“Sir,” the porter said, handing him the card, “Master Supi Magna is here to see you.”
“Huh.” Demir took the calling card. He’d half expected this visit, but not so quick. He’d only just taken possession of the paperwork guaranteeing his share of the Ivory Forest Glassworks at midnight last night. He tapped the card against his cheek. “I’ll receive him in my office. No! Wait, in the restaurant, thank you.” It wouldn’t do to have Supi Magna walk into Demir’s office to find it filled with spymaster reports on the Magna.
Demir took his time crossing the street back to the hotel and went to the restaurant, where he arrived just as the porter showed Supi into a corner booth. Demir slid in across from him, shaking his hand with a warm smile. “Supi, what a surprise.”
The patriarch of the Magna guild-family was a tall, willowy, hawk-faced man whose tunic hung from him like from a scarecrow. He was in his late sixties though looked to be in his fifties, and rumors had circulated for years that his personal siliceer masters had created godglass that would keep him from aging. Demir suspected he simply took a lot of care in his appearance. Supi, along with the four other members of the Inner Assembly, was one of the most powerful men in Ossa. He was worth hundreds of millions, belonged to dozens of Fulgurist Societies, commanded an army of enforcers, and had a quarter of the Assembly in his pocket.
Supi did not return Demir’s smile. “Condolences on your mother’s death,” he said. “Adriana was a friend. But congratulations, of course, on taking her place at the head of the family.”
“Thank you. Breakfast?” Demir asked, raising his hand toward a waiter.
“I’m afraid I don’t have time for a meal. It’s come to my attention that Ulina, my foolish granddaughter, gambled away her share in the Ivory Forest Glassworks.”
Demir leaned back, raising his eyebrows. “Well, yes. We had a rather lovely afternoon together. The betting might have gotten a little heated. Do you often take such close interest in the family holdings?”
“When it comes to glassworks I do.” Supi produced a small satchel from within his jacket. Demir recognized it as the type banks would give to their rich clients when they wanted to carry a particularly large amount of money on their person. “I would prefer to keep one hundred percent of the ownership of the glassworks in Magna hands. You understand, I hope?”
“Of course.”
“I’m willing to pay one hundred and fifteen percent value for the immediate return of the shares my granddaughter lost.”
Demir gave Supi a quizzical look. One hundred and fifteen percent for part ownership in a glassworks with a government contract? Cheap bastard. “I’m afraid I will have to pass.”
“One hundred and thirty percent.”
“Pass,” Demir said again, meeting Supi’s eyes coolly. He could see some anger there now, but it was well-bottled.
“You’d pass up a thirty percent profit on something you’ve owned only since last night?”
Demir drew invisible pictures on the table with his finger. “I don’t need cash right now, Supi. I need investments. The mere fact that you are willing to buy at such a price means it’s more valuable than even I expected. I won’t let it go.”
Supi’s nostrils flared. “A hundred and fifty.”
“You’re notoriously cheap, Supi. You’re only reinforcing my decision.”
“You…” Supi growled, his eyes widening.
“Oh, come now. Don’t be so agitated. I really did have a lovely time with Ulina. Maybe in a year or two you’ll get it back in the family!”
“As if a Magna would stoop to marrying a Grappo,” Supi said quietly.
“As if,” Demir replied. He did not let the smile leave his face, but he was sure his eyes told a different story. The greater guild-families had tried to push him around when he was a young politician. They hadn’t succeeded then because he could outthink them. They wouldn’t succeed now because he had proper steel in his spine. “You sure you won’t stay for breakfast?”
Supi stood up suddenly and stared down that hawkish nose at Demir. “Your mother was my friend. I had hoped you’d be more reasonable.”
“My mother was everyone’s friend, Supi. That didn’t mean she was a fool.”
“Be careful, young Grappo. You might have once been a commanding politician, but Ossa has changed since you left. If you forget your place, you will be ground underfoot.”
Demir placed both hands flat on the table in front of him, presenting Supi with the dual sigils of glassdancer and Grappo. Inner Assembly or not, Supi needed to be reminded who Demir was. “Where is my place, Supi? Under your chair like a good pet? We may be a small guild-family, but be sure to remember my mother’s legacy: the Grappo sit at the table with the rest of you. You can be my friend or you can be my enemy, but I assure you that the latter will cost you more.”
“You’re impudent.”
“We’ve met before, Supi. A lot has changed, I know, but that has not.”
Supi made an angry sound in the back of his throat and whirled, striding out of the restaurant. Demir waved away the waiter and counted to sixty before he practically ran across the hotel foyer to Breenen’s office. “Get Montego and a carriage,” he said. “I have decided to visit my new holdings.”
Demir spent the long ride up to the Ivory Forest Glassworks studying spymaster reports that he’d managed to bully, steal, or bribe from the Dorlani, Vorcien, and Stavri. Some of it touched upon the Ivory Forest, but most was just generally useful. He was going to need every scrap he could get if he was already making enemies among the Inner Assembly. They were only just approaching the glassworks when he broke the long silence between him and Montego.
“Something else is going on here,” he said, gesturing out the window.
Montego looked up from the book he’d been reading. “Oh?”
“Supi was very angry that I wouldn’t sell him back Ulina’s shares in the glassworks. I’ve known him a long time and he doesn’t often take things personally. Either he thinks that I’ll use my sixteen percent share to destroy the place and lose them their government contract, or they are hiding something.”
“What could they be hiding?” Montego asked.
Demir shook his head. “The usuaclass="underline" laundering ill-gotten gains, prisoner abuse, selling their wards. It’s a glassworks so maybe they have their prisoners working on illegal godglass. We won’t know until we dig around, but my focus is going to be on finding Thessa. You remember her description?”
“Early twenties, a couple inches taller than you, dirty-blond hair.”
“Keep your eyes open. I’ll work the people.” Demir fixed a smile on his face as their carriage rumbled over the uneven streets of the dirty little glassworking town. Outside the left window he could see a twenty-foot wall meandering along the roadside, with a couple of guard towers occupied by armed Magna enforcers. “This really is a serious operation,” he commented to Montego as they turned into the gatehouse.
The carriage jerked to a sudden stop, nearly throwing him into Montego’s lap. He stuck his head out the window to see a dozen enforcers crowding the gate, all of them shouting angrily at Demir’s driver. Demir put a glove on his left hand to cover his glassdancer sigil but left his right hand naked. He was here to make friends, not threaten people. He opened the door, hopped down, and gave them all a grin. “Is something the matter?”
A man wearing a flatcap, differentiated from the other enforcers by a Magna silic sigil stitched on his jacket, pushed his way to the front and pointed at Demir, then at the carriage. “Tell your driver to back up. This is a restricted compound and we will shoot if he tries to push through.”