The Fifth Beast (ManxMan Chinese/Celtic Fantasy Story)

Chapter 28

"What kind of sorcery is this, merchant? Is it a Sidhe or a mortal man?" Faolan asked curtly, in Mengyu.

The Yuizhen pretended to be angry, but his eyes sparkled with a greedy interest, which he didn't want to betray to the merchant.

Fergus launched into his made-up explanations, now and then switching to Gaelic for lack of words. This was a slave bought by Elatha Mac Lir from Ailill Mac Rossa, who had to be urgently disposed of. For particular reason this couldn't have been done openly, but only outside the realm of Mag Tuired. Everyone knew how generous the Yuizhen of the Kirinches was and how much he loved foreign goods. So he, Fergus, hoped to get a good price for such an unusual slave.

Faolan listened to him with half an ear. He was busy looking at the face and body of the kneeling "Finn", turning his head this way and that. He tugged at the slave's collar, passed the blond braid between his fingers, ran his thumb over the slave's lower lip. His mouth twisted into a smirk, his eyes sparkled. He believed. After all, Finn the slave had nothing more of the proud Lord of Lightning than his appearance.

"Do you speak Mengyu?" he finally asked.

Niall resisted the urge to reply, "What, is it forbidden?" He said instead with a deference, "Yes, my lord, a little. Learned... on the road? Err, on the way."

"Name?"

"Finn, my lord."

"Do you know who you look like?"

A trick question. Niall hesitated.

"Earlier... err, previous master... he called me by a different name when..." He made a vague gesture with his hand and did not finish the phrase. Should be clear enough.

Fao scoffed and muttered something like, "Elatha Mac Lir, who would have thought!" Niall was momentarily surprised that some junior barbarian chief knew the Tuatha Dé lords by name. Before, in the forest, he had called Niall Mac Nechtan by his full title as correctly and confidently as if he had learned it way before the duel at the Phoenix tavern. And he had said it in Gaelic, although Cumal, Niall remembered, translated Niall's title into Mengyu, passing on his challenge.

"Can you make a bed, serve at the table?"

Niall nodded.

"What else? What did you do in the previous master's house?"

Niall's cheeks flushed. It was easier to say what he didn't do in Elata's castle. It was time to show that Finn the slave understood perfectly for what purpose he was being bought. He looked up at Faolan, and his gaze burned.

"Whatever the master desired," he said. "The master was very..." He didn't know how to say it in Mengyu, so finished in Gaelic with a slight smile, "...inventive."

The salmon took the bait and landed firmly on the hook! It was evident that the young barbarian instantly and in full detail imagined all this "everything" one could do with a handsome slave all night long on a wide bed.

"Twenty taels of silver. And deliver him to my house immediately."

Fergus, Niall knew, was going to ask for thirty taels and lower the price to twenty-five. An ordinary slave, a strong man for quarries cost one tael of silver. It should be similar in value to the Tuath's silver cumal, but for one silver cumal you could buy three cows in Mag Tuired, and for one tael of silver in the North — perhaps only a calf. Dairy cattle and draft animals were expensive here, much more expensive than slaves. The merchant did not bargain. The silver was not intended for him, but for his master Elatha, who would reward him back as much as he saw fit.

In a closed palanquin, Niall was taken to the Yuizhen's house. He cautiously peered through the chinks between the planks, memorizing the way. It turned out not at all difficult: the streets were wide and straight, and the inn was located almost in the very heart of Khanbalik, not far from Sanzhen — the three chiefs' headquarters. The headquarters was surrounded by yet another brick wall, behind which were piled especially luxurious buildings with fantastic animals on their roofs, gilded gates, galleries, columns and mahogany railings. There were also wide courtyards paved with smooth rectangular stone slabs, ponds overgrown with water lilies, and green gardens with carefully trimmed trees.