The Lark and the Wren - Chapter Ten

[kalinara]

Last time, Rune got some recognition for her skills. She also got a bit of a reality check about the obstacles that she'll be facing. And a character was namedropped that may end up being more significant than they seem.



So we rejoin Rune after what I think is another time skip. It's winter now and the weather is not very nice. Tonno has apparently given her the key for his shop, but the lock's frozen again. She's not sure if this will be a good day for the shop or not. Apparently half of Tonno's business are scholars and they tend to decide they need books on a sudden whim, even on really bad days. (They send students to do the actual buying.)

So Rune does manage to get into the shop. Tonno is awake, but not out of bed, and he doesn't look well. Apparently Amber had told Rune that it's better for Tonno to stay in bed in this kind of weather, so Rune decides to man the shop for him. She points out that she's not busking today: it's too cold and she doesn't want to risk Lady Rose (the fiddle). She's also more than capable of teaching the beginning students (named Anny and Ket) who have lessons today. Tonno worries that Rune isn't benefiting from this, but Rune isn't bothered: she's not losing out on business and she'd gotten enough for the tax and tithe at Amber's. Finally, if she's here, she doesn't have to listen to Carly.

This gets Tonno's attention. He wants to know if Rune's been tormenting her, and seems genuinely distressed. Rune hasn't, but she is frustrated by Carly's catty comments. I'm intrigued by the mentor character being genuinely worried about the mean girl, but as it turns out, it's not that at all.

Tonno has a theory about Carly: he thinks that one of the reasons Amber keeps her around is that Carly is a spy for the Church. It would be useful for the Church to know how many clients come into the brothel and tip, so they can be sure the brothel's paying its proper taxes and tithes. Tonno's not really concerned about that, because that's fairly ordinary and Amber is scrupulous about fees. But he's concerned about other issues.

"Fornication" is a sin, and sins must be confessed and paid for "by penance or donation". So basically Carly might be keeping a list, which she then gives to the Church, and when a customer shows up for confession and doesn't mention his visit to the brothel, he'll get in trouble.

And of course, if the customer is rich, then the priests can go after them for even more money. Meanwhile, Carly gets to do penance for working in the brothel by providing these records.

I don't know, I mean, this seems like a reasonable conspiracy theory that effectively highlights how conniving the Church can be. But it's awfully convenient that it's the girl that no one likes already. I was just praising Ms. Lackey last chapter for having Carly be both an awful person and good at her job. It seems like that's more than enough reason to keep her around.

It would be interesting if the spy were someone else, like friendly Maddie or quiet Shawm.

Anyway, Rune finds the theory plausible, but doesn't understand why Amber would keep her on. But Tonno has an answer for that: As long as Carly's around, Amber knows who the spy is. She can be careful of her more sensitive customers and make sure Carly doesn't see him. She's also probably bribing the person that Carly's reporting to. If there's a new spy, there might be a new handler, and Amber would have to bribe the new guy AND the old guy, who still has useful info from Carly.

Rune realizes she'll have to put up with Carly, and be grateful that she's not particularly concerned with the state of her soul. She shares a breakfast of oatmeal with Tonno and starts cleaning up, until she hears a customer enter the shop.

This is kind of fun: this guy is a Philosophy student. Which means that he has money, because basically only rich men could let their sons idle away with that kind of education. He's here for a book, of course, and starts off rather rude, saying that he must see Tonno.

Rune notes from the quiver of doubt in his voice that he can be bullied. Apparently that was another lesson from Tonno: how to read with people and deal with them. Rune says Tonno is ill and lies that she's his niece. Then she scolds him, saying that if he TRULY wishes to disturb a sick man, she'll take him to Tonno's bedside where he can say the same thing.

Apparently the guy is nearsighted and between Rune's tone and her use of the words "young man", he assumes she's older. She thinks that he must have an older female relative because his resistance collapses immediately.

So anyway, he's here for a scholar who NEEDS a book for his monograph and he goes on and on about that. She has the thought that Jib, her friend from the inn, has so much more sense than this guy who is so long windedly proud of his master and the status that his monograph will bring everyone. And I'm all for academia, but I can see why Rune, who gets by on pennies a day, would be less impressed.

Rune decides to have a little fun with the guy. She asks the author of the book that he wants, and as it turns out, they have TWO versions: an annotated one and a simple translation. Rune only knows they're there because she happened to shelf a book right next to them. The snooty young man hadn't expected her to know what he's talking about and has no idea how to react.

She rubs it in, pointing out that if his master is doing an analysis of the author's work on a whole, he'll want the annotated, but if he just wants to cite commentary, he'd be better off with the translation. As it happens, the master hadn't articulated a preference, and Rune suggests that he gets both. In fact, the annotated version is rare enough that it might inspire a new monograph. (Rune has the feeling that the student will be parroting her words to the Scholar as though it was his idea, and suggesting that she didn't know that the book was rare.)

Rune's apparently helped out a lot by this point. She certainly knows book shop duty like the back of her hand, and even knows which scholar types annoy her the least: Natural Scientists and Mathematicians tend to be fun, either because their topic is interesting (the scientists) or because their topic is so dry that they're making up for it (the mathematicians), and they tend to admit more women in their ranks. The Philosophers on the other hand are both long-winded and prudish.

Rune thinks they have so few women because women are too sensible to be distracted for so long by maunderings about airy nothings. On one hand, I think that's awfully sexist. On the other...I'm not sure I can think of that many female philosophers. Likely because society doesn't support them in the same way that society supports male philosophers (read: their wives do all the actual work), but I'm not sure I can argue with her.

Rune consults the book of prices, which apparently is a bit tedious because Tonno lists things by when he bought them rather than alphabetical order. She lies cheerfully about the prices, claiming the rare book is forty silver and the common book twenty. She offers both for fifty and calls him a "fine young man" and he goes for it.

Apparently Tonno tends to undersell his books, and Rune has helped out long enough to hear the Scholars chuckling about that, so now she's taken to raising his prices whenever he's not around. The Scholars never argue, figuring a woman would never be so audacious to cheat them, and the Students are easy to manipulate. She drops the tax and tithes in their boxes (shopkeepers don't have to go report in, instead a tax collector comes by weekly), and brings the rest of the money to Tonno.

Actually, Rune likes the tax collector who comes to Tonno's shop: he's an energetic fellow named Brother Bryan who pops by to check on Tonno and entertain him while he's ill. I like that. As much as the Church is portrayed pretty negatively, it's nice to see that there are a few people who aren't so bad.

Anyway, Tonno and Rune bicker a bit about him raising his prices (he likes offering bargains), and he makes sure she paid the proper tax and tithe. He's very serious about the subject and after Rune vents a bit, he explains it.

Basically, the taxes go to public services, like the dung sweepers and the city guards and constables, the folks who repair the aqueducts, the rat catchers and so on and so forth. He gets rather passionate about it:

"That's what a government is all about, Rune," he said, more as if he was pleading with her than as if he was trying to win an argument. "Taking care of all the things that come up when a great many people live together. And yes, most of those things each of us could do for himself, taking care of his own protection, and his family's, and minding the immediate area around his home and shop-but that would take a great deal of time, and while the expenses would be less, they would come in lumps, and in the way of things, at the worst possible time." He laughed ruefully, and so did she. It hadn't been that long ago they'd had one of those lump expenses, when the roof sprang a leak and they'd had it patched."

Rune points out that he doesn't like paying taxes. This is true. He also thinks some taxes are unfair, like the death tax he paid to inherit his shop and the year tax he pays to run it. Nolton apparently doesn't tax at every transactional stage like some cities, so Tonno thinks that a few crap taxes are a small price to pay.

They tangent then to what makes an abusive government:

"Before you ask," he told her, carefully, as if he was weighing each word for its true value, "I can tell you that you'll get a different definition of an abusive government from nearly everyone who cares to think about such things. In general, though, I would say that when a government is more concerned with keeping itself in power, and keeping its officials in luxury, whether they were elected to the posts, appointed, or inherited the position, then that government is abusive as well. Government is what takes care of things beyond you. Good government cares for the well-being of the people it serves. Abusive government cares only for its own well-being. The fewer the people, the less government you need. Does that seem clear to you?"

This is something I notice a lot about Mercedes Lackey books, particularly the later ones (like the Skif and Alberich books in the Valdemar series). She tends to have a point in each story where she meanders from the cheerful young adult fare to a random digression about medieval city economy, such as how the rights of disposal of scrapings off of dinner plates are actually valuable, and what ash-pickers and the like do. You just kind of go with it.

Anyway, Rune is reluctantly swayed about taxes, but she still thinks that tithes are stupid. And Tonno seems to agree. He knows what the Church is SUPPOSED to do (feed and clothe the impoverished, heal the sick, bring peace during war, et cetera), but they don't seem to be doing that for the most part. Tonno thinks that the Church takes in far more than it needs, but it's also a dangerous enemy.

Rune thinks about the bad things that could happen if the Church were to move against something on a whole, such as declaring non-humans as anathema (apparently it's come close to doing that), or ban certain professions...

The uneasiness carries her through the rest of the day, though she forgets about it periodically, to teach lessons and see that Tonno is comfortable. Her dreams aren't so easy though, we're told, as the chapter ends.