‘Your troubles to resolve, T'Varr. I cannot make money for you to spend without ships and crews to sail them,’ said the hsian.
‘Then I suggest you find some nice long voyages to places they might like to go.’
‘Qeled,’ said Bronzehand.
Elesxian rolled her eyes and clutched her head. ‘Are you mad?’
‘Give me ten ships and a good crew and this Elemental Man here, and I'll bring you something back from Qeled that will make our t'varr stop bleating once and for all!’
‘Another reckless venture? Look at what this one has cost! You'll waste ten more ships and come back with nothing. If you come back at all.’
‘Sounds to me like he should go,’ purred Baran Meido.
Chrias laughed. ‘Our lord has brought back dragons and our t'varr still squeals!’
‘Likely as not you'd come back dead, little brother.’
Meido and Bronzehand stared each other down. Bronzehand's eyes shone. ‘Is that a wager, brother?’
‘Five ships.’
‘Done!’
‘Wait. Do you propose to let him have ten to waste in the first place?’ Elesxian shook her head.
‘He'll have none of mine.’ Tsen T'Varr shrugged. ‘Not unless our lord demands it.’ He cocked his head. ‘Don't think that's likely to happen by the looks of it. Wasted wager.’
Meido chuckled. ‘Pay these penny-pinching prunes no mind. I'll have the Vespinese prepare ships for you, brother. For a half-and-half split of whatever you find between us and them.’
‘Wait!’ The Watcher coughed again but none of them seemed to notice until he banged the gavel. Then slowly they fell to silence until Bronzehand stood up.
‘Gentlemen! Sister.’ They all looked at him. He shrugged. ‘Well, my father is incapable, isn't he? We must agree on someone to speak for him.’ He looked hard at Quai'Shu. ‘Unless, Father, you have something you wish to say on this?’
Chrias Kwen banged his fist on the table and glared at Tsen T'Varr. ‘Why have you not yet executed the slave who murdered Zifan'Shu?’
Tsen T'Varr met his eye. ‘I will, Chrias. But not until I can afford it.’
‘You'd get a good price if you sold her,’ muttered Jima Hsian.
‘She must pay!’ snapped Elesxian.
Tsen smiled and offered out his hands. ‘Exactly. She must pay. And she will pay for the murder of your father, first lady, when the debts that our sea lord has incurred are lessened. Until then she will pay in other ways. She is, after all, part of the fruits of his labour.’ He stood up. ‘Dear friends, tantalising a prospect as it is to dispatch a part of our rather ragged and meagre fleet on some expedition to Qeled, I suggest our discussions might be better centred on how we shall use the fruits of our last expedition to defray the expense of it. In other words, how shall these dragons pay their way?’
‘The Sun King will pay you any price you ask,’ said Jima Hsian. ‘If you can find a way to take them to him.’
‘Well, that's not why you brought them here, Jima Hsian, but why not start with it? Will one dragon suffice? A young one?’
‘I think so.’
‘Well, that's one thing settled. The navigators found a way to bring them here after all and we can certainly spare one of the little ones. Hatchlings, they call them.’ He laughed a little as if they were all in on some joke. ‘I will see that you get it, Jima, and then shall we talk of their other more. . challenging uses? And Chrias, find me someone to replace the dragon woman and I'll gladly put a hook through her tongue and hang her up for the jade ravens. Now how else-’
‘No!’ Quai'Shu snapped and the rest of them almost jumped out of their skins. Even the Watcher flinched. ‘No,’ he said again. They looked at him as though he was mad. ‘You take my legacy and already you sell it to the Sun King. Do I have a say? Do you even bother to ask? Do I want to sell my monsters? You will not sell my dragons. You will not kill my rider. You will do none of those things.’
‘Then perhaps I will sell your fleet,’ snapped Tsen T'Varr, ‘to pay for your indulgence!’
Chrias was on his feet in a flash. ‘You will. .’
Quai'Shu waved a shaking finger across the table at Tsen T'Varr. He was quivering. ‘Dragons. Nothing else. Let me see them. I want to be where they are. Take me there, T'Varr. You are master here. Tell them what we need. And take me back! I want my eyrie! I want my dragons.’
Quai'Shu fell quiet. Silence filled the room.
Meido stood up. ‘I'll wager-’
‘Gentlemen!’ Tsen T'Varr had a good voice on him when he chose to use it and now he cut Baran Meido clean in two. ‘I believe our lord has spoken.’ He smiled at them all and turned to Quai'Shu. ‘Sea Lord, we have so many dragons that I've already been forced to cull them. Please see reason. Let the Sun King fill our coffers. But!’ He turned and shook a finger at the rest of them. ‘I have only one alchemist and only one dragon-rider, and if we lose either then we really all might as well not have bothered. So we'll not sell anything to anyone — indeed, perhaps we cannot — until we have more. Chrias Kwen, I will ask you this: prepare a ship to return to the dragon lands. One will do. Tell me what you need. You may have the pick of anything you wish save for LaLa here. I think it may be best if you went yourself. It's too important and cannot be allowed to fail.’
‘I will do no such thing!’
‘He is needed here,’ said Lady Elesxian coldly. ‘In our time of weakness we do not send our kwen away!’
‘I think our t'varr may be on to something,’ drawled Bronzehand.
Tsen smiled at him again. ‘If Vespinarr will loan you the ships, what is to be lost in going to Qeled save a wager?’ He glanced at Baran Meido and his smile broadened. ‘Although you too may not have LaLa. I'm afraid his place is firmly at our lord's side until the matter of a successor is settled. Jima Hsian will make us some money. Tell the Sun King he can have his dragon one day but make him pay! I'll keep the wolves away and give our lord's hsian and kwen what they need. I will beg,’ he said, ‘for that's where we find ourselves.’
Tsen bowed and sat down. The silence that followed was a long one.
‘What if we were to offer a stake in the eyrie?’ mused Jima Hsian. The Watcher shifted back into his shadows and smiled to himself. There. That was how a sea lord did it. Tigers on the outside, kittens in the middle. As long as you promised them money.
Chrias Kwen stood up. ‘Ten per cent, Hsian,’ he said. ‘No more. You may offer it as you see fit and get the best price you can. I'm sure that will be more than enough to spare Tsen T'Varr the ignominy of begging. .’
He stopped as Quai'Shu suddenly rose. ‘I need the water closet,’ he said shrilly. Then he looked down at himself as the smell eked its way across the room. The Watcher took his hand before any of the others could do it. Before they fought over him as they'd fight over everything else.
‘Our lord has spoken.’ The Watcher said it so quietly that they had to stop and turn their ears towards him. Who will strike at you first, old man? Would your kwen? No. Someone else then? Not Tsen T'Varr, that's for sure. You as good as made him your heir, old man. Did you mean to? Probably not. He guided Sea Lord Quai'Shu gently towards the mahogany door. ‘I will be attending the Great Sea Council,’ he told them all. ‘We both will.’ He met their eyes one by one around the table. If there was murder then the Watcher would hunt the killer down. He let them see that, let them have no doubts at all, but even as he left Quai'Shu’s sons were making a wager on how long Tsen T'Varr could keep him alive.
Baros Tsen T'Varr looked deep into the silver cup in his hand, into the pale heady apple wine. When I look back, I suppose this will be the moment I started to wonder exactly who poured every cup I drink. My, my, won't that be fun. Did I really have to make the poison chalice so firmly mine? But then hadn't it been so ever since Quai'Shu ordered him into the desert to built his dragon eyrie? Probably. He clasped his hands and found himself twiddling the many rings on his fingers. He wasn't the only one. Everyone here had rings, all of them much the same, all to counter the tiny slivers of gold-glass under the skin of each finger. The slivers had been Quai'Shu’s way of binding them to each other but it had gone down like a lead glasship and they'd all found a way around it before long. About the one and only thing they'd all worked seamlessly together to achieve.