Chapter 8: NiraIn the months of trading season,
weather’s fair and men have reason
to toast companions new and old
and seek new pastures for their fold.
– A ballad fragment
The Cerean ship lay at the end of the dock, busy and jam-packed with barrels. A wispy-looking vintner’s agent bargained with the ship’s captain while his laborers rolled their casks down the street and out to the ship, rattling all the way. A quantity of beads passed between their hands at the scrapplings’ approach. Darna had never seen so many beads in her life, not all at once. Her jaw gaped open.
“Don’t look like that!” Giri whispered.
“Mind your own look,” Darna groused, but she shut her mouth and pretended not to care. The vintner’s agent squinted at their approach.
“No scrapplings on the dock,” he said. “P
