City of Dragons

Hest dared to interrupt. “I could not prevent her, Father. It was in the terms of our marriage contract—that if and when she wished to do so, I’d permit her to travel to the Rain Wilds to continue her study of the Elderlings and dragons. At the time I thought it was just an eccentricity of hers, a leftover dream from her lonely life as an unwed woman. I thought she’d forget such ambitions once she was married with a household of her own to manage. And for years, she did. But when she insisted last spring that she would go, I could not refuse her. Nor could I cancel my trading trip to the Spice Islands. So I did what I thought best and put her in the care of Sedric Meldar. He’s been my right-hand man for years now and had been a childhood friend of Alise. They’ve always gotten along well. I trusted Sedric to be the sensible one of the pair. I thought she’d make the journey, discover how uncomfortable and provincial Trehaug is, and immediately come back to Bingtown. Truthfully, Father, I expected them to be home long before I returned to Bingtown.”

“If you are finished,” his father said severely when Hest paused for breath, “I’ll continue what I was trying to tell you.”

Hest hated his father’s paternalism, his assumption that he was far shrewder and much wiser than his son would ever be. But in this instance, he had information that Hest had not yet acquired. Keep silent. Nod.

“Alise and Sedric were in Cassarick when the Tarman expedition was forming up. Now, as I read the contracts, for I’ve been able to get copies of them, the Rain Wild Traders’ Councils at both Cassarick and Trehaug hired a dozen or so heavily changed youngsters to accompany the dragons as keepers and tenders. They also hired two hunters and chartered the barge Tarman, the oldest liveship that exists by the way, to accompany the expedition and provide support for them. The Councils paid for the supplies that were loaded onto the ship. Keepers, hunters, and the shipowner were given half their pay as an advance, with the rest to be collectible when they returned to Cassarick after settling the dragons elsewhere.” His father laughed, a brief, dismissive sound. “I’ll wager they never expected to have to pay out much of that second half!”

“How did Alise get involved? That’s what I don’t understand.” Hest spoke earnestly, hoping to nudge his father beyond the obvious.

“I’ll get to that. What is important for us to see here is that the contract does not mention Kelsingra by name, nor is there any specific language about searching for an Elderling city. It says only that the keepers are to find a place that is safe for the dragons to settle. And that if the dragons die before they do so, the Council will regard the contract as fulfilled. Not voided, mind you. Fulfilled.”

“And that is significant because?”

Trader Finbok’s eyes, always heavy lidded, narrowed even more as he looked at his son with disgust. “I should think it would be obvious. If the contract stated only that the purpose of the expedition was to resettle the dragons, then the keepers and the hunters and the ship’s crew have fulfilled their contract. Once the Councils pay them, their mutual obligations are finished. Neither Council has any claim on anything else that may have been found, such as arable land, or a deserted city, or information that the expedition gathered, such as charts of the waterways.

“Now”—and his father held up a restraining hand when Hest tried to speak—“the Councils are attempting to introduce the idea that since the existence of Kelsingra was verbally discussed at the negotiation session, and that the lone dissenting vote, that of Malta Khuprus, was swayed by the arguments of one Alise Kincarron Finbok, then it was implied to all parties that the rediscovery of Kelsingra was part of the expedition’s mission and therefore the Councils have a claim to the captain’s charts, the city, and all it holds.”

“That does seem reasonable to me,” Hest interjected.

His father glared at him. “No, stupid. We wish the judgment to fall in the other direction. We must say that Alise was hired solely as an expert on dragons, to help in caring for them on the journey. We want it to be decided that the contract was only for the resettlement of the dragons. Because if it is decided that way, then Alise has as much a right to a share of the city and whatever it holds as any other keeper, hunter, or sailor on the ship. Now I don’t know the exact number of people in the expedition, or if those youngsters will be counted as having a valid claim. But I estimate that fewer than thirty people set out on that day. Therefore, Alise might own as much as one-thirtieth of Kelsingra and all it contains. AND . . .”—again the forbidding hand was raised as Hest sought to inject a question—“AND, as Sedric was obviously in your employ at the time, paid by you and doing your bidding, it is only right that whatever interest he has in the city is actually your interest, as you were his employer at the time. Still are his employer and therefore have the right to the fruits of all his labors while you pay his salary. Which means that the Finbok Traders may very well control two-thirtieths or one-fifteenth of the wealth of an Elderling city. A substantial fortune if Kelsingra is anything like Trehaug or even Cassarick.”