Deepwoods (Book 1) (32 page)

There was a suspicious moment of silence. “I might’ve
knocked a few heads together.”

Of course he’d joined in. She pointed an accusing finger at
Wolf. “You’re setting a bad example for the children.”

“He had bad habits
before
he met me,” Wolf protested,
not at all upset with the accusation.

“I don’t want those bad habits to continue. Having
two
of
you is bad enough. I do not want THREE.” That said, she craned her head around,
trying to spot Rune. In vain. How a man could possibly hide up in those airy
log rafters, she had no idea, but he’d managed it somehow. “You didn’t get hurt,
did you?”

“Naw, I’m fine,” he assured her, voice amused.

Under her breath, she muttered, “Thank the winds for that.
Alright, now that the fun is over, I expect everyone to go to bed and
stay
there
until dawn. At least. Am I clear?”

A chorus of obedient “Yes, ma’am” came to her. Satisfied,
she turned on her heel and went back to the inn, shivering. As she went, she
grumbled to herself, “Seriously. What part of ‘we do not want to start a war
here’ did they not understand?”

Ugh. Men.

ӜӜӜ

After the late night misadventures, Siobhan found it hard to
get up the next morning. Since the ship was at their beck and call, she took
advantage of it a little and didn’t try to rush getting ready. In fact, she
went down to breakfast a good hour later than she normally did, only to find
that most of the guild had also risen late.

Waving good morning to people, she sat and filled up a plate
but didn’t try to really talk until she had consumed about half of it. At that
point, she realized that the table had two notable absentees. “Where’s Sylvie
and Rune?”

“They were gone when I came down,” Markl responded, a
slightly unhappy set to his mouth. “The innkeeper said they left early this
morning together.”

Yes, and you’re jealous of that, aren’t you?
Siobhan
carefully bit the inside of her lip to keep herself from smiling. Markl
wouldn’t take any sign of amusement well. “I see. Is everyone packed and ready
to board the ship?”

“We can’t leave until those two show up,” Tran pointed out,
calmly eating.

“I’m aware. I’m also aware that out of this entire group,
it’s the
men
that are always ready to leave last.” She cast the repeat
offenders pointed looks, although none of them looked particularly abashed at
her silent scolding. “So be ready to leave the minute they’re back.”

Getting grunts and waves of acknowledgement, she felt
satisfied she’d gotten the point across and resumed eating.

As it turned out, everyone was downstairs with their bags
packed, just chatting, when the errant duo finally returned. Sylvie looked
particularly put-out with the world, a scowl twisting her mouth. Siobhan didn’t
have to ask to know where the other woman had been. Sylvie must have been
visiting her parents while she was in town.

They’d been through here several times over the years, and
it was always the same whenever Sylvie went home. Her parents were dead set on
living in Coravine, heaven only knew why, but they couldn’t really make much of
a living here. In fact, all seven of their children had left the city—some of
them had left the continent altogether—and made homes elsewhere because of
Coravine’s poor economy. Sylvie tried to convince her parents on every trip to
move, to go to one of the places where their children lived, but they wouldn’t
hear of it. Instead, they wanted Sylvie to live
here
and take care of
them in their older years.

Siobhan gave her points for trying, but her parents would
have to be in a far more desperate situation before they’d finally give up and
leave the city. Until then, anything Sylvie said was just a waste of breath.

More curious to her was, why had Rune gone with her? Simply
because he was worried about Sylvie being out and about on her own? “Where have
you two been?” she asked them.

“Morning market, and a few other places,” Sylvie responded.
“Is that my bag? Thanks.”

“Morning market?” Markl repeated in confusion.

Rune came to stand in front of Siobhan and handed her a
small bundle wrapped in a grey handkerchief. Bemused, she took it and hefted it
in her hands. Strange, it felt warm and was that…did she smell apple? “What’s
this?”

“I lost the bet, remember?” Rune reminded her. “Sylvie says
ya like these.”

Bet? Oh, right! When they were in the rafters together.
They’d bet on whether or not Wolf and Tran would fight. Having a good idea of what
he’d bought her, she nonetheless unwrapped it and found two small fried apple
pies, still steaming and fresh. “She’s right. I do. Thank you, Rune.”

He gave her a boyish grin.

Siobhan grinned back, wrapping them up again. “I’ll eat
these on the ship. Alright, people, let’s go back to Wynngaard.”

During the course of her term as guildmaster, Siobhan had
reported to various other guildmasters about the status of things. However, she
had never reported to
three
guildmasters of major city guilds all at
once before. Well, alright, Lirah was standing in for her father, but it was
the principle of the thing.

As soon as they’d landed, Siobhan went straight to
Jarnsmor’s study to report their findings. She hadn’t expected Hammon and Lirah
to already be there, all of them seated around the table, but was half glad
that they were present. It saved her from hunting them down later and repeating
herself.

“Guildmaster Maley,” Jarnsmor greeted with open relief. “You
came back quite quickly! Please, sit, sit.”

She took a seat next to him with subtle pleasure. Sitting on
something that didn’t sway back and forth was a blessing.

“You were able to gather information expediently,” Hammon
noted, eyes sharp on her. “Or you weren’t able to find out anything at all. Which
is it?”

Siobhan grimaced. “A little of both. Good news is, we’ve
found the reason why they’re so adamantly against the trade agreement between
you. It is, in fact, blatantly obvious if you get close enough to Coravine.
They’re building a bridge.”

“A
bridge?
” Hammon repeated in shock, eyes wide in
his face.

“It’s quite sizeable.” Siobhan’s hands rose in illustration
as she tried to describe it. “Not as wide as the Grey Bridges, I’d say it’s
about half the width, but that’s more than large enough for trade caravans and
such to go across. According to rumor, it’ll connect directly over to Wynngaardian
soil, just northeast of Quigg.”

Jarnsmor turned in his seat to look at the map hanging on
the wall nearby. “There’s no cities or villages in that area.”

“Yet,” Lirah corrected, mouth a flat line. “You know as well
as I that if you build a bridge that connects there, then a city will develop
around it by default. Trade always has such an effect on places.”

“She’s right,” Hammon agreed. “No, the lack of city or such
doesn’t matter in the long run. I think whoever is building that bridge knows
it, too, which is why they chose to build a bridge the shortest distance
possible.”

Siobhan couldn’t help but agree with all of this. It was
very similar to Sylvie’s conclusions. “They haven’t been working on it long,
about four or five months. They’re years from completing it.”

“Of course they would be.” Jarnsmor sat back in his chair,
making the leather sigh. “That’s no easy feat, building a bridge that far. But
how in the world are they financing this? We’re going to just build on top of
an existing bridge and it’s taking three guilds to finance that!”

“They must have been planning this for years, working up to
it,” Hammon hypothesized. “I can’t imagine how they’re doing this otherwise.”

Lirah put her head in both hands and spoke to the table’s
surface. “At least I now understand why I was attacked. Years of planning would
be destroyed instantly when a trade monopoly was formed.”

“Sending assassins after you was a delaying tactic and
nothing more,” Siobhan agreed, although she winced at the harshness of her own
words. “Although, really, it still doesn’t make sense to me that they chose to
attack instead of join in. If they had, then they might well have been able to
convince you to help them build the bridge.”

“Not necessarily,” Hammon disagreed, his expression smooth
and unreadable. “Our agreement was based upon the market trends and economics
of the world as they stand. Making trade easier with Orin would not be to our
benefit.”

Which someone in Orin had obviously realized, hence the lack
of effort to join the monopoly. Siobhan let out a resigned sigh. If people had
been thinking less about lining their pockets and more about the good of the
world as a whole, they wouldn’t be in such a mess right now. “Bad news is, I
couldn’t get any information about the new guildmaster of Fallen Ward. Even the
people in the city don’t know anything. Ever since the death of the old
guildmaster, the main compound has been completely sealed tight. It’s hard for
anyone to even approach the gates.”

“Hence why I can’t get in contact with my people,” Jarnsmor
sighed. He rapped his fingers against the tabletop. “But you didn’t hear
anything? Not even rumors?”

“Not a thing. It’s very strange.”

“Yes, so it is,” Nuel Hammon agreed slowly.

Siobhan was left with the obvious question. “So what now?”

“We ignore it.” Jarnsmor’s mouth twitched in a brief, dry
smile. “Oh, we’ll keep an eye on them and make sure that we’re prepared for
more assassins, if they choose to send them after us. But really, with the
monopoly now formed, there’s not much they can do. We know the bridge is
there—it loses its threat because it’s incomplete. The money that they’ve
managed to save can’t possibly be enough to complete the project.”

She searched his face, looking for some insecurity or worry,
but he seemed entirely confident of his own opinion. “You think ignoring them
will work?”

“Yes.”

“We’ve little other choice,” Hammon added, tone reassuring.
“We
must
focus on the renovations of the Grey Bridges. If we lose them,
then it’s not just the economy of Orin that will take a plunge, but all four
continents.”

Well, he had a good point, but….

“Speaking of,” Jarnsmor caught her eye, “Miss Darrens and I
have been discussing logistics. We have a team of architects that will be
traveling to Island Pass in the next few days in order to study the bridges and
make plans. Might we employ you as escorts for them?”

Siobhan blinked at this unexpected offer. “Well, I certainly
don’t mind.” She glanced at Lirah, not quite sure if she should accept or not.

“I assured him you can go,” Lirah responded as if she had
asked the question aloud. “After all, my people aren’t going to be in any shape
to move for weeks yet and there’s still the finer details of our agreement that
need to be settled on. There’s no reason for you to sit here waiting about on
my behalf.”

“I’ve assured her that when it’s time for her to return
home, I’ll send an escort with her,” Jarnsmor added.

Oh. Well, in that case…. “Certainly, we’ll act as escorts
for your people. Would you wish for us to stay with them and bring them back
after they’re done with their work?”

He shook his head. “No need. They’ll stay on and oversee the
masons. The architects are only the first wave, you see.”

“I’m gathering masons and building supplies along with
Blackstone that will join the architects in a month or so,” Hammon explained.
“So once you take the architects to the Pass, there’s no reason to remain.”

So they could all go home shortly, in other words. She was
relieved to hear it. “In that case, we’d be more than willing to take on the
job.”

“Excellent. Your whole guild will do so, I assume?”

She understood what he meant and gave him a smug smile. If
he’d placed a bet that Rune would desert her, he’d lost it. “
All
of my
people are accounted for.”

“I see.” The other two were confused but neither Siobhan nor
Jarnsmor felt it necessary to explain it to them. He continued with an inviting
smile, “It will be some days before we’re ready, so take this time to relax and
rest.”

Siobhan gave him a strained smile in return. Several days?
They’d be here for several days with nothing to do? Could she keep her rowdy
boys in check that long?

No.

She was doomed.