After boarding their horses at the Red Hound stable, Danar Sirna and Baltrov Eldra walked down the main street of Hostigos Town to the Silver Stag tavern where they were to meet a Dazour grain merchant named Tynos. As they walked down the wooden-plank sidewalk, Sirna asked, "Eldra, how are things back at the University?"
"It was nice to go back, if only for the showers. It wasn't much fun, though, having my brains picked twenty hours a day for two ten-days, I'll tell you."
"I didn't think there'd be that much interest in Kalvan's Time-Line.
"Thanks to the Danthor Dras publicity machine, Great King Kalvan is grist for every Dhergabar talk show and tavern in the city. Dras updated and rewrote his A Study of Techno-Theocracy in Action and re-titled it Fireseed Fanatics and it's selling faster than Voltor Lyra's latest outtime cookbook. There's even talk about sending in a First Level strike team to aid Kalvan in his war against the nasty priesthood of Styphon's House."
"That violates every precept of the Transtemporal Code! I'll wager Chief Verkan is not too happy about that."
"If Verkan Vail had his way, he'd quarantine Kalvan's Time-Line and make it his own personal playpen."
"You sound bitter, Eldra. Do I detect a bit of jealousy over Kalvan."
"I'd like to make him my personal plaything all right!" Eldra smiled in a way that reminded Sirna of a cat she once shared quarters with and how it grinned after tasting fresh prey rather than prepared food. It also reminded her that, despite her young appearance, Eldra was centuries older than herself and much wiser in the ways of the world. Eldra was a renowned historian, while Sirna was a lowly graduate student; Eldra was also considered one of the experts on Europo-American, Hispano-Columbian Subsector which was how she wrangled her way on to the Kalvan Study-Team.
"I hope that Tynos doesn't stand us up." Sirna had never ridden a horse in her life until last year and she still found them an unpredictable and uncomfortable means of transportation.
Eldra laughed. Sirna's dislike for horses was the camp joke, whereas Eldra was an excellent rider and horsewoman. "If his message boy says he'll be there, Tynos will be there. He loves wine second only to gold."
The Silver Stag tavern was a two-story plank and plaster building with an inn and house of ill repute on the second story and a tavern at street level. Inside the sides of the walls were lined with rough-hewn plank benches, which were filled beyond jostling capacity. At the center was a bar, made up of planks resting upon large ale barrels. Set around the rest of the tavern were small wine barrels acting as tables for men sitting on three-legged stools. Eldra pointed to an unoccupied 'table' in the corner.
Unescorted females were no novelty to the Silver Stag patrons, and before they were a quarter of the way to their table Eldra was jostled by a drunken muleskinner or trapper-so Sirna judged by the stench he gave off. From her previous visit to a Hostigi tavern, it appeared that any unescorted woman in a drinking establishment was fair game. One of his hands rudely groped for Eldia's chest, but before he could touch her,
Eldra's poniard was pressed tightly up against his not insubstantial stomach.
"Presume on my person and I'll open you up from groin to sternum!"
The drunk's eyes turned mean and Eldra made as if to press her blade home when a loud stentorian voice boomed through the tavern. "That is Royal teat you're trying to grasp, Eyllos! Release the lady's person and put your hands on a fresh tankard at my expense."
The drunk frowned and then let go. A fresh tankard arrived almost as quickly. "To your health, Prince Sarrask!" Eyllos bowed, chug-a-lugged the tankard, and then promptly passed out.
The room greeted this spectacle with uproarious laughter and Sirna figured the trapper wasn't the first drunk to find himself so disposed-good crowd control technique on Prince Sarrask's part.
When they passed by Sarrask's table, Eldra bent over-giving the Prince an eyeful of her bosom-and whispered something in the big man's ear. As Eldra pulled away, Sarrask roared with laughter. "My fair lady, some day I may hold you to that promise."
When they reached their stools, Sirna asked, "You like him?"
"Sarrask's type can be a lot of fun, if you like your men hale and hearty. I've had worse. But I'm after much bigger game than a mere Prince.
Sirna shook her head. "You had better be careful before your head winds up on a pole decorating the outer walls of Tarr-Hostigos. Rylla strikes me as the type who doesn't like competition, especially regarding her husband's affections."
"They are not always going to be together…"
Sirna thought Eldra was being stubborn, but there wasn't anything to be gained by upsetting her only female ally on the study-team, so she changed the subject. "Where is Tynos? We need to leave for Nostor Town in less than a moon."
"I thought he'd already be here finishing last night's dregs. Maybe he's more sober when it comes to business. Or maybe he's hoping we'll be in our cups."
"Why do we need him anyway? If we are going to establish a second Royal Foundry at Nostor Town, we will have to put in a transtemporal conveyer-head sooner or later. Why not sooner and save all this bother?"
"Chief Verkan is only building a foundry in Nostor Town at Kalvan's insistence. It's nice to have an unlimited pipeline of goods, but you don't want to get the locals curious as to where it all comes from."
Their conversation was interrupted by Tynos' arrival. After being introduced to Sirna and giving orders to his bodyguard, Tynos said, "You are a clever trader, Lady Eldra, to bring so lovely a vision to becloud my mind from business."
Tynos was a swarthy black-haired man with the deceptively soft look of a fighter gone to fat. Sirna suspected that underneath that layer of fat was a lot of healthy muscle and she wasn't about to get into a verbal, or any other kind of, wrestling match with him.
"My good trader," Eldra said, "I suspect Styphon's next miracle will occur before any woman clouds your mind regarding matters of business."
Tynos started to laugh, then looked around furtively.
"No, Tynos, you'll find no priests of Styphon's House or their agents in this hot-bed of heresy."
"You may be right, my Lady, but Styphon's agents multiply faster than bedbugs in the cots upstairs. In Hos-Harphax a man learns to grow ears at the back of his head if he wishes to keep it on his shoulders. But enough of this unpleasantness, how can I be of further service to you Ladies?"
"Let me remind you, Tynos, you were to search out sources of lead ingots for us."
"Oh, yes."
"We make many molds for our casting masters and have a great need for lead. Like yourself, we too are foreigners here, come to make money. We see little to be gained by involving ourselves in local matters in these uncertain times, unless-of course-there is a profit to be made."
"By Tranth's Teeth, you speak truly. Since the selling of war materials to any Hostigi is under Ban of Styphon we will have to break up your ingots into three or four shipments-this of course will be more costly."
"Of course."
"Since you are a citizen of Grefftscharr, you are not directly subject to the Ban. But as you are residing and working in Old Hostigos, the agents of Styphon's House may see it otherwise, so there will be bribes to be paid and additional men-at-arms to be hired. Does this meet with your approval?
"Yes, as long as you understand that this is lead we are talking about and not silver or gold."
"Speaking of silver and gold, Lady Eldra, I must make it clear that our return will be even more dangerous than our coming and we will wish to travel light."
"Plain speaking, you wish to be paid in gold."
"Now you are speaking my tongue, Lady Eldra!"
Eldra brought up her purse and dropped a dozen gold Hostigos Crowns onto the table. The trader's eyes shined as brightly as the golden coins.
"Truly, by all the True Gods, you read my innermost thoughts. Yet," he added, pointing to the coins with the crossed halberds on the obverse and Ptosphes' image on the face, "with all your skills at casting might it not serve us both better if these coins were transformed into some image-well, less offensive-in the eyes of Styphon's priestly agents. Men of commerce love gold in all its myriad forms, but priests are different that way."
"Yes, that is agreeable, Trader. Now as to price. In the past, we have paid one piece of silver and ten coppers for each ingot-"
"Impossible, my Ladies. With all this fighting, lead is becoming as scarce as your most precious of metals. Why in Harphax City I saw a lead ingot sell for ten pieces of silver. To cart it all the way here over mountains and past Styphon's plague of agents, well, I think two golden Rakmars for each ingot is only fair."
"Two Rakmars-highway robbery!" Eldra shouted. "At those prices we could use silver to cast our molds and save money. We two are not Sastra-gathi bumpkins who have never seen a city before, Trader. We are Ladies of birth and breeding from a city of such antiquity that your forefathers were herding cattle in the Cold Lands while ours were trading iron for gold with the Ros-Zarthani in the far west."
"Forgive me, if I inadvertently insulted a Lady of breeding, but my wife and four children would never forgive me were I to be picked up by Roxthar's Investigators-mistakenly, of course-and burned in boiling pitch for trading in Hos-Hostigos. Were I, however, to end this life, leaving behind a substantial sum, I could acquit myself in Dralm's Hall with honor. What do you say to one gold Rakmar and twelve pieces of silver?"
"If I were to return to the Royal Foundry after making a deal such as this, my own father would strip me of my robes and cast me out into the streets, and, by Tranth's eyes, my own mother would not find fault with him."
The haggling continued on in this vein for almost ten minutes until Tynos and Eldra had agreed upon a price of twelve silver pieces per lead ingot. Sirna herself was reeling from too much drink and mental fatigue. Eldra and Tynos, on the other hand, were covered with sweat, but other than that, could have continued this match for another hour or two. She almost welcomed the sounding of horns and the clatter of horses' hooves outside on the cobble stone streets.
The tavern emptied, other than those few too far into their cups to rise. Sirna, Eldra and Tynos quickly followed the crowd out the door.
On Old Tigos Road, a squadron of Kalvan's Royal Lifeguard crowded its way down the narrow cobblestone street. It was identifiable as the Royal Bodyguard by Kalvan's Royal Standard, a maroon keystone on a dark green field, as well as the maroon sashes and helmet plumes.
"Where are they going?" Eldra asked a soldier, with a brown beard and a lead-splashed burgonet helmet.
"To Hostigos Town Square where Great King Kalvan is addressing the townspeople, my Lady. Would you like an escort?"
Eldra gave the soldier such a dazzling smile in return he blushed down to his boot-tops. "Yes, we could use a proper escort. Tynos, will you come along, our business is not yet concluded."
"Yes, my Lady." There was sweat beading on his forehead and she wondered if Tynos believed the stories spread by Styphon's agents that Kalvan was a demon in human form.
After the squadron had passed, the soldier led the way using his halberd to force a comfortable passage.
"As we discussed earlier, Tynos, we are planning to build a new Royal Foundry in Nostor Town where, despite the Great King's largess with food stuffs and victuals, there are still food shortages and some lingering starvation. We would like to contract with you to supply our party, some thirty persons in all, with proper fresh victuals from Dazour."
"This should offer no great problems, my Lady. I have a friend who has established trade for victuals between several of the noble families of Nostor and himself. He should be able to satisfy all your wants and for a reasonable price."
"Good. You can introduce us."
"My pleasure, Your Ladyship." Tynos smile suggested he was contemplating a possible kickback.
"We've almost reached the Square." Sirna said. "Look at all the people!"
Hostigos Town Square was close to bursting with soldiers, towns' folk, visitors, and traders. Great King Kalvan himself was standing on the stairs of Prince Ptosphes' palace, addressing the assembled crowd. Kalvan, Sirna thought, had star presence; he held his audience in thrall. As they drew closer, Sirna began to make out his words.
"The false-god Styphon's agents have stirred the tribesman with lust for Hostigi blood and treasure. But if the nomads think to grow fat and old in Hos-Hostigos, they had better learn to breathe fire rather than air. When the smoke clears, it'll be their bodies covering the ground."
A great roar greeted these words and most of the assembled men looked as if they were ready to pick up arquebus and sword and march boldly with the King's Army into the Trygath right then and here.
"Don't you just love that man," Eldra whispered into Sirna's ear.
"For the moment," Sirna answered. "Just don't let Rylla catch you casting moon-struck eyes his way. I wouldn't put it past her to pluck them out with her own fingers! Or blame her, either!"
"You're no fun."
Kalvan continued with a speech that reminded Sirna of movies she had seen of outtime religious leaders as he damned the false god Styphon and praised the hosts of Father Dralm. Old Xentos would be in trouble if Kalvan ever decided to take up the religious game, she thought as she watched him work the crowd.
The speech ended with chants of "Down Styphon!" and a chorus of "Death to the invaders!" When Kalvan walked down the stairs and mounted his horse, leaving with his bodyguard, the crowd quickly dispersed heading to the local taverns to quench thirsts and raise the rafters with hot air. It was obvious that this outtimer from Europo-America had made many new friends here and accurately felt the pulse of the land. This was going to be a tour of duty Sirna would remember all her life.