A couple of shopkeepers nearby were starting to pack up for the day. After asking one of them which was Veldrum Hecater’s door, they pointed to a splendid gated property set back from the street.
‘You should do this on your own,’ Leana said. ‘It does not look to be a terrible place. I know that this is a private thing for you also.’
‘That’s very considerate,’ I said. ‘I’ll meet you back at our house.’
She nodded and started to walk swiftly back along the high pavement.
The gates to the property were open, so I took that to be a welcome gesture and headed straight for the main door. The gardens, in the late afternoon and after the rain, were magnificent to walk through, and I noted a handful of species I had seen on my travels, some even all the way from Venyn, and a handsome fig tree.
I knocked on the large double door and called out for Veldrum Hecater. A moment later a hatch slid back and a foreign woman asked for my name. I gave that and my title, suspecting that it would already be a familiar one in this household.
The door opened and two servants ushered me inside to the hallway, where they told me to wait. Sunlight slid through the open roof at an angle, illuminating a vibrant red fresco beyond. The fountain in the centre of the room had collected a lot of water. There were many great works of art here, and statues of several kings and queens – including a fine one of Licintius himself, which didn’t look all that unlike him.
‘Son of Calludian,’ came a voice. A slightly hunched man shuffled towards me, wearing a black tunic, light-grey trousers and slippers, and he carried a cane in his right hand. He must have been at least fifty years old and the expression that time had carved into his face was one of utter satisfaction with the world.
‘Are you Veldrum Hecater?’ I asked.
He nodded once, and smiled. ‘You look… rather unkempt, young man. Have the gods been unkind today?’
I had no answer for that. ‘You’ve sent several men of little skill to my house recently – and if not to my house, then to hunt me through the streets like an animal.’
‘Ah. That is true.’
‘All I received from these men was a garbled message about my father’s debts. If you had a problem, you should have talked to me personally. I’m a reasonable man and I always follow the law.’
‘You know how these things go, a man of your standing,’ Veldrum replied. ‘Delegation. A message goes down the chain and before long it becomes rather confused. I’ll see to it that someone’s punished. I’m sorry my men bothered you, but… we were owed rather a lot of money.’
‘So I understand,’ I said. ‘How much?’
‘Let me see. Please, let us move to a more private room, away from the curious ears of my slaves.’ The old man gestured for me to follow him. ‘Can I get you a drink?’
‘Water would be most refreshing, thank you.’
‘Nothing stronger?’
‘Not at this moment,’ I replied.
‘As you wish. I will see one of my slaves brings it to my study.’
Again, he stressed the word ‘slave’ as if he wanted to make a point of owning them. It was rare to see slaves within people’s houses these days – they were illegal unless brought in from overseas. No doubt Veldrum Hecater would be among those seeking to purchase slaves fresh from Maxant’s victory in Mauland.
His study was lined with ledgers, and a large desk stood against a small window that faced across the gardens. The place was a bit of a mess, with piles of paper all over the black and red tiled floor. Veldrum lifted a hand abacus from one wicker chair and asked me to sit while he rifled around in one of his drawers. A milky-skinned young man in plain clothing came in to hand me a cup of water, and I thanked him. Veldrum did not even seem to notice he had come in.
Veldrum drew out a heavy ledger and, with focus and caution, flicked through the pages while muttering about the quality of the paper. It seemed absurd that, for this man, something so profound in my father’s life – these apparent debts – could simply be reduced to another line of information in a book.
‘Here we are,’ he announced, hunching further over the book as if to better understand his own handwriting. ‘Now, your father borrowed twenty thousand pecullas and, with interest, the deal we agreed on was for him to pay back thirty thousand within a year.’
I nearly spilled my water, but managed to place the cup to one side. ‘Thirty thousand pecullas?’
‘That is correct. It is one of my larger loans, but he was in a good position in society and had a stable career, and the rate of interest was very competitive. I don’t always make such pleasant deals.’
‘How much did he pay back?’ I asked.
‘He made regular payments of five hundred pecullas a month, which would have taken him a long time to cover the full debt, and which may well have ended in more interest if the contract became invalid.’ Veldrum followed the lines in the ledger once again. ‘That said, he did make one rather large payment and very nearly managed to clear the debt… Yes, here we go. He made a payment of twenty-one thousand pecullas.’
‘In one go?’
‘That is correct. Three months ago, to be precise. I remember it because it was just before the Festival of Festonia.’
‘How much is left on his account?’
‘He needed to pay four thousand pecullas to settle the debt, which, of course, falls to you to pay. I have all the paperwork here – all signed in the presence of a witness.’
He showed me the documents and, true to his word, there was my father’s signature and the family seal in red wax alongside it.
‘I’ll pay the four thousand,’ I sighed. Taking into account the bribe I’d have to pay from this morning, it meant all of my remaining savings, all the money I had transferred across from Venyn, would be gone. I still hadn’t received any salary payment this month from the Sun Chamber, but it could not arrive soon enough.
‘Oh, that is good news.’ Veldrum Hecater reached for a reed pen to make a note in the ledger. He blew for the ink to dry and set the book on his desk. Meanwhile I started wondering just how under Polla’s blessed gaze I was going to make ends meet. I would have to send urgent messages to a Sun Chamber station post to transfer money in my name to Tryum. Perhaps one day I could sell the villa – I barely had enough use of all the rooms in one house let alone another one standing empty.
‘I’ll have the money sent to you by nightfall tomorrow,’ I said.
Veldrum Hecater nodded and sat back in his chair.
‘There’s just one small matter that I don’t quite understand,’ I continued. ‘Why would my father come to you, a moneylender down-city? I do not mean to cause offence, sir, but there are far more respectable establishments in Polyum and Tradum that he could have sought. Banks themselves, perhaps.’
Veldrum broke into a peaceful smile. ‘He came to me for the same reason anyone would, young man. Shame. Shame certainly helps a person feel humble. Whatever his reason, he was too proud to go to someone in his own neighbourhood who might know him. Gossip does tend to spread like wildfire in Tryum. However, I can’t help you out with the question of why. That is one mystery you will have to solve for yourself.’
‘The debts will be settled. Will you call off your men?’
Veldrum nodded. ‘I am sorry they have been rather rough. Many of them are not in my employment directly – we tend to outsource to private groups from time to time. I don’t like all that nasty business, but people will go about the city believing they can take money from others but not give it back. The world cannot operate in such a way.’
I said my goodbyes to the moneylender and headed back out into the streets, which were bathed in the soft red light of sunset and, pulling my cloak around me, I strolled back along the busy main roads towards Polyum, wondering why my father needed the money and how someone in a position of responsibility could have ended up in this kind of trouble.