L. Modesitt - Mage-Guard of Hamor

The portmaster had clearly expected Rahl because he stood in the large open chamber outside his study looking toward the door. Several other men had frozen in place beside their table desks. The portmaster was a white-haired man with a dark face and a white mustache. His brown eyes were hard as he watched Rahl approach, then stop less than three cubits from the older man.

"Portmaster Hulym?" Rahl kept his voice pleasant, although he could sense the hostility. "I'd like to know why the chains blocking the first and third piers have not been removed."

"They were placed there by the Regional Administrator." Hulym shrugged. "Who am I to remove what he wished?"

Rahl smiled. "That Regional Administrator has been removed. The Mage-Guard Overcommander is the acting Regional Administrator, and he wishes them removed."

"Alas… I have not-"

"I'm certain that you can take care of a little matter like that, can you not?" Rahl was having trouble remaining polite, given the hostility and oiliness he sensed in the portmaster.

"I am but a portmaster, not an engineer-"

"I understand that you were in charge of their placement."

"I know nothing about that." Hulym shrugged helplessly.

"Hulym, you don't quite understand." Rahl's smile hardened. "I am not only a majer, but a senior mage-guard. Those piers and the channels will be clear by tomorrow morning."

"I can do nothing-"

Rahl extended his shields with enough force to press the portmaster against the stone wall. "Let us try this one more time. We'll start at the beginning. Are you loyal to the Emperor Mythalt?"

"Any man would be loyal to his Emperor. How could he not be loyal?"

Rahl could sense the lie behind the evasion. Now what? He released the shields. "Who is your assistant portmaster?"

Hulym staggered erect. "It was Chaulym, but he fled when… the revolt…"

"Who has been acting as your assistant?"

Tharmyl. The name might as well have been spoken. "I have none. I had to do everything myself." Hulym squared his shoulders in an attempt to regain his dignity.

"Where is Tharmyl?"

Hulym's muscles tightened, and his eyes darted toward the door through which Rahl had entered.

"Ah… Majer, ser… I am here." A younger man standing beside a battered table bowed, several times, nervously.

Rahl stepped back, his hand dropping to the long riding truncheon at his belt, so that he could watch both men at once. "Tharmyl, can you get those chains removed and the channels clear?"

"Yes, ser. We were the ones who put them there. It might take longer than tomorrow morning, but we could probably have one pier and channel clear by then. It might take a day more for piers three and four." The assistant shrugged. "We had no choice. Prince Golyat's mages threatened our families."

"It is true," added Hulym. "We had no choice."

That was also a lie.

Rahl drew the truncheon and struck-in one hard motion that caved in Hulym's temple. The body pitched forward onto the floor. "Neither did I." He looked to Tharmyl. "Lying to a mage-guard is an offense against the Codex. Lying to avoid one's duty to the Emperor and covering up treachery is worse. Do you understand… acting portmaster?"

"Yes, ser." There was a slight quiver in the new portmaster's voice, but he did not look away.

"The Emperor cannot change what has happened, nor can I. Nor can you. But we can all do our duties as we should from now on. I'm not interested in what happened then. I'm very interested in how loyal people are now and how well they do their duties." Rahl sheathed the truncheon. "The Emperor will reward that loyalty and effectiveness." Rahl didn't have to say that he would be the one punishing treachery. He looked to the new portmaster. "I'm sure that there are other tasks necessary to reopen the port to Imperial ships, and that you'll be taking care of them as well. I'll check back with you this afternoon." He paused. "By the way, I once worked for a very large shipping and trading concern." Then he smiled. "Good day."

As Rahl left the portmaster's building, he could already sense Tharmyl's efforts to organize the reopening of the entire port.

Rahl still had to find, sooner or later, either former lower-level tariff enumerators or clerks who could handle that task, although he had a few days there, he thought, and needed to check the schedules and structures of the pier guards and the city patrollers. For the moment, he had Third Company patrolling the streets of Nubyat in groups of five, but that couldn't continue for too long.

He untied the gelding from the iron hitching ring outside the portmaster's building and mounted. He still needed to meet with more of the remaining traders and factors to assess their trustworthiness, as well as arranging for dispatching the steam tugs back to their owners up the Awhut River. Also, if he ever had time, he wanted to write a letter to Deybri, even if he didn't know how he would get it sent until ships resumed porting in Nubyat.

He frowned. She would not have been happy at his solution to the portmaster's obstructiveness, but… Rahl didn't have the time or inclination to persuade traitors, nor the men to keep watch over them to see that they did their jobs. Tharmyl would take care of the port-for many reasons beside loyalty, but that was true of most people.

The days rushed by, and Rahl found himself getting up earlier just so that he could eat breakfast without feeling like he had to gulp it down in a crowded officers' mess meant to feed perhaps thirty officers and strained to supply more than five times that number-even when the officers ate quickly and in shifts. On threeday, Rahl and Drakeyt slipped into the mess well before dawn. Even so, the air inside was smoky with the odor of cooking oil. The windows were hazed over as well with accumulated smoke, but both officers were served within moments of seating themselves at the end of one of the two long tables, already mostly full.

Rahl took a moment to sip hot watered cider before starting the egg toast and thin mutton strips.

"You're working harder now than when we were scouting, aren't you?" asked Drakeyt.

"It's not as dangerous, but there's always something else to do. The overcommander doesn't know which of the people in charge of running things to trust, and that means I have to check everything." Rahl laughed. "We have gotten the port open, and yesterday I had to make sure that there were enough wagons and carts to shift cargoes from the river-barge piers to the deep-water piers. There were enough wagons, once I pried them away from the Residence quartermaster-"

"Why did he have them?"

"There weren't any ships porting here, not to speak of, and the rebel officers didn't know what to do with the wagons that had been carrying cargoes to the piers, so they put him in charge of storing and maintaining them until they won and opened the port." Rahl shook his head. "I really didn't have to pry them away. He was very cooperative. Finding out where they were and who was in charge was the hard part. Then I just talked to him, and we worked out the arrangements. Dealing with the local factors' council was harder. All they wanted to know was when trading vessels would start porting and whether they'd get tariffing relief because of the revolt." Rahl took a quick swallow of the watery cider. "Those aren't something that the overcommander can control. No ship's master wants to hazard a vessel, and most will wait until they know it's safe. After that, well, it's more than a few days under sail even from Cigoerne, let alone Nordla or Recluce. As for tariffs, that's up to the Emperor, but I can't imagine he'd reduce their tariffs, even for a short time. That wouldn't be fair to traders elsewhere." Rahl grimaced slightly. "Besides, none of those still here took a stand against Golyat, and granting them tariff relief would amount to rewarding them for supporting, or not opposing, treason."