Responsibility of the Crown

by G Scott Huggins

  Avnai nodded. “It’s their way. Opposing the Consortium’s will is costly, as we of Evenmarch know.”

  “Thank you, Your Highness.” Ulzhe sat back with a smile on his face.

  Haraad leaned forward. “But highness or no, you’re a liar and I know you lie. Do you know how I know?”

  For the first time, Avnai looked uncertain. Haraad grinned, looking at Ulzhe, who shifted in his chair.

  “Captain,” the short man said, a note of urgency rising in his voice.

  “Because the Consortium’s already sent their envoy, pirate!” Haraad shouted in triumph. “Mr. Ulzhe has been here all this while. He’s going to pay us for helping him escape that stinking rock we plucked him off of, and that will make us the richest argosy ever to return to the Grove!”

  Uproar reigned in the chamber. Every one of the Ship’s officers spoke at once.

  Azriyqam looked at Ulzhe, who rose and stood very still, his expression blank. It’s true, Azriyqam realized. That’s why Haraad was so confident. He never had to wonder whether Avnai might be telling the truth. But then, why hadn’t he told his captains? From the look of it, they all wanted to know the same thing.

  Avnai looked thunderstruck, his eyes alight with realization. “Of course, they sent an advance man.”

  Ulzhe’s eyes narrowed. “But who sent you?” His whisper was barely audible.

  “Gentlemen!” cried Avnai, in a loud voice, cutting through the shouting. “Officers of Ekkaia. This man is indeed a Consortium agent, but not one sent to make you rich. He plans to destroy this vessel.”

  The shouts cut off. Even Haraad stared at Avnai.

  “He’s told you a story, hasn’t he? About an island, some place not too far out of your way home, but one you’ve never needed to visit before. If you only stop there, he’ll do…what? Meet friends who’ll take him home and pay you handsomely? Show you a cache of buried trade goods? And you believed him?”

  Water-Captain Tairen answered, “Said he was shipwrecked a year ago on an island. While he was looking for food, he discovered it was where dragons go to die. There’s supposed to be enough dragonbone on that island to fill three ordinary ships. When he was rescued by pirates, he was afraid they’d take it and leave him nothing. Now he says he’s desperate enough to pay us nine-tenths of it if we’ll just see that he gets home with the rest. Isn’t that what you told us, Captain?”

  Haraad nodded curtly.

  “But nothing was said about him being an agent for this Consortium, and I’d like to know why not,” Tairen continued, face reddening.

  “Dead and nameless gods, man,” said Rymel. “Can you blame him, after those—?”

  “Rymel!” snapped Haraad.

  “What does it matter, if the rest of what he told us is true?” said Ghaze. “Alliance with the Consortium is a matter for the Captains’ Council and High Captain Haraad has every right to keep such a matter for their ears alone.”

  “If the rest of what he told us is true,” said Elam slowly, “then Cloth-Captain Ghaze is perfectly correct. I think I am justified in wondering why an agent of the Consortium with the power to offer an alliance to the entire Grove would sneak around the Endless Ocean disguised as a beggar. If the Consortium is as powerful as Lieutenant Moshaiu tells us, then why did our passenger not simply sail or fly to the Grove?”

  Azriyqam looked at the sailing master. She had never known him except to look at him, but it was plain this man was no fool.

  “It is said that the best lies contain a grain of truth in them,” Ulzhe said. “So far as that goes, Lieutenant Moshaiu is a skilled liar. The Consortium simply believed a single emissary bearing proof of our good will—in the form of the dragonbone I have promised—would be better received. A formal embassy would, of course, have followed. I suppose I might as well admit I did not, of course, discover an island of dragonbone. That was placed there by Consortium vessels to await you.”

  “Oh, there’s a Consortium vessel awaiting you, all right,” said Avnai. “The Aulicus. That’s a submarine, which attacks from under the water with explosive missiles the Consortium calls ‘torpedoes.’ You’ll never even see it until it surfaces to fire. Doubtless some false flagged ‘pirate’ ship will be there for the survivors to witness, or maybe they’ll use incendiaries and try to blame it on dragons.” His eyes brightened. “Ah, that’s it, isn’t it? That way, there can’t be any doubt about which of the Near Islands are responsible, yes? Then, with your Century Ship destroyed, the survivors and Mr. Ulzhe will be rescued by the Consortium carrier fleet that will just happen to pass through here in a matter of days.”

  Every eye in the room was on him. Two of the youngest officers were openly gaping.

  “No pirate fleet has ever sunk a Century Ship—or taken more than a fifth of your cargo. We couldn’t have your voyages become so unprofitable that you would stop making them, after all. So, this sinking, and the loss of most of Ekkaia’s families, will cause howls for revenge in the Grove. What better way to be sure of it than to have the Consortium swoop in and crush the hated pirates once and for all? You’ll be begging to be their vassals.” Avnai trailed off. “The Consortium will have bought your independence by sinking one of your own vaunted Century Ships. Isn’t that the plan, Mr. Ulzhe? Or whatever your real name is?”

  Ulzhe calmly and deliberately raised his glass and sipped it. “A fascinating tale, Your Highness. Doubtless, you have proof of all this, stored away in your dirigible. Secret orders you can pull out and spread before us?” Ulzhe sipped his wine again. “Since you are, of course, special envoys on a diplomatic mission, you ought to have credentials. May we see them? Where are they?”

  “Where are yours, if you’re a Consortium officer?” parried Avnai.

  “So, you don’t have them. Then which of us is the liar, Your Highness? Me? Or the pirate prince who is pretending to an authority he never had?”

  “I think you’ll find that I have told no lies whatever. I said the Consortium wanted an alliance. I never claimed that we five had any authority to conclude one. I said we wanted friendship with the Grove, and as my father’s heir I do have the authority to tell you that we, the Crown and Throne of Evenmarch, do very much want that. As proof, I was going to warn them about the trap the Consortium had laid out for them. I confess, when we arrived I didn’t foresee that the Consortium would have planted a spy aboard. You’re the only one who has told a lie.”

  Azriyqam mentally reviewed Avnai’s statements and realized to her astonishment that it was true.

  Ulzhe smirked. “The captain decided to conceal my identity; a sensible precaution.” He set down the glass. “But you have no proof of this fantastic plot because it does not exist. You have no authority here, Prince Avnai, heir of Evenmarch, most treacherous of the pirate kingdoms. None of the Near Islands have ever taken kindly to the Consortium’s peaceful rule. You were assigned, last I heard, to the battlecarrier Talion, and that dirigible is part of Talion’s screen. How is it that it and you are here with no retinue save a few of your islands’ strange halfbreeds?” He looked Avnai in the face. “You’re no representative. You’re a traitor to the Consortium, desperately trying to incite enmity against it so that your petty barbarian kingdom can revolt and go back to its piracy.” He turned to Haraad. “Captain, this man is a threat to this vessel and the Consortium, and I want him questioned.”

  Haraad opened his mouth to shout, but Avnai was too quick. He drew the revolver from beneath his cloak. “I decline to be questioned in any fashion either of you can devise.”

  Ulzhe’s lip curled. “You think you can fight your way off this Century Ship by holding a gun on us? Truly pathetic, Highness.”

  “No, this is just to prevent rash actions on anyone’s part. You have a lot to say about proof, but where is yours? I have a Consortium dirigible, a Consortium uniform, and a Consortium weapon. Tell me, what proof have the officers of this Century Ship that you are a representative of the Consortium? Or if you are one, that you are telling the t
ruth? Do you have credentials authored by the Lords of the Consortium? Or is all this—the mountain of dragonbone and the alliance—just vapor dreamed up by a liar?”

  Ulzhe glared at Avnai but said nothing.

  “What do you propose, then?” asked Sailing Master Elam.

  “Gentlemen, this man has called me a barbarian and a liar, twice now. I say that I am none, and I propose to prove my word upon his body. I challenge you, Mr. Ulzhe, if you are an officer of the Consortium, to meet me in the duel of blades.”

  Ulzhe snorted. “You can’t be serious.”

  “If you are indeed an officer in the Consortium as you claim, you’ll know how to fight with an omnisword. If you don’t, then that would show just who the liar is, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I didn’t bring an omnisword with me, Lieutenant. Do you think I’m an idiot, to go advertising the fact that I’m a Consortium officer to anyone who might see it?”

  “No, I think you’re a liar who is pretending to a rank he hasn’t got. Or worse, a treacherous bastard who is conspiring to murder thousands of people on this Ship.” Ulzhe’s face went white with rage. “All I know is that you are no honest man. Do you dare to prove me wrong?”

  “It’s a safe challenge for you to issue, Lieutenant, isn’t it, when you know that you have the only omnisword for a thousand miles?”

  “Not at all,” replied Avnai. “Captain Haraad doubtless has one in his quarters. It’s mine, taken from me the last time I was here.”

  “Aye, that he does,” said the sailing master.

  “Now will you meet me?” asked Avnai. “Or was your bravado just now another lie?”

  Ulzhe was trapped, Azriyqam saw, and he knew it.

  “Bring me the sword,” he grated, “and we’ll see who the liar is, you lowborn barbarian.”

  “Very good. Will you witness this duel, gentlemen?”

  The men nodded, grimly. Haraad looked as if he wanted to protest, but he met Ulzhe’s iron-hard stare, and the shorter man nodded. Azriyqam’s bowels turned to water. She’d seen that look before. It had stared out at her from Ambassador Celaeno’s eyes in the great hall of the Kreyntorm. This man was not frightened. Angry, yes, but he believed he could kill her brother.

  But Avnai is dangerous, too, she told herself. He has proven himself before.

  “The duel will take place on the fore of the quarterdeck,” intoned Elam. “It is the Law of the Sea.”

  “Are you mad?” cried out Rymel. “That’s too close to—”

  “Be silent!” snapped the older man. “I know where it is. It does not change the law, which has been bent, whittled, and broken too often of late. Isn’t that so, High Captain?”

  Haraad scowled but nodded. “‘Tis so.” He recovered himself. “Who’s your second?” he barked to Avnai.

  “My sister, Azriyqam, shall be my second. After all, she’s already slain one lying Consortium bureaucrat.”

  Azriyqam rose to her feet and walked to stand beside him. She was still terrified of the possibility that she might watch her brother die, but she wasn’t scared of being this close to a duel. Not anymore. “I’ll stand for Ulzhe,” said Haraad.

  Elam’s lips thinned. “It’s hardly appropriate for you to take sides in this, Captain, since it is this man’s word to you that is on trial by combat, here.”

  “I decide what’s appropriate, Elam. I’m the high captain.”

  “Yes, sir,” said the sailing master, voice unbent.

  He tried to warn you, Haraad, Azriyqam realized. When Avnai wins, your own reputation will suffer for backing the liar.

  The walk from the Parlor to the fore of the quarterdeck seemed to go on forever as they passed between masts and under sails. A crowd gathered, filling the deck as they walked, especially around Haraad. Younger men, the rough ones who worked the sails and the hull, crowded around, shouting encouragement.

  You’d think he was the one fighting, Azriyqam thought. But she was marked, too. The catcalls began, more than she had ever heard before. “She’s back! It’s true! The freak! And she’s brought more of them!”

  Avnai walked on, as if he were deaf to the cries, as did Elazar. Merav’s head darted from side to side, and they jeered at her, too.

  “Who’s the purple one? Do you think her ass is the same color?”

  Azriyqam quietly put a wing on her younger cousin’s shoulder and walked on, imitating her mentor and brother, trying to lend an assurance she by no means felt.

  More and more men climbed out of the rigging to watch, shouting the captain’s name. Azriyqam’s unease grew. How ugly will this turn when Avnai wins?

  The quarterdeck was the smallest on the great ship, but it was almost as large as the great hall in which she herself had fought. Avnai and Ulzhe would actually have more room, as there was no formal dueling circle, only the quarterdeck itself.

  Looking forward, Azriyqam could see a raised barricade of boxes and crates running from port to starboard about a third of the way from the bow of the ship.

  There are people behind them.

  They peered over the crates furtively at the activity, and not as if they were enjoying it. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before.

  “Zhad,” she whispered. “What do you think is going on?”

  “What’s going on where?” he asked. “I still need you to be my eyes if I’m supposed to tell you anything.”

  She described the barricade. “Is it anything you remember being done before?”

  “Not me. Seems stupid to move cargo and stores around on deck.”

  A young man—a boy, really—had brought Avnai’s old omnisword to Ulzhe. It shone with the same deadly gleam as the prince’s own in the cold morning light. Ulzhe shed his outer robes, and Avnai threw his uniform jacket aside. Azriyqam took his gun belt.

  The short man looked squarely built and muscular. He seemed to have doffed ten years along with his robes, but he was still older than Avnai. He hefted the omnisword, testing its balance. He looked like a man who knew what he was doing. Ulzhe tested the hilt-blade, the chopping blade of the shearing-guard, and the long blade, along its length, and was satisfied.

  Haraad stepped up beside him, and Azriyqam fell in line with Avnai. The sailing master stepped to the middle of the quarterdeck.

  “Let the aggrieved approach and state their cause.”

  Avnai spoke as was the challenger’s duty. “This man has lied and plans to destroy this ship. I will prove the truth of my words upon his body.”

  Ulzhe answered. “I deny and defy your lie and name you traitor to your nation and your sworn brothers in arms. This I will prove upon your dead body.”

  “Is there any hope one of you will ask pardon and forgiveness and withdraw from this combat?” Sailing Master Elam asked.

  “None whatsoever,” said Avnai.

  “None,” answered Ulzhe.

  “Then exchange your final words with one another, back five paces, and draw.” Elam withdrew to the edge of the quarterdeck.

  Ulzhe looked Avnai in the face with a searching gaze. “However did you find out about matters that should have been kept far, far away from you?” he asked, in a low voice.

  “Captain Haraad knows you plan to burn his ship down?” asked Avnai.

  Ulzhe chuckled, and Haraad leered. “It was part of the original plan. Haraad isn’t likely to inherit a Century Ship of his own for years, if ever, after the debacle with the garden-captain. But when he comes back with news of a valuable cargo, having heroically saved a few of his people by an attack by dragonriding pirates? Well, such a man is sure to get a command in the new fleet that the Grove will assemble to finally take their turn plundering you.”

  Azriyqam had never thought of that. The thought of losing to the Consortium was bad enough, but for Evenmarch to be conquered by the Grove… “With our forces to lead them, they will surely be victorious, and we will have traded a resentful ally for a grateful one,” finished Ulzhe.

  “Most of the Ship will know that this
man is a Consortium agent before the day is over,” said Azriyqam. “You’ll never stop that gossip. You don’t think people won’t know you led them into this trap?”

  “Yes,” said Ulzhe, with a sideways glance at Haraad. “We may not be able to save as many as we had planned, now.”

  “All my people will keep quiet and we’ve boats enough for them,” growled Haraad.

  She looked around her at the eager faces of the people she had grown up with. Her indifferent, mocking jailers. I could tell everyone the truth, and they would never believe me because I am me and Haraad is one of them. She couldn’t keep the look of loathing off her face.

  Haraad must have mistaken it for fear. “I haven’t forgotten what I owe you, either, freak.” His hand reached up and pulled down the scarf around his neck revealing a deep and ugly puckered scar. “You nearly killed me, and after this pirate brother of yours is dead, I mean to take my time with you.”

  Avnai’s smile was cold as a winter sea. “If my blade finds its mark, no power on this Ship will save you. If I die, my sister will fly from you and bring back from our home a vengeance so great that the Grove will shudder to hear the tales.”

  “That bitch can’t fly, but her wings will be the first thing I chop off of her.”

  “Goodbye, Ulzhe,’” said Avnai. “Unless you will be honest enough to give me your real name.”

  “Orders, I’m afraid,” returned the shorter man. “Goodbye, traitor.”

  Haraad stepped back. Azriyqam brushed Avnai with her fingers before turning and walking off the quarterdeck. The two men stepped five paces back and raised their swords. For an endless moment, they circled, studying one another, coming closer, like planets spiraling toward collision.

  When the clash came, the curved blades moved so fast that Azriyqam couldn’t follow the motions. The steel rang like the blows of a blacksmith’s forge in three lightning-fast exchanges, and then the two men were past each other, circling again, breathing hard, not so much from the exertion, but from their heightened awareness caused by the duel.

  Avnai cut right and left, using his longer reach to advantage. Ulzhe reversed his blade to parry the second blow and slammed the pommel blade at Avnai’s face. The short man was fast and strong. Avnai recoiled, drawing his sword back, making Ulzhe sway aside to avoid the curved, striking tip. Avnai struck again, and Ulzhe blocked the sword’s long blade with his own, stepped inside, and lashed out with a booted toe. Avnai shifted aside, so the boot didn’t crush his left kneecap as intended but connected solidly with the muscle of his upper thigh. He staggered back, parrying desperately. A pain in Azriyqam’s fingers told her she was biting her knuckles. She looked anxiously at Zhad.