The Questing Game

by James Galloway

  And the ships! Ships of every type imaginable stood in the harbors, or sailed to or from the islands. Ungardt longships, rakers, galleons, cogs, caravels, Wikuni clippers, even the military Wikuni frigates jostled with one another on the seas and along the docks, as smaller fishing vessels and private ships, even longboats and rowboats, moved between their larger neighbors. The flags they flew represented nearly every seafaring nation, race, or culture that existed in the world and plied the twenty seas, from as far away as Godan-Nyr, Sharadar, Valkar, even the Utter East empire of Shin Lung, a place which only the Wikuni visited. Only the hated Zakkites were not represented in the harbors. The ships were packed in, and many of them sailed near to the islands, sharing the warm waters and taking up the wind

  The grand magnificence of Dayisè assaulted the young onlookers who stood at the rail. Only Keritanima seemed unimpressed by the great metropolis. Even Allia, with her dislike of the sea, stood gaping in wonder at the large city resting on the small islands. But Tarrin was slightly disappointed. He was hoping for a city on an island, not an island that was a city. There was only a little green, and that was near the top of the hill on the central island. The city had infested the rest of the land. Nowhere but there could one look and see something other than the hand of man shaping the world to suit him. He admitted that the city was impressive. Grand, even. But he was more impressed by a thousand year old oak tree than any construction ever assembled by human hand.

  "Arkhold is larger than this, but it's the way you see it," Dar added, staring at the city in the afternoon sun.

  "There are no farms. How do they eat?" Allia asked.

  "Their food comes in on ships, Allia," Keritanima replied. "At least everything but the seafood. Fish is something of a staple in Dayisè, because imported food tends to be more expensive."

  It looked to Tarrin to be a good idea gone spiralling out of control. He couldn't fathom why they would build a city on an island some fifty longspans off shore, and a small island at that compared to other human-bearing islands. And why had it grown so large that it had totally displaced the natural habitat? There was no food to grow, and nowhere to grow it. What did they do to earn their livings? There had to be alot of people on the islands, but a city could only sustain itself so much on inns and shops. "How do they make money?" Tarrin asked curiously.

  "Most of Dayisè is devoted to trading, Tarrin," Keritanima replied. "Merchants and agents of governments come here to buy and sell large amounts of goods. The city itself is mostly made up of inns and boarding houses for the many sailors that come to port with the goods their employers are trading. More money changes hands in Dayisè in one day than an entire month in Sulasia."

  "Shacè must be rich," Dar said. "All that revenue must generate staggering taxes."

  "They wish," Keritanima replied. "Dayisè is a Shacèan city, but they pay no taxes to the crown. Why else do you think so many merchants choose to do business here?"

  "How did they get away with that?" he asked.

  "When Dayisè was founded, it was something of a penal colony," she answered. "The king then had to make people come here, and part of the incentives were that nobody living on the islands had to pay a brass bit in tax. Where King Louis screwed up was that he extended that moratorium to business done on the island as well, to entice craftsmen to move to the island, and the decree was made in such a way that it couldn't be repealed. Merchants began to start taking advantage of it. That is the result."

  "Why did he want a city way out here?"

  "At that time, they were having alot of trouble with raids from Trigador, an island nation some two hundred leagues south. Dayisè was originally an outpost city and naval base, to discourage raiding."

  "I still don't see why some other king just made a new decree," Dar fretted.

  "Because of us," Keritanima said smugly. "Queen Maria tried to do that, but the Wikuni threatened to embargo Shacè if she carried through with it. By then, the Shacèans were absolutely dependent on the gunpowder we sell them to protect themselves from Trigador and what was then Rauthym. Maria really didn't have a choice, so she killed the decree. After Rauthym flew apart in a civil war and Trigador was mauled by Arathorn, they tried again, and Wikuna embargoed them."

  "Blockaded them," Dolanna corrected as she, Faalken and Azakar joined them. "The Wikuni blockaded Shacè from all seaborne trade, and attacked Shacèan ships. It was called the Veiled War, because no formal declarations had been made by either side. The Wikuni triumphed, and Shacè agreed to drop the attempts to tax Dayisè. But the ultimate result of that was the weakening of Shacè as a whole, and the undermining of the kingdom's rule. It caused a revolution about ten years later, which is what caused the eastern duchies to break free from the crown and join what was left of Rauthym's duchies. By the time the Crown regained control, it had weakened its position. That position has weakened to its current state, where the king has authority only within his capital city, and the outlying aristocracy rule however they wish. Shacè is but a candle flame from igniting into another civil war."

  "That's how you see it," Keritanima sniffed. "Wikuna had an absolute fortune tied up in Dayisè. We had to protect our interests."

  "I have noticed that Wikuna often protects its own interests with no regard as to the damage they cause to others," Dolanna said with a calm look at the princess. "No less than five revolutions, the collapse of Rauthym, and the destruction of Trigador can be traced back to the Diamond Throne."

  "You make it sound like the Wikuni are bullies," Azakar said.

  "They are," Dar said. "And they've gotten alot worse over the last few decades."

  "Blame that on my father, not on me," Keritanima said defensively.

  "You all should be packing your belongings," Dolanna told them. "We will be leaving the ship as soon as we dock."

  Leaving. Tarrin turned and looked back at the old galleon, a legend on the Sea of Storms. He hated being stuck on it, but it had served his group well. Kern had delivered them to Dayisè, more or less on time, and things looked to be going well. Dolanna didn't know if this Renoit was still in Dayisè, but at least Kern had gotten them there in enough time to make it possible, rather than certain, that he was gone. Some of the delays hadn't been his fault, after all. Being iced in in the Stormhavens had thrown a chunk of time into their trip, but Kern had pulled them through. He had alot of respect for the grizzled sailor, even if he didn't entirely trust him. Kern was, after all, human, and that was more than enough to make Tarrin stay on his guard.

  But it had been a good trip, all things considering. They were still alive, at any rate, and that had to count for something.

  Going below, Tarrin and Dar packed their sparse belongings in relative silence. Tarrin didn't own all that much, and his staff was now in Azakar's hands. The Mahuut Knight couldn't look like a Knight, and the staff would help the disguise of an Arakite merchant. Arakites were always armed, and well known to carry around either elaborately decorated walking sticks, canes, or staves, which doubled as weapons should they be under attack. Dolanna had dressed up his Ironwood staff to go along with the very expensive silk robes she had made for him, the robes of a successful Arakite merchant. Dolanna would pretend to be one of his wives, and the rest of their group would be his hirelings and bodyguards. An Arakite merchant would certainly be travelling with either wives or concubines. Faalken would be his bodyguard, for it was also common for Arakite merchants to travel with such men. Dar was Arkisian, and because of that, he would serve as Azakar's doman, or heir, a youth in Azakar's trading house that was learning the business from his elders. Allia would be Azakar's maidservant, wearing a heavy robe with a veil that would effectively hide the features that marked her as Selani, and would instead only let the onlooker see the dark skin that would make him assume she was Arakite. Dar spoke Arakite, which was still the national language of Arkis, and had extensive education in economics, which would reinforce the illusion and help cover Azakar's mistakes. Tarrin and Keritanima a
lso spoke Arakite, and it was going to be their job to translate any Arakite dealings for the others. He was going to ride in Miranda's satchel, but either Keritanima or Allia would be close enough to listen should he need to say something to them. Keritanima and Miranda would also be merchants, but Wikuni merchants, with Binter and Sisska serving as their bodyguards underneath Illusions created by Keritanima and Dolanna. For Wikuni and Arakites to travel together was not unheard of, especially if the Wikuni were courting the Arakite for the rare silks, chaba wood, gems, salt, or spices that Yar Arak exported.

  It was a very effective ruse Dolanna had devised. Azakar's sheer size and his ability to intimidate would allow him to avoid the majority of attempts of others to talk to him, and Dar would be there to help him through any forced conversation with real merchants. Because Arakite merchants travelled with such large retinues, and dealt so much with Wikuni, it would allow them to travel together without raising too much suspicion.

  "Catch, Tarrin," Dar said in Arakite, which caused the Were-cat to turn around in time to snatch a sheathed dagger from the air. It was Tarrin's, the dagger he'd won at the fair just before leaving Aldreth, which he had lent to Dar some days ago. Dar grinned at him. "I see you're not getting rusty," he continued in Arakite.

  "I don't get rusty with languages, Dar," he replied in flawless, fluent Arakite. "It's a knack."

  "That accent is not a knack," he criticized. "It's atrocious."

  "Blame my father. He sounded the same way."

  "Then I'll have to have a long talk with him when we get back to Suld," he said, closing his pack and tying it shut. "I'm ready. I hope we'll have time to buy some new clothes."

  "Who knows how long we'll be here?" Tarrin shrugged, tying closed his own pack. Tarrin only owned a few sets of clothes, the dagger, and a few other small personal items. He didn't really need a great deal of excess baggage slowing him down. That made his own backpack very light. He slid it onto his back and settled the straps into a comfortable position on his back, then changed form to make sure the backpack would go into that elsewhere the same as his clothes. It did so, and, satisfied, he shifted back to his humanoid form. He touched the shaeram around his neck, remembering a time when he almost took off his own head to get rid of it. How things had changed. It meant much more to him than a collar now, it represented the Goddess, and it was something that never failed to send a little electric tingle through his fingers when he touched it. It still represented a little bit of captivity, to the Goddess if anyone else, but she had already proved that she was the gentlest of mistresses, and someone whom he could tolerate for the time he would be subservient to her.

  There was a knock on the door, then it opened. Azakar looked a bit silly in the robes, and the look on his face made it apparent how much he disliked Dolanna's plan. "Mistress Dolanna wants us up on deck. We're starting to get ready to dock."

  "I'm not ready yet," Dar said, pulling the robe she had made for him over his head. He looked like a smaller version of Azakar in that robe.

  "Well, step on it, cousin," Azakar chided. "We can't keep Mistress Dolanna waiting."

  "Zak, you look like a butterfly," Tarrin noted.

  "Please. I've already been called a fluffy dandersnap by Faalken. That was right before I threw him overboard."

  "You didn't!" Dar gasped.

  "Some insults can't be left unchallenged," Azakar said bluntly. "He should be glad he wasn't in his armor yet. His armor would have sent him straight to the bottom."

  Dar gave Azakar a strangled look, then burst out laughing.

  "Azakar," Tarrin said as he started closing the door.

  "What?"

  "Don't even think of trying to throw me over the rail."

  "I'm not that stupid, Tarrin," he said waspishly as he closed the door. That only made Dar laugh harder.

  On deck, they were all there. Faalken's hair was still damp, and the sight of it mad Dar explode into laughter yet again. That drew a nasty look from the Knight, but it did nothing to make the young Arkisian stop. Everyone was in costume, he saw. Azakar and Dar wore flowing, voluminous robes of very bright reds and yellows. Dolanna wore a simple silk robe of white with a veil over her face, which marked her as a married woman in Arakite society, and Allia wore a robe of green, which denoted her as a servant. She too was veiled, allowing one to only see her dark skin and lustrous blue eyes. Blue eyes were uncommon among Arakites, but not among halfbreeds. And since halfbred Arakites were held in contempt, it was logical for one to be a servant. Faalken wore his Knight's armor, which was good enough because only the surcoat held any heraldry that marked him as a Knight of Karas. He wore a very plain wool surcoat now, dyed blue, with only a white sunburst design for decoration. Keritanima and Miranda wore similar dresses of a very lustrous satin, a common material and cut for well-to-do Wikuni merchants, but Keritanima had changed her hairstyle from the flowing, curly way she usually wore it to a severe bun behind her head. The move altered her appearance in a startling manner. She looked much more mature, stern, august, almost a little severe. Because the fact that her dress had no neckline, only a stiff collar that begun just under her chin, matched a very stiff-backed posture and appearance, it made her look like a completely different person. The dress itself was just as severe as Keritanima's appearance. It was gray, a gloomy, drab gray, and it covered everything but her head and her hands. There was a bit of lace at the cuffs, and a bit more on the dress's high neck, with just a hint of lace running along the many little pearl buttons that went up the front of the bodice. It was something a spinster would wear, and it made her look totally different. Miranda's dress was the complete opposite. Her neckline could almost be called a waistline, ending just above her belt. A single band of cloth crossed over her breasts between the two sides of her neckline to make sure her dress didn't slip and expose anything best left unseen. The dress's cream color blended in an odd way with her white fur, making it hard to find where the dress ended and the fur began. It was an illusion of showing everything while only showing about half of everything. The beaten gold belt and a ruby pendant necklace broke up that expanse of white. What surprised him was that Miranda had dyed her hair and her tail both. Where he expected that silky blond, he found instead a dark mahogany.

  "Wow," Dar said as he looked at the pair.

  "Impressive, isn't it?" Keritanima said with a wink, which dropped the stern expression and allowed a hint of the old Keritanima to peek out. "Meet Kaylin, Mistress Merchant of House Eram, and her new partner, Allison, Mistress Merchant of House Alagon."

  "What do you think, Tarrin?" Miranda asked, turning around for him.

  "I think I'm talking to strangers," he replied.

  "That's the idea, silly," Keritanima chided.

  "Where are the Wikuni pirates?" Dar asked curiously. Tarrin looked towards the amidships, and they were indeed gone.

  "Kern moved them into the hold while we were changing," Faalken answered, ruffing his hair with a hand, then shaking the water off of it. His dark, curly locks were plastered to his face, and that made Dar giggle like a little girl.

  "We did not want them to see us in our disguises, so I asked Kern to put them out of sight. Sheba could cause us trouble if she managed to make her Highness' location well known. There is a reward out for her capture."

  "You look damp, Faalken. Did you take a bath before changing?" Tarrin asked in a calm voice. Faalken glared at him a moment, and that made Dar explode into helpless gales of laughter.

  "I see this mutinous dog stopped by your cabin," Faalken said darkly, pointing at Azakar. "I hope we do get attacked. I'm going to let them carve a few slices off your backside, Zak."

  "They can try," Azakar shrugged, but there was a slight smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. "I'm not so sure you could protect me anyway. It's a good thing I'm here. Old Knights like you should stay on the training field and leave the real fighting to us."

  "Here we go," Dolanna said in a low voice to Tarrin as Faalken and Azakar began e
xchanging barbs. "Azakar has declared war. Faalken will be unable to resist retaliating. There will be a war of pranks."

  "At least we'll be entertained, Dolanna," Tarrin said sagely.

  "So long as they do not bring down the inn around us," she sighed.

  The group settled more and more into their disguises as the ship approached the city. They passed the outer fringes of the anchored ships, ships anchored outside the city for one reason or another, probably to avoid paying a berthing charge. It was about that time that a sleek Wikuni frigate, one of their purely military vessels, came into sight from behind another galleon. It was a larger frigate, polished, clean, and immaculate, and it moved on the breeze directly in front of them. Then it dropped its anchors and opened its gunports.

  "This is not good," Keritanima said suddenly, peering at the ship. "It's military, but it's flying the flag of the House Zalan."

  "What does that mean?" Tarrin asked calmly, staring at the ship.

  "That means that it's acting directly under orders from Arthas Zalan," she replied soberly. "Arthas Zalan is Sheba's father."

  "Do you think he knows we have her?" Dar asked a bit uncertainly.

  "I don't see how he could possibly find out, but he wouldn't be stopping us for no reason. Especially when we're not in open water. If he fires on us, he'll have hell to pay for it from the Dayisan Council. And that doesn't even come close to what my father will do to him for tarnishing the Wikuni reputation."

  "I think that now would be a very good time to return below decks," Dolanna said urgently. "We cannot let them see us in our disguises any more than we can Sheba."

  "I think you have a point, Dolanna," Keritanima said seriously, looking at the bristling warship.

  The others turned to go back to the cabins, but Tarrin didn't go with them. He instead shapeshifted into his cat form, then padded along the busy sailors up onto the steering deck, to sit sedately next to Kern by the makeshift helm. Kern was bellowing orders to lower sails and drop anchor, but he wasn't ordering them to prepare for combat. Kern obviously felt that the Wikuni wouldn't dare shoot at them when they were sitting in the middle of a flotilla of civilian vessels.