Spice & Wolf I (11 page)

“Hey.”

“Mm?” was her only reply as she continued to stare at the many vendors.

“Will it be all right, not covering your head?”

“Huh? Head?”

“I know it’s festival time in Pasloe right now, so most of the villagers will be drinking and celebrating—but not all of them, and some of the ones who don’t may be visiting Pazzio right now.”

“Oh, that,” said

Holo, sitting back down in the wagon, suddenly irritated. She looked back at Lawrence, her cloak just barely covering her ears. “Even if they could see my ears, nobody would notice. They’ve all long forgotten about me.”

There was such vehemence in her voice it was a miracle she didn’t shout. Lawrence reflexively raised his hands as if calming a startled horse. Holo was no horse, but it seemed to have some effect.

She snorted derisively and pulled the cloak down, facing ahead and pouting.

“You lived there for hundreds of years—surely there are some legends passed down about you. Or did you never take human form?”

“There
are
legends. And sometimes I’d appear as a human.”

“So there are stories about you appearing as a human?”

Holo gave Lawrence a belabored sidelong glance, sighed, then spoke. “As far as I remember, it went something like this. She looks like a beautiful girl of about fifteen. She has long, flowing brown hair and wolf ears, along with a white-tipped tail. Sometimes she would appear in this form, and in exchange for keeping her appearance a secret, she promises a good harvest.”

Holo regarded Lawrence flatly with a look that said, “Happy?”

“Well, it sounds like you pretty much told them everything about yourself. Is that really okay?”

“Even if they were to see my ears or tail, they would doubt—just as you did. They’ll never realize the truth.”

Holo slipped her hand underneath the cloak and fussed with her ears, perhaps because they pushed against the inside of the fabric uncomfortably.

Lawrence looked sideways at her. He wanted her to be more careful, but if he said as much she would surely get genuinely angry.

It seemed that discussion of Pasloe was taboo. He felt better when he considered that the legends of Holo made no mention of her actual facial features, only identifying her by her ears and tail. As long as she kept those concealed, she would go unnoticed. Legends were just legends—it was not as if she were on a Church wanted poster.

A few moments after Lawrence resolved not to press the matter, Holo appeared to be considering something. At length, she spoke.

“Hey...”

“Mm?”

“Even...even should they see me, they won’t know who I am...will they?”

Her mood had changed completely from before; it was almost as if she wanted to be discovered.

But Lawrence was no fool. He stared expressionlessly forward at the horse. “It is certainly my hope that they won’t,” he answered.

Holo smiled slightly, almost ruefully. “You needn’t worry.”

Once Holo started looking happily at the stalls again, Lawrence realized she’d been speaking to herself as well as him.

There was no need to press the matter, however—Holo was quite stubborn.

Lawrence couldn’t help smiling at Holo now. She’d cheered up completely and was excitedly looking at the delicious fruits they passed.

“There’s quite a collection of fruit! Are they all picked nearby?”

“It’s because Pazzio is the gateway to the south. When the season’s right, you can even see fruit from regions nearly impossible to visit.”

“There is much fruit in the south, and good.”

“Surely you have fruit in the north as well.”

“Aye, but it’s tough and bitter. To make it sweet it must be dried and cured. We wolves can’t do such work, so we have to take it from the villages.”

Lawrence would’ve expected birds, horses, or sheep to be more likely targets for wolves. It was hard to imagine them driven by a desire for something sweet. Perhaps a bear—bears often took the leather bags filled with grapes that hung from the eaves of houses.

“I would think wolves would prefer spicy things. It’s bears that crave sweets.”

“We don’t like spicy food. Once we found red fang-shaped fruit among the cargo of a shipwreck. We ate it and regretted it loud and long!”

“Ah, hot peppers. Expensive, those.”

“We dunked our heads in the river and decided humans were terrifying indeed,” said Holo with a chuckle, enjoying the memory for a moment as she gazed at the stalls. After a time, her smile l added, then finally reappeared as she sighed. The pleasure of nostalgia is never without its companion, loneliness.

Lawrence was trying to decide what he should say when Holo seemed to perk up.

“If it’s red fruit we’re talking about, I’d rather have those,” she said, tugging on his clothing and pointing out a stall.

Beyond the stream of passing people and wagons, there was a stall with a generous pile of apples.

“Oh, those are fine apples.”

“Are they not?” Holo’s eyes glittered beneath the cloak. He wondered if she noticed that her tail was swishing back and forth underneath her skirts.

Perhaps she really did like apples. “They look rather toothsome, no?”

“Indeed.”

What Holo was hinting at was clear enough, but Lawrence pretended not to notice.

“Now that I think of it, I had a friend who invested more than half his worth in apples. I’m not sure where they were from, but if they turned out like these, he’s surely doubled his money.” Lawrence sighed regretfully. “I should’ve done the same.”

Holo’s expression shifted as if to say “that’s not the point I was trying to make,” but again Lawrence pretended not to notice.

“Hmph. Well…that’s most unfortunate,” Holo replied.

“But the risk was very high. If it were me, I would’ve transported them by ship.”

“A…ship, you say?” As they talked, they continued to move along the road with the clop-clopping of the horse’s hooves as accompaniment. Holo was becoming anxious. She clearly wanted the apples, but was just as clearly loath to say so, hence her agitated responses to Lawrence’s comments.

“You see, a group of merchants will sometimes pool their money to hire a ship. The amount of money they raise determines the amount and type of cargo, but unlike land transport, if there is an accident you may lose lives as well as money. Even a strong wind can put you in danger. However, there is profit to be had. I’ve twice traveled by sea this way, so…”

“Mm…ah…”

“What’s wrong?

They passed the apple booth, and it began to recede behind them.

There is nothing more fun than knowing the heart of another. Lawrence smiled his best merchant smile.

“Right, so about shipping...”

“Mm…apples…”

“Hm?”

“I...I want...I want apples. ..”

Lawrence thought she’d be stubborn until the end, but since she’d finally admitted her desire, he decided to go ahead and treat her.

“Earn your own food, why don’t you.” Holo glared at Lawrence as she munched away on an apple; he made a show of shrugging helplessly.

She’d been so charming when she finally gave in and admitted her desire that Lawrence had generously given her a silver
trenni
coin of considerable value. She’d returned with more apples than she could carry. She appeared not to know the meaning of the word
restraint
.

By the time her face and hands were sticky with juice, well into her fourth apple, she got around to complaining again.

“You…
munch
… earlier, you…
mmph
…pretended like you didn’t...
chomp
… notice!”

“It’s amusing knowing what someone else is thinking,” said Lawrence to Holo as she ate the apple down to its core.

Thinking he’d have one for himself, Lawrence reached back to the pile of apples in the wagon bed, but Holo slapped his hand away even as she started on her fifth apple.

“Mine!”

“Hey, I paid for them.”

Holo’s cheeks were stuffed; she waited until she had finished swallowing to reply.

“I’m Holo the Wisewolf! I can make this much money any time I want.”

“Don’t let me stop you. I’d planned to use that money for lodging tonight.”

“
Mmph...grm
...But, I . ..
munch
...”

“Answer once you’re done eating, please.”

Holo nodded and didn’t speak again until her stomach contained no less than eight apples.

Did she still intend to have dinner after all that?

“...Whew.”

“You certainly ate a lot.”

“Apples are the devil’s fruit, full of tempting sweetness as they are.”

Lawrence couldn’t help laughing at her overstatement.

“Shouldn’t a Wisewolf be able to conquer temptation?”

“While one may lose much because of avarice, nothing was ever accomplished by abstinence.” The sight of Holo licking her fingers clean of the sweet juice strengthened her argument. If it meant missing such pleasure as this, asceticism was the height of folly.

All this was merely academic, of course.

“So, what was that you were going to say earlier?”

“Hm? Oh, yes. I’ve no money and no immediate means to earn money, so as you do business I’ll just put a few words in to help you bring in more profit. Agreed?”

No merchant worth his salt simply answers “agreed” when so asked. It’s common sense to refrain from answering until making sure of the other party’s intentions. A verbal contract is still a contract and must be honored, come what may.

Thus Lawrence didn’t answer right away. He didn’t understand what Holo was getting at.

“You’ll soon be selling the marten furs, yes?” As if guessing at the reason for his hesitation, Holo turned to the wagon bed behind them.

“Today, hopefully. No later than tomorrow.”