John Carr - Kalvan Kingmaker

It was obvious that Theovacar was well defended against a revolt or palace uprising. Verkan wondered if all these safeguards were prudent foresight, or incipient paranoia.

That was all Verkan found time to note before the herald summoned him forward through the left-hand door. Verkan was halfway across the room before he realized, except for five more Companions and the man on the carved wooden chair at the far end of the chamber, he and his friends were alone with the King.

Verkan's spirits rose. A private audience was normally granted only to nobles or to men who'd sworn a blood oath to the king. To grant one to a man who was neither might be a way of taking the sting out of a refusal of his petition, or to apologize for the lengthy time in granting the audience. More likely, it was Theovacar's way of doing honor to the foreign king the man served, and perhaps also of ensuring that no unreliable ears heard what the king and trader said.

With some kings, Verkan had known, the private audience could also have been a way to reduce the number of witnesses to treacherous murder. Theovacar did not have the reputation of that sort of king, and indeed he'd be a Dralm-damned fool to acquire it if he wanted peace with his nobles. They were a proud and touchy lot, but at least had the virtues of those vices; wantonly bloodthirsty rulers in Grefftscharr seldom died in bed and still less of natural causes.

Verkan also noted with approval that Kostran was unobtrusively taking positions where he could watch both Verkan's back and the door to the chamber. If matters did become bloody, the drill would be for Verkan and Kostran to use their disguised sigma-ray needlers.

Verkan saw for himself that Theovacar's reputation, as both a warrior and a trencherman seemed justified. His face was ruddy above its blond beard, his belly strained his knee-length velvet robe and both face and muscle-corded arms showed a fine collection of scars. Apart from the fur-lined robe, Theovacar wore doeskin trousers and boots, a wide gold tore on his left arm and a small cap of state of wolverine fur sewn with gold wire and fresh-water pearls. The effect was barbaric; the man inside those clothes, Verkan knew, was nothing of the kind.

Verkan went down on one knee, his friend on both. "In obedience to Your Grace's summons, the Trader Verkan comes to submit to your judgment."

Theovacar nodded. "The Trader Verkan is welcome." Then signaled the Trader's party to rise. He said nothing more until he'd taken a pipe and tobacco one of the Companions handed him and lit up, but the wide gray eyes never left Verkan.

Finally, Theovacar had his pipe going to his satisfaction, leaned back in his chair and said, "Nothing will come of delaying the news. It is my decision, after taking council with those whose wisdom I trust in matters of trade, to grant your petition for a charter for your trading company, Verkan's Hos-Hostigos Trading Company.

Verkan thought he heard Kostran stifle a sigh of relief and kept his own face straight only with an effort. "Your Grace does us a great honor."

Theovacar clapped his hands and one of the Companions stepped forward, carrying a heavy leather tube on a gilded bronze tray. Another brought a jug of wine and two silver cups.

"You will not find everything in that charter which you asked," Theovacar continued. "Nor do I expect you will find everything that is there pleasing. There were those whose advice was to deny you the charter, for falsely claiming the rights of a subject of Grefftscharr."

If Verkan Vail had been subject to heart failure he would never have lasted in the Paracops. He did shift his feet to an unarmed-combat stance in what he hoped would be taken for a nervous shuffle and tried to look bemused.

Theovacar saved him the trouble of further acting. "Those, who said the sworn witnesses to your Grefftscharr rights were sufficient under the law, had the stronger voice. Yet it could not be denied that you had not served as apprentice or journeyman in any of the lawful Guilds.

"So under the charter you must pay a double tax on what you earn, one share to the Crown and the second to the treasury of the Council of Guilds. The Crown's share may be remitted at my discretion after the first year.

Such discretion to be exercised depending on how much valuable information I bring you and how much influence in King Kalvans councils I give you, out of gratitude for not being thrown to the wolves of the Council of Guilds. Verkan mentally noted the elimination of one potentially nasty problem: If the judicious use of hypno-truth drugs hadn't produced the required quota of witnesses to cover his identity, he would have probably been denied the charter. Even worse, the rumor that there was no Free Trader from Grefftscharr named Verkan would have surely reached Kalvan's ears, and he was the one man outside First Level who might draw the appropriate conclusions from that.

Verkan knelt again. "Your Grace's reputation for justice and wisdom was not exaggerated. Indeed, the Guilds have a lawful claim and I would hope to number them among my friends and even partners before too many years."

The Companion presented Verkan with the leather tube and a cup of wine; he tucked the charter under his arm and emptied the cup as custom required, without taking it from his lips.

King Theovacar drained his cup without even stopping for breath, and then swallowed half of a second cup before speaking. "You should also know that your petition for the right to hire mercenaries as guards for your trading venture has been denied. This is not for any doubt of your need for good fighting men to protect your goods and ships. It is out of Grefftscharr's great need for all its sons who have good sword arms and keen shooting eyes. The nomads who live on the Sea of Grass are on the march as they have not been in living memory. I would be a poor protector of my people if I left them defenseless against such a horde."

The horde on this side of the Great River was not the tribes who'd been knocked loose from their traditional territory by the northward advance of the Mexicotal against Xiphlon, but the Zarthani and Urgothi nomads who'd been driven from their Great Plains' traditional hunting lands by the fierce southern Ruthani. Many of these tribes were encroaching on Grefftscharrer territory in their desire to find a safe haven, while others were using the disorder to destroy old enemies and build great clans.

To the south it was even worse, although only few tens of thousands of the Great Plains nomads had actually crossed the river. But add in the tribes along the Great River the nomads had knocked loose, and the tribes of the Lower Sastragath and Lydistros Valley they'd knocked loose in turn, and all the people of the Upper Sastragath whose fields were being overrun and eaten bare-'horde' was no exaggeration. A quarter of a million fighting men would be a conservative estimate of their combined numbers. By next spring that number could be doubled or tripled.

Not that Verkan believed Theovacar was telling him the whole story, or that Verkan was particularly disappointed at not being allowed to hire Grefftscharrer mercenaries for Kalvan under the guise of caravan guards. He'd put that clause in his petition to give the naysayers something to keep them happy, and also to give Theovacar a chance to present his views of the military situation. So far Verkan had succeeded in the first and suspected he wasn't going to with the second, but if he gave in without an argument Theovacar might smell something.

"No one could ask you to do otherwise, Your Grace. Yet, it is known that the Zarthani Knights are in the field against the Horde, under Grand Master Soton himself. Will any of the Horde live long enough to need a single charge of Grefftscharrer fireseed?"

Theovacar shrugged. "Perhaps not in the East. But already there have been two great battles outside Wulfula and one in Dorg against the Sea of Grass horde. We ourselves have had to 'encourage' several small clans to look elsewhere for forage and lands. No, Trader Verkan, this year, and certainly next year, all Grefftscharrer fighting men must look to their own walls."