Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 38ii

Maddock looked around at the people sitting around his bed. All of them had their eyes fixed on Tahlia. A sudden silence had fallen on the ward at her final words, which had been delivered as though the information they contained was the most amazing thing in the world. Though he had been grudgingly impressed by Tahlia's tale of her flight from the tent, he thought she was being overly dramatic, but Karek had his eyes fixed on her, an incredulous look on his face.

"His Trade-proctor?"

"Yes!"

"What did he look like?"

"Big. Scars and tattoos on his arms. Bad temper."

"You are mistaken, my lady. Seior Svell SanMartin is the Trade Proctor of Merchant Dres, and that description is definitely not his."

"Well, whoever this Vlambra person is, he was in that tent yesterday, and he is working with Merchant Dres."

"And it seems that together they are seeking to ensure that your father is not the next Grand-commander," said Karek. "By poison and kidnap."

"Why?" demanded Grifford.

"Clearly the man is in the pay of Sir Galder," said Tahlia savagely. "Why can you not all see it?"

Karek shook his head.

"Commander Galder's hatred of the north is a legend, and he yearns to take the Order to war, but I do not think he has been driven so far as to conspire in such a thing as this."

Maddock pushed himself up in his bed, causing a lance of pain to sear across his scalp.

"Maybe Dres just doesn't want to pay everyone who bet on Sir Kralaford," he said, wincing. "You said that lots of people have."

"That is more likely," said Karek. "But still outrageous. I can't see any merchant having the nerve for something like this for the sake of a few thousand coins."

"Um..," said Dak. The eyes of everyone in the room turned to look at her, and Maddock saw the colour rise suddenly in her cheeks. "Um..."

"Go on Dak," he said.

Dak cleared her throat, and sat up a little straighter.

"Well, it is just that I have heard my father talking, and a few times I have heard him saying that the Association of Allied Merchants is a very wealthy organisation."

"Yes?" said Tahlia. "What of it?"

Dak went a deeper red.

"The thought is occurring to me that wealthy people are frequently wanting to gain more wealth, and they are often willing to employ many methods in the insurance of that. Is it not possible that they would be having the nerve to capture your brother, if the stakes were being high enough? Are you not thinking..?"

"No," said Tahlia, shaking her head, and looking at Dak as though she were stupid. "That is a ridiculous idea. Even if..."

"Wait!" said Maddock, silencing the Order brat, mid-sentence. "Dak could be onto something there. I heard Commander Zembulla talking a while back. He said that the merchants charge more for goods during wartime. Double the price, he said."

"That may be true," said Karek. "And it is not only our own Order that they supply." His brother looked over at Tahlia, who was sitting staring at him, her mouth hanging open. "It could be that the Association is seeking to escalate this war for the sake of their profits."

Maddock looked at the two Order children. Tahlia was still staring at Karek, and Grifford was just staring at nothing, his face suffused with a look of anger, deeper than any he had seen there before.