work was just to trade in lies and stories. It was myths Donegal had sought in the market, and the price was fair even if the quality of the merchandise faltered. He backed out of the tent, making no effort to actually touch the flap with his hands, and into the truncheon squalor and barking squall of the fairground midway. How many weeks had he been in this river city, bridge city, old city with strange ones that walk on muddy feet?
"Mysteries are secrets whose deception we haven't discovered." Who had told him that?
The wind snatched at ribbons, banners, the pegged canvas of tents. Donegal struggled with his buttons and turned back toward the kettles of the open kitchens further down the lane.
Now, back to thinking about anything but work
-12th.
Seventeen coins, both the good and bad that had stewed together in his pockets, rolled and scattered across the table in front of the old man. Honest pay for a honest man, even if his honest work was just to trade in lies and stories. It was myths Donegal had sought in the market, and the price was fair even if the quality of the merchandise faltered. He backed out of the tent, making no effort to actually touch the flap with his hands, and into the truncheon squalor and barking squall of the fairground midway. How many weeks had he been in this river city, bridge city, old city with strange ones that walk on muddy feet?
"Mysteries are secrets whose deception we haven't discovered." Who had told him that?
The wind snatched at ribbons, banners, the pegged canvas of tents. Donegal struggled with his buttons and turned back toward the kettles of the open kitchens further down the lane.
Now, back to thinking about anything but work
-12th.