12.27.07

7: The Governor’s Interest

Posted in Pages at 5:58 pm by Alexandra Erin

“Twelve… thousand…” the blustery man on the balcony gasped, sounding almost more pained than pleased, like a man who’d taken too large a bite of a roast and was struggling now to swallow it.

“Calm yourself, Striggs,” Montaldo said. “There’s still a wrinkle to be worked out in that bid. Let’s see how our man handles it.”

Down below, all eyes were turned to the mouth of the street which ran beside the boarding house on top of which Jace was now perched. The speaker’s position prevented Jace from catching a glimpse of him, though he thought the man sounded far too young and vital to be the governor himself.

“A point of order, my dear esteemed representative of the island’s lawful governor,” Tarnach said. “This auction is to determine the disposition of the girl alone, and not any of her affects or possessions, of which she has none in the first place.”

“Very well,” the governor’s man proclaimed. “Then I should like to enter the same bid, for the girl and a copy of the deed of ownership and lawful articles of slavery under which she is bound.”

A ripple of surprised and amused murmurs ran through the crowd, most of whom were no doubt well aware why such a rare and beautiful specimen of a female slave had been brought to their small and relatively lawless port in the first place.

The man called Tarnach scratched the back of his head under the brim of his hat. He turned his gaze up towards the hotel, and for one frightful moment, Jace was sure that the eerily limber auctioneer was staring at him… then he realized the man was simply looking for a sign from his confederates.

“Good sir, my partners in this matter instruct me that this matter will require further discussion,” Tarnach said in the direction of the unseen bidder. “Therefore, gentles, unless the bid of twelve thousand, five hundred tetrae is bettered… anybody? No? This auction is hereby ended and dissolved without resolution.”

There was a chorus of groans and outraged protests, and Tarnach was forced to dodge a bottle and a shard of brick thrown from different parts of the crowd. He did so with an oddly jerky flourish, but gave no other sign he was even aware of the attacks upon his person.

“If the potential buyer and my compatriots are unable to come to terms, of course,” Tarnach continued, unruffled, “the bidding shall re-commence at a later date.”

“Well, that’s a stroke of good luck, isn’t it?” Striggs said. “The governor taking an interest. Twelve thousand!”

“Good luck, you poltroon?” Montaldo retorted. “It’s terrible luck. He’s the one man on this speck of dirt with the authority to seize our asset without remuneration… mark my words, my corpulent companion: if we’re unable to ‘come to terms’ with the governor of the island, we’d be better off well away from it. We’d better get the girl stowed back on the ship, just in case we have to make a hasty escape.”

“The brothel keeper bid eight thousand,” Striggs said. “Perhaps we should just sell to her and be done with it?”

“She’d never pay it,” Montaldo said. “Not with the governor’s interest hanging over the girl like one of those damned floating islands. Remember, the Madame lives here and earns her filthy living on the governor’s sufferance… no, from the moment that puffed-up peacock opened his mouth, our pool of potential purchasers evaporated away to one.”

“Still, if we can pull it off… six thousand and odds a piece!” Striggs gloated. “Could anyone have believed it?”

“I’ll believe it when the money’s in my coffers,” Montaldo said. “But, enough foolishness. We must see to the girl while we have time. I expect the governor’s envoy to send for us presently.”

Jace heard the sound of a door opening beneath him as Montaldo and Striggs retreated back into their suite. Down in the square, the crowd was breaking up. Tarnach was still on the stage, giving instructions to a pair of scaly, rough-looking men who were manhandling the princess into still more fetters and bonds. He paused as if breaking off in the middle of a sentence and stared, up at the top of the boarding house. Jace had no doubt this time that the strange man had spotted him, was staring at him.

He felt cold.

Then one of the toughs prodded Tarnach and the distant conversation resumed. Jace scrabbled up the sloping roof to the chimney and half-climbed, half-fell down into the crowded street. He joined the flow of people heading out of town and up the hill, darting around and jockeying for position to get ahead of the pack. He knew where they were heading, and meant to get there first.

Something important, exciting, and precedent-shattering had just happened. People would be talking about it for years to come, and they were in a mood to get started. That meant an early crowd in the tavern, and Jace would catch seven kinds of hell if he didn’t warn old Prit and then stick around to do his part.

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