L. E.Modesitt - Imager’s Intrigue

Dichartyn shook his head. “That rumor comes up every few years. It has ever since I’ve been here. If it were true, most of the Collegium would have come from the taudis. Still…that’s troubling, especially now.”

“Why now?”

“What do you think?”

He was always turning questions back to me, but I answered anyway. “It’s only a matter of weeks before Ferrum finds a pretext-or makes one-to invade Jariola. If we don’t help the Oligarch with troops, which I don’t see happening, the Ferrans will take the coal fields, along with a large chunk of Jariolan territory. The Council will be split, and if there’s more unrest in the taudis, along with the unresolved conflict between the freeholders and the High Holders, the Council won’t want to get involved in the Ferrum-Jariola fighting, and that will lead to the eventual decline and fall of Jariola.”

“Why would that be bad? I don’t think you’ve ever been a supporter of the Oligarch.”

“I’m not, but the Ferrans pose a far bigger danger to Solidar than Jariola ever will. The Jariolans just want to hang on to what they have. The Ferrans want to rule the world, and they’d like it to be a mercantilist empire, with factors as commercial High Holders or the like, without any of the internal restraints present here in Solidar.” I paused just briefly. “I’ve offered my thoughts. What about yours?”

He smiled, ruefully. “I agree with you about the Ferran motives and the likely outcome of war in Cloisera. Our Navy is presently somewhat under-strength, and while the Council has debated funding ten additional warships, nothing has happened. Suyrien’s works would build them, and Glendyl’s manufactory in Ferravyl would supply the engines and turbines, and those details are causing delays. The Naval Command is also complaining that they’re having trouble getting enough recruits and that the conscription teams have been restricted in recent years.”

“Only in L’Excelsis,” I replied dryly.

“It appears that the Civic Patrols in other cities have also decided that the precedent you set is one that keeps the taudis areas more peaceful. The Navy can’t argue against that, but they don’t like it. Then, there is the grain problem.”

I waited.

“The Navy purchases a great deal of grain-flour, actually. They prefer not to deal with a large number of sellers. So they put out orders for bid, and the bidders have to guarantee the quantity, the quality, and the lowest bidder who can satisfy the first two criteria wins the order.”

I thought I could see what was coming. “The bids have all gone to High Holders?”

“Until this year. One Broussard D’Factorius assembled a flour cooperative, to which most of the freehold growers and flour factors in the area around Piedryn belong. He built a large mill and storage facility.”

“They’re undercutting…Haebyn,” I had to struggle for the name, “and the other High Holders.”

“Not so much as they could,” Dichartyn went on. “They’ve had to employ a large number of guards at the facility to prevent thefts and vandalism that doesn’t seem to occur at the facilities of High Holders. That cuts into their profits. They’re complaining to the various factoring associations, and to the Council. The High Holders are complaining that a flour cooperative is unfair collusion.”

“That’s why mills and silos and other facilities are suffering damage?”

“No one can prove it. Not yet.”

“That can’t make Broussard all that popular with the High Holders. Even so, I still don’t see why someone would blow up Broussard’s carriage. Anyone with enough skill and knowledge to do that surely would have known that his assistant was in it.”

Dichartyn shook his head. “Broussard claims he came down with stomach poisoning at dinner just before the performance. He and the assistant were attired in a similar fashion…”

“So he knew or suspected that someone was after him, and he let them take care of his domestic difficulties?”

“That’s only a surmise, but he is a very, very intelligent man.”

“That way, he’s still around to point the Civic Patrol and the Council in the direction he wishes.” I paused. “Does he have any Ferran connections?”

“Not that Schorzat or I have been able to discover. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”

“Are any other factors or freeholders following his example-the idea of cooperatives and the like?”

“Councilor Caartyl is pressing for a change in the laws to declare such cooperatives unable to bid on governmental procurements unless their organizational structure binds them to commitments made by a permanent head of the organization with a fixed term of office that is at least two years and not more than five, who cannot succeed himself for more than one term.”

“He doesn’t want the Ferran mercantile structure creeping into Solidar under the guise of cooperatives.”

Dichartyn nodded. “Not surprisingly, the factoring associations oppose the proposed law. The guilds, of course, support it, and the High Holders are split. Suyrien is leaning to support it as a compromise, but he hasn’t said so publicly.”

“Has the Ferran envoy commented?”

“In recent years, no Ferran envoy has commented on much of anything. Publicly or privately.” He looked to me.

There was no point in replying to that. Envoy Vhillar had more than deserved what he’d gotten. “What else is happening that you haven’t told me?”

“Besides the fact that you gave Draffyd pause with your medical imaging?”

“I didn’t know what else to do.”

“As I recall, when you get into those positions, usually trouble follows.”

“That was why I went to Draffyd.”

“He was grateful. He did admit you might make a competent imaging medical surgeon, but he wouldn’t want to put a scalpel in your hand. You have the dexterity, but not any practice.”

“I wouldn’t, either.” The thought of cutting into people, even for a good reason, wasn’t all that appealing. “What else?”

He shrugged. “Everything is very quiet at the moment.”

“That’s the most disturbing thing you could have said.”

We both laughed, and before long I was headed back to our house to spend what I hoped would be a quiet afternoon and evening with my family.

The rest of Samedi was quiet and pleasant. So was Solayi, until I had to stop by Third District station for a glass or so in the afternoon. As I’d suspected might occur, there had been five more elver deaths, three in the taudis areas, and two others, one just off the Plaza SudEste and one in a quiet area only a block from the Anomen D’Este, where my family attended services. There wasn’t much to do but record the deaths. The rest of Solayi was pleasant, or as pleasant as it could have been with the drizzle that oozed over the city in late afternoon and turned everything chill and gray.

The beginning of the week was routine, even for Seliora, with only few more orders coming into NordEste Design. As for Third District, on Lundi, Mardi, and Meredi, the patrollers reported another six deaths from elveweed, three in the taudis and three outside. Thefts and assaults were down, and there was only one killing, at a tavern off Sudroad, near the Guild Square. That was also low for half a week, but I wasn’t complaining.

When I arrived at Third District Station on Jeudi, my first question to Lyonyt, seated behind the duty desk, was, “How many last night?”

“Just one, sir.”

That was about what I’d expected, because elvers tended to come into coin near the end of the week, either through casual labor or from pilfering money from those with whom they lived and who were generally paid on Vendrei.