Burning Tower (31 page)

R
egapisk, no longer Lord, beamed a smile at the pretty waitress. Her name was Laughing Rock. He'd learned she was the proprietor's daughter and would sometimes give a free breakfast to a handsome young man down on his luck. Regapisk thought he fitted that description well enough. She'd already brought him flat corn cakes and a hot drink of herbs and sage honey even though he'd made it clear enough that he couldn't pay. Regapisk sipped at the hot sweet drink and smiled again.

“Lord Reg.” A man's voice. Behind him.

Regapisk leaped to his feet, his hand on the hilt of the bronze sword. Laughing Rock shrieked.

“Steady, Lord Reg,” Captain Saziff said. He grinned nervously. “I see you have found new clothing.” Saziff spoke in the language of the Tep's Town kinless dock-workers. No one here would understand that.

Laughing Rock and her father stood at the kitchen entrance, their brows furrowed. Regapisk thought briefly of sending her father for help. He owned this place; he ought to have influence with the local watchmen. But he'd also made it clear that he had his doubts about Regapisk as a suitor. Better to keep this private for the moment. “And I heard you were sailing this morning,” Regapisk said. He looked around for friends but saw no one but the girl and her elderly father.
Where's Arshur when I need him?

“I'd planned that,” Saziff said. “But I have one last errand to perform before I can safely return to Condigeo and Lord's Town. I have looked for you for the past three days without success.”

Regapisk nodded warily. “I know.” He had seen the Oarmaster and several sailors from
Angie Queen
going through the town, and they'd asked Ruser the jeweler if he had seen anyone from Lord's Town. “You're not armed,” Regapisk said.

Saziff laughed. “No, and I'm alone. I haven't come to take you back! I couldn't, you know, even if I wanted to. I've had to keep all the rowing crew in chains the whole time we've been here. If one of them gets outside the dock area, he's free. It's the law here—didn't you know that?”

“No.”

“Well, it is! You, sir, do you speak Condigeano?”

“Some.” Black Stone kept his arm around his daughter. “What is all this?”

Saziff explained.

The old man nodded. “It is as he says. Crescent City has no slaves and allows no one else but the Emperor to hold slaves beyond the docks. You are safe here. If anyone tried to take you by force, we would send for the watch.” He eyed Regapisk coldly. “I had wondered where you gained those muscular arms.”

Regapisk ignored that and turned to Saziff. “Then why were you looking for me?” He could afford to scowl now, and did.

Saziff chuckled. “Why, man, you're rich!”

“Rich?” Regapisk and Black Stone spoke together.

“Well, not rich, then, but you won't starve. Your relatives in Lordshills sent money for you. I gave it to the money changer in your name, but now I have to introduce you to Jade Coin so that you can collect. Come on, man, you're making me miss the tide!”

 

The money changer's hogan seemed different from the others. The entrance faced north, and logs formed a kind of anteroom to the main part. Saziff led Regapisk past the armed men who sat at the entrance, but two stopped him to relieve Regapisk of his sword. Then they waved him on.

Jade Coin had almond-shaped eyes, and his coloring was different from that of the citizens of Crescent City. He looked like a Tep's Town kinless. He listened quietly as Captain Saziff spoke.

“This is Regapisk. I have left money and goods in his name.”

Jade Coin nodded and turned his half-closed eyes on Regapisk. “Do you understand the terms?” he asked. His voice was smooth like old cloth.

Regapisk said, “Only that you have money for me.”

“I do,” Jade Coin said. “Not to be paid all at once, and not to be paid at all when there is a ship in harbor or a wagon train forming to go west.”

“You can pay him for all of me,” Saziff said. “I'd as soon have a loose rattlesnake aboard as a former oarsman for a passenger.”

“I understand. There is also a caravan departing for Condigeo.”

“They'll never let me on that!” Regapisk protested. “And I sure can use some money. Clothes, food…”

“As to that, I have no problems,” Jade Coin said. He took a small bag of coins from somewhere beneath his table and poured them out. A dozen copper coins and two small gold. “That will be more than enough to buy clothing and food. Come see me when it is exhausted.”

“So how much am I worth?” Regapisk asked.

Jade Coin shrugged. “Over your lifetime, possibly quite a lot. Not all is here. Some was sent in obligations of money changers in Condigeo, to be exchanged another time as I need. But however much, you will never have it all at once. Such are my instructions.”

“I am done here,” Saziff announced. “Lord Reg, it has been my honor to know you. Perhaps we will meet again, but not as shipmates.”

Regapisk considered this. He was rich but he couldn't claim the money! Who had done this to him? How had Sandry accomplished this? But in any case, now he could do better than charm a silly girl for bread and hot tea.
Very nice girl,
he added to himself,
but silly.

Regapisk bowed. “Good morning, Captain. And a pleasant voyage. Give my regards to the Oarmaster, and…” He paused, then selected four of the copper coins. “And use these to buy extra rations for my benchmates.”

Saziff regarded the money with a slight smile. “I'll just do that, Lord Reg. I'm sure they'll be grateful.” He made an economical bow that took in both Regapisk and Jade Coin, and left.

And with luck, I'll never see you again,
Regapisk thought.

“There is one more matter,” Jade Coin said. He struck a metal rod held in place by small clay supports. It rang with a soft tone, and a girl, almost certainly Jade Coin's daughter, came in. “That box the captain left with us,” he said softly. “Bring it, please.”

The girl nodded. Minutes later, she returned with two boxes, one long and slender. “I presumed you wanted both.”

“I did. My thanks.” Jade Coin waited until she had left. “This first item you may not have until you have left this establishment. The other is yours immediately.” He pushed the smaller box across the table.

It held treasures. A small mirror. A carved ivory fork and spoon, and a pewter bowl. A salamander brooch of the kind that Lords wore when traveling away from Lord's Town. A sigil stone cylinder seal, his own, that had been taken from him before he joined the ship. Regapisk quelled a powerful urge to weep.

And a rolled-up letter.

Regapisk opened it carefully. Aunt Shanda's handwriting leaped out at him.

Reggy read it through twice. That was Shanda, all right, and she meant it. Witnessed and signed.

He wasn't ever going home again. It began to sink in. This was no adventure from which he would return. His life as a Lord of Lordshills was over. He wouldn't be in the army or become a Witness or conduct a business or marry a wealthy girl and manage her estates. He wouldn't be a leader in the Fire Brigades or return to his duties at the harbor. He would never go home again.

Regapisk, now Lord again, put on the brooch Aunt Shanda had enclosed, and bowed. “My thanks, Jade Coin. I believe we may have further business to conduct.”

“As you say,” Jade Coin said. His smile was unreadable.

Lord Regapisk bowed again and left.

T
he jeweler's hogan faced east. Master Ruser lived alone, and had invited Regapisk and Arshur to share his quarters—whether out of pity or for companionship, they didn't know.

It was a bare place. Ruser had sold nearly everything he owned to stay alive during the siege. Now he had barely enough to live on himself, yet he shared with Arshur and Regapisk. He said it was because they had been kind to his old friend Zephans Mishagnos.

Regapisk found Arshur and Ruser at the table in the hogan's main room.

“Rejoice,” Regapisk said. “We're rich.”

“Rich,” Arshur said. “How rich?”

“Indeed,” Ruser the jeweler said. “I would never have expected that.”

“Well, I don't have it all yet,” Regapisk said. “But I'm rich enough to buy us a good dinner, and food for the week. And look, I have a new sword.”

He handed it over to Arshur. It had a tooled leather grip, and the scabbard was thin wood bound in tooled leather. The blade was leaf-shaped.

Arshur hefted it thoughtfully. “Good balance. Nice grip,” Arshur said. “I think I know the kinless who forged it. I like iron better than bronze, but this is good bronze. Should hold an edge.” He swung it experimentally. “Yep, a good one. Where'd you buy it?”

“I didn't. It was a present from Aunt Shanda,” Regapisk said. “It was on board the
Angie Queen
all the time.” He explained the arrangement with Jade Coin. “So I have money, but I have to stay here to collect it. Master Ruser, my gratitude for your hospitality, and we can pay our share now.”

“I'm not staying,” Arshur said. “I'm going to Aztlan to be king.”

Ruser nodded. “You are determined, then?”

“I've always known I would be a king,” Arshur said. “And I will be.”

“How do you propose to get to Aztlan?” Ruser asked.

“I'll hire out as a sword for Ern's caravan! That will get me to the trading posts. From there?” Arshur shrugged. “Leave that to my fate.”

“I know the way to Aztlan,” Ruser said carefully. “I am minded to go again.”

“Yes! You've been there,” Regapisk said.

“I have been to the caravansary that stands next to the Palace of War,” Ruser said. “While I was there, a boat arrived. From Atlantis!”

“A long time ago, then,” Arshur said.

“Half a lifetime,” Ruser agreed. “But I was not invited inside the city itself. My brother Flensevan was invited in. I have scarce heard from him since. Is he married? Does he prosper? I would see him again before I die—not to mention that he owes me money. He will not leave Aztlan, but perhaps he will come to the gate to speak with me.”

“Can you take me to that gate?” Arshur demanded.

“Perhaps. If I had any way of going.” He gestured to indicate the empty shelves that should have held his goods. “I have uncharged talismans. If I sell them to buy a wagon, I will have nothing else.”

Regapisk fingered his brooch and touched the cylinder seal sigil now bound to his wrist.
I am a Lord of Lordshills. Without assignment, without duties, except to act like a Lord. And what does that mean? Arshur is ready, eager, to go to Aztlan. What will happen to him there, or on the way?

He sighed, remembering a promise he had made. Whatever else Lords did, they kept their obligations and paid their debts.
Tras Preetror gave me an obligation, and I accepted it: look out for Arshur. A nearly impossible task. The outlander barbarian does as he wills.

“I'm coming with you,” Regapisk said.

Arshur nodded as if there had never been any doubt about that.

“In what capacity?” Ruser asked with amusement.

“He's not bad with a good sword,” Arshur said. “Better than any bandits we've met around here.”

Regapisk still found that astonishing, but it was true. “I'll fight if it's needed,” Regapisk said. “But I had something else in mind. Master Jeweler Ruser, I'd like to be your partner.”

 

Jade Coin was willing enough, provided that the caravan was not going west. He seemed almost enthusiastic when he learned that Ruser of Low Street would be a partner. Regapisk left the details to be negotiated by Ruser. Haggling was not a skill a Lord was expected to know.

Presently, he found they had two wagons for the three of them. “I could have had more,” Ruser told them, as he led them toward the wagon camp. “You have more credit, and Jade Coin decided he would invest his own resources after he saw Arshur.” Ruser shrugged. “He doesn't know your friend won't be coming back. But two wagons is just right. My talismans don't take up much room. We don't have bulky cargo: my uncharged talismans, and gold from Jade Coin to pay our taxes at Sunfall.”

“So what now?” Arshur demanded.

“You must meet Wagonmaster Ern,” Ruser said. He sighed. “And usually we would buy provisions for the trip, but those will be very dear.”

“Plenty of terror bird jerky,” Arshur said. He spat.

“Better than starvation,” Ruser said. “Yes. And you lads can hunt. We should manage.”

“Hunt better with a chariot,” Regapisk said.

“A chariot. You continue to surprise me. You know how to drive a chariot?”

“I do,” Regapisk said. “Lords are taught these things.”

“A chariot,” Ruser said again. “Would Arshur be your spear man?”

“I know how,” Arshur said.

“There are horses here?” Regapisk asked.

“Mules,” Ruser said. “Not as fast as horses, but horses are very rare here. There are also mares. Perhaps something can be arranged to take mares to Sunfall and return them to foal. The Emperor demands that all stallions be kept in his dominions, and since the terror bird attacks began, no mares have been put to stud. There is a tax for breeding horses, and it must be done there in his domains.”

Regapisk pointed toward the corrals where the wagon train was forming. “Those are horses, and that is a stallion.” He paused. “Oh.”

Ruser looked the question at him.

“It's Sandry's team,” Regapisk said. “I suppose that means that Sandry will be going on this wagon train.”

“You have reason to dislike your countryman?” Ruser asked. “I believe you told us once that you did not know him at all.”

Regapisk opened his mouth to speak but thought better of it. “He broke a promise to me once. It was a long time ago.”

“I suggest you mend your quarrel with him,” Ruser said. “We will be on that trail for a long time.”

“I'll do that,” Regapisk said. “Let's go have a drink while I think how.”