Natural Ordermage

V

By late morning on threeday, Rahl had finished copying another two of the stories within Tales of the Founders and was beginning on the next. He also had bruises on his right shoulder and his left thigh from the early-morning sparring session with his father.

The workroom door opened, and Kian stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He carried an ancient leather folder. “What do you think of the book now?”

“It’s interesting.” So far the stories were more like terrible or boring, but Rahl didn’t want to say what he really thought. Creslin had been an idiot to flee Westwind to avoid a pleasant life in Sarronnyn. Instead, he’d had to try to build a land on what had been a huge desert isle. He’d almost died a half score of times, and he’d been blind for much of his life and died younger than he should have. While Rahl was glad Creslin had succeeded, for his own selfish reasons, he didn’t have to approve of what Creslin had done. He knew his father would hardly appreciate his comments. “Where have you been? I didn’t see you leave, but you were gone when I got back from checking the ink.”

“I was over at Alamat’s. He wanted me to write a letter to his son in Valmurl.”

“Valmurl? That’s in Austra. How…” Rahl didn’t ask why Kian had gone to the weaver rather than having Alamat come to the scrivener. These days, scriveners couldn’t be too choosy.

“By ship. It will cost two silvers, and Lieran will have to pick it up at the port-master’s at the harbor there.”

How did a weaver’s son end up in Valmurl? Rahl wondered. “Two silvers for just a letter?”

“How else can he keep in touch?” asked Kian. “Lieran insulted Magister Rustyn. Rustyn told him to behave. Lieran told Rustyn that he was a useless flea on the back of the mangy dog that was the Council. They put him on the next ship out. He was lucky it was bound to Austra, and not Candar or Hamor.”

“Oh.” Lieran didn’t sound terribly dangerous. Stupid, but hardly dangerous to the Council. “When did this happen?”

“Nine years ago. Alamat finally got the first letter from Lieran something like three years ago. It took a while for the boy to get settled, but he’s a weaver in Valmurl now.” Kian shook his head. “When Lieran talked to Rustyn, he’d had too much hard cider and not enough sense to go home and sleep it off. Quelerya was on her way from Feyn. They were to be consorted, but Lieran was gone before she arrived.”

“And she just stayed?”

“Why not? Alamat’s not as young as he used to be, and Lieran was their only boy. Quelerya’s a good weaver. Your mother says she never wanted children anyway. If she were younger, she’d be a good catch for you.”

Ax-faced Quelerya? Whose tongue was as sharp as her nose and eyes? Rahl repressed a shudder.

“I’d like you to take the letter down to the portmaster right now. Alamat’s already paid for it, and Hyelsen is expecting it from either you or me. There’s a Suthyan trader coming in, according to the ensign she’s flying, and they usually run straight from here to Brysta, then Valmurl.”

Rahl cleaned his pen and set it aside, then rose from his stool. He was more than happy to run the letter down to the port. Much as he didn’t mind copying, he did get stiff sitting on the stool all the time, and he now had a way to stop by the chandlery and see Fahla without his parents being the wiser.

“No detours through the orchard on the way back, either,” added Kian.

“No, ser. I won’t be headed to the orchard.” He still wished they wouldn’t keep harping on the orchard and Jienela. At least they didn’t know about Fahla, or they’d be telling him not to stop at the chandlery as well.

Kian handed Rahl the parchment envelope with the blue wax of a scrivener that held the imprint of Alamat’s simple seal. The outside bore the inscription: Lieran, Weaver, Portmaster, Valmurl, Austra.

“Don’t be long. You’ve got copying to do.”

“Yes, ser.” Rahl inclined his head, then slipped out through the door. He closed it quietly. The air was warm and still, the sky hazy, and the afternoon would be warmer than usual for midspring, almost like summer, Rahl suspected.

Envelope in hand, he turned northward and headed down the gray-stone-paved street that led from the orchard and crafthouses on the slopes south of the town down toward the center of Land’s End. His sandals scuffed the stone, and the fine sand filtered around his toes. He would have liked to have boots, but decent boots were too expensive for a scrivener.

Within half a kay, the dwellings and shops were closer together, and even the gardens beside the dwellings were narrower. Before long, the street intersected the avenue that led to the harbor. After dodging behind a wagon heaped with coal, Rahl crossed to the east side and headed north. If he had turned the other way, he soon would have reached that point where the avenue became the High Road that stretched the length of Recluce, all the way from Land’s End to Nylan in the south.

He walked through the crafters’ quarter, passing first a tinsmith’s, and then a cabinetmaker’s, and beyond that the shuttered windows and closed doors of a shop that Rahl thought had been an apothecary, but it had been closed for years.

Behind the crafters’ shops, on the low rises to the east, overlooking the avenue, were a handful of grander two-storied dwellings, surrounded by walls with iron gates, behind which were vast gardens and fountains. They belonged to shipowners and factors. At least, that was what Khorlya had told her son.

As Rahl walked northward on the wide avenue that was the northern end of the High Road, the closer he got to the harbor piers, the more wagons and carts appeared. Still, there were probably less than a score in the two or three hundred cubits before the avenue reached the base of the piers. Voices rose over the creak of wagons and the clopping of hoofs on the stone pavement.

“…careful with that team!”

“…got a consignment of fruitwood logs from Naclos…tell you, those are rare…Druids don’t cut many…”

“…need to be here when they port. Suthyans travel fast and keep cargoes dry, but they’d just as soon sell to whoever offers a single silver more than you…contracts not worth the paper they’re written on…”

“…frigging idiots…don’t leave shit hanging out the tailgate…”

Rahl stayed on the eastern sidewalk and kept moving. At the foot of the pier was a pair of Council Guards from the keep assigned to port duty. He scanned the faces quickly, but neither was a familiar face from the handful of Council Guards he’d met through Kacet before his brother had been transferred to the keep at Reflin.

Just beyond the guards was the black-stone building that held the portmaster and the customs collectors. Rahl slipped through the port-master’s door, then stopped short of the guard stationed inside. The guard took in the truncheon at Rahl’s belt and dismissed it.

That irritated Rahl, but he merely straightened, and announced firmly, “A letter for dispatch.”

Portmaster Hyelsen sat on a high-backed stool. The window to the right of where he sat allowed him to look down the main black-stone pier. Three vessels were tied up there. One was a three-masted square rigger, and one was a brig. The other was a smaller schooner. Before Rahl could determine more, the portmaster turned. His eyes fixed on the scrivener.

“Young Rahl…I expect that will be the letter the weaver paid to have dispatched to Valmurl.”

“Yes, ser.” Rahl stepped up past the guard and extended the letter.

“Just in time. The Suthyan trader-the square rigger-she’ll be leaving late this afternoon, on the evening winds, for Brysta. Valmurl after that.” Hyelsen produced a pen from somewhere and wrote a few words on a small square of paper, then handed it to Rahl. “Here’s the receipt for you.”

“Thank you, ser.” Rahl slipped the square into his belt wallet, inclined his head, then turned and hurried out. Something about the portmaster troubled him, but he couldn’t have said what, not exactly, except that when Hyelsen looked at Rahl, he seemed to be sensing more than Rahl’s words or appearance.

As he cleared the pier, Rahl took a deep breath. He was still careful to watch for wagons and carts, and for what the horses might have dropped on the pavement.

Across the paved serviceway that fronted the main pier and the two flanking it and back, past the memorial park to the east, Rahl caught sight of the time-faded black stones of the Founders’ Inn.

Had Creslin really so enchanted all the Westwind Guards and the Montgren troopers with his songs that they worked together from that moment on? Rahl snorted. There had to be a limit to what song-even something like ordersong-could do.

He looked farther south and up the wide stone road that ran through the center of Land’s End to where it climbed the rise south of the town to the Black Holding, where the Council still met. Rahl shook his head. No matter what the magisters said and Tales of the Founders recounted, Creslin and Megaera couldn’t have been that great. No one could have been.

He crossed the avenue, dashing behind an empty wagon until he was on the sidewalk on the west side. Ahead he noticed fresh boards across the front of a shop. He didn’t remember what it had been, but he could make out some of the painted lettering on the sign set into the bricks and partly covered by one of the boards.

“Fine tailoring,” he murmured.

That could have been why he hadn’t recalled it. He kept walking, past the coppersmith’s and then the cooperage.

Rahl smiled as he saw the chandlery ahead on his right.

He stepped up onto the narrow porch and smoothed his hair and tunic. He tried to ease through the chandlery door quietly because he sensed someone was already inside talking to Fahla. It didn’t do any good. A bell attached to the door rang. Still, he moved to one side, where he looked at the leather goods-a pack with wide straps, clearly used, and an old bridle, and a wide belt with loops-almost an armsman’s or a guard’s belt.

Next to the pack was a small book, one without a title on the spine. He opened it and looked at the title page, but could not read anything, except what he thought was a name: Kaorda. The book was old, and it had been written in either Hamorian or old Cyadoran, because Rahl would have been able to read High or Low Temple.

He set the slim volume down and looked sideways toward the counter behind which Fahla stood. Even from the rear, Rahl recognized Porgryn. The fuller had a voice that would have been whining without the gravelly tone.

“What’s the best cheese you’ve got for travel? Doesn’t turn green quick, you know what I mean.”

“The white hard cheese,” replied Fahla. “It won’t even turn in midsummer so long as you don’t leave it in the sun. How much would you like?”

“Don’t want it now. Might need it later. Nephew’s bringing a wagon of earth up from down south. It’s a long trip. Need to provision him on the way back.”

“The white cheese would be best. What would you like for now?”

“Ezelya said to check on needles…”

“We set some aside for her…”

Rahl waited until Porgryn turned to leave before moving away from the leather goods, stepping aside as the fuller neared. “Good day, ser.”

“Good day, fellow.”

While Porgryn’s words were pleasant, Rahl sensed that the wiry fuller had no idea who Rahl was. That bothered him, although he couldn’t say why. There was no special reason Porgryn should have known Rahl, even though Kian had made copies of several things for the fuller, and Rahl had been in the workroom.

“What can I get for you, Rahl?” asked Fahla pleasantly. Her mahogany hair was tied back with a dark blue band, leaving her forehead looking wider than when she had worn it down at Sevien’s.

“Nothing today. I had to come down to the harbor, and while I was here, I thought I’d stop.”

“I can let you have some special cheese that Faseyn found in Extina. Half a quarter wedge for two coppers. Your mother would like it.” The hint of a smile played around the corners of her lips. They were good lips, not too thin and not too protruding.

Rahl laughed. “If you were consorted, you’d still try to sell to your consort.”

“Of course.” She did smile, and that softened the intensity of her eyes-for a moment. “What are you doing down here?”

“Delivering a letter to the portmaster to go by ship to Austra.”

Fahla nodded. “Do you get paid a portion of the fee paid to the portmaster?”

“I don’t know. Father takes care of those details. We don’t do that often. Most folks can’t afford to send letters that far.”

“It’s expensive. They have a system of couriers to do that in Hamor, Father said, and it only costs three coppers to send a letter anywhere there.”

Three coppers wasn’t cheap, not to Rahl, but it was nothing compared to the two silvers Alamat had paid.

“There’s something like that in Candar, too, at least where the white wizards are in charge.”

“We really don’t need it here,” Rahl replied. “We’ve got the High Road, and you can almost always find someone to carry a letter on it.”

The bell on the chandlery door rang, and Fahla looked up. “It’s Chorkeil, Rahl. Do you need anything?”

“No, not today.” He could sense that she was already thinking what she’d say to the new arrival. “I’ll see you later.” He offered a smile, inclined his head, and turned.

“Chorkeil…We have the spikes you wanted,” Fahla began.

Rahl nodded politely to the man although he couldn’t say he knew him. Chorkeil ignored Rahl, not even giving him a glance.

The way back felt longer, although Rahl certainly didn’t dawdle.

He’d barely stepped into the workroom when his father looked up.

“That took you long enough,” Kian said mildly.

“I’m sorry, ser. There were three ships in the harbor, and it was crowded. The portmaster said the letter would go on the Suthyan trader today.” Rahl paused. “Oh, here’s the receipt.” He stepped forward, took the paper square from his wallet, and handed it to his father.

“At least, you remembered the receipt. Best get some water before you settle back into work.”

“Yes, ser.”

Kian was already absorbed back in working some sort of embellishments on parchment, perhaps a copy of one of the declarations, when Rahl returned from the outside pump and settled back onto his stool and more copying of Tales of the Founders.