Tongues of Serpents Page 0,42

annum to their work, and they fear worse to come; much worse. So far the illegal trade is only a trickle, but it is a steady trickle they cannot close up, and widening."

Laurence nodded. "And the goods are not coming in by sea?"

"More to the point," Tharkay said, "the goods are not leaving by Canton." Laurence stared. "You begin to understand the degree of their concern, I think."

"How can they be certain?" Laurence said. "The port is fantastically busy; some shipments must be able to evade their monopoly."

Tharkay said, "When the smuggling first began to be noticed, a little more than a year ago, word was sent to the offices in Canton to make a note of all ships coming through the port, with the intention of tracing the source: similar efforts have been made before, of course, although they were puzzled by a method so indirect as funneling the goods through Sydney - "

"The operation must eat nearly all the profit of it," Laurence said.

"So they imagined," Tharkay said, "and did not at first take it very seriously; they expected to find at the bottom of it only some enthusiast, who was willing to spend a pound to save sixpence: there is very little which inspires creativity so much as government tariffs and licenses. But the ships and their cargo are accounted for, nearly every one. There are a handful of cases - " He shrugged a little, dismissing these. "Nothing which could account for the steady flow of goods; which is only increasing."

"They fear, then, that the Chinese have opened another port," Laurence said, "to some other nation."

"Perhaps not officially," Tharkay said. "But if the officials of some port city should choose to turn a blind eye to the occasional foreign vessel; for instance, if they should be persuaded by one with sympathy for some foreign nation - "

"Lien," Laurence said immediately, "and Napoleon would care nothing for the profit; not so long as he could undermine our trade."

Tharkay nodded. "It all fits together very nicely," he said. "The French funnel cheap goods to our markets, undercutting the East India Company - "

Trade was Britain's lifeblood: it bore the cost of the merchant marine which trained her seamen and her shipbuilders; it brought in the gold and silver which funded her allies, and put armies on the Continent to stand in the way of Bonaparte's dominion. "If prices fell badly enough, they might cause a panic in the Exchange," Laurence said. "But would anyone in China risk so obliging Lien?"

She had been disgraced in China with the death of her former companion, Prince Yongxing: he had been chief of that conservative faction which had preferred to have nothing to do with the nations of the West, either in commerce or in politics. They had schemed to supplant Crown Prince Mianning, himself privately a sympathizer with the more liberal slant of his court; their design having been uncovered and thwarted, and Yongxing himself slain, Lien had chosen exile in France, divorcing herself from her former home in hopes of finding Napoleon an effective instrument of revenge.

Tharkay shrugged. "You know as well as do I the reverence with which Celestials are viewed, and Yongxing's political allies were only defeated, not eradicated. In the intervening years, they may have regrouped."

"It seems just the sort of thing Lien would do," Temeraire said, shaking his tendrils free of water, having drunk his fill, and enjoying the sentiment of righteous disdain. "She and Yongxing were so angry that China should have any trade with the West, and tried to do so many wicked things all in the name of preventing it; and now she has changed her notion and is looking for more."

Laurence paused, and doubtfully said, "I had not considered that her philosophy was so opposed to opening the borders of China, in its principles; it is incongruous, a little," then fell silent.

"That is just what I mean," Temeraire said. "She is perfectly happy to throw all of that over, if only it will hurt us: just her sort of unpleasantness. Laurence, I do not mean to complain," he added, "for this water is very nice - so fresh and crisp! - but I am hungry."

Tharkay's little creek had led them, with only half-an-hour's flight, to the river into which it merged: wide and clear, and lined along both banks with tall, tall pines. The river flowed in the wrong direction for their needs, south towards Sydney instead of away, and anyway it