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laughter. Walter's wife was still, even after all this time, reserved, almost
silent, around Karl. The dwarf was a different case; since Ahira lived with
her, Janie, and Walter, she had come to take him for granted.
Karl pushed his chair back from the table and folded his hands over his navel.
"So? Where do we stand?"
"Which?" Riccetti downed the last of his water. "Politics or powder?"
"Dealer's choice."
Ahira bit his lip. "It's the politics that worries me. Even if the locals "
"The slavers."
" even if the slavers have figured out how to make powder, we have quite a few
tricks in reserve.
Nitrocellulose," Ahira said with a sigh. "If necessary."
Riccetti snorted. "Fine.
You figure out how to keep it stable."
Karl raised an eyebrow. "How's the research going?"
"Not well. It's still averaging around ninety, ninety-five days before the
damn stuff self-detonates." He threw up his hands. "It could be that I've got
to figure out a better wash or maybe just bite the bullet and admit that I
can't do it with the kinds of impurities we're getting in the sulfuric. Or
maybe I should just tell you to find yourself another jackleg chemical
engineer."
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Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors
"Hey, Lou "
"Don't heylou me, dammit. If I had wanted to major in chemical engineering
instead of civil engineering, I would have. You know how I was taught to
procure explosives?"
"Well "
"I was taught to order them. Out of a catalog
. You get a license
, you fill out the forms
, you write a check
..." He chewed his thumbnail. "And really pure chemicals "
"Wait." Ahira held up a hand. "Lou, with all due respect, do we have to go
through this again? We all know that you're going to keep working on
guncotton, and everybody in this room believes that you'll lick the
self-detonating problem, eventually."
"
Sure
I will. Ever read that Verne book about a trip to the moon?"
"The one where they shot them out of a cannon? No. Why?"
Riccetti spread his hands on the table. "Observe at no time do the fingers
leave the hand. I like it that way." He drummed his fingers on the table.
"Most of the book was nonsense. But ol' Julie had one thing right. Most of his
characters people who spent a lot of time dealing with explosives were missing
a few body parts. If I had to start making explosives in quantity, God knows
what'll happen."
"So don't make any quantities until you're ready to."
"I guess I should have studied chemical engineering. Or brought along a few
pounds of PYX, maybe."
"There is a... nastier alternative," Andy-Andy's face grew grim. "I could put
in the work to learn transmutation of metals, instead of just doing this
agricultural kid stuff. How many pounds of uranium would it take to "
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"Forget it." Riccetti shook his head. "Three problems. First, without good
explosives for the lenses, setting off a fission bomb isn't easy. Second, it
isn't only uranium you need, you need uranium that's ninety-seven plus percent
U-two-thirty-five. Third, you won't live to get good enough to do any kind of
transmutation. It's not like rainmaking. Aristobulus wasn't far enough along
for transmutation, and you're still not half the wizard... he was."
"Delicately put." Ahira raised his eyes to heaven. "But Lou's right, although
for the wrong reasons. We're not taking that route."
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Thellaren raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask. "Mr. Mayor, what do you think we
ought to do about the political situation? You are not willing to consider
Lord Khoral's new offer?"
"New offer?" Karl asked. "Something I don't know about?"
"Yeah." The dwarf shook his head. "We've got another emissary from Khoral due
between now and the town meeting, and I expect he's going to go up the ante.
More serfs; titles enough to go around how would you like to be Karl, Baron
Cullinane?"
Karl snorted.
"All he wants is your fealty, Karl. And, just maybe, he wants Lou to give him
the secret of gunpowder."
"What he wants, Ahira, is both Lou and a bargaining chip to bludgeon the
Slavers' Guild with."
"It's not the bludgeoning that bothers you. It's the possibility of not
bludgeoning. C'mon, now, there's never been a human baron in Therranj," the
dwarf teased. "Wouldn't you like to be the first?"
"No, thanks." It was partly a matter of ego, partly a matter of dignity. But
mainly it was a matter of independence.
Karl didn't like the idea of being told what to do by anyone, and he most
particularly didn't like the idea of becoming a second-class Therranji. Elves
had ruled in Therranj forever; the present Lord Khoral claimed to trace his
ancestry back for thousands of years. Humans were second-class citizens in
Therranj, and though most of them were as native-born as the elves,
descendants of immigrants from the Eren regions, humans were forbidden to own
land, ride horses, or practice half a score of professions.
And despite the fact that Khoral had already offered full Therranji
citizenship to everyone in the valley humans, elves, and dwarves alike Karl
was more than sure that that wouldn't quite take. Racial prejudice was
different here, but still every bit as firmly entrenched on This Side as back
on the Other
Side.
Maybe worse, in a way; here, there was a sound basis for at least some of it.
While Karl didn't have anything against dwarves or elves, he wouldn't want
Aeia to marry either; any children would be sterile, mules.
And then there was the matter of the Slavers' Guild. Western Therranj was a
prime raiding ground for the slavers, and certainly that was a common interest
between Home and Therranj for now but that could change. There was no doubt
that Khoral wanted to hold the threat of Karl Cullinane over the slavers'
heads, promising to restrain him if the guild would lay off the raids on
Therranj.
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What bothered Karl was that Khoral just might persuade the guild. The
spreading war in the Middle
Lands increased the supplies of slaves in its wake; it was becoming
increasingly easy for the guild to trade in Bieme and Holtun rather than
raiding into Therranj.
There was an even darker side to it. What if Khoral was sincere? What if he
really would make Karl some sort of baron?
That was a trap for both ruler and ruled. Karl's authority over his warriors
flowed from respect and choice both theirs and his. There might come a time
when he could give up that authority and what went with it, when he'd be able
to say that he'd never again have to see friends' intestines spill onto the
grass.
But that could only happen as long as he remained free. Not trapped by a
title.
"The town meeting is the problem," Karl said. "At least for now. It might get
a bit dirty "
"Karl " Andy-Andy started.
"
politically
," he went on. "No bloodshed. I'll handle it. Just make sure that the envoy's
kept busy until the meeting. Give him a full, in-depth tour, excluding
Reserved caverns. Hell, you can have Nehera discourse for a couple of hours on
alloys. Hmmm... I don't see any need for the envoy to be muttering with the
Joiners so be careful." He turned to Lou. "Anything outside of the caverns
that shouldn't be seen?"
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