Endgames

by L. E. Modesitt Jr

  “Army uniforms? For Chateau guards?”

  Charyn nodded. “I told you that I had Maertyl purchase some, including two sets for you and several for me. People see army officers enough that no one pays any attention. Just wear them while you’re traveling. That way, any of the few rebels that might still be around won’t be tempted to shoot at you.” At Bhayrn’s appalled expression, Charyn added, “That’s if you’re traveling for longer distances, say to Rivages to visit Mother.”

  “I still don’t see why you just don’t travel as you please. Laamyst and his father think that by using an unmarked coach you’re showing you’re afraid. They think that might encourage attacks. You just ought to have the guards shoot anyone who causes trouble…”

  “That would be possible only if the troublemakers were considerate enough to stand out in the open and announce their intentions.”

  “Most humorous.” Bhayrn snorted. “You know what I meant. And why does Mother have to spend so much time in Rivages?”

  “As I might have mentioned, she’s the guardian for Karyel and Iryella, and someone has to run the High Holding and teach Karyel how to do it properly.” Not to mention instilling at least a rudimentary set of ethics in the self-centered little bastard. Except, Charyn knew, he had been close to that self-centered, and without the guidance of his mother and Palenya …

  “You were too kind to Ryel and his offspring.”

  “Not kind. In our interests.”

  Bhayrn made a dismissive gesture, then asked, “Do I have to go to Rivages right now? Is that my choice, brother dear?”

  Charyn shook his head. “No. You agreed to go later. You might actually enjoy it. It is cooler there in summer and harvest than here. For the present, all I am strongly suggesting is that you wear greens if you travel extensively. I’d prefer not to preside over another family memorial service.”

  “I was thinking more of visiting Laamyst. His father has a summer villa in Talyon.”

  “High Holder Laastyn seems to have a number of … retreats.”

  “Laamyst’s father has never really liked the family hold near Charpen. So he built places he liked better in other locales, including the one in Talyon. I also think there’s a hunting lodge north of Asseroiles.” Bhayrn grinned. “When Laamyst wants to be away from L’Excelsis, he always picks one where his father isn’t.”

  “I thought they got along well.”

  “They do, but you did a lot that Father didn’t know and wasn’t happy when he found out, and that made things harder for me.”

  Charyn doubted the last half of what his brother said.

  “Laamyst doesn’t always want to look over his shoulder. Nor do I.”

  “I understand that. If you want to go to Talyon, be my guest. But work it out with Maertyl, and no more than four guards. Also, let me know when you’re leaving and when you’ll be back. If you decide to stay longer, send a message.”

  “I can do that. I’m thinking of leaving on Vendrei and staying a week, maybe ten days.”

  “And don’t get into a costly dalliance.”

  Bhayrn raised his eyebrows.

  “Not a word,” said Charyn, trying not to smile. “That was an education, and it took a year and then some. If you can learn as much as I did, I won’t complain.”

  “That’s something, anyway.” Bhayrn rose from the chair. “I won’t be here for dinner. Laamyst asked me there. Rather, his father did. I’ll likely have to endure one of Laamyst’s cousins.”

  “Endure away.”

  After his brother left the study, Charyn permitted himself a smile. Bhayrn’s attitude toward young women had changed remarkably over the past half year. Unhappily, some of his other attitudes remained the same.

  Sometime before noon, Moencriff rapped on the door. “Sir, I have a letter from Lady Chelia.”

  Charyn was on his feet even before he replied. “Please bring it in.”

  After taking the letter from Moencriff, Charyn asked, “Are there any others?”

  “No, sir.”

  Charyn nodded. Except for letters from Aloryana and his mother, there had been few indeed over the last two months. Except largely for water issues, High Holders had made far fewer pleas when it had become obvious that Charyn was holding to the law as laid out in the Codex Legis and not granting exemptions or favors to them, and factors weren’t writing him as much as they were writing the members of the Factors’ Council. Which is likely as it should be.

  Once Moencriff had left and closed the door, Charyn immediately slit the letter open, noting, that, as always, the seal his mother used was her own, and not that of the Hold of Ryel, which she was entitled to use, both as Karyel’s guardian and as the senior adult member of the family. He began to read.

  Dear Charyn,

  The weather here is still hot and dry. If it continues, we’ll see a marked decrease in the yield from the upland maize fields. The winter wheat corn harvest was better than usual, thank the Nameless. As you know, I never expected that I’d have to be worrying about harvests again, let alone be teaching someone. Karyel is bright enough, but …

  Charyn shook his head, then continued to read, wondering if his mother could change Karyel enough so that the youth wouldn’t end up like his grandsire. He nodded at the next paragraph.

  As you requested, I’ve arranged to have five thousand golds transferred to the account of Factor Suyrien at the L’Excelsis Exchange, which is a two-year loan, also as you requested …

  … know you take after your father in not being terribly social. I worry about that now that I’m at Ryel. I’d like to suggest that you invite your ministers and their wives to dinner or to an end-day afternoon … or, if you feel more comfortable, the Marshal and some of the High Command officers and their wives …

  You really should … Charyn sighed, thinking also about what Chorister Saerlet had said on Lundi, then smiled as he came to another paragraph.

  … Aloryana’s letters are frequent and often amusing. She also enjoys your letters, but since Bhayrn has never written, you might remind him that she’d enjoy hearing from him. She did tell me that I should tell you to keep practicing your skills with the clavecin and that they might even help you find someone with the traits you admired in Palenya …

  As if that would be easy … or even likely.

  Nonetheless, he read on and finished the letter, enjoying, or at least appreciating his mother’s words.

  At a quint before first glass, Maitre Alastar arrived.

  “Greetings,” offered Charyn, rising from behind the desk and walking toward the long Council table. He did not sit at the head of the table, but in one of the two chairs set to the side near the head of the table.

  Alastar took the other one. “Do you have any surprises planned, Charyn?”

  “Only if Marshal Vaelln has even more recent news about the Jariolans.” Charyn wanted to shake his head when he thought about the Jariolans. They’d started attacking Solidaran shipping months and months before his father’s death and then escalated the attacks. “What about you? How are matters at the Collegium?”

  “We have a few more new imagers, and Maitre Taurek has sent word that he and Celiena have completed the buildings for the Estisle Collegium.”

  “How many imagers are there now?”

  “Eleven, besides Taurek and Celiena. And Howal. He decided to go there after he came back to the Collegium. They’ll need another junior maitre soon, but we’re still considering who might be best to send.”

  “Marshal Vaelln,” announced Moencriff.

  Both Alastar and Charyn rose as Vaelln entered.

  “Rex Charyn, Maitre Alastar.” Vaelln inclined his head.

  “Is there any more news since your last dispatch?”

  “Unfortunately. The Jariolans have announced they will blockade the Abierto Isles, unless the Abiertans deny our ships the right to port and resupply there.”

  “What might be the reason for that?”

  “To divert some of our sh
ips from patrolling the oceans off Jariola and Ferrum, not to mention Otelyrn.”

  “What do you recommend?”

  Vaelln offered a grim smile. “Divert some of the fleet to the Isles. It doesn’t matter where we destroy their ships.”

  “If you do that, it’s likely that the shippers and factors will lose more ships trading with the lands of Otelyrn, isn’t it?” asked Charyn.

  “It is, for several months at least.”

  “I’d like you to report on both what the Jariolans are doing and what you recommend.”

  Vaelln nodded.

  “The councils, sir,” announced Moencriff, opening the study door.

  As had become customary before, Elthyrd led the factors. Thalmyn came next, then Harll, Jhaliost, and Hisario. They stood waiting behind their chairs on the left side of the long table. Then the five High Holders entered, led by Chaeltar, followed by Calkoran, Basalyt, and Khunthan, with Fhaedyrk, as head of the High Council, entering last. As head of the Factors’ Council, Elthyrd took the chair immediately to the left of Charyn, while Fhaedyrk, as chief High Councilor, took the one to the right, with the other High Holders on the same side.

  “Welcome to the Chateau on this all too unpleasantly warm summer day.” Charyn motioned everyone to seat themselves, then seated himself. “We’ll begin with Marshal Vaelln. He has a report on the shipbuilding situation and recent naval engagements with the Jariolans.”

  Vaelln rose from the chair beside that of Alastar, nodded to Charyn, and surveyed those at the table before beginning. “Thanks to Rex Charyn and Minister Alucar, we have obtained and cleared the land for the new shipyard. The channels and piers are almost complete, and the necessary buildings will be completed sometime in Erntyn. We expect to lay the keel for the first warship, a frigate, in late Feuillyt.”

  “Just a frigate?” asked Chaeltar.

  “The master shipbuilder felt that it would be best to start with a smaller vessel when working for the first time with new workmen. If all goes well, we’ll lay the keel for a first-rate ship of the line in late Finitas or early in Ianus.”

  “I thought—” began Hisario, whose factoring dealt with ships and trading.

  “There is the small matter of paying for these additional ships,” Charyn interjected smoothly. “You might recall that the agreement reached by the councils was that the added tariffs to fund the shipyard and ships will not be collected until Feuillyt.”

  “Surely, you as Rex have some funds,” pressed Hisario.

  “I do. They are funding the purchase of the land, the building of the piers, the deepening of the channels, and the acquisition of tools and other shipbuilding equipment. The reserve funds in the treasury were also depleted by the need to repair the flood damage to the piers in L’Excelsis and the flooding in Liantiago.” Charyn looked to Elthyrd. “Was not the Factors’ Council firm in approving those repairs?”

  Elthyrd nodded. “Factors and many High Holders depend on the piers that the ice and high water destroyed.”

  “Some of those funds went to Liantiago, also,” added Charyn, looking directly at Hisario, “to repair the harbor wall there that collapsed. You were insistent on those repairs, I recall.”

  “But…”

  “There aren’t enough golds to do everything. I asked the councils, and the councils agreed.” Charyn offered a humorous smile. “Not necessarily enthusiastically, I will admit.” He turned to Vaelln. “If you would continue, Marshal.”

  “As most of you have heard, we continue to reduce the number of Jariolan warships and privateers every month. In the majority of engagements of warships of the same rate, our forces have prevailed. From all indications we appear to be producing ships more quickly than the Jariolans. There are still too many instances where Jariolan warships have sunk Solidaran merchanters, the latest being the loss of the Diamond Thuyl. Diamond ships are armed, and they use shells containing Antiagon Fire. The Thuyl sank a Jariolan frigate that attempted to attack and board her. A first-rate Jariolan sank the Thuyl.”

  “How could the navy let that happen?” asked Chaeltar.

  “The only navy vessel was several milles away and couldn’t reach the Thuyl before the Jariolan departed. Our frigate did rescue some of the crew.”

  Chaeltar scowled, but didn’t say more.

  “This has led to two other problems,” continued Vaelln. “Jariolan privateers have turned to out-and-out piracy, not only against our merchanters, but against just about any merchant vessel that they can pursue and overtake. This is spreading our ships thinner than we would like. The second problem will make the first worse. I just received word early this morning that the Jariolans have sent an ultimatum to the Abierto Isles. If the Isles’ ports do not refuse all Solidaran shipping and warships, Jariola will blockade the Isles.”

  Before any of the High Holders or factors could speak, Charyn asked, “What do you recommend?”

  “We cannot maintain our current efforts without access to the Abiertan ports. The Isles will suffer greatly if trading with Solidar is cut off, but they only have a score of warships, and none larger than a third-rate ship of the line. They will likely refuse to comply with the ultimatum, and will expect us to help break any blockade. I recommend we divert some ships, as necessary to do that.”

  “Won’t that increase the piracy and attacks on Solidaran ships trading with the lands of Otelyrn?” asked Khunthan. “That will just undo the good done by the flotilla you dispatched there.”

  “Not doing so will lead to more merchanters being lost, I fear,” replied Vaelln. “I also believe that if the Jariolans send more ships to the Isles, we’ll end up destroying more of their fleet sooner because to enforce a blockade, their ships have to be fairly close to the Isles, and that will make them easier to find.”

  “So the merchant shippers have to suffer even more?” protested Chaeltar.

  “As the Marshal has explained it,” replied Charyn, “merchant ships will suffer even more attacks over the next year if the navy loses access to the Isle, and Solidaran traders who trade with the Isles will be cut off.”

  “That’s not much of a choice,” groused Khunthan.

  “Blame the Jariolans, not the Marshal,” said Elthyrd. “He’s just trying to make the best of the situation.”

  “Now … if the Council had been willing to increase tariffs last year,” ventured Charyn.

  “Tariffs are high enough,” snapped Basalyt. “And with your reassessments, some High Holders will be paying more this year.”

  “All of eleven, so far, and that’s because they’ve been paying far less than they should have been for years.”

  “Which they believe is too much,” replied Basalyt. “Not only that, but it looks like a dry summer. That means a poor harvest. Even higher tariffs on top of a bad harvest? Both the High Holders and the factors will be after all of our heads.”

  “Deal with it the best you can with the golds you have,” added Chaeltar.

  “That’s what the Marshal proposed,” replied Charyn mildly. He had no doubt that the rest of the meeting would likely continue in the same fashion, with the councilors unhappy with the situation, but not willing to agree to more tariffs.

  And, in fact, that was exactly what happened, with the exception of the last matter, that of artificer standards, something brought to Charyn’s attention by Argentyl, the head of the Craftmasters’ Council of L’Excelsis, who had earlier complained to Charyn about factors importing cheaper and shoddy goods that were fraudulently stamped or certified as being of higher quality than they actually were.

  “You’ve all had a chance to look over the petition brought to my attention by the craft guilds of L’Excelsis…” Charyn mentally braced himself for what he suspected was about to come.

  “The artisans have had everything their way for too long,” Chaeltar began. “They’re demanding you change the law to allow them to keep prices high.”

  “If factors can find less expensive goods, that only benefits those who buy
them,” declared Factor Hisario.

  “And those who ship and sell them,” added Charyn dryly.

  “You aren’t suggesting, Your Grace,” asked Harll, “that you would actually change the laws to keep prices high?”

  “No,” replied Charyn. “But there does seem to be a problem with goods being represented as being of quality that they are not.”

  “People get what they pay for,” declared Khunthan. “They shouldn’t expect quality for bargain prices.”

  “Exactly my point,” added Chaeltar.

  “The craftmasters’ petition mentions two problems,” said Elthyrd slowly. “The first problem is that shoddy or poor-quality goods are being sold as being of higher quality. The second is that the prices are too high for the quality. To have the Rex set prices strikes me as a very bad idea—”

  “Exactly!”

  “It’s a terrible idea…”

  “… ruin both factors and High Holders…”

  “But,” Elthyrd finally said, “do we want to encourage the sale of cheap and shoddy goods? You know high quality, High Holder Khunthan. Can most people tell if a piece of silver is solid, plated, or washed? Or the difference between a thin plate and a thick wash?”

  “What might be your point, Chief Factor?” asked High Holder Fhaedyrk.

  “I agree with all that has been said about price-setting by the Rex. But I don’t like the idea of people being deceived by goods represented as being more than they are. In the past, quality standards were maintained by the guilds. We’re moving into a time where that isn’t working well. What about a law that makes misrepresenting goods a form of theft?”

  “Then every Rytersyn in Solidar would be claiming misrepresentation!” snapped Hisario.

  “Craftmaster Argentyl made the point that some goods were stamped as sterling and were only plated or silver-washed,” Charyn pointed out.

  “If you make that a crime,” countered Hisario, “then anyone in trade would be responsible for certifying the quality of everything he sells. That’s unworkable.”

  “Totally unworkable,” asserted Khunthan.