Cormyr_ a novel - Ed Greenwood [156]
"That someone who can get down here is responsible for the king's condition," Dauneth said slowly. "Either someone able to work the sort of magic you did to bring us past the guards and barriers, or someone in the palace." His eyes locked with hers. "Someone in the palace is a traitor."
"Quite so," the lips behind the mask said softly. "Which brings us to your more difficult task…"
Chapter 24: Sembians
Year of the Soft Fogs
(1188 DR)
King Pryntaler stormed around the campfire, his arms pinwheeling so violently that Jorunhast thought he'd take flight right then and there. "If war is what they want, then war is what they'll get," he snarled for the fifth time during this current rant.
"War is not what they want," the wizard replied calmly. "What they want is Marsember. If they can get it without war, then so much the better."
The pair stood in the midst of a small encamped band of nobles, clerics, scribes and guards at the narrowest part of Thunder Gap, the traditional boundary between the Land of the Purple Dragon and the Chondathan colonies of Sembia. But now the Sembian cities were colonies no longer, but a nation of merchant cities ruled by expediency and gold rather than kings and wizards. The uplands around the storm-haunted peaks, which had been so much wilderness for so many centuries, were now regularly transversed by merchant caravans.
The Cormyrean group was camped on the near side of the pass, the Sembians in their oversized wagons on the far side. Their mutual meeting ground was at the saddle of the pass, a great field where tents of purple and black had been erected. The intention had been to hearken back to the splendor and power of the elves, but instead of radiant elven pavilions, these meeting tents looked like smoky mountains made of storm clouds.
The activity within the largest tent was as stormy as the color of its canvas. For three days, the king had met with the representatives of the Sembian houses, and for three days, he and Jorunhast had returned to their own fires without a settlement. Each day Pryntaler's war mutterings grew louder and sharper.
The sticking point was Marsember, of course. A nominally independent city-state on the Cormyrean side of the Thunder Peaks, it had extensive ties, both legal and less so, with Sembia. The more prestigious Marsemban merchant families, craving respectability, favored merging with the Sembian state, while the nobles and the shadier merchants wanted it to remain an open city. The senior nobility, the Marliir family, sought the support, if not the armies and taxes, of the Cormyrean crown.
Jorunhast was supportive of an independent Marsember, at least for the time being. There were many times when the business of the crown needed to be dealt with in the shadows of Marsember rather than braving the bright scrutiny of many noble eyes in the halls of Suzail. A measure of independence was needed for that.
Sembian rule would be worse. An established presence of Sembians on the western side of the Thunder Peaks would be an ever present encouragement for the more adventurous among the merchant families. Once the Sembians had one of their cities on this side of the Thunders, what would keep other cities and towns-such as Arabel, cradle of rebels-from swearing fealty to gold as opposed to the Dragon Throne?
After a number of long talks with the young king, Jorunhast had made the point that Marsember must be protected, and called a parley with the Sembians. Officially they were here to settle the exact border between Cormyr and Sembia, but the question of Marsember's status overshadowed wilderness boundary decisions. Pryntaler's argument was simple and straightforward:
An independent Marsember would be good for all sides, and its fate was essentially a decision for the crown of Cormyr, since Marsember stood squarely within Cormyr's sphere of influence.
And every evening, after a day of talk, they returned to their camp and Pryntaler exploded with