There, she said, pushing the contract across the desk. He watched carefully as she signed, and she got the impression he was holding his breath. Do sign where I’ve put the crosses, will you? A name to trust, he said, and added, traditionally, at least. This is a banker’s note for five thousand dollars, drawn on the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork. Miss Dearheart reached into her bag and placed a thick sheet of paper on the table. All you need to do is sign and, regrettably, pay. I gather he needs the money because of all this Koom Valley business. It’s very unusual for a dwarf to part with land, even for a few years. He is asking for a lot of money for a very short lease! Everyone knows that we are dealing with a barren waste, but the king is insuring against ‘what everyone knows’ being wrong. None whatsoever, said the lawyer, with a wry smile. Miss Dearheart paused as if to compare the litany against an internal list, stubbed out her cigarette, and said, Is there any reason to believe that there are any of those things there? The Low King has decreed that all jewelry, armor, ancient items classified as Devices, weaponry, pots, scrolls, bones extracted by you from the land in question will also be subject to a tax or confiscation. Then there is the matter of antiquities, said the lawyer, watching as much of her expression as could be seen through the haze. Blue smoke from her cigarette spiraled toward the office ceiling. He waited for any kind of reaction from the woman opposite, but she just stared at him. It is said to be sand and silt all the way down, and apparently it is a very long way down. Not that there will be any, I’m bound to say. You will have to pay him a considerable royalty on any that you remove. You understand, Miss Dearheart, that this area is subject to dwarf mining law? That means all metals and metal ore are owned by the Low King of the dwarfs. He gave the woman on the other side of his desk a suitable concerned smile.
When parties are interested in unprepossessing land, it might just pay for smaller parties to buy up any neighboring plots, just in case the party of the first part had heard something, possibly at a party.īut it was hard to see what there was to know. Blister the lawyer wasn’t getting an answer. IT WAS A hard bargain, but hard on whom? That was the question. This time in between was immaterial.īut some had shattered and some, the younger ones, had gone silent. There was a time when they had not been here, and there would be a time, presumably, when they would, once more, not be here.
There was no way of measuring the passage of time, nor any inclination to measure it. The chain of goldish No unkindness to bears The hanging man Golem with a blue dress onĬrime and punishment A chance to make real money
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