Trade Secret (eARC) Read Free

abandoned line with the coughs. He'd been in and out of sight while Trader ven'Sambra had been the only one in line, sometimes peering at the rotating display screens on the ships-in wall and other times standing back near an exit--and now he approached!
    Jethri scooped the taking a break sign into place, but he was, just perhaps, too late, as the man actually rushed toward him, urgency unreasonably plain upon his face.
    The bow was startling, offering to Jethri as it did honor due to a master of trade with decades of experience, and the undertone of appeasement indicating that one understood he was treading on the goodwill of another by merely appearing in front of him in an untimely way.
    Three steps away from the counter he'd stopped; awaiting permission, and it was Jethri's curiosity which drove him to bow at all, using the merest of acknowledgments, thus accepting the honors heaped upon himself!
    A good trader might have hesitated to come close to the counter with receipt of such a bow, but this man closed to the trading counter immediately, offering yet another effusive bow, and too, bringing with him the mixed scents of recent alcohol and oily foods, and perhaps of vya as well.
    "Honored Trader, my certifications, if I may. You will understand that I am largely retired from trade but seeing the news of Elthoria 's arrival, and your own, I thought we should both profit greatly from some odds and ends of interest to collectors and specialists, which I have possessed from my own trading years gone by."
    They traded names then, Jethri adding Gobelyn with his clan name, and then he dutifully glanced at the material presented, his own melant'i being certified by his seat in the hall as well as by his ring and his clan signs.
    The trader's certifications were worn, and local, and showed a penchant for foods and kitchen goods. The local license typography was awkward to read, and the dates--well, some were older than Jethri. Likely this man, this Trader tel'Linden, had never been off-world, had only dealt in the local markets. His manner was unpolished and . . .
    As if reading Jethri's careful study as concern, the man broke rapidly into a locally accented Liaden rush of words.
    "I have always been a man of modest means, dealing with modest items, Trader, yet one in my position has been favored over the years to have seen many items of rarity and worth, the small riches of the clans and lines not of the High Houses, and some not of the Mid Houses. These riches I have accumulated as I may, of interest to myself. The research to make use of these, and to find the proper home and buyer, this has been difficult, and it comes time now to reduce my private collections and give back to my clan my investments, as well as give to the universe of buyers goods which are outside the standard trade lines of my clan."
    The trader paused then, stood straighter, and bowed his best bow yet, with a reasonable flourish and an understanding that his sleeves were not long enough to give emphasis . . .
    "If you will honor me with a gift of time I believe I have trades that will be worth the time we both invest, and yours, star-trader, much more than myself! Understand me, this is not my catalog, but my stock!"
    The man raised his large leather-look trade case, withdrew keys from an inner pocket, eyes intent on Jethri's reaction.
    "There is a seat you may use,"Jethri admitted, "if you would care to join in an exploration of our trading possibilities."
    *
    The trader's portfolio, lined as it was with sheets of impossibly thin black leather, was itself an item Jethri might like, but the first object revealed, gaudy and antique at once, left him speechless.
    He turned his hand over to palm up--a request to hold the item--and wished Paitor was here to see this, or Dyk, who would have wildly differing opinions on the desirability of possessing such a thing. Dyk would love it for incongruity, and Paitor . . . well, what would Paitor actually say about such