“Whatever the case may be,” she said. “Home.”
Tal conceded that it might be home to her, but to him it was just another alien place. The harbor beckoned, and inbound ships gave way to The Dolphin, for she flew the ducal banner. Compared to Rillanon, Roldem, Salador, or even Krondor, it was a small harbor. Behind it the city was relatively flat, then suddenly rose up on an incline, an almost evenly sloped face of soil and rock that had been terraced over the years and connected by ramps and streets. Then suddenly the citadel rose up behind, hard against the cliff face, and from what Tal had been told by members of the Duke’s retinue, dug back deep into the rock.
It struck him as incongruous that the original builders had chosen to use a white or very light grey stone to fashion the place, for it stood out dramatically against the darker colors of the cliff.
The citadel was massive, rising ten stories above the foundations, as far as Tal could judge, and surrounded by a wall of less than half that size. At the corners, towers rose another twenty or so feet, so that overlapping archer fire could stop anyone coming up through the city to the citadel.
Tal turned his attentions away from the city itself, looked toward the south. He could make out little of the southern islands at this distance, save what looked to be brown smudges on the horizon.
Natalia put her hand on his shoulder and said, “We shall have fun, Talwin.”
He patted her hand, somewhat distracted by the events of the last two days in Rillanon. He had followed Kaspar’s instructions and located Burgess, for whom he had promised to intercede with the Duke. The trader would arrive in Opardum in a month or so with samples of trade goods, seeking concessions and licenses.
But something didn’t feel right. No matter what he said, Burgess just didn’t ring true as a merchant trader, the way Quincy de Castle did. De Castle might be an agent for the Crown of the Isles, but he was truly a trader. Tal had played cards with too many merchants, as well as gained some insights into their nature by reading the biography of Rupert Avery, but Burgess was something else. Under that apparently soft exterior, Tal was certain he was dangerous.
The ship rolled into the harbor, and unlike the Kingdom cities or Roldem, no pilot came aboard. The captain simply directed the ship to the Duke’s personal slip, at the far end of the quayside, closest to the most direct road to the citadel.
With years of practice, the captain saw his ship safely into its berth, and by the time the lines had been tied, the ship made secured, and the gangplank run out, the Duke was on deck, ready to depart. He hurried down to his waiting carriage, followed by his sister and his senior captains.
Tal followed in the third carriage, along with a Lieutenant Gazan, whom he knew only slightly, and a junior clerk who had come to the dock to give the Duke messages his staff felt needed his immediate attention. Amafi rode above, on a small bench behind the carriage, next to the coachman.
By the time they departed for the citadel, Tal was genuinely curious about Opardum. He considered his expectations about the place might have been colored in part by his attitude toward Kaspar. While affable enough on the surface, the Duke was a man without scruple, capable of wholesale murder. For that reason, perhaps, Tal had expected the city to be a somber, even dour place. In the midday sunshine, it looked anything but.
Broad-bottomed skiffs plied the harbor, running small loads of cargo to and from ships. Smaller trading vessels up from the southern islands deposited their wares on the quay. As the carriage rolled through the city, Tal saw that most of the buildings were whitewashed, made brilliant by the sun, and the roofs were mainly of colorful clay tiles of red or orange. Many small temples dotted the squares, which were centered around graceful fountains. Traders hawked their wares in the markets, and many shops were thronged with customers. By all appearances Opardum was a prosperous, thriving, and busy city.
They passed over a canal, and Tal saw more signs of commerce, as riverboats just off the Anatak River were slowly maneuvered through a series of locks by polemen labouring on the decks, heading for the harbor quays for loading and unloading. Olasko had two cultivated regions, the islands to the south, and the great rolling mead-owlands and hills between Olasko Gateway and the border with the Principality of Aranor. Most of the land between Opardum and Olasko Gateway was forest and wild prairie, very dangerous to cross, so most commerce between the two cities was by the river.