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.“Odric and Crinna, of my friends at least, stand to lose the most business to Bregondish trade,” Randon said thoughtfully.“Bregondish weaving is as good as, or better than, anything Odric’s guild can produce, and the leather shames anything in our market—soft as a feather, but sturdy as our toughest hides.I have a suspicion, too, that if any of your bowyers decide to start selling their work here, our sale of crossbows is going to drop.And the horses—”Kayli had to laugh.“Randon, you cannot expect my folk to trade everything they own! Our longbows take much work and time to make, and horses take time to breed.We have no surplus of either.And it is a little soon, I believe, to plan the whole of the trade between our countries when there is not yet even one good road crossing the border.Let us not anger your friends at the guilds any more man we must yet.”But even as she spoke, she wondered if the damage was already done.Chapter TwelveLady Tarkas’s warnings quickly proved to be prophetic.Over the next days, curious peasants requesting audiences were rapidly replaced by worried tradesmen and indignant guildmasters.Only the mercantile houses seemed happy; they did not care whose merchandise they sold, so long as it commanded a good profit, and the prospect of marketing Agrondish goods in Bregond, and Bregondish goods in Agrond (at inflated prices, of course, while the novelty lasted) set their mouths to watering.For every unhappy craftsman pleading for trade restrictions and import taxes, there were two merchants willing to brave Sarkondish raiders if they could get permission to cross the border, all for the privilege of being the first to import the new goods.“I can’t take much more of this,” Randon said wearily after their eighth straight day of audiences, public and private.“I’m more than half-tempted to gather together all the guild heads and the heads of all the mercantile houses, lock them in a room together—preferably with weapons—and let them fight it out.Survivor wins.About the only thing they can agree on is the new proclamation about the slaves—neither side likes it.”He fell silent, and Kayli knew what troubled him.He had already run afoul of Master Weaver Odric, Master Tanner Crinna, and Smithmaster Erinton over the slaves.Freed slaves from all three guilds had lodged complaints of ill treatment, and Randon had been forced to levy fines against his friends.Kayli had offered to judge the complaints herself, but Randon had refused.“There’s no need to give them one more problem to blame on you and Bregond,” Randon had said sourly.“Besides, it’s well known they’re my friends.It’s best to show from the start that they won’t receive special favor.”Kayli knew, too, that there was a deeper issue involving Randon’s friends.If none of them had poisoned her—and from Lidian’s word, it would seem not—then whoever had slipped the poison into her food or drink meant Randon to believe that one of his friends was guilty.It seemed likely to Kayli that the poisoning was a deliberate attempt to alienate Randon from his most faithful supporters.Any of Terralt’s supporters would profit by the deed, but within the security of the castle, Terralt himself remained the most likely suspect Kayli knew that Randon did not want even to consider that possibility.Terralt had kept busy handling the processing of the freed slaves, for the most part, and Kayli was deeply grateful that he seemed to avoid her.She wondered, however, that he continued to live in the city; Ynea was no stronger, and her birthing time was nearing.Randon had quietly brought in several healers, but even they held out little hope.“If I had attended her earlier, she might have been strong enough for a potion to lose the child,” one mage had said, gazing warily at Randon.“I have my doubts of even that.But as matters stand.” He shrugged helplessly.“I’ve heard there’s a mage in Erestan who specializes in birthing magics.”The mage from Erestan, an ancient woman, had replied tersely to Randon’s message, sent via a merchant ship down the Dezarin.She most certainly could not undertake a journey all the way upriver to Agrond, not when the High Lady of Erestan and her own granddaughter were soon to give birth.Terralt, unaware of these efforts, visited Ynea every day but did not linger.Also absent, for the most part, was Seba.The girl had approached Kayli several times, asking if she needed her help in the forge.Kayli had not dared pursue her magical studies since the Rite of Renewal, and had gently turned Seba away.She hadn’t seen the girl often since then, and had supposed that perhaps Seba was helping Endra with Ynea, where Seba’s knowledge of herbs might be useful.She learned otherwise, however, when the Bregondish groom approached her one afternoon.“I wondered whether you’d sent the child or she’d come of her own, lady,” the young man, Brant, said, “but she’s got the way of it and no mistake.She rides as if she grew a-horseback, and they answer to her as sweet as they would to the lead stallion of the herd.If you don’t need her inside, High Lady, I’d be beholden if you’d let her go on working with me.”And that was how Seba had gone from ex-slave, lady’s maid, and temple menial to assistant groom.Looking out the west windows of the castle, Kayli could often see her exercising the horses, tending them as lovingly as a mother might tend a child.Seba was obviously happy in her work, and Kayli was more relieved than she dared admit that the girl had found a position less dependent upon Kayli herself.Fortunate, too, that Kayli had Seba and the groom to exercise the horses, for she had no time to ride now.Randon had promised that once she conceived and they were confirmed High Lord and Lady, there would be more freedom for them, but it quickly proved otherwise.There were slave complaints to deal with; there were frightened craftsmen and angry guildmasters and greedy merchants; there were peasants and nobles frightened of an imminent Bregondish invasion; and then, besides the ordinary day-to-day business of governing an entire country in turmoil, there was still a backlog of work dating from Terendal’s death.It was more than a month after their wedding that Randon finally said one evening, “I just can’t take one more day of listening to complaints and signing documents.Let’s be lazy tomorrow and go on a small hunt, just us and a few guards, before the weather gets hotter [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]