The three men remained seated for several moments after Elias departed, listening as the pavilion flap closed behind him.
The Duke exhaled slowly.
“I believe I require something stronger than ale.”
Edmund gave a weary chuckle.
“I find myself of the same opinion.”
The Duke looked toward Hodger.
“And you?”
“No, my lord. I was up rather late examining the rings.”
Hodger gathered several pages of notes.
“My mind has been sufficiently clouded already.”
Edmund waited until the servant pouring wine had withdrawn.
“How much exactly was in that chest?”
Hodger hesitated.
“Just over twenty-six hundred gold crowns.”
Edmund’s goblet stopped halfway to his lips.
“Twenty-six hundred?”
“A portion of it is platinum,” Hodger said. “And I may yet have underpaid him.”
The Duke set his drink down.
“Underpaid him?”
“If my suspicions are correct, those rings are not merely magical curiosities.”
Hodger looked down at his notes.
“They are relics.”
Silence followed.
“And relics,” he continued, “have a troublesome habit of becoming more valuable every time one learns another truth about them.”
Edmund leaned back.
“So twenty-six hundred gold may merely be the beginning.”
“Precisely.”
The Duke gave a low whistle.
“And his first thought was boots.”
“For his brothers,” Edmund said.
The Duke looked toward the closed pavilion flap for a moment, then lifted his goblet.
“See that His Majesty receives our account before rumor reaches him.”
Hodger nodded.
“I’ll help draft the dispatch.”
The Duke took a measured drink.
“I have a feeling Elias Rowan’s name will travel considerably farther than he expects.”
***
A servant led me through the command tents to the man the Duke had called his chamberlain. He was seated behind a broad oak desk covered in ledgers, correspondence, and neat stacks of wax-sealed documents. The grey-haired man looked up over a pair of spectacles as I entered.
"Can I help you, young man?"
I carefully set the wooden chest down before his desk.
"The Duke told me to see you about this."
He glanced from the chest to me.
"Oh?"
"He said..." I paused, trying to remember the exact words. "He wanted me to place it on account with you, and that you could help me get some of it home to my family."
Recognition flickered across the man's face.
"Ah."
He smiled warmly.
"Then you must be Elias Rowan."
"Yes, sir."
"And do you know the sum contained within the chest?"
I shook my head.
"No, sir."
"Mage Hodger gave it to me as... remuneration..." I stumbled slightly over the unfamiliar word. "...for yesterday's loot."
The castellan's eyebrows climbed noticeably.
"I see."
The castellan reached down and grasped the handles before lifting the chest onto the desk with a grunt.
"Goodness..."
He adjusted his grip before easing it onto the polished oak.
"There is a fair amount of weight in there."
I frowned.
"I'm sorry, sir."
He looked up.
"Sorry?"
"It didn't seem all that heavy carrying it over."
The older man chuckled.
"Well, I suspect you've spent rather more of your life carrying grain sacks and stable buckets than I have."
I nodded.
"Aye, sir."
"Feed sacks mostly."
"That explains it," the castellan said with a smile as he reached for the key. "I spend my days lifting ledgers."
The castellan smiled as he lifted the lid.
The smile lasted only a heartbeat.
Then it simply...
Stopped.
His eyes moved slowly across the contents of the chest.
Once.
Twice.
He quietly closed the lid again before looking back up at me.
"Master Rowan..."
"...did Mage Hodger truly tell you nothing of the amount?"
I glanced over my shoulder before realizing he was speaking to me.
"I'm sorry?"
"The amount."
He folded his hands atop the chest.
"Did Mage Hodger tell you how much was in here?"
I shook my head.
"No, sir."
"He made it sound like there was quite a lot."
I shrugged sheepishly.
"But..."
I smiled a little.
"You know how some adults are."
The castellan blinked.
"They make things sound bigger than they are."
He stared at me for another long moment before a slow smile spread across his face.
"Yes..."
He chuckled quietly.
"Sometimes we do."
He rested a hand on the lid.
"I'm afraid, Master Rowan..."
"...this is not one of those occasions."
I frowned.
"It isn't?"
"No."
He paused, almost as though deciding how to explain it to someone who had no frame of reference.
"It has been many years since I have handled this much coin belonging to a single individual."
I blinked.
"Really?"
"Indeed."
He smiled warmly.
"I believe the Duke was quite right."
"This money does not belong in a company strongbox."
"It belongs in proper accounts."
The castellan closed the lid once more and rested both hands upon it.
"I shall have those arranged."
He considered me for a moment.
"And... if you don't mind, I believe it would also be prudent to have someone from the Bankers' Association call upon you."
I nodded politely.
I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
"What... is a bank?"
The castellan blinked.
"You've never heard of one?"
I shook my head.
"No, sir."
"I've heard of merchants, moneylenders, and tax collectors..."
I shrugged.
"But not a bank."
For just a moment the older man looked genuinely surprised.
Then he smiled kindly.
"Ah."
"I believe there are going to be rather a great many things for us to discuss over the coming weeks."
He clasped his hands behind his back.
"A bank is, simply put, a place where trustworthy men and women keep other people's coin. Rather than burying coin beneath a floor or hiding it in a strongbox, they place it in the care of trained custodians who keep records of what belongs to whom. and return it when properly asked.”
He smiled reassuringly.
"It is considerably more secure than carrying two thousand six hundred gold crowns around in a wooden chest."
I stared.
"...Two thousand six hundred?"
"Just over," the castellan replied.
"Gold?"
My mouth went dry.
"Gold crowns, Yes."
I suddenly understood why everyone had been looking at me so strangely.
The castellan continued gently.
"Would you be willing to trust me to arrange these matters on the Duke's behalf?"
What could I honestly say?
The Duke had shown me nothing but kindness. Mage Hodger had dealt honestly with me when he could easily have taken advantage of what I didn’t know. Brenn had looked after me from the day I'd arrived.
Besides...
It seemed a remarkably dangerous thing to offend a duke by refusing the help of one of his household.
"Oh..."
I swallowed.
"Of course, sir."
The castellan smiled.
"Excellent."
"I suspect your sister is about to receive the most surprising letter of her young life."
Was ...Two thousand six hundred even a real number?
I tried to picture it.
I couldn't.
The most money I'd ever seen in one place had been five silver pieces sitting on the Guild master's desk.
Two thousand six hundred gold?
My thoughts immediately fled home.
Tera.
If she saw that much coin...
She'd probably faint.
Then she'd wake up and tell me I'd made a mistake.
I smiled despite myself.
Then the smile slowly faded.
I had to stop and think.
Five silver made a gold.
Ten copper made a silver...
Though some places cheated and counted twelve.
Two copper bought a fresh loaf of bread.
A day's wages for honest labor might be a handful of copper if you were lucky.
I tried to work it out.
I gave up almost immediately.
Two thousand six hundred gold wasn't a number I understood.
It was simply... more.
More than my family had ever owned.
More than I had ever imagined anyone needing.
I found myself wondering how many winters that would buy.
How many pairs of boots.
How many sacks of grain.
Whether Tera would ever have to worry about feeding the little ones again.
Whether my brothers would finally have boots that fit.
Whether my sister could stop patching the same two dresses until the cloth gave out.
I looked down at the chest.
For the first time since Ma and Pa had died...
I wondered if my family might actually be all right without me.
The thought hurt far more than I expected.
I had spent three years believing the only thing keeping them together was my two hands.
Now...
Now this chest might do what I no longer could.
It could buy them a future.
A life.
One I had always dreamed of giving them, even if I could no longer be there to see it.