Read Online Daja's Book by Tamora Pierce - Free Book Online Page B

over with. A gold maja and two gold astrels, take it or leave it,
trangshi
.”
    The word was like a slap in the face. You’d think being
qunsuanen
would sweeten her, thought Daja, breathless with anger. No such luck!
    Flame roared out of the forge, shaping a column nearly ten feet high.
    â€œ
Tris!”
yelled Briar, Sandry and Daja. Shriek, grooming his feathers, let out several ear-smarting whistles.
    Tris closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The fire sank to its earlier level. Daja went to it to see how her iron rods had fared in the extra heat. They were useless—if she made these into nails, once they were cold they would break at the first blow of a hammer.
    â€œYou know, we may be
kaqs
, but at least our manners are good,” snapped Tris, glaring at Polyam. “Yours could stand a polishing.”
    â€œI’m a
wirok
,” Polyam replied, returning the glare with her one good eye. “All I do is spend money among
lugsha
—that’s artisans—”
    â€œI know what that one means,” retorted Tris.
    â€œAnd
kaqs
,” finished Polyam. “I don’t need manners, only authority.”
    Daja stared at Polyam, thinking she had been stupid to believe it would matter, to speak face-to-face with a Trader again. It was stupid to think her banishment from the world she had lived in most of her life would pinch less if she could pretend she was a Trader just for an hour or two.
    She was about to tell Polyam to take the iron vine and keep her money when Sandry rose, smiling her loftiest young-noble smile, and shook out her skirts. She said, “Along with the manners you should use to another Trader—”
    â€œ
Trangshi
,” Polyam hissed.
    Sandry ignored the interruption. “—you appear to have forgotten custom,” she continued. “I see none of those things that make it possible to bargain for such a priceless item. Where is the food, and the tea? I’m sure Daja will understand if there are no musicians, given our surroundings. If we were in Summersea, of course, you’d need at least a flutist and a gittern player.”
    â€œCushions,” Briar put in, interested. “You need proper cushions to sit on. And one of those little wood table things.”
    Even Tris was smiling now. “A gift of some kind, as a mark of respect,” she added. “Back home in Capchen, the bigger the sale, the more important the token.”
    Polyam looked at Daja. The black girl was just as surprised as the Trader, but she quickly hid it with a casual shrug. At that moment, Daja thought, she would cheerfully die for any of her three friends, who defended her without being asked.
    â€œSorry you got all done up in yellow for nothing,” commented Briar as Daja put more iron rods into the fire to heat.
    â€œCome back when you are ready to do business,” Sandry told Polyam, looking down her small nose at the woman.
    Someday I’ll have to get her to teach me that trick, Daja thought, watching the uncertainty in Polyam’s face. You wouldn’t think it possible, but she can go all noble in the wink of an eye.
    Without a word, Polyam swung around and left the small courtyard.
    Sandry frowned at Daja. “Don’t let them walk over you,” she ordered sternly. “You’re not one of them, so make your own status. If they push you around now, they’ll keep doing it, and making you feel bad.”
    â€œ
And
they’ll try to cheat you when they buy,” added Tris, who was a merchant’s daughter to the bone.
    â€œIf you don’t let
us
push you around, you oughtn’t let
them
,” Briar added, practicing a handstand. “We saw you for your own self before
they
ever did.”
    Daja sighed. “I don’t know who confuses me more,” she told her friends at last. “You or them.”
    â€œNonsense,” retorted Tris, pumping the bellows gently, since she wasn’t supposed