By Blood Betrayed (The Kingsblood Chronicles) (49 page)

Hyriel, the island that belonged to the high king, was surrounded by high granite cliffs, presenting natural fortification against sea-borne attackers. Seagate was built into the side of the western face, in a cove formed by two outcroppings of granite that extended from the cliffs. The passage between the terminus of the granite “arms” was two hundred yards wide and bridged by huge stone gates. These titanic valves, half as high as they were wide, could be closed, sealing the deep harbor from the sea. Sea giants had built the gates in payment for an ancient high king’s service. The underwater portion of the gates was fitted to the granite, such that nothing larger than a dolphin could fit through the space.

The granite walls that formed the cove were dotted with watchtowers and fortifications, armed with a variety of siege weaponry, from ballistae to trebuchet.

The harbor was rimmed with wooden dockworks that could be raised and lowered as the tides rose and fell. The naval docks were located on the southern face of the harbor and had slips to accommodate thirty warships. There was a keep just above these docks, where the navy sailors were billeted when they were in port.

The city itself was constructed in five tiers, terraced into the sides of the harbor. The first tier, called the Sea Tier by the natives, was carved above the highest tide level. Warehouses and shipping businesses were located on this tier, as well as supply houses where ships could purchase new sail, rope and cable, and other materials needed to fill their needs. Few people actually resided on the Sea Tier, since the space was mostly allocated to the large warehouses carved back into the rock. None of the warehouses interconnected.

The second tier, commonly referred to as the Thieves’ Tier, was comprised of the inns and boarding houses that served the merchant crews that arrived from every corner of Tieran. Unlike the Sea Tier, the hollowed-out passages that formed the buildings of the Thieves’ Tier interconnected, creating intersections where markets stood. The high king’s police force, the Green Men, kept the major passages clear for traffic, but Elowyn’s tales of Seagate described mazes of carts, vendors, and beggars on the Thieves’ Tier.
It’s a good place to lose one’s pursuers
, the elf had told Lian.

The Thieves’ Tier was also home, as the name implied, to the less savory folk of Seagate. An array of whores offered their services throughout the level, from the common streetwalkers to the classier prostitutes who worked in the brothels. Thieves and cutthroats stalked the passageways, and it was an unwise sailor who wandered away from the more populated tunnels alone. The city’s sewer system was more than large enough to accommodate a body or two, and the ocean scavengers who waited below the outlet pipes on the northern edge of the city ensured that corpses were quickly disposed of.

There were a few gambling houses on the Thieves’ Tier, but Elowyn had warned Lian not to play there.
Whether you win or lose, they’ll have your money out of you. Winners usually become dead winners before they can leave the casino.
To Lian, it made little sense to kill the winners, since it might discourage patrons. But the elf had told him that sailors regularly filled the second tier gambling houses to capacity, despite the practices of the casino owners.
Every gambler thinks he can beat the system,
Elowyn had explained.
It isn’t true, but the belief is strong.

The third tier, the Merchants’ Tier, was where the finer shops and artisans were found, as long as they could afford it. Lian knew that Elowyn employed spies there who were no more than merchants who could not afford to pay the rent required to keep their shops on tier three. Desperate not to be forced down to the Thieves’ Tier, they had gladly accepted the master assassin’s coin. Like the second level, the structures carved into the Merchants’ Tier were interconnected, but the Green Men kept all of the passageways clear of carts and peddlers. There were brothels on this level, too, but it was the rare sailing man who possessed the kind of coin they required. High-class whores, who regularly journeyed to the upper tiers, could be had here, if one’s purse was full enough.

There were also gambling houses here, but they, too, were of a much more respectable mien. The two largest were the Silver Porpoise and Ashira’s Wheel. Alec had visited High King Rivan several times and had frequented both establishments. Though the crown prince had lost his stake in both houses, he reported that he had quite a lot of fun losing, and that if he’d laid off the drinks, he was certain he’d have been much more successful. Elowyn had merely chuckled when Lian informed his teacher of Alec’s words.

The Merchants’ Tier was the lowest of the two levels that had passages leading to the top of the cliffs, where the farms that grew the city’s food could be found. These passages had a nearly even grade and were wide enough to allow mule-drawn wagons to pass in both directions. Each end of these huge tunnels could be sealed with giant-made gates of their own, a full three feet thick and controlled by water-driven machinery. The tunnels could subsequently be flooded, sealing the lower doors with tremendous pressure and preventing attacks from gaining easy access to the High King’s Keep. Seagate was theoretically self-sufficient, but there were usually more people in the city than the official census allowed. Fishermen brought in more than enough seafood, however, to make up the difference in peacetime, and the high king kept storehouses of grain and corn in his keep against the possibility of war.

The fourth tier was officially called the Star Tier, but most Seagate natives referred to it as the Gods’ Tier. The former name had been given to this level of the city because of the many scholars, astrologers, and guildhouses located there. Sages of all stripes could be found here, though less successful ones were forced to dwell on the third, or even second, tier. Seagate was a center of commerce, and travelers from distant ports would arrive, bringing tales and knowledge.

Also contained on the fourth tier was the temple district. Shrines of every size and faith could be found here, from the small niche housing only a simple idol, to the massive, fortified temples of Rula Golden. The high king, metaphysical leader of the state polytheistic religion, was, at least in theory, a member of every cult in Seagate, but in practice, the high king was usually loyal only to Rula Golden. The Sunlord was also the God of Kings and Rulership.

The final and fifth tier was the Nobles’ Tier, although the tradition of allowing only families of noble lineage to dwell there had been long abandoned. The wealthiest of the merchant houses maintained dwellings there, having purchased them from noble families who could no longer afford to live there. The Nobles’ Tier was, in its own way, as cutthroat as the Thieves’ Tier, although there were rarely bodies found murdered in doorways. The Green Men did not police this level at all, that task instead falling to the High King’s Guard. Passageways from the Nobles’ Tier led directly up to the High King’s Keep and the farmlands beyond it, so the entryways from the fourth tier to the fifth tier were guarded by fortifications and manned by Guardsmen.

Above the five city tiers was the high king’s fortress, usually referred to as the Keep. Carved from granite cliffs, the fortress served as the garrison for the High King’s Guard and was armed with siege weaponry that could, due to their elevation, fire on any target in the harbor. The stout walls of the Keep stood upon the highest elevation on the island, and the fortress therefore had a clear command of the farmlands beyond Seagate. An attacking army approaching Seagate from inland would encounter flooded fields, for the irrigation system could be used to render the fields nearly impassable.

The city’s freshwater source wasn’t easily sabotaged, since it was accessed through shafts bored back toward the center of the island, tapping into great springs which fed the entire center of Hyriel when rainfall wasn’t sufficient.

All these things Lian had learned from books and descriptions and maps, from intelligence reports filed through Elowyn’s offices, and from eyewitness reports. None of this, however, was able to adequately describe the sheer majesty of the circular city and its massive granite fortress. Approaching from the sea lanes,
Searcher
was dwarfed as even the huge docks of Mola hadn’t been able to do. A ship ten times the size of the mercenary vessel could sail through the great gates, never touching the sides.

Ships of all shapes and sizes were scattered about the entrance to the harbor, some anchored outside the port, others awaiting their turn to be led through the gates. Islander warships moved beyond the anchored ships, patrolling for signs of trouble, their lines sleek and graceful. As
Searcher
neared the city, one of the warships changed course to investigate. Flying the bright green pennant of the high king, the ship boasted the name
Indomitable
, and was somewhat larger than Arden’s ship. Her sails were white with a large green circle, the center of which was the golden crown of the high king.

She came alongside
Searcher
, possible only because Cedrick trimmed the sails. The Islander ship was fast, but she couldn’t have overtaken
Searcher
if the latter ship had run out all of its sail.
Indomitable’s
captain shouted back and forth with Cedrick for awhile and seemed satisfied that the ship wasn’t a threat to the city. Signaling to the mercenary ship to maintain a position south of the gate, there to await a pilot boat, the warship headed back to her patrol position.

“That ship’s the sacrificial lamb,” Cedrick instructed Lian as he directed
Searcher’s
slow progress among the anchored ships. “If there’s trouble, the patrol ships bear the brunt of it, while they get the docked ships ready to swarm out of the gates. Back before the high king’s navy was this large, they wouldn’t have had a patrol ship at all. Instead, they’d merely close the gates at the first sign of trouble.

“Many a self-styled pirate king has attempted to force those gates, only to discover that you can’t easily run a siege from the sea. The last one learned that the gates can serve another function besides barrier. Rivan’s great-grandfather, facing a large pirate force outside the gates, waited until high full-tide then suddenly opened the gates. The water rushed into the harbor, pulling about half the attacking force with it. Most of the ships went down in the initial tumult, and the others were left too disoriented to put up much of a fight.”

Lian raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t realize that the gates sealed the water out,” he commented.

“Oh, they’re not watertight, but the tide rises faster than the water can pour through the openings. I imagine that it had to be timed just right, but it destroyed enough of the pirate force, including the flagship as it turned out, that they dispersed, lifting the siege.” Cedrick interrupted the conversation to bellow orders as the ship took a position beside several large merchant galleons, and the anchors dropped over the side, chains clattering.

“Water’s a little shallow north and south of the city, so it makes good anchorage unless there’s a storm,” Cedrick explained.

“Why are these ships anchoring out here? They can’t unload their cargoes,” Lian asked.

“There’s several reasons. Most of these are empty, which is why they’re riding so high,” Cedrick said, pointing out the line of dark algae growths that demarked the galleon’s normal waterline. “They prefer not to pay the docking fees while they’re waiting for their cargo to be delivered, so they anchor out here where there aren’t any fees. It also keeps their crews out of trouble, although some of these captains might face mutiny if they don’t allow some shore leave.

“Others might want to avoid the import taxes, and so they’ve gone ashore to make a deal with the merchant houses before coming into port. It’s a strange practice, but if the cargo is already owned by a local resident before entering Seagate, the taxes are lower.”

Cedrick shrugged. “If it were up to me, I’d set an amount of tax to be paid by everyone and eliminate that kind of legal runaround. Lawmakers are seldom men like me, though, so it’s a moot point.”

Lian asked, “Are there any other reasons a ship might anchor out here?”

Cedrick nodded. “Two more reasons that I can think of. One is that the ship isn’t welcome inside the gates for some past transgression. The other is if the ship’s in quarantine because the crew caught plague or some other danger. You see that sometimes, with ships returning from equatorial waters.”

The brightly colored pennants of the ships arrayed about them represented all corners of Tieran. There were cogs and carracks from Dunshor, galleons from the Southron Empire, the odd but graceful vessels of Araby, and even one slim, birdlike elven ship. Lian could well imagine that the elves had anchored outside the harbor to avoid the rule of the high king.

The wait for a pilot boat wasn’t long, which surprised Lian. The smaller vessel was a single-deck galley, manned by forty oarsmen and a handful of other crewmen. It sickened Lian to see that the oarsmen were chained to their posts, signifying that they were slaves.

“Keep in mind, lad, that most of that lot are condemned murderers and rapists,” Cedrick counseled. “I don’t approve of slavery, but it’s both law and custom here.”

The pilot boat shipped oars and drifted alongside. “Ah, Cedrick!” called the boat’s captain. “I thought I saw the mermaid!” He pointed at the ship’s figurehead.

“Gothrik, you old bastard!” Cedrick yelled back. “Come to overcharge me again?”

The two of them bickered over the price of piloting the warship into dock, and the docking fees. It was Lian’s thought that Cedrick settled for a poor bargain, but he kept his mouth shut and his demeanor calm.

Gothrik finally agreed on the price and issued orders to bring his boat about. This required him to circumnavigate the next ship, and Lian took the opportunity to ask about the haggling. “Oh, I always let him win, Alan,” Cedrick explained, “which means he comes to tow me first, and gives me a good space near the center of the docks. That’s worth much more than an extra pound of silver here and there.”