“The slaves. I understand that you sent something south for them. What was it? Where is it that you asked them to go?”
“You will not tell Barok?”
“Only if his ignorance of the details will jeopardize him.”
“An odd answer.”
“The best you’ll get from me. There are too many things moving at once for us to suffer surprises.”
“I sent silver and suggested they find their way to Aderan.”
“To what end?”
“I did not tell him what to do from there, but I hope that he leads a revolt of the slaves, sacks Alsonvale, and lays siege to Bessradi.”
He blinked at me.
“Queens dream, too,” I said and he scoffed.
“As they must. Thank you for telling me,” he said and the interview ended there. He stopped short, though, and tapped his knuckles together.
“Selt Sestar, nervous? I can’t abide not knowing why. What is on your mind?”
“It is Evela, Madam,” he said. “She loves being a mother, but she had always preferred employment.”
“And she can’t find any.”
“No, Madam. Being Darmia’s sister, no one trusts her.”
“You want me to give her a job here at the keep,” I said. “That is something you would have to get past Gern first.”
“That is generous, but no. We had heard about the school, and it is my wish that you would recommend her as the school’s music teacher. She can sing and play the flute. Beautifully, in fact. I would have our son grow up with music.”
“There isn’t nearly enough of it in Enhedu. Consider it done.”
“Madam,” he said and bowed as only a man from Bessradi could. “We all dream grand and impossible things. And I do thank you for allowing me mine.”
His face did not betray his joy, but he leapt back up the stairs two at a time.
62
Crown Prince Evand Yentif
We tied onto a landing just east of the Grand Mhedhil. I introduced myself to the headman there as Master Bavik, a name sufficiently vague to be from anywhere. I let him tell me all about the rules for putting in on his landing and the fees that he charged.
Kalyn went ashore to learn what he could, and returned before I’d been given permission to move my cargo of horses down the gangway. There was a fee for that too.
I excused myself from the headman, and joined Kalyn, Liv, and her maid on deck.
“You’ll not like it, sir,” he said. “The city blames the 5th for losing the war. Says you were in league with the unholy Sten.”
“Nonsense. What are the Havishon then? Dear friends?”
“Seems that winning forgives many things. The eastern arilas are all coming for the Council meeting.”
“I don’t believe it. Let’s get settled and find some information a bit more official than the whore you just had in the alley? Heh? Lodging first, I think, a place somewhere along the river with a nice view.”
I had him pegged. The smell of the girl he’d been with was fresh on him. He managed to keep a straight face and salute me.
Liv took my arm. “A bit less soldierly, boys.”
I felt the eyes of the laborers moving cargo aboard the next barge over. They had nothing else to look at. Impulsively, I planted a kiss on Liv that earned applause from the loud and rude men.
I went down the gangway, fished out a coin, and handed it to one of them. “Care to draw a cart for us today?” I asked. “We will be visiting every shop in the market.”
He handed the coin back to me. “The market provides them, sir, and I’ll not let you think otherwise. You one of those easterners who got rich from the war?”
Looter, he meant.
“And if I am?” I asked.
“No offense, sir. Just that you’re the first I’ve seen who is smart enough to come here on the river. The rest all rode in, and they’ve already bought every cart and wagon to be had. They have no way to carry back all the crap they bought. No offense, sir. There is a pile of it that gets abandoned every day down by the east gate. Quite a spectacle watching the crowds fight over it.”
“Anything else I should know,” I asked and gave him back the coin. “The right place to stay, perhaps, while I am here?”
“Eyy,” he smiled and pocked the coin. “That I can do, sir. Every idiot wants a place on the river with a view, so they all end up in one of the villas between the market and the palace. Straight robbery, and smelly too from all the Yentif garbage that goes out the back way. And the stables are a shambles. Horses go missing there all the time. You head down the river until you see a big park with a statue of a cavalry officer. That’d be the top of the Merchants’ Quarter. Find a place along Ash Row. Most of the big houses there have a stable and courtyard big enough to exercise horses. The view of the river is not as nice, but no one will bother you there and it will cost you a tenth the price.”
“And the landing here?” I asked. “The fees did seem a bit rich.”
“Perfectly reasonable prices here, sir,” he said, but winked once before excusing himself to his work.
We found the cart service the market provided, sold several emeralds to a jeweler and all our eastern gear to a collector. The entire backroom was filled with items looted from the 5th, including a complete suit of armor.
It was Colonel Grano’s armor.
Bottom feeding whoreson!
Kalyn grabbed one of the long thrusting spears in the corner, and I had to disarm him before he charged the owner. I purchased the collection and invited the man to find me if he came upon any more, care of Master Bavik, Ash Row.
Liv’s maid was the happiest I’d ever seen a woman, but Liv kept her in check. The market thought nothing of us as we went from place to place spending it on new clothes and kit. No one there called it kit.
We moved the barge down to the Merchants’ Quarter and found a new landing and a couch house along one of the unassuming triangular plots in the neighborhood the laborer had recommended. I loathed the idea of leasing a property, but the man was not selling.
The stable in the back was proper, and the courtyard between it and the house was large enough to exercise our horses. The brief terrace on the second floor had a view over the trees and along the river as promised. What had not been mentioned was the hundreds of busy piers just a few structures away in the near side of the river and the confusion of dirty boats, buildings, and people who crowded the far side.
From the windows of the Deyalu, the neighborhood had always seemed a park or forest from the green of all the trees. I wondered if the ash trees were there for that reason.
I met the impatient landlord in the quiet courtyard while Kalyn led the horses in. “Where did all the trees come from? They are all the same height.”
“A gift from Lord Vall. He named it Ash Row that same year,” he said, and put out his hand. “Two season’s rent due up front.”
I paid him and went to exercise Marrow in the courtyard. The hot meal after put an end to that day, and we slept like stones upon clean beds.
The morning saw my scout out in search of proper news of the Hemari, Hurdu, Yarik, and whatever he could of my father or my messenger.
Liv and her maid helped me lay out the maps I’d purchased in the more private reading room behind the master bedroom. I’d found a fairly good map of Bessradi and laid it out on the table in the middle of the room. None of the streets were labeled, but there was enough detail for me to get a fresh sense of the place.
“You’ve got a plan already?” Liv asked with an encouraging smile.
“Not yet. So far, it involves rallying the 1st division, securing the gatehouses and bridges, and then hunting Yarik down and hanging him from a tree.”
“Fantastic plan.”
Kalyn’s return startled us. Liv nearly stabbed him.
“Sorry, lord,” he bowed. “From now on, I will return after evening prayer each day, so you know when to expect me and know if someone has killed me.”
“Sensible. What did you learn?”
He went on for some time about the condition of the nobility and news that Barok had been invited to attend the summer session of the council.
“Sounds like a trap to me. I hope he has the sense to stay in Enhedu. The Chancellor will eat him alive.”
Kalyn’s next little rambling was about a slave revolt in Aderan.
“Not interested. What else?” I asked, hearing the note of an incomplete report.
He pulled free a folded placard advertisement for a play titled Dark Evand.
I read the copy beneath the gruesome face of a hooded man, “Come watch the wicked magic of a dark prince, the escape of a princess, and the rise of a hero.”
He had half a dozen others.
“They are well attended?”
“Packed. The men of the first were in the front row of each.”
“So, the blame has fallen on me.”
“It did, sir. All of it.”
I tossed the placard on the table.
I was finished. And the last person in the city to know it was me.
63
Admiral Soma O’Nropeel
The first thing I learned during the shakeout cruise of the Whittle was that a fifty-man crew on a ship with no oars was three times what was needed. The second was that our prince, while a master of numbers, was a disaster when it came to accounting for the size of cargo. My hold was either overloaded or half empty as we sailed here and there along the Enhedu coast. I returned to Urnedi twice to find disorganized warehouses and a hasty docket of materials he hoped to fetch out of thin air.
I could not describe myself as anything but blissful, however. The ship was a marvel. She could make way with the slightest breeze and could steal up the wind like a bandit. Her hatches, gangways, and hold were unobstructed by rigging, rails, or bulkheads and I could discharge cargo from the forward hatch as fast as it could be swayed up aft.
On my third trip back to Urnedi, Dia also made up for much of her husband’s unchecked alacrity with a package containing a stack of letters and the gift of a heavy copper lockbox.
The 10th of Summer, 1196
* * *
Dearest Soma,
These fevered summer days are unrivaled, yet I find that the demands of our duties make them strangely lonely despite our proximity to so many people. No time is left for meals together or moments aside, unless those moments are stolen from our very necessary work.
* * *
Avin has, therefore, rightfully authored a decree that sets aside the time between the noon peg and the next for ourselves and our families. Fana has also made available to the families of the crews of our busy ships the students of her writing school to assist with the composition of letters. Your daughter, it will satisfy you to hear, has volunteered to assist with the same in Tayani. A letter addressed to the crew of each ship will always, therefore, await them as they race from stop to stop. I know you will be most heartened to hear this as your journeys will soon be taking you farther and farther away from us.
* * *
From Urnedi, there is news of all sorts I must share, the happiest of it the marriage of Pemini and Geart. They were wed in Merit Square by Avin, and the crowd was simply enormous. And she smiled, Soma, ear to ear as brightly as the midday sun, and you’ve never seen so robust a kiss as the one he planted upon her. They are on their way to Hippoli for an extended honeymoon and rarely has there been a more deserved break. Dame Vala found us two new girls to account for all the work Pemini did at the keep, and it seems certain it will take at least two more.
* * *
The season has also started to see the births of all the many children begun during those early days of Urnedi. How long ago it all seems now. How so many people managed so much baby-making in that camp of tents and wagons will never cease to amaze me.
* * *
I have enclosed two gifts for you, Soma, the first from myself is a small stack of sheets, ink stone, and brush, so that you may make reply for yourself and your crew. We are running out of vellum, though I trust your first trip across the Gulf of Temptir will see you return with enough to keep us all in correspondence. The lockbox is from Barok. Do not open it where it is windy. The powered blood it contains took some work to collect and dry. A heavy box of earth dug from beneath the Mother Yew is also somewhere upon the pier, though I hear it is difficult these days to keep it sorted. I have marked the crate with four black hashes so you might find it.
* * *
Go, Soma, and teach the Pinnion the warmth of your touch.
* * *
With kindest regards and deepest affections,
Dia Yentif
The crew was as pleased as I with the correspondence, though we did not get to read the letters until we were back out to sea and found calm waters.
The trip was to be our last local, and the Whittle and her crew did a proper job hurrying the fresh cargo of iron and copper from Heneur around Enhedu’s horn. We returned with a menagerie of materials for the workshops of Urnedi but would not send it ashore until our packets were exchanged.
16th of Summer,
* * *
Dia,
I must first say how moved I was by your letter and the efforts you continue to take to bind back together people whose lives have been flung about like the balls and hoops of a drunken juggler.
* * *
Barok’s gift has been put to very good use and will last me for a considerable time. Enhedu is a lighter place and well guarded against our foes for it.
* * *
I must trouble you for a favor, Dia, and apologize for the abruptness of the request, but I have only a few short moments to write this while the last of the iron goes ashore here at Almidi. I have made changes to the organization and management of each harbor and warehouse in Enhedu and hope that you can soften the blow of this news to Barok. It is not possible for him to organize the movement of freight from a single location. I have assigned two members of my crew and a local man to act as shipping agents at each stop. They will work with the merchant captains to establish routes that can be relied upon and scheduled against. The prince’s schedules have been discarded.
* * *
You might do well to tell Barok news from Tayani first. The town has found its footing since the removal of Master Herren. The craftsmen there are now flourishing. Beer is flowing, and Sevat has three ships well underway. The first, the Kingfisher, is due to launch in thirty days. The town also saw the arrival of its first foreign goods. Linens from Thanin made their way to Urnedi via the market in Almidi. This flow of goods toward us is the surest sign yet that Barok’s efforts are succeeding.
* * *
I purchased three bolts which I am sending ashore. I wish them to be cut into swaddling clothes and given as gifts to Urnedi’s newborns. Be sure to show Barok how to properly wrap a child in one, as he is sure to be handed a baby a time or three in the days to come. Please also convey to Geart and Pemini my congratulations on their union as well as the two fresh casks of cocoa stout as my late but very tasty gift.
* * *
And one last note for the prince before I run out of time. He must travel to Almidi soon. His promise to pay back the notes from his bank must be kept. The flow of our ships inspires great confidence, but his position in the city will be irrevocably harmed if he cannot deliver.
* * *
Yours truly,
Soma
* * *
18th of Summer, 1196
* * *
Dearest Soma,
As you are soon to learn from Nace and the rest, the urgency of these days are beyond measure. The Council of Lords has sanctioned Barok 50,000 weights of gold for failure to appear at the summer session. This has robbed him of his stipend and the hope that it could be used to stabilize his bank..
* * *
He travels to Almidi now with little but guile and a handful of coins in an effort to preserve our interests there. The bank in Urne
di is being held together by nothing more than Enhedu’s collective trust in us. You will be flying east with chairman Nace, Soma, to Abodeen and Khrim in an effort to sell Urnedi’s many goods. I pray the sea keeps you safe and guides you to friendly shores.
* * *
With love,
Dia
I struggled to keep my composure. I’d sailed farther than most men dared to dream.
East!
It was fortunate that I had read Dia’s letter before granting anyone permission to go ashore. There was work to be done. I tucked the letter away and set my crew to work.
The pier was packed, but the harbormaster seemed to have things sorted. My hold emptied aft in record time while the supplies I needed came aboard fore. I checked the manifest carefully. The harbormaster had managed to find most of what I needed. I took on only a fraction of the cordage I required, but the carpenters, bursar, and cook I’d wanted stood at the foot of the pier waiting to come aboard. Nace and five men were there as well, looking impatient to speak with me. They’d have to learn to wait. I sent my boatswain ashore to fetch the carpenters and to tell Nace and the rest to find themselves a room at the inn. I expected a protest, but the goods they wished to take east were not the perishables and raw materials Enhedu needed so urgently. The rest of the fleet was bearing those loads. All of what was going east was in crates, and all of it was finished goods. They’d keep.
Corsair Princess Page 10