Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Why would a rock have a tailor?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
We drive along for a bit longer, passing only a couple of vehicles, until we come to a fork in the road. There are a few signs, plus a big one with words that don’t make any sense with some numbers.
“The signs are in Finnish,” Hanna says as she brings to the car to a stop, though the engine is still running. “So I’m still in Finland! That’s what I was hoping.”
“Makes sense,” I say. “I can read them, too. Then again, I can read every language. I just haven’t put it to much use other than in the Library of the Veils.”
She glances at me. “Since we’re here, you know what we have to do first then.”
“Aside from getting the money?”
“We have to find my father.”
Oh. Him.
I purse my lips. “Are you certain about that? I erased his memory, Hanna. He’s probably living some happy little life here with no knowledge of what happened in Tuonela. He might not even be in Finland. Perhaps he got on one of those aeroplanes and flew somewhere.”
Her face falls at that, and I immediately feel bad.
“I didn’t erase who you were to him,” I say quickly. “I just erased what happened. That’s all. It was for the best. You know this.”
She clears her throat as she kneads the steering wheel. “We’ll have to find him anyway. But before we can do any of that, we need money. We need to find a pawn shop and figure out where we are.”
“What will we do with a pawn?” I ask her. “Oh, I think I understand. We buy a pawn to use, and he will somehow get us the money.”
“A pawn?” she repeats, giving me a bewildered look that I’ve seen more than enough times already. “Like in chess?”
“Like in the world,” I explain. “A pawn is someone you use.”
“Well, here, it means a place to sell off your wares and get money in exchange. Let me know if you see any stores with that sign. I’m going straight for the closest town.”
She brings the vehicle onto the left road, and we drive along for some time before buildings and houses start to appear. At another sign, she pulls the automobile off the main road and onto another one that narrows between buildings. We lack proper towns in Tuonela, other than the ones in the Golden Mean and Amaranthus, so the fact that I am in a moving vehicle and going through one has me nearly glued to the window, watching this world go past.
There are people here, dressed in heavy coats, walking on paths between the road and the buildings. Some of them are carrying bags, while others disappear through doors. I see the names of what I assume are food establishments, shops for various things, and places with pictures of coffee cups.
Coffee.
“Coffee,” I manage to say. “We must get coffee.”
Finally, I’ll know what it’s really like to have a cup of the stuff here in the Upper World, where it’s grown and made.
“We will get coffee,” she says. “First, we get money. Look for any stores with the word pawn or buy and sell.”
Though the town doesn’t seem very big, I eventually spot a sign that says “Deposit Sell and Buy Shop” and point it out. Hanna brings the vehicle to a stop right outside.
Then, she grabs the coat from me and slips it on, along with the knit cap. She eyes the mask on head. “You sure you want to wear that?”
“It can be my hat,” I tell her gruffly as I open the door and step outside the vehicle, reaching into the back to grab the swords.
I immediately cough. The air here is filled with not so pleasant things emitted from the cars as they pass. It tastes like the fires and smoke of Inmost.
Hanna closes the door and comes around to me, wearing the coat and hat. She looks presentable, if not a little cold, since her legs are bare. At least she is wearing boots. “How do we turn off the car?” she asks me.
“Turn it off?” I frown.
“Yes. If I had the keys, I would turn it off. Otherwise, you’re polluting unnecessarily and wasting gas—fuel.”
“It seems everyone is already polluting unnecessarily,” I point out with another cough. “Let us leave it running. We shouldn’t be long.”
Frankly, I’m afraid that if we turn the car off, I won’t be able to bring it to life again.
Together, we step inside the shop. It reminds me of Shadow’s End in a way, the space filled with every conceivable item from the Upper World. The shopkeeper must have great nostalgia for his land and be a collector like I am. I could spend all day in here, marveling at it all.
“There he is,” Hanna whispers, nodding at a gangly man with thinning, gray-brown hair and a pinched face standing at the end of the room. “Let’s agree right now that the swords should go for about, oh, I don’t know. I wish I had a phone so I could Google resell prices on swords. They’re rare, aren’t they?”