Princeps

41

Surprisingly, at least to Quaeryt, the rest of Lundi, as well as Mardi and Meredi, turned out to be free of unforeseen difficulties, except for an afternoon rainstorm on Mardi, and some rumbling from Mount Extel on Meredi that died away within a glass-not that he wasn’t busy almost every moment of every day, whether in meeting with the tariff collectors gathered by Jhalyt and trying to determine what factors and others liable for tariffs had perished, and who had not-or their heirs-in going over the comparatively few charred but barely readable records reclaimed by Baharyt, and in checking the master ledgers for receipts that were all too few, mainly coins from the produce sales, against the expenditures that were all too many.

He also had to detail one of the regimental wagons to help Vaelora move supplies and the additional furnishings she had purchased various shops around Extela to the governor’s villa, just in order to make the villa “barely livable,” as she had put it, rather starkly. That brought up the point that the governor needed a coach and team, a teamster, and a wagon for the residence. Every day that passed, he discovered something else that was required. Vaelora had engaged Shenna as her secretary and also hired a cook and maid. She had also persuaded Quaeryt that they would move to the villa on Jeudi, and that had required transporting some grain and fodder from the post to the villa’s stable, among other things, along with working out a guard detail from the permanent cadre of troopers at the post … at least until he could make inquiries and get to work hiring governor’s guards.

The more that had to be done, the more Quaeryt appreciated the two months they had spent at Telaryn Palace, in effect a honeymoon where they had had little worry over the everyday details of life-even compared to the comparatively privileged lives of a governor and his wife.

Jeudi morning, after he saw Vaelora off with the wagons, he sat down at his desk in the small study to read a petition that had arrived immediately after breakfast from a messenger from a Factor Ruent, someone whose name Quaeryt had never heard. From the very heading, Quaeryt sensed trouble.

Quaeryt Rytersyn

Governor, Province of Montagne

Extela

Most Honorable Governor Quaeryt:

It has come to the attention of the undersigned factors of grain and produce that you, as governor, have required large holders of grains and root crops to sell significant amounts of these crops at a price significantly lower than they would otherwise fetch in the marketplace. While we understand the immediate need for flour among the poor, we must protest the manner in which you have made the flour available …

As he continued reading, Quaeryt wanted to shake his head once more. From what was in the petition, the local produce factors wanted him to determine who was poor and only sell or give flour to them so that the factors could sell all their flour to everyone else. The fact that it would be at a higher price and provide greater profit to the local factors was not mentioned, except indirectly in the idea of a marketplace price. Quaeryt didn’t have the manpower, the local records, almost all of which had been destroyed by the lava overrunning the governor’s square, or the time to make that determination, and that meant he’d either have to risk the wrath of the factors or hurt the poor. All of that didn’t even take into consideration the fact that Third Regiment might be ordered out of Extela and to Ferravyl in less than four days. Even if Bhayar did not issue an immediate withdrawal, the regiment would have to depart in little more than a month, and trying to keep Extela running without the regiment’s manpower would take some doing.

He checked the signatures on the bottom against the list of “dubious factors,” but none of the names matched, and that made the “flour problem” even more of a concern.

What if you increase the price somewhat?

Flour was still in short enough supply, with the destruction of the warehouses and several mills along the river to the north of Extela, that any price increase that the poorest could afford would be less than the factors would charge without Quaeryt’s effective price limitations.

He laid the petition on one side of the small desk. He’d have to think about how to handle it, and if there were any way he could work something out with the factors. Sooner or later the price would rise, because he couldn’t keep buying it comparatively cheaply from the larger High Holders, simply because they’d run out of grain and flour sooner or later. Probably sooner.

He had the feeling that he needed to get out of the flour business, but the situation irked him enormously. He stood, then walked from the study down the narrow corridor to the south door and then across the courtyard to Major Heireg’s study.

“Sir?”

“I’ve been going over things. This Samedi will be the last one that we’ll be selling flour and potatoes. We won’t announce it at the squares, though. We’ll post notices and pass the word on Lundi.”

And Quaeryt wasn’t about to write the factors back immediately, even if they did end up getting their way. He didn’t want to admit publicly, or even semipublicly, that they’d forced his hand. You should have stopped the sales earlier. Except they’d been selling flour less than a month. How could he have stopped earlier in good conscience, when he hadn’t even finished restoring order in Extela, and so many of the poor lacked coins?

Heireg nodded. “Better that way. We don’t want people getting upset at the troopers handing it out.” He frowned. “It’s too bad for some folks, but you can’t keep paying for it, and with the stocks we have … well, they might last to harvest … if Third Regiment leaves in Mayas.”

“It’s likely to be around that time,” Quaeryt said.

“Word is that it could be sooner…”

“It could … if Rex Kharst decides that he wants to take over Ferravyl.”

“Why would the Bovarians attack there?”

“It would give Rex Kharst total control of the river and the ability to use it to supply an attack downriver on Solis. That’s why Lord Chayar invested so much in the bridge and the fortifications there.”

As he walked back to his study, Quaeryt reflected on both his situation and Bhayar’s. Everything in life involved trade-offs. Solis was better positioned for trade and for travel, but it was more vulnerable to attack than was Extela. On the other hand, Extela was out of the way, but close to a volcano. Being a governor offered more power to do things, but left him vulnerable to all sorts of problems for which imaging provided almost no solutions, and being married to Vaelora … That provided a set of trade-offs as well … as he’d come to discover over the past month in particular.