"Lawrence Watt-Evans - Ethshar 9 - The Spriggan Mirror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watt-Evans Lawrence)

much better.” She sighed wearily at the memory. “So when magic failed us, we decided to try other
methods. Lady Sarai can’t leave her duties as the overlord’s investigator and didn’t have any clever
ideas, but Telurinon said you were the best in the World at finding hard-to-find things without magic—so
here I am.”
“Indeed,” Gresh said. He leaned back, keeping his eyes on his guest.
This was, at least potentially, a problem—and an opportunity.
He made an excellent living supplying wizards with the ingredients for their spells; he had been
doing it since boyhood. He had started out running errands for his older sisters—mostly Dina, since
wizards used so many odd ingredients in their spells, but also occasionally Tira and Chira and Shesta.
Witches used herbs and other tools; sorcerers sometimes wanted particular metals or gems for their
talismans and were always looking for leftover bits of old sorcery; and demonologists sometimes needed
specific things to pay demons for their services. His business was never entirely for wizards, but wizards
certainly made up the bulk of his business.
He had started with his sisters, but then he had begun to fetch things for their friends, and then
friends of friends, and then people with no connection he knew of who had heard his name somewhere.
Word had spread; by the time he finished his apprenticeship and opened his own shop, he had
developed a reputation for being fast, efficient, honest, and discreet.
He had also developed a reputation for being able to get anything, given time.
This reputation let him charge high prices—higher, in fact, than any other supplier in the city. Even
so, he had never lacked for business. There were always people willing to pay more for the best.
The problem was that he had to stay the best. He had to maintain his reputation as the man who
could get anything a wizard needed. He could never admit that there was something he couldn’t find, or
couldn’t obtain once it was found.
So far, no such admission had been necessary; sooner or later he had gotten everything he went
after, or else had been able to give good, sound reasons why he would not seek certain things. As he
explained to anyone who asked: he would not kill or maim anyone to obtain an item; he would not violate
Wizards’ Guild rules, and he tried to obey the overlords’ laws; and some of the things people had
attempted to buy simply didn’t exist.
Or at least, he said they didn’t exist, and no one had ever proved him wrong.
This spriggan mirror, though, apparently did exist. If Karanissa was telling the truth, she knew it
existed. Fetching it would not break any Guild rules; in fact, the Guild wanted it found. He wouldn’t be
stealing it, or breaking any other laws so far as he could see, and he could see no reason anyone would
be killed or maimed if he acquired it. By his own rules, therefore, he should have no objection to going
after it. Unless he could find a new and convincing excuse, refusing the task would severely damage his
reputation.
Finding it, of course, would enhance his reputation. If he could become known as the man who
eliminated the nuisance of the spriggans once and for all, he could crank his prices up even higher. He
would be a minor hero throughout the Hegemony.
The problem was that if he agreed to get it and failed to do so, his reputation would be not
merely damaged, but ruined—and he had no idea how to find the thing! By Karanissa’s account, most of
his usual methods would not work.
Of course, no one outside the family knew what his usual methods were—and he liked it that
way. Keeping his trade secrets secret added to his aura of mystery and kept the competition down.
“Will you get it for us?” Karanissa asked, interrupting his train of thought.
He really had no choice. “Of course,” he said. “But it may take some time, and it will be very
expensive.”
“The Guild has agreed to cover the cost,” she replied. “We will pay any price.”
Gresh blinked at that. Any price?
He had thought he might scare her away; given his reputation for charging high prices, he had
thought that when he said “very expensive” she might reconsider and save him the trouble of actually