“Thank you.”
Charyn made his way up the stairs at a good pace, but not hurrying, and Maertyl, as the duty guard outside the study, immediately announced him and opened the door, closing it quickly once Charyn was inside.
Charyn walked to the desk where his father was seated, but did not sit down until Lorien motioned for him to do so.
“I understand you went out this morning.” Lorien’s tone was curt. “Despite the snow.”
“Yes, sir. I did. The snow was light. It’s since stopped.”
“Into the heart of L’Excelsis, no less. What if someone had shot you?”
“That would have been unlikely, sir. I took the unmarked carriage. Very few in L’Excelsis know who I am by appearance, and my guards wore brown jackets. For the present, I can ride largely unnoticed. I would like to do so while I can, so as to have a better idea of not only the city but other nearby areas. Before long, I grant you, that will not be possible.”
“For what purpose?”
“Sir … are you like your sire … or grandsire? Have any of the best rulers of Solidar merely copied their predecessors? I cannot be you. I’d be a poor imitation, because an imitation can be at best a copy. For me to succeed you successfully, when the time comes, and I do hope it is not soon, and for many other reasons—”
“Give me one,” snapped Lorien.
“I don’t judge people well immediately. I think I judge them better each time I meet them. The more experience I have, and the more people I meet, the better I’ll be.”
“What else?”
“Solidar is changing. Not all those changes are easily seen from within the Chateau D’Rex, and the more I see outside the more I can learn and inform you.”
For a moment, Lorien did not respond. Finally, he said, “At least you’ve thought it out. What were you doing in L’Excelsis?”
“I met with Factor Estafen. He owns the Banque D’Excelsis. I understand that the ironworks that former factor Vaschet built might be for sale. His son didn’t handle them well. He defaulted on the loans to the Banque D’Excelsis.”
“Good! Vaschet got what he deserved.” Lorien frowned. “The Civic Patrol never did find out who shot him, did they?”
“No, sir. That was just before Murranyt took his stipend.”
“He left L’Excelsis rather hastily, too, as I recall.”
“I wouldn’t know, sir.” Charyn smiled apologetically.
“You always have a reason for bringing up something. What is it this time? About the ironworks, I presume?”
“Yes, sir. I thought about working out an arrangement to buy the ironworks.”
“Why on Terahnar would you even think of that?”
“To improve our financial position. To make clear our alignment with the factors … and to learn that which I cannot otherwise.”
“What? Are you out of your mind?”
“I hope not. We obtain most of our revenues from lands. Yields are falling. An ironworks would—”
“Only lose thousands of golds?” Lorien’s scorn was more than palpable.
“I think not, sir. Might I explain?”
“You might as well.” The resignation in Lorien’s voice suggested the explanation was likely to be in vain.
“There are several reasons. First, I think we can make some golds over time. Anything more we can make will be of benefit. Second, if we have an ironworks, it will be seen that we know something about manufacturing and factoring…” Charyn went on to explain, including the point about accomplishing the purchase gradually and without notice. When he finished he waited for his father to reply.
“I have grave doubts. Still … over the past several months, you’ve shown yourself much more interested in matters. I’m inclined to oppose the idea, but I’m not going to say no yet. I’m also not going to say yes.” Lorien cleared his throat. “On another matter, have you been watching the surroundings on all these trips you’ve been making through L’Excelsis?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Have you seen anyone who followed you? Have your guards?”
“Not so far. Have there been any more threats?”
“No. That worries me.”
“You announced that you would be building more warships, didn’t you? Isn’t that what they demanded?”
“It is. I’ve even had Alucar draft the shipbuilding order and send it to Solis, as well as make arrangements for the necessary disbursements.” Lorien scowled. “I don’t like it, and it won’t keep those hothead factors happy for long. Then what do I do? Spend from the tariff reserves to start building another? Vaelln tells me that we can’t build more than two or possibly three additional ships this year. There isn’t the space in the shipyards, and there aren’t enough shipfitters. He should know. He spent years as the Sea Marshal.”
“What about doing what the Jariolans are doing? Commissioning privateers to prey on Jariolan ships?”
“That’s likely to get us into an all-out war, and our warships are outnumbered almost two to one, if we’re talking ships of the line. I told you before I don’t want to start a war there’s no way to win and no way to pay for.”
“I suppose you’ve told the Factors’ Council that, then.”
“I’ve told them about the problem with building and commissioning more warships quickly.”
Charyn managed not to frown, as he tried to think why his father hadn’t mentioned the problem with commissioning privateers. “You didn’t mention the possibility of war if you commissioned privateers because they’d blame you for not having built more warships earlier, even though no one would pay the tariffs necessary to build them?”
“Exactly! They’d ignore the fact they opposed more tariffs and just blame me, and then whoever is behind that threat would make another attempt.”
“Has there been any success in discovering who might be behind it?”
“Hardly. All it takes is a handful of well-trained shooters and less than a hundred golds. Almost any large factor in Solidar could manage that. I’ve taken a few other steps, but the less anyone knows about them, even you, the better.”
“What about your regional governors? Can’t they help? Doesn’t each have an army battalion at his disposal?”
“He does. Just what good does that do when neither they nor I know who is behind the attacks.”
Charyn wasn’t about to raise the point that the governors should know something and should be informing his father more, not while there was still the possibility of his father approving the purchase of the ironworks. “I can see that, sir. Is there anything else you can do to give the impression to the factor hotheads that you’re doing all you can?”
“There’s not very much else I can do, and that’s the problem.”
“Are you getting any suggestions from either Chief Factor Elthyrd or High Holder Ryel?”
“Ryel’s not sent me anything. He’s almost begged me to let him off the Council, and I’m tempted to let him go. I’m not the one who’d as soon see him dead. Well, not as much as your mother would. She wouldn’t even go to the memorial service for Baryel. But I’m not about to tell Ryel anything until the Year-Turn Ball…”
“And Elthyrd?”
“He doesn’t have any ideas beyond those he’s already offered.”
“Did anything happen at the meeting you had with both councils?”
“Nothing except half of them weren’t there. I knew they wouldn’t be, this close to Year-Turn. Everyone agreed that something should be done. No one could agree on anything, and there weren’t enough factors there to insist on specifics. I told you nothing would happen until the Ianus meeting…”
Charyn continued to ask questions and listen carefully, since the times when his father was willing to talk, especially in detail, were few … and the more he talked the better a chance Charyn had to accomplish what he had in mind.
16
The next several days proceeded largely uneventfully. Charyn had breakfast at the same time as h
is mother, checked the previous day’s appointments list with Norstan, although no names were added, suggesting nothing untoward, then proceeded to the exchange. Upon his return, he studied with Sanafryt on Meredi and Alucar on Jeudi. He practiced on the clavecin in the late afternoon, had dinner with the family and Malyna, who never seemed to be free from either Aloryana or Chelia, if not both, and spent the later evening and night with Palenya.
On Vendrei, the wind picked up, and the day got colder with each passing glass. By the time Charyn returned to the Chateau D’Rex in early afternoon, his breath steamed in the frigid air of the courtyard as he crossed the paving stones to the rear entry.
He was well inside and halfway up the grand staircase when Vaetor hurried down to meet him.
“The rex?”
“Yes, sir. He said he wanted to see you as soon as you returned.”
“I’m heading there now.”
Before he reached the study door, Charyn pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and blotted his nose, slightly runny from the bitter cold outside.
The study guard announced, “Lord Charyn,” then opened the door.
Lorien, sitting at the goldenwood desk, motioned Charyn to the chairs before the desk and picked up a single sheet of paper or parchment from a stack. “It’s about time you were here.”
“I came straight to the study, sir.” Charyn sat down in the middle chair.
“You talked about the factors and how you thought buying an ironworks would help! What do you think of this?” Lorien thrust the single sheet at Charyn with a motion so violent that several scraps of sealing wax broke loose from the paper and dropped to the carpet.
Charyn took the sheet, his eyes going to the words that seemed to stand out.
… regret to inform you that the silos of the main granary at the Tuuryl estate were set on fire on the night of Mardi, the twenty-fourth of Finitas. Several silos exploded and were partly or totally destroyed. The perpetrators were not detected. Anything that was not burned was ruined. Nothing could be saved. Attached is the sheet that was knifed to the landwarden’s door …
“All the granaries on the estate?”
“The smaller and older silos in the other granary were spared, but they weren’t close to being filled.”
“What was the landwarden doing? Isn’t it his job to keep the crops and livestock safe?”
“That’s why he’s about to become the former landwarden. The idiot couldn’t even see who did it? Setting fire or explosives to all those silos had to take time.”
“What does the other sheet say?” asked Charyn.
Lorien snorted. “It says that so long as the factors take losses from the rex’s inability to deal with the piracy and sinkings of Solidaran ships, his own losses will continue.”
“That’s blackmail.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Explosives…” mused Charyn. “Do you think there’s any connection to the granaries and the destruction of the factors’ exchange in Solis?”
“What connection could there be?”
“I don’t know. They both deal with grain. I just wondered. How much grain did they destroy?” Charyn handed the sheet from the Tuuryl landwarden back to his father.
“There were twenty silos there … Alucar told me we have two hundred and forty storing wheat. That’s all across Solidar. They aren’t all full, right now, of course. I should have sold more, but Alucar cautioned me against that. Now I can get nothing from those silos.”
Charyn calculated. If the silos were the size of those at Chaeryll, each one would hold about five thousand bushels of wheat. “A hundred thousand bushels at twelve coppers a bushel…” He swallowed. “That’s … around twelve thousand golds … we lost. That’s the cost of three ships of the line.”
Lorien frowned. “How did you know that?”
“The current price at the exchange is twelve coppers a bushel, and the average silo on our lands holds five thousand bushels. The rest is just mathematics.”
“Maybe you should have been a factor. All that calculating in knowing what we lost doesn’t help in determining what to do about it.” Lorien turned toward the window.
Charyn could see through the small section of panes that were not covered by hangings that a light snow had begun to fall.
“Those factors will pay for this,” Lorien went on. “I can’t let them get away with it.”
“We have to find out who they are before we can do anything to them.”
“If the Factors’ Council doesn’t find out, then I’ll raise tariffs on all factors, and I’ll build their Namer-damned ships … and repay our losses out of the tariffs. They either bring whoever did it forward, or they’ll all pay.”
“That might make more of them angry.”
“What am I supposed to do? Let them get away with it? If I do, then I’ll just have more trouble in the future.”
“Why don’t you just ask the Factors’ Council exactly how you can build ships as fast as they want? You’ve told me that it’s not a matter of golds, but of dockyards and shipfitters. That way you don’t have to be the one talking about golds and tariffs.”
Lorien opened his mouth, then closed it. After a moment, he said, “They’ll say that with enough golds anything can be done.”
“Tell them they’re right, and then ask how they’d propose to get those golds. If they talk about your having golds, tell them that the unknown factors just burned more than the cost of three ships, and then ask how destroying your grain and attacking your family is going to build ships.”
“They don’t care. They’re not thinking. They’ll just throw it back at me.” Lorien snorted again. “They want me to pay for it all.”
“Maybe you should start another ship or two.”
“Why? The more I do without making them pay, the more they’ll want me to do. That’s what led to your grandfather’s death. I can’t give in. I’m going to have to raise tariffs, and I’m going to have to announce it immediately, and the reasons why. Doing nothing won’t deal with the problem.”
“That will mean more attacks,” predicted Charyn.
“I’ll also announce that if the attacks continue, tariffs will go up again. The arrogant bastards will pay. They will.”
“You might be better off announcing that any factor found to be behind the attacks will forfeit all his property.”
“I’ll do that as well, but the rest of them have to understand that they can’t keep silent when they know who’s behind the attacks.”
“Only a few likely know,” Charyn pointed out.
“It doesn’t matter! It’s the principle of the thing. They want everyone else to pay for their protection, and they’re attacking me and my family because they’re not willing to contribute their share.”
Charyn could see that there was no point in discussing that aspect of the matter, not at the moment. “Then you’ll bring it up at the next joint meeting of the Factors’ Council and the High Council?”
“When else? I could yell and send messages, and no one would read them until after Year-Turn. But they’ll hear then, by the Nameless. That they will.”
For the next half glass, Charyn mostly listened, easing out of the study when Alucar arrived to discuss the latest results of the past year’s tariff collections, since some tariffs always arrived late.
17
Given the continuing wind and cold, by Solayi afternoon Charyn was more than happy to accept his mother’s invitation to her salon to play whist. His father and Bhayrn didn’t like whist, and that meant Charyn found himself sitting at the plaques table, covered in the traditional dark blue felt, across from his mother, who was his partner, with Malyna to his left, and Aloryana to his right. He hoped he didn’t make any truly stupid mistakes, since he doubted he’d played in almost a year, and since his mother played at least occasionally with some of her acquaintances, as did Aloryana, if even less occasionally.
“Thank you for joining us, Charyn.” C
helia smiled warmly at her son.
“It’s my pleasure.” At least, he hoped it would be, and that he could learn more about the mysterious Malyna.
Chelia fanned the deck across the table, facedown, then turned over a single plaque—the knight of crowns. Charyn had always wondered why the term “knight” persisted, since there hadn’t been any since the time of the Naedarans. In turn, Malyna turned over a chorister of sprites, Charyn a seven of crowns, and Aloryana a three of eagles.
With that, Chelia flipped over the four plaques, inserted them in the deck, and handed it to Malyna, who shuffled the plaques twice, expertly, and returned the deck to Chelia, who cut it, and then dealt.
After Chelia dealt the last plaque to herself, Charyn picked up his hand, fanned the fifteen plaques, then arranged them by suits, but not in hierarchical order, which would have been crowns, sprites, eagles, stags, and serpents. That would have given too much away, at least to Malyna and probably even to Aloryana. Ideally, he should have played with the plaques left in the order he’d picked the hand off the felt, since a truly expert player could tell much about the content of his hand after several tricks had been played, but he wasn’t comfortable with that, knowing that he would likely make a stupid mistake if he didn’t at least have his plaques ordered by suit and card rank.
He studied the plaques. Just four honors, the knight and chorister of sprites, the rex of eagles, and the knight of serpents. His longest suit was sprites, with five. Not an awful hand, but hardly exemplary.
Since Chelia had dealt, Malyna had the opening bid. Smiling pleasantly, she said, “One.” That meant she and Aloryana had to take eight tricks, the basic book of seven and one more.
Charyn looked at his hand again. He had two sure tricks, possibly three at the outside. “Pass.”
“Two,” added Aloryana.
“Powerful bid, there,” offered Charyn.
“I didn’t see you bidding,” returned Aloryana sweetly.
“Pass,” said Chelia, raising an eyebrow at Charyn.
No more sardonic comments for a bit. Charyn smiled pleasantly.
Malyna led the six of serpents, establishing serpents as trumps.
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