Rise of a Merchant Prince

by Raymond E. Feist

  McCraken blinked. “But I was promised. . . .”

  Roo said, “Let him loose.”

  “Just let him go?” asked Duncan.

  “Where’s he going?”

  Luis had found McCraken waiting at a warehouse for a rendezvous with someone—now they knew it to be Briggs— less than four hours earlier. Duncan prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 462

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  had already sent a rider to bring back those men heading for Sarth; if all went according to plan, they should be back at Roo’s headquarters within the hour.

  The man stood up and said, “What am I to do now?”

  “Go to Queg and try to buy a patent of nobility,”

  said Roo. “But use someone else’s money. If you’re in the city by sundown tomorrow, it won’t be just your confederates who will be trying to kill you.”

  The man wiped his bloody lip with the back of his hand and stumbled out the door. Roo said, “Wait a minute, Duncan, then follow him. He’s too scared to try to get away on his own. If there’s another player in this, he may lead us to him. And don’t let him really get away; we may need him to give testimony to the Royal Courts. He may be the only thing that stands between us and a charge of robbery.”

  Duncan nodded. “Where will you be?”

  “At the docks,” said Roo. “Just against the possibility there is a ship that might be Queg-bound on the morning tide. Send for us there.”

  Duncan nodded and left.

  Roo said, “Jason, return to the office and wait there. Luis and I will send word if we need you somewhere else.”

  Jason departed. Luis said, “We have a ship ready to sail as soon as you give word.”

  “Good,” said Roo. “If we find our gold thief is making a break from the city, I want to catch him out beyond the breakwater. By the time any royal warship comes to investigate, I want the matter settled. I want the gold in our possession should some revenue cutter board us. It will be much easier to explain prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 463

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  then.”

  Luis shook his head. “Why move the gold? Why not just stick it somewhere in a back room and wait for the Bitter Sea Company to fold?”

  Roo said, “Because that’s both smart and risky. If you knew these boys were going to get out of the city and not talk, it would be the smart thing to do. But if you thought they might be caught and forced to talk, well, eventually this trail will lead back to whoever is the brains behind this fraud, and at that point”—he snapped his fingers—“we come with every sword we can hire, and it’s a free-for-all.” He sighed. “But if the gold is safely gone, on its way to some port or in a wagon heading over the mountains . . .” He shrugged.

  “Whoever planned this certainly timed things correctly,” said Luis.

  Roo said, “That’s what has me worried. Not only did those bastards at the countinghouse have to be in on this, they had to know something more about the Bitter Sea Company and its finances than they could from people like McCraken and Briggs.” He held up one finger. “They had to know that Jason or someone else would be close to discovering the fraud. It’s just been going on too long.” He held up a second finger.

  “And they had to know that we’re a few weeks from being able to cover such a loss.” He shook his head in frustration. “We’ve got caravans coming in from the East, and a grain shipment putting into Ylith today. Our Far Coast fleet should be at Carse or putting out for the return leg home. Any of those will be bringing enough gold to cover that shortfall”— he struck his fist into his hand—”but not today!”

  “A spy?”

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  “An agent of some sort,” said Roo. He moved toward the door. “Besides Duncan, you are the only person I fully trust, Luis. You were with me in the death cell and you swam the Vedra River with me.

  We’ve looked death in the face together, and except for Jadow and Greylock, there’s not a man left in Krondor I’d want at my back besides you.”

  Luis’s expression was one of mild amusement.

  “Even with one hand?”

  Roo opened the door. “You’re better with a knife in one hand than most men are with a sword and two hands. Come along, let’s start combing the docks.”

  Luis slapped his employer on the back as he followed him through the door and shut it behind him.

  The shed was one of many the Bitter Sea Company owned in the Merchants’ Quarter, and from there the pair moved quickly toward the docks.

  After they had left, a figure rose from the roof of the shed. Lightly jumping to the cobbles, the shadowy observer watched Luis and Roo as they vanished into the darkness, then turned and whistled lightly, pointing after them. Two more figures emerged from a block farther down the street and rapidly approached the first. The three figures con-ferred for a moment, then one of the two returned the way he had come. The others followed Roo and Luis toward the dock.

  “Ambush!” shouted Renaldo.

  “Wedge!” shouted Calis and instantly every man was deploying. The column was in a large gallery, easily two hundred feet across, with six entrances. As they had trained, forty of the men formed a shield-to-shield wedge, with their swords poised to strike prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 465

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  down any attacker. The other twenty men unshouldered shortbows and calmly set arrows to bowstrings as an inhuman snarling and shrieking filled the gallery.

  From three tunnels ahead streams of Pantathians rushed forward to attack Calis’s Crimson Eagles.

  Erik attempted a rough estimation of the opposing forces, but quickly stopped trying to count as the first wave of attackers began to fall to the bowmen.

  Then they struck the shield wall.

  Erik laid about him with powerful strokes of his blade. Twice he heard steel break under his strikes as Pantathian soldiers tried to block with their swords.

  He discovered little skill in their opponents. Without waiting for instructions from Calis, he shouted,

  “Second rank! Swords, and follow me!”

  The twenty bowmen dropped their bows and drew swords. Erik circled around the right end of his line and hit the Pantathians in the flank. As he had suspected, they quickly collapsed in confusion.

  But rather than flee, they simply hurled themselves at the Kingdom soldiers, until suddenly the last two went down before Calis’s men and the gallery fell silent. Boldar Blood said, “Like hacking firewood.”

  Erik glanced at the strange mercenary and noticed that the blood that was splattered on his armor was running off, as if unable to cling to the strange white surface. Catching his breath, Erik said,

  “They were brave, but these weren’t warriors.” He signaled two men toward each tunnel mouth, to stand alert in case other Pantathians might be heading this way.

  “Not brave,” said Boldar. “Fanatics.”

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  Calis looked to Miranda, who said, “We’ve never heard of anyone fighting them hand to hand. They prefer to use stealth and cunning to make war.”

  Erik used the toe of his boot to turn one over and said, “It’s small.”

  “They are all small,” said Calis. “Smaller than the one we found yesterday.”

  Erik glanced at de Loungville. “Are they sending youngsters against us?”

  “Maybe,” said the Sergeant Major. “If they’re as beat up in other parts of this warren as that crèche we found yesterday was, they may be desperate to keep what’s left intact.”

  Erik quickly inspected his own men, while Calis and Miranda inspected the Pantathian dead. No man of Calis’s command had suffered a significant injury.

  “Only cuts and bruises,” Erik reported.

  “A few minutes’ rest, t
hen we move on,” said de Loungville.

  Erik nodded. “Which tunnel?”

  De Loungville repeated the question to Calis.

  “The center, I think. If we need to, we can double back,” said the Captain.

  Erik hoped that was so, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

  Roo crouched behind a bale as a strong contin-gency of armed men moved warily through the darkness. Fog had rolled in, and in the early morning gloom a man could barely see his hand at arm’s length from his face.

  Roo and Luis had scouted the docks when one of Roo’s men reported a large company of guards and a wagon heading for the docks. Roo had followed prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 467

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  while sending Luis to fetch more men.

  Suddenly Roo spun. reacting to the soft sound of movement behind him. As Roo had his sword ready, Duncan held up his hand and whispered, “It’s me!”

  Roo dropped the point of his sword and turned to look at the wagon as he came up the quay. Duncan knelt next to his cousin. “McCraken’s headed here. I lost him for a moment in the fog, saw someone—you— duck down that alley” —he pointed behind Roo—“and followed. I expect we’ll see Herbert show any moment.”

  Roo nodded. “It’s our gold in that wagon, no doubt.”

  “Are we going to hit them on the docks?”

  Roo counted. “Not unless Luis gets back with our men before they get that boat launched,” he whispered. “All our men are either on the Bitter Sea Queen or at the warehouse, waiting for orders.”

  The wagon came to a halt and a voice cut through the darkness. “Down to that longboat.” A single shuttered lantern was uncovered and the wagon and the men around it were now clearly seen, as silhouettes outlined by the faint light.

  Men unlatched the tailgate and began unloading several small chests. Suddenly another figure stumbled out of the dark into the small pool of lantern light around the wagon. Swords were drawn, as an alarmed voice said, “It’s me! McCraken!”

  A man jumped off the wagon seat and grabbed the lantern as two guards gripped Herbert’s arms.

  The man with the lantern held it up and stepped foward.

  Roo sucked breath hard. It was Tim Jacoby. Then at his shoulder he could see Tim’s brother, Randolph.

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  Tim said, “What are you doing here?”

  “Briggs never showed,” said McCraken.

  “Fool,” said Tim Jacoby. “You were told to wait until he showed up, no matter how long it took. He’s probably at the warehouse looking for you right now.”

  Randolph said, “What happened to your face?”

  Herbert raised his hand to his face, then said, “I fell in the dark and hit my lip on a crate.”

  “Looks like someone hit you,” said Tim Jacoby.

  “No one hit me,” said McCraken, too loud for Tim Jacoby’s liking. “I swear it!”

  “Keep your voice down,” Tim ordered. “Did anyone follow you?”

  “In this fog?” said McCraken. He took a breath.

  “You’ve got to take me with you. Briggs was supposed to show up at sundown with my gold. I waited and he never got there. I was promised fifty thousand gold for my part in this. You’ve got to make good on this.”

  “Or what?” asked Tim.

  Suddenly McCraken was afraid. “I . . .”

  Roo noticed that none of the men around the wagon had moved since McCraken’s arrival. The longboat at the bottom of the quay’s steps rocked gently against the stones. “Keep talking,” urged Roo silently, knowing that each passing minute brought Luis and his own men that much closer. Taking them here would be so much easier than a sea battle. He had only until sundown to pay the note, and if he couldn’t take Jacoby’s men on the docks, he would be forced to try a sea chase and taking Tim’s ship before noon.

  Whispering to Duncan, he said, “If I need to, I prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 469

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  plan to keep them here until Luis comes. Can you circle around behind them?”

  “What?” whispered Duncan. “You want just the two of us to try to stop them?”

  “Slow them down, that’s all. Get behind them and follow my play.”

  Duncan rolled his eyes and whispered, “I hope to the gods you’re not going to get us killed, cousin.”

  Then he turned and disappeared into the fog.

  McCraken said, “If you don’t make good on this, I’ll testify before the Duke’s constable. I’ll claim you and Briggs forced me to falsify the accounts.”

  Tim shook his head. “You’re a very stupid man, McCraken. We were supposed to have no contact.

  That was Briggs’s job.”

  “Briggs never showed!” said McCraken, his voice nearly hysterical.

  Tim nodded, and suddenly the two guards gripping McCraken’s arms tightened their grip, holding him motionless. Jacoby swiftly drew a poniard from his belt and drove it into McCraken’s stomach. “You should have stayed in the warehouse, McCraken.

  Briggs is dead, and now”—the accountant slumped in the grip of the two guards—“so are you.” With a motion of his head he indicated they should dispose of the body in the harbor. The two guards took two steps down the stairs beside the longboat and threw the body into the water a few feet in front of the bow.

  Another body found floating in the harbor would hardly be worth mention in Krondor.

  Roo waited until he calculated almost all the gold was loaded on the boat, then he stepped out and with as much authority as he could muster shouted,

  “Don’t move! You’re surrounded.”

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  As he hoped, those near the wagon and the boat couldn’t see who was out there in the fog, and that hesitation gave Roo the advantage he had hoped for; had they instantly charged him, as good a swordsman as he was, he would have been overwhelmed.

  A strangled cry sounded from the back of the wagon and a man fell to the cobbles. Roo wondered at this, until he heard Duncan’s voice shout, “We told you not to move!”

  One man near the body glanced down and said,

  “It’s a dagger! This ain’t the City Watch!”

  He took a step and was brought down by another dagger, and a different voice said, “We never said we were the City Watch.” Moving slowly forward from beyond the other side of the building that had sheltered Roo, a figure could be dimly seen. Roo thought he recognized the voice, and then he made out some familiar features. Dashel Jameson walked casually forward until he was visible to both sides.

  In the distance, hooves striking cobbles could be heard and Dash said, “And we also have reinforcements on their way. Put down your weapons.”

  Some of the men hesitated, when a third dagger sped out of the darkness from where Dashel had emerged and thudded into the side of the wagon. “He said put down your weapons!” shouted a different, odd-sounding voice.

  Roo prayed to Ruthia, Goddess of Luck, that it was Luis and his men whose hooves clattered through the early morning, approaching rapidly.

  Jacoby’s guards slowly knelt, placing weapons on the cobbles.

  Roo waited another moment, then came forward.

  “Good morning, Timothy, Randolph.” He tried to prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:38 AM Page 471

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  sound casual.

  Jacoby said, “You!”

  Just then Luis rode into view and a dozen horsemen came after, fanning out to surround those men already on the ground. Several carried crossbows, which they leveled at the wagons and at the boat.

  “Did you think I’d let you flee with my gold?”

  Jacoby nearly spat, he was so angry. “What do you mean, your gold?”

  Roo said, “Come along, Tim. Mc
Craken and Briggs told us everything.”

  Jacoby said, “Briggs? How could he? We—”

  “Shut up, you fool!” commanded Randolph.

  Roo glanced to where McCraken floated in the bay. “So you sent Herbert to join Briggs, did you?”

  “I’ll send you to join them in hell!” snapped Timothy Jacoby, pulling his sword from his belt, despite the crossbows pointed his way.

  “No!” shouted Randolph, pushing his brother aside as three bolts were unleased.

  Two bolts took Randolph in the chest and another in the neck, and blood exploded across the men standing behind him. He hit the ground like a fly swatted out of the air by a human hand.

  Tim Jacoby rose up from the ground, holding his sword in one hand and a poniard in the other, and there was only madness and rage in his eyes. Luis started to draw back his dagger to throw, but Roo said, “No! Let him come. It’s time to finish this.”

  “You’ve been a thorn in my side since the day we met,” said Tim Jacoby. “You’ve killed my brother!”

  Roo leveled his sword and said, “And Helmut died at your hands.” He motioned for Jacoby to come toward him. “Come on! What are you waiting for?”

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  The men stepped back and Jacoby rushed Roo.

  Roo was the experienced soldier, while Jacoby was nothing more than a murdering bully, but now he was a murdering bully inflamed by hatred and the desire for revenge.

  He closed on Roo faster than he’d anticipated, and Roo was forced to defend and retreat against the lethal two-handed attack.

  “Light!” commanded Duncan, and quickly men opened the shutters on the one lamp, throwing an eerie glow through the fog as the two men struggled.

  One of the horsemen jumped down, opened a saddlebag, and pulled out a bundle of short torches. He struck steel and flint while Roo and Jacoby slashed and parried, and brought a light to life. He quickly lit and distributed flaming brands to Luis’s men, and a circle of light surrounded the two combantants.

  Luis had his men pick up the weapons Jacoby’s men had put down and moved the guards toward the wagon. Roo fought for his life.

  Back and forth the attacks and defenses moved the two men, each waiting for the other to make a mistake. The fury was finally flowing out of Jacoby as he tired, while Roo vowed he would never go so long without practicing his weapons again. Clashing steel echoed across the harbor. Upon distant ships at their moorings, guards lit lanterns and called questions.