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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Two - Dine Another Day

  Mister Sebastien and Mister Geoffrey sat down across from us and remained very silent for a while.

  It got a bit unfortable, awkward, even.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. It was only o extend the first olive branch. “That was sort of rude of me. We’re yuests, and I did the whole rank thing. I mean, it was kinda fun, since I never got to do that before, but still mean.”

  Edmund coughed into his fist as if to hide a very inappropriate grin.

  I didn’t have a full picture of how things were going dowween him and the pany men, but I could feel a bit of tensioweewo.

  Sebastien, the younger of the pair, cleared his throat and spoke up first. “It’s... all well, Captain Bunch. Please five Geoffrey and myself. We acted rashly. You are, of course, guests, and deserve all the courtesy that es with that.”

  I nodded, a big smiling ing on. Civility was so nice.

  “Yes,” Amaryllis said with a tohat had me worried. “I imagihat you treat all of yuests with such wonderful hospitality.”

  I pced a hand ohigh uhe table, a small gesture to tell her not to go too far.

  She huffed and rolled her eyes. “So,” I asked. “You two don’t look like lumberjacks,” I said. “I ’t imagihere’s all that much busywork to do in a camp like this.”

  “You’d be surprised,” Edmund said. “We do o keep track of supplies and the like, not to mention how much lumber’s being shipped down south, and how many goods we need from up north.”

  That made some sense. “Why do you get things from one dire ahem to another?” I asked.

  “The river,” he said. “There’s a little river that runs all the way down to Needleford, or at least a little vilge between us and the city where they load the lumber up onto wagons to haul down to Needleford. We get most of our supplies from Cherryhold.”

  Awen perked up. “My family sells a lot of things that end up there,” she said. “It’s closer to ship to Cherryhold than to Needleford. Or, well, it’s faster and safer. Otherwise you o go the long way around the Seven Peaks.”

  “,” I said.

  Gerumbled something and shifted on his seat. “We’re here on official business,” he said. “Nothing that ought to bother you, dies.”

  That... was fair. I probably shouldn’t pry. “So what sort of business?” my mouth asked before I could rein it in. I spped a hand over it, just in case. “I’m sorry! It’s none of my business.”

  Edmund snorted. “They’re here to make peace with the dryads,” he said.

  “Unfortunately,” Sebastien said. “It’s not going as well as it should.”

  “Did you snub them?” Amaryllis asked rather snobbily.

  Judging by the quick grimace that crossed Sebastien’s face, the ao that might have been a resounding yes.

  “They’re trees!” Geoffrey said. “Trees! No money, no property, no idea of how propriety works.” He smacked the table. “They’ve no king or nation. I’d call them savages, but even savages have some form of society.”

  Edmund’s expression darkened quite a bit. “Ahey’re beating us at every turn. Ever sihey got that leader of theirs.”

  “I met a really nice dryad once. He retty cool. He helped me find some flowers and we fought some moogether. I don’t know if he had a nation, or a king, but he was a nice person,” I said.

  “That’s not most folk’s experieh the tree people,” Edmund said. “They be mighty violent aorial.”

  “Well,” I said. “You are encroag oerritory.”

  “This territory belongs to the East Mattergrove pany,” Geoffrey said.

  I had the impression I’d heard that before in a history lesson or two. It didn’t usually end well. “How much did you pay the dryads for it?” I asked.

  Amaryllis snorted and, to my surprise, Bastion chuffed in withheld ughter.

  Sebastien, probably sensing that his friend was about to be rude again, waved his hand down befeoffrey and looked my way. “Captain, you mentioned speaking to the dryad. Did you enter ohat talk on?”

  “The killer oak speak on,” Edmund said. “It’s broken and slow, but it’s mostly uandable.”

  “Uh,” I said. “No, I’m pretty sure I speak tree.”

  “Is he the one you got that spear from?” Amaryllis asked. “The one you carried around for a bit and that you obviously don’t know how to use.”

  I snapped my fingers. “Oh, I fot all about that,” I said. “Yeah, Oak gave that to me.”

  “Oak?” Edmund asked.

  I nodded. “That’s his name.”

  The man eyed me for a bit. “Well, I suppose it’s a on enough sort of tree around here,” he said.

  “If you speak tree...” Sebastien began. “Miss... Captain Bunch, how long do you io stay in the area.”

  “Only until m,” I said. “We really don’t want to impose.”

  The man leaned forwards. “I see. We have a bit of a problem right now, and if you could act as transtor, I think we could remedy it with far less bloodshed and trouble. I uand if you’re busy, but perhaps the East Mattergrove pany could make it worth your while.”

  “I, uh, I’m not saying yes or no so soon,” I said. “Could you tell me how things have been going so far?”

  Edmund raised a hand, finger up in a ‘one moment’ sort of gesture. “Food’s ing. We ought to serve up befetting into the heavier talk.”

  A gnce over to the kit showed a couple of the younger guys grabbing some stacked ptes and little baskets filled with utensils which they started distributing around the tables. Anroup came up bearing some big pots filled with steaming food.

  As they approached our table, I could make out the st of boiled... everything. When they came over to our table and started slopping some of the food onto our ptes, my suspis were firmed. The chefs here just boiled everything together.

  “Delicious,” Amaryllis said before taking so much as oe.

  “Awa, it’s... probably not that bad,” Awen said. “Um. I’m sure I couldn’t do better. Probably.”I took a spoonful, blew on it until it was cooler, then nibbled it down. “Hey, this is alright.”

  “The boys out back don’t know how to make the food look good, but it always tastes just fine,” Edmund said. “And it’s hearty too. This is the kind of warm grub you need after a day’s work.”

  I took another bite and made agreeable noises around it. There was some meat, which still tasted a bit off, but the veggies and the broth made up for that.

  Sebastien poked his food a bit before he started to eat, and Geoffrey looked at it with ht disgust before he started to spoon some into his mouth.

  My friends were far less picky, it seemed. Bastion was chowing through his meal like a soldier, matg some of the lumberjacks for speed and efficy, and the girls were nibbling away at their meals.

  “So, Mister Sebastien,” I said. “You were saying about maybe having some work for us?”

  The man nodded quickly, then dabbed at his mouth with a handkerchief. “Indeed, Captain. We have been trying to meet with the dryads to set up some sort of peaceful accord. We could... solicit aid from the army, but bringing troops here from Mattergrove would be expensive, and seeing as how the dryads are now armed and seem quite capable, a protracted battle in these forests would be incredibly expensive for the East Mattergrove pany.”

  “Not to mention morally... uh, bad,” I added.

  “Yes, of course,” Sebastien agreed. “One of the bigger challenges we’re fag now is not only reag the core of the forest, where the leaders of the dryad stay, but also unig with them. You seem to have a solution to both.”

  “That’s nice,” Amaryllis said. “But while we have those solutions, we doly have mu terms of iive to assist you.”

  Sebastien sidered that.

  Personally, I was okay with a bit of a detour. Maybe we could help the dryads out, and Oak too, and then we could find a nice, peaceful solution to everything.

  “The East Mattergrove pany is not without some financial resources,” Sebastien said.

  Awen nodded. “They are one of the biggest panies in Mattergrove,” she said. “We used to have a lot of them e to Greenshade because it’s a trade city. They’re probably the richest non-noble group in Mattergrove.”

  “Richest in one of the poorest tries,” Amaryllis said. “That means they’re a small fish elsewhere.”

  “Perhaps we could give you a favourable deal on some cargo,” Sebastien said. “Or if your vessel is at capacity already, we could offer you a letter of introdu, perhaps a rebate on some of our wares.”

  “Do you have fuel for ships?” I asked. “And a paintain them?”

  Sebastien nodded. “We do. The East Mattergrove pany does a lot of shippiween Mattergrove and Deepmarsh by sea and air. We’re the principal traders with our eastern allies.”

  I looked to my friends fuidance, Awen first, since she khe pa.

  “Awa, they’re, um, a pany. But we do have something they want, so I think they’ll be fair,” Awen said.

  “It would take up some of our time,” Amaryllis added.

  “We’re not in that much of a hurry, though,” I said.

  Bastion hummed as he gestured for seds. “The main diplomatic mission is only leaving in a week and a bit. We’re set to arrive quite a bit earlier than they are, even if we make a little detour to assist these filemen.”

  “Mister Sebastien, would it be possible to receive a perma dist on any purchases we make?” Amaryllis asked.

  The man frowned and looked to his older partner. “I’m not senior enough to make that kind of deal,” he said.

  “I am,” Geoffrey said. “A perma dist sounds like a whole lot of trouble.”

  “Ah, but it’s to fix a problem you’re not petent enough to fix yourself,” Amaryllis said. “I’ll have you know that Captain Bunch here, despite her appearances, is an expert iator. Not only would you not have to hire your owiator, you’d have transportation to and from a dangerous area, and it’s safe to say that no one on this side of this table is a slouch when it es to bat. Awen takes after her uncle, Broccoli came in sed pce at the Roseourhis year, and I’m an aplished mage myself. Bastion here is, well, he’s a royal padin, I’m certain that I don’t o elucidate on his abilities in bat.”

  One of Bastion’s brows perked up. I could sympathize, I was w what Amaryllis too as well.

  “That’s... quite tempting,” Sebastien said. “Maybe if the sum of the dist is low enough we could make it perma.”

  “No more than two pert,” Geoffrey said.

  “That’s a pittance,” Amaryllis said. “We’d lose more than that dealing with transportation to and from such a backwater. Ten pert.”

  “Ten! By the king’s beard, are y to bankrupt us?” Geoffrey asked. “Three.”

  “Three? For a tiny, insignifit pany run by bureaucrats too inpetent to be hired by the royal family? Seven.”

  “Five, and I’ll have you know that the wishes it had our astute business a,” Geoffrey said.

  Amaryllis hesitated. “Five, and the right extends to anyone in our crew.”

  “Anyone? Are you mad, you bird?” Geoffrey asked. “We’ll give it to the Captain and the Captain alone.”

  “Fihen ten pert, seeing as how any of us would o gh her as an intermediary anyway.”

  Geoffrey huffed, then grumbled something under his breath. “Four, and it’s transferable.”

  “Five, and it be transferred to any of us,” Amaryllis insisted.

  The old man nodded. “Five.”

  I had no idea what just happened, but Amaryllis looked particurly smug, so I decided that it robably for the best to just push on. “Then it’s decided,” I said as I extended a hand over the table. “Tomorrow m, when the sun’s up, we’ll see about flying you closer to the dryads. And then I act as a transtor for you, if you want.”

  ***