The grain was already in the store when Saff Dren made her offer.
That was the first thing Asa wanted everyone to understand.
The sacks behind the receiving rail belonged to a paid delivery under an ordinary contract. The carriers had brought them, the keepers had weighed them and the purchasing fund had paid the accepted balance. Nobody had to sign a new promise to keep food that Stonewake already owned.
Saff waited while Asa finished saying it.
Then she set her leather case on the warehouse table.
“Quite right.”
Brin stood at the dispatch end with a freight return in his hand. He recognized the brass corners of the case before the woman looked toward him.
She recognized him too.
