Dragon Traders (3 page)

He pulled his thoughts back to the task at hand, spotting and discounting the two servants in the room. Dressed as footmen, they had the musculature of swordsmen and the stillness of predators.

The room had two doors; the one through which Ashe had entered, and a door nearly hidden by a long tapestry tucked back into one corner. The furniture was heavy wood: a table and comfortable chairs on a plush carpet in the middle of the room. Along the far wall were cages closed with heavy chain and padlocks, their contents ranging from piles of shimmery cloth to an actual griffon prowling back and forth behind iron bars. Ashe blinked at it several times; it had to be a juvenile. But to have one captive at all...

A few of the cages were empty, and a few more covered with heavy cloth. He wondered what was inside those.

Finally, he brought his eyes to the merchant waiting for him, pouring two glasses of brandy. Byron Tackalle was lean and as richly dressed as his surroundings. Long, dark hair was tied neatly back at the nape of his neck, spilling down the outside of a perfectly fitted coat.

"Drink?" Byron asked, lifting one glass toward Ashe.

Ashe walked across the carpet, treading lightly so as not to dislodge all the travel dirt from his boots onto it. "Thank you." He set the saddlebags down carefully, then reached across and took the snifter.

Byron sipped, eying him. "You aren't what I expected."

Ashe guessed that meant he was filthier than Byron had expected. "Just rode in this morning. I don't have long, so I didn't bother to find a room at an inn." Ashe grinned. "At least it's dry out, and I'm not tracking mud."

A smile touched the thin line of Byron's mouth, but didn't reach his eyes. "Of course. I also meant I wasn't expecting an elf. We don't get many of your people this far east."

"More dwarves," Ashe agreed, remembering the cluster of them at the gates. "Your country trades pretty well with them, and there's quite the population along the eastern border. But farther north there's land disputes, and things aren't too friendly between our races. With the exception of us wanderers, there's not much overlap between elves and dwarves." He stopped speaking purposely, reminding himself that neither Nate nor Katsu chattered when they were nervous. They'd be calm and collected, even in opulence like this.

Byron nodded politely and gestured to a chair. "Please. Sit. If you haven't much time here, we should begin business."

Ashe pulled out a chair and sat, bracing himself. This was the hard part. Nate negotiated for the team. Katsu always did his own negotiating for medical supplies. Ashe knew his weakness was the human obsession with gold, but he had an idea of how much Katsu expected for the eggs, and when to walk away, and a script to follow getting there -- but only if Byron didn't have any surprises. Nate didn't trust him; that spoke volumes.

Ashe sipped his brandy to wet his throat, glanced once more at the exits -- each guarded by a swordsman-cum-servant -- and folded his hands in front of him on the table. That, at least, would keep him from fidgeting. Katsu had expressly told him not to fidget.

Byron actually looked comfortable, lounging back in his chair, framed by cages containing riches. "What is your asking price?"

Ashe took a deep breath and spoke as firmly as he could. "One-fifty gold." Gold, Katsu had reminded him, was usable no matter which country you were in.

"For all of them?"

He snorted, relaxing at a question that seemed absurd even to him. "Per egg."

"I'll give you six hundred gold for the bunch."

Ashe sat back, sprawling out. This was going to be easier than he'd expected: Katsu had told him to walk for anything less than twelve hundred. In fact, Katsu had said it was unlikely they'd sell them all, and that getting a hundred apiece for them, if Byron didn't want the whole bunch, would be good.

So far it was going exactly like Katsu had predicted. "There are fifteen eggs here. I'm not taking six hundred gold."

Byron spread his arms as if to encompass everything behind him. "You see the extent of my riches. I'm afraid I simply don't have as much gold as you'd like. Eight hundred."

He'd bet piss there was more gold than that around here. "Two thousand."

At the way Byron sat up straight, he guessed two thousand was probably high. "Two thousand," Byron said frostily, "is out of the question. Nine hundred, and I'll offer you trade."

Katsu had said Byron would probably try something like this. Ashe relaxed enough to grin, showing off slightly pointed canines. It wasn't so hard to bargain -- at least, not when he knew what his script was. He kicked his feet onto the tabletop, dust puffing off his boots. With one hand, he picked up his brandy and sipped, swirling it around in the glass first.

"Nine
teen
hundred," he countered. "No trade." Wouldn't Katsu be impressed if he got
more
than the minimum!

Byron hesitated, then covered any ire with a smile and relaxed. "I see we are at an impasse. Perhaps we should discuss what we each desire, so we may each walk away best pleased."

Ashe's mind skipped ahead, embracing the game. What
did
Katsu want as the ultimate goal? To be rid of them. A great, big pile of money. Maybe some herbal junk, but Ashe had no idea what kind.

Mostly, a great, big pile of money.

What
Ashe
wanted was what Ashe always wanted: to get some attention and have a little fun. So far, Byron was helping him quite a bit at both.

It took them almost an hour to come to some kind of agreement, with Ashe offering virtually no help at all to poor Byron. It was subtle, but he could see the annoyance he garnered.

"Thirteen hundred is a higher price than I'd like to pay," Byron said, standing finally, "but I can see you won't go any lower. I don't have that kind of gold here. I'll have to send to the bank for a draft. You understand, I'm sure."

Ashe nodded, feeling rather magnanimous. "Of course. Silly to keep piles of gold here." Thirteen hundred! They could practically retire on that! Or Katsu could -- Ashe was privately glad he wouldn't have to carry around big piles of money. It took up entirely too much space.

Byron stood, walking to a sideboard and pulling out paper and a pen.

That any merchant had the kind of money they'd been talking about was amazing. Or at least, Ashe thought it probably was: he didn't really know any other merchants. Regardless, Katsu had told him it was unlikely they'd sell all the eggs; they'd been aiming for five at least. Ashe congratulated himself. He must be a hell of a negotiator! He leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head.

The world did one slow revolution.

"We don't get many elves around here," Byron commented, writing something at the sideboard in the corner. A note to the bank, Ashe assumed.

"You said that earlier." Ashe sat up. Too much brandy. His glass was empty; he remembered it being refilled at least once. Byron's was empty, too.

"They're quite in demand, over the Kashlilian Sea."

"I'm sorry?" Ashe asked, confused. "They?" His mind slogged through his thoughts with great effort. He turned slowly. One of the guards at the door was gone.

"Costs a pretty penny to ship them over, you know. It's almost not worth the price." Byron turned to face him, waving the parchment as ink dried. His gaze was considering.

The world lurched again. Ashe stood carefully, planting his feet to make sure they remained under him. As slowly as his brain was working, he could still tell there was something wrong. "I'll take that and be going."

"More worth the price when they come carrying fifteen dragon eggs." Byron smiled. "That's worth a great deal."

The Kashlilian Sea was eastward, deep over the border where elves rarely went. The slave trade thrived eastward. It was said that the island lords kept unusual creatures and prided themselves on having the rarest of people as captive servants -- or slaves.

Ashe leaped for the unguarded door. The world wasn't quite where he expected it to be, though. He stumbled, dropping hard to one knee. Something caught his hair, yanking his head up, and a moment later a cloth whipped over his head and across the lower half of his face. He twisted. A knee came down in the small of his back, pinning him in place. The ground melted away from him. He had no purchase to fight.

"Don't struggle," Byron said calmly, still across the room. "Takes a while for the drugs to kick in on your kind, but once they do, they stick pretty well. Here I was expecting someone a little more exotic -- but a little less susceptible in the long term."

Someone wrenched one arm behind his back, and then the other. He tried to kick his legs, but couldn't be sure they even moved. His vision blurred. Objects extended. He closed his eyes to keep from getting sick, and felt rope bind his wrists together.

When the weight moved off his back, he tried to run again. He hit the ground several times but never seemed to rise. Hands at his legs. Rope binding his ankles. Cloth yanked down off his face, blunt fingers digging painfully into his jaw. He couldn't stop it from opening. Someone shoved scratchy material into his mouth, nearly gagging him. The cloth was yanked back up to hold it in place. He was pretty sure that the world twisted and swirled because he'd been picked up.

Pretty sure, but not positive.

***

"He should have been back by now," Katsu growled.

Eddie didn't disagree. Katsu's dark eyes twitched to fix on her, then back to his hand of cards. Neither of them were paying attention to the game. Both of them had been watching the door.

Still no sign of Ashe.

"Even if things had gone wrong, and he'd gotten lost, and
then
he'd gotten mugged, he should be back by
now,
" Katsu continued.

Eddie looked at the clock standing in one corner of the room. It had been four hours since Ashe had walked out to get the eggs. They'd eaten lunch, explored the streets between the tavern and the club, talked to the club's servants to see if Ashe had left. Eddie had even crept into the club's stables, and inside found Ashe's horse. Now they were back at the tavern, trying to come up with a plan and decide if this was a natural delay or something sinister.

Eddie folded her cards together and set them down. "We need to go back for the others."

Katsu's lips pursed. He stared at his cards as if they'd tell him everything he needed to know. "There's no time. Even riding hard, it's a day out and a day back. Something's wrong now, and Byron leaves in the morning."

Eddie shuffled her hand and spread the cards back out. "Byron leaving tomorrow might be to our advantage. He's practically fortified where he is, but if he leaves, then he'll have to leave Ashe here. Or he'll be on the road
with
Ashe, and we've taken caravans before."

"You heard what the chambermaid said. Byron practically travels with an army. He expects raids. He's carting a fortune." Katsu looked out over the taproom, but Eddie doubted he really saw anything going on. "Besides, if he decided it was cheaper just to kill Ashe and take the eggs--"

"Then we might already be too late, and there's no harm in fetching the others," Eddie cut in.

Katsu shook his head. Tiny movements one way and then the other, barely a head shake at all. "Or he's sprawled out poisoned or bleeding somewhere, and running out of time."

Eddie shuffled her cards again, picking up the deck and tapping them all together. She leaned across the rickety table, steadied it when it rocked toward her, and stared hard at Katsu. "Two of us alone can't do much. Even if Ashe is bleeding out somewhere, we aren't going to be able to find him without help. Even if we knew where he was, we wouldn't be able to get to him without a lot of manpower and some serious plans."

Katsu closed his eyes for a moment. His brows knit together as if he were in pain, and finally he leaned toward her as well, opening his eyes to fix her with an intense stare. "I can't just ride out of here without him. Not even knowing I'll be coming back. Too many things could happen in between."

Eddie studied him, trying to gauge where his interests lay, how she could convince him. For a moment, his mask slipped. Cracks appeared, letting emotions bleed through where she could see them. Worry -- no, fear. Helplessness. A defeated certainty. Determination.

Eddie sat back, mulling through options and new information. She didn't think she could drag Katsu away. He sat back as well, his cards stacked in front of him. Eddie collected them up, shuffled them into the deck, and pulled the top card.

Jack of spades, with a sickle blade. She slid it back into the middle. "All right. You stay here. I'll ride. I'll try and be back with the others in the early morning, before Byron is ready to leave.
Don't do anything stupid.
Just watch him, and if he does try to leave... I don't know. Delay him somehow. Break an axle on one of his wagons." Her chair screeched across the wood floor as she pushed back and stood, looking around. "We'll get you a room."

"What am I going to do in a room?" Katsu muttered darkly.

"You're going to keep from doing anything stupid." Eddie glared at Katsu as if she could force him to maintain his composure by will alone. "We may need a medic, and we're going to have a hell of a time saving both you
and
Ashe. I'm serious, Katsu. Don't be dumb."

He stood as well, movements stiff. "You can't expect me to do nothing all night. I can at least ask around. I can't just sit here while he could be dying somewhere--" Katsu cut off, visibly restraining himself. His hands curled into knots at his sides. Then, as he took a deep breath, they relaxed. When he looked at Eddie again, his mask was back in place, impassive and impervious. "I'll be smart. You get back here with the others quickly."

Eddie studied him for a long moment, but if there was anything to be read in his expression, it was far too subtle for her. "I will," she said at last.

It took only a few minutes to hail the tavern keeper and negotiate for a night's stay. Another few minutes to collect Katsu's belongings from his horse and pay for the horse and packhorse's overnight lodging in the stable. Eddie tightened her girth and bridled her mare, eying the sun. It was past midday, but not by too much. The sun hadn't fallen far. She mounted, wheeling her horse around to face Katsu once more. "We should be back no later than lunch tomorrow. Try and delay him leaving until then. Hopefully he'll have lots to load up and won't even try to leave earlier."