‘Message from Captain Breyer, sir.’
Erik rubbed his eyes and blinked. He had managed an hour of sleep after the fighting. Since the day before, when Greylock had departed for the East, they had been attacked three times, the most recent being at sundown. They had easily defeated the forces thrown at them, thanks in part to Greylock’s having left a squad of fifty additional archers behind, footmen with longbows. Erik knew he’d have to send them on ahead at least a day’s march before he withdrew, for they could never keep up with the cavalry, but he was very pleased with their presence.
His mission was to hold at the road until it was dear that pressure along the front was roughly equal, then to pull out, leaving an obvious weakness in the defensive line. Prince Patrick and Lord William’s plan was for the enemy to gain ground between Krondor and Darkmoor, but only where the Kingdom wanted them to.
Erik read the message. ‘So far, so good,’ he commented.
He dismissed the soldier and regarded the messenger, a Hadati hillman. ‘Get something to eat and rest, then leave at first light.’
The hillman nodded and left, and Erik turned over, pulled his blanket around him, and tried to return to sleep. He lay there for a while, thinking of Kitty and wondering if she was well. He was almost certain she had left early enough to avoid the dangers of the road now being faced by those out there in the darkness. Then his thoughts turned to Roo. He wondered if he and his family were safe.
Jacob Esterbrook sat behind his desk, his face an impassive mask as Roo urged him to order his household packed and moved. ‘I understand the dangers, young man,’ he said at last. He rose and moved around the desk, pointing to a map of the Kingdom he kept on the wall nestled between two large bookcases. ‘I have been doing business with the Empire of Great Kesh since before you were born. I have done business with Queg. If the politics of the area are about to change, I suspect I can do business with whoever is in charge once things settle down.’
Roo’s eyes opened in naked astonishment. He had ridden into the night, reaching Esterbrook’s house two hours after sunset, and had asked to speak to the trader. ‘Jacob, no disrespect to your business acumen, but the point I’m trying to make is that an army of murderous thugs is heading this way. I know that army. I served with them for a time.’
At that Jacob raised an eyebrow in interest. ‘Really?’
‘Yes, and I don’t have time to tell you the details, but trust me when I say these people have no interest in making deals; they will come here and burn this house to the ground after they strip it of everything worth more than a copper piece.’
Jacob smiled and Roo didn’t like the smile. ‘You are a very talented boy, Rupert, and I suspect you would eventually have done well enough for yourself, even without Duke James’s help. Nothing like you managed to do with his help, but that business with the grain shortage in the Free Cities, that was brilliant.’ He sat down behind the desk and opened a drawer. Removing a parchment from within it, he placed it upon the table. ‘Of course, had you not had his help, I probably would have ordered your death when you became a nuisance, but as things worked out the way they did, I have no complaints.’ He sighed. To put matters in the open, this is a commission’ - he pointed to the parchment - ‘to negotiate with the invaders and to establish discussions with an eye toward ending hostilities.’
Roo said, ‘After they burned Krondor?’
Jacob’s smile broadened. ‘What concern does Great Kesh have with the destruction of a Kingdom city?’
‘Great Kesh?’
Jacob said, ‘Rupert, don’t be thick. You must have deduced I had something besides my not inconsiderable business skills in my favor when it came to trading to the south. I have friends in high places in the Emperor’s court, and they have made it easy for me to keep you off the Keshian trade routes. Now they wish to come to a quick accommodation with the invaders, this Emerald Queen, and formalize a new border.’
Roo sat stunned. ‘New border?’
‘Prince Erland negotiated a treaty for noninterference with Great Kesh, in exchange for land concessions in the Vale of Dreams.’ He pointed at Roo. ‘Which I think you knew, given that sale of property to me in Shamata. You didn’t realize that the new governor of Shamata would be more than happy to recognize my claims to those businesses, I know.
‘But the point of the treaty is that while we are pledged not to invade the Kingdom, we agreed to nothing that prevents us from coming to a quick understanding with the new rulers of the land to the north of the Empire. Toward that end, a rather large army is marching now, even as we speak, seeking to occupy all lands in the Vale, not just those granted to us by the treaty, and we shall continue to hold those lands after this unpleasantness is over.’