Chương 247: Chapter 268: The Marquis

When the coin stopped spinning, I vanished the summoned armor and weapons I'd given to Quarl for his mission. The coin slipped from its spot under the divan, and placed itself on the sideboard that Nathan had just vacated. With a thought I set it to spinning, and quietly murmured the words to give it its target.

"When my brother betrays me."

"Ma'am?" said the survey manager.

"Nothing," I said sweetly. Zyco and Lia have left, their work complete, and I look like a million bucks, adjusted for inflation. My whole look is sharp, strong, powerful. I'm moving back into the high collars and half-cowls that I privately think of as my 'villain look'. The dress is picked out in tiny seed pearls and rubies, conjured so I don't have to pay for them. It's good to be known for having wealth to burn. But it's nice to go home and enjoy that wealth because you didn't burn it, too.

"The depots too, similar to the tracks," I said to distract her. and it worked immediately.

"I don't need to own it, either in practice or in name. I'd be fine with His Grace declaring it all ducal property as long as he won't interfere. No tolls, no taxes, no fees, no border stops. No impediment to traffic by local fiefs. Any inspections or searches should be done at the depot or stop, not at the border, not at random parts of the countryside." She considered her diplomatic response.

"Sometimes bandits arrive under official colors. You may see troops that look like officials or vassals who demand your train stop for inspection or confiscations." I nodded.

"The trains have adequate armament to deter any bandits that may not abide by the very official deal that His Grace and I work out." She gulped. I grinned. If any of your people decide to ignore the terms of this agreement and try to stop or steal from my trains, I'll shoot them without a second thought. There's no reason to think that Skyback's people are going to give me a hard time about this. Hell, of all the Great Houses, I find that pragmatic good sense is found in Skyback more often than any other.

Greifir can get caught up in honor, piety or bloodlust and lose perspective. Pinking makes a point of being the unpredictable ones. My own people can be impulsive to a fault and I'm hardly the only Harigold to get caught up in some blowback over an idealistic crusade. Most of the other houses are worse, and half of them would deliberately do the wrong thing just for spite.

Skyback leaders have been known to be so prudent and astute that they would actually turn down a temporary profit in favor of a greater long-term profit. So, I don't think I've got much to worry about. And honestly, she's probably being quite literal that the problem could be unregulated bandits that get their hands on official uniforms. The agreement I'm trying to work out here is almost unprecedented, and I can see that the survey chief is nearly as excited by the possibilities as I am.

It's not just that the railways would let us move more cargo faster, but that the nature of the vehicle basically requires that it cannot and does not stop at every jurisdiction. If some pipsqueak baronet whose lands overlap a major highway decides to remind the world that he's important by sending some standabout with a spear and a livery tabard to go stand out on the highway and harass passing merchant caravans, that can have far-reaching economic influences.

And there are hundreds of pipsqueak baronets with roads passing through their lands. Entire merchant empires have developed from nothing more than getting a "gentleman's agreement" with five or six of the more notoriously troublesome road-wardens. So, building a sort of high-speed automated super-caravan that can bypass all those obstacles and has the firepower to make it stick.. that's the sort of thing that shapes economies.

Dozens of merchant empires will fail, but the overall quality of goods, speed of delivery, and price of transit should all improve.

"Speaking of bandits," she said.

"I see that the whole plan is rather dependent on these rails. The rail-ways or rail-roads, as you keep calling them. Now, bandits damaging a road is not a unheard of already. A downed tree or a hasty trench is a classic method to get a caravan of wagons to stop and get ambushed. I can't help noticing from these plans that your railed roads are much more vulnerable to such an attack.

Honestly, it looks like if a half-assed team of highwaymen came out with breaker bars and just lifted a rail and set it aside, every train would derail, killing the passengers and giving them ample opportunity to loot the entire train at their leisure." I tapped my chin carefully, and checked the room. There were only a few counts left, the earls would go quickly, and after that the earls-of-courtesy and then the actual ducal heirs. I had to measure how much time I had to continue this discussion with her.

"First, it takes much more specialized equipment than that, and a large team, and also plenty of time, to get one of those rails lifted out of its bed. Second, we're working on a system that runs a current down to make sure the rails ahead are intact and gives warnings to the conductor. Thirdly, this whole process should soon involve trains moving on an hourly rotation. If a conductor spotted people near the tracks when an alert came of tampering, he could warn them off with some rapid shots from the steam-gun."

But more importantly, and less out-loud, is the fact that I intend to either run or influence every criminal gang capable of a big job like that anywhere along those rail lines. By taking in the criminal gangs at the same time as the lines open up, I not only stay ahead of the law enforcement, I stay ahead of criminal competition. She and I dickered out a few more points, but we were coming to firm terms.

We would need something more official, and the Duke himself was likely to change some or most of the terms, but this deal had taken an important steps from "that thing we talked about" to "the thing we have an agreement on". For a project this huge, I celebrate every small step. She left about the time that the last earls were getting called to the entrance. I stood, and every crease in my dress vanished. Rabert stood by as my escort, Vancy had been called as a countess some minutes ago.

He gestured for me to keep the privacy bubble up for a little longer. He looked concerned, brow knitted. For the first time, I noticed that he's taller since I first saw him. A couple of inches worth of late growth spurt. He settled on his words, and said, "Natalie, about what your brother was saying-" If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"You mean the 'please let down your guard' speech?"

"Oh thank gods," he let his breath out in a relieved rush. Clearly, he had been a little concerned I might take my brother's words to heart.

"Well, I suppose I don't need to say anything more on the subject." Where would this world be if I started trusting people just because they asked me to? The room cleared out until it was just the various ducal heirs and our handholders. There were more than a handful, because this party was pretty top-heavy with ranks. The actual dukes and duchesses were waiting in their own sitting-room, where they presumably discussed heavy affairs of state while sampling the really good snacks.

Normally when the earls have cleared, it's just me and maybe one or two others, it's rare for all of us to come together like this. Nathan and I studiously avoided each other, he had brought Zauria Uncin with him and she looked petrified with fear. Either a general anxiety from being around this many nobles, or a specific anxiety that she might run into her father. Millstrong and Segina were there, Wellstrong was home with his governess.

Junia Pinking and Dawe came over to make pleasant and confusing conversation with me and Rabert. My brother was the only non-succeeding heir in attendance. I recognized the Nhullit heir, an appointee chosen by Muranda to be someone that nobody wanted as head of the household, to encourage people not to assassinate her. The current Duskare heir was here with his boyfriend, and he looked pleasantly surprised by everything around him.

Most of the heirs were youngish, between my age and Junia's mid-thirtyish, but the Brunbling heir was a stooped old lady with white hair and a cane, the current Marquis's younger sister. Her plus-one appeared to be a doctor with borrowed finery. Girhan Grennick's daughter had her makeup done almost identically to mine, sharp and bold and dark. Czen Kinghand's heir had slicked-back hair and clothes that looked as opulent and lavish as anyone else's but looked more comfortable.

He also had a broad smile and every one of his teeth was the exact same size and shape. The young man from House Skyback had a quiet air about him, but he walked like he was fording a stream, all power and purpose. The Aumerje heir was a delicate-looking young woman with a heavy-looking handbag who kept shooting me dirty looks. I can sense inside the bag well enough to know that she is an extremely well-stocked and well-supplied mana-warrior.

The Ebonder heir and their plus-one were both extremely androgynous and nobody ever did explain to me which is which. Quoissi Eyellon's heir looked like a much younger clone of the man himself, like I was seeing a photo of him from his youth walking around. His clothes were quite retro, adding to this off-putting illusion. Most of the escorts here seemed to actually be romantic partners, either spouses or lovers. I suppose heirs are under pressure to start a family or be ready to start a family.

And all of the bodyguards, "bodyguards", aides, secretaries, consorts, valets and business managers were already out in the crowd waiting to join up. If we allowed all those hangers-on into the green-room, we'd need three times as much space. The heralds opened the door and bowed, then their senior said, "Alphabetical by House. Princess Aumerje, if you would?" A weirdly pragmatic solution to the question of who gets introduced first.

Since the normal method is that whoever is introduced last has the highest rank, normally everyone would be competing for the last slot, but making it alphabetical makes it extremely fair and nobody could really complain about the order. Which coincidentally put Skyback in the coveted last slot. Clever. Aumerje, Brunbling, Duskare, Ebonder, Eyellon, Greifir, Grennick, Harigold. No Freckentop because Jangale does not have a duke, it has an archduke, and he's the king.

Nathan was called up before me, but only just before, with no break between. At least I got my "crown princess" to his "prince". And instead of descending the stair to join the party proper, my brother held his position so that my options were either to wait in the wings after my name was called, or walk down on my cue and pose alongside him to walk down together. I didn't mind projecting an image of affability between us, and letting the society pages believe that we had an amicable promotion.

He's trying to latch to me to boost his profile some, but if he softens my image somewhat that is probably for the best. After all, just a couple of weeks ago this city had a close brush with riots. Just a few of the wrong words would have done the trick. I don't mind using that, but I would prefer that it's not the lasting impression most people take from this. Down the steps, with Rabert at my side supporting my elbow, hit the landing.

Nathan is standing just off-center with Zauria on the far side, if I match him we're almost perfectly symmetrical. I hit my mark and reach up to touch his shoulder with my palm for a moment. All lined up, Rabert, me, Nathan, Zauria. Pause, hold the pose, imagine five or six flashbulbs taking the photographs, and then with no signal we started walking down the last steps to the main floor, splitting back into our two couples.

"Your fingers are still pruned," he murmured low, next to my ear.

"I was in a dunk tank for the past eight hours!" I protested in a hiss. He just smirked. After that we stood by to clap and shake hands with the heirs of Kinghand, Nhullit, Pinking, and Skyback as if we had not just all come from the same room together. Then we broke up to mingle back, clear some space, while the heralds took a solemn pause. These moments help them highlight the division in rank, because that's apparently absolutely paramount.

"His Highness, Prince Doald Freckentop, third heir of the kingdom of Hearstwhile, earl of the-" They rattled off his excessive and preening titles while he strutted down the stairs. He looked so damn smug, like he was certain nothing in the world could be better than being him. He had his wife with him, there was a family resemblance. Freckentop does not only marry out for alliances with other Houses, it also marries in to maintain alliances between its noble and merchant branches.

He came down to mingle before the Lord Protectors were announced, and I made sure to catch his attention and his eye, provoking an undisguised glare from him. Perfect, I want to make sure I can get a rise out of him if I need to. There's a solid chance I'll need him to start a scene before the night's through, and I like to keep my options open. Also, for some reason I do have a miniscule affinity for mosquitos built up, so I can conjure some of those to provoke him too.

After, the Lord Protector of the Kinghand house, with no word why Muranda Nhullit is not present. After a pregnant pause, we were brought the Marquises of the Brunbling, Duskare, Ebonder, and Grennick houses. This was not the first time I've ever been in a room with Marquis Septimus Ebonder. But it's the first time that I've been particularly interested in him specifically. Enough to finally select him with my reticle and pull up his stats. [Marquis Septimus Ebonder. Strength 30. Damage 50] I have just decided I am never going to start any kind of shit when he's around.