Chapter 2
Rinsed
The convoy made camp at one of the regular camping spots along the road. They rounded the wagons and set up the tents and fires.
Inside his tent, Cotiso sat on a cushion next to the small campfire, entertaining his guests.
“Hey, three silvers is a cheap price for any slave girl!” Tati, one of the two merchants accompanying Cotiso, remarked. “And you say she’s just a teen? It sounds to me like you’ve gotten yourself a very good deal along the way, my friend. I’m jealous.”
Tati was a fat, bald man in his forties with a very odd tolerance to spirits. He seemed to get inebriated on the first glass of wine, so much so that even his nose turned red, but for some reason the wine stopped affecting him at that point, no matter how many jugs he emptied afterwards.
“You make me wish I had taken part in the bidding as well,” Tsiru, the second merchant, chimed in.
The two merchants, Tati and Tsiru, had been friends for years and often traveled together, but unlike Tati, Tsiru was much younger and had long black hair and the body-build of a soldier.
He was also far less experienced as a merchant and short on luck. He relied heavily on Tati’s advice on running his business.