“But they’ll pay me.” She had put it together now, the actuality of money, and the exchanges in her father’s stories. In a small pocket of her tunic, the tin Neris had given her formed the nucleus of imagined treasure.
“Yes, they’ll pay you. Starvation wages.” His mouth twisted wryly as he looked down at her, still skinny, but no longer emaciated. “They’re not so far gone yet as to allow slavery. They’re not Heroton. It’s just that life is cheap in Alusia. Birth, now,… Birth they have a need for. Children they could do without.”
“Just like you.”
His head jerked back, his eyes wide. He was silent for a while. “Like me,” he said quietly at last. “In some ways like me.” He smiled. “But mostly not.”
“I’d like them to be like you,” she said, taking his hand. “Is Frando like you?”
He snorte
