Treasure (15 page)

Kin looked at him, clearly disbelieving. "If that were the case, wouldn’t his grace just say?"

"Pozhar is odd about magic; the less they must speak of it, the happier they are."

"How do you know so much?"

"I am older than his grace, Kin," Raiden said with a chuckle. "I just age well. Long before you and I crossed paths, I travelled extensively, especially back when my father was still alive. I was in Pozhar to witness the capture of a Vessel and later the poor man's death. Well, the procession, anyway. No foreigner would ever be permitted into the royal temple or the inner sanctuary to witness the death of a Vessel. They are very somber about it, but also very ruthless. If his grace is charged with hunting Vessels, mermaids probably do not trouble him overmuch."

Kin grunted and let the matter drop. "I truly hope the rest of our journey is calmer, though I sincerely doubt it with the royal navy in our wake. I still am not certain how exactly I am supposed to drive them off, only that I will."

Raiden laughed and abandoned the table to go to his desk, sitting down and pulling out a sheaf of papers to rifle through. "Not every problem need be solved with violence. That is your mother coming out in you."

"If you say so," Kin groused. "Personally, I think I would be far less inclined to violence if my ship were not full of spoiled royals and noble idiots."

Looking at him in amusement, Raiden said, "I think there is something caught in your net, my friend—something pretty and royal, perhaps?"

"Hold your breath," Kin retorted sourly. "I have absolutely no interest in doing anything but throwing it back to sea. It's too late in the day for your foolishness, Shima. Do something constructive today, would you? I know you are trying to seduce him in a day, but even you are not that smooth unless someone is being paid to make you think so."

Raiden snorted in amusement. "Go be hostile somewhere else. My secretary and I have work to do."

Kin rolled his eyes, but obeyed, and Raiden went through the papers he'd had drawn before they'd departed. All they lacked were names, and he'd paid a hefty bit to convince someone to fill out the rest of the paperwork without names.  He set the papers down as a knock came at the door and called for the knocker to enter. "You do not have to knock, Taka."

Taka shrugged and closed the door behind him, then hovered in front of it, clearly not interested in getting anywhere near Raiden while they were alone. Raiden held back a smirk, pleased that he was already getting under Taka's skin, however reluctant Taka might yet have been. "Come over here, Taka. I do not feel like shouting, and I only bite when asked."

Rolling his eyes, Taka obediently crossed the room, though he stayed on the other side of the desk. "You required me for something?"

Raiden smirked and after Taka rolled his eyes again, said more seriously, "Do you know what his highness has planned should the royal navy catch us? I am not asking you to divulge secrets; I merely want to know if he is braced for it."

Taka frowned at him, clearly torn. But then his shoulders sagged slightly, and he shook his head, wisps of hair flying back and forth across his face. "To my knowledge, he just assumes they will not catch us. While I think he is more than capable of ensuring that, I think he was not counting on Lord Krasny or Prince Culebra." He grimaced slightly, likely upset with himself for divulging so much, no matter if he thought it necessary.

"That is what I suspected," Raiden murmured. "There are not many reasons that a prince would have for running away. What do you think of this one?" He picked up the sheaf of papers and handed them to Taka, who took them with a frown.

A few seconds later, Taka's eyes popped wide and his jaw dropped. He looked up at Raiden. "Do either of them know about this?" Raiden lifted one brow at him. "Of course not," Taka corrected himself and returned the papers. "I am not certain which of them will throw you overboard first."

"Whichever is standing closest, I should think," Raiden drawled. "Can you forge the signatures?"

Taka nodded. "Yes, but I'm not doing it until we must."

"Must will be too late," Raiden said, "but I don't expect you to do it without taking time to think it through. After they throw me overboard, after all, they will go for you."

Making a face, Taka moved to the dinner table and confiscated the remaining wine the cabin boy had left behind. "If those papers wind up not being needed, they must be burned. I don't like it, and I like less I must go behind Kyo's back to do it, but you are right. It will make everything a good sight easier should they catch us. No one will be happy, but …"

"But it's not a crime to be stupid, though half the time it probably should be."

Taka nodded, finished his wine, and strode back to the desk. "Give me the blue ink."

In reply, Raiden just stood up and stepped back, then bowed and swept his arms to indicate that Taka should take the desk. Taka immediately complied, settling behind the desk as though it were his, rifling through the drawers and scowling. "What manner of organization is this?"

"Raiden and Kindan organization," Raiden murmured, moving to settle on his bunk—well, Kindan's, but his for the foreseeable future—and simply watch in amusement as Taka began to empty the desk drawers of their contents and pile everything on the desk. Raiden waited for the ship to move in such a way that it all went tumbling, but everything stayed in place while Taka finished emptying the desk and, piece by piece, put it all back again.

The watch had marked two hours before Taka was finally satisfied and at last went about the task for which he had initially sat down:  forging signatures. When he was done, he pulled out a chain around his neck from beneath his robes. Letting it dangle for a moment, he heated sealing wax and dripped it onto the last of the seven sheets of paper. Before the dark blue wax could dry, he pressed Kyo's royal seal into it, completing the forgery.

"There," Taka said. "Let us hope that should the papers be needed, we are elsewhere on the ship and have time to brace for the attack. I, for one, have no desire to be pitched overboard or thrown in the—what is it, brig?"

Raiden snorted in amusement. "Aye, the brig. Kin wouldn't be that nice, however."

Taka made a face as he cleaned up the desk again, tucking the wax supplies, ink, and pen away. Examining the papers, finding them dried to his satisfaction, he put them away as well then stood up. "If you have no further need—"

"Oh, I'm not finished," Raiden said, standing up and crossing to the desk to reach into one of the cabinets behind it. He pulled out a heavy jewel case and set it on the desk, then pulled a key from his sash to unlock it.

"What are you doing?" Taka asked.

Raiden ignored him for the moment, shifting smaller boxes out of the way before he finally found the one he sought. Lifting it out, he pushed the jewel case aside and opened the jewelry box he'd selected, then spun it around to show Taka.

"The Mermaid's Grasp," Taka said, voice soft, face filled with longing. It had been clear from the moment Raiden had bartered for them that the jewels meant far more to Taka than to Kyo. "It took me weeks to locate them and days to wear the owner down to a price that was not out-right thievery. Kyo only wore them once."

"A pity," Raiden said, lifting the choker of black pearls and esmeralda beads from its velvet bed. "Treasures are to be used, displayed, admired, enjoyed." He stepped closer to Taka and then slipped around to stand behind him, fastening the choker around his neck.  Bending, he murmured, "Jewels are meant to show off the beauty of treasures."

Taka jerked away and whipped around, immediately reaching up to unfasten the necklace—and scowling when he couldn't get the catch to work. "What did you do to it?"

"Nothing," Raiden replied in bland tones. "Perhaps it's stuck."

"Dragons eat you!" Taka snarled. "I am a secretary. I do not wear such ornate jewels, not unless you want everyone to believe my duties are as colorful and varied as your robes."

Raiden rolled his eyes. "I do wish people would stop maligning my clothes. What did these poor fabrics ever do to you?"

"Burn my eyes as if someone threw sand in them?"

"That was uncalled for. Anyway, you are my secretary, and if I order you to wear the necklace, there is little you can do about it."

Taka gave him a scathing look. "The very moment I can figure out how to remove it, I will—your secretary or not, I am not a harlot to be dressed as you see fit."

"Treasure, if I had my way, jewels would be the only thing you would ever wear again," Raiden replied.

"I have had better offers from nobles, Master Raiden, and have been offered greater temptation than even you can afford. If I can resist all of them without effort, you are as nothing."

Raiden leaned against the desk and folded his arms across his chest. "I have no interest in a crass dalliance, and do not issue a challenge if you are not prepared to lose, Takara."

Takara glared at him. "I am not a thing to be traded away, or a bauble to be played with, Master Raiden. I am your secretary, that is all. If you have no further need of my professional services, I request to be excused."

"You are excused," Raiden said and watched as Taka stormed off, silently annoyed with himself for making such a mess of everything. Truly he had been out of courting for too long. On the other hand, Taka was never going to be boring.

More importantly, he was the forgiving type, and in the end, that would matter the most.

Taka was going to throttle Kyo. It was the only solution to avoid driving himself mad as Kyo apparently had no desire to speak with anyone accept Krasny. He scowled at them from the poop deck, where he'd gone for some fresh air. Krasny and Kyo stood near the bow of the ship, speaking quietly as they looked out over the sea.

It sat sour and heavy in his stomach that he'd been so quickly and easily replaced as Kyo's confidant—that Kyo had obviously told Krasny the purpose of their journey that he had refused to tell Taka. Was he really so easily discarded? Sold off to a merchant for passage, then passed over for a Duke? But, it was not as though they were peers, he and Kyo. However close Taka had always believed them to be, he was only a servant, if a higher ranking one.

They made a beautiful pair, he thought. If Krasny were not of high enough rank he had to marry for children ... except they had never seemed so close back in Kundou. Acquaintances with a possibility of becoming friends, but that was all.

Dragons eat them both! What were they discussing that was so damnably important Kyo wouldn't tell him? He had to know Taka could be trusted. So it was something he thought would anger him. Taka just could not imagine what they could be doing in the middle of the ocean that would upset him. Sacrificing the crew? Taka rolled his eyes at himself and tried to focus on the view.

The moment he stopped thinking about Kyo, however, he started thinking about Raiden instead. He hated that even more because the focus of his thoughts was that, despite his best efforts, hating Raiden was extremely difficult.

He might have been hopeless with paperwork, but he knew his business. Taka thought Kundou was not properly appreciative of the fact that Raiden was only merchant class. He hated to think of the waters Raiden could stir if he were a noble.

Business acumen aside, Raiden seemed a good person when he wasn't buying secretary contracts. The crew was always friendly, but respectful and loved to tell tales of him. Taka refused to believe even half of what they said; it all seemed too absurd.

The sound of Raiden's laughter drew his attention, and Taka eyed his attire with a shake of the head. Perhaps the absurdity was the very reason he should believe the tales. Only Raiden would wear that ensemble:  yellow and green robes with a blue sash embroidered with yellow and green starfish. He should have been an eyesore, but Taka couldn't make himself look away.

He reached up to touch the choker around his throat, remembering the way Raiden had acted when he'd put it there. The way Kyo had laughed when he had seen it. The amused looks of everyone else. His cheeks flushed all over again, humiliation churning. It didn't matter how Raiden treated everyone else, not when he treated Taka as if he were a piece of jewelry.

Taka gave up on trying to enjoy the fresh air; it had been fouled by the presence of Kyo and Raiden. He wanted sorely to toss them both over the side, but it probably was not worth the haranguing he would receive when they were invariably pulled back aboard. Not worth it, yet, anyway. They were only two weeks into the trip. There was plenty of time for him to change his mind.

Leaving the poop deck, ignoring it when Raiden glanced his way, Taka retreated to the Captain's quarters and headed for the desk that had more or less become his since no one else on the ship seemed capable of, or inclined toward, using it. He sat down and opened the portfolio that held the cargo manifest and various permits and licenses that would be needed when they reached Pozhar. The paperwork was mostly filled out in Kin's brisk hand, and Taka could imagine just how impatient he was at being made to do something as seemingly frivolous as paperwork. Raiden's signature appeared here and there, and the paperwork was all sound, but Taka was fairly certain there was an easier way to do it all.

He also wondered why in the name of the Dragons' there was no supercargo aboard ship to handle the cargo. Kin should not have been stuck doing it, which was clearly the case. Did Raiden have no concept of how time consuming and difficult it was to sell and purchase cargo in addition to captaining a ship? He would have to speak to Raiden about that and see if it was a common problem across all his ships. If so, Raiden needed to stop drinking seawater.

Setting the cargo papers aside, Taka rifled through the financial reports Raiden had brought along—he'd brought along a remarkable amount of paperwork, and Taka could not fathom why, given that there was a high risk of their being attacked and the papers lost. It was far more work than he needed to carry with him.