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ordered. He opened the door and ushered Randall out.
    Earl had a relatively simple cart tied up on the far side of the house, and two surprisingly good horses to pull it. Randall climbed aboard in silence, and waited for the older man to hitch up the horses and start on their way. Earl, for his part, seemed content to let Randall stew quietly as he guided the horses along the dark road.
    After a quarter hour passed in silence, Randall couldn’t contain himself any longer. “We could have at least spent the night at home and had Momma’s cooking instead of riding alone in the dark.” He muttered sullenly.
    “Aha!” Earl crowed. “I knew you’d break first, lad. You’re gonna have to learn more self control than that, you know. Now, as to staying at your place, that seems to me like it’d have been a very bad idea. What, and give you all night to think of some plan to run away or tell your folks that I have truck with evil spirits? I’m a bit smarter than that.” He grinned wickedly while tapping his temple.
    Randall thought about that a moment, and realized Earl was right. After giving his oath of apprenticeship, in front of his father no less, there was no way he could break and run home now without bringing a great deal of shame to his entire family. He couldn’t tell his father that Earl was really a magicker—he’d sound too much like a child telling stories to get out of trouble. So, instead, it would look as if Randall was too lazy to work, and that his word was worthless. And then there was the matter of the money. Randall couldn’t see his father giving up that money easily. It was a fortune! He was likely already spending it in his head. Randall reflected on the enormous sum he’d seen on the table and decided that he probably would have made the same decision, under the same circumstances. Still, it hurt to watch himself being sold off like so much chattel, even if it was for gold.
    “Am I really worth two talens, sir?” Randall asked.
    Earl chuckled. “Well, that all depends on your perspective. In your little village, a talen’s worth an awful lot. You could probably buy anything in the town with one or two…and probably buy any one in town, too. On the other hand, on Salianca, there are places where two talens will hardly pay for a pint of ale and a hot meal. I consider you an investment, boy, and a cheap one at that.”
    Randall thought the bit about two talens being cheap in Salianca a little hard to swallow, but couldn’t help himself from asking. “Salianca? You’ve been to the big continent, sir?”
    “‘Course I have, lad. Was born here on Tallia, matter of fact, but the big continent’s where I made my fortune,” Earl replied. “Decided to come back home to Tallia to retire. Easier to get some peace and quiet ‘round these parts. There’s too much pompous royalty on Salianca. Every year some over-stuffed popinjay decides to go to war with his neighbor over some bit of trumped up buffoonery. Ain’t no wars in Tallia, so it’s nice and quiet. Only one king, you see, and there ain’t nothin’ in this backwater country worth fighting over anyway. “
    Randall bristled at the insult. “Tallia’s safe because King Priess can fight off any invading navy!” he insisted.
    “Well, lad, I don’t know about all that,” Earl said. “He could certainly make it expensive to land an army here for sure, and he’d sink a lot of ships and kill a lot of men before losing his throne. Over what? Tallia’s one iron mine? Your crops?” Earl laughed out loud. “What fool is going to wage a campaign half the world away for a few tons of iron when his neighbor might have diamonds, gold, or silver in their hills right next door, ripe for the plucking? It wouldn’t be profitable to lose even a single ship under those circumstances.”
    Randall frowned. He didn’t like thinking of his country as two-bit, but recognized the truth in Earl’s words. After all, Randall had been learning to