High Merchant

By Paul E. Horsman

Fifteen-year-old Shaw is a big time merchant. Now she is on the point of getting a great contract from the Hizmyran king to start an airship line in his country. Only the local guilds are unhappy about this. Very unhappy.
Soon, Shaw finds herself embroiled in a battle demanding all her grit and ingenuity. To make it interesting, the populace is on the verge of rebellion. How can she win against such odds?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul E. Horsman
• Release date: Jan 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9789491730368

Paul E. Horsman

Paul E. Horsman (1952) is a Dutch and International Fantasy Author. Born and bred in the Netherlands, he now lives in Roosendaal, a town on the Dutch-Belgian border.He has been a soldier, a salesman, a scoutmaster and from 1995 till his school closed in 2012 an instructor of Dutch as a Second Language and Integration to refugees from all over the globe.He is a full-time writer of fantasy adventure stories suitable for a broad age range. His books are both published in the Netherlands, and internationally.His works are characterized by their rich, diverse worlds, colorful peoples and a strong sense of equality between women and men. Many of his stories, like The Shardheld Saga trilogy and The Shadow of the Revenaunt books, have mythological or historical elements in them, while others, especially Lioness of Kell and his current Wyrms of Pasandir books, contain many steampunk elements.You can visit him at his website: www.paulhorsman-author.com.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

The WYRMS OF PASANDIR - Series returns the reader to the colorful world of The Lioness and the Warlock, twenty-five years later, when the Lioness Maud has become the Queen of the Kell, and the Warlock Basil has settled down as the Spellstor, ruler of Vanhaar.

#1—The Road to Kalbakar introduces Eskandar, a young one-handed ship’s boy serving in the old navy sloop Tipred, and Teodar, the voice in his head.

Eskandar meets Kellani, the daughter of Lioness Maud, and together they beat off a monster attack on the sloop.

No longer able to hide his magic, Eskandar goes ashore with Kellani, and teams up with Naudin, the son of the Warlock Basil.

Together, they discover a dangerous lich has escaped his crypt and is at large somewhere. They meet Jem, the bodiless granddaughter of the lich, and Lord Amaj, a warrior boy with connections to Eskandar’s past.

Eskandar learns the roots of his secret history lie at Kalbakar Keep, a castle occupied by a mad monk cult...

#2—The Pirates of Brisa tells Eskandar that Teodar and the Sleeping God Bodrus are being threatened by pirates, man-eating jinn, and their boss, the mighty lich lord. Eskandar has learned he is the last wyrmcaller, whatever that may be, and Defender of Divine Bodrus.

When the pirates start abducting kids from the orphanage Eskandar once lived in, he knows what to do. Together with Kellani, Naudin and his other friends, he defeats the pirates and rescues the orphan teens, among them a quiet fifteen-year-old girl named Shaw.

Now Teodar tells him he has to collect an army of kid warriors and fight the pirates of Brisa...

#3—The Bokkaners of the North starts with Eskandar victorious, the Brisan pirates defeated and their powerful ship in his hands. Just as he thinks to have some peace and quiet, Teodar sends him north, where another bunch of pirates roams.

Teodar knows of a stronghold at the foot of the Pasandir Peaks, Smalkand Keep.

This proves to be a rich former merchants’ headquarters, and a veritable treasure room of gold and trade goods.

After Eskandar has secured the keep and the surrounding region, he travels further north, to the mighty kingdom of Hizmyr.

Before he leaves, he agrees to his Purser Shaw’s plan to build a trade empire that can finance Eskandar’s many plans for restoring the Peaks...

#4—Building a Trade Empire starts the tale of Shaw, the young purser who dreams of building a mighty trade empire.

She is the one who sells Eskandar’s spoils of war, and as she follows the wyrmcaller north to find the old traders keep of Smalkand, she starts building her plans.

When the wyrmcaller Eskandar goes north in pursuit of his enemies, she obtains his blessing to realize her dream. Together with Nate, her business partner, she journeys back to Seatome, the capital of Lord Basil’s Vanhaar.

Here, with the gold found in Smalkand’s strongroom, and a load of valuable loot from a pirate vessel they had captured, she hires her first warehouse and makes ready to conquer the mercantile world...

#5—High Merchant Shaw stands now at the head of a fast-growing transnational business. With the acquisition of the great WyDir airlines company, she became a power in the lands of the Weal, and she is ready to expand.

She manages to get an airship concession from the king of Hizmyr, a large and rich country to the north. This brings her into conflict with the local guilds, who have a monopoly on all businesses in that kingdom.

CHAPTER 1—NOT THE KOKKACIR

Shaw emerged from the Old Wharf dormitory house rubbing her eyes and yawning. On the threshold she stopped abruptly. The sun smiled at her; from the warehouse, the happy voices of the worker kids greeted her, and the honeysuckle on the nearby city walls did its best to bewitch her with its smell.

‘Darn!’ she cried, chagrined. ‘I overslept!’ She always got up at daybreak; there was so much to do, and now...

‘You needed your booty-sleep,’ Haai-Bo said in her head.

‘Booty?’ Shaw said. ‘Not beauty?’

‘Wyrm girls have beauty, humans don’t,’ her wyrmling said blithely. ‘You have won much money and want more, so booty.’

Shaw couldn’t suppress a chuckle. ‘You’re wide-awake, aren’t you?’

Haai-Bo cackled. ‘Wyrmlings no sleepyheads. Go get some food, girl. No mice on the menu, but good porridge today.’

Shaw pulled a face. Many of the other orphan kids swore by porridge, but to her it was a memory of home and her late parents. Well, there would be other things as well; bread, jam, eggs, and more. She patted her pockets and got out the eye patch and monocle. Her lazy eye was getting slowly better, but the eyeglass had become part of her image, and a great tool in handling pretentious opponents. Then she strode into the warehouse.

‘Morning,’ she said to the portal mage in his little office below the stairs. ‘What time is it?’

Kier looked up from the newspaper he was reading and grinned. ‘Nearly ten o’clock. What did you do yesterday; made a night of it?’

Darn again; she couldn’t even be decently angry. ‘Business,’ she said haughtily. ‘Important business.’

Kier held up the paper. ‘Catching saboteurs. It’s all in the Gazette.’

‘Already?’ she said, giving up being mad. ‘I’ll read it later. Is Nate around?’

‘Up with the birds. He told us you weren’t to be disturbed for any reason. Lady Ruth is in the office. Why don’t you go and have some breakfast first?’

Shaw sighed. ‘You’re the second one to say that. Do I look starved?’

‘No,’ Kier said earnestly. ‘But we know you tend to forget those little details.’

‘True.’ She touched her eye patch and hurried up the stairs. At the cantina door she nearly collided with Ruth, who stepped aside and caught her as she stumbled.

‘Good morning,’ Ruth said. ‘Up and raring to go, gal?’

‘Sorry,’ Shaw said. ‘I was thinking.’

Before Ruth could reply, a raucous blare outside made them jump.

‘What the heck was that?’ Shaw cried and hurried down again.

‘Signal from Mariner Tower.’ One of squad leader Yens’ young guards came running, trying to keep his sword from tripping him up as he went. ‘We found a real signal horn to warn people.’

She stared at the boy. ‘Warn of what?’

‘A ship,’ he said. ‘We don’t want no more pirates surprising us, do we?’

‘No, of course not,’ Shaw said hastily. Only last month they had stopped a bunch of pirates and a jinni burgling one of their houses. Old Wharf was within Seatome’s city borders, but in such an out-of-the-way corner they could as well have been on an island.

Both Squad Leader Yens and Stationmaster Varan were already at the pier and Shaw joined them. There lay a fog over the sea that hid everything below a frigate’s topmasts. Only the tower guard would have spied anything coming.

‘What’s that about a ship?’ she said.

‘We don’t know yet,’ Yens said. ‘The lookout on Mariner Tower has orders to blow that horn when he spies any vessel coming for our bit of the harbor.’

Shaw cursed her bad eye as she tried to focus it. A ship; would that be Kokkacir? Captain Tamyas’ former pirate vessel had sailed from their Smalkand base days ago, and Shaw had been expecting her for some time already.

Then she saw a dark shape coming through the sea mist. It was an impossible ship, without masts or smokestack; not much larger than a brig, but very different, and fast. Too fast. A wave of dark water broke over the top of the quay at the vessel’s abrupt stop and soaked their feet.

Shaw didn’t notice it as she stared in surprise at the wyrm figurehead on the bow. This wasn’t Kokkacir, obviously; but what then was she?

‘The excitement!’ Haai-Bo cried as he came swooping down. ‘A Qoori ship!’

‘This is the place?’ a boy’s voice came from the strange vessel. ‘This is Shaw’s place? Chottapan’s Blessing, we darn well made it!’

‘Tamyas?’ Shaw said, stupefied. Then two familiar sailors jumped ashore and tied the ship to the bollards. ‘Grim and Jakop!’ Those guys were from Kokkacir, but the ship was a stranger.

With the mooring line fastened, the first sailor turned. She was a burly girl of sixteen, with a brown, scarred face and a badly set nose. Now she lifted her fists in a gesture both triumphant and exhausted.

Then a crowd of kids burst from the ship and ran to surround Shaw. One of them was a Qoori boy she knew. She frowned, perplexed. He should be at their Smalkand base, not here with those kids.

Shaw shook every hand held out to her, until Tamyas barged through the crowd, his face split in an immense grin. ‘I can’t believe it! We flippin’ got here!’

He gripped Shaw’s hands. ‘That boat’s a darned miracle.’

‘And so are you,’ Grim said as she shook the boy’s shoulders less than gently. ‘Tamyas is our hero. Without him, we’d be drifting corpses in a foreign sea.’

‘Ha!’ Tamyas looked up at the girl. Shaw knew they were of an age, only Tamyas wasn’t much taller than Shaw’s barely five feet, while Grim was a hulking girl of six feet plus. But there was something much like reverence in her face as she answered his glance.

‘No sea too high for a Hizmyran tramp mate!’ Tamyas said hoarsely, blinking his salt-rimmed eyes.

‘What happened?’ Shaw said, and she held his hands as he sought for words.

‘We lost Kokkacir.’ Jakop looked as tired as Grim, and had a bloody bandage round his head. ‘All was going well, until we’d passed that big headland where we were supposed to turn east.’

‘Yann Talimarch? The Port Dvarghish landmark?’ Shaw said.

‘No chart, no idea if it was the same lighthouse,’ Jakop said. ‘Out of the blue, a storm came up. We’ve weathered a few beastly blows before, but never one like this. One moment the sky was clear and the next it was night, with howling winds coming from the shore and pushing us away, as if the very land rejected us. All that day and part of the night we ran south with Grim at the wheel and Tamyas giving orders as cool as anything.

‘By the time the storm had died down, we were out of sight of the land and lost. Then we met a strange ship. She had no masts and seemed in trouble, so we went to see if they needed help. They fired a shot at us the weight of a stone elephant. It hit Kokkacir, crashed through her deck and her bottom, and the darn girl started to fall apart around us. We took to the boats and rowed like a bunch of daemons to the other vessel. They were pirates! Not too many, luckily, and the storm had hit them, too, so we kicked them overboard. We saw Kokkacir go down, and there we were, with a strange ship—and I mean truly strange! No masts, no propulsion and no way to sail or row her—and no idea where was Seatome.’

‘We searched the ship and found Qanan,’ Grim said. ‘Half hidden behind his machines, crying and cursing in his Imperial babble. We got him calmed down and talking. We knew him immediately, hard to believe though it was—the lost brother to Wanei, who had been with us on Yavam, and the ship was the Royal Sashu. After we told him his twin was safe, he came alive and had that engine back up in five minutes.’

Shaw vaguely remembered Wanei crying for his brother gone down with their ship. She glanced at the Qoori, looking dazed, his green skin splotchy with fatigue. Boy and ship had survived after all; thank Chottapan. Or Divine Bodrus, she added quickly.

Jakop moved his still-bleeding head and winced.

‘Let somebody call our healer,’ Shaw said.

‘I’m here,’ a girl’s voice answered, and the warehouse witch wriggled her way through the circle of onlookers.

‘Let me look at that noggin of yours,’ she said firmly. ‘Sit on that thing over there.’

‘It’s a bollard,’ someone said helpfully.

The healer witch shrugged. ‘Whatever.’ Then she started unwinding the bandage.

Tamyas looked away from the bloody sight. ‘So there we were. We had power, but the ship was totally unlike anything I’d ever sailed before. Qanan translated some of the labels on the instruments, but even then much of what they did was guesswork.’ He grinned. ‘Even Sashu’s compass was strange. We discovered how it all worked by trying. Luckily we had plenty of sea room; there’s a darned lot of difference between a twelve-knot sailing ship and a thirty-five knot steam yacht.’

‘You can say that again.’ Jakop’s face was strained as the healer worked her art. ‘It took awhile to find out what the telegraph commands did. I mean, Full Ahead, how much is that?’

‘Thirty-five knots, of course,’ Qanan said in precise Vulgar.

‘Yeah, but what does it mean when you’re gripping the wheel? Well, that it’s darned fast,’ Jakop said. ‘So your reflexes must be fast, too. Mine weren’t, and that bridge beam was harder than my head.’

‘Sit still,’ the healer said testily. ‘Jumping about doesn’t help me.’

Jakop froze.

‘Together, we found it all out,’ Tamyas said. ‘I daresay I could sail that ship again; I sure wanna try.’

‘I must see Wanei,’ Qanan said hurriedly. ‘I know him; he’ll be fretting himself to death.’

‘Bring him here,’ Tamyas said. ‘It’s his ship too. Tell him I need him to teach us how everything works.’

Unnoticed, Nate had joined the crowd. ‘Good morning,’ he said as he kissed Shaw, stepped back and turned to Qanan. ‘Come with me. We’ll port to Smalkand and tell your brother the good news.’

Shaw felt her face glowing from his kiss, and forced herself not to stare at Nate’s back as he walked away. ‘You guys go inside,’ she said hastily. ‘Upstairs is the cafeteria. Cook will feed you and you can put up your feet for a moment.’

‘Hot food would be great,’ Tamyas said. ‘Sashu has a nice galley, but booze was about all she was stocked with.’ He looked at Shaw. ‘It went over the side. Alcohol was the last thing we needed.’

Cook was a rangy sixteen-year-old lad with pride in his work, who served them his hot porridge, fresh bread, meats and cheese. Haai-Bo hopped around with the look of a pitifully starved wyrmling and almost without noticing it, they all fed him tidbits.

‘You’re a greedy little bummer, you know,’ Shaw said sternly.

‘I’m hungry,’ he said unabashed. ‘I can’t advise on an empty stomach.’

‘Charlatan!’ she said, unable to hide a grin. Then she went to her office.

CHAPTER 2—ROYAL CONCESSIONS

Half an hour later, Nate stuck his head around the door.

‘The Qoori twins are reunited,’ he said. ‘And not a moment too soon. Tymon was worried about Wanei. The guy was starving himself to death and our healer was more or less keeping him alive with magic. When I brought his brother in, for a moment I thought the guy would die on the spot, thinking Qanan’s ghost came to fetch him. He rallied when they embraced for perhaps sixty seconds, no more. Then he dragged himself from his bed and demanded his uniform.

‘Washed and dressed, he only wanted to see Tamyas, so I brought them both back. Now they are talking and eating, with that hungry wyrmling sitting on their table looking at every bite of food they pick up.’ He grinned and closed the door.

‘That scavenger wyrm,’ Shaw said disgusted. ‘He’s been at it all morning.’

‘Don’t let him fool you,’ Ruth said. ‘He isn’t eating half of what you think he is. The little chap is working, gathering information. He’s not really reading minds, but he doesn’t have to; he’s picking up lots as it is.’ She smiled. ‘My father Basil said Lothi-Mo is just the same. Those wyrmlings are very high-level diplomats. Be glad they’re on our side.’

Shaw sat back. ‘Is that so? What’s he doing with all that information?’

‘Learning how the world works,’ Haai-Bo said, winging in through the open window. ‘You spy-girl spoils my so-clever game. No matter; I am working with you. The princess and the wyrmcaller are allies, and so are we. I am always listening; that’s what I am advisor for. Listening, thinking, understanding, advising.’

‘And my protective spells don’t stop you from hearing my words,’ Ruth said coolly.

‘Your pardon,’ Haai-Bo said unabashed. ‘Human magic does not always work on me. We wyrms were called to defend Bodrus. The Sleeping God gave us of his powers and we can sometimes work around your spells. Unless you are the wyrmcaller.’

‘Why not him?’ Ruth said. ‘He’s powerful, but he is as human as I am.’

‘No,’ Haai-Bo said. ‘He’s not. Not wholly. Enough, he is most worthy of our following and that must suffice. Ma’am Shaw, when will we go north?’

‘I’m waiting for a message,’ Shaw said. ‘Why?’

‘I must make my bow to the princess,’ Haai-Bo said. ‘And I must see to the rest of my kin.’

Then the little wyrmling stretched out his long neck, flapped his wings, and squawked. At the same time, Ruth froze and lifted a hand.

‘Yes, Shaw’s right here. Tell me and I’ll repeat. A moment,’ she said. ‘Shaw, a chap called Ricco.’

‘Our guy aboard Eskandar’s flagship Drakon in Hizmyr.’ Shaw stared at Haai-Bo. ‘Just as I said I was waiting for his message, he calls.’

The wyrmling moved his wings in what could be a shrug. ‘I dunno.’

Ruth frowned as she listened. ‘I’ll tell her. Ricco says the king agrees. Exclusive concession for thirty thousand gold crowns local currency, at six crowns to our liber. You must come yourself to clinch the deal.’

Shaw gripped the armrests of her chair and took a deep breath. ‘Tell him I’ll be there as soon as I can sail. I just upped his wages to three silver a day, and a nice bonus.’

‘He’s singing,’ Ruth said, surprised. ‘You made him happy. What did he do? Make us rich?’

‘Quite probably.’ Shaw ran to the door. ‘Nate! We got it!’

‘We got what?’ Nate said, as he came hurrying up.

‘Come into the office,’ she said. ‘It’s still a secret.’ She grinned, looking at the curious faces all staring at her. ‘Sorry, guys. You’ll hear it all later. Where is Amsalon?’

‘Here,’ the Hizmyran called from below.

‘Join us. Tamyas? You too.’ She went back inside and sat down, trying to control the excitement that set her trembling.

‘What the heck did that guy tell you?’ Ruth exclaimed.

‘Shut the door!’ Shaw said, and when Tamyas and Amsalon ran in, Nate closed it with a bang and put his back to it.

‘Out with it!’ he demanded.

Shaw brought her hands to her chest. ‘Ricco, our guy in Hizmyr, just told me. We got a concession from the king of Hizmyr for the exclusive exploitation of an airship network, for the sum of thirty thousand in gold crowns.’

‘Bells-of-a-Brazen-Bear,’ Nate said, gaping. ‘You don’t say!’

Ruth stared in awe. ‘Exclusive? For the whole country?’

‘How will you pay for that?’ Amsalon demanded. ‘The guilds thought it impossible to run airship lines commercially. Who would build the ships? Who would fly them?’

‘Mate,’ Shaw said, hoarse with excitement. ‘One of our companies is WyDir, the biggest airship company in the Weal. We run scores of vessels all over the lands. We build them, maintenance them and sail them. And the concession is cheap! Ricco said the exchange rate was six gold crowns to one gold liber. So thirty thousand crowns are only five thousand libers.’

Amsalon sat down in a chair, his mouth open. ‘Darn.’ He swallowed. ‘Shaw, you just killed them.’

‘Killed who?’ Shaw said.

‘The guilds. You got a concession from the king. With thirty thousand crowns he can pay most of his salaries. This will embolden him to go further and each new deal will be a nail in grandmother’s expensive coffin.’

Tamyas’ laugh had a hysterical echo. ‘That flippin’ witch!’

‘I must go north,’ Shaw said. ‘I must get that concession signed. Darn, the Maiden is still in dock. Tamyas, are you guys up to a journey north?’

Tamyas was silent for a moment. ‘Let me call Grim, Jakop and Wanei,’ he said finally. ‘We need to decide this together.’

‘Call them to the boardroom,’ Shaw said. ‘And Qanan; he’s your engineer, after all.’

She rose and took a deep breath. ‘Breath of the Mountains,’ she said softly as she walked to the boardroom next door. ‘Give me strength, lord.’

‘You’re doing fine,’ Teodar said unexpectedly ‘Bodrus approves. Things are working for you, so grab them while you can. Just don’t lose your cool; breathe now and then.’

She heard Haai-Bo cackle in glee. He didn’t say anything, but she was sure he’d heard Teodar’s words somehow.

With a bump, she sat down at the head of the table and rubbed her eyes. Don’t lose my cool... She grunted. Easy to say, but difficult to do.

Nate put a steaming mug of cawah before her and she looked up gratefully. ‘Thanks.’

When they were all present, Shaw looked round the table.

‘You want us to sail,’ Grim said bluntly. ‘Why?’

Just as simply, Shaw told them of the concession and explained what getting it could mean for both PTC and the people in Hizmyr.

‘So I must go north to sign that thing,’ she said. ‘Can you guys get me there?’

‘I’ll be honest,’ Jakop said. ‘I could manage Kokkacir more or less, but I lack the training for Sashu. I’d be helmsman, perhaps, but not a deck officer.’

‘That goes for me as well,’ Grim said. ‘So if you want to use Sashu, we need more officers.’

‘I know the ship,’ Wanei said. ‘I can show you, but I won’t command. I will be first officer.’

‘There you have it,’ Tamyas said. ‘Get me two more officers and we’ll sail.’

Shaw tapped the table with her fingers while she thought. ‘If we asked the navy for some midshipmen, would that do?’

Tamyas shrugged. ‘They would have the basics my friends lack. Why? Do you think you can get any?’

‘Ruth, can you check with Navy House? Maybe they have one or two midshipmen they’d like to promote away.’

The redheaded girl lifted an eyebrow. ‘Just like that?’

‘Well, the navy has a surplus of midshipmen, so you never know.’

Ruth closed her eyes, and everyone waited. Only that darned wyrmling sat on the backrest of Shaw’s chair and chuckled softly.

Finally the girl relaxed and looked round the table. ‘My, you were all watching me think?’ she said. ‘I called my dad Yarwan. You know he was actually glad I asked? They are pruning the midshipmen list and he has a few chaps who would suit us famously. He’ll offer them a chance to join us on detached duty.’

‘Fine,’ Tamyas said. ‘While we’re waiting for those navy wonders, we’ll prepare the ship for sea. How many souls did you plan to take along?’

‘How many can you fit in?’ Shaw said. ‘I’d like to take Kennan and his guys; Nate, Amsalon, a battlemage and a witch healer.’ She thought a moment. ‘If our engineers can install a portal on board, we’ll need a hedgemage to operate it as well.’

‘That’s twelve,’ Tamyas said. ‘And my forty-one guys makes fifty-three.’

‘No problem,’ Wanei said. ‘Sashu could fit a hundred and forty-five on board; royal king and twenty guests, plus soldiers, servants and courtiers.’ He grinned. ‘And concubines. Will you take those?’

‘No,’ Shaw said coolly.

Qanan chuckled, and Wanei’s grin broadened. ‘Good. They were old and ugly.’

‘In that case I will hire one for you,’ Shaw said. ‘She can share your cabin.’

‘Do not bother, please,’ Wanei said. ‘My cabin is very small.’

‘We’ll wait for the commodore’s castaways,’ Shaw said. ‘In the meantime, speak with our seamstress to take your sizes for uniforms. You guys should all be fitted out before we arrive in Myrlia. Hizmyrans are very...’ She sought for a diplomatic word.

‘Vain,’ Amsalon said. ‘They out-peacock peacocks; all of them.’

‘True,’ Tamyas said, and he moved his thin shoulders. ‘I want lots of braid and golden epaulets to boast of my exalted station.’ He rose. ‘If you don’t need us further, we’ll set things in motion.’

‘We need to check over the armament,’ Grim said. ‘Wanei knows how it works.’

‘I do,’ the Qoori said. ‘We carry two mortars and two beam guns. But the beams were added later and our crystals have insufficient power to shoot and sail at the same time. My honorable late captain had arranged for extra crystals installed after we’d returned.’

‘Ask Oychak, our Thali engineer,’ Shaw said. ‘She’ll love exchanging ideas with you and I’m sure she can install another power source.’

‘We’ll speak with her. She is where?’ Wanei said.

‘Probably in her workshop at the back of the warehouse,’ Shaw said. ‘Ask her about the portal as well. Tell her I’ll choose a hedgemage.’ She glanced at Nate and grinned. ‘I think I know which one I want.’

Naudin cocked an eye at her.

‘I had a discussion with those guys,’ she said quickly. ‘One chap had been doubtful when I told them hedgemages weren’t failed for life but needed to refocus on other professions and use what magic they had as an extra.’

‘Seems sound advice,’ Nate said.

‘Yes, and now I want to prove it to him,’ Shaw said with a smile.

She and Nate found the little group of young hedgemages with portal mage Kier. They were busily working on some spellcasting and Shaw stood watching them for a moment. She didn’t understand the spell, but it can’t have been easy, for some of them looked flushed and sweaty.

‘They’re doing well,’ Kier said.

Shaw nodded at a thin, white-haired boy. ‘Him too?’

‘Him?’ Kier sniffed, and Shaw saw the kid’s cheeks darken. ‘Yeah, he’s all right.’

‘Good,’ Shaw said. ‘You, mister, are you ready for a career move?’

‘Who, me?’ the boy said with a show of bravura. ‘You need a warehouse manager already, ma’am?’

Shaw grinned. ‘No. What I do need is a portal mage aboard Royal Sashu. In a few days we plan to sail for the north. I’m having a portal installed, so I can use a guy who wants to broaden his horizons.’

The three others turned as one to stare at their mate.

The thin boy sat motionless. ‘And you want me?’

‘Well, you weren’t afraid to doubt me, so you can think for yourself. What’s your name?’

‘Elijan,’ he said. ‘Elijan of Manawell.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I’d like to go, ma’am.’

The other three youngsters sighed.

‘Your turns will come, guys,’ Shaw said. ‘Elijan, report to Engineer Oychak right now. She is going to install the portal and I want you to assist her.’

‘Yes, ma’am!’ The boy jumped up and ran away.

Kier watched him go. ‘He’ll do; that chappie is inquisitive for ten. Would there be another mage on board? I’d like him to get more instruction.’

‘We’ll have