Kalek, of course, guzzled his wine like a man dying of thirst. His shaky hands, whether from stress, inebriation, or the damage of his addiction, resulted in a fair amount staining the front of his fur coat, though this did not deter him from refilling his glass from the carafe twice more in rapid succession despite Jesere's raised eyebrow. The shame of his own folly and the constant humiliations he had endured on the journey had left him a broken man, innured to the subtle remonstration of Jesere's glance. "Good wine," he muttered at one point, and otherwise simply sat slumped on a convenient chair, glassy-eyed countenance staring vacantly into space.
"Well, everything seems to be in order," Jesere allowed. "I will send a runner for the buyer, and see about getting us some lunch. Now I trust everyone is satisfied with standard commissions?"
"Please forgive our naivete, factor Jesere, but could you perhaps explain standard commissions to us?" queried Sorn.
"Of course," Jesere allowed, her pleasant voice adopting the cadence of a lecturer as she continued. "Standard fees, in this case, include using multiple factors to locate a potential seller for a desired purchase, as well as arranging for the contracts to be drawn, in addition to the perusal of the goods and ledgers in question, so as to assure quality and price are exactly as stipulated in the contract, performed at both ends.
"As I will be representing your vested interests here, I will also negotiate on your behalf to assure equitable return. In total, I will charge as commission five percent of the proceeds in excess of the fifteen royals that you spent on your purchase of the grain. Two of that five percent commission, or two-fifths, will be transferred to the account of my business associate Pemith in Pormar."
Jesere flashed Sorn a reassuring smile. "So you see, young sir, even if you do not know of my reputation, you could still take comfort in the fact that my personal compensation directly coincides with my ability to negotiate an equitable return on your behalf."
"Thank you," Sorn said, grinning in return. "That seems more than fair."
Jesere chuckled warmly. "You will find, dear Sorn, that even among factors, I am more than fair."
"I believe our trader has arrived," she said after an odd staccato knock, Jesere's servant quickly bringing a bemused looking man to the study.
"I see that Captain Halence has seen fit to grace us with his presence. Please, have a seat, Captain." With surprising speed, the same quiet young servant who had brought the captain returned with a silver plate stacked with sandwiches, as well as a fresh carafe of red wine, Kalek having emptied the first one entirely. The young man then proceeded to refill their glasses, handing a fresh one to Captain Halence.
The captain was a tall man, Sorn noted, his dark hair secured in a long braid that swept a fair ways down a wiry frame now gracefully settling into the chair provided for him and accepting with a bemused smile the wine glass offered by the deferential young servant. Powerful forearms and chiseled features hinted at surprising strength, despite his wiry build. There was not an ounce of spare fat on the man, just a predatory sort of leanness.
Sorn found it interesting to note that in addition to the leather pants and jacket that seemed to be regulation wear for captains hereabouts, this man wore a saber in contrast to Captain Riegland's cutlass.
Quick, deceptively light, yet possessing a deadly grace for those who knew how to wield it, the blade served as an apt metaphor for what Sorn's casual inspection made of Captain Halence, with the instinctive ability of one natural hunter to spot another.
He had the demeanor, Sorn sought wryly, of a wolf dressed in finery and left to play with the sheep.
"So," Halence began, looking over each of them with a calm, appraising eye. "These are the gents who brought my grain?"
"Your statement is almost accurate," Jesere corrected with a smile. "It would be more accurate to say that these are the gentleman who have access to considerable stores grain which they might see fit to make available to you, provided we can agree upon a mutually equitable price, of course. Now, Halence, I say this with all respectful courtesy, are you sure that you would like no ship factors to represent you? If nothing else, they could serve as a comfortable confirmatory source for my own venues of information, should you wish to spend the several days it might take to research various points of interest which we might delve into during our negotiations."
Halence flashed a roguish grin. "Well said, dear Jesere. Not only do you get credit for courtesy in informing the perhaps naive captain of standard procedure for those who don't know the value of their wares in the duchy of Famil, but you also emphasize, quite subtly, that you are willing to let negotiations drag on for days, should I not be willing to concede off-hand whatever points of contention we might run across. No, please don't be offended," He continued with a conciliatory nod at Jesere's merely sardonic expression. "It was a good opening move. Now, let me begin with my own.
"Though of course I am interested in these gentlemen's grain, it is only worth so much of a premium. If we cannot agree on a reasonable price, I will simply seek other sellers or, should all of Famil's farms be in unison in not storing grain in lieu of a bad year in some bizarre twist of fate, I will merely find another cargo."
Halence vented a theatrical sigh, buffing his fingernails. "Though it is true that I have an opportunity to make a modest return on a fair investment, I still profit nothing if I buy goods at a price that I could never recoup. Thus we all lose out on a lucrative opportunity if one of the few farmers who actually thinks ahead is overcome with greed the moment someone would actually like to put in a fair bid for his grain. Better by far, I think, to simply forgo an opportunity that turned out to be no opportunity at all and ship something else. I hear there is quite a demand for wool up north, this year. Perhaps I will seek your advice and acquire the services of a ship factor to help me secure such, should negotiations here… prove distasteful."
A grinning Halence sipped his red. "Excellent wine, by the way."
"And I congratulate you on your own opening move," Jesere said with a nod. "Now let us be candid, shall we, Halence? Point one. You had stated that should we not be able to negotiate an equitable price, you would seek another buyer. Interestingly enough, my agents have not had word of a single major supplier of grain in the entire coastal region of Famil who has not already had his options brought up by a third party. What that means, dear Halence, is that you will be unable to find stores of grain available for purchase, at any price.
"Point two. You had mentioned that you have found a potential buyer for grain. Obviously he is willing to buy at price that would assure you a healthy profit, despite your purchasing grain at a considerable premium over historical norms. This is strange, considering that any major third party would have already secured contracts within the last year to purchase any grain stores they needed, as several nations already have.
Jesere flashed a cool smile of her own. "Which brings us to point three. The only way for this venture to be worth its while, is if you had a major buyer who had a sudden and unexpected need for grain. Now perhaps this is because they made absolutely no contingency to acquire necessary stores in case the growing year was a bad one. Though possible, this seems rather unlikely, considering that most nations or city-states employ at least a few in their administration with the wit to foresee a poor growing season and take appropriate measures beforehand. Or, and I think you'll agree that this is the case here, dear Halence, it is a nation or city-state that for some reason is unable to collect expected provisions, or has come across an unforeseen need or shortfall. And since by all accounts almost the entire region around the Casroth Sea has enjoyed bountiful harvests, a rare year indeed, it seems unlikely that such a scenario would have occurred.
"This, of course, leads one to believe that it could only be a nation or a city-state that has come across an unexpected and completely unforeseen need for provisions, one which they are unable to address themselves. There are very few areas that I am aware of, perhaps only one, that f
its into this category. And I, like most, would be ignorant of it still, had I not done some digging when you made your desire known. Shall I continue?"
Halence could only smile and raise his glass in a toast. "You are doing excellently, dear Jesere, in your deduction of that which it seems no one else has, up to this point, figured out. Pray, continue."
Jesere favored Halence with another calm smile before continuing, though Sorn couldn't help but note a twinkle in her eye as if, beneath her professional exterior, she was enjoying the verbal fencing with Halence, and perhaps his presence, as well.
"For I know your reputation as well as anyone, dear Halence, and this alone inspired my queries, for it seemed unlikely, to say the least, that you would be engaged in so mundane a venture without the chance for considerable profit. Risk, on the other hand, is something that you rush into head-on, like a favored child of fortune. And so it makes all the more believable the venture I suspect you have planned.
"For those who don't know, which is probably everyone in this room save Halence and myself, there is quite possibly a siege subtly taking place at the southern city-state of Caverenoc. They are a wealthy people who own considerable lands, having access to much food, ore, and wood, though their wool is of poor quality at best. Indeed, the properties they hold claim to are about a fourth the size of Famil itself. Nonetheless, it was founded as a city-state, and is still, for the moment, a monarchy.
"Now, the troubling bit of news. The last few ships from Caverenoc bore tales of strange ships near their coast, though the unknown ships were content only to observe, at that time. Yet not a single ship bearing Caverenoc's sails has entered our ports since word of those strange sightings hit our ears, just days ago."
The room fell silent with those words, everyone staring intently at Jesere. "This leads one to several conclusions, as I'm sure our Captain Halence can verify. Simply put, I believe that the city-state of Caverenoc is under siege. This would explain why the last ships departing from Caverenoc occasionally saw ships of unknown design, but were not attacked. One can only conclude by the sudden breakage of contact with Caverenoc that a sea blockade has now been successfully established.
"My belief is that though war may not yet have actively broken out between Caverenoc and the aggressor in question, the aggressor has been steadily making inroads, striving to isolate the city-state from all potential support, and is probably approaching Caverenoc even now.
"The purely academic question, of course, is who is the aggressor? Historically we have had little contact with southern powers, Caverenoc having made a small fortune acting as an intermediary of sorts between the nations of the south and we of the north. The south is primarily comprised of many small city-states from what we understand, most far less significant than Caverenoc, of little power politically or economically.
"Finally, I myself, as well as a number of other factors alarmed by my concern, have begun looking into the specifics of all the grain options that have been purchased from Famil's farms. It is more than a little disturbing to find that, factoring out our common buyers, most of these agents are of undeclared nationality, and all of those seem to share racial commonalities in terms of accent and olive skin tone.
In short, my friends, it appears that there is a major power in the south that has been steadily overtaking the smaller city-states in that region, doing so with such decisive force that not only are they near to devouring the entirety of their continent, but they have managed to do so without alarming the northern nations around the Casroth Sea at all. Furthermore, that they are culturally versed and worldly enough both to come to our ports and speak our language, as well as engage in advanced trade for grain options for what I can only assume is a military objective of preventing grain shipments from being sent south to their blockaded targets, shows a sophistication that is chilling, when one considers that heretofore we had no knowledge of their existence at all.
"So, my conclusion, dear Halence? You plan on filling your fast ship with as much grain as it will carry without slowing it down unduly, which I believe ten wagonloads worth of grain allows you to do. You will then sail for Caverenoc, and attempt to break the blockade. Should such prove successful, you could literally name your own price for the grain you would carry."
Halence chuckled. "Well done, dear Jesere. Well done indeed. It looks like you have done your research with consummate skill. Yes. I do suspect a barricade, and yes, I do think Cavernoc is under siege, though I had no inkling that the aggressor might be a unifying southern empire. Point to you, Jesere."
Halence leaned back, arms crossed, gazing at them all with a confident smile. "So yes. I do plan on running it. And with my ship, I bet I can break that blockade. My ship is fast, Jesere, and will cut through the water like a fish, even with the hull filled with grain. You know that few ships are faster than mine, and it is more than just the sails. If I can break through, my fortune is made. But remember, Jesere, that's if. It is altogether possible that I won't make it through at all."
Halence winked. "Not that that has ever stopped me before."
Jesere gave Halence a knowing smile. "Ah yes, dear Halence. Always one for the risk, aren't we? And as for not making it, what does it matter? If the grain is sunk, so are you. So I assume you are planning to break through as if it's a sure thing. Thus, I suggest you consider a fair price to offer our grain holders here. For without them, your ship is empty, so there is no fortune to be made at all."
At this Halence sighed. "Dear Jesere, always the sharp one. All right. Twenty gold royals. That's five full royals above the already hefty going price of what the grain would be worth selling it on the open market."
Sorn couldn't help but marvel silently at the number spoken of so casually. According to Lord Canterbier, five gold royals was enough to buy a full suit of individually fitted plate mail, sword, warhorse, and comfortable food and lodgings for a year or more.
Jesere, however, did not seem at all impressed by the figure. "Dear Halence, you must be joking. They already paid fifteen gold for it, and here you are offering them the smallest pittance of the profit you will surely see when you hit Caverenoc, assuming you get through at all. I'm guessing you will be offered one hundred gold royals at the very least, and probably the king's favor as well. Surely you can do better than twenty crowns. Forty would be more like it, I would think."
Halance chuckled. "Dear sweet Jesere, you are mad! First of all, there is no guarantee that I will make it through. And even if I do, there is no guarantee that the king will pay me anything. He might just seize grain and ship both. So instead of making a profit, I will be out a fortune, and worse, out my ship as well. Almost as bad as being sunk, no? And as you well know, Jesere, no single boat trader has forty gold royals on him in any case!" The ship captain smiled bemusedly and shook his head. "The truth, dear Jesere, is that we could bargain day and night. But the highest I will go is twenty two gold royals, for that is all I have."
A suddenly perturbed Jesere just shook her head. "Halence, you should have known better than that when you came to bargain with me. To think I would let you get away with offering my clients so small a profit."
Rich brown eyes flashing with a sudden intensity, Halence’s next words cut right to the chase, all banter gone. In that moment Sorn could see the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the hunter kept in such elegant check. Halence’s words were like the predator’s dance, circling, for the kill.
"Right now, your clients have already paid fifteen gold for the privilege of that grain. You and I both know that when the harvest comes in, in four months time, that the lads' grain will only be worth a small fraction of that. Not only will supply flood demand, their old mealy grain will be worthless compared to freshly harvested! Are you really going to ask your clients to walk away from a guaranteed profit of seven golds, when the most gold they could possibly hope to sell it for otherwise is exactly what they paid for it? For a net profit of zero? Or worse, to sell at a loss? Whether I make my mark or am
lost at sea is hardly the point. The point is that you have an opportunity to secure your clients a higher profit for their grain than they are likely to ever see in their lives again, and protect them from a devastating loss as well. Are you really going to put your clients' fortunes at risk, out of spite for what I may or may not accomplish?"
Jesere just shook her head, no longer looking amused at all. "You are hitting below the belt, Halence, and you know it. The fact remains that you could make a hundred royals or more with a single voyage, and you won't miss a coin of what you put down here, if you're lost at sea. So you're a damn fool if you think I'm going to let you shortchange us like that."
Halence's eyebrow quirked up. "'Us,' Jesere? I think you’re starting to take this venture a bit too personally, don't you?"
Jesere could only shake her head. For some reason that Sorn couldn't quite figure out, she seemed close to tears.
The room was silent for a few minutes, then a heretofore near comatose Kalek, draggled and dazed as he was, suddenly decided to speak up. Obviously he had more of a tolerance for his vices than was immediately apparent from his disheveled state and reek, Sorn reflected.
"So, what are you saying? Isn't he going to buy the grain?" The increasingly agitated Kalek's words were slurred, but comprehensible. "He's going to buy the grain, isn't he? I need that money! What am I going to put in my ships?"
At which point a very irritated Reigland stomped on Kalek's toes, as evidenced by Kalek's suddenly cowed whimper, for all the world giving the impression of a ragged beaten dog. "First of all, it's now 'our' ships, as we spoke of, dear Kalek. And from now on, I will do the buying. You can just stay in your quarters and smoke your damn pipe. Meanwhile, keep your mouth shut and quit screwing the deal, you addle-brained drunk!"
Though Reigland's whisper was low and curt, Sorn's acute hearing picked it up verbatim, and he could tell the same was true for his cousins by their bemused snickers.
Gold & Glory Page 19