Dallia Umevan continues her cruise. The Ortog arrives at Tortalla
Chapter 9.
MV Dallia Umevan
Gordon looked aft along the ship to the stern and the little raft that was towed along for Meri so that she could get her Swims and wet her gills. The crew had built the raft for her to make her Swims easier and several were watching as she danced along, flipping over the raft in a wave of water to entertain the crew who were watching. Finally, she waved that she was ready to come back aboard and the raft was brought alongside. She flipped back aboard and the raft was lifted aboard. Wearing the dress that Gordon had bought, she came into Gordon’s office. “I’m ready to finish the report, captain.”
“Did you enjoy your Swim?”
“I wish that I was Swimming with Derry.”
Gordon laughed. “Considering the stories about the Program, he is probably wishing that he was Swimming with you. We are two days from Golden Hill, so we need to get this done.”
Chapter 10.
Tortalla
Gar looked across the bay and cursed as he saw the Ortog’s yacht enter the bay. Turning to Terria, who was supervising the arranging of the books from the Umevan, he growled, “I wonder what he wants.”
“It isn’t Derry, since he isn’t here and he knows that. We don’t even know where the boys and Meri are right now.”
“You don’t seem to be too worried.”
“Are you?”
Terria grinned. “Not really. Our children are off on a voyage and I have every confidence that the Umevan will care for them as their own.”
“You sent something to someone through the small portal, didn’t you?”
“In amongst the various things dropped when the Umevan retrieved the ship was a can full of useful portal codes. There has been some sending back and forth with some ladies, yes.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Captain Umevan likes Tuna and Meri very much and is looking forward to introducing Meri to his wife.”
“We will neglect to tell the Ortog any of that. I think that I must prepare to greet him.”
Mahad looked at the quiet community ashore, turned to his cousin and said, “They do not seem to preparing to collect another prize, Hallid.”
“No they do not. I see Barracuda at anchor and no sign that anything has changed since I left.”
“At least the navy is leaving us alone.”
“If they were watching from afar, would we even know?”
“Probably not. The barge is prepared, so let us go ashore.”
Gar was waiting as the barge pulled up to the jetty and Hallid and Mahad stepped ashore. “Welcome Ortog.”
“Where is your son and that other boy?” Hallid snarled.
“Gone. They were on the ship and I do not know where the ship is.”
“You haven’t pursued the ship to retrieve your son?”
“My son left on his own accord with Derry. I imagine that they are enjoying themselves. Who is this with you?”
“This is my cousin, Mahad.”
“Welcome to Tortalla, Ortog Mahad. You are here to discuss why the prize was lost, presumably.”
“I am.”
“Why don’t we find some shade while some drinks are served.”
“That sounds like a wonderful thing to do.”
Gar led the Ortogs to a quiet space with large open windows letting the breeze that fell from the mountain and cooled the air. They sat down at the table and servants provided caffee. Gar said, “I assume that the Ortog has told you of the events surrounding the prize.”
“He has mentioned some things, but he did not know some details.”
“First of all the prize was not a random ship. Tannator requested that we go after that particular prize personally and there was something aboard that he retrieved.”
“Do you know what it was?”
“Young Derry, the Umevan boy that had remained aboard said that the thing was what the Umevan called a fusor and that the devise was worth 100 million silvers to the Umevan. He also said that the rest of the cargo was worth ten million silvers as well.”
“A 100 million silvers? How did you take the ship in the first place?”
“I was lucky and used some handy weather so that the Republican Navy’s aircraft were kept aboard the ship that they were flying off of.”
“Did you see this ship?”
“I saw the aircraft, but not the ship itself. Derry had and shared some pictures and details.”
“Do you know how the Republic found the ship again and you?”
“I do not know how we were found again. It may have been the all seeing eye that the Republic has equipped its naval vessels with or something else. However it was done, the navy was careful to keep out of sight while they followed us.”
“What do you plan to do now?”
“That is an interesting question. There are no immediate needs here and the clan has a coin reserve. We can fish for food and grow produce ashore. I have heard rumors of the Orcenlands needing seafolk for work and Barracuda could be used for a variety of tasks. I am not too concerned in any case.”
“You do not seek revenge on the Umevan and the Republic?” Hallid bellowed.
“I do not.”
“They took your boy.”
“Tuna went off on his own. He will return when he can, much enriched by his experiences. That experience and any connections he makes could prove useful.”
“They assaulted you here.”
“Yes, they sent a team to retrieve the ship. That is part of the price of doing business. They also made it clear that the risk of doing business as we had been doing had gotten too high to continue. So, I need to set the clan on a different path.”
“I will pay you for information on the location of the boy,” Hallid said.
“Did you not receive a Letter of Intent from the Umevan concerning the matter?”
“How did you know about that?” Mahad asked.
“One morning a cart filled with some tasty snacks and a canister of interesting things appeared. One of the things was a copy of the Letter Of Intent. I thought that the letter was clear about the consequences of chasing the boy. Was a minor embarrassment that hard a thing to swallow? After all your head could have been converted to rotten cabbage.”
“What exactly happened?” Mahad asked.
“Derry and Tuna were opening the hatch on the ship’s hold so that they could remove the cargo my wife wanted for the clan. The boys were supervising the lifting of the hatch cover when your cousin walked to the edge of the hatch, under the swinging cover. Derry called your cousin an idiot and pushed him out from under the cover just before the brake on the derrick failed and the hatch cover fell to the deck. Then your cousin’s servant decided that Derry had been right to do what he did and your cousin started to ask me for Derry. There was no way that I was going to turn the boy over and I was already thinking of ways of getting the boy to the Republic or Golden Hill.”
“So, there was a risk in keeping the boy?” Mahad said.
“The Umevan have reputation of taking strong actions against those that take action against their people. Take some of their things, and they may not pursue. Hurt some of their people deliberately and there is no place that you will be able to hide. That even includes slaves on their Imperial estate.”
“You have become cowardly,” Hallid said.
“I do not have to take that from you, Ortog. Perhaps you should return to your ship and go.”
“Hallid, return to the ship and send the barge back. I will continue this discussion.”
“They will not give us the boy. What is there to discuss? It is not as if they will be taking any prizes, the cowards.”
“Go Now! We will discuss your foolishness later.”
Mahad turned to Gar as Hallid left. “I apologize for my cousin. He has been under strain as a result of recent events.”
“He’s obsessing over that boy. That could put the Iron Coast into a conflict that they cannot win.”
“Why was the cargo so unprotected?”
“From what Derry told us, the cargo was supposed to be moved secretly, so there was no close guard. The Umevan think that there was a spy that saw the cargo being loaded and reported it. Derry did say that the new gods wanted a fusor more than anything else.”
“Why would they need such?”
“I do not know of such things, but Derry said that fusors are an invention of Harald the Good that generate mana. A boy apparently opened Harald’s vault, found the ghost of Harald, some fusors and the means to make more of them. The Umevan have been at the center of that ever since.”
“So the new gods needed this fusor and recruited you to retrieve one. You succeeded and then the ship was tracked. Did the Republic know that the new gods had retrieved the fusor already?”
“I put the ship’s crew ashore and I imagine that the navy picked them up fairly quickly.”
“If you put the crew ashore, how was the boy aboard?”
“Derry tripped the ship’s emergency beacon and hid below. He didn’t know that we had placed the crew ashore and Tuna didn’t discover Derry until we were underway again.”
“Did you know of the boy’s family?”
“I certainly did. On the other hand, the boy was willing to work, not unwilling to participate in what we were doing and he and Tuna got along very well. He was also willing to talk about the world and as an Umevan, knew a lot about the goings on in the world.”
“Why was he aboard in the first place?”
“The Umevan family expects that family participate in the business and that they know the business from the bottom. Derry’s father was the ship’s captain, Derry had just left school and he was spending a summer aboard learning how ships and cargos worked.”
“The boy had no servants or caretakers?”
“Derry never mentioned any.”
“Does the family have any enemies?”
“Derry did not mention that the family had any ongoing conflicts. He did say that his great grandmother and the matriarch of Clan Ironaxe were at odds about things where they live, but the rest of the families ignored that and attended each other’s parties anyway.”
“Do the Umevan have an army?”
“Derry didn’t mention one, but he did say that his great grandfather had hired orc mercenaries in the past. He mentioned a raid on Lain Othrond to retrieve an Umevan slave as a case of the family taking action against people who took Umevan people hostage.”
“There are wizards and mages at Lain Othrond. The Umevan struck at the city and they survived?”
“I don’t have the details, but that was the story that Derry told us. It was one of the stories about his Uncle Jorge, the portal wizard.”
“Portals are almost a myth.”
“Apparently the Beinans, with some help, have been making portals work again. Derry said that his Uncle Jorge and some others from the Lower City and some fae communities in the Empire used the portals against the Ravathyra and the Great Captain. The various young folk were taught by the Beinans to drop one way ports just about anyplace.”
“Can they do that?”
“Some things appeared at the same time that the ship was retrieved. I suspect that they can.”
“My cousin mentioned marines.”
“The Republic must have recovered some Jumpers from the new gods or found some elsewhere and made them work, because they have them now. We were assaulted after the ship left, I was given a rather stern warning and your cousin was dragged off to the yacht and sent off. Since directing his anger against the colonel is rather pointless, he has directed it against Derry, the fool.”
“What should I do with him?”
“If he doesn’t change, you are going to have to feed him to the sharks.”
“He is family. That is not something I can do lightly.”
“He is a minnow, poking at a tuna, not realizing that the reason that he is ignored is that the tuna does not care about the minnow, until the minnow annoys the tuna and becomes a snack.”
“I will take that under consideration.”
“I will add this. Derry said that the Umevan own two large ironworks that are brand new and very efficient, one in the Orcenlands near Bulbil Kil and another in the Mortal Kingdoms in Astaire. The railroad now goes to Wongpo. Could your kingdom survive having to compete with a thousand bars of new steel and iron dumped in Wongpo at very good prices?”
Mahad blanched. “That would ruin us.”
“That is the fish that you are dealing with.”
“You do not seem to be concerned about that sort of thing happening to you.”
“You do not know of how a sea clan functions, but a sea clan princess tends to look for either the strongest of the clan or better, high family from another clan. My daughter took to Derry from the hundredth they met and went off with them. The Umevan will be family all too soon.”
Mahad laughed. “I will not tell Hallid that. What does your lady think of that?”
“She is all for the relationship. I found her on a foundering ship and she has felt deprived of some things, reading and books being one of them. Now she will not have to depend on the plunder from the ships that we take for those things.”
“I think that I will take my leave.”
Gar put a large book on the table. “Take this. It will explain things.”
Mahad looked at it. “The Umevan Company, Electricity and You. That is a strange title. How did you get this?”
“A stack appeared one morning with some sales proposals. I think that I will be seeing folk from the Umevan all too soon.”