When Mikandra came back to the guesthouse after work, she found Jocassa sitting by himself at a table in the courtyard. Normally she would go up to the two Kedrasi women and they’d go to the markets together, but this time, she sat at his table where, as he often did, he was counting his money. She sat down opposite him and watched. He had an ingenious system where he put one Mirani tiran for each lot of five pearls and then counted those off on his fingers, placing a finger on the table for each set of five.
His face was scrunched up with concentration.
“What do you do for all that money, Jocassa?” Because she had never come close to finding out.
He didn’t take his eyes off his work. “ ’S not that much money. ’S mosly scrap metal.”
“Enough to live here. I never see you do any work.”
