The Trader Guild office was housed in one of the older buildings surrounding the square. In the huge echoing foyer, merchants came for bidding wars to buy the latest imported goods. There must have been a recent delivery, because the hall was full of men in thick cloaks displaying their family colours. Most of them faced the back wall of the foyer where columns of codes and numbers scrolled over a screen. Each represented a consignment of goods entered by a Trader’s staff. The four-digit codes represented the Trader offering the goods. She couldn’t see any under 1101, the prestigious Andrahar licence, but there was 1102, Tussamar Traders, and a few others she recognised. The merchants queued up at the counter underneath the screen to put in their bids. Apparently, or so Aunt Amandra had to
