The War of Three Crowns

FROM THE MANUSCRIPT · READING EXCERPT

Enter the story

A narrow wooden table blocked half the road. Behind it stood a clerk with three seals and no authority to choose between them. By the time Vaela Thessar rode up from the rear, the drivers had unhitched the lead animals and were arguing over which kingdom had made the greatest fool of itself.

The road west of Caladir ran between low, cultivated hills, their slopes green after a generous season. Beyond them the land opened toward the broad country of the Green Expanse. It was good traveling weather, cool enough that the teams did not tire quickly, and the caravan should have reached its next stopping place before dusk. Corren Tathil had counted on it. He sat on the edge of the nearest wagon with his accounts open across one knee and was explaining loudly that a merchant who paid an escort, purchased feed, repaired his own axles, and submitted to the inspection of honest officers ought at least to be allowed to move.

“Moving forward is precisely what they refuse to let us do,” Tirra said as Vaela drew alongside. The young archivist had her writing case pressed beneath one arm and a disapproving look she was still too inexperienced to conceal. “They say the mineral permits have not been entered into the agricultural register. The agricultural register says we're authorized to carry the goods. The port clearance says the goods can't be unloaded until the other two are satisfied.”

“Which goods?” Vaela asked.

“All of them, apparently.”

Vaela looked past the wagons toward the table. Two men in Ardath's green-and-gold colors stood nearby, their weapons sheathed, their shoulders sagging as another complaint reached them. Behind them waited a farmer with a cart of baskets, a small party of travelers carrying bundles, and a woman who was trying to keep three children from wandering into the roadway. No one looked frightened. Irritated, certainly, and increasingly hot beneath their collars, but not frightened.

She swung down from the saddle. Her Vaytharn lowered its broad, wolf-like head and sniffed at the dust, the overlapping natural plates along its shoulders making a soft, dry sound as it turned. A passing child stopped in delighted amazement. The creature was large enough to make an adult reconsider an imprudent approach, but it stood quietly while Vaela unfastened the strap rubbing beneath its black saddle. She rubbed a hand along the dense gray-and-black fur between the armored plates, then gave the animal a brief instruction to wait. It settled beside the wagon, alert ears moving whenever a stranger passed too closely.

Corren shut his ledger when he saw her. “I've been civil,” he announced.

“That sounds exhausting for you.”

“I've been civil for nearly an hour. I may have exhausted the whole year's allowance.” He slid from the wagon and fell into step beside her. “The clerk claims I need a second authorization to carry Korrath's worked metal through Ardath, though I purchased the material through an agent whose authority was accepted here last season. Now there's a third form with a maritime stamp. I don't intend to ship the metal anywhere near the coast, but apparently the coast has decided it may concern itself with any metal that once passed through one of its warehouses.”

“Has it?” Vaela asked.

“That's the particular madness I was hoping you would explain.”

The clerk was young, pale from a season of indoor work, and trying very hard not to look as harried as he felt. On the table lay three pieces of parchment, weighted at their corners with smooth stones. He explained his difficulty with the strained precision of a man who had repeated the explanation until it no longer made sense even to him. The first authorization recognized certain commercial privileges associated with shipments leaving the Stormspire highlands. The second, entered at Caladir, governed the collection of duties on goods carried through Ardath's jurisdiction. The third was a certificate of inspection for freight that had passed through a northern maritime warehouse before being sold inland. Nothing in the third gave Tharalen direct authority over the road on which they stood, but the clerk had received instructions to hold shipments where the descriptions on the surviving permits did not agree.

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End of excerpt. This site presents a selection from the manuscript.