by Larry Niven
She nodded in agreement, although she didn’t really understand. And once Rocky gets inside those gates…
The gates swung open. Someone in a bright red jacket came out of a guardhouse to speak with Green Stone. Tower couldn’t hear what he said, but the chariot drove inside. The gates swung closed.
And up on the bluff above them, a dozen armed men looked down on the wagon train. Gulls wheeled overhead.
Chapter Six
Condigeo
It was two hours past noon when the gates opened again. Chalker and Green Stone rode out. Their chariot was followed by wagons, decorated wagons. Girls perched on the sides of the lead wagon. There was no sign of armed men.
Green Stone was gesturing. Fallen Wolf watched, and turned to Burning Tower. “He’s signaling to move into line and go into town, Mistress. Shall I?”
It looked all right. She turned to Sandry. “What do I do?”
Sandry was watching from the lead wagon. “All’s well. See how Chalker is standing? He’d have a different pose if there was something wrong.”
She nodded to Fallen Wolf.
“Heads up. Move out!”
Sandry turned to Peacevoice Fullerman. “Sound stand down,” he shouted. He grinned at Burning Tower. “So it’s all right after all.”
She answered his smile with her own, glad to be near him.
Green Stone rode near her in the lead wagon. “Get ready to put on a show when we get to the Feathersnake office buildings,” he called.
“But what—?”
“No time. Put on Mother’s costume, that’ll wow ’em. Lead us into town, Lordsman!”
Chalker was grinning like a Lordkin.
Sandry drove his chariot behind Green Stone. The other chariots followed, then Peacevoice Fullerman with his troops in their shining armor. All the wagoneers were grinning. Feathers and bright cloths appeared. Girls rode one-horns bareback. The wagon train became a parade before they reached the gates.
They rode through the gates and down toward the harbor. People came out of their houses to watch them. Whane waved to the crowd, caught a thrown bunch of grapes, and shared them. Some cheered, then more, and before they reached the docks the streets were lined with cheering people. Others fell in behind them to follow the wagon train. Tower dashed into her wagon. She quickly put on her mother’s costume, the one made from terror bird feathers. As soon as they reached Feathersnake Square, she shouted to her assistants. “Get the poles up!”
They set up her tightrope. She climbed to the top and grinned down to Sandry. “Catch.”
“Sure, if you give me a minute to get out of this corselet.” He let Chalker strip off the heavy leather and bronze armor, then moved to be under Burning Tower, to catch her if she fell, and they both remembered another time….
And that drew a bigger crowd. She ran along the tightrope and did somersaults until curiosity overcame her and she spiraled down the standing pole to applause.
Sandry and Green Stone caught up with her inside the Feathersnake offices.
“All right,” she demanded. “All right!”
“Yes, it is,” Green Stone said. “It was the birds.”
“Birds?”
“Yes. This is the first wagon train to get here in weeks. The birds drove the others off. Condigeo has been cut off from inland for more than a month.”
“So why were they suspicious of us?” Tower demanded. “Oh!”
“Yep. They saw all those feathers—they thought maybe we owned the birds,” Green Stone said. “Once we set them straight on that, it was the biggest welcome we ever got.”
“Which settles one question the council had,” Sandry said.
“Sandry?” Tower asked.
“Whether Condigeo was sending the birds,” Sandry said. “Think on it. We’re negotiating trade treaties with the Captains; it was possible they were using the birds to help their trading position.”
Green Stone grinned. “I think your council has a lot to learn about trading,” he said, and chuckled. “Think of the cost! But the birds are coming from the east. I found that much out already.”
The Captains of Condigeo met in a large roofed pavilion near the sea. The walls could be removed, and some of them had been, so that there was plenty of light without torches. Thirteen Captains sat on a high dais at a curved table. Parallel and a step below them was another curved table with clerks. Marines in scarlet tunics, shields brightly polished, stood along one wall.
The center of the room was tiled, with a table for those having business with the council. Behind that were seats for the public. Half of Condigeo seemed to be crowded into the building.
There was another pavilion just beyond the council chambers. This one was smaller, roofed, but also open on the sides, filled with long tables. Enticing smells came from a kitchen on the docks behind the banqueting hall.
Twelve of the thirteen Captains stood as Green Stone led a dozen of his wagoneers and guests into the chamber. The thirteenth was hoisted onto the council table by two burly marines. His legs were mere stumps, but it didn’t seem to bother him. “Welcome, Green Stone of Feathersnake!”
“We thank you, Commodore Pergammon,” Green Stone said in fluent Condigeo. “I present my sister, Burning Tower of Feathersnake. Our friend and ally Lord Sandry of Lordshills and Yangin-Atep’s City. The Wise One Clever Squirrel.”
“Welcome all,” Pergammon said. Pergammon was thickly bearded, and his dark eyes darted over them, daring anyone to notice that he was set on the tabletop rather than standing behind it. He gestured toward the banqueting hall. “A feast is being prepared. We trust you will join us.”
“With great pleasure,” Green Stone said. He beckoned, and three wagoneers came in with bundles. “And it is our pleasure to offer you these gifts.”
Bundles of green and orange feathers, including sword-wings from the terror birds. Burning Tower suppressed a smile. That message was clear enough. We have these, and we can get more. We don’t hide behind walls. We go where we choose, and if the birds get in our way, it’s too bad for the birds.
The captains all bowed. Pergammon introduced them in turn, his marine attendants turning him toward each captain as he was introduced, but there were too many for Burning Tower to remember. They were all different, but there was something about them that was the same, a stance and an attitude. They were all stout men, well fed but not fat, and their eyes never rested in the same place for long. Pergammon stood out even among that company. When he spoke, everyone listened.
“Impressive,” Sandry muttered.
Burning Tower nodded. And everyone in the big room had stood when the captains stood. Everyone, including cripples and children, and they were all quiet when any of their leaders spoke.
“We thank you,” Pergammon said. “I don’t mind telling you, those birds had us worried.” He looked to his fellow captains. “We’re masters of the sea, but it’s a long way by water to the inner seas. Protection bets grow more costly with each voyage. Can you open the Golden Road again?”
“We can try,” Green Stone said. “That will be costly.”
Protection bets?
Pergammon fingered his beard. “Indeed. Well, perhaps between us we can afford the cost. We can discuss the details later. For now, there’s a banquet, and Condigeo welcomes you!”
The room exploded in applause and shouts.
They seated Burning Tower with the women. Other tables held both men and women, but not the captains. The captains’ table held only men, including Green Stone and Sandry. Peacevoice Fullerman and his men sat with a group of marines, and the Younglords and Lordkin were seated at another table with well-dressed young men and women. Burning Tower found herself next to a richly dressed lady twice her age. She glittered with jewels, and Tower wasn’t surprised when she was introduced as Pearl, wife of First Captain Granton. The First Captain was deputy to Commodore Pergammon. No one was introduced as Pergammon’s wife.
“We’re so glad to see you,” Pearl said. �
�I was really getting worried when the wagon trains stopped.” She fingered her cheeks. “Wrinkles. I feel them. They don’t show yet, but another few weeks…” She touched her large turquoise earrings. “But there, you’ll get through and I can charge these again, and everything will be fine. Aren’t you going to open your present?”
She indicated an ornate small box on Tower’s plate. It seemed to have a tricky fastening, and the women all watched with wry amusement as Tower tried to puzzle it out.
“The silver stud,” Pearl said. “Press that.”
The stud moved inward at her touch. There was a sensation, warmth and something else, in her thumb. She felt her skin tingle. The box opened, to reveal a small bit of polished stone shaped like a tower. Tiny carnelian flames ringed the stone tower. The tower stone had grain and looked like wood, but it was stone to the touch.
Petrified wood, refined, polished, and, from the sensations she felt, charged with magic. Burning Tower couldn’t imagine the price of such a thing. Her mother had a similar charm box, but not carved to her naming vision. They must have done this quickly. But how?
“It’s wonderful!” Tower said. “Oh, I thank you!”
Pearl looked pleased. “I’m glad you like it. You don’t know about these?”
Tower felt bewildered. “No, Pearl.”
“I’m sorry, I thought you would. It’s magic, of course. Close the box without touching the stud. Don’t touch it again until you’re ready to use it; there’s still enough charge. Next time you use it, be with your man, kiss him while you feel the glow. Not that you need a glamour.”
“Not now,” an older lady said. “I’m Grandin, Captain Wartin’s wife. You don’t need that charm now, but there comes a time when we all do.”
Tower grinned. “You don’t! And I hope this will long be useless before I need it.”
“Oh, it will never be useless,” Grandin said. “You can get it recharged just the way Pearl gets her earrings charged.”
“Oh. We don’t deal much in magic,” Burning Tower said. “But Clever Squirrel will know about these things. She’s Coyote’s daughter.”
“Umm. Impressive,” Grandin said. “Pity they sat her with our Wise Ones. It would be fun to talk with her. Pearl?”
“Well, I thought she’d want to be with them,” Pearl said. “And, well, they can tell us what they learn!”
Tower grinned. “I’m sure they’ll learn something, but Squirrely may learn more than they do.”
Grandin’s eyes wrinkled in laughter. “Coyote’s daughter. I expect so! We had a girl here who was Jaguar’s daughter, but she went south and never came back. We see a little of Coyote, but of course we’re mostly in Cormorant territory.”
“Does Jaguar come here?” Burning Tower asked.
Pearl shrugged. “I’ve never seen him, but I’ve never seen Coyote.”
“I’ve heard they avoid each other,” Grandin said. “Jaguar and Coyote, they don’t fight, but they don’t share either.”
Dinner was all seafood. Fried strips of something delicious that Tower later learned was squid. Three kinds of fish, each in a different sauce, one wrapped in seaweed. Crystal glasses, with three kinds of wine. Tower tried to be careful of how much she drank, but she still felt the glow from the box, and whenever she sipped at any of the wines, someone came up behind her and refilled the glass, so it was impossible to tell how much she was drinking. And it tasted wonderful.
Across the room, Sandry and Green Stone were engaged in earnest conversation with the captains, particularly the legless Pergammon, who sat at the center of the table, his marine guards at rigid attention two paces behind him. Tower wished she could listen. Sandry looked handsome in his dress tunic. From time to time, he looked over at her and smiled when he caught her eye.
Pearl began to tell her about the fish and the mer people who caught them.
“I saw mers at Avalon,” Tower said excitedly.
“Yes, a wonderful place, especially in spring,” Pearl said. “Do you go there often?”
“Just once.”
“Only once! Well, you should do something about that! It’s a wonderful, magical place. And now, of course, it’s going to stay that way.”
“No more magic exports from Avalon,” Grandin said. “None at all. And with those birds blocking us from the east, we’re going to be in real trouble. Or would be. But I’m sure it will be all right now.” She smiled at Tower.
“Morth of Atlantis was at Avalon,” Tower said.
“I was told that you know Morth of Atlantis. Do you really?”
Tower looked up. Lady Hartta, wife of another of the captains, but Tower couldn’t remember which. “Yes, I helped get him to the sea after he drove Yangin-Atep mythical,” Burning Tower said.
“Oh! The last Atlantean magician—he must be very old. How does he look?”
Tower smiled. “Well, just then, he looked his age and then some. But he was gallant even then! He said I should stay with him—there was magic in a young girl’s smile. Then they took him to the sea.”
“But he was at Avalon?”
“Yes, and he looked just fine. Much younger.”
Hartta smiled. “Younger. Burning Tower, when you see Morth of Atlantis again, tell him that the Captains of Condigeo would be more than pleased if he would visit. Or if he wishes a new place to live, we can build him a palace.”
The other ladies at the table nodded enthusiastically.
It was nearly midnight when the dinner ended. Torch-bearing marines guided them to the wagon camp in the Feathersnake compound. Burning Tower saw Sandry going into the factor’s office and followed. Green Stone was already there.
“Did you miss me?” Tower asked.
“Of course,” Sandry said.
“Not much,” Green Stone said. “Too much work to do. The captains don’t give much away.”
“What do you mean?”
Stone shrugged. “Well, you know, they keep their trade secrets. But I think we learned some things. The trade with the interior, that’s important to them. Really important. I wish we knew why, but we’ll find out when we go across.”
“But I know why,” Burning Tower said.
“Eh?”
“It’s no secret at all,” she said. She showed her box. “It’s magic. They get magic items from the interior. Their wives use them to stay pretty.”
“Really?” Sandry sounded incredulous.
All right—there won’t ever be a safer time with my brother here… She pressed the stud on the box, held it a moment, then grabbed Sandry and kissed him.
“Enough! Stop.” She felt her brother’s hand on her shoulder.
“Wow.”
“Wow, huh,” Green Stone said. “You all right?”
She nodded breathlessly.
Sandry was standing like a stone.
“Is he all right? Sandry?”
Sandry said, “Tower? Was that magic?”
She held up the box.
“And not just you?” Sandry smiled. “Wow. No wonder they were desperate to get the trade going again! Green Stone, can you can give consent for a marriage—”
“Yes!” Tower said.
“No. Not just now,” Green Stone said. “You both know it would be a bad idea. You’re not thinking.”
“Who wants to think?” Tower said.
“Who wants to think? About what?” Clever Squirrel stopped at the door. “Whooo! That’s strong manna!” She looked from Tower to Sandry and back. “Well, no problem guessing what you’re thinking about!” She looked at the box. “May I see?”
Tower reluctantly handed over the box. “If you press the silver stud, it will use up all the manna,” Tower said. “Please don’t.”
“Silver. Manna flows through silver,” Squirrel said.
“I didn’t know that,” Green Stone said.
“Flows, but doesn’t stay. Silver won’t hold magic. Never any reason you should have known it. We don’t get much silver,” Clever Squirrel said. “This box i
s interesting. Did you see what it’s made of?” She took out an iron knife and used that to press the stud to open the box. “Made of the same thing as what’s inside, but all the manna is drained out of the outside stonewood. Makes a good insulator. Tower, they gave you this?”
“Yes. It’s wonderful.” She looked at Sandry, who was still staring at her. “I mean, really wonderful.”
“I believe you,” Clever Squirrel said. “Now why would they give you something so valuable?”
“That’s obvious,” Burning Tower said.
They were all frowning at her. “Maybe not to me?” Green Stone said.
“Look, it only has maybe one more charge in it,” Tower said. “And I sure want it to have more. So does Sandry. Don’t you?”
“Oh, yeah.”
He looks like a teenage boy, she thought. And I like that. She grinned. “So they made sure I’ll want it. Rocky, if your wife had been along, they’d have given it to her, I think. But Lilac stayed home, so they chose me. They want our help getting more. They want us to want to help.”
“Stonewood,” Clever Squirrel said. “It comes from a long way off, and that’s all I know about it.”
“Me too,” Green Stone said. “Not very common trade goods anyway, and nobody who sells it ever tells where they got it.”
“Well, we know now,” Burning Tower said. “East. At the Inland Sea. That’s where it comes from, and that’s where we have to go.” She caught Sandry’s eye. They both grinned.
And he’d asked her brother to consent to a marriage. It wouldn’t be fair to hold him to that, not after she’d charmed him with the glamour in that box. Would it?
Chapter Seven
The Captains’
Council
The Captains’ Council offices were on the third story of a tall building near the docks. Sandry grew impatient as the others got ready for their meeting, and walked ahead to the harbor. The conference room was on the sea side, with a balcony running all around the building. The view across the harbor was perfect. Sandry stood at the balcony rail and watched the activity below.