Chapter 7: Osric Vane's Second Set of Books

The ledgers arrived in a barrow.

That was Pia's doing — three crates of bound record books, a loose sheaf of tally slates, and one wax-sealed cylinder that turned out to contain nothing but a rolled piece of sailcloth someone had been using as a blotter, stained through in seven colors of ink. Pia set the barrow outside the doorway of the room Aldric had assigned for the audit, said "Osric's man brought the cylinder separately, which I noted," and then left before Mara could ask what she meant by that.

Mara lit the lamp, pulled the nearest crate onto the table, and began.