The Triumph of Venus - Chapter 16

Devnum

Medb waited in the Empress’s private garden, pacing among the blooming flowers, trying to ignore the luxury the empress lived in, one that Medb herself had once enjoyed before her downfall. She knew herself and knew if she let thoughts like that fester, she would start slipping back into old patterns. While she’d been able to indulge in those in her former life, she’d come too close to death to court it again so soon.

Besides, she was having fun for the first time since she’d been exiled to this godforsaken place, and the last thing she wanted was to be shelved again, kept in stately rooms to act as a princeling’s concubine instead.

Motion at the garden entrance drew her attention. She smiled slightly as she saw the Roman senator Taenaris being ushered into the garden by one of the palace guards, pleased to see his annoyed expression as he realized who he was being brought to meet. She didn’t know the senator beyond a few curt words, but she knew his type. Pompous, self-important, and utterly convinced of his own genius. Tweaking the noses of men like him always gave Medb a small amount of joy.

“What do you want, Medb?” Taenaris said in a gruff, almost bordering on rude, tone.

“That’s not a great way to start off with one of the Empress’s agents, doing the empire’s business.”

“You’ll get over it, now what do you want from me?”

“I want your help,” she said.

Taenaris let out a bark of laughter, “Why on earth would I ever help someone like you?”

Medb shrugged, “I already told you I’m doing work directly for the Empress. For someone who holds such an important position, you really should try to pay more attention. But, since I know how distrusting you are, perhaps the fact that I’m in her private garden, with her guards bringing you to me should help prove that.” She paused, letting her words sink in before continuing, “If you still don’t believe me, after this you can check with Ramirus, whose minions have been scurrying around me constantly, watching me like a hawk.”

Taenaris glared at her, looking like he wanted to say something more biting, before giving a small nod, “Fine, but that doesn’t answer what you want help with, specifically.”

“I need some legislation introduced in the Senate. Specifically, I need you to introduce a bill requiring wool production to be distributed equally across the empire, with wool bought by the empire and used in imperial factories to be bought in equal parts from each state.”

“Why do you care about wool production?” he asked, frowning in suspicion. “What are you trying to gain?”

“I’m not trying to gain anything. I don’t care if this bill is passed, I just need it introduced and it to be believable enough that anyone else looking at the legislation believes it to be genuine.”

For a moment, Taenaris didn’t say anything. She could see the wheels turning behind his eyes, trying to work out what exactly she was trying to do. She knew all of her protestations aside, he still wasn’t convinced this wasn’t some kind of scheme on her part to increase either her wealth or power. She didn’t blame him for that and was about to point out again that she was doing this on behalf of the queen when he surprised her.

Instead of protesting again, or refusing, or calling into doubt her motives, he asked, “What is the current distribution?”

“At the moment, more than half the wool bought by the empire comes from Uliad, with Caledonia producing the second most and Rome making up maybe five percent of what is purchased.”

His brow creased further as she answered him. “You understand that would hurt Ulaid and the farmers of Eiru?”

“I do, but I don’t actually expect it to get voted on, let alone passed, since it would require both Caledonia and Eiru to take large cuts in their wool trade, purely for the benefit of Rome.”

“Could Rome even handle that increased production?”

“I have no idea, although I doubt it,” Medb answered. “It doesn’t matter. It won’t be the first time you lot passed laws that bore no relation to reality.”

Taenaris gave her a thin-lipped, humorless smile and said, “Funny. You understand the other Senators will see this as some kind of power grab on my part, don’t you? It will anger them and make it harder for me to make deals with the other delegations in the future.”

“You’ll be shocked to hear how little I care about that,” Medb said.

He gave her another annoyed look and said, “Then why should I do any of this? You’re the one asking me for a favor, remember?”

“Because you’re a good dog who does what his Empress asks him to,” she said, and then rolled her eyes. “Fine, because it needs to be done. Some of your fellow Senators have been up to things they shouldn’t, and are causing problems for the Empress and the war effort.”

“And how does a bill on wool purchases help you with that? Seems kind of mundane and unconnected.”

“The bill is just a tool. I need to pull out some of the Senators into the open, so we can apply the right leverage to them. Think of it as a fishing expedition.”

“Which Senators?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as he started going through the relatively small list in his head.

“I’m not going to tell you.”

“Why?” he said, genuinely sounding surprised.

“Because you lack subtlety. You have a bad habit of letting people know what you’re thinking too easily, and this requires a softer touch.”

“Calling me incompetent will hardly persuade me to assist you.”

“I’m sure you’ll get over it. Besides, I didn’t call you incompetent, I said you weren’t subtle. I’m sure you’re very good at your job and the Empress thinks highly of you, but you’re too noble and honest for your own good. As to why you’ll do it, as humorless and pompous as you are, you’re also a patriot. You’ll think about it, check with Ramirus who’ll confirm what I’m doing is on his and the Empress’s orders, and realize that, with Ramirus involved, it’s more than just some simple jockeying for position.

“And why would the Empress ask you to do this? And why would you be working so hard for the Empress after scheming so hard to damage her.”

“The Empress asked me because I’m equally good at what I do, and she has this high-minded idea to give people second chances. While I doubt I would do it in her position, since I’m benefiting from it now, I can’t exactly fault her for it. This is my trial run to show I won’t be … difficult, if she gives me bigger jobs. As to why I’m doing it, that’s none of your business. Assume it’s because I’m bored and want something to do. Now, are you going to do this or not?”

Taenaris stared at her hard, considering. For a moment, she wondered if she’d pushed him too hard. She knew he’d be distrustful of any attempt at friendly persuasion, which is why she chose the tact with him she had, but perhaps she misjudged his motivations.

If she had to, she could go to Ramirus or the Empress and have them request on her behalf, forcing the issue, but she didn’t want to do that. Part of this was to prove she could get things done and, as distasteful as working for the Britannians was, it was better than the alternative at the moment.

Finally, he sighed and said, “Fine, I’ll introduce your bill.”

“Good,” she said, allowing him a friendly smile for the first time since he’d entered the garden. “I’m glad you listened to reason.”

Taenaris scowled. “Don’t get too cocky, Medb. I’m doing this because the Empress wouldn’t have given you this task without a reason, not because I believe you’re in any way reformed. If I find you are using me for some personal scheme, I promise there will be consequences.”

“Whatever,” she said, patting him condescendingly on the cheek. “As long as you do it, I don’t care what your reasons are.”

She left him standing there, fuming at her back as she walked away, allowing herself a genuine smile.

Yes, this really could be fun sometimes.

***

The Port of Kalb, Hispania

Cormac leaned against the windowsill of the commander’s office, overlooking the busy wharf, watching the sun sparking off the waters as ships by the dozen jockeyed for position coming and going. Even with the majority of the port’s faculties at least nominally in place now, the speed at which the port moved was breathtaking, dwarfing Cormac’s previous experiences in Uliad before the coming of the Romans. Even Devnum, with its larger ports and more massive facilities, didn’t seem nearly as breakneck as it did here.

“I must apologize again for the delay, my lord,” Commander Niall said, sitting at a desk next to Cormac, shuffling through stacks of papers. “The requests from Admiral Valdar have increased exponentially in the last few weeks and are starting to put a strain on our ability to maintain supplies.”

“Think nothing of it, Commander,” Cormac replied, turning from the window. “I know a little something of pressures from those above you and their unrelenting expectations.”

In truth, two years ago, Cormac might not have said that, having generally only his father to give him orders. These last few years, however, had done much to show Cormac just how much under the thumbs of superiors he was; although the layers above him were still a great deal smaller than the ones above the Commander.

Niall didn’t need to know that and looked up, giving Cormac a sympathetic smile as he found what he was looking for, pulling a sheet out of the truly terrifying stack of documents in front of him.

“As of now,” the commander continued. “We’re weeks behind in fulfilling the requests to purchase muskets from villages and tribes across the peninsula. The demand is simply overwhelming.”

“I know you’re overwhelmed already, but we need to find a way to accelerate deliveries. The muskets were the main thing that convinced these people to sign treaties with us. The rest will help solidify things in time, but this is still all too new, and the more we fall behind on our promises, the more likely they are to walk away.”

“I know, and I am trying, my prince, but very little of our shipping is run by the empire, and I am at the mercy of the merchants. If we were doing this directly from our own stores, that might be different, but opening our merchants to sell into civilian villages gives us less ability to apply pressure.”

“I know, and again, I appreciate the difficulties, but that doesn’t detract from what we need to happen. In fact, the speed of shipments is only part of what needs to happen. Even when they do arrive, the pricing is higher than it was for those sold into Germania. While that’s not generally known, I worry in time the villages here will learn that and blame us for the increase. It also means the smaller villages have less access to our goods, putting them even further behind the larger villages. For what we need, ultimately convincing them to not only stop all the infighting but actively taking part in the war effort, the more villages we have able to contribute, the more leverage we’ll have on the larger villages, who won’t want to appear lacking in comparison to their smaller neighbors.”

Niall leaned back, looking at the ceiling, and for a moment Cormac was wondering if the man even heard him.

Right as he was about to repeat himself, Niall said, “We could rebuild and reopen Port Invictus. It is now well behind the lines, so wouldn’t need the kind of military presence it had before, or even what we have now, but it’s also a lot closer to Britain than we are. One captain can make ten trips for the time it takes a captain to make the same trip here. Knowing these men, they would take a less in delivery fees for the allure of quick money. It would help shorten delivery times and bring down costs, at least to some degree.”

“An excellent idea, although not one that can happen right away. I’ll send word to the Empress and find out what we would need to do for that to happen. It doesn’t solve all of our problems because Southern Hispania is a lot more populated than the Northern half, so a lot of these tribes would find themselves further from the source of goods. Most of our merchants sell into the ports and let the ports sell to whoever, which is fine when it’s centrally located, but a problem otherwise.”

“I’m not sure we can have both halves of the bird, my prince.”

“I know,” Cormac said. “It really is an excellent idea and one I will start to explore. I was mostly just putting a voice to my thoughts.”

Before they could discuss Niall’s suggestion any further, a highly agitated Llassar burst into the room. Seeing the normally stoic and emotionally even Caledonian highly anything was unusual, immediately putting Cormac on edge.

“Forgive my intrusion, but we have an emergency,” he said briskly.

“What happened?” Cormac asked, stepping away from the window.

“There have been a series of raids. Tribes from central Hispania, predominantly the Arandur tribe, have attacked and destroyed several of their neighbors, making off with goods and slaves.”

They had dealt with so many tribes recently, it took Cormac a moment to cycle through all of their names. He did remember them though. Haughty, aggressive, and presumptuous. At the time, he’d thought they were just grandstanding, hoping for a better deal than some of their neighbors had gotten.

“It gets worse,” Llassar continued, seeing the recognition on Cormac’s face. “Survivors report muskets were used in the raids. Several of the other tribes have sent emissaries to the port, some of whom are here now, waiting to see you. We have started getting emissaries from tribes closer to us, with complaints. They’re blaming Britannia for this, and there’s talk of some of the other signed tribes withdrawing from the agreements.”

Cormac’s face twisted in anger, his fists clenching and slamming them onto the table next to the garrison commander as he said, “This is unacceptable! I told them what would happen if any of them double-crossed us. Commander, assemble a century and get them prepared to march.”

As a worried Niall started to stand, Llassar held up a hand and said, “That may not be the wisest course.”

“Why not? We said they were not to use the muskets against their neighbors when we sold them, and that we would bring swift retribution against them if they did. I do not intend to go back on my word.”

“No, we agreed that, if they were to use the weapons in hostilities against their neighbors, we would stop selling gunpowder and weapons to them.”

“So we’re just supposed to withhold weapons and let them use the ones they already brought to wreak havoc across the peninsula. I’m not sure that’s exactly what the Empress meant when she sent me here to ‘get things under control.’ We have to show the rest of the tribes that signed treaties with us that we can be counted on.”

“I’m not saying that’s all we do, I’m simply pointing out that is the consequence we laid out in our agreement when we sold them the weapons initially. Attacking the Arandur will make an effective display for some of the tribes, yes, but not all of them. They are watching for when Britannia becomes like the Carthaginians, using might to enforce their will. We will regain some of the tribes who are walking away, but we will lose others who aren’t. The Arandur aren’t the only offenders, either. They’re the largest and have done the most damage, but they’re not the only ones.”

“So what am I supposed to do? Just let them get away with it?”

“No. We can still deal with them, but we have to do it in the right way, to show all of the tribes that we can both be counted upon when they need our help and that we will abide by the terms we agreed upon, even when we have the ability or even responsibility to do something else instead.”

“I assume you have a way to pull that little trick off,” Cormac said petulantly, slipping back into his old habits.

“Possibly. We cut off gunpowder shipments to these tribes. It won’t matter, since they’ll just attack and steal what little the smaller tribes have managed to buy, but it’s a start. We start offering additional benefits or technologies to the tribes that have stayed loyal to us. It might not affect the larger tribes, but it will convince some on the fence that, in not getting those, there is a cost to crossing us that’s still within our agreement. We make it clear if they come back into the fold, we will offer them the same. That’s the carrot.”

“I hope there is a stick somewhere in there,” Cormac said.

“There is. While we’re offering those additional benefits, we sign defense treaties with the tribes that have abided by our rules. That way, when we do move against the tribes attacking our treaty partners, we aren’t acting arbitrarily, but within the bounds of our agreements. In reality, the Arandur have done us a favor, because hardly any of the tribes wanted to tie themselves to us militarily. The Arandur will force their hands, pushing even the strongest southern and western tribes into military alliances with us for their own safety.”

“That’s … interesting,” Cormac said, his anger fading as he considered Llassar’s plan. “There will be some tribes who still don’t want to be tied to us, who prefer to stay neutral.”

“It’s not a perfect solution, but nothing ever is,” Lassar said. “What it is, is the best option we have available to us at the moment. For the tribes that do sign, it opens the door to us being able to ask for assistance in our war, which was the real reason the Empress sent you out here. In case you missed how actively she was politicking to get manpower to send to the legions.”

Cormac frowned. He had missed that, but then, he’d been actively trying to avoid politics at the time, since it had meant spending more time listening to senators drone on about water use and land rights. Even with that, his first instinct was to just march on the offenders. Any of the tribes that pulled back would quickly find themselves in a worse position, since their neighbors would have tools they would not. And if they attacked their neighbors to get them … well, that was what the legions were for.

Of course, he’d been learning more and more that his first instinct was very often not the right one.

“We’ll do it your way,” Cormac finally said. “But if this doesn’t stop the raiding, I’m going to burn their villages to the ground.”

“If they don’t stop, you’ll have treaties in place to allow you to do just that,” Llassar said.

“Good.”