Legacies Read Online Free PDF Page A

replacing them in the back of the wagon. Then he walked toward the endmost cart, where two boys stood, admiring the display of knives on the dark cotton.
    One of the boys looked up. His eyes scanned Alucius, and he used his elbow to touch the other, before whispering something. Both nodded to the itinerant knife-smith and stepped away.
    â€œAre you interested in something, young sir?” asked the gray-haired man.
    â€œI don’t have any coins, sir,” Alucius said. “You don’t mind if I look, do you?”
    The man, younger than Royalt, smiled. “Look all you want. I come here every Septi during the spring, summer, and harvest seasons. I’ll even make special knives when you’re ready for one.”
    Alucius could sense the friendliness—and a hint of something else, sadness perhaps. “Thank you.” He looked over the array of knives. Most were for use in a kitchen or stead, but a handful, on one side, were clearly weapons. Alucius thought that the two on the end were a matched pair of throwing knives, but there was no reason to ask.
    After a time, he nodded to the knife-smith. “Thank you, sir.”
    â€œThank you, young sir.”
    Alucius rejoined Royalt by a cart containing a few small baskets of breads and some half-bushels of early cherries from the south.
    Royalt glanced down at the boy. “I was thinking…”
    â€œShe’d like the soft bread, with all the raisins and the browned sugar…and the cherries.”
    Royalt raised his eyebrows.
    â€œI heard her talking to Mother. They won’t ever ask for anything, Grandfather. And Grandma’am won’t let Mother ask for her, either.”
    Royalt burst into a loud laugh. “You know more at ten than I did at twice your age.” He turned to the redheaded woman at the end of the wagon. “How much for the cherries?”
    â€œHad to bring them up from south of Borlan. I’d say three silvers, but I’d not want to carry them back.”
    Royalt nodded. “What about two silvers, and throw in two loaves of the soft current bread there?”
    The woman pursed her lips, calculating, as her eyes ran over the nightsilk covered herder’s jacket that Royalt wore.
    Alucius waited for a moment, then added. “It’s for my grandma’am. I have one copper.”
    The woman shook her head. “Done. Two silvers and a copper.” She looked at Alucius and added, “Let your grandsire pay them.”
    Alucius noted that his grandfather actually handed over two silvers and a pair of coppers, not just one.
    â€œYou carry the bread, Alucius.”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    The two walked back toward the wagon through a mist that was getting cooler and heavier, under clouds that had once more thickened and lowered.
    â€œI’d stay longer,” Royalt said, “but there’s not as much here as I’d hoped. Happens when you come midweek. We need to go out to the mill for the flour and hope Amiss has some salt.”
    â€œYes, sir.” Alucius didn’t know what else to say.
    â€œThe produce woman, she wasn’t going to let those go for less than two silvers and five.” Royalt stopped beside the wagon. “You knew that, didn’t you, you imp?”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    Royalt covered the bushel with a cloth before easing it into the covered bin behind the wagon seat. He wrapped the two loaves of bread in another clean cloth before easing them onto a position on top of the coarse sacks of potatoes and yams he had apparently gotten while Alucius had been looking at the knives.
    While Royalt untied the horses, Alucius climbed up into the wagon seat.
    Then the herder swung up into the driver’s seat. He released the wagon brakes, and gave a gentle flip to the reins. “Won’t take long for us to get out to Amiss’s place. Should make it easy for us to be back to the stead by late afternoon. That way, your mother and