People

First words: Brisa Wend, apothecary — fevers, fluxes, sleeping-draughts, and the sweet cordials the merchant houses like to send the ailing. Everything I compound goes in my book, against who bought it and who it was sent to.

Found inDreskmark Physic-Stall→Questioned inThe Wrong Cup→

First words: Work to do. Make it short.

Found inDreskmark River Docks→Questioned inThe Chalked Name→Questioned inThe Drowned Clerk→Questioned inThe Spoiled Surety→Questioned inTwo Hands→Questioned inThe Vanished Consignment→

First words: Doll Verrin, I keep the alehouse by the bond-house. Half this quay drinks under my roof, so I hear most things twice — and there is one I have heard once too often.

Found inDreskmark Bond-House→Questioned inThe Rehearsed Hour→

First words: Doltha Ree looks up from a long column of figures. "Doltha Ree. I keep this house's counts, and they have never once lied to me." She sets the pen down. "I would rather they had, this week."

Found inDreskmark Market Square→Questioned inThe Marked Coin→Questioned inThe Quiet Hand→

First words: Doran Venn, examining coroner. I write what the body says, not what the town would prefer it said. Just now I am being encouraged to write a good deal.

Found inDreskmark Physic-Stall→Questioned inThe Cornered Man→Questioned inThe Withheld Draught→

First words: Ferrin Olt looks up from a half-cut key. "I fit every lock in this market and log every key I cut — who holds it, when, whether it was ever copied." He does not go back to the key. "People only ask me about that log when something has already gone wrong."

Found inDreskmark Market Square→Questioned inThe Double-Bluff Frame→

First words: Greta Morl, dock night-watch. I walk this quay from the bell to the dawn and I write down what I see — which, it turns out, is not the same as being listened to.

Found inDreskmark Bond-House→Questioned inOne as Two→Questioned inTwo as One→

First words: Seventy years and I have not learned to tolerate fidgeting. State your business or find somewhere else to stand.

Found inDreskmark Market Square→

First words: A broad man in a flour-greyed coat marks your coming long before you reach him, the way a foreman marks everything in his yard. "Halvard Stennick. I keep the stones turning here — or did, while there was a full crew. Name your business; the mill has little enough of its own this season."

Found inDreskmark River-Mill→

First words: Reeve Halvik Storn — I keep the town's order and its seal-book. The grain store burned and someone struck the match; bring me the truth of it, who and why and how, with the proof for each. I act on what can be shown, not on what is muttered.

Found inDreskmark Market Square→Patron ofOne as Two→Patron ofSarl's Own Hand→Patron ofThe Burned Warrant→Patron ofThe Chalked Name→Patron ofThe Cornered Man→Patron ofThe Double-Bluff Frame→Patron ofThe Drowned Clerk→Patron ofThe False Factor→Patron ofThe False Weight→Patron ofThe Forced Pen→Patron ofThe Held Tongue→Patron ofThe Helpful Witness→Patron ofThe Marked Coin→Patron ofThe Mill Fire→Patron ofThe Mother's Confession→Patron ofThe Perfect Hour→Patron ofThe Planted Proof→Patron ofThe Quiet Hand→Patron ofThe Rehearsed Hour→Patron ofThe Spoiled Surety→Patron ofThe Strongroom Theft→Patron ofThe Vanished Consignment→Patron ofThe Withheld Draught→Patron ofThe Wrong Confession→Patron ofThe Wrong Cup→Patron ofTwo Hands→Patron ofTwo as One→

First words: Harl Ourn, keeper of the Concord weigh-house — or I was, until someone walked off with the seal-stamp in the night and left my door hanging open.

Found inDreskmark Market Square→Questioned inThe Helpful Witness→

First words: Traveler. I have goods if you have coin — good cloth at eight marks. Say the word.

Found inDreskmark Market Square→

First words: Dolm does not close her tally-book to greet you. "Kerrin Dolm, claims-assessor for the Concord. I put a value on a loss before the purse opens for it, which makes me unpopular about once a month."

Found inDreskmark River Docks→Questioned inSarl's Own Hand→

First words: Speak your business. The Coin hears most of Dreskmark's, sooner or later.

Found inThe Tarnished Coin→Questioned inThe Planted Proof→Questioned inThe Strongroom Theft→

First words: "I was hoping someone might help — my bolt of good wool was at the mill for a commission when the fire broke out, Hobb recovered it and put it up for sale at eight marks, and I don't have eight marks right now. Buy it back and bring it to me, and I can pay you twelve when the commission comes in."

Found inDreskmark Market Square→

First words: A hollow-cheeked man jerks back against the stones, damp gone into every seam of his coat and his voice cracked from a week of not using it. "You're not theirs. Are you? Say you're not theirs." It is Orren — the missing miller, alive, gone no farther than the dark below his own stones.

First words: A woman in keep-grey sits apart from the taproom with a writing-case squared before her. "Osta Andren; I keep the steward's books. He will not have you seen at the Hall while the envoy waits — so if the Hall has business with you, it is done down here and quietly."

Found inThe Tarnished Coin→Questioned inThe Pawned Ring→

First words: The Hush thanks those who bring back what they promised.

Found inDreskmark River-Mill→

First words: Sarn Hewett, warden of the guild's relief chest — the money that keeps a miller's family fed when the wheel stops. I count it every seventh day myself, to the mark, so no one need wonder if it's whole.

Found inDreskmark River-Mill→Questioned inThe Mother's Confession→

First words: Tobin Sael, bond-house notary. I set my mark to papers, and my mark is good — a comfortable thing to be able to say, most years.

Found inDreskmark Bond-House→Questioned inThe Forced Pen→Questioned inThe Wrong Confession→

First words: Tovic Hald, assay-master — I prove the metal this trade brings through, and I sign for what I prove. Most weeks that is dull work. Not this one.

Found inDreskmark Physic-Stall→Questioned inThe False Weight→

First words: Mill business or none at all. Say which, and be quick about it.

Found inDreskmark River-Mill→