gonna lose another one.”
They had reached the craftspeople’s quarter, and Bran led the way to a low-roofed stone building, built near the centre of the city rather than on the platform, as building regulations dictated. The windows were lit up.
“Knew he’d still be open,” Bran said in satisfied tones. “Let’s go have a word with him.”
They pushed open the door and went in. It was a fairly typical blacksmith’s workshop; there was a long workbench against one wall, and various tools hung on the walls. The forge itself was in the middle of the floor, its coals glowing brightly. The blacksmith was standing by it, clad in a large leather apron, busy repairing a chain-mail shirt with a pair of pliers, but he looked up when the door opened.
“Yes? How can I help you?”
Bran pulled the strip of blanket away from Arren’s neck, exposing the collar. “We need yeh to take this off.”
The blacksmith reached for his hammer. “What’s this all about? Who is he?”
“He’s a mate of mine,” said Bran. “Look, what’ll it cost to take it off?”
“I’m not going to help you hide a runaway slave, if that’s what you’re trying to do. I’ll take the collar off, but I’ll have to report it as well.”
“He ain’t no slave!” Bran roared. “He’s Arren Cardockson, the old Master of Trade. Godsdamnit, yeh probably bought yer bloody licence off him!”
The blacksmith peered at Arren. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
Arren strode forward and slammed his hand down on the brick top of the forge. “Can you see a brand anywhere? Well, can you?”
The blacksmith backed off slightly. “All right, all right, you’re not a slave. I’m sorry. But why are you wearing that collar?”
“Someone put it on me by force,” said Arren.
“Well, I never heard of anyone who’d put on a slave collar by choice,” said the blacksmith. “All right, sit down and I’ll have a look at it.”
Arren sat down on the anvil, gritting his teeth at the pain this caused him, and the blacksmith examined the collar. He tapped it gently with his hammer and felt around the edges, looking for the join, frowning in concentration.
“Well,” he said when he was done, “I’m really not—” He sighed and sat down on the forge, apparently not noticing the heat it was giving off. “I’ve only ever seen a slave collar once before, but—I’m really not sure what I can do.”
“Can’t you saw it off or something?”
“You see, the problem is that these things aren’t designed to be taken off,” said the blacksmith. “They have a locking mechanism inside and once it’s snapped shut and the mechanism is engaged there’s no way to unlock it. You’re supposed to wear it for life. They made them so that the only real way to get one off was by cutting off the poor bastard’s head. If it had a lock I could pick it, or if it was a different kind of hinge I could take out the pin, but it’s made from very hard metal, you see. Normally I’d heat it up before I cut it, to soften it up a bit. But I can’t do that without giving you a very nasty burn. If I chiselled it off, it’d drive the spikes right into your neck—it could kill you. I really wouldn’t want to risk it.”
“So, what can we do?”
“The only thing I can really think of is to saw through it, but I’d need a better saw than the one I’ve got, and even then it would take a long time. We’d have to do it in instalments—once every week.”
“Why?” said Bran.
The blacksmith looked grim. “Well, you’ll probably bleed to death if I keep it up too long. We’d have to wait for you to heal.”
“But you could get it off?”
“Yes. It’d tear you up pretty badly, though.”
“I don’t care,” said Arren. “I want this thing off me.”
“All right, then,” said the blacksmith. “But I’ll have to send off for a better saw first. The nearest place I know of that makes them is Norton; I know someone who’s about to go there, so I’ll send him along with a note.”
“How long before it gets here?” said Bran.
The blacksmith sighed. “At least six months.”
Arren groaned. “Don’t any of the other smiths around here have one?”
“I doubt it,” said the blacksmith. “There’s three other smiths in the city, and I know all of ’em. A few months back one of us had a tricky bit of cutting to do