Silence is Deadly (26 page)

The duke paled.
How did you learn that?

There are many ways in which one may brave the impossible,
Darzek returned.

No,
the duke answered,
I don’t approve. It is a sickening thing. But I cannot change it unless I do become king. If that happens, there will be many changes.

Do you know of the two kinds of outsiders that are guests of the Duke Merzkion and the Duke of
OO?

Both kinds called on me. They promised much. I ordered them out of my province.

Darzek turned to the captain.
Water passage is the best way to reach Midpor, isn’t it?

It’s the only way, if you want to arrive there in time.

When do you leave Northpor?

At the half night.

I need to reflect on all of this, Darzek said. I may see you on your ship before you sail.

* * * *

After they left, Darzek spent some time studying a map of Storoz. Then he doused himself with the special perfume Hadkez had prepared for him, told Wesru he wasn’t to be disturbed under any circumstances, and descended to the basement.

And to the subbasement, from which he went to Midpor by transmitter.

The house used for a Synthesis headquarters had an air of musty dampness and desertion about it. Darzek first looked for a note from Riklo; but if she had successfully got this far north in her tour of the dukes’ castles, she had been traveling far inland. The house’s yard was a blight on an otherwise tidy neighborhood. Something would have to be done about that, but Darzek had more urgent matters to contend with.

Midpor was the smallest of the Free Cities, located at the head of a long, finger-like bay that cut deeply into the island. That indentation made it the port city closest to the Central Province, and it handled the imports and exports for the population of that province living east of the mountains, as well as those for the Duke Tonorj, whose province surrounded it. So rugged were the central mountains, and so difficult the passes, that a long haul from the coast was easier than a trip through the mountains. For this reason, the port of OO handled the commerce directed to and from the western part of the Central Province, even though Midpor was the nearest port.

So the dukes’ destination obviously was on the eastern side of the mountains, or they would not have selected Midpor as a starring point. Darzek strolled from the Synthesis headquarters toward the harbor of the pretty little city and made a startling discovery. Midpor was being abandoned. Half the dwellings were empty already. Merchants were moving out their stocks, and many of the warehouses and commercial buildings were empty or being emptied.

He moved through a partially deserted mart and climbed the life pyramid to look down on the bustling activity of the harbor—all of it directed at loading ships. He saw no ship being unloaded. As he watched, the germ of a plan occurred to him.

Obviously the Sailor’s League was abandoning Storoz. The number of empty houses in Northpor was increasing. Rumors had reached him of similar trends in the other Free Cities. The sailors were convinced that the Duke of OO, or another duke equally evil, would become King of Storoz, and that his first act would be to take the Free Cities by force and attempt to hold the sailors’ families for ransom. As rapidly as possible they were moving to the Free Cities the League held on the continents.

The Duke Tonorj, whose province surrounded Midpor, had a foul reputation. The Midpor evacuation was being rushed. The Duke Lonorlk, whose province surrounded Northpor, was more highly regarded, and the Northpor evacuation was proceeding with less haste. In Southpor, a Free City long accustomed to being ignored by the senile Duke Borkioz, it had scarcely begun.

The implications were clear enough. By the time the new king was selected, the famed Free Cities of Storoz would be reduced to the status of ghost towns, and Storoz would be economically ruined.

The immediate significance to Darzek was that all of the Dukes of Storoz were about to descend on this little city, accompanied by vast entourages—because on such an occasion no duke wanted to appear less magnificent than his fellows—and no one in Midpor knew they were coming! The city’s merchants were emulating the sailors. They were disposing of their stocks, salvaging what they could, and moving their families. The dukes would find an empty city awaiting them, with every kind of housing available and nothing to eat.

Darzek walked back to the business community and eventually found the person he wanted, a sort of provision or commissary broker, whose scribe filled a page with calculations while they talked. Darzek rented warehouses and stables, bought wagons and nabrula, and then went scouting around with the broker, picking up bargains in food stocks that businessmen feared to be stuck with after the city was abandoned. In the process, they happened upon an entire warehouse of dried namafj. On being assured that the price was a genuine bargain, Darzek took all of it. He had been searching for the proper role for himself, and the vending of dried namafj suited him perfectly. The odor was less full blown than that of the overripe namafj he’d encountered in OO and not really an unpleasant smell, but it was penetrating enough to conceal all traces of his human stench.

He left the broker to carry on for him and returned to Northpor. There he conferred briefly with Sjelk, telling him to round up unemployed youths who were experienced in driving and caring for nabrula, and to start buying animals and wagons. Then he went to the harbor to talk again with captain Wanulzk and the Duke Dunjinz.

A ship?
Captain Wanulzk exclaimed.
You want a whole ship? Just for yourself? I can easily arrange passage for you and as many as you wish to take with you, but ships are in short supply.

I know,
Darzek said.
The sailors are leaving Storoz. So are most of the merchants. But this is critically important.

But why do you need a whole ship?

Not a ship. Ships. I have no idea how many I’ll need. I just want to make certain that they’ll he available.

Critically important?
the captain echoed, his hands fluttering doubtfully.

Critically,
Darzek told him.
The future of Storoz depends on it.

Very well. You’ll have all the ships you need.

* * * *

In the captain’s cabin, Darzek had a long talk with the Duke Dunjinz. He wanted to know the exact size of the party each duke was likely to bring with him to Midpor. The Duke Dunjinz had not even decided on the size of his own party, but when pressed by Darzek, he discussed his fellow dukes astutely, and Darzek performed approximations, and they arrive at working averages. Each duke could be expected to bring some thirty knights, thirty knights’ lackeys, and an additional thirty lackeys, retainers, and servants for himself. Rounding the total off at a party of one hundred for each duke, Darzek deduced that some eleven hundred people would be setting out from Midpor for the mountains.

Darzek took his leave of the two of them, having received the captain’s promise that two ships would be available for him the following day. He went from the harbor directly to the business community, found another broker, and began buying stocks of food.

The dukes and their eleven hundred followers would arrive in Midpor, expecting to outfit themselves for their journey to the mountains, and such was their secrecy that there would be no one left in the abandoned city who could sell them a morsel of food or supply a single wagon or nabrulk.

No one, that is, except Jan Darzek, in his role as Lazk, the vendor of dried namafj.

CHAPTER 17

Darzek arrived by ship in the now almost deserted city of Midpor with Sjelk, Sajjo, and fifty newly hired wagoners, along with a shipload of wagons and nabrula. Wesru and Hadkez were left in Northpor, although Hadkez protested bitterly that the mart there was about to close and there was nothing for a perfumer to do—for the full tide of exodus now had struck Northpor as well. But Darzek wanted the Synthesis headquarters in Northpor to remain functional.

He immediately sent Sjelk and Sajjo to sift through the Midpor unemployed for those with experience in handling nabrula or foodstuffs. The unemployed were the one segment of the population that remained. They neither had a place to go nor a means of getting there.

Darzek put his wagoners to work moving the food purchases he had made in Midpor to his own warehouses, and as soon as ships began to arrive with purchases Darzek had made in Northpor, that food, also, had to be moved and stored. Already it was evident that more wagons and nabrula were needed, and Darzek sent Sjelk down the coast to Eastpor and Southpor, which also were in the process of abandonment, to buy everything available and also shop for bargains in food.

By the time the dukes began to arrive, Darzek had placed himself on the verge of bankruptcy, having spent all of the capital accumulated by agents of the Galactic Synthesis and in addition imposed a severe strain on his credit.

But with the arrival of the first ducal party, he was solvent again. The dukes brought their riding nabrula, as well as transport for the personal effects of their entourages, but all were accustomed to buying foodstuffs and nabrula fodder when and where they wanted them, and none had brought transport for that purpose. Neither had any of them considered the logistics of moving eleven hundred people from the coast to the mountains and the demands that this would make on the impoverished peasant villages along the way.

The number of nabrula required to move this procession over the rough roads of Kamm stunned Darzek. There would be more nabrula than people, and this route lay through long stretches of country where there was no edible natural food for the creatures. Darzek had to plan for an entire convoy of wagons loaded with nabrula fodder, which of course added to the numbers of nabrula that would have to be fed.

Darzek was able to meet the expedition’s transportation needs from his stock of wagons and nabrula and his pool of unemployed wagoners. And once he had supplied the transport, he was ready to sell the dukes the necessary wagonloads of provisions for the trek to the mountains and back.

Going about with his daughter Sajjo—who seemed more like a partner to those watching, since Darzek consulted her deferentially about all kinds of transactions, and her astuteness pleased him as much as it amazed those he was doing business with—and his sons, which Sjelk and his leading assistants were assumed to be, Lazk the provisioner and family quickly became the most respected and sought-after business establishment in Midpor. Even Lazk’s peculiar insistence on handling personally the dried namafj he urged upon the travelers was respected.

I got my start in business with dried namafj,
he would say.
Can’t eat the stuff myself. You buy and sell and store and process dried namafj for years and see what it does to your appetite. But there’s more nourishment in it per wagonload than anything else you can transport. I say if you don’t want to arrive where you’re going hungry, carry at least a quarter of your provisions in dried namafj.

As more dukes arrived, speculators began to appear. They had belatedly arrived at conclusions similar to Darzek’s and hoped to make a killing; but the provisioner Lazk, with efficiency, service, and reasonable prices, already had established himself as the expedition’s official provisions merchant. He was able to supply everything the dukes needed, and he—and he alone—had permission to bring his own train of wagons with the expedition to resupply the ducal parties along the way. So secure was Darzek’s position that when the redheaded Duke Dunjinz arrived, he could only gape in amazement while his retainers transacted business with the famous provisioner Lazk.

Except for the senile Duke Borkioz, who had arrived early because his family feared that he might muddle his journey and lose his chance at the kingship, none of the dukes put their entourages in dwellings. They were ready to travel, and they moved into fields just beyond the Midpor city wall and set up their tents. By the time the eleventh duke, the Duke of OO, arrived, the tent city beyond the wall was far more populous than the abandoned Free City within it.

Captain Wanulzk himself brought the Duke of OO and his party, and after they had landed, Darzek slipped aboard the ship for a talk with the captain.

Bovranulz is with the duke,
the captain said.
He’s still a prisoner, but I managed a word with him. He says he is well treated and we shouldn’t concern ourselves about him.

Darzek described his new profession.
I’ll accompany the dukes with all the wagons I can acquire, equipped with double loading hoards. And according to my calculations, that, plus the food the dukes are taking themselves, won’t begin to get this royal mob to the mountains and back. None of the dukes has an inkling of the problems involved. When was the last time eleven hundred people went anywhere on Storoz?

The captain couldn’t remember such an event.
But why should they need so much food?