Helliconia Summer - Brian W. Aldiss [298]
She regarded his solid countenance as if wondering if he understood she was also of that majority, but merely said, in her composed way, ‘You told me once you started in business with one boat. How many have you now, Captain?’
‘Yes, Madam Queen, my old father started with but one old hooker, which I inherited. Today, I hand over to my son a fleet of twenty-five ships. Fast seagoing sloops, and ketches, hookers, and doggers, to ply the rivers and coasts, each adapted to the trade. There you see the benefits of dealing in ice. The hotter it gets, the more a block of good Lordryardry ice will fetch in the market. The worse things get for others, the more they improve for me.’
‘But your ice melts, Captain.’
‘That’s so, and many the jokes people make about it. But Lordryardry ice, being pure off the glacier, melts less rapidly than other ices sold by other traders.’ He was enjoying himself in her presence, though he had not failed to notice a clouded air about her, so different from her normal disposition.
‘I’ll put another point to you. You are devout in the religion of your country, Madam Queen, so I do not need to remind you of redemption. Well, my ice is like your redemption. The less there is, the scarcer it becomes, and the scarcer it becomes, the more it costs. My boats now sail all the way from Dimariam, across the Sea of Eagles, up the Takissa and Valvoral rivers to Matrassyl and Oldorando City, as well as along the coast to Keevasien and the ports of the deadly assatassi.’
She smiled, perhaps not entirely pleased to hear religion and trade intermingled. ‘Well, I’m glad someone fares well in a bad age.’ She had not forgotten the time when she as a young girl on her first visit to Oldorando had met the Dimariamian in the bazaar. He was in rags, but he had a smile; and he had produced from an inner pocket the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. Shannana, her mother, had given her the money. She had returned the next day to buy it, and had worn it ever since.
‘You overpaid me for that ring,’ Krillio Muntras said, ‘and with the profit I went home and bought a glacier. So I have been in your debt ever since.’ He laughed, and she joined in. ‘Now, Madam Queen, you come here not to bargain about ice, since that I supply through the palace majordomo. Can I do you a favour?’
‘Captain Muntras, I am in a difficult situation, and I need help.’
He looked suddenly cautious. ‘I do not want to lose the royal favour which permits me, a foreigner, to trade here. Otherwise …’
‘I appreciate that. All I ask of you is reliability, and of that you will surely avail me. I wish you to deliver a letter for me, secretly. You mention Keevasien, on the border with Randonan. Can you reliably deliver a letter to a certain gentleman fighting in Randonan in our Second Army?’
Muntras’s expressive face looked so glum that his cheeks tightened themselves round his mouth. ‘In war, everything is doubtful. The news is that the Borlienese army fares badly, and Keevasien too. But – but – for you, Madam Queen … My boats go up the Kacol River above Keevasien, as far as Ordelay. Yes, I could send a messenger from there. Provided it’s not too dangerous. He’d need paying, of course.’
‘How much?’
He thought. ‘I have a boy who would do it. When you’re young, you don’t fear death.’ He told her how much it would cost. She paid out willingly enough and handed over the pouch with the letter to General TolramKetinet.
Muntras made her another bow. ‘I’m proud to do it for you. First, I must deliver a freight to Oldorando. That’s four days upriver, two days there and two days back. A week in all. Then I’ll be back here and straight south for Ottassol.’
‘Such delay! Do you have to go to Oldorando first?’
‘Have to, ma’am. Trade’s trade.’
‘Very well, I’ll leave it to you, Captain Muntras. But you understand that this is of vital importance and absolutely secret,