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of the Matrial has two of the crystal knife-throwers and
is about to take back Southgate and everything north of the Dry Coast. The
Lord-Protector has lost his Table and will lose more. You must complete your
work in Hyalt and Dekhron before that time comes. It must come sooner rather
than later.” The Recorder’s purple-gray eyes met the dark-rimmed orbs of the
trader.
    After
a moment, Halanat looked away.

Chapter 15
    Wendra
and Alucius and Lucenda and Royalt sat around the kitchen table in the late
twilight of an early harvest evening.
    “…
that both may strive to do good in the world and beyond.” Alucius finished the
prayer.
    Wendra
and Lucenda stood and dished out the mutton stew with hot biscuits. Alucius
immediately took some of the fresh harvest honey from the pot.
    “They
never grow up,” Lucenda observed to Wendra. “Put honey on the table, and they’re
small boys again.”
    “And
you’re never girls again?” Alucius questioned.
    “Never!”
replied Wendra, her eyes twinkling.
    “You
won’t win that one, Alucius,” Royalt pointed out.
    Alucius
smiled, silently agreeing with his grandsire.
    Royalt
lifted his glass of ale and took a swallow. “Tastes good after a long day.”
    “What
did you find out from Kustyl?” asked Lucenda, looking at her father.
    “Ever
since Alucius had that run-in with the bravos outside of Sudon,” Royalt said, “Kustyl’s
been listening even more carefully.”
    Alucius
nodded. “He said he thought a trader named Halanat was behind it, except that
he’d known Halanat years ago, and Halanat wasn’t shrewd enough, and that meant
someone was directing him. He never could come up with anything.”
    “And
you didn’t want to go back to Dekhron,” Royalt pointed out.
    “No,
I didn’t,” Alucius admitted. “I still don’t. That’s a legacy I’d rather avoid.
The place is like a bucket of tar. You put one finger in, and before you know it you’re stuck. I’ve already had enough of my
life disrupted by that sort of thing.” He looked at Wendra. “And I’m not too
interested in ending up where I’d be forced to put on the uniform again.
Especially not now.”
    “What
did Grandpa Kustyl have to say?” asked Wendra gently.
    “He
had a lot to say.” Royalt laughed. “He usually does.”
    “He’s
worth listening to,” added Lucenda, looking at her son. “What we do here is
affected too much by Dekhron—as someone once told me.”
    Alucius
winced inside, but merely smiled.
    Wendra
glanced at him, and Alucius knew she understood how he felt.
    “Well…”
Royalt dragged out the word. “Kustyl was telling me that the traders in Dekhron
have gotten a lot smarter. You know they’ve been giving those barrel contracts
to your father, Wendra?”
    The
younger woman nodded.
    “That’s
because they went around and checked the quality and prices of every cooper
within fifty vingts of Dekhron. He came out the best.”
    “He
is the best,” Wendra averred.
    “That
was your grandfather’s point. In his whole life, he’s never seen the traders in
Dekhron be that smart. They always gave the business to a friend or a cousin.
They’ve been doing the same sort of thing with the rivermen, checking out barge
transport rates. But… the other thing that’s scary is what happened last month.
A Lanachronan cloth factor decided to open a place in Dekhron and see if he
could bid into the nightsilk trade…”
    Alucius
had a feeling he wouldn’t like what was coming.
    “…
just before he had the place ready, it caught fire. He died in the blaze.
Kustyl started asking around, quietlike. Been five fires like that in the past
year and a half.”
    “Sounds
like the traders are getting organized and finding ways to kill people who get
in their way,” Alucius admitted. “But they’ve always put golds ahead of people’s
lives. That’s what got us under Lanachronan rule.”
    Royalt
shook his head. “It’s not the same. They tried to run Dekhron the way they