It was a warm spring night when a fist knocked at the door so hard that the hinges bent.
A man opened it and peered out into the street. There was mist coming off the river and it was a cloudy night. He might as well have tried to see through white velvet.
But he thought afterwards that there had been shapes out there, just beyond the light spilling out into the road. A lot of shapes, watching him carefully. He thought maybe there'd been very faint points of light...
There was no mistaking the shape right in front of him, though. It was big and dark red and looked like a child's clay model of a man. Its eyes were two embers.
'Well? What do you want at this time of night?'
The golem handed him a slate, on which was written:
WE HEAR YOU WANT A GOLEM.
Of course, golems couldn't speak, could they?
'Hah. Want, yes. Afford, no. I've been asking around but it's wicked the prices you're going for these days...'
The golem rubbed the words off the slate and wrote:
TO YOU, ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.
'You're for sale?'
NO.
The golem lurched aside. Another one stepped into the light.
It was also a golem, the man could see that. But it wasn't like the usual lumpen clay things that you occasionally saw. This one gleamed like a newly polished statue, perfect down to the detailing of the clothes. It reminded him of one of the old pictures of the city's kings, all haughty stance and imperious haircut. In fact, it even had a small coronet moulded on to its head.
'A hundred dollars?' the man said suspiciously. 'What's wrong with it? Who's selling it?'
NOTHING IS WRONG. PERFECT IN ALL DETAIL. NINETY DOLLARS.
'Sounds like someone wants to get rid of it in a hurry...'
GOLEM MUST WORK. GOLEM MUST HAVE A MASTER.
'Yeah, right, but you hear stories... Going mad and making too many things, and that.'
NOT MAD. EIGHTY DOLLARS.
'It looks... new,' said the man, tapping the gleaming chest. 'But no one's making golems any more, that's what's keeping the price up beyond the purse of the small business - ' He stopped. 'Is someone making them again?'
EIGHTY DOLLARS.
'I heard the priests banned making 'em years ago. A man could get in a lot of trouble.'
SEVENTY DOLLARS.
'Who's doing it?'
SIXTY DOLLARS.
'Is he selling them to Albertson? Or Spadger and Williams? It's hard enough competing as it is, and they've got the money to invest in new plant - '
FIFTY DOLLARS.
The man walked around the golem. 'A man can't sit by and watch his company collapse under him because of unfair price cutting, I mean to say...'