Celtic Tales 10, the Traders

Celtic Tales 10

The Traders

JILL WHALEN

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Celtic Tales 10, The Traders

Copyright © 2012 by Brenda Whalen.

Author Credits: Jill Whalen

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-2548-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-2549-4 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 05/15/2012

Contents

Tale 1 Fin

Tale 2 Kirrigan

Tale 3 Master Trader

Tale 4 Kalib

Tale 5 Engor

Tale 6 Black Pearls

Tale 7 Rubies

Tale 8 Keroo

Tale 9 Keldor

Tale 10 The Ducameron

Tale 11 Trader 32

Tale 12 Trade Empire

Tale 13 Kensarud

Tale 14 Latex

Tale 15 Tapa Cloth

Tale 16 Carvings

Tale 17 Kefu Nomandus

Tale 18 Cobblestones

Tale 19 Ayegale

Tale 20 Pink Pearls

Tale 21 Red Stick

This book is dedicated to Alice, Chloe, Jack, and Samuel.

Tale 1

FIN

Our trader account ledgers are made of string with some other strings and knots and other things. They are more than ledgers; there is a balance, the sum total of our trade. Our trade group can read them and some trustworthy outsiders can read them, but to most people it is just a bunch of strings decorated with knots.

We have caravans to move stuff from one place to another. If it must go by sea we use the sea people. The goods are very safe while the sea people have them. If they ever take our stuff, it will be the end of land trade for them.

I am on the Goshan Trails. The near cities are Bock, Guarra, Ansdof, and Tshad. To the west are Ruseland, Rideland, Aunsland, and the Underdot. I am southeast of where the clans came through the icy hell of the north. There is a huge bay that was once a lake. I am on the northeastern shore above that. There are great forests and vile people. Our people say no one can settle there, but I have opened up trade there. They are nice people to me. Some of them tried to take at first, but we simply went around them and traded with other people. This is more potent than a blade to the throat. When we refused to trade with the people, as a peace offering they sent back the body of the man who had attacked our people. They sent back our four people’s beakers too, along with lumps of amber the weight of the four men’s bodies. They knew we came for the purity of the sun, amber, among other things. We like amber much. First of all it is the first gift of our lady, and secondly, it is lighter than other gemstones. That amber had much to say. It had many insects in it. That is fine for the children, they like it much; the women and other people only like to have the clear stuff with no defects. When you throw this on the Altar of the Lady, it needs perfection. Although I will tell you, I have said prayers to her and used the stuff with bark and insects in it. The smoke from it is pure.

I lost stature and about five years of career climb because of an apprentice. I would like to have had his tongue cut out, but I couldn’t do that because of the council. I finally got to where I could not stand it, so I gave him Blind Fairy, a donkey. It got very excitable when it noticed it was on a narrow trail with a steep drop. It didn’t take him over with it when it went. Others testified that I did it so it would kill him. They asked me if it was true. I couldn’t deny it. I told them I didn’t plan on killing him, but I figured if he did get killed what loss would this be? He had a high status father and a high status mother, so they put me on the trail as a junior man again. That was when I offered to open up the northern area.

The head of the council said, We will send this man you wronged along as an overseer or watcher.

I said, You only need those on developed trails.

That will be good for your character.

Fine, if he does not come back it will be on your head not mine.

They decided he would stay where he was. It was profitable trade, but Lord God in His infinite wisdom made me much richer than I ever would have been on the other route. In the north I had about one hundred twenty people counting the women and children.

I trade for anything that will be of value in the south. Furs are always good. They have some interesting wood. They find ivory somewhere up in the far north. One of the first things I traded them for was a set of skins to wear in the winter made by some woman far up to the north. I have finally seen the animals for those good skins. The hairs are hollow, warm, and very waterproof. I found out later that I did not even get a very good set of furs, but it was so much better than what I had. The winters get very cold there. These people sometimes have gold and very rarely copper. This is not a place I would care to mine copper. I believe there may be tin to the north. I would not care to build either; I simply trade for what is. Let some other man have the fame and glory of getting them to develop the mines. I do not like the places I have seen where metal mining is done, although there is hunger for such things as bronze.

I have a blade of sky metal mixed with good iron. Very few people see it, and when they do they always die. My uncle died and left me that blade. That is all he left me. It is a very thin blade that looks like water. When I first saw it I did not think highly of it. I ran my thumb over the blade and laid it open to the bone. I thought more highly of it then. I was very upset because my uncle left his trade routes to someone else. The council and other traders had to confirm it. I was a very young trader. He left me that knife and the sheath it was in. It was wrapped in a strange belt that held the knife and sheath. The thing ran around the waist and tied. It was lumpy and bumpy, but at that time I could see no reason to spend more time redoing another belt. Every time I tied it on I thought about redoing it.

I studied hard; I moved to the next level. I looked at that belt. It looked stranger and stranger. One time while I was on a solitary messaging run I was stopped where I was. My message was carried forward by a man well rested and unhurt. He told me to rest there and gain a reserve. I started pulling at this belt. I found that the belt was a sheath. Folded into this sheath were all his books and accounts. It told where his best trades were, who the people were, what they liked in particular, and all manner of things on the trade route I was on which was just part of his whole network. I found that not a mile from where I sat was a village with an old friend of his that liked salt. In my position I had a very small bag of salt to trade. I went to that man. I said, My uncle asked me to pay my respects to you and to give you a small present of salt. I am an unworthy young man and therefore I have not much. I gave him all the salt I had, and I said, Please accept it as a token of respect and a message of thanks for a good life and a good trade for my uncle.

No one had traded with his place for two years. They had passed it by. It was slightly off the track in a small village. He brought out fine furs, and they were fine for that place. He had carved objects, fine wood, ash cooked down so there were just the white-heating, burning cakes, and some very poor amber. I looked at that. I said, Oh sir, I have nothing to trade, for I did not come to trade.

He said, Will you promise that you will come to trade?

Yes.

When I got back and everything was settled down with the messaging I told my master about this village with some trade. He said, How much? I tried to explain to him the count. He looked at me and he said, It might be worth a side trip with one of our known traders.

I said, Sir, on the next time down would you mind if I traded with them on my off days?

He looked at me. You know if you trade the money comes to me?

Well sir, since it is money it costs you nothing. Surely the profit will go to me.

We dickered. He agreed to provide two arms of salt, and for this I would trade for everything that village had. He said that I could have any salt that was left over. He would take six parts in ten of the trade. I would take four parts. I thought this was very good. I went back to that place and I traded for everything they had for half an arm of salt. Then they brought out four bales of very rich and costly furs—four bales! They traded me the furs for the other half arm of salt. That was all they had. I told them I would be back once a year to trade with them.

The old man said, We must have at least a half an arm of salt every year.

Provide me with this quality of furs and I can promise you half an arm of salt.

I went back to my master trader. When he saw those four bales he was angry. I told him they had not showed those four bales to me before. I told him I had set up a once a year thing of four bales of that quality of furs for half an arm of salt. The master knew how much I had traded for. I showed him the still unopened arm of salt. It is a bag as big around as a man’s arm and as long from shoulder to fingertips. That is a lot of salt, but that group had a fair number of people.

He laughed and said, I have been outdone. I thought you would cheat and pour a little out of each bag.

I said, I do not believe in cheating clients.

He laughed again and said, That is one great joke. You cannot have any of this for your own, because you are not a journeyman, you know.

That night I was surprised that his journeyman walked the tables, brought me back, and promoted me to journeyman. There were many arguments. He told them of the trade and showed them the goods. They called me a journeyman that night. I got forty percent of the profits. A journeyman usually gets one part in twenty. Plus I had a regular trade place that was my own.

I read my uncles journals in private. I found other such trading places. Soon the elders gave me my own track. Then I had ten tracks, then twenty, and then fifty-four. It was a quarter of my uncle’s trade. At that time they had stuck me with that jerk, but I got one part in ten of everything that came in from those fifty-four paths. The council could not do anything about that without alienating all. My eldest sister got one part in five of the sales price; the council got the rest, as it was punishment. I gave my mother the book, and I went north. She offered it for sale. It was bought for more than the paths brought. They were very angry and sent someone north to bring me home. I delayed them with the fall which comes early up there. We went back. When the council called me before them, I reminded them that they were the ones that said the knife and sheath were all of my inheritance from my uncle. I reminded the head man that at the time he had remarked that I had gotten my just reward. They were not happy, but what could they say? My uncle could have left his book to his son if he had wanted to, for that was his property as a man. They thought it was buried with him, or that he had hidden it. He had khipu, accounts on a string with knots, all over the place. It was a very welcome treasure like a part of him.

It doesn’t matter what you call me. Behind my back people call me the cheat, Fin. I have chosen to name my youth trails by that name. It has great dark forests, northern trees, water that runs clear, and cold weather. It is hard to bathe there in the heart of winter. We heat in a sauna and roll in the snow to dry off.

I contract with the sea people ahead of time. They come to our shores and talk to our people all the time.

One of the men dropped a full pack on another man and he fell back on me. My ankle was so twisted I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to walk far again. The leg was bruised and bloated from the toes. It was bloated so much it was shiny and bruised all the way up past the knee into the thigh. It was bad. They made me a crutch and left. You must go when it is time for the trail especially in a short time country like this.

Most of the people we deal with are of two kinds. The first ones are short, dark haired people that are tough and very wise. The second ones are people who look a lot like clan, but they are shorter than we are. We don’t run into them often. Traders do not fight; we trade.

A man said to me, There is a metal stronger than the metal of my blade. I tried to cut it and scratch it. It took me a long time to work an edge back on my blade. Would you like to see it?

I thought about that. I looked at him. I said, It was metal from the sky?

He looked at me sharply and he said, Yes.

He told me it was a huge piece. I took my men and we went for a summer trade. That man and I got it out of the rock. It was very heavy. We were north where the ground never thaws. It was on trees. We melted the snow. We worked on through the long summer. It got bigger and bigger. We dug deeper and deeper. Before the summer we had seen it curve under on all sides. We cut logs and we put them over the top of the whole stone. We covered that with the dirt we had dug out, so it would not fill back in, and we went away from that place.

It was frothy in some places and melted looking. One time it had been forged and melted in there. We looked for small pieces around where we dug out. There were none. It was just the one big piece near black in color. We did not know if that was from the heat of the forges of God, or from weathering, or that was just the way it looked.

We came back south the next summer. I hired two hundred more journeymen. They were serious. I brought many donkeys. We went north. This time we melted a space to the south of it just slightly downhill. We melted down below in a big work area. We put logs on it and began to dig out from underneath it so it would roll down four logs and on to this. When we finally had it so it would move, we kept moving the logs underneath. We finally had it so it would move all the way out of the dirt. We found that with two hundred donkeys we could only move it a little bit until we melted a ramp. By the end of that summer we had it up on logs on the ground. We were going to come back the next summer.

The man who found the sky stone said, We will wait for the hard freeze. I know a man Who has reindeer.

We built a giant sledge for pulling heavy loads called a skedge. We put it up high, and we went south with the donkeys. My journeyman master traded quickly. The people along the way were not happy with us. Our profits were a third the normal year. I had spent much. In the middle of the winter his friends came with reindeer. They hooked many, many, many reindeer with long braided ropes on to skates. Once it moved over the ice it moved well. They moved along quite smartly and faster than we could walk. We learned to ride the caribou they called them. We went south all the way to the water. There was ice. I had sent my most trusted master further south to contact the sea people. They talked about how we would get it there. We finally discovered a place that someone knew that was on the coast, but it was very sheltered. The ships could come up right against the cliff. The cliff was higher than the freeboard but not much higher when the tide was right.

We worked with those people and they brought one of their very big ships in. That is how we did it. They delivered it for free. They had some of the master smiths. We had some of the masters of my union, the council of our trade, come north to see if I had taken leave of my senses. I had these smiths come up to bid. The masters were much mystified. The smiths would not talk. I discussed with them, and I decided none of them had enough goods to justify it. I asked for half of the sky metal made into sword blades, ax blades, and such things. They finally argued me out of it. They wanted it all. I said that I would settle for a short sword for myself as a gift; they would own it all. I wished the short sword to be at least the length of my arm and very sharp and thin. They were happy with that. For the rest of it we got their entire output of fine iron, steel, and bronze for the next two years; half of their output for the next twenty years; and a tenth of their output for the rest of my life. We discussed lives and minimum guarantees. No one in our history has ever made such a trade. The council was unhappy because I didn’t trade for this, and I didn’t trade for that. They wanted to take away my master certificate, but they couldn’t, because now I was wealthier than the entire beaker people put together. Suddenly what I spent on the two hundred donkeys and all those apprentices was like nothing.

I bought goods. I appointed a man with a crushed foot that I trusted very much as my factor for metals in the south. Now all of the traders and everyone had to come to me. We had the output of all the mines. The fortresses and the seven leading smiths were set up. That was almost all the metal made in the North Country. Far to the south, down around the warm sea there are others but they are minor compared to ours. Their bronze is not good and their iron and steel is worse.

It took the council three years before they gave in and said that I had made a smart trade. They called me before the council at the Althing. I opened the trader’s book and quoted to them from the rules.

I said, Trade what is in the hand, not what is promised tomorrow. They did not like that.

I have things that identify me as a master trader. First, my beaker shows that I am a very wealthy man. Second, I have a very unique, simple cloak pin. It is carved in three segments out of single piece of jet black rock. The pin is hinged. One piece of it is sharp to go through the weft and weave of the cloak; the other end is hinged around the ring. There is a thing used for bringing pressure to bear on the end of the pin. It swings around the spring and is also on a hinge. The carvings on them are very fine and delicate. Third, my belt is heavy and is made of very expensive pieces of silver that are highly carved. I have traded lengths off my belt before if a man could afford them. My belt hangs down three lengths. The belt is really a weapon. The hook that hooks the belt in place will tear and rip. Of course, there is my dagger. It is hard to tell about that unless I draw it. I do not believe in rings. I have a piece of amber that I especially like braided in sinew. It is a fairly good sized piece of amber with an insect in it that I like very much. The insect is an ant that is carrying a huge chunk of something I cannot tell what. It is ten to twenty times the size of the ant. That is how the trader people should be.

We do not tattoo our arms like some trader groups do. We tattoo the inside of our butt cheeks. The beginning person gets a dark blue dot. A journeyman gets a second dot. A master gets a third dot and makes a triangle. If you are beyond that you can get a circle tattoo or a rose for all I care. Three dots indicate a master. We very rarely show it to people. If I were to travel to a far and distant land I might show the council that so they would not argue with me as a master trader. For us an apprentice has little status and makes no profits. A journeyman can take minor profits. A master can carve his trails or work at home with the people’s masters or work with another man who owns the trail for awhile or forever, or he can stay at a permanent post.

An apprentice’s beaker is rough from clay cooked in a fire. A master may have a finely glazed piece of tin or copper or glass with or without jewels. Mine is just extremely well poised with an elegant, beautiful glazed pattern. It has many colors, but mostly blue, green, and brown.

It has been years since the great trade of that sky metal. They have had all the greatest minds pouring over it, and yet they have not figured out how to work it. They have had no luck at all. They will not revoke the deal. Do you know what it would be like if we no longer traded with them? Whoever we trade with does well; whoever we do not trade with gets hit over the head and robbed the first time he gets out of his territory. If he is lucky he will be left alive.

My first wife was a high woman out of the Lateeva. Her father came to me and wanted me to marry his daughter. I wasn’t interested until she came out from behind her father. Every man in the room was interested. No clan women would come that far north; they wanted their comforts. I married her. She bore me seven children. She was carried away by barbarian Vanir raiders from the east. I went there myself. I found her on the third day lying naked in the snow. They had obviously raped her in many places along the way. They had chopped her up, cut her in many places, and left her for dead. She lived four more days. I did what I could. The infection grew up through her abdomen and killed her very painfully. Those men had gone back to their home. I found them. I called out and told them inside their wall what the men had done to my wife.

I said to the women, It is one thing for a man to go steal and perhaps rape, although even that I do not like. But there is no reason to take her along and rape her again, and again, and again, cut off her nose, blind her, cut her up and leave her naked in the snow to die.

The headman came to the wall and said, What kind of a fool would come by himself?

I held my bearskin up. I said, I have over four hundred master traders working for me.

You could see him change color down where I was. He said, Are you Fin?

Yes.

We will have the men beheaded immediately and their heads passed out to you.

I do not want that. I want them in good shape to fight me.

* * *

I sent my children south to live with my sister. I thought it would be a better place for them to grow up. I didn’t know she thought of them as inferior half-breeds. In the fall my ship had come up and delivered a promise. They had had trouble. I sent back to my children one bale each of sable. I said to them, Go ye to the boat and take what you will. There are terrible storms now. You are too valuable to me. Do what you would, and when the spring storms are over come by the dependable captain. But don’t come with the first of the spring skippers with the terrible storms. You are too valuable to me.

During this period there came one of the small fast ships. There is one kind that holds one person and one that holds three or four. It was one that holds three or four. I went down with my people to see what it was that was so important to the sea people. When I got close I started laughing. My children hopped off with a strange person. They waved at the sea person. The sea people came alongside the shore. The others hopped off. They moved away far spread apart. The last person out was a strong, young, clan woman. She came up to me. I was angry for them risking my children’s lives in the water. She was the most beautiful woman. She was looking up at me with angry green eyes.

She said, What right have you to leave such wonderful children with those terrible people to the south?

Remember, the council did not approve of me. I loved my children. I never considered such a possibility as them harming the children to punish me. The boat came wallowing in just before a storm offloading my bales of sable for my children. The council coffers gave them partial payment for all the problems of the children of mine. This woman had been there. She was one of the sea people. Her name was Freya which means the star of the sea. Brucecellabee took my children into her own home. The council and she were at war. She got them clothing and sent out a call for the fast ship. They came with that little messenger. So Freya took them away into a fast ship and came away to my place. She said she wanted to see the fool that would make more money instead of caring for his own children. I found myself trying to explain my situation to a strange woman. She didn’t want to hear. I finally told her that if she was so disdainful of me she did not have to take advantage of my hospitality.

She said, Fine. She reached up and undid the pin on the dress she was wearing that one of our women had given her. She went over and started putting her wet clothes back on. I found myself going over and touching her shoulder. She was all over me kissing me. Other people left the common room, because they were afraid of our battle. We made love there on the floor by the fire. That is how I met my second wife. Later on that night she admitted that the main reason she had come to the south land was because she had a future there. They fumbled around there for months before she finally knew what her thing was. She did not know why until she saw me. Whenever she would get out of hand I would remind her of that.

I lost much status for not having more than one wife. The children care for Freya. The older ones talk about her politely. I don’t know if that means she was nice or that she was mean and they aren’t going to tell me. Did you ever try to get something out of children? I told them they might grow up to be uneducated, barbarian