L. E. Modesitt - The Lord-Protectors Daughter

The Lord-ProtectorsDaughter

The Corean Chronicles Book 7

L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

For Eric Flint,without whom this book would not exist.

The river boiled, and blood turnedto ice, And Alectors fell to the soarers device, Yet deep in the void, theylurk in the dark Awaiting the time to return to their mark.

Who will protect those who remain;Whose Talent will our lives sustain? Lord-Protector, daughter or son, In whoseblood will Talent so run?

In the late afternoon of Octdi,Mykella dismounted at the base of the ramp leading to the north end of theGreat Piers of Tempre. The top of the ramp ended some twenty yards short of thesquarish one-story stone structure that held the portmaster and his clerks.Immediately to the north of the portmasters building stood the shimmeringgreen tower that dominated the northern end of the Great Piers of Tempre.

Behind Mykella, her younger andtaller sister Rachylana also dismounted, if reluctantly, as did two of the fourSouthern Guards, in their uniforms of spotless dark blue, assigned to guardthem, for none of the three daughters of the Lord-Protector of Lanachrona wentanywhere outside the palace without an escort.

Mykella hurried up the ramp, andRachylana followed, the two guards bringing up the rear. At the top of theramp, Mykella slowed and glanced back at her sister. Do you want to come in?

Why would I want to do that?

Instead of snapping that Rachylanamight learn something, Mykella forced a smile. I wont be long.

Not more than a glass, Idimagine. Ill wait out here. Rachylana walked farther west, her flamelikemahogany hair barely kept in place by a dark maroon headband against the westwind coming off the water of the wide River Vedra. The wind was chill enoughthat the slightly acrid odor of the waters around the Great Piers was almostunnoticeable, and since the wind was directly from the west, it didnt pick upthe far more odoriferous scents from the pens to the southwest where the towingoxen were kept when they were not hauling barges upstream or riding themdownstream to begin the process all over again.

Two of the guards waited withRachylana, as the other two followed Mykella.

The Great Piers were composed ofthe long base, an expanse of unchanging gray eternastone that stretched nearlya vingt from north to south along the east side of the river, and the more thanfifteen stubby river wharves, eternastone fingers some thirty yards in lengthjutting out into the river. At the far south end of the Great Piers stood asecond green tower, identical to the first, each soaring more than sixty yardsinto the silver-green sky. The towers were hollow shells, each with a singledoor at the base, but without stairs or any sign within that there had everbeen any way to reach the top. Nor were there any windows or signs of any roomsin the tops of the towers, or in the othersidenticalscattered across all ofCorus.

More than half the piers had eithersailing craft or barges moored to them. Carts and wagons were scattered acrossthe short piers, some being loaded, but the majority being unloaded. Seeminglyignoring the chaos on the piers, Mykella walked briskly to the portmastersdoor that faced the river and opened it. Two guards followed her step for stepas she entered.

Inside, a squat white-haired manimmediately rose and hurried to the long counter that separated the waitingarea from the three clerks who appeared to be checking invoices for the purposeof levying the proper tariffs. One had only begun that process when he had seenMykella, she noted.

Portmaster Chaenkel, Mykella saidpleasantly. Mistress Mykella, let me bring you the summary ledgers.

Thank you.

At the left end of the counter, agrizzled bargemaster glanced toward Mykella and the pair of guards behind her,then looked quickly away and back at the clerk who stood waiting for him tofinish declaring his cargo so that the form could be completed and the propertariff leviedafter inspection.

Chaenkel set the ledger beforeMykella.

She began to study the entries forthe week, of the sailing traders and the numbers of barges that had ported anddeparted, both those towed laboriously upstream, and those headed downstreamwith the current and guided by long sweeps. Most of those headed downstreamwere departing lighter than they had arrived, since, as the capital ofLanachrona, Tempre was generally a destination port, although wines from theVyanhills and glassware from Krost were sought throughout the entire west ofCorus, from frigid Northport to Southgate.

The total number of barges andother vessels was only three less than the total for the previous week, and thetotal of tariffs levied was close to the same. Mykella nodded and straightened.

Thank you, Portmaster. How do youthink the trading and traffic have been?

Chaenkel furrowed his brow, thentilted his head. Itd be hard to say, Mistress. Not all that different fromlast week. It seems about the same as it should be for this time of year. Hesmiled, ruefully. When you get to be my age, the years blur, but Id know ifthings were greatly different. He nodded. That I would.

Are we getting much trade from theeast?

Not any more than one would expectnow that were into winter. No less, either, from what Ive seen. A bit moreiron from the Iron Valleys. Nightsilkwho can say? That comes overland andunder guard.

Mykella nodded to that. Thank you.

My pleasure, Mistress.

Mykella turned. As she walked fromthe building, followed by the two Southern Guards, behind her Mykella heard thebargemaster.

is she? Not seen her before

Lord-Protectors eldest checks ontariffs since midsummer

Had it been for less than twoseasons? It seemed longer than that to Mykella.

Once back out on the Great Piers,Mykella continued to where Rachylana was standing. Just short of her sister,she paused to watch as a trading vessel eased out into the current and spreadits sails, struggling upriver against the current. Was the trader bound forBorlan or farther east, perhaps to Salaan, the easternmost river port inLanach-rona before the Vedra became unnavigable?

What was it like, I wonder, whenpeople could travel upstream without sails or oars? she asked.

Do you really believe those absurdtales about the Alec-tors? How could anyone? Rachylana sniffed. I meanflying on creatures with wings as wide as sails, and on ships that had no sailsor oars at all, and the River Vedra boiling over when it all came to an end inthe Great Cataclysm. And soarerslittle winged women who floated in midair, yetdestroyed giant Alectors. In hundreds of years, no one has ever found theremains of anything like that. Really, I could write a better story myself.

Perhaps you should, Mykella saidblandly, knowing patience to write anything of length was hardly one of her sistersstrengths.

Why bother? Anyone with any sensethinks theyre just stories for children.

Then who built the eternastonehighways, and why are the old buildings built so large? asked Mykella. Weveboth seen chairs in the storerooms that are too large for the largest man tosit in them, and the steps in the palace are all too high to be comfortableclimbing them.

Its all nonsense, rejoinedRachylana. Theyre just ceremonial chairs built for past Lords-Protector whowanted to seem larger, and the stairs are to make anyone who entersuncomfortable in the presence of the Lord-Protector.

Mykella refrained from pointing outthat an overlarge throne or chair only made a large man seem smaller, and a manof average size seem insignificant. Rachylana wasnt about to listen toanything that reasonable.

Anything. Rachylana leanedsideways in the saddle and lowered her voice. At least Berenyt jokes aboutthings, and hes good to look at.

He is very good-looking. Mykellaoffered a smile, one she didnt feel, even though she knew her sister would seethrough her facade. He can be very humorous and charming. Id hoped Jeraxyltmight have been able to escort us. She knew that was unlikely, because theirbrother, younger than Mykella herself but older than Rachylana, was still intraining, although he was officially a junior officer in the Southern Guards.