The Devil Incarnate (The Devil of Ponong series #2) (28 page)

“It cost him four ships.”

“Four ships that were joint ventures. Not Zul family ships.
His investors lost money. The Zul clan got all the reward and let everyone else
pay for it.” She dared Hadre to protest those facts.

“Typical Ponongese whining over the past,” Voorus snapped.
“Get to the part that matters.”

“This all matters, Voorus. Maybe not to you, but it does
matter.”

Despite her
admonishments to herself, she let her temper take the story down side paths.
She took a deep breath. Then she sipped her rum. The bite of the alcohol was
nothing compared to how sharp her tongue felt.

“So Grandfather Zul
sails back home and into the history books as the greatest merchant of all
time. He’s ensured a steady flow of income and spurred the king to colonize the
Li Islands as well, so they have a monopoly on jellylanterns and juam nut oil.
All very well and good. He now has position, power, and incalculable wealth.
What he doesn’t have that he once owned and was forced, to his mind, to
abandon, is control over Ponong. That rankles, I’m sure. And this, Captain
Voorus, is where things get interesting.”

“About time.”

“His grandson, Kyam, is forced into exile. Or at least, it
looks that way. Something about the Oin Affair, Hadre?”

“That’s supposed to be top secret.”

“So of course, everyone knows. Maybe not the details, but
knowing there was a scandal is enough. Ponongese aren’t the only people who
like a good story. There isn’t much to do on this island except gossip.” She fixed
her gaze on Voorus. “Nothing goes beyond this room. You have my word on it,
Hadre. How about you, Captain? Can you keep confidence?”

“Who would care? You’re talking about things everyone
already knows.”

“Not as seen from this angle. Give us your oath, Voorus,”
QuiTai said.

The center of the
storm had moved, but loud thunderclaps still shook the kitchen building. The
rain still poured. Chances were that anyone would wait until it was safe to
ford the flooded streets, so she had some time left, but as soon as the rain
let up, she would have to flee. She didn’t think anyone was after her, but this
was no time to get careless.

“All right. I won’t
breathe a word of it,” Voorus grumbled.

Hadre sighed. “It
shouldn’t have been such fuss. Kyam made a mistake, yes, but his superiors in
intelligence were willing to censure him and let it go, but Grandfather
insisted on exile.”

She already knew that. Poor Hadre. He really would have made
a terrible spy. He’d spoken freely at the Red Happiness, and every word of that
conversation had been reported to her. Still, it was nice to know he was being
honest.

“Then a few Ravidians show up in Levapur, and Kyam works
himself into a froth over their activities. I have no proof of it, but I
suspect Grandfather Zul goaded him into it. After all, up until that point,
Kyam had been content to drink away his days and dabble at painting. Suddenly,
he’s a man of action again. He sees the potential to escape exile. I wonder if
Grandfather Zul also hinted that he should get my help.”

Voorus leaned forward, his face contorted as he tried to
figure it out. “Wait. You were working with Kyam?”

She missed Kyam. At least he could keep up with the twists
and turns of a conspiracy. Whichever branch of the Zul family Voorus was
descended from, it wasn’t the brightest one. “You knew we were working
together, Voorus. It wasn’t as if we hid that from you, from anyone, which is
why I suspect you were told to take me to the fortress and hang me before I
helped Kyam uncover the full truth about the Ravidians.”

He sputtered outrage. “Any patriotic Thampurian would have
helped you against the Ravidians.”

“Patriotic? Yes. But one taking money from them? No. Don’t
look so shocked, Voorus. Oh, and you too, Hadre? Really? Neither one of you see
it?”

Kyam would have. Certainly, he’d dismissed her hints, but
deep down, she knew he’d believed her. She looked up at the ceiling so they
wouldn’t see her roll her eyes. It was excruciating to lead people through
every tiny detail.

“Governor Turyat and probably Chief Justice Cuulon are
corrupt. You know that. You just don’t want to admit how corrupt they are. They
were, and maybe still are, taking payments from the Ravidians. They probably
picked the plantation on Cay Rhi for the Ravidians to set up their secret
bioweapons project since they knew this area marginally better than the
Ravidians. The one they picked was remote and rarely visited by Thampurians.
I’m sure the fact that the plantation owner had married a Ponongese woman had
some influence on their decision to doom him. They, and the harbor master, were
in it up to their ears.”

“They’ll hang for that,” Voorus growled.

“I hope so, Captain.
I genuinely hope so. But I wish they’d hang for allowing the Ravidians to
enslave the Ponongese on Cay Rhi. Oh, I realize that we’re splitting legal
hairs here. Execution tends to have the same result despite the charges. But of
all the people on this island, Voorus, you should appreciate the application of
law.”

He almost blushed.
“I’ve really just started my studies.”

“I’ll see to it that
you get better instruction.”

Voorus frowned. “I don’t want the Devil’s help.”

“Help from Thampurian legal scholars, Voorus, with no
strings attached. No favors, no tricks, no special treatment expected. In fact,
I prefer as much neutrality as you can muster. Believe me. I genuinely want you
to succeed in the study of law.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why? I thought you didn’t like me.”

“I don’t, but that’s personal. I’m looking at the bigger
picture.”

That was too much for Voorus. He laughed bitterly. “You
expect me to believe that you won’t ask for favors?”

“That which is good for society is often disastrous for the
individual.”

Voorus looked confused. She bit back a sigh.

“I have a deep interest in justice. Sometimes the law is
applied in such a manner that justice prevails, but not often, and certainly
not here in Levapur. But let’s not get into that right now.”

He stared at her for
a long time. “You are the strangest woman I’ve ever met.” Then he sighed. “So
why didn’t you just parade the escaped slaves in the town square and denounce
Governor Turyat? You said turning the Thampurians here against him was the
point of taking the slaves.”

She felt like
patting Voorus on the head. He had been paying attention. “I didn’t want to
give the other plantation owners any ideas. Plenty of countries on the
continent proudly talk of their anti-slavery laws, but still allow it in their
colonies. Shifter races feel superior to any race that’s shift-less, which is
probably why the Thampurians and Ravidians hate each other so much. Slipping
into the mindset of enslaving the Ponongese isn’t that far of a step for a
Thampurian who already feels that Ponongese are a lower form of life.”

Shifting
uncomfortably, Hadre wisely chose not to argue that with her. “What about Kyam?”

He certainly looked after his cousin. He hadn’t been joking
when he mentioned that he often came to Kyam’s rescue. She hoped Kyam
appreciated it, but suspected he didn’t.

“Kyam was beautifully set up to be the hero of the hour on
Cay Rhi, but even that wasn’t enough insurance. So the colonial militia
received orders to keep the enslaved Ponongese in chains when they seized
control of the compound. The colonial militia didn’t all agree with the order,
but they’re so desperate to return to Thampur that they’ll sacrifice almost any
personal honor to win forgiveness for their prior sins. To a point. That was
the biggest risk he took.”

“He who?” Voorus asked.

“Grandfather Zul, of course.”

“Of course? Nothing is ‘of course’ in this, this...” Voorus
looked to Hadre for support but didn’t get any.

“Grandfather Zul
gambled that ultimately, the colonial militia would turn against Governor
Turyat over the matter of the slaves. Oh, not open rebellion, but you wouldn’t
sacrifice yourselves to protect him when the Ponongese found out about the
slaves and all hell broke loose.”

“But that didn’t
happen,” Hadre said.

“Not yet.” She held
up a hand. “Let me show you the big picture. It really is a marvel how quickly
Grandfather Zul adapted. I admire him, although I’d surely rejoice if he fell
dead. No offense, Hadre.”

He looked confused.
“None taken. I’m feeling the same way right now.”

 
“What?” Voorus asked. “What’s going
on?”

QuiTai handed him a glass of rum. “On second thought,
enjoy.” His slow mind exhausted her.

“So I escape from the island with some of the slaves. If I’d
been caught, we all would have been executed immediately. Voorus already
admitted as much. I have no idea how Grandfather Zul planned to forge ahead
under that scenario, but I survived and the slaves escaped, and as far as he’s
concerned, I just put gale force winds in his sails. It was so perfect from his
perspective because I’d be an independent instigator of the scandal. It would
never be traced back to him. How he must have rubbed his hands together in glee
at that development. Only I don’t do anything. I don’t stir up a rebellion. I
don’t publically denounce the governor or colonial militia for keeping slaves.
I don’t even write an angry letter to the editors of Thampurian newspapers to
protest this atrocity.”

Voorus snapped his fingers. “Yes! That’s it. You didn’t do
anything. I kept expecting a huge battle to wage across Levapur, but
pffft
. Not a thing.”

“Then Governor
Turyat, and Chief Justice Cuulon for good measure, quickly signed articles of
transport and invited Kyam to make a triumphant return to Thampur. Only he
can’t, because his grandfather warned every captain of every Thampurian ship
that he’d have them keelhauled if they honored those papers. Right, Hadre? Kyam
is stuck here. Why? You know, don’t you?”

Tugging on his
collar, Hadre nodded.

“I offered him
transport on a smuggler’s ship, but honestly, I knew he was already doomed.” As
soon as she said it, QuiTai gasped. The Oracle was never wrong, but if she was
her own Oracle, where had that vision come from? She thought back. Who had been
the conduit when she heard the vision? Chief Justice Cuulon. And now that she
thought about it, she’d plucked that vision from his dream, from his fears, not
from his memory.

The Oracle is never wrong?
QuiTai almost chuckled. ‘
The Oracle has been known to make mistakes’ is closer to the truth.
Except that this time, she had it right.

“What do you mean by doomed?” Hadre asked.

Voorus drank his rum in one gulp. “Why didn’t you do
anything about the slaves, Lady QuiTai?” He stumbled a bit over the honorific,
but the first time would be the hardest for him. “If you mean it when you say
you don’t want to start a bloody rebellion, I’ll believe you, maybe, but why
didn’t you do that other stuff? You do want the other slaves to be freed, don’t
you?”

Of the two men, Voorus was the easiest one to face.

“I was ill. One of the werewolves bit my ankle when I
escaped from the fortress, and it got infected. So I wasted a few days in bed
fighting a fever. That, apparently, was not acceptable. So Grandfather Zul
decided to provoke me.”

“That’s easy to do. You’re always angry about something,”
Voorus said.

“The marketplace.” Hadre looked like a man awaking from a
dream.

“It wasn’t us, the colonial militia, I mean. It was those other
soldiers,” Voorus snapped.

“Acting under Grandfather Zul’s orders, not the governor’s.
When Governor Turyat begged them to stop, he warned them that it would only
anger me. The soldier smiled. I should have paid closer attention to that
detail,” QuiTai admitted.

“I still wish I knew when the governor told you about that
meeting.”

“Never mind that
right now, Voorus. The important part is that I didn’t react when the Ponongese
were ejected from the marketplace and forbidden to take out the fishing fleet.”
She would never tell them she had reacted, but not in a way anyone suspected.
Kyam would have figured out she was the one behind the sudden rise in the price
of rice. She didn’t feel like helping anyone else reach that conclusion. “So
Grandfather Zul upped the ante. He closed the Thampurian school. That’s when I
knew for sure this plot was tailored to get my attention and not just to sow
general unrest. Ask almost anyone, and they’ll tell you I pay the tuition for
half the students. It’s my pet project, one with no discernible profit. It’s
obviously personal, so that’s where he made his move. At that point I knew he
wanted my undivided attention, but I had no idea what he wanted from me, so he
got nothing for his efforts. I wonder if the old man began to panic. He
certainly got mean. And he decided enough with the finesse. So he sent his
soldiers to the new Ponongese marketplace to attack innocent Ponongese in broad
daylight so there would be plenty of witnesses. He couldn’t trust me to
overthrow the governor any more. He took the matter directly to my people and
dared them to fight back.”

“So what happened? Why didn’t they?” Hadre asked. Swept up
in the story, he leaned forward, eyes bright with interest.

QuiTai pointed at Voorus. “He apologized.”

Hadre leaned back. “That’s it?”

“You’d be amazed at the power of a true apology. My people
knew he meant it. He didn’t just apologize though. He displayed deep personal
distress. He cried.”

“I did not.”

 
“Quit being so
Thampurian.”