Richard Byers - The Reaver

Umara grunted. “As long as I was home, I never felt the need to rebel. My parents were delighted when I proved to possess a talent for wizardry. And from the start, I loved magic too dearly to even imagine applying myself to any other vocation. Although when I started to learn what it truly means to be a Red Wizard, the things expected of us beyond simply mastering spells and reading arcane lore …” She shook her head as though to clear it. “Never mind. We’re talking about you.”

“Alas, we are. In time, Turmish went to war with Akanûl. It was a squabble over tariffs and a scrap of border territory that wasn’t good for anything anyway, but at the time, I believed my countrymen were fighting for the noblest cause in the history of Faerûn. That made me even more frantic to serve, and the sharpest spur of all was the example of my elder brother Rimardo. He was already first mate aboard a caravel and had acquitted himself gallantly in several actions at sea.”

“And so you envied him.”

Anton snorted. “Bitterly. When he came home on leave, I couldn’t get enough of his stories, and yet, it maddened me that he was living that life and I wasn’t. I may even have hated him a little.”

“But your time must have arrived eventually.”

“That depends on how you look at it. When I was old enough to enlist, I did. But by then, the petty war was ending as leaders on both sides realized it had never been worth fighting in the first place.”

“Still, you were where you wanted to be.”

Anton smiled. “As I said, only in a sense. I told you it’s wealthy merchants who generally win election to the Assembly of Stars, and they keep a tight grip on Turmish’s purse strings. Once we made peace with the genasi, the assemblymen decided the navy didn’t need as many warships patrolling the sea. The country could save coin by putting some in dry dock.”

Umara frowned. “Leaving you a sailor with nothing to sail?”

“Yes. For want of anything better to do with me, the navy made me a customs officer. It was a tedious life largely made up of the same sort of tallying and recordkeeping that filled me with loathing as a boy. And while I tramped around the docks with my chalk, slate, and abacus, I had to watch the warships that weren’t in dry dock come and go with lucky wretches like Rimardo aboard.”

“That would have galled me, too,” Umara said. She ran her fingertips over her scalp as though the feel of the stubble annoyed her. “Still, if Turmish is anything like Thay, a new war is always on the way.”

Anton sighed. “I actually did possess just enough sense to realize I should simply bide my time. But that time was so dull! To pass it, I drank, gambled, and frequented the festhalls. As you can likely guess, I often found myself in need of coin, and although my father had plenty, I felt increasingly awkward asking him to toss some my way. He disapproved of wastrels, and my every wheedling visit made it clearer that was what I’d become.”

“So you found a different source of gold?”

“Close, but actually, it found me. It turns out that smugglers study customs officials to discover who might be susceptible to bribery. In retrospect, my reaction was ludicrous, but at the time, I was astonished to learn that I looked corrupt, or at least, corruptible.”

“But not so astonished you didn’t agree to collaborate.”

“Understand, my responsibilities seemed so petty, and so far removed from the heroic career I’d imagined for myself, that looking away while a few scoundrels moved contraband didn’t feel like a true betrayal of anything. What did it matter if a few amphorae of Chessentan olive oil …” He sneered. “Listen to me blather. Next, I’ll be making excuses for all the rapine and slaughter in all the years since.”

“Just tell the story,” Umara said. There was a hint of gentleness in her voice that he could only recall hearing when she was speaking to Stedd, and then, infrequently.

“Very well. At first, I allowed wine, copper ingots, lumber, and spices to come ashore untaxed. Eventually, though, I noticed stranger cargo. Boxes with peculiar symbols carved on the lids and something rustling inside despite a lack of air holes. Weirdly shaped objects that, wrapped like mummies, glowed a little even through the cloth. A moldy book with an iron stake sticking through the front cover and out the back.”

Umara frowned. “I know that book.”

“I thought you might. I didn’t, but I was canny enough to recognize unsavory mystical artifacts when I saw them, and by chance, I learned they all were bound for a single buyer.”

“Did that worry you?”

“It should have. But looking away was a habit by then. One piece of contraband was like another, so long as it dropped coin in my hand on its way to its destination.”

“So in the end, what happened? Something obviously did.”

“Indeed, and I suspect you heard something about the incident even in far-off Thay. It was quite spectacular, and a balor-I learned later that’s what they’re called-leading a pack of lesser demons seems like the sort of thing that would interest your folk.”

Umara stared at him. “By the seven fallen stars! You were implicated in that ?”

“Well, fortunately, not at first, not to anybody’s knowledge. What with fiends laying waste to the city and striving to destroy the Elder Circle of the Emerald Enclave, who were paying one of their rare visits, we were all too busy fighting back to try to figure out what it all meant. This will make you laugh: Even I had no idea. As I stood with everyone else who could hold a spear or a sword, it never occurred to me that I was anything other than a loyal Turmishan officer seizing the chance to prove his mettle at last.”

Anton sighed. “But afterward, when scores of folk lay dead, my poor, brave brother among them, and much of Sapra had burned to black sticks and ash, people wanted to know why. And the demons hadn’t been subtle. It was no great trick to follow their trail back to the mansion of the assemblyman who’d called them forth from the Abyss.”

“Why did he do it?”

“It was a coup, or the start of one. He wanted to do away with the republic and make himself king, but he knew the high druids wouldn’t stand for it. So he tried to assassinate them with supernatural power that rivaled even theirs.”

“Unless he was a master wizard, it was a fool’s play. Even if it had worked, the balor would likely have ended up as the real king, and he, its plaything.”

“It’s a pity you weren’t around to advise him. Anyway, it turned out he had a fussy habit of making notes on even the sort of deeds and plans that one should never write about. The notes pointed to the smugglers who brought him the items required for the summoning.”

“And under duress , the smugglers pointed to you.”

“Turmishan interrogators aren’t as fond of ‘duress’ as Thayans, but the knaves certainly would have given me up before they were through with them. Fortunately, I was Diero Marivaldi’s son and an officer who’d fought well in the recent crisis. Folk in authority trusted me and spoke freely when I was around. Thus, I happened to learn the smugglers were about to be arrested just as the navy and the watch moved to round them up.”

“And you fled.”

“It was that or kneel at the headsman’s block. I was as guilty as anyone for what had befallen Sapra. If I hadn’t betrayed my office, it could never have happened. And once I was away, well, I was already on the outlaw’s path. I figured I might as well keep walking it.”

“Until it led you into piracy.”

“Yes. I’ve heard that meanwhile, denied the satisfaction of seeing my head roll, Sapra turned its scorn on my father. His lifetime of honorable dealings counted for nothing against my crime, and he found it impossible either to trade or hold government office. He withdrew from public life and died not long after.”