The toy ferryman had been cheating people since before Iven was born.
He sat inside a wooden booth at the lower market, one painted hand holding a cup and the other a length of cord. Behind him a little brass boat rested in a dry channel. Anyone who could move the boat from one end to the other without spilling the cup won the coin hidden beneath its stand.
The stallkeeper charged less than the value of the coin. That told Iven almost everything he needed to know.
“It’s stuck,” a boy declared.
“It’s a bargain,” the stallkeeper said. “Different thing.”
Neri stood beside Iven with a paper cone of roasted peas. She had found him on his way back from Iska’s forge and diverted him before he could turn a day without travel into another late shift. The stove frames were finished. Sera’s scheduled treatments were complete. They would leave for Hearth the next morning.
“Do you remember this?” Neri asked.
“My father lost money on it.”
