Ascendant (35 page)

The chancellor
was an old man, ancient to Ariana's young eyes; he became chancellor back when
her grandfather was king of Tarador, and to Ariana's memory, always had white
hair and a long white mustache. He had been Tarador's chancellor for twenty
three years, serving two kings and now, one Regent. The years since Ariana's
father died had aged him, perhaps more than all the other years combined, yet
he had the energy of a younger man, and he was determined to remain in his job
at least until Ariana sat on the throne. If that ever happened.

"Chancellor
Kallron," Ariana bowed slightly in deference to the man's age, and he
bowed lower in deference to her royalty, "please come in, sit down. Would
you like a glass of wine?"

"Wine?
No, your Highness, I am afraid that at my age, it goes to my head far too
easily." In truth, the chancellor rarely drank wine, or alcohol of any
kind. He preferred to keep a clear head, while wine loosened other people's tongues,
and he could listen to things that perhaps should not be said. He pointed to
the teapot on the table. "If the tea is hot, I would appreciate a
cup." Tea, for the chancellor, was far more than a beverage. The time
spent placing a cup in front of him, carefully pouring tea from the pot,
selecting a lump of sugar, adding a spoonful of cream, stirring the sweetened
tea, setting the spoon down on a napkin, and finally raising the cup to his
lips and sipping, all gave him time, time to observe. He needed time to observe
the princess, for she had given no hint of what she wanted, when she sent the
note inviting, or summoning, the chancellor. He preferred to know the purpose
of a meeting before he walked into the room. To know the purpose, so he could
plan, and assure that he walked out of the meeting with what he wanted, or at
least to limit the damage.

What he
observed gave him no clue as to what the princess wanted, although her clothes,
casual by the standards expected of a crown princess, made it clear to him this
was no formal matter of state. He also observed several open books on the
table, pushed to the side, one book with a plate of cookies on top, and a
half-nibbled cookie on a napkin in front of the princess. There was also a
scroll on which the princess had been practicing her penmanship, indeed tiny
smeared dots of ink stained her fingers, which she hadn't washed away before
the chancellor arrived. So, she was relaxed, going about her day, and this
particular meeting was not something she had prepared overmuch for. Unless,
that is what she wanted the chancellor to think, to throw him off balance,
although he did not think she had learned such guile yet. "You wished to
speak with me, your Highness?" He said as he carefully set down the teacup
in its saucer.

"Yes, I
need to borrow money, to cover the expenses of stationing my personal guard in
the Thrallren woods. You can arrange a loan from the royal treasury?"

The chancellor
found the princess to be refreshingly direct, she did not waste time with pleasantries
or talking around the issue; she just said what she wanted. Sometimes the
chancellor forgot that the crown princess used to be the little girl he bounced
on his knee when she was barely able to walk, and she likely still thought of
him more as kindly Uncle Kallron, rather than as Chancellor Kallron. He had an
answer ready, for Ariana's mother had already discussed the issue with him, and
the princess was not going to like the answer. "Ah, yes, unfortunately,
your Highness, your mother has directed me not to release any funds from the
royal treasury to you. Her words to me were that if you wish to defy her by
keeping your guard in the Thrallren, you can figure out how to pay for them
yourself." Seeing the crestfallen look on the princess' face, he hastened
to add "Perhaps your mother simply wishes you to ask her directly. I think
that she was rather hurt by your actions." Having the Regent of the land
be the mother of the crown princess made Kallron's position between them
terribly difficult, with affairs of state getting confused by personal feelings
and family business.

The princess'
face scrunched up with stubborn determination. "I am not going to go ask
my mommy for money. I don't want the money to buy something silly like a new
dress, I
need
the money to protect our borders, since my mother hasn't
see fit to do it properly herself."

Kallron
couldn't completely suppress a wry smile. "Yes, your mother told me you
would say that. Perhaps this is an opportunity for you to develop your
diplomatic skills? When you are queen, there will be many times when you will
need to persuade others to do as you wish, rather than merely issuing
others."

"I know,
I know, you keep telling me that." She shook her head, and brushed aside
the curls of hair that cascaded over her face. "And I will, but not now. I
just can't think straight when it's my mother I'm talking to."

Nor can
she, when she is talking to you
, the chancellor thought, but
kept silent.

"Then, I
shall have to borrow money from one of the merchant banking houses. You can
arrange that?"

The chancellor
nodded. This too, he had anticipated, when Carlana told him her daughter could
not borrow from the royal treasury. "I can, however, I must warn you, it
will be expensive, particularly as you will be borrowing the money for several
years."

"Expensive?
Why? They know I'll pay them back once I become queen." Who would hesitate
to loan money to the monarch of the realm?

"Forgive
an old man for rambling on a bit, your Highness, but I think this is a good
opportunity to instruct you about banking and finance. Just a bit, I
promise." He added, but instead of the frown he expected when he mentioned
'instruction', the princess leaned forward attentively. The prospect of
becoming queen in just a few years had made her interested in subjects that had
tended to bore her when she was younger. "The banking houses in Tarador
get most of their money from foreign lands-"

"Why? We
don't have enough money here in Tarador?"

"Certainly
there are enough coins going around, your Highness, but the war with Acedor,
particularly recently, our needs for grain, war materials and, well, almost
everything, exceeds the amounts available within our borders. To make up the
difference, we have needed to buy from foreigners. Even the royal treasury borrows
temporarily from the merchant banking houses, to tide us over during the year,
until harvest time when taxes are collected. The amount we have had to pay to
borrow money has been increasing every year since your father died. And those
are short-term loans, backed by the full credit of the state."

"The cost
to borrow is going up, because foreigners are afraid my mother will lose the
war?"

"The fear
that
Tarador
will lose the war does drive up the cost of
borrowing." The chancellor was uncomfortable with Ariana criticizing the Regent
he owed his loyalty to.  "But mostly the fear is that the costs of
the war, of defending our borders," he looked the princess in the eye at
that remark, "will stretch our resources so much, that we will not be able
to repay the loans. Or at least not repay them on time, which is almost as bad,
as far as the banking houses are concerned. It is uncertainty, you see, that
drives fear, and fear drives the cost of borrowing."

"You're
saying it would be expensive me to borrow money, because people fear the royal
treasury will be empty by the time I become queen, and I won't be able to pay
them?" She had seen the gold and silver in the royal treasury vault
beneath the palace, and couldn't imagine it ever going empty. And that was only
one vault, which she had been told was rather small, as vaults go.

"Yes, and
there are other fears, when the borrower is yourself. This would be a personal
loan to you, but paid back with future state funds. That is an unusual
arrangement, and the banking houses won't like it."

Ariana's
cheeks flushed red. "They think I may decide not to pay them once I am on
the throne? They question my honor?"

"Your
honor, no. May I speak frankly, your Highness?"

"Always,
chancellor." Now she was being formal.

"In addition
to the risk that Tarador may lose the war, or that the war may deplete our
finances, with loaning money to you, there are two other risks. First, there is
the risk that if the war begins to go badly against us, your mother may be
replaced as Regent, and that would present the risk of the Trehayme family
losing the throne. In which case, you will not become queen."

Hearing this,
Ariana's face became pale, as if she'd just fallen ill. "And the second
reason?" She asked, fearing she knew the answer.

"Forgive
me for saying this, your Highness, but the second reason is-"

"If I am
killed before my sixteenth birthday."

"Unpleasant
though it is to think about, yes, your Highness. That is a risk that must be
considered, by any banking house. If you do not become queen, whoever sits on
the throne would be under no obligation to repay your personal debts."

Ariana looked
out the window and bit her fingernails for a moment while she thought.
"Wait here please, chancellor." She rose from the chair and walked
across the room, through the doorway to her bedchamber, where her maid Nurelka
was discretely waiting. It only took her a minute to come back, with a thick
red folded cloth in her hands. She sat back down, and unfolded the cloth to
reveal a gold ring with a large rectangular emerald, surrounded by six
diamonds. "Would a banking house be happy if they could hold onto this,
until I repay them?"

The
chancellor's eyebrows flew up in surprise. "Your Highness, royal jewels
can't be used for-"

"Oh,
hush, chancellor, my father's mother gave this to me on my fourth birthday, so
it's my personal property. It belonged to her mother. I rarely wear it, because
it's rather an old style, with that chunky emerald and the scrollwork on the
gold."

The chancellor
reflected that the 'chunkiness' of the emerald came from its substantial size,
which made the gem very valuable. "Your Highness, at the risk of sounding
like Charl Fusting, this is indeed most irregular." The thought of royal
jewels ending up in a pawn shop horrified him. Sometimes he needed to remind
himself that he worked for people who owned palaces and had their own armies.
Fabulous jewels were nothing but baubles to such people.

"Like I
said, I rarely wear it, I don't think it would be recognized by anyone outside
the palace. It's not doing me any good by sitting at the bottom of a drawer.
How much do you think I could borrow against this ring?"

Kallron's mind
was racing to think of how he could discretely, with the
utmost
discretion
,
have someone approach a merchant banker with the large and distinctive ring.
"Your Highness, you could easily borrow enough funds to keep your guard in
the Thrallren for years. This ring is, in fact, far too valuable to-"

"No, use
this one. I may need additional money in the future, and I don't want to keep
going back to the banking houses. You can arrange it?"

"If you
insist, your Highness, certainly I can handle this discretely."

"Thank
you. As part of your discretion, you will not mention this to my mother."

"I will
have to tell your mother the truth if she asks, your Highness."

Ariana
laughed. "Oh, she will, she will. Don't mention it until then, I rather
like the idea of my mother waiting a while, thinking I'll come crawling to her
for money."

Walking slowly
so as not to spill anything, Koren climbed the steps of the tower, up to
Paedris
’
study. It had taken him most of the day to prepare a special dinner for
Paedris. The cooks in the royal kitchens had looked skeptically at the strange
foreign spices Martel had given to Koren, and had turned up their noses at the
scents as Koren was cooking, but he thought it smelled and tasted delicious.
The wizard looked away from the scroll he was studying, and sniffed the air,
his eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“
It
can
’
t be! Is
that tordalla soup?
”

Koren set the
tray down, and lifted the covers to show the food.
“
Tordalla soup, and chicken
in-fi-er-no, I think that
’
s
how you say the word, with corn cakes and rice.
”

The wizard
almost trembled with delight as he lifted a spoon to his lips and tasted the
soup.
“
Oh,
that is splendid. The pepper is perfectly roasted, just a hint of sweetness.
There is a new cook from Estada in the royal kitchens?
”

“
Oh, uh, no.
”
Koren shifted from one
foot to the other, embarrassed.
“
I
made it.
”

“
You?
”
Paedris looked at the
food, then cut off a piece of chicken and closed his eyes as he tasted it.
“
Perfection. Perfection!
Where, when, how did you learn to cook, to cook food from my homeland?
”