I concentrated: “Sunburst stones arise.” Thousands of sunburst stones, of all sizes, rose from the beach and water.
There was a huge one down deep inside the quartz deposit, but I left it there for now. I ported myself, and all of the sunburst stones, into the hollowed-out mountain vault I’d made from building the roads. The vault was huge. It would provide plenty of room for the time being. I thought, smiling. I already had quite a large stack of gold in here, now I had thousands of sunburst stones. I placed wards on the space; anyone who looked would only see solid rock. And no one but whom I brought and myself could port inside the vault.
"I think it's time that North Landing pay for the trouble they have caused us,” I said to myself.
I put on Shadow Wraith, ported to the mountaintop, and flew north until I came to North Landing City. I changed my appearance, putting on my common dark clothes, and landed in an alley in the market district. I dismissed Shadow Wraith when I was clear and walked out of the alley.
I walked around looking in shops, tasting food and drink from time to time. I listened to idle conversations and tested the mood of the city. Nothing seemed amiss. You would never know North Landing and Midway were at war. No one bothered me; they all could tell I was a wizard and left me alone.
I found the Merchants’ Guild and walked the area, looking around. I viewed inside the guild building, and there was a clerk working in the office.
I concentrated on him, “Give me all the knowledge I need, and then forget I asked.” I then went to the Money Changer’s Guild House and did the same thing to the clerk there.
I now knew what trading house it was. At one time, it had been very successful, but had now fallen on hard times. Not because of mismanagement, but because the patriarch had no heirs. The Janus Trading House was in an older area, a few streets off the main market. Even so, it was far from run down; the Janus had a large walled compound that had seen better days.
I rang the caller's bell, and an attendant answered the door. He looked at me. “Yes, Sir Wizard?”
“I would like to see Master Janus on a business matter.”
“The Master usually meets for business at the business office.”
“I know, but this is important,” I said, passing him a gold coin.
He took it, opened the gate, showed me into a waiting room, and brought me a glass of wine. After a bit, I was shown in to see Janus.
“How much did it cost you?”
I shrugged, “A gold.”
He smiled. “Good for him. What can I do for you, Sir Wizard?”
“To be blunt, sell me your business—the name, the house, all your properties, assets, customers, everything.”
He nodded. “Good, straight to the point. But then what would I do?” he chuckled.
“Anything you want. You'd be rich…again.”
He waved his hand. “Gold is just a way to keep score; I need no more gold.”
“I see. Well then, what do you need? If you could do or have anything, what would it be?” I asked.
“Anything?”
I nodded, “Anything at all.”
“Well, since I'm dreaming…” He got a faraway look in his eyes and shook his head. “To be honest, I'm tired of all this.” He waved his hand around the room. “I've been a merchant for over fifty years, and I'm surprised to still be alive. I'm just tired of it. I’d love to go fishing, not saltwater mind you, freshwater fishing. When I was a boy, every moment I could steal away I'd be fishing.”
I opened a portal to Magenta City: “Come look at this and see what you think.”
He stared through the portal at the lake and wharf, and we got up and walked through. I closed the portal, and he looked around. Some boys were fishing off the wharf.
He walked over to them. “Are they biting?”
The boys didn't look away from their corks. “Some, sir, yesterday I caught one as big as Jon over there.”
Janus chuckled. “That big, huh? What kind?”
“Rainbow trout mostly.” His cork shot out of sight, and he pulled back on his pole. We watched as the boy fought his fish up to the wharf and landed him.
Janus was laughing. “That's a fine one, son, but not quite as big as Jon.”
“Let's go show Papa, Jon.” They ran toward home, holding their fish between them.
Janus looked around, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. “Where are we, Sir Wizard?” he asked.
“This is Magenta City in the Kingdom of Mountain Hold.”
“Must be far from North Landing; I've never heard of it.” I just smiled.
A man and his wife walked by. “Sire,” they said, bowing to me.
I bowed in return, and they walked on.
Janus stared at me. “I'm not even going to ask.” He looked around the wharf. “All right, Sir Wizard, what are you offering?”
“You name your price for your trading house—the name and all the assets—and I build you a house anywhere you want on this lake. You tell me what kind of house and where, and we go back to North Landing and do all the paperwork. That way everyone knows you have sold out, and you’ve left for retirement. I wouldn't want anyone to think I killed you and took your place.”
He nodded and named his price. It was fair, so I didn't even haggle.
We ported back to North Landing and started all the paperwork for Jon Fisher to buy the Janus Trading House. Janus laughed when he saw Jon Fisher was buying him out. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.
I got my trading house in North Landing, and Janus got his house on the lake where he could fish all he wanted. I opened a money-changing house in Magenta. Now, I had a place to put Janus' money.
Chapter 25
Janus gave me the name of an honest office and trade manager, so I hired him to handle the business in North Landing. He worked out of the Janus Business Office. I put money in the business accounts, and he started funding caravans. We didn't work with ships; I had a feeling that North Landing shippers would lose money. Janus took a lot of his furnishings with him to Magenta City, and I got rid of the rest. It wasn't my style. I was porting home to Pam every night to dance and have dinner. She took care of Midway Kingdom business, and I took care of mine.
The Vincent Mercenary Company was ready to hire out. Vincent had fully equipped everyone, not in the finest, but in good quality equipment. He had hired all the people we wanted, including the medico, furrier-blacksmith, and a wizard.
I met with the wizard: “Greetings, Sir Wizard,” I said.
“And to you, Sir Wizard,” he answered. He was young but had a strong, blue aura about him.
“Where do your talents lie?” I asked.
“Mostly in the elements; I'm strongest in earth arts.”
I nodded. “I take it you, and I include myself in this, are what our trained brethren call a gutter wizard, or wood wizard.”
He looked uncertain. “I am.”
“Have no fear; the only thing I've notice they learn in the guild school is arrogance,” I said, smiling. He relaxed. “Do you have any magic books to study?”
He shook his head: “I have not.”
I took the book of magic from my purse and gave it to him. “Study this; it will help you along. Also, learn everything you can from the soldiers. You'll be better for it. The time I spent with them helped me tremendously.”
I saw a staff lying beside him. “Is that your fighting staff?” I said, pointing with my chin. He nodded. “May I see it?” He handed it to me, and as I suspected, it was just a staff. I concentrated on it.
“Wizard staff.” A purple aura surrounded his staff, and runes appeared along its length. In one end, a small sunstone appeared.
I handed it back to him: “That will get you started; work with it and practice. Listen to what the Captain has to teach you, and you'll do fine.”
He sat staring at his new staff. “I will. The book and the staff are most generous, Sir Wizard.”
I smiled, “I'm just helping a fellow wizard along the path. Tra
vel safe, brother.”
“And you as well, brother,” he replied in kind.
I saw the company hire out and leave on their first contract. I recognized many of the men in the company.
“Gray, I see you escaped Skeeter's sister,” one called out, exchanging friendly banter as they passed.
I laughed and waved; I missed that part of the caravan trip.
***
After midnight, I was levitating in Shadow Wraith and looking down into North Landing's Palace. It was heavily warded. Their Royal vault was large and quite full. I dropped into the earth, went underneath the vault, concentrated, and ported a gold coin out of it and into my hand. Then, I waited to see if anything happened. After waiting fifteen minutes, I ported a bag of gold coins to the bottom of their harbor and waited. Another thirty minutes passed and nothing happened. I concentrated on the Royal vault once more and ported everything—every last thing—to my mountain vault.
I moved under to his storehouses, where all of his siege supplies and the Royal granaries were. I ported everything from all of them to my mountain vault as well. I looked into the Royal stables; He had some nice animals, almost as nice as Bold. And just because I was feeling mean, I ported the Royal horses to my herd. They’d be happier there anyway.
I went to a nearby roof at the Janus House and looked around. Nothing was out of place, so I viewed around the area. That's when I saw the Janus House was being watched—the Spy Guild, most likely. That made sense. There was a new player in town, so they were gathering information on him to sell. I ported the bag of gold up from the harbor and to my mountain vault. Then, I headed home to get some rest. I had used a lot of energy porting things around.
***
After breakfast, I ported to Fort Magenta to see the General. “Good morning, Sire,” he said, bowing.
“Good Morning, General. How much did I miss buying for our people?”
He chuckled, “Well, Sire, you know women. There is always something we men have missed.” He gave me the list. It was quite long, but mostly small things for the homes and kitchens.
“Where should I have this delivered to?”
“I think the city square would be the most central location,” he replied.
I nodded, “Have you started a list of those that don't want to serve in our army?”
“I have, and the list is quite long. We have pretty much all trades listed: merchants, farmers, etc.”
“How many will remain in the Army?”
“About half, I should think.”
“Get a list of all the shops and stores we will need and the supplies to stock them. I'll loan the money for startup costs. Get a count on how many farmers we'll have. We'll see how much land we need to clear for them.” He was making notes. “If you think of anything I miss, please let me know. I don't want to miss anything.”
“The people want to know if they can hunt and fish on your lands.”
“Yes, they can hunt and fish anywhere they like.” He smiled and nodded. “I'll be back with the delivery this afternoon.”
“Yes, Sire.” He bowed, and I ported out.
I went to a different store this time to buy supplies, as I wanted to spread the business around. A clerk greeted me, “How may we serve, Sir Wizard?”
I handed him my list. “Pile all of this in one place, please.”
“We'll begin at once, Sir Wizard.”
I browsed the store while they filled my order. When the order was filled, I ported it to Magenta Square. There were people there to hand out what I had brought. Seeing everything was in hand, I ported to my mountain vault. It was almost full, but that was a good problem to have. After considering, I went back to Magenta City and raised a warehouse to store the siege supplies from North Landing. I wanted the supplies where my people could get to them, just in case.
I ported all of the supplies from the mountain vault to the warehouses. Then, I stopped by and told the general about the new warehouses and supplies.
Afterward, I ported back to my mountain vault and walked through the things “donated” to me from North Landing. I smiled, there were the usual things: gold bars and coins, jewelry, gems, nothing out of the ordinary. There was just a lot of it.
I need to put my money to work, so I went to the moneychangers in Midway and added five thousand gold to my account. I also went to the Rooma Trading House and did the same. When that business was done, I ported to the shipyards to see how things were progressing.
The yards were concentrating on the five damaged North Landing ships; they were almost finished. I guess now is as good a time as any. I installed ship sunburst stones into the ten ships. Now, they would be ready to sail as soon as all other repairs were complete.
The signal mirror from the Harbor Garrison said that our fleet was coming in with six ships. Pirates must have taken our bait. I felt all four of our ship stones, so I knew we had not lost any. Retribution was in the lead as they entered the harbor, followed by a huge cargo ship. It would probably carry twice as much as any of ours. Retribution turned toward the navy docks. The huge cargo ship and Tradewinds turned toward the city docks, and our other ships went in at the navy docks.
I met Retribution. “We made a good haul this time, Sir Wizard. Six pirates jumped us two days out of South Landing. They had already taken that big cargo ship and were moving slow. We sank five of them in the fight.”
“Do you have any wounded that need attention?”
“Thank you, but no. However, we did lose twelve men.”
“It looks like you've been busy as well,” he said, pointing toward the ten ships.
“North Landing overplayed their hand and then abandoned the crews. They all came over to our side.”
“So, they not only lost ten ships, but they lost ten trained crews to us to man those ships?” I nodded. “Foolish,” he said.
I nodded, “Take care of your men; I'll go check the cargo ships.”
“Yes, Sir Wizard,” he bowed.
I ported over to the city wharf and met our cargo ship's captain. “Sir Wizard.” He bowed.
“Captain, how are your men?”
“All are well, Sir Wizard. Thank you.”
“Very good, Captain, let me go see the new cargo ship and what we have.” He bowed, and I walked toward the huge ship.
As I walked down the pier, I saw a group of men moving toward me; I stopped and waited. I recognized one of them as the first officer of Tradewinds.
They all bowed: “Sir Wizard.”
“Mr. Owen, who are our guests?”
“Sir Wizard, allow me to present Mr. O'mod, the former owner of Desertwind, and Captain Ra-shod, former Captain of Desertwind.” They had remained bowed.
“Gentlemen, welcome to Midway.”
They recovered from bowing. “May we beg your indulgence, Sir Wizard?”
“You may,” I answered.
“We understand that technically you own Desertwind and all her cargo, but we are a family-owned business. The ship was ours alone, not the Crown's. How can we buy our ship back?”
“Mr. Owen, how did you find Desertwind?"
“An interesting ship that handles surprisingly well for her size.” I nodded.
“Where were you bound when you were taken?”
“South Landing, Sir Wizard,” Mr. O'mod answered.
“And what cargo?”
“A mixed shipment of grains, spices, and fabrics.”
“Do you have a standing order in South Landing?” I continued.
“No, Sir Wizard. This was our first run in the new ship. We gambled everything on this run, and sadly, our luck didn't hold.”
I considered them and their ship. “Maybe yes, maybe no. I might be interested in buying your cargo and releasing the ship back to you, if you would start trading with Midway rather than South Landing.”
They both nodded. “We will do so.”
“My friend, Hue Magenta, will buy your whole cargo. I will pay my crews for your rescue and start
trading with Midway.”
“We will.”
“I am also interested in your ship's design. I'd like to look at it and see if this might be a design we can use.”
“It would be our pleasure to show you.”
“Good, you have your ship back, and we look forward to trading with you.”
“Thank you, Sir Wizard.” They bowed and unloaded the cargo ship into Hue Magenta's warehouses.
When the ship was completely unloaded, I went through on a tour and studied the ship's design. I thought it was something we could use. Although, I thought I would have made it a little wider. I paid Desertwind for the cargo in gold, and they bought their new cargo. Our four ships were also loaded with supplies. They were all gone within the week, headed back to their desert lands. Our ship would provide an escort for them to ensure they got home safely.
I gathered parchment and laid my hands on the stack of papers.
“Draw my cargo ship design.” I had the design on paper of Desertwind but with a wider body. I took my new ship design to the shipyard.
“As soon as you can get started, build this.”
“Yes, Sir Wizard,” the yard manager said.
I would pay for this one to be built, or rather Hue Magenta would. I smiled, rather North Landing would.
I ported to Mountain Hold and cleared five hundred acres of woodlands. I sent all of the trees to the shipyard for my new ship. Now, I had farmland cleared in Mountain Hold to put our farmers to work. I also opened a port for twenty-five hundred horses from Fort Magenta to go to the northern herd.
***
I ported to the Janus House and walked around the market district. Tensions seemed a little higher this time, as grain prices had risen. I gave the Janus office manager, Mr. Shaver, the blueprints for my wagons.
“Have thirty of these wagons built and thirty oxen teams, of four each, bought. Once they are complete, buy cargo and send them out with caravans to Central Plains City. Buy grain to bring back.”
I put more gold into the Janus' accounts to cover all of our costs plus buying cargo. I also invested in other business, just like I had done in Midway.
“Sir Wizard, do we have money to invest?” the office manager asked.
Wizard's Alley Page 24
