'I was informed, but I am afraid that there are no funds available at the present moment.' Unless you count Severard's twelve bits. 'Whatever debt the city has with your bank will have to wait. It will not be for much longer, I assure you.' Just until the sea dries up, the sky falls in, and devils roam the earth.

Mauthis gave a smile. If you could call it that. A neat, precise, and utterly joyless curving of the mouth. 'You misunderstand me, Superior Glokta. I have not come to collect a debt. For seven years, I have had the privilege of acting as the chief representative in Dagoska, of the banking house of Valint and Balk.'

Glokta paused, then tried to sound off-hand. 'Valint and Balk, you say? Your bank financed the Guild of Mercers, I believe.'

'We had some dealings with that guild, before their unfortunate fall from grace.' I'll say you did. You owned them, from the ground up. 'But then we have dealings with many guilds, and companies, and other banks, and individuals, great and small. Today I have dealings with you.'

'Dealings of what nature?'

Mauthis turned to the door and snapped his fingers. Two burly natives entered, grunting, sweating, struggling under the weight of a great casket: a box of polished black wood, bound with bands of bright steel, sealed with a heavy lock. They set it down carefully on the fine carpet, wiped sweat from their foreheads, and tramped out the way they came while Glokta frowned after them. What is this? Mauthis pulled a key from his pocket and turned it in the lock. He reached forward and lifted the lid of the chest. He moved out of the way, carefully and precisely, so Glokta could see the contents.

'One hundred and fifty thousand marks in silver.'

Glokta blinked. And so it is. The coins flashed and glittered in the evening light. Flat, round, silver, five mark pieces. Not a jingling heap, not some barbarian's horde. Neat, even stacks, held in place by wooden dowels. As neat and even as Mauthis himself.

The two porters were gasping their way back into the room, carrying between them a second box, slightly smaller than the first. They placed it on the floor and strode out, not so much as glancing at the fortune glittering in plain view beside them.

Mauthis unlocked the second chest with the same key, raised the lid, and stood aside. 'Three hundred and fifty thousand marks in gold.'