The Gentleman Bastard Series 3-Book Bundle: The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves (110 page)

“Very good,” said Stragos, appearing out of the darkness a few strides behind the
dog team. “Everything’s prepared. You two, come with me. Sword-prefect, you and yours
are dismissed.”

The Eyes turned as one and marched off toward the palace, their boots crunching faintly
on the gravel underfoot. Stragos beckoned to Locke and Jean, then led them down to
the water’s edge. There, a boat floated on the still water, lashed to a little post
behind the boathouse. The craft seemed to be built for four, with a leather-padded
bench up front and another at the
stern. Stragos gestured again, for Locke and Jean to climb down into the forward bench.

Locke had to admit it was pleasant enough, settling against the cushions and resting
his arm against the gunwale of the sturdy little craft. Stragos rocked the boat slightly
as he stepped down behind them, untied the lashing, and settled on his own bench.
He took up an oar and dipped it over the left gunwale. “Tannen,” he said, “be so kind
as to light our bow lantern.”

Jean glanced over his shoulder and spotted a fist-sized alchemical lantern in a faceted
glass hanging off his side of the boat. He fiddled with a brass dial atop the lantern
until the vapors inside mingled and sputtered to life, like a sky-blue diamond casting
ghosts of the lantern’s facets on the water below.

“This was here when the dukes of the Therin Throne built their palace,” said Stragos.
“A channel cut down into the glass, eight yards deep, like a private river. These
gardens were built around it. We archons inherited this place along with the Mon Magisteria.
While my predecessor was content with still waters, I have made modifications.”

As he spoke, the sound of the water lapping against the sides of the channel became
louder and more irregular. Locke realized that the rushing, gurgling noise slowly
rising around them was the sound of a current flowing through the river. The bow lantern’s
reflected light bobbed and shifted as the water beneath it undulated like dark silk.

“Sorcery?” asked Locke.

“Artifice, Lamora.” The boat began to slide gently away from the side of the channel,
and Stragos used the oar to align them in the center of the miniature river. “There’s
a strong breeze blowing from the east tonight, and windmills at the far side of my
garden. They can be used to drive waterwheels beneath the surface of the channel.
In still air, forty or fifty men can crank the mechanisms by hand. I can call the
current up as I see fit.”

“Any man can fart in a closed room and say that he commands the wind,” said Locke.
“Though I will admit, this whole garden is … more elegant than I would have given
you credit for.”

“How pleasant, to have your good opinion of my aesthetic sense.” Stragos steered them
in silence for a few minutes after that, around a wide turn, past hanging banks of
silver creeper and the rustle of leaves on low-hanging branches. The smell of the
artificial river rose up around them as the current strengthened—not unpleasant, but
more stale and less
green
, somehow, than the scent of natural ponds and rivers Locke recalled.

“I presume this river is a closed circuit,” said Jean.

“A meandering one, but yes.”

“Then, ah … forgive me, but where exactly are you taking us?”

“All in good time,” said Stragos.

“Speaking of where you’re taking us,” said Locke, “would you care to return to our
earlier subject? One of your guards must have struck me on the head; I thought I heard
you say that you wanted us to go to sea.”

“So I do. And so you shall.”

“To what
possible
end?”

“Are you familiar,” said Stragos, “with the story of the Free Armada of the Ghostwind
Isles?”

“Vaguely,” said Locke.”

“The pirate uprising on the Sea of Brass,” mused Jean. “Six or seven years ago. It
was put down.”

“
I
put it down,” said the archon. “Seven years ago, those damn fools down in the Ghostwinds
got it into their heads to make a bid for power. Claimed to have the right to levy
taxes on shipping on the Sea of Brass, if by taxes you mean boarding and plundering
anything with a hull. They had a dozen fit vessels, and a dozen more-or-less fit crews.”

“Bonaire,” said Jean. “That was the captain they all followed, wasn’t it? Laurella
Bonaire?”

“It was,” said Stragos. “Bonaire and her
Basilisk
; she was one of my officers, and that was one of my ships, before she turned her
coat.”

“And you such a pleasant, unassuming fellow to work for,” said Locke.

“That squadron of brigands hit Nicora and Vel Virazzo and just about every little
village on the nearby coast; they took ships in sight of this palace and hauled sail
for the horizon when my galleys went out to meet them. It was the greatest aggravation
this city had faced since the war against Camorr, in my predecessor’s time.”

“I don’t recall it lasting long,” said Jean.

“Half a year, perhaps. That declaration was their downfall; freebooters can run and
skulk well enough, but when you make declarations you usually end up in battle to
uphold them. Pirates are no match for real naval men and women when it’s line against
line on the open sea. We hammered them just off Nicora, sank half their fleet, and
sent the rest pissing their breeches all the way back to the Ghostwinds. Bonaire wound
up in a crow’s cage dangling over the Midden Deep. After she watched all of her crew
go in, I cut the rope that held her up myself.”

Locke and Jean said nothing. There was a faint watery creak as Stragos
adjusted the course of their boat. Another bend in the artificial river was looming
ahead.

“Now, that little demonstration,” the archon continued, “made piracy a fairly unpopular
trade on the Sea of Brass. It’s been a good time for honest merchants since then;
of course there are still pirates in the Ghostwinds, but they don’t come within three
hundred miles of Tal Verrar, nor anywhere near Nicora or the coast. My navy hasn’t
had anything more serious than customs incidents and plague ships to deal with for
nigh on three or four years. A quiet time … a prosperous time.”

“Isn’t it your job to provide just that?” said Jean.

“You seem a well-read man, Tannen. Surely, your readings must have taught you that
when men and women of arms have bled to secure a time of peace, the very people who
most benefit from that peace are also the most likely to forget the bleeding.”

“The Priori,” said Locke. “That victory made them nervous, didn’t it? People like
victories. That’s what makes generals popular … and dictators.”

“Astute, Lamora. Just as it was in the interests of the merchant councils to send
me out to deliver them from piracy,” said Stragos, “it was in their interest to wring
my navy dry soon afterward. Dividends of peace … they paid off half the ships, put
them up in ordinary, loosed a few hundred trained sailors from the muster rolls, and
let the merchants snap them up. The taxes of Tal Verrar paid to train them, and the
Priori and their partners were happy to steal them. So it was, and so it is, with
the Sea of Brass at peace, the Marrows squabbling, Lashain without a navy and Karthain
far beyond the need to even consider one. This corner of the world is calm.”

“If you and the Priori are so very unhappy with one another, why don’t they just run
you out of funds completely?” Locke settled back against his corner of the boat and
let his left hand hang far over the gunwale, trailing in the warm water.

“I’m sure they would if they could,” said Stragos. “But the charter of the city guarantees
me a certain minimal budget, from general revenues. Though every finnicker and comptroller
in the city is one of
theirs
, and they contrive some damned elaborate lies to trim even that. My own ledger-folk
have their hands full chasing after them. But it’s discretionary funds they won’t
cut loose. In a time of need they could swell my forces with gold and supplies at
a moment’s notice. In a time of peace, they begrudge me every last centira. They have
forgotten why the archonate was instituted in the first place.”

“It does occur to me,” said Locke, “that your predecessor was supposed to sort of … 
dissolve
the office when Camorr agreed to stop kicking your ass.”

“A standing force is the only professional force, Lamora. There must be a continuity
of experience and training in the ranks; a worthwhile army or navy cannot simply be
conjured out of nothing. Tal Verrar might not have the luxury of three or four years
to build a defense when the next crisis comes along. And the Priori, the ones who
prattle the loudest about ‘opposing dictatorship’ and ‘civic guarantees,’ would be
the first to slip away like rats, loaded down with their fortunes, to take ship for
whatever corner of the world would give them refuge. They would never stand or die
with the city. And so the enmity between us is more than personal, for my part.”

“While I’ve known too many grand merchants to dispute your general idea of their character,”
said Locke, “I’ve had a sudden sharp realization about where this conversation has
been going.”

“As have I,” said Jean, clearing his throat. “Seems to me that with your power on
the wane, this would be a terribly
convenient
time for new trouble to surface somewhere out on the Sea of Brass, wouldn’t it?”

“Very good,” said Stragos. “Seven years ago, the pirates of the Ghostwinds rose up
and gave the people of Tal Verrar reason to be glad of the navy I command. It
would
be convenient if they might be convinced to trouble us once again … and be crushed
once again.”

“Send us out to sea to find an excuse for you, that’s what you said,” said Locke.
“Send
us
out to
sea
. Has your brain swelled against the inside of your skull? How the screaming fucking
hell do you expect the two of us to raise a bloody pirate armada in a place we’ve
never been and convince it to come merrily
die
at the hands of the navy that bent it over the table and fucked it in the ass last
time?”

“You convinced the nobles of Camorr to throw away a fortune on your schemes,” said
Stragos without a hint of anger. “They love their money. Yet you shook it out of them
like ripe fruit from a tree. You outwitted a Bondsmage. You outwitted Capa Barsavi
to his very face. You evaded the trap that caught your Capa Barsavi and his entire
court.”

“Only some of us,” whispered Locke. “Only some of us got away, asshole.”

“I need more than agents. I need
provocateurs
. You two fell into my hands at an ideal time. Your task, your mission, will be to
raise hell on the Sea of Brass. I want ships sacked from here to Nicora. I want the
Priori pounding on my door, pleading with me to take more gold, more ships, more responsibility.
I want commerce south of Tal Verrar to set full sail and
run for port. I want underwriters soiling their breeches. I know I might not get all
that, but by the gods, I’ll take whatever you can give me. Raise me a pirate scare
the likes of which we haven’t had in years.”

“You are
cracked
,” said Jean.

“We can rob nobles. We can do second-story work. We can slide down chimneys and slip
locks and rob coaches and break vaults and do a fine spread of card tricks,” said
Locke. “I could cut your balls off, if you had any, and replace them with marbles,
and you wouldn’t notice for a week. But I hate to tell you that the one class of criminal
we really haven’t associated with,
ever
, is fucking pirates!”

“We’re at a bit of a loss when it comes to the particulars of making their acquaintance,”
added Jean.

“In this, as in so much, I’m well ahead of you,” said Stragos. “You should have no
trouble making the acquaintance of the Ghostwind pirates, because you yourselves will
become
perfectly respectable pirates. Captain and first mate of a pirate sloop, as a matter
of fact.”

“YOU ARE beyond mad,” said Locke after several moments of silent, furious thought.
“Full-on barking madness is a state of rational bliss to which you may not aspire.
Men living in gutters and drinking their own piss would shun your company.
You
are a prancing lunatic.”

“That’s not the sort of thing I’d expect to hear from a man who genuinely wants his
antidote.”

“Well, what a magnificent choice you’ve given us—death by slow poison or death by
insane misadventure!”

“Come now,” said Stragos. “That’s also not the sort of thing I’d expect to hear from
a man with your proven ability for slipping out of extremely complicated situations.”

“I’m getting a bit annoyed,” said Locke, “with those who praise our previous escapades
as an excuse for forcing us into even riskier ones. Look, if you want us to run a
job, give us one within our field of experience. Isn’t it broad enough for you? All
we’re saying is that we don’t know the first bloody thing about wind, weather, ships,
pirates, the Sea of Brass, the Ghostwind Isles, sails, ropes, er … weather, ships …”

“Our sole experience with ships,” said Jean, “consists of getting on, getting seasick,
and getting off.”

“I’d thought of that,” said Stragos. “The captain of a criminal crew must have, above
all other things, charisma. Leadership. A sense of decision.

Rogues must be ruled. I believe you can do that, Lamora … by faking it, if necessary.
That makes you the best possible choice in some respects. You can
fake
confidence when a sincere man might be inclined to panic. And your friend Jean can
enforce your leadership; a good infighter is someone to be respected on a ship.”

“Sure, great,” said Locke. “I’m charming; Jean’s tough. That just leaves all the other
things I named—”

“As for the nautical arts, I will provide you with an experienced sailing master.
A man who can train you in the essentials and make the proper decisions for you once
you’re at sea, all the while pretending the orders come from you. Don’t you see? All
I’m doing is asking you to play a role; he’ll provide the knowledge to make that role
convincing.”