The young man spoke in fluent Enduenan, and Eda was relieved to hear her own language.
“I need a map of Tuer’s Rise.”
This clearly surprised him; he laid down the paper at once and took his feet off the counter. “Why in gods’ green Endahr would you want to go up Tuer’s Rise?”
Eda sighed. “Because I’m looking for Tuer’s Mountain. Have yon got a map or not?”
He scratched his chin. “We have maps for everything. My mother is the greatest cartographer in the world, you know. But even she hasn’t beenallalong Tuer’s Rise. That requires an expedition, weeks of planning, tons of equipment and supplies.”
“I just want a map,” said Eda crossly.
“Tuer’s Mountain is hidden from mortals. Most people who go up into the Rise don’t come back again.”
“I’m not most people. Are you going to help me?”
The boy shook his head, like he couldn’t believe Eda still wanted the map after all his generous warnings. “Just a second.”
He hopped over the counter and trotted partway down the room, his fingers running across the map cylinders as he peered at the brass-plated labels beside each one. He selected a cylinder and uncapped it, pulling the map out and uncoiling it. Eda peered over his shoulder, annoyed at having to stand so close to him.
The map was beautifully drawn and painted, paths winding up through the mountains, streams and valleys and caves all neatly labeled.
She pointed to the top of the map, where everything disappeared into a haze of gray. “Why does it stop?”
“I told you. Not even my mother has traveled the entirety of the Rise. The map stops there because that’s as far as she went. But I swear to you, Miss—don’t go up there alone. You’d die your first night.” He looked her up and down. “Especially in those clothes.”
What she wouldn’t give for her dagger or a solid amount of guards at her back. “How much?”
He rattled off a sum that shocked her. She shook her head. “This is all I have.”
She laid the Emperor’s ring in his open palm, the metal shaped like a tiger chasing its tail, with rubies for eyes.
The boy’s eyes grew round. “That’s pure gold. Where did you get it?”
She scowled at him. “It’s mine. Do you treat all your customers like thieves?” She blinked and saw the Emperor lying against his pillow, his breath rattling in his chest as she slipped the ring from his finger.
The boy folded the ring back into her hand. “Take it to the money changer’s the next street over. He won’t cheat you.” He gave her a searching glance. “Why do you want to find Tuer’s Mountain?”
“Because Tuer wronged me, and I’m going to make him pay, locked Circles and evil spirits be damned.”
His face blanched with shock. “How do you know the Circles are locked?”
Her bewilderment waged war with her annoyance. “Tuer’s Shadow told me himself,” she blurted before she could think better of it. “I see visions and ghosts. The gods send me dreams.”
The boy sucked in a sharp breath. He leapt over the counter and put his hands on Eda’s shoulders. “You can see them? You can see the Dead?”
Something about this boy made her want to divulge her darkest secrets to him. She settled for the truth. “Some of them. Sometimes. Why—do you believe me?”
He grabbed Eda’s hand and pulled her around the counter, through a narrow door and into a dim back room. Shelves stretched to the ceiling, stuffed to overflowing with piles and piles of maps. A table stood in the center of the room, or at least what Eda assumed was a table—it was stacked with maps as well.
The boy waved Eda onto a stool and crouched near her on another, shoving a stack of the maps onto the floor. “It’s here somewhere. I’ll find it, just a tick.”
And then he was rummaging through the shelves, parchment flying everywhere. The mess was enough to make Eda’s head spin. “What are you doing? Whoareyou?”
“Clet Morin,” he said absently, still digging through the shelves. “This place is my uncle’s, but it’s true my mother is the greatest cartographer who ever lived. I manage the shop during the winter months while my uncle journeys south to collect all the latest maps from the southern part of Halda—and so he can escape the majority of the snow, I’d wager. The rest of the year he’s here, and I’m up in the village with my family. But last year we lost our father to fever and my mother swore up and down she saw his ghost everywhere. She said thathesaid he was trapped. Couldn’t move on. No Bearer of Souls to help him through the gates. That’s when she decided to go up Tuer’s Rise for the second time—she swore she wasn’t coming back until she found Tuer’s Mountain and saved my father.Here.” He snatched a map from the shelf and slapped it down on the table, weighting the edges with colorful glass globes. “This is the last map she made of Tuer’s Rise.”
Eda glared at him. “What about the one you were going to sell me earlier, Clet Morin?”
He had the good sense to look sheepish. “That’s one of the ones we always sell to tourists. Sorry about that. And it’s just Morin. Haldans give our surnames first when we introduce ourselves. Now look.” He jabbed his finger at the base of the map. “This is the path she took last time. She said with more preparation, she wouldn’t have to turn back. She was confident of success.”
