the other racks up to? Where’s the gap, the opportunity? Where’s the money?”
Guld’s hesitant grin crept across his face, shy and quiet like the mouse he was. He became all business. “As you’d expect, with all this going on, there’s plenty of thievery. Small stuff mostly—the Yelen guards are clamping down on everything, hard. Concentrating on inside the city walls, to be sure, but they’ve come out into the delta a couple of times the last week, so I hear. A lot of racks are taking what they can and leaving. Too dangerous, for now. Waiting for it all to cool down. Don’t you think you should—”
“No, I do not. What else?”
Guld twisted his fingers, his stammer coming back at Van Gast’s insistence. “The Y-y-yelen, they, well I think they’re planning something too. Merchantmen inside the palace, maybe just for safety but that’s never happened before—they usually stay in their houses on the avenue by the licensed docks. Maybe one or two inside the palace at a time, negotiating and whatnot. Now there’s all those who keep a house in port, and a dozen or more of the bigger traders from as far as Tanara. Rumors of some sort of trade reception, renegotiations of contracts, that the Yelen are wanting to expand now the Remorians are no longer a power.”
“Are they now? Interesting.”
“And the Yelen have Remorian mages to help them. Weak, as yet, but it won’t take long to grow those crystals back, at least enough that they could blow me to bits without thinking about it. And the bonding—the rumors are right about that. All ex-slaves they find, they’re rebonding them, or executing them if they’re too far gone.”
Van Gast rubbed at the fading scar on his wrist. A mage-bond, a magical shackle to your body, heart and mind. He’d only borne it for a few minutes at most, and that had been enough. Josie had suffered one for weeks, for him, to try to save him but he’d—he’d not think about that. Holden and Ilsa and his new crew had borne them all their lives, and now were finally free. It had taken a lot of sacrifice, betrayal and blood to get them that freedom, and he’d be damned by Kyr if he’d let them go back.
Yet the Yelen welcoming the merchanters into the palace—that was interesting. Very interesting. Josie couldn’t sneak in and pretend to be one, and nor could her first mate Skrymir—both Gan, both too fair of skin and blond of hair. Too obviously not mainlanders. No matter Josie had got rid of her braids, one look at the pair of them and you knew them for racks—they had to be, they weren’t Estovanians or merchanters or even Remorians. Skrymir could pass for a bodyguard, but Josie? Besides, racking was all in the attitude, and Josie couldn’t shrug that off. She always ended up threatening someone with a bullet in the face before long—diplomacy wasn’t a strong point. But Van Gast could take up the façade, could pretend and charm and flatter-slick his way through any crowd. He’d done so many times before, in cons and twists and scams. Maybe that’s what she wanted him for. To get in, among the Yelen.
“Guld, I need you to do something for me. If the Yelen are rounding up Remorians, then I can’t send any of the crew. But you’ll be all right. I need a merchanter outfit, like the one I had aboard the Ghost.”
Guld nodded earnestly. “Even the corset?”
Van Gast sighed. “Sadly, even the corset. And don’t forget the pig fat for my hair.” Although he rather would—it stunk like off bacon and always took forever to get out. “Needs must when a woman has your heart and is ready to twist it out. Also, when there’s money to be made, young Guld.”
Van Gast made his thoughtful way back to his quarters. A snifter of brandy would be just the thing while he sat and thought about what all this meant, planned how to get into the palace. His head bubbled with the possibilities, and he had no doubt, no doubt at all, that if this was what Josie was after. She’d have a plan twistier than a ball of string. This was going to be glorious. He threw himself into the captain’s chair, put his feet on the desk and reached for the brandy.
When he lifted it to pour, a piece of paper came with it, stuck to the sticky drips on the bottom.