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In his study, Roo closed the door. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’ he asked.
James sat in a chair opposite Roo’s desk. ‘From the expression on your face when I appeared at the door, pleasure isn’t what I think you feel.’
Roo said, ‘Well, it’s not often we have the Duke of Krondor show up unannounced a few minutes before bedtime.’
‘I can do without the fuss of letting you know I’m coming and throwing your household into an uproar. I don’t need another large meal with all the neighbors invited,’ said James. ‘Truth to tell, I know most of those with estates near here, and you’re among the few with whom I can have an interesting discussion.’
Roo looked dubious. ‘Would you care to stay the night, m’lord?’
‘My thanks for the offer, but I must continue my journey. I’m heading to your homeland, to have word with the Dowager Baroness and her son. She sent assassins to kill Erik.’
‘I was warned,’ said Roo. ‘I was also told you took the assassin into custody.’
‘Yes,’ said the Duke. His features were drawn and he looked as if he had done without sleep for too many days recently, but his eyes were still alert and they studied Roo’s face for a moment. ‘He’s been … seen to. The other man, though, he’s still out and about, and if he’s merely Baroness Mathilda’s errand boy, he’ll be back to Darkmoor by now and she may be hatching another plot. I have plans for you and Erik, so I’m personally going to see she stops trying to kill you,’ he said lightly. Then, with complete seriousness, he added, ‘Neither of you is to die until I say so.’
Roo sat back. There was really nothing more for him to say until the Duke told him what was on his mind. Roo knew he owed James several serious favors for his intervention in Roo’s almost unheard of rise to power and wealth, and he was certain James was here to collect one of those favors. He wouldn’t stop by just to let Roo know he was personally seeing to Erik’s and his safety.
After a moment of silence, James said, ‘I could do with a drink.’
Roo had the good grace to blush. ‘Sorry,’ he said, rising from his chair. He retrieved two crystal goblets and some expensive brandy in a matching decanter from a cabinet built into the wall next to a window overlooking one of Karli’s many gardens. He poured two generous measures, then handed one to the Duke.
James sipped and nodded his approval.
When Roo had returned to his chair, the Duke spoke. ‘I have a favor to ask.’
Roo was surprised. ‘You sound as if you really mean that.’
‘I do. We both know you owe me in a very large measure, but I can’t demand you go.’
‘Go where?’
‘Queg.’
‘Queg?’ Roo’s astonishment was genuine. ‘Why Queg?’
James paused a moment, as if weighing how much to tell Roo. He lowered his voice. ‘Confidentially, we’re going to have our hands full with the Emerald Queen’s fleet when it clears the Straits of Darkness. Nicky’s got some notion of hitting it halfway through, but to do that he’s got to have the bulk of our fleet on the Far Coast. That means we have no way of protecting our shipments from the Free Cities and Ylith when the enemy is in the Bitter Sea.’
‘You want to make a deal with Queg not to raid our shipping?’
‘No,’ said James. ‘I want you to negotiate a deal to hire Quegan warships as escorts for our ships.’
Roo looked like an owl greeted by a bright light. Then he laughed. ‘You want to bribe them.’
‘In a word, yes.’ James sipped at his brandy then lowered his voice, ‘And we want fire oil. Lots of it.’
‘Will they sell it?’
James sipped his drink. ‘Once, no. But they know we have the knowledge of making it, and have had it since the fall of Armengar. What we don’t have is the production facilities. Our agents tell us they have an abundant supply. I need at least five thousand barrels. Ten thousand would be better.’
‘That’s a lot of destruction,’ whispered Roo.
‘You know what’s coming, Roo,’ the Duke answered, his voice equally low.
Roo nodded. There was only one merchant in Krondor who had traveled to that distant land and seen firsthand the destruction visited upon innocents by the Emerald Queen. But there were other merchants with far better connections to be made with Queg. ‘Why me?’
‘You are a well-regarded curiosity, Roo Avery. Word of your rise has spread from Roldem to the Sunset Islands, and I’m counting on that curiosity to tip the balance.’
‘What balance?’ asked Roo.
James set his goblet on Roo’s desk. ‘Queg has many quaint and original laws, and not the least of these is the simple fact that a non-citizen of that mad little Empire had no legal rights. If you set foot on Quegan soil without a Quegan sponsor, you’re property for the first Quegan with a strong enough arm to toss a rope around you and make it stick. If you resist, even to save your life, that’s assault on a citizen.’ He made a rowing motion. ‘How do you feel about long ocean voyages?’
‘How long?’
‘Twenty years is the shortest sentence we’ve heard of.’
Roo sighed. ‘How do I get a sponsor?’
‘That’s the tricky part,’ said James. ‘We’ve had strained relations with Queg lately. Too much smuggling and raiding from our point of view, too little paying of duties for sailing on their ocean from their point of view. Our delegation was expelled from their court four years ago, and it’s going to take a while to get another installed.’
‘Sounds difficult,’ said Roo.
‘It is. But the thing you need to know about the Quegans is that their government serves two purposes: to keep order – by keeping the peasants beaten down – and to defend the island. The real power rests with their rich merchants. The oldest families have hereditary rights to a place on their ruling body, the Imperial Senate. Those with enough money can buy a seat.’
Roo grinned. ‘Sounds like my kind of place.’
‘I doubt you’d like it. Remember, aliens have no rights. If you irritate your sponsor, he can withdraw his protection at whim. That means you have to be very polite. Take lots of gifts.’
‘I can see what you mean.’ Roo reflected on what he had been told for a moment, then asked, ‘How am I supposed to get ashore to make this sort of sponsorship contact if you can’t provide an introduction?’
‘You’re an enterprising lad,’ said James, finishing his brandy. He stood. ‘You’ll find a way. Start sounding out your business associates. Once you get some names to contact, I can arrange to have one message smuggled into Queg without too much difficulty, but that’s about the limit of what I can do.’
Roo rose. ‘I suppose I’ll find a way.’ Already his mind was turning to the problem.
‘My carriage is waiting and I have some distance to travel,’ said the Duke as he reached the doorway.
James followed him and motioned for the serving girl, who was rooted to the same spot he had left her in, still holding the Duke’s cloak. She quickly helped the Duke on with it, and James stood aside while Roo opened the door.
James’s carriage was waiting just beyond the portal and Roo’s gateman made ready to escort the carriage back to the entrance to Roo’s estate.
As the carriage door was closed by a guard, James leaned out the window and said, ‘Don’t be too long. I’d like you to leave next month at the latest.’
Roo nodded, and closed the door. Karli hurried from the upstairs to ask, ‘What did the Duke want?’
‘I’m going to Queg,’ answered Roo.
‘Queg?’ responded his wife. ‘Isn’t that dangerous?’
Roo shrugged. ‘Yes. But for the moment, getting there is the problem.’ He yawned. Slipping his arm around her waist, he gave her a playful squeeze. ‘Right now I need some sleep. Let’s go to bed.’
She returned his merry tone with a rare smile. ‘I would like that.’
Roo led his wife upstairs.
Roo lay in darkness listening to Karli’s even breathing. Their lovemaking had been uninspired. Karli did nothing to arouse his desire, the way Sylvia Esterbrook did. He thought of Sylvia during his love play with his wife and felt vaguely guilty for it.
He had visited Sylvia almost weekly, often twice in a week, since the award ceremony at the palace, and he was still as excited by her as he had been the first time he had come to her bed. He quietly stood up and moved to the window.
Through the flawless glass, imported at great expense from Kesh, he could see the rolling hills of his estate. He had a brook that provided, he had been told, excellent fishing, and he had a small stand of woodlands to the north teeming with game. He had said he would fish and hunt like a noble, but he never seemed to find time. The only thing that he could remotely consider recreation was his time spent with Erik at the Sign of the Broken Shield, making love to Sylvia, or practicing his swordplay with his cousin Duncan.
He reviewed his life in a rare moment of reflection and had to consider himself both lucky and cursed. He was lucky that he had survived the murder of Stefan von Darkmoor, the journey to Novindus with Captain Calis, and his confrontation with the Jacoby Brothers. More, he was now one of the wealthiest merchants in Krondor. He felt blessed to be a family man, though his wife was not someone he cared to consider; he had long since admitted to himself he had married Karli out of pity and guilt: he felt responsible for the death of her father.
His children confused him. They were alien little creatures, demanding things he could only vaguely recognize as needs. And they tended to smell at the most inconvenient times. Abigail was a shy child who often burst into tears and ran from him if he raised his voice even in the slightest, and Helmut was teething, which led to his constantly spitting up the contents of his stomach, usually on a fresh tunic that Roo had just put on. He knew that had he not married Karli, he would now be wed to Sylvia. He didn’t understand love, as others talked about it, but Sylvia consumed his thoughts. She took him to heights of passion he had only dreamt of before he met her. He even imagined that had Sylvia been his wife, his children would be perfect, blond little creatures who smiled all the time and never spoke unless it was required by their father. He sighed. Even if Sylvia had been their mother, Abigail and Helmut would be odd, alien creatures, he was sure.
He saw a cloud moving across the sky, blocking the big moon, the only one showing this time of night. As the vista beyond the window darkened, so did his mood. Sylvia, he wondered silently to himself. He was beginning to doubt she was in love with him; maybe it was some doubt about himself, he thought, but he just couldn’t truly believe someone such as himself could capture her interest, let alone her heart. Still, she seemed relieved when he could arrange to visit her and her father, especially if he could spend the night. Her lovemaking was always inventive and enthusiastic, but as the months wore by, he suspected everything wasn’t as it seemed to be. He also suspected she might be giving information to her father that cost Roo in his business. He decided he would have to be more careful what he said to Sylvia. He didn’t think she was getting information out of him to give to her father, but a chance remark repeated over dinner might give the crafty old Jacob enough of an edge to better his younger rival.
Stretching, he watched as the cloud rolled past. Sylvia was a strange and unexpected presence in his life, a miracle. Yet doubts continued to stir. He wondered what Helen Jacoby would make of this. Thinking of Helen made him smile. While she was the widow of a man he had gotten killed, they had become friends and, truth to tell, he enjoyed talking to her more than either Karli or Sylvia.
Roo sighed. Three women, and he didn’t know what to make of any of them. He softly left the bedchamber and crossed to the room he used as his office. Opening a chest, he extracted a wooden box and lifted the lid. In the moonlight rested a brilliant set of matched rubies, five large stones as large as his thumb and a dozen smaller ones, all cut in identical fashion.
He had tried to sell the set in the East, but too many gem merchants recognized it for what it was, stolen goods. The case was inscribed with the name of the owner, a Lord Vasarius.
Roo laughed softly. He had cursed his luck at being unable to sell the gems, but now he counted himself fortunate. He knew that in the morning he would tell his apprentice Dash to inform his grandfather, Duke James, that when he was ready to send his message to Queg, he knew what it would say:
‘My Lord Vasarius. My name is Rupert Avery, merchant of Krondor. I have recently come into possession of an item of great value I am certain belongs to you. May I have the pleasure of returning it to you in person?’
The ship rocked gently inside the huge harbor that was the entrance to the city of Queg, capital of the island nation of the same name. Roo watched with fascination as they edged close to the quay.
Huge war galleys crowded the harbor, along with dozens of smaller ships and boats, from large trading vessels down to tiny fishing smacks. For an island the size of Queg, it seemed an improbably busy port.
Roo had studied as much as he could on the hostile island nation, asking his trading partners, old soldiers and sailors, and anyone else who could give him an ‘edge,’ as the gamblers like to say. When the Empire of Great Kesh had withdrawn from the Far Coast and what were now the Free Cities, pulling out her legions to send south to fight rebellious nations in the Keshian Confederacy, the Governor of Queg had revolted.
A child of the then Emperor of Kesh, from his fourth or fifth wife, he claimed one gods-inspired divine reason or another that led to the founding of the Empire of Queg. This tiny nation of former Keshians, mixed with local islanders through intermarriage, would have been something of a joke save for two factors. The first was that the island was volcanic and had some of the richest farmland north of the Vale of Dreams, surrounded by unusual local currents so that it was the most clement climate in the Bitter Sea – meaning it was self-sufficient when it came to feeding its populace – and the second was its navy.
Queg had the largest navy in the Bitter Sea, a fact of life constantly driven home by its regular harassment and occasional seizure of Kingdom, Keshian, and Free Cities ships. Besides Queg’s claim that it had territorial rights throughout the Bitter Sea – a legacy of that long-ago claim on this sea by Kesh – there was the additional irritation of its pirates. Often galleys without flags would raid along the Kingdom coast or the Free Cities, down even along the far western coast of the Empire in a bold year, and at every turn the Emperor and Senate of Queg denied knowledge.
More than once Roo had heard from a minor palace official, ‘And all they’ll ever say is, “we are a poor nation, surrounded on all sides by enemies.”’
Odd shadows skimming across the water caused Roo to lift his eyes aloft, and they opened wide in amazement. ‘Look!’
Jimmy, grandson of Lord James, and his brother, Dash, both looked up and observed a formation of giant birds flying out to sea. Jimmy was along at his grandfather’s insistence, which caused Roo no small amount of discomfort. Dash worked for him, at least nominally, and was a reliable apprentice trader. Jimmy worked for his grandfather, though Roo wasn’t certain in what capacity. He was certain it wasn’t accounting. For a brief instant Roo wondered if the Quegans would hang the entire party if the boys were accused of being spies, or just him.
The brothers didn’t resemble each other much, Jimmy looking mostly like his grandmother, fine-boned and with pale hair, while Dash, like his father, Lord Arutha, with a mass of curly brown hair and a broad open face. But they shared more than most brothers in attitude and cunning. And he knew where they got that attitude: from their grandfather.
‘Eagles,’ said Jimmy. ‘Or something like them.’
‘I thought they were only a legend,’ said Dash.
‘What are they?’ asked Jimmy.
‘Giant birds of prey, harnessed and ridden like ponies.’
‘Someone’s riding on them?’ asked Roo in disbelief, as the ship was hauled into the quay by dock workers catching ropes tossed to them by deckhands.
‘Little people,’ said Jimmy. ‘Men who have been chosen for generations for their tiny size.’
Dash said, ‘Legend has it that a Dragon Lord flew them as birds of prey, as you or I might fly a falcon, ages ago. These are the descendants of those birds.’
Roo said, ‘You could do a lot with a flock of those in battle.’
‘Not really,’ suggested Jimmy. ‘They can’t carry much and they tire easily.’
‘You suddenly know a great deal about them,’ suggested Roo.
‘Rumors, nothing more,’ said Jimmy with a grin.
‘Or reports on your grandfather’s desk?’ suggested Roo.
Dash said, ‘Look at the reception committee.’
Jimmy said, ‘Whatever you wrote, Mr Avery, it seems to have done the trick.’
Roo said, ‘I merely informed Lord Vasarius I had something of value that belonged to him, and wished to give it back.’
The gangway was rolled out, and as Roo made to leave, the ship’s Captain put a restraining hand on his chest. ‘Better to do this by custom, Mr Avery, sir.’
The Captain called ashore. ‘Mr Avery and party from Krondor. Have they leave to come ashore?’
A large delegation of Quegans stood waiting, surrounding a man in a litter, carried by a dozen muscular slaves. Each wore a robe with a fancy drape that hung over one shoulder, what Roo had been told was called a toga. In the cold months, the locals wore wool tunic and trousers, but in the hot months of spring, summer, and early fall, this light cotton garb was the preferred dress of the wealthy. One of the men said in the King’s Tongue, ‘Please come ashore as our guest, Mr Avery and party.’
The Captain said, ‘Who speaks?’
‘Alfonso Velari.’
The Captain removed his hand from Roo’s chest. ‘You are now invited to set foot on Quegan soil, Mr Avery. You’re a free man until that Velari fellow withdraws his protection. By custom he’s supposed to let you know a day in advance. We’ll be waiting here, ready to up anchor and set sail at a moment’s notice.’
Roo regarded the man, one of his many ship’s masters, named Bridges, and said, ‘Thank you, Captain.’
‘We’re at your disposal, sir.’
As he stepped on the gangway, Roo overheard Dash mumble to Jimmy, ‘Of course he’s at Roo’s disposal. Roo owns the ship!’
Jimmy laughed softly, and the brothers fell silent.
Roo walked down the gangway and stopped before Velari. He was a short man of middle years, with hair cut close to his head and oiled. Roo was reminded of Tim Jacoby, for he also had sported a Quegan style of hair. ‘Mr Avery?’ asked the Quegan.
‘At your service, sir.’
‘Not mine, gentle Mr Avery. I am but one of many servants to Lord Vasarius.’
