The Traders' War (Merchant Princes Omnibus 2)

by Charles Stross

  Olga swallowed. ‘Yes, my lady.’

  What was that about? The carriage bounced again, throwing Mike against the side of the seat and jarring his leg painfully. When he could focus again, he realized Iris had been talking for some time.

  ‘ – stopping soon, and we will have to lock you in the carriage overnight. I hope you understand. When we get to the waypoint Olga will carry you across, put you somewhere safe, call for an ambulance, then leave. I hope you understand the need for this? Olga, if you would be so good . . .’

  The Russian princess was holding a syringe. ‘No!’ Mike tried to protest, but in his current state he was too weak to fight her off. And whatever was in the needle was strong enough that it stopped mattering very shortly afterwards.

  *

  Miriam had just been through two months under house arrest, preceded by three months in carefully cosseted isolation. Then she’d managed a fraught escape and then been imprisoned yet again, albeit for a matter of days. Walking the streets of New York again – even a strangely low-rise New York wrapped around the imperial palace and inner city of New London – felt like freedom. The sight of aircraft and streetcars and steam-powered automobiles and primitive flickering neon signs left her gaping at the sheer urban beauty of it all. As they moved closer to the center of the city the bustle of the crowds and the bright synthetic colors of the women’s clothing caught her attention more than the gray-faced beggars in the suburbs. I’m in civilization again, she realized, half-dazed. Even if I’m not part of it. Erasmus paused, looking at a news vendor’s stand displaying the stamp of the censor’s office. ‘Buy me a newspaper, dear?’ she asked, touching his arm.

  Erasmus jerked slightly, then recovered. ‘Certainly. A copy of the Register, please.’

  ‘Aye, sorr. An’ here you is.’

  He passed her the rolled-up newssheet as they moved up the high street. ‘What bit you?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘I’ve been out of touch for a long time. I just need to –’ I need to connect, she thought, but before she could articulate it he nodded, grinning ironically.

  ‘You were out of touch? Did your family have you on a tight leash?’

  ‘I had nothing to read but a grammar book for two months. And that wasn’t the worst of it.’ Now that she had company to talk to she could feel a mass of words bubbling up, ideas seeking torrential release.

  ‘You’ll have to tell me about it later. I was told there was a public salon here – ah, that’s it. Your hair, Miriam. You can see to it yourself?’

  He’d stopped again, opposite a diamond-paned window. Through it she could just about make out the seats and basins of a hairdresser: some things seemed to evolve towards convergence, however distinct they’d been at the start. ‘I think I can just about manage that.’ She tried to smile, but the knot of tension had gotten a toehold back and wouldn’t let go. ‘This will probably take a couple of hours. Then I need to buy clothes. Why don’t you just tell me where the hotel is, and I’ll meet you there at six o’clock? How does that sound?’

  ‘That sounds fine.’ He nodded, then pulled out a pocket book and scribbled an address in it. ‘Here. Take care.’

  She smiled at him, and he ducked his head briefly, then turned his back. Miriam took a deep breath. A bell rattled on a chain as she pushed the door open; at the desk behind the window, a young woman looked up in surprise from the hardcover she’d been reading. ‘Can I help you?’

  ‘I hope so.’ Miriam managed a smile. ‘I need a new hairstyle, and I need it now.’

  *

  Six hours later, footsore and exhausted from the constant bombardment of strangeness that the city kept hurling at her, Miriam clambered down from the back of a cab outside the Great Northern Hotel, clutching her parcels in both hands. The new shoes pinched at toe and heel, and she was sweating from the summer weather; but she was more presentable than she’d have been in the shabby outfit they’d passed off on her at Hogarth Villas, and the footman leapt to open the doors for her. ‘Thank you!’ She nodded at him. ‘The front desk, I’m meeting my husband – ’

  ‘This way, ma’am.’

  Miriam was halfway to the desk when a newspaper rattled behind her. She glanced round to see Burgeson unfolding himself from a heavily padded chair. ‘Susan! My dear. Let me help you with those parcels.’ He deftly extricated her from the footman, guided her past the front desk towards an elevator, and relieved her of the most troublesome parcel. ‘I almost didn’t recognize you,’ he murmured. ‘You’ve done a good job.’

  ‘It feels really strange, being a blonde. People look at you differently. And it’s so heavily lacquered it feels like my head’s embedded in a wicker basket. It’ll probably crack and fall off when I go to bed.’

  ‘Come on inside.’ He held the door for her, then dialed the sixth floor. As the door closed, he added: ‘That’s a nice outfit. Almost too smart to be seen with the likes of me.’

  She pursed her lips. ‘Looking like a million dollars tends to get you treated better by the kind of people those million dollars hire.’ She’d ended up in something not unlike a department store, buying a conservatively cut black two-piece outfit. It was a lot less strange than some of the stuff she’d seen in the shops: New London’s fashion, at least for those who still had money to spend, was more experimental than Boston’s. The lift bell chimed. ‘Where are we staying?’

  ‘This way.’ He led her along a corridor like any other hotel corridor back home (except for the flickering tungsten bulbs), then used an old-fashioned key to unlock a bedroom door.

  ‘There’s, uh, only one bed, Erasmus.’

  ‘We’re supposed to be married, Miriam. I’ll take the chaise.’

  ‘I didn’t mean it like that.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ He rubbed his forehead. ‘Blame Margaret’s sense of humor.’ He looked at her again: ‘With hair that color, and curly, and – you’ve been using paints, haven’t you? Yes, looking like that, I don’t think anyone’ll recognize you at first sight.’

  ‘I think it’s ugly. But Mrs. Christobell – she ran the salon – seemed to think it was the height of fashion.’ She carefully hung her hat and jacket on the coat-rail then touched her hair gingerly. ‘That feels really odd. Better keep me away from candle flames for a while.’

  ‘I think I can manage that.’ He laid his hat and newspaper on the occasional table. ‘You did very well at making yourself look completely unlike yourself – it’s going to take some getting used to.’

  ‘That goes for me, too. I’m not sure I like it.’ She headed for the table, but before she could reach it he ducked in and pulled a chair out for her. ‘Thanks, I think.’ She sat down, bent forward to get closer to her shoes, and sighed. ‘I need to get these off for a bit – my feet are killing me.’

  ‘Did you spend everything, or do you have some money left?’

  ‘Not much.’ She focused on his expression. ‘Did you think I can keep up appearances by looting your shop?’

  ‘No, but I –’ He rubbed his forehead wearily. ‘Forget it.’

  ‘I had to do something about my appearance, make myself less recognizable. And I had to get hold of a respectable outfit, if I want to pass for your . . . spouse. And I had to buy shoes that fit, and a couple of changes of underwear, and some other stuff. It costs money, and takes time, but it’s necessary. Are you still taking your medicine?’

  He frowned at her effusion: ‘Yes, every day, as you said.’

  ‘Good. One less problem to solve.’ She crossed her legs. ‘Now, what have you been up to?’

  ‘Getting the job done.’ He looked in her direction, not focusing, and she shivered. Who is he seeing? ‘I’m not planning on staying in Boston for long – I’m needed in Fort Petrograd, out west.’ He looked her in the eye. ‘You don’t have to come with me – you can stay in my apartment if you prefer.’

  ‘And do what, precisely? Sit down, pacing like that is making me itch.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ He pulled out the chair oppo
site and sat down. ‘I’ve got a job to do, and you turned up right in the middle of it.’

  ‘I could keep the shop open.’ She sounded doubtful, even to herself. Do I want to be on my own in Boston? What if Angbard sends someone to look for me? It would be the first place they checked. Best not to wait until they start looking, then.

  ‘That’s not practical.’ He frowned. ‘I trust you to do it – that’s not in question – but there are too many problems. Business is very poor, and I’m already under observation. If I take a wife that’s one thing, but employing a shop assistant while I take off to the wilds of California is something else: the local thief-takers aren’t completely stupid. I’m supposed to be a pawnbroker, not a well-off storeholder. Unless you’ve got any better ideas?’

  ‘I think . . . well, there’s some stuff I need to pick up in Boston. And then I need to get back in touch with my relatives, but carefully. How about if I went with you? How long will you be gone?’

  ‘At least a week; it’s three days each way by train, and flying would attract the wrong kind of attention. Frankly, I’d be grateful if you’d accompany me. It’d strengthen my cover on the way out – we could be traveling on our honeymoon – and if we arrived back together I could introduce you to the neighbors as someone from out west. Wife, sister, brother’s widow, whatever. And, to be truthful, the three days out – one gets tired of traveling alone.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ she said fervently. ‘Don’t I know it.’ It was traveling alone that got me into this mess – ‘Before we skip town, though. There are some things I left in my office, at the works. I really need to get my hands on them. Do you think there’s any way I could retrieve them?’

  ‘You left your relatives running the business, didn’t you? Do you know if it’s still going? Or if you’d be welcome there if it is?’

  ‘No.’ She was shaking slightly. ‘No to both questions. I don’t know anything. I might not be welcome. But it’s important.’ She’d left a small notebook PC locked in a drawer in her office, and a portable printer, and a bunch of CD-ROMs with a complete archive of U. S. Patent Office filings going up to the 1960s. In this world, that was worth more than diamonds. But there was something on the computer that was even more valuable to her. In a moment of spare time, she’d scanned her locket using the computer’s web cam, meaning to mess around with it later. If it was still there, if she could get her hands on it, and if it worked – I’m free. She could go anywhere and do anything, and she’d had a lot of time to think about Mike’s offer of help, back in the basement of Hogarth Villas. It wasn’t the only option, but just being able to get back to her own world would be a vast improvement on her current situation. ‘I need to get my stuff.’

  ‘Would it be –’ He licked his lips nervously. ‘It’s not safe, Miriam. If they’re looking for you, they’ll look there.’

  ‘I know, I just need –’ She stopped, balling her hands into fists from frustration. ‘Sorry. It’s not your fault. You’re right, it’s risky. But it’s also important. If I can get my things, I can also world-walk home. To the United States, that is. I can – ’

  ‘Miriam.’ He waited almost a minute before continuing, his voice gentle. ‘Your relatives know where you’d go. They might have established a trap there. Can you think of another way to get what you need?’

  ‘Huh?’ She took a deep breath. ‘Yes. Roger!’

  ‘Roger?’

  She leaned across the table and took Burgeson’s hand: ‘I need to write him a letter. If the business is still running, he’ll be working there. He’s reliable – he’s the one I used to send you messages – I can ask him to take the items whenever it’s safe for him, and have a cousin deliver them to your shop when we get back.’ Erasmus pulled back slightly: she realized she was gripping his hand too hard. ‘Can I do that?’

  He smiled ruefully as he shook some life back into his fingers. ‘Are they small and concealable?’

  ‘About so big –’ she indicated ‘ – and about ten pounds in weight. They’re delicate instruments, they need to be kept dry and handled carefully.’

  ‘Then we’ll get you some writing paper and a pen before we board the train.’ He nodded thoughtfully. ‘And you’ll tell him not to take the items for at least a week, and to have his cousin deliver them to somewhere else, a different address I can give you. A sympathizer. In the very worst possible circumstances they will know that you’ve visited Boston, my Boston, in the past week.’

  ‘Thank you.’ The knot of anxiety in her chest relaxed.

  He stood up, pushing his chair back. ‘It’s getting on. Would you care to accompany me to dinner? No need to change – the carvery downstairs has no code.’

  ‘Food would be good, once I get my shoes back on. If we’ve got that much travel ahead of us I’m going to have to break them in – what are you going to Fort Petrograd for?’

  ‘I have to see a man about a rare book,’ he said flippantly, offering Miriam her jacket. ‘And then I think I should like to take a stroll along a beach and dip my toes in the Pacific Ocean . . .’

  *

  More wrecked buildings, another foggy morning.

  Otto, Baron Neuhalle, had seen these sights twice already in the past week. His majesty had been most explicit: ‘We desire you to employ no more than a single battalion in any location. The witches have uncanny means of communication, as well as better guns than anything our artificers can make, and if the entire army is concentrated to take a single keep, it will be ambushed. To defeat this pestilence, it will first be necessary to force them to defend their lands. So you will avoid the castles and strong places, and instead fall upon their weaker houses and holdings. You will grant no quarter and take no prisoners of the witches, save that you put out their eyes as soon as you take them into captivity, that they may work no magic. Some of the witches make their peasants grow weeds and herbs in their fields, instead of food. You will fire these fields and slay the witches, but you will not kill their peasants – it is our wish that they be fed from the stores of their former lords and masters. The witches seem to value these crops, so they are as much a target as their owners.’

  His horse snorted, pawing the ground nervously at the smells and shouts from the house ahead. Neuhalle glanced at the two hand-men waiting behind him, their heavy horse-pistols resting across their saddles. ‘Follow,’ he ordered, then nudged his mount forward.

  Before the first and fourth platoons had arrived, this had been a large village, dominated by the dome of a temple and the steeply pitched roof of a landholder’s house – one of the Hjorth family, a poor rural hanger-on of the tinker clan. Upper Innmarch hadn’t been much by the standards of the aristocracy, but it was still a substantial two-story building, wings extending behind it to form a horseshoe around a cobbled yard, with stables and outbuildings. Now, half of the house lay in ruins and smoke and flames belched from the roof of the other half. Bodies lay in the dirt track that passed for a high street, soldiers moving among them. Shouts and screams from up the lane, and a rhythmic thudding noise: one of his lances was battering on the door of a suspiciously well-maintained cottage, while others moved in and out of the dark openings of round-roofed hovels, like killer hornets buzzing around the entrances of a defeated beehive. More moans and screams split the air.

  ‘Sir! Beg permission to report!’

  Neuhalle reined his horse in as he approached the sergeant – distinguished by the red scarf he wore – and leaned towards the man. ‘Go ahead,’ he rasped.

  ‘As ordered, I deployed around the house at dawn and waited for Morgan’s artillery. There was no sign of a guard on duty. The occupants noticed around the time the cannon arrived: we had hot grapeshot waiting, and Morgan put it through the windows yonder. The place caught readily – too readily, like they was waiting for us. Fired a few shots, then nothing. A group of six attempted to flee from the stables on horseback as we approached, but were brought down by Heidlor’s team. The villagers either ran for the forest or barricaded thems
elves in, Joachim is seeing to them now.’ He looked almost disappointed; compared to the first tinker’s nest they’d fired, this one had been a pushover.

  ‘I think you’re right: the important cuckoos had already fled the nest.’ Neuhalle scratched at his scrubby beard. ‘What’s in the fields?’

  ‘Rye and wheat, sir.’

  ‘Right.’ Neuhalle straightened his back: ‘Let the men have their way with the villagers.’ These peasants had been given no cause to resent the witches: so let them fear the king instead. ‘Any prisoners from the house?’

  ‘A couple of serving maids tried to run, sir. And an older woman, possibly a tinker though she didn’t have a witch sign on her.’

  ‘Then give them the special treatment. No, wait. Maids? An older woman? Let the soldiers use them first, then the special treatment.’

  His sergeant looked doubtful. ‘Haven’t found the smithy yet, sir. Might be a while before we have hot irons.’

  Neuhalle waved dismissively. ‘Then hang them instead. Just make sure they’re dead before we move on, that will be sufficient. If you find any unburned bodies in the house, hang them up as well: we have a reputation to build.’

  ‘The peasants, sir?’

  ‘I don’t care, as long as there are survivors to bear witness.’

  ‘Very good, sir.’

  ‘That will be all, Sergeant Shutz.’

  Neuhalle nudged his horse forward, around the burning country house. He had a list of a dozen to visit, strung out through the countryside in a broad loop around Niejwein. The four companies under his command were operating semi-independently, his two captains each tackling different targets: it would probably take another week to complete the scourging of the near countryside, even though at the outset his majesty had barely three battalions ready for service. It won’t be a long war, he hoped. It mustn’t be. Just a series of terror raids on the Clan’s properties, to force them to focus on the royal army – and then what? Whatever Egon is planning, Neuhalle supposed. Nobody could accuse the young monarch of being indecisive – he was as sharp as his father, but untempered by self-doubt and deeply committed to this purge. Neuhalle’s hand-men rode past him, guns at the ready. It had better work, he hoped. If Egon loses, Niejwein will belong to the witches forever.