Industry & Intrigue (54 page)

Lawrence
guessed they were the Mark Five
Tusk carriages. He wasn’t as familiar with the Galrian designs as
the Alkon ones. The Galrian carriages trended to bulky sizes and a
blown out look that reminded Lawrence of a puffer fish. This meant
they could carry much more and use heavier metals in
construction.

By comparison
the more sleek and
thin Alkon models were smaller, but they made up for this in speed
and simplicity. Alkon carriages were easier to construct than the
more complex Galrian models.

The carriages passed through
the gate and
stopped behind the soldiers. The soldiers moved aside and
stood at attention as the smallest cart continued on, moving
through the space they had created for it. The vehicle stopped at
the front, and its noisy engine turned off.

Lawrence noticed
this carriage had a
different design. The other carriages were grey metal with the
green and white diamonds of the Galrian flag decorating the
sides.

The smal
ler one had gold lines and
intricate Galrian characters on its sides. His Galrian was not as
strong as he would have liked. He didn’t know the meaning of the
words.

The door of the carriage opened
and out stepped
an obese man in fine clothes with an expensive, indigo hat
atop his head. The man was so large he had difficulty stepping down
from the carriage to the pavestones. His squat legs could barely
support his weight. Lawrence was amazed that he reached the ground
without toppling over.

Now on the ground
and steady, the man
waddled over, backed by two Galrian soldiers and several finely
dressed aides. He stopped in front of Lawrence. He looked severely
out of breath from that short walk. Lawrence could hear his voice
wheeze as the man took each breath.

By the Creator,
he looks like he
could die at any moment.
The thought of the man keeling over from a heart
attack in the middle of negotiations, kept him sober.
That’s the last
bloody thing we need, another dead Galrian official.

He watched as the man felt
around inside his jacket for a minute
before producing an officially sealed
scroll.

The man bent to his knees and
said
, “Your
Imperial Majesty of Alkos, allow me to introduce myself. I am Pyotr
Skalov, diplomat of the Royal Consul and official envoy on behalf
of His Royal Highness, King Cyrus Domik for these negotiations.” He
then held the scroll up in his right hand and Lawrence took it. It
was sealed with green wax and the symbol of the royal boar of
Galria.

“
Thank you Mr. Skalov. You may
stand.”

The man complied.

“
We have quarters for you and
your aides inside the town hall building.” He pointed to a grass
area next to the square that had been cleared for the delegation.
“Your soldiers may make camp over there. Once you and your people
have settled in, we will meet in the central hall at two
o’clock.”

“
Of course. Thank you, Your
Imperial Majesty,” replied Pyotr. He then barked out orders to his
aides and soldiers in a far more commanding voice than Lawrence
expected. The soldiers began marching over to the area, followed by
the large carriages. Pyotr’s aides fetched bags from the smaller
carriage and carried them towards the town hall.

The envoy stood and waited, not
m
oving from
his spot. Lawrence assumed he didn’t want to strain himself. If
walking gave him as much trouble as it had, Lawrence could only
imagine the exertion he would go through trying to carry something.
Once the soldiers had moved off, Pyotr bowed once more and followed
his aides inside.

Flint
made a comment. “I hope the cooks
have enough food to last. That one looks like he could eat us into
a famine.”

Lawrence managed to
prevent
himself from laughing. “Captain McLaren,” he said in a mock
scold. “You shouldn’t talk about envoys of foreign nations like
that.”

“
He’s o
ne of those upper class Galrians who
gorge themselves stupid and make a game out of it. Most of them
come from Azocul, Galria’s breadbasket and most fertile province.
If they exported and sold their excess produce instead of consuming
it all, they would be its wealthiest province.”

After
seeing the unhealthy size of Pyotr,
Lawrence was in full agreement with his head guard on
that.

The initial negotiations had
gone well as far as Lawrence was concerned, at least given the
circumstances
they were facing. It was coming up on four o’clock, Pyotr
and his people had retired to their rooms and Lawrence was sitting
in his large chair next to Siobhan. The other Alkon government
officials had left. Lawrence sent them away and wanted to have a
private talk with his foreign minister.

During the meeting,
Siobhan
had
done most of the talking. He had not tried to stop her from taking
over. She could play the diplomatic game more successfully than he
could. He always let his emotions get the better of him, something
which had caused problems with foreign dignitaries in the
past.

“
So what did you think?” he
asked her.
She knew well enough to give brutally honest answers. She
drummed her fingers on the oaken table. Papers still lay in front
of her, many her own, others given to her by Lord
Skalov.

“
They appear
earnest, far more than I
expected. Lord Skalov talked like his king had authorized him to
seek a rapprochement. Although he remains stubborn on the issue of
sending in Galrian agents to track down the assassin.”

“
It’s unthinkable I know, but I
can’t blame them for it,” said Lawrence. “We still don’t have any
new information to give them.”

Director Talmach’s most recent
telegram had not
reported anything new. His agents had meet with a contact
in Longhaven, but were yet to trace the Arm.

“
We could
allow it, as long as they are
supervised by senior custodians,” he suggested. “That should keep
them from poking their noses anywhere we don’t want them
to.”

The brown-haired woman
nodded.
“That may be the answer, Your Imperial Majesty. I’m not
sure how they’ll respond. They don’t have much trust in our
security and legal authority,” she said. “Did you hear him laugh
when I mentioned we had our best intelligence agents on
it?”

Lawrence chuckled. “I thought
he was choking at first, the way his whole body shook. I have
nev
er seen
anyone in such bad health. It’s a wonder he can even make it up and
down the stairs in this building.”

“
I saw his aides helping him
up,” she said.

“
Ah
,” Lawrence brought the conversation
back to diplomacy. “So let’s assume the worst case scenario. We
have until tomorrow night for the deadline on their demands. I
don’t expect Nolan’s agents to have anything for us by then. His
people may be good, but cracking the Arm of Assassins is not
something to be done in a matter of days.”

“
You could telegram the mayor of
Longhaven,
Your Imperial Majesty. Put pressure on him,” pointed out
Siobhan.

“
The
last emperor that tried to put
pressure on Longhaven was my great-grandfather. The Imperial Army
and city militia came this close to firing on each other.” Lawrence
put his index finger and thumb together. “He was forced to back
down. Ever since then the Longhaveners have done as they liked.
Besides, even if it could help, there isn’t enough time. If the Arm
tries to exert its influence when the agents get close then I may
have to do something. A bridge to cross when we come to
it.”

“
In that case, Your
Imperial Majesty, we can do little other than to agree to as many
of the demands as are acceptable and try to give and take on the
ones that aren’t.”

“
Give and take?
I don’t like the
sound of that.” He frowned.

“
My father once said that the
sign of a successful negotiation was when both sides
came away feeling
unsatisfied. It’s what diplomacy is all about, Your Imperial
Majesty.”

Lawrence nodded. “He sounds
like a
smart
man. Where did he serve?”

“
He was ambassador to the
Kordate Union for seven years, Minakaya for two and Tal Feros for
three.”

“
Well traveled and
experienced
,” said Lawrence, impressed. “I’m surprised he never served
in the same ministerial post as yourself.”

“
He had planned
to, Your Imperial
Majesty. But my mother was stricken with shaking fever. He dropped
everything to care for her as she wasted away. After she was gone,
he was never the same.”

“
You lost your mother, I’m sorry
for your loss.” Lawrence could empathize, after having lost members
of his own family to disease.
Sickness and death were the two great equalizers,
they cared not whether one was an emperor or a lowly
beggar.

“
Thank you, Your Imperial
Majesty.”

She was quiet, her face
betray
ed no
emotion. But she was thinking of her mother. He was sorry he had
brought back a painful memory for her. The same happened to him
whenever someone mentioned his father or older brothers.

“
I think that’s it then,” he
said. “You should eat and rest for the evening. I need you at your
best for tomorrow.”

His words
snapped her out of her maudlin
thoughts and she nodded. “Of course, Your Imperial Majesty. I will
do everything I can to reach a favorable solution. Provided Envoy
Skalov is amenable and not playing us for fools.”

“
You think he’s that good of an
actor?”
he
asked.

“
The best actors, make the best
diplomats, Your Imperial Majesty. But I believe that Pyotr Skalov
is exactly what he appears. A fat, little government official who
does whatever his king tells him to do.”

***

In the late hours of the
night,
Pyotr
Skalov received a visitor to his room. Pyotr was a man who used
people’s assumptions against them. People thought he was nothing
more than a fat oaf and he did everything to encourage it, slowing
his movements and purposefully stumbling to give the pretense of
being in poorer health than was the case.

He
used this to his advantage as it
meant everyone underestimated him, to their own folly. He had risen
through the ranks of politics to become the Lord of Azocul. His
ruthless ability to manipulate people’s perception of himself was
why King Cyrus had chosen him for this mission. The young Alkon
foreign minister judged him as soon as she laid eyes on him. The
emperor was harder to read.

The visitor to his room spoke
quickly and quietly. They couldn’t afford f
or anyone to discover he was here.
When he was finished, Pyotr handed him several sealed envelopes.
They were orders from the king, to only be opened at first light
tomorrow. His visitor would pass them along in order to
prepare.

The man left the room
and
Pyotr
laid back on his bed in satisfaction. The king’s plans were going
exactly as he wanted. If Pyotr pulled this off he would be able to
vault himself into the royal court; a place he had been attempting
to get a position in for a long time. He went to sleep, dreaming of
the power he would have when that day came.

Chapter
54

“
This is the House of
Blades
you’ve been raving about?” asked Fiona in
disbelief.

Tel nodded. The
elven gambler and
part-time spy had told them all about Longhaven’s infamous weapons
black market while they traversed the city. The door before them
was the half-rotted entrance of a pathetic, ramshackle hut, in what
must have been the most poverty-ridden section of Longhaven. Fiona
had never seen so many vagabonds and drug addicts in her life; they
were lying everywhere on the street, no one paying them the
slightest attention aside from trying to avoid them.

Looking at the small building
she was beginning to suspect that Tel’s reputation as an
intelligence contact
was smoke and mirrors and he had lead them
astray.

“
Is
this a joke?” she asked, anger
creeping into her voice. “We don’t have time to waste. You are
aware of how urgent this is? The emperor is meeting with the
Galrian representative today.”

“
I am well aware of the urgency.
Director Talmach made it clear,” replied Tel. “If you can’t trust
me, then at least trust his judgment in employing me.” His handsome
face had a smug look.

She couldn’t disagree with
that, she trusted the director implicitly. Which meant
Tel was a good as
she’d heard. Mollified, she made a gesture of apology “Sorry.
You’re right, but if we don’t find something today, the Galrians
will shove a stick up Emperor Lawrence’s arse and twist until they
get what they want.”