Rise of a Merchant Prince
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A watchman came out between two buildings, saw Randolph lying in a spreading pool of blood, the two fighters, and the two bands of men, and retreated hastily. When he was safely out of harm’s way, he produced a tin whistle and began blowing it fiercely.
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later, and the watchman explained what he had seen.
The senior constable sent one of his men to headquarters for more men, and then accompanied the other man back toward the dock.
Roo felt his arms begin to ache. What Jacoby lacked in skill he gained back by using two weapons, a style of fighting difficult to defend with a single blade.
Jacoby had a tricky move, an advance with his sword extended, followed by a slash with his left hand. It was designed to cut across the chest of any opponent who tried to engage his sword and riposte.
The first time he tried it, Roo barely escaped with a tear in his tunic.
Roo wiped perspiration from his brow with his left hand, keeping the point of his sword directed at Jacoby. Jacoby’s right boot heel tapped, and then he extended and advanced, following with the left-hand slash. Roo leaped backward. He chanced a glance over his shoulder and saw that he was being driven toward a large pile of crates, and once his back was against them, he would have no room to escape.
The tap of Jacoby’s boot heel against the cobbles saved Roo’s life, for he leaped backward before he turned to look again at Jacoby, and barely missed the poniard slashing through the air. Roo crouched.
As he expected, he heard the boot heel tap again, and without hesitation Roo leaned foward. He beat aside Jacoby’s extended blade, but rather than come straight in, Roo dropped his own blade, extended his left hand downward to touch the stones, and ducked under the vicious slash of the poniard. For a moment he was completely vulnerable, but Jacoby’s blades were in no position to take advantage. Roo knew that prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 474
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any experienced fighter might kick with his boot, sending Roo to the stones, but he doubted Jacoby had ever seen this move. With his right hand, Roo thrust upward, catching Jacoby in his right side, just below the ribs. As the sword traveled upward, it pierced lung and heart.
Jacoby’s eyes widened and a strange, childlike sound issued from his lips, and his fingers ceased to possess any strength. Sword and poniard fell from his hands. Then his knees wobbled and he collapsed upon the ground as Roo yanked his blade free.
“Don’t anyone move,” said a voice.
Roo glanced over his shoulder and saw the senior constable approaching with riot club in one hand, absently slapping the palm of the other. Gasping for breath, Roo felt a giddy admiration for the officer of the Prince’s City Watch, willing to confront two dozen armed men with nothing more than his badge of office and a billy.
Roo said, “Wouldn’t think of it.”
More horsemen could be heard approaching as the constable said, “Now then, what have we here?”
Roo said, “It’s simple. These two dead men are thieves. Those men over there” —he pointed to the disarmed guards by the wagon—“are hired thugs.
And that wagon and that boat are loaded with my stolen gold.”
Seeing no one was attempting to cause trouble, the constable put his billy under his arm and rubbed his chin. “And who might that wet fellow floating in the harbor be?”
Roo blew out and took a deep breath. “By name, Herbert McCraken. He was an accountant at my countinghouse. He helped those two steal my gold.”
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“Hmmm,” said the constable, obviously not convinced. “And who might you be, sir, to be having countinghouses, accounts, and large shipments of gold?” He glanced down at the Jacoby brothers, and added, “And a surplus of corpses.”
Roo smiled. “I’m Rupert Avery. I’m a partner in the Bitter Sea Company.”
The constable nodded. As horsemen rounded the corner and approached the group, he said, “That’s a name few haven’t heard in Krondor in the last year or so. Is there someone here likely to vouch for you?”
Dash stepped forward. “I will. He’s my boss.”
“And who might you be?” asked the constable.
“He’s my grandson,” said the lead rider.
Trying to see the figure on horseback through the gloom, the constable said, “And then who might you be?”
Lord James rode forward into the circle of torches and lanterns and said, “My name is James. And in a manner of speaking, I’m your boss.”
Then the other newly arrived riders appeared, soldiers in the garb of the Prince’s personal guards, and Knight-Marshal William said, “Why don’t you take these men”—he pointed to the Jacoby guards—”into custody, Constable. We’ll deal with these other gentlemen.”
The constable was nearly speechless at being in the presence of the Duke of Krondor and the Knight-Marshal, and hesitated a long moment before he said,
“Yes, sir! Titus!”
From out of the shadows came a young constable, barely twenty years of age by his appearance. He carried a crossbow. “Yes, Sergeant?”
“Arrest that lot over there.”
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“Yes, sir!” said the young constable and he pointed his crossbow at them in menacing fashion. “Come along, and no funny business.”
Other constables appeared and the sergeant moved them to positions surrounding the dozen captives, escorting them away.
Roo turned to Lord James and said, “I don’t suppose you just happened to be out for a very early morning ride, m’lord?”
James said, “No. We had you followed.”
Out of the shadows came the girl Katherine and Jimmy.
“Followed?” asked Roo. “Why?”
“We need to talk,” said James. Turning his horse, he said, “Get cleaned up and get your gold to safety, then come to the palace for breakfast.”
Roo nodded. “Straight away, m’lord.” To Luis and Duncan he said, “Get the gold off the boat and back to our offices.” Then he turned to Dash and said,
“And tell me: whose employee are you? Mine or your grandfather’s?”
Dash grinned and shrugged. “In a manner of speaking, both of yours.”
Roo said nothing for a moment, then said,
“You’re discharged.”
Dash said, “Ah, I don’t think you can do that.”
“Why not?” demanded Roo.
“Grandfather will explain.”
Roo shrugged. Suddenly too tired to think, he said, “I could use some food and coffee.” He sighed.
“A lot of coffee.”
The men began loading the gold back into the Jacoby’s wagon, and two men took the Jacoby brothers’ bodies to load into the wagon beside the gold.
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Roo put his sword away, wondering what was coming next. At least, he reasoned, he could meet the demand note and keep his company alive. Never, he vowed silently, would he let his company become that vulnerable again.
Roo sipped at the coffee and sighed. “This is excellent.”
James nodded. “Jimmy buys it at Barret’s for me.”
Roo smiled. “Best coffee in the city.”
The Duke of Krondor said, “What am I to do with you?”
“I’m not sure I take your meaning, m’lord.”
They all sat around a large table in the Duke’s private quarters. Knight-Marshal William sat beside the Duke, while Jimmy, Dash, and Katherine filled out the company. Owen Greylock entered the room and sat.
“Good morning, m’lord, Marshal, Roo,” he said with a smile.
“As
I was explaining to your old friend here, Captain Greylock, I’m at something of a loss as what to do with him,” said James.
Greylock looked confused. “Do with him?”
“Well, there are several dead bodies down at the docks and a lot of gold with little explanation as to how it got there.”
Roo said, “M’lord, with all due respect, I’ve explained this all to you.”
“So you say,” replied James. He leaned forward and pointed a finger at Roo. “But you’re a convicted murderer, and several of your business dealings in the recent past have bordered on the criminal.”
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Roo’s fatigue made him prickly. “Bordering on the criminal isn’t the same as being criminal . . .
m’lord.”
“Well, we could impound the gold and hold a hearing,” said Marshal William.
Roo sat straight. “You can’t! If I don’t get that gold to my creditors by the end of the day, I’ll be ruined. That was the entire thrust of Jacoby’s plans.”
James said, “Will everyone but Mr. Avery please leave us for a while. Breakfast is now finished.”
Greylock looked at the food still on the table with regret, but he rose and departed with the others, leaving Roo alone with Lord James.
James stood and came to the empty chair next to Roo and sat. “This is how it is,” he said. “You’ve done very well. Remarkable doesn’t begin to cover how well you’ve done in your rise, young Avery. At one point I thought we might have to take a hand in seeing you survive the attempts your enemies made upon you, but you didn’t need our help. That’s to your credit.
“But my threat wasn’t hollow; I want you to understand something, and that is, no matter how powerful you become, you are no more above the law than you were when you and Erik killed Stefan von Darkmoor.”
Roo said nothing.
“I’ll not attempt to impound your gold, Rupert.
Pay off your creditors and continue to prosper, but always remember that you can be put away as quickly now as you were when we first tossed you into the death cell.”
Roo said, “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you are not done with our service, prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 479
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young Avery.” James stood and paced as he said,
“Reports from across the sea are worse than we thought they’d be; far worse. Your friend Erik may already be dead for all we know. Everyone who went with Calis may be.” He stopped his pacing and looked at Roo. “But even if they reach those goals they set out to achieve, this much you can bank on: the host of the Emerald Queen is coming, and you know almost as well as I that if she lands on these shores, your hard-won riches mean nothing. You and your wife and children will be nothing more than objects to sweep aside as she marches toward her goal: the destruction of every living thing on this world.”
Roo said, “What do you want me to do?”
“Do?” said James. “Why do you think I want you to do anything?”
“Because we wouldn’t be having this meal if you were only trying to remind me either of your ability to hang me on a whim or about the terrible things I saw when serving with Calis.” Roo’s voice rose in anger as he said, “I bloody well know both those facts!” He slammed his fist on the table, causing dishes to jump and clatter. Then he added, “M’lord.”
“I’ll tell you what I want,” said Lord James. He leaned over, hands on the back of one chair and the table, and put his face before Roo’s, eye to eye. “I need gold.”
Roo blinked. “Gold?”
“More gold than even a greedly little bastard like you can imagine, Rupert.” He stood up. “We’ve the biggest war in the history of this world about to be unleashed on these shores.” He walked to a window that overlooked the harbor and made a sweeping prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 480
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motion with his hand. “Unless someone with a great deal more power and intelligence than are possessed by every ruling lord in this Kingdom comes up with an unexpected solution, we will see the biggest fleet in history come sailing into that harbor in less than three years’ time. And on that fleet will be the biggest army ever seen.”
He turned to look at Roo. “And everything you see from this window will be ashes. That includes your house, your business, Barret’s Coffee House, your docks, your warehouses, your ships, your wife, your children, your mistress.”
At the last, Roo felt his throat almost close. He thought no one knew about his relationship with Sylvia. James spoke calmly, but his manner betrayed a tightly controlled anger. “You will never understand the love I feel for this city, Rupert.” He motioned around the hall. “You will never understand why I hold this palace dear above all other places on this world. A very special man saw something in me that no one else would ever have seen, and he put out his hand and elevated me to a station that no one of my birth could ever have imagined.”
Roo saw a slight sheen of moisture in Lord James’s eyes. “I gave my own son that man’s name, to honor him.” The Duke turned his back to Roo, to look out the window again. “And you have no idea how much I wish we could have that man with us here, now. Of all men, he would be the one I would wish to tell us what to do next as this terrible day approaches.”
Taking a deep breath, the old Duke composed himself. “But he is not here. He is dead, and he would be the first to tell me that dreaming of things that cannot be is a waste of time.” He looked again prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 481
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into Roo’s eyes. “And time is something we have far less of than we had thought. I said that fleet would be here in less than three years. It may be here in less than two. I won’t know until a ship from Novindus appears.”
Roo said, “Two, three years?”
“Yes,” said James. “This is why I need gold. I need to finance the biggest war in the history of the Kingdom, a war that dwarfs any we’ve fought. We have a standing army of fewer than five thousand men in the Principality. When we raise the banners of the Kingdom, both Eastern and Western Realms, we can put perhaps forty thousand men in the field, trained veterans and levies. How many men does the Emerald Queen bring against us?”
Roo sat back, remembering just those forces at the mercenaries’ rendezvous. “Two hundred, two hundred fifty thousand if she can get them all across the sea.”
James said, “She has six hundred ships as of our last report. She is producing two new ships a week.
She’s destroying the entire continent to keep production that high, but she’s got her heel on the throat of the entire population down there and the work continues.”
Roo calculated. “Fifty weeks, minimum. She needs at least one hundred more ships to carry provisions for that many men. If she’s prudent, she’ll build for another one hundred weeks.”
“Have you seen anything to indicate prudence?”
“No,” said Roo, “but on the other hand even someone willing to kill every man in her service must have some idea of what she needs to accomplish her goals.”
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James nodded. “Two or three years from now, they will be in that harbor.”
Roo said, “What part do I play?”
James said, “I could tax you until you bleed to finance this war, but even if I sent out the army to grab every coin from the Teeth of the World to Kesh, from the Sunset Islands to Roldem, it wouldn’t be enough.” James again leaned over and spoke softly, as if he feared someone might be listening. “But in that two or three years, with the proper help, you might be able to finance that war.”
Roo looked as if he didn’t understand. “M’lord?”
James said, “You need to make enough profit in the next tw
o years so that you can loan the Crown what we’re going to need to finance this coming war.”
Roo let out a long breath. “Well, that’s unexpected. You want me to get rich beyond dreaming, so I can lend it to the Crown, to fight a war that we may not win.”
James said, “Essentially.”
“From what you said, I suspect the Crown may not be in a position to repay me in a timely fashion if we survive this coming ordeal.”
James said, “Consider the alternatives.”
Roo nodded. “There is that.” He rose. “Well, if I’m to become the richest man sitting atop the ash heap in three years, I’d better set about gathering more wealth. To do that, I need to pay off my creditors by sundown.”
“There is one other thing,” said James.
“What, m’lord?”
“The matter with the Jacobys. There is the father.”
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“Do I need fear more attacks?”
“Possibly,” said James. “The judicious thing to do would be go see him at once, before he learns that you killed his sons. Forge a peace, Rupert, because you need allies, not enemies, for the coming years, and I cannot help you in all things; even my reach has limits.”
Roo said, “After I settle with Frederick Jacoby, I’ll need to tell all this to my partners.”
“I suggest you buy them out,” said James. “Or at least gain control of the Bitter Sea Trading and Holding Company.” Then James grinned, and Roo could see both a reflection of the boy thief who had once run the streets of Krondor and the echo of his grandsons in his face. “You were planning on that eventually, anyway, weren’t you?”
Roo laughed. “Eventually.”
“Better sooner than later. If you need a small amount of gold to accomplish that, the Crown can lend it to you; we’re certainly going to take that back and a great deal more besides.”