Sobak and Thamaklus, then back to Charlie. “In Syndon it’s not wise to complain.”
Every day Charlie learned a little more about life for the ordinary Syndonese. “Please bring them forward. They’ll be treated, helped if possible.”
The three Syndonese all looked at one another suspiciously. Charlie continued, “Did you tell Sobak and Thamaklus why I wanted to see them?”
Drakwin raised one eyebrow. “Thought it best you tell them.”
Charlie turned to the two men. If they were as distrustful as they appeared, then this wouldn’t work. “Drakwin tells me you have no more love for Goutain than I.”
The two shared a glance. Thamaklus said, “We try not to get involved. It ain’t healthy.”
“What if you could make it unhealthy for those who make it unhealthy for you?”
The two men shared another glance, though they still looked at Charlie suspiciously. He continued, “What if I supplied you with arms—explosives and light weaponry—clothing, food, supplies, then dropped you back in Syndon at a place of your choosing? Would you know someone who might make use of such supplies against . . . a mutual enemy?”
A smile appeared slowly on Thamaklus’s chiseled features. “We might know someone.”
“And could you enlist their aid without telling where you got such equipment, because my name can’t come up in this.”
“No,” Thamaklus said. “We’d have to tell them something, but we’ll just lie.”
“Good. No civilian targets,” Charlie said, “only military and the Security Force.”
Thamaklus rubbed his chin with his good hand. “We could work within those constraints.”
While reviewing House de Lunis’s accounts with Winston, Charlie noticed something odd. “Why am I borrowing from Rierma and Telka?”
Winston opened his hands in a gesture of defeat. “For one thing, you need the money, especially since you ordered the construction of six more hunter-killers.”
“That was a mistake, huh?”
Winston shook his head. “No. If I’d thought it a mistake I’d have spoken up before now.”
“Then why not borrow from Sague and Aziz? I’m sure they’d give us a good line of credit.”
“That’s a resource we may eventually tap, Your Grace. But right now your best defense is that everyone believes you destitute, so no one takes you as a serious threat. And I’ve been nurturing that impression purposefully. I make sure you’re always arrears in payments, but not so much that they call the debt due. And while Rierma and Telka are friendly toward you, you can bet their accountants gossip like market wives, so the word gets around.”
“Good thinking . . . I think.”
Charlie couldn’t sleep that night. His entire staff was working for room and board and minimal pay, as well as the crews on his ships, though that didn’t bother him so much concerning the Two Thousand. They’d shared the chain together, and any one of them would give his life for another. But still!
He lay in bed unable to sleep for a while before finally deciding to wander down to the blind corridor once more. He threw on a robe, grabbed a comp tablet, and hit its power switch as he marched out of his room. A groggy-eyed Ell sat up on the couch in the anteroom where she’d been sleeping.
“Go back to sleep,” Charlie said as he passed her.
She ignored him, got up, and followed him.
On the face of the tablet he brought up the three-dimensional map of the interior of Starfall, though he knew that the blind corridor wouldn’t be visible on it until he stepped into it. But when he did, when he took that step, the corridor didn’t appear on the map.
He stopped in his tracks, turned, and stepped out of the corridor, then turned and walked back into it, and where before it would appear on the map whenever he stepped into it, now nothing. He repeated the process a dozen times, stepping into and out of the corridor. And still nothing.
Scratching his head, he wondered for a brief moment if he had imagined the whole thing, but shoved that thought aside. Its appearance on the map had been real, there was no doubt of that, but what had changed? Perplexed and frustrated, he returned to his rooms and dropped the comp tablet onto a dresser next to the ornate dagger Cesare had given him. He tossed the robe over a chair, hoping he’d get some sleep now, but knew he wouldn’t.
Charlie had to get Arthur out of Starfall. If Theode and Gaida took a lucky guess, or just decided to drop in to harass Charlie, rescuing Arthur could all be for naught. And