Page 23 of Quest of Fools

As they rode out of the city, his stomach swooped.He'd been through these gates before, but only to attend the Tournament or for an extremely rare trip to the beach.Not like this.Not where he wouldn't see it again in a few hours.

He'd thought entering the Tournament was the craziest thing he'd ever done, but this outstripped it by far."Am I fool?"

He hadn't really meant the question for anyone, but Viletti glanced at him with a smile."If you are, my lord, the world could use more fools like you.Come on, if they're headed where we think, they'll be taking the east road first.I doubt we'll catch up to them today, not with the head start they've got, but we can certainly close much of the distance."

"East it is, then," Warf said, and heeled his horse into motion, riding off down the road and away from the only place he'd ever known.

The First Question

"Good afternoon, Challenger Warloff."

Warf hadn't known what to expect when he finally stepped into the room they'd all entered one by one, but it wasn't simply an imperious woman sitting in a high-backed chair, a table with tea beside her and very little else."I prefer Warf… milady?"

"Lady Grayton will suffice, thank you, Master Warf.Your notes say you are a dockworker, a father of three, and a widower."

"Yes, Lady Grayton," Warf said, tensing.None of that was supposed to matter.They weren't allowed to use it to judge him in any way.

"That is a lot to rest on even your impressive shoulders, so I admire you also taking on the Tournament of Charlet.Not just that, but you have made it to this final round.Only seventeen of you will go on to win.How do you feel?"

"Exhausted," Warloff replied.Bitter, like many in Low City, over the way they were expected to work so hard for this opportunity, and the people they were fighting to marry into it had simply gotten it as their birthright.Why didn't they have to swim and run and answer questions and all the other things foisted on the competitors?

Why was it always the poor who had to prove they deserved the most basic consideration, while the rich got the world as their due?

He wasn't stupid enough to say any of that out loud.Stupid wasn't the right word, though.Reckless enough.Passionate enough.Rath would have.Rath always spoke his mind when it came down to it.Rumors were swirling he was close to winning the royal challenges, and marrying a prince would suit him.

Warf would have been more than happy with the Barons, far less intimidating and slightly more aware of the real world than their more powerful peers.Here he was, though, close to the finish line and gaining himself an earl.

Why did it have to be questions?He wasn't stupid, but he wasn't book smart either.That required being able to read, for one.He'd come this far, though, so there wasn't any point in quitting.

"I would imagine," Lady Grayton replied."Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't be making the nobles do all these challenges, but I'm sure you had that thought long before I did."

Warf smiled ever so faintly."Perhaps, milady."

She smiled, and Warf was surprised by the sincerity and understanding of it.

"Shall we get to work, then, Master Warf?Here is your first question: What would you rather be given?A cask of Greylore Wine or a bolt of Hantish linen?"

"The linen," Warf replied immediately.

"The wine is worth nearly three times what the linen is," Lady Grayton replied.

Warf snorted, shoulders moving with the force of it."Sure, if you're wealthy and the value is in the drinking, not the funds spent.I could never justify keeping something so extravagant and pointless, so I'd sell it.If I was to carry a cask of Greylore wine to High City and try to sell it to some fancy, they would refuse to pay more than half its worth, and that's if I'm really lucky.They'd insist they couldn't trust me, couldn't trust I hadn't tampered with it, and whatever other excuse they could come up with to justify not paying me its full worth.

"Not to mention I'd waste at least an entire day making the trek to High City and then walking around trying to find a buyer who would treat me decently—or even half-decently.No one is stingier than the wealthy.So no thank you, the wine isn't worth the trouble.

"The linen, on the other hand, would go far.Clothes, bedding, curtains… I could give the entire bolt to the woman across the street, and she'd make all of that and more for me, and take as payment only some measures of it for herself.Good linen will last years, decades, when properly cared for.The money it would save by not having to be replaced all the time would be greater than the money earned by the wine."

Lady Grayton smiled."A good answer, Master Warf.That is the kind of perspective and insight we always need in High City."

"Surely High City understands money and the relative value of things.They wouldn't have become wealthy if they didn't."

"Most of us were born into it.We never had to learn how to make it, just keep it.You would be surprised what the wealthy do not know, Master Warloff."

The rain was unrelenting, making travel more than a little difficult.Where the roads weren't flooded, they were hopelessly muddy.Warf was swiftly forgetting what it was like to be warm and dry.

They'd left the city three days ago, but just hours into the journey, the sky had torn open and the rain hadn't stopped since.His only consolation was that if it was slowing them down, it was most certainly slowing the kidnappers down as well.

Hopefully they were treating their prisoner well.He liked to think after all this trouble, they'd have enough sense to take care of Marian, but with abusers like this…

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