By Kernschatten
part one
You would think that being tagged with a sobriquet like "The Most Honest Man in Marienburg" would invoke a bit of respect. And you would be wrong. There are three things that work against me.
***
I could hear the shouting between the Excise Service sloop and the barge fifty yards out. A few more minutes and we would have the body out of the canal and the barge would be able to pass on. I did not think they intended to unload here. By the looks of this section of the Suiddock there had not been any goods unloaded in a long time. There was yelling much closer. I looked down at Karel and his cousin bobbing in a little skiff. Karel was trying to pull the net tighter around the body and his cousin had almost upset the skiff. There was some cursing back and forth that ended with Karel cuffing his cousin alongside the head. I watched him check the net and look up. With a grin he waved.
Beside me, Alskond grunted and began pulling up the net. I did not offer any help. The Norseman was the largest man that I have ever seen and an offer to help might be taken as an insult to his manhood. Yes, yes, it sounds foolish. But I had no interest in starting a blood feud that might last several generations. His people have gone to war over less. With a final heave he deposited the net at my feet.
Karel appeared over the edge almost at the same time. His cousin was rowing the skiff back out to the sloop. Traffic on the canal would be back to normal soon. Of course some of the merchants would file complaints with the Secretariat for Trade Equity anyway.
“Oleg is a moron,” Karel said. “Almost dunked me in the canal. I’m thinking his mother always drank too much.”
Alskond was trying to loosen the net. “I didn’t know your kind had mothers. Thought your men got drunk on potato liquor and cuddled with she-bears in the long winters.”
“Yes, but the she-bears always thank us afterwards.”
Alskond laughed. The bantering between them had been going on for over a decade. Together they have fought, drank, and womanized from one end of the known world to the other. I still find it odd for a Kislevite and a Norseman to be such fast friends.
The body finally came free and I crouched down beside Alskond. I let him poke and prod the corpse. He is more intimate with death in all its incarnations than I am. "Been in the water for several days. They should have cut his stomach open if they wanted him to stay down. Gases build up and the corpse floats back up in a few days."
"Perhaps they didn't want him to stay down."
"Perhaps." Alskond had pried open the dead man's jaws and pulled something out. He held up a gold coin. "Huh, a Guilder. It doesn't feel right." He handed it over. "A message of some kind?"
"What's the message and who is it for?" I looked closely at the coin. Sword on one side, mermaid on the other. The detail was sharp and the surface gleamed brightly. It looked freshly minted but was stamped with a date from twenty years ago. Askold was right. It did feel funny. The heft was off.
Karel had moved several yards off and was studying the surroundings. Somewhere a drunk was singing in Estalian. The canal front here was narrow and closed in by old warehouses and shops. Most of them were boarded up. The singing ended abruptly. Karel hissed, "Someone's coming."
I stood up and joined him. The closest lane leading down to the water was only wide enough for two men to walk abreast. The buildings went up four and five stories and leaned towards each other. It would be dark in that narrow street. Karel's ears are better than mine, but before long I could here the sounds that armed men make. The jingle and clank of harness and armor.
"Black Caps," said Karel.
Sure enough, a squad of the City Watch marched out from the narrow lane and spread out in front of us. Their captain approached. He studied the bloated corpse for a moment and turned to me. A brief nod of his head. "Commander Stuyvesant, well met."
***
The first thing that works against me is the family name. Stuyvesant is a name that goes back a dozen generations in Marienburg. Unfortunately, the last few generations have been very outspoken against Marienburg's separation from the Empire. My grandfather even went so far as to try and fund a revolution to restore Imperial rule over Marienburg. The revolutionaries took his money and then scattered pieces of him all over the city. They never did find enough of him for a proper funeral service.
***
I returned the nod. "Captain de Kuyper, what brings you into this end of the Suiddock?"
He pointed to the corpse. "There was a report of a crime. And behold, there has been one."
"Which is of no interest to you. The body was found in the canal. The River Watch has jurisdiction in such matters."
"The River Watch has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the water. The report was that this man was killed elsewhere and dumped here. It is not a matter of tariff-dodgers."
There is no love lost between the Secretariat for Trade Equity, which operates the Excise Service and the River Watch, and the Honourable Company of Lamplighters and Watchmen, the City Watch more commonly referred to as the Black Caps for the floppy black hats that they wear. But the City Watch does not usually interfere in our business. For de Kuyper himself to come out there would have to be money involved.
Askold had stood and moved closer. He glanced at the dozen Black Caps, his hand on his axe. "Which one do you want me to kill first?"
To his credit, Captain de Kuyper did not even bat an eye. "I have a writ from the Directorate to handle this matter myself." He produced a rolled parchment. "The corpse is an employee of the trading firm of Grubb and Associates. It is believed that he was acting as an agent of the Empire against the interests of the People of the City of Marienburg. And with your family history, should you really be involved in such an investigation Commander Stuyvesant?"
Part two
The second thing that works against me is my commission. The River Watch has a reputation for over zealousness in pursuit of its responsibilities. As a body, the River Watch is undermanned and underpaid. A strange combination for an authority whose writ includes, among others, the pursuit of smugglers and, at the behest of the Excise Service, the apprehension of tax evaders. To compensate, the River Watch recruits members with a well developed sense of duty and honor, concepts that are alien to the majority of Marienburgers.
*****
The Honorable Jan Van De Kloomp, Admiral of the Nayy, and Lord Harbourmaster holds unofficial court after hours at a canalside dive called the Watchful Hond. He claims that more business is conducted there in an hour then in an entire day at the Admiralty Building. The Hond is a basement tavern, an odd location in a city of islands, perpetually dank and gloomy.
I found the Lord Harbourmaster sitting at his favorite table engaged in conversation with several of his officers. He was tearing into a roasted goose the way an ordinary man might eat a small chicken. Waving a large drumstick about in the air he called out to me and indicated that I should join him. I sat down as he pushed a mug towards me and filled it from an earthenware pitcher of foaming beer.
"You need a drink, Captain." He directed his attention back towards the goose. "You will forgive me, I hope, if I continue to eat while we speak. A man of my size and girth must sustain himself when he can." Spoken like a seasoned veteran. While the Lord Harbourmaster was a man of the sea, I imagine that the old military maxim of "Eat and sleep when you can because you never know when you will get another chance" was just as equally true in the navy as it was in the army.
I enjoy working for the Lord Harbourmaster. In a city of pretentiousness and lofty airs he is very practical and straightforward. His appearance is deceiving. He weighs close to three hundred pounds and is prone to wearing very plain and rugged clothing. To see him you might mistake him for some dockside stevedore. Yet he is quite graceful and possesses a keen intellect. He is also pure hell in a fight. On more than one occasion he has joined a raid on a smuggler’s ship; cutlass in one hand and gaffing hook in the other. He fights dirty and I respect that. It means that he fights to win.
I sipped idly at the beer while he spoke around mouthfuls of goose. “I hear that you encountered Captain de Kuyper today.” He looked up to see me nod. “I’m concerned but not surprised. Did he actually say ‘behold’?” I knew better than to ask how he knew. Oleg or Alskond must have been in before me.
I laughed and reached for the pitcher of beer. “He did. The man is full of himself.”
The Lord Harbourmaster slid the pitcher towards me. “Do not underestimate the man. His family is a cadet branch of House Van De Kuypers and the Great Families do take care of their own in a fashion. He has more resources than we do. Did you manage to learn anything?”
I handed him the Guilder that had come out of the canal. He wiped his fingers on his tunic before taking it. “The weight is off,” he said. “A counterfeit coin. We need to find out who struck this and why?”
“The Empire,” I began, but he cut me off with a wave.
“We will not make any assumptions yet. I tell you my dear Captain, Marienburg is in trouble. This recent war, that almost devoured the Empire, drained our coffers. Not directly mind you. We only sent a token force in support of our neighbors. More importantly, many of the Empire’s Noble Houses came to us for loans to raise troops.” He pushed the goose carcass away and belched loudly. “The moneylenders, the guilds, the Merchant Houses and the Great Families loaned out astronomical amounts of coin. The Imperial Nobility agreed to exorbitant interest rates and in some cases put up title to family lands as collateral. If the Empire were to attempt to devalue our currency it might force those loans to be called in.”
“Do you suspect someone within the city?”
“Not to be trite, but I suspect no one and yet I suspect everyone.” He chuckled softly. “Everyone but you that is.” He drained his mug and reached for the pitcher. “It is possible that one of the Merchant Houses or one of the Great Families is strapped for coin and is trying to cover their debts. Even the Directorate itself could be behind this. And yet, this coin is too obviously counterfeit. It lacks refinement and subtlety. You must conduct an investigation. And conduct it without attracting de Kuyper’s attention. Where was the coin found?”
“A body that we fished out of the canal down in the Suiddock. Supposedly the man was an Imperial, an employee of a trading firm by the name of Grubb and Associates.”
The Lord Harbourmaster frowned. “Interesting. Tell me, do you know anything of the Fog Walkers?”
“Stories only. A secret intelligence service that answers only to the Staadtholder. Everyone assumes that they are just tales to frighten children. Why do you ask?”
“The stories pale in comparison to the truth. The Fog Walkers are real. And they do answer only to the Staadtholder. Not even the Directorate has access to them. It is rumored that this firm of Grubb and Associates serves a similar function for the Empire in a very unofficial capacity. They are reported to owe allegiance to the Empire itself and report to no one.” He smiled. “The Fog Walkers are said to fear them.”
This was news to me. “Then why are they allowed to conduct business in the city?”
“Because they are very successful as traders and make money. Quite a lot of money. And in Marienburg that is all that really matters.” He dismissed me by saying, “Come by the Admiralty Building in the morning. I will have a writ prepared to authorize you to act directly on my behalf. Port Law is still the highest law in the city. And I am Port Law.”