Chapter 9: The Ledger

Ra-on told Ryeo-won he was going to the village for salt.

It was the worst lie of his life, and he told it to a blind man at midnight.

"Then buy two bags," Ryeo-won said, and kissed his forehead.

Ra-on went down the mountain with the Hall's ledger pressed flat against his ribs.

The Dalgol inn was one lamp and a sleeping dog.

A woman sat alone in the back room at a table with a tea tray, and he had never seen her before.

She wore plain brown wool, and her hands lay folded in front of her.

"The ledger," she said.

He put it down.

It was a thin book bound in black cord, the Hall's own, with his bird name on the spine.

She opened it with one finger and turned it around.

"Gil Ra-on," she said, and he flinched at hearing it from a stranger's mouth.

"Hall name, Magpie."

"Bought at eight years old for two silver."

"Food, bed, training, medicine, one broken wrist."

"Four hundred gold."

"I know what I owe," Ra-on said.

"You owe more, with interest."

"Madam Gwak wishes you to look at the number."

He looked at it.

It was very long.

It was longer than his life, by the Hall's arithmetic, which never needed to be true.

"A failed contract adds the contractor's own life to the sum," the woman said evenly.

"That is the law."

"Madam would regret it."

"She is fond of you."

"What does she want?"

"The Blind Swordmaster dead before the Crow arrives, in seven days."

"If you have not finished it, the Crow will finish the household."

"The household is a boy of nineteen."

"Yes," said the woman.

She took a coin from her sleeve and slid it across the table.

"This is part of the client's advance, in case it helps your conscience."

"Five hundred gold in old Haeram coin, from before the war."

"Nobody has minted it in thirty years."

"The paper-seller said the client spoke gently, paid in advance, and wished it over quickly."

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