This disruption of the Chalcedean slave-trade was a major area of conflict. It had brought into new prominence the old disagreement over where the Chalcedean-Bingtown border actually lay. In both of these areas, Serilla hoped that the Six Duchies would recognize the legitimacy of Bingtown’s position. She knew that Shoaks Duchy welcomed escaped slaves to their lands as free men, and that Shoaks had also suffered from Chalced’s efforts to claim lands not rightfully part of that dukedom. Could she, perhaps, hope that the Six Duchies would grant what their previous envoys had proposed to the most gracious and royal Queen Kettricken – an alliance, and support for the war against Chalced? In return, Bingtown and her ally had much to offer the Six Duchies. Open trade with Bingtown, and a share in Bingtown’s favourable trade agreements with the so-called Pirate Isles could be of great benefit to all. The gifts bestowed today represented but a small part of the spectrum of goods that would become available to the people of the Six Duchies.
Queen Kettricken heard her out gravely. But at the end of Serilla’s speech, she had offered nothing new to us. It was Chade, in his role as Councillor, who gravely pointed this out. The wonders of their trade goods were well known, and justifiably so. But not even for such wonders could the Six Duchies consider moving into war. He concluded his remarks with, ‘Our most gracious Queen Kettricken must always consider first the well-being of our own folk. You know that our relations with Chalced are at best uneasy. Our grievances with them are many, and yet we have held our hands back from waging a full war with them on our own accounts. All know the saying, “Sooner or later, there is always war with Chalced.” They are a contentious folk. But war is expensive and disruptive. War later is almost always better than war now. Why should we risk provoking their full wrath on Bingtown’s behalf?’ Chade let the question hang for a moment, and then made it even plainer. ‘What do you offer the Six Duchies that will not eventually come to us, regardless of the outcome of this war of yours?’
Several dukes in the back nodded sagely. All knew this was the Trader way. All they understood was bargaining and trade. They expected Chade to haggle, and haggle he would.
‘Most gracious Queen, noble Prince, wise Councillor and lordly Dukes and Duchesses, we offer you …’ Serilla halted, obviously flustered by the directness of Chade’s question. ‘Our offer is a delicate one, perhaps best reviewed in private contemplation before you seek the agreement of your nobles. Perhaps it would be better …’ Serilla did not glance towards the nobles in the back of the room, but her pause was plain.
‘Please, Serilla of Bingtown. Speak plainly. Put your proposal before all of us, so that my nobles and my councillors and I may discuss it freely together.’
Serilla’s eyes widened, almost in shock. I wondered what sort of place Jamaillia was, that she was so surprised by my queen’s forthright answer. While she floundered, the man with the parrot on his shoulder suddenly cleared his throat. Serilla shot him a warning look, but the man stepped forward anyway. ‘Most gracious Queen, if I may presume to address you directly?’
Kettricken’s response was almost puzzled. ‘Of course. You are Trader Jorban, I believe?’
He nodded gravely. ‘That is correct. Most gracious Queen Kettricken, ruler of all the Six Duchies and heir to the Mountain Throne.’ I felt uncomfortable for the young man as he strung the titles awkwardly together. Obviously such flowery address was new to him, but despite Serilla’s angry glance, he was determined to forge ahead with it. ‘I believe you are a person, a queen, that is, who can appreciate directness. I have chafed under this delay. But now, hearing today that you have as little love for Chalced as we do, I dare to hope that you will be in favour of our proposition as soon as you hear it.’ He cleared his throat, then plunged on. ‘We come to you seeking to forge an alliance against a common enemy. We have had three years of war with Chalced. It has drained us, and our early hopes of a swift end to the conflict have faded. The Chalcedeans are a stubborn folk. Every defeat we deal them only seems to make them more determined to injure us. They thrive on war; they love raiding and destruction, as we do not. Bingtown needs peace to prosper, peace and free seas. We depend on trade, not just for our livelihoods, but for our most basic needs. Magic and wonders we may possess in Bingtown, and yet we cannot feed our children on that alone. We have no vast fields to grow grain and pasture cattle. Chalced would overrun us, out of simple greed. They would kill us all, to possess what we have, with no understanding of what that possessing requires of us. They will destroy what they seek, in the very act of trying to possess it. What we have cannot be taken from us, and still exist. It is …’ The man’s words shuddered to a halt, like a ship run aground on a sand-bar.
Kettricken waited for a time, as if offering him a chance to find his tongue, but the man only spread his hands open, wide and helpless. ‘I’m a trader and a sailor, ma’am. Most gracious Queen.’ He appended the honorific as if he had suddenly recalled it. ‘I speak out of our need, and yet I do not explain myself well.’
‘What do you ask, Trader Jorban?’ Queen Kettricken’s question was simple yet polite.
Hope gleamed suddenly in the man’s eyes, as if her directness reassured him. ‘We know that the folk of your Shoaks Duchy hold a hard border with Chalced. You contain them, and your vigilance demands much of their attention.’ He turned suddenly, to sweep a wide bow to the nobles in the back of the chamber. ‘For this, we thank you.’
The Duke acknowledged his thanks with a grave nod. Trader Jorban turned back to the Queen. ‘But we must ask more than this. We ask your warships and warriors to pressure Chalced from your side. To harry and sink the ships that interfere in our trade with you. We would … put an end to the generations of strife Chalced has forced on all of us.’ He drew a sudden breath. ‘We would subjugate that land completely, and end this ancient strife. If they will not abide as our neighbour, then let them accept our rule instead.’
Serilla the Jamaillian suddenly interrupted. ‘Trader Jorban, you go too far! Fair and gracious Queen Kettricken, we come but to make suggestions, not to propose a conquest.’
Jorban set his jaw and dived in as soon as Serilla fell silent. ‘I do not make a suggestion. I come to bargain with potential allies. I seek for an end to Chalced’s endless war against us. I will speak plainly what is in many Traders’ hearts.’ His blue eyes glinted as he met Kettricken’s gaze. He spoke honestly, with passion. ‘Let us subjugate the Chalcedean states completely, dividing their territory between us. All would gain. Bingtown would have arable land, and an end to Chalcedean harassment. The Duke of Shoaks could expand his holdings and have, not an enemy at his back, but an ally and trading partner. Trade to the south would open wide for the Six Duchies.’
‘Subjugate Chalced completely?’ I could tell from Kettricken’s voice that she had never even considered it, that such a conquering ran counter to all her Mountain ways. But in the back of the room, the Duke of Shoaks was grinning broadly. This was a war he would relish, a meal of vengeance long in the simmering for him. He overstepped himself, perhaps, when he lifted a fist and suggested, ‘Let us include the Duke of Farrow in this partitioning. And perhaps your lord father, King Eyod of the Mountains, would like a share of this, my queen. He, too, shares a boundary with Chalced, and from all accounts has never been too fond of them.’
‘Peace, Shoaks,’ she rebuked him, but it was a gentler shushing than I would have expected. Perhaps there was history there I did not know. Just how bitterly did the Mountain Kingdom dispute its own border with Chalced? Did Kettricken bring an older rancour to this conflict than I knew? Yet there was reserve as she replied to the Bingtown delegation. ‘You offer us a share of your war, as if it were trade goods we