Ship of Magic

Page 255

“If he does well with the slaves, then we will have enough,” she echoed her mother. “But only just enough. Mother, how long can we go on just keeping abreast of our debts? If prices for grain fall any lower, we shall be falling behind. Then what?”

“Then we shall not be alone,” her mother said in a dire voice.

Keffria took a breath. The things they had hoped would come to pass, they spoke of often. Now she dared to voice their unuttered fear. “Do you truly believe there will be an uprising against the Satrap? A war?” Even to speak of war against Jamaillia was difficult. Despite her being born in Bingtown, Jamaillia was still home. It was the motherland, the source, the pride of the folk of Bingtown, the seat of all civilization and learning. Jamaillia, gleaming white city to the south.

Her mother sat silent a long time before she replied. “A great deal will depend on how the Satrap replies to our envoys. There has been another disturbing rumor; they say the Satrap will hire Chalcedean mercenaries as escorts for Jamaillian trade ships and privateers to get rid of the pirates in the Inside Passage. Already people are arguing, saying we cannot allow armed Chalcedean ships in our harbor and waters. But I do not think there will be outright war. We are not a warring people, we are traders. The Satrap must know that all we are asking is that he keep his word to us. Our envoys carry with them the original charter for our company. It will be read aloud to the Satrap and his Companions. No one can deny what was promised us. He will have to call back the New Traders. ”

Keffria thought her mother was doing it again-speaking aloud what they hoped would be, trying to forge a reality from words. “Some thought he might offer us money in reparation,” she ventured.

“We would not take it,” her mother said quickly. “I was frankly shocked by Davad Restart when he suggested we should set an amount and seek it. One does not buy back one's word. ” Her voice went bitter as she added, “Sometimes I fear Davad has forgotten who he is. He spends so much time with the New Traders and takes their part so often. We stand between the world and our Rain Wild kin. Shall we take money for our family?”

“It is hard for me to care about them just now. Whenever I think of them, I feel them as a threat to Malta. ”

“A threat?” Ronica sounded almost offended. “Keffria, we must keep in mind that they are but holding us to our original agreement. Exactly the same thing we are requiring of the Satrap. ”

“Then it does not feel at all to you as if we would be selling her into slavery, if a time came when we did not have the payment and they claimed blood instead?”

Ronica was silent a moment. “No, it does not,” she said at last. Then she sighed. “I would not be happy to see her go. But, you know, Keffria, I have never heard of any Bingtown man or woman who was kept against their will by the Rain Wild Traders. They seek wives and husbands, not servants. Who would wish to wed someone against their inclination? Some folk go there of their own accord. And some, who go there as part of a contract, return when it suits them. You remember Scilla Appleby? She was carried off to the Rain Wilds when her family failed in a contract. Eight months later, they brought her back to Bingtown, because she was unhappy there. And two months after that, she sent them word that she had made a mistake, and they came for her again. So it cannot be all that bad. ”

“I heard that her family shamed her into returning. That her grandfather and mother both felt she had disgraced the Applebys and broken their pledge when she came back to Bingtown. ”

“I suppose that could be so,” her mother conceded doubtfully.

“I don't want Malta to go there against her will,” Keffria said bluntly. “Not for duty nor for pride. Not even for our good name. If it came down to it, I think I would help her run away myself. ”

“Sa help me, I fear I would, too. ” Her mother's words came some minutes later, uttered in a voice that seemed dragged from her.

Keffria was shocked. Not just by what her mother was admitting, but by the depth of emotion that her voice betrayed. Ronica spoke on.

“There have been times when I hated that ship. How could anything be worth so much? Not just gold they pledged, but their own descendants!”

“If Papa had continued in the Rain Wild trade, the Vivacia would most likely be paid off by now,” Keffria pointed out.

“Most likely. But at what cost?”

“So Papa always said,” Keffria said slowly. “But I never understood it. Papa never explained it or talked about it in front of us girls. The only time I ever asked him about it, he just told me he thought it was an unlucky path to choose. Yet all the other families who have liveships trade with the Rain Wild families. As the Vestrits own a liveship, we have the right to do so, too. Yet Papa refused it. ” She spoke very carefully as she continued, “Perhaps it is a decision we should reconsider. Kyle would be willing. He made that clear when he asked about charts of the Rain Wild River. Before that day, we had not discussed it. I thought that perhaps Papa had already explained to him. Before that day, he had never asked me why we stopped trading up the River. It just never came up. ”