The old man frowned. “Well, before we get to all that, I’m Perrin Carthaigh, only licensed bastlekeeper for three hexes out, and the best for six out.” He held out a hand, and Isra reluctantly shook it. “You’re looking to incubate them on your own, ay? And how do you know what they’ll need, if they’re not bred?”
“I’m a woods witch,” said Isra.
“Oh, ay?” Perrin asked. “And you know Dom then?”
“No,” said Isra. “She’s the local woods witch?”
“Ay, or close enough to local,” nodded Perrin. “She comes by from time to time, just to help. She knows better than any cleric how to care for these creatures, even a cleric of Qymmos.”
“The incubator,” said Isra. “We need the heat of a summer’s day and a gentle wind.”
“All business, you young ones,” said Perrin, shaking his head. “Well, the problem with an incubator is you’d need me to sign off, and I don’t know what kind of animal will come from those eggs, if it’s an animal at all, which it very well might not be.”
“It’s the domain of the hex beastmaster, right?” asked Mizuki. “So we could go talk to them?”
Perrin pointed to himself. “I’ve been the beastmaster for nigh forty years.”
“Ah,” said Mizuki.
“So you won’t sell us an incubator?” asked Isra.
“Well, I didn’t say that,” he replied. “If it were just a single egg, I might think that’s fine, but three means that there’s a risk you have a breeding pair of whatever this is, and that runs its own risks. There are horror stories I could regale you with, ay, though I don’t get the sense you want me to. Cases of a thing being born that lays a clutch of a hundred eggs in the woods.”
Isra nodded. “You offer services. You would raise them for us.” There
was such
“Ay,” he said.
“And if we say no, you have the authority to take the eggs from us by
force,” said Isra, folding her arms. It wasn’t
Perrin laughed. “By force?” he asked. “Might have escaped your
attention, young one, but I’m going on seventy, and while I’m fit for my
age, my age isn’t a fit one. You think I’d chase you out of the hex for
wanting to keep an egg? That might be how they do it in Tarbin, but in
Inter, it takes more than that to get in the bad graces of the
authorities. Do you know
“No,” said Isra, arms still folded.
“Because I care,” he replied. “And because I have the skills. I’ve gone out into the woods and the valleys more times than I can count hunting down things that dungeoneers have accidentally let loose. Now, you’re new to the game, that’s clear enough, and you’ve got some problems with authority, that’s clear enough too, but you and I, we work together, not against each other. Clear?”
Isra relaxed a little. “Clear,” she said.
“You raise beasts for people,” said Mizuki. “You’d sell us an incubator,
then raise two for us, with a fee or something, with us raising the
third?” She was just saying something,
“Ah,” said Perrin, nodding. “You people always do have a head for business.” She wondered whether he meant ‘people from Kiromo’, but if he did, he was wrong, because she had a horrible head for business. “A fine offer, and one I might have made myself, given the chance.” He raised an eyebrow in Isra’s direction. “No hard feelings, ay?”
“I meant no offense,” she said.
“It’s suspect, my position and profession,” he said, nodding. “A conflict of interest. Many have pointed it out, over the years, and I’ve had arguments against me having both—the business and the role. But I’ve kept Liberfell safe, and for most, that’s argument enough.” He cleared his throat. “Now, in terms of payment. Is it the two of you, or a party?”
“A full party,” said Isra. “Based out of Pucklechurch for the time being.”
‘For the time being’? The notion set Mizuki on edge, just a bit, because it was her home, but she supposed that she would reluctantly agree that, yes, ‘for the time being’ was correct. She had no idea what she would do once the time came to make a decision on whether to keep pursuing this crazy career.
“And you have a way to carry something back there?” he asked.
“We do,” said Isra. “So long as it’s no more than a foot and a half to the side. We’re also looking for a good way to take plants and animals out of future dungeons.”
“As the beastmaster, I like to hear that,” he nodded. “Taking out eggs like this,” he gestured at the eggs, sitting in the bag, “is questionable, but you’ve done well with them, if you haven’t left one out in the wild somewhere. So, as I’m hearing you, I’d raise two of these, hand over some manner of containment, and sell you an incubator. And when I say all that, I’m hoping that you have the rings to pay upfront, but if you’re new to the game, I doubt you do.”
