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of the West in all your shop."
* * * * *
Normally, Musa kept his own council, assuming that his affairs were not public property, but his alone. There was something about this man, Lanko, however, which influenced him to break his usual reticence.
"I plan a trading trip to the Eastern Sea," he confided. "Of course, to carry eastern goods again to the East would be a waste of time, so I am reserving my western goods for the caravan and clearing out the things of the East."
Lanko nodded. "I see." He pointed to a small case of finely worked jewelry. "What would be the price of those earrings?"
Musa reached into the case, taking out a cunningly worked pair of shell and gold trinkets.
"These are from Norlar, a type of jewelry we rarely see here," he said. "For these, I must ask twenty balata."
Lanko whistled softly. "No wonder you would make a trip East. I wager there is profit in those." He pointed. "What of the sword up there?"
Musa laughed. "You hesitate at twenty balata, then you point out that?"
He crossed the tent, taking the sword from the wall. Drawing it from its scabbard, he pointed to the unusually long, slender blade.
"This comes from Norlar, too. But the smith who made it is still farther to the east, beyond the Great Sea." He gripped the blade, flexing it.
"Look you," he commanded, "how this blade has life. Here is none of your soft bronze or rough iron from the northern hills. Here is a living metal that will sever a hair, yet not shatter on the hardest helm."
Lanko showed interest. "You say this sword was made beyond the Great Sea? How, then, came it to Norlar and thence here?"
Musa shook his head. "I am not sure," he confessed. "It is rumored that the priests of the sea god, Kondaro, by praying to their deity, are guided across the sea to lands unknown."
"Taking traders with them?"
"So I have been told."
"And you plan to journey to Norlar to verify this rumor, and perhaps to make a sea voya