"OK," SAID DYK, easing the forks on the hand-lift back. "Got it." He toggled the impeller fan and nodded over his shoulder. "Let's go, kid. Guard my back."
Jethri managed a weak grin. Dyk was inclined to treat the double-up and Paitor's even-voiced explanation of disquiet on the docks as a seam-splitting joke. He guided the hand-lift to the edge of the barge, stopped, theatrically craned both ways, flashed a thumbs-up over his shoulder to Jethri, who was lagging behind, and dashed out onto the Market's dock. Sighing, Jethri walked slowly in his wake.
"Hey, kid, hold it a sec." The voice was low and not entirely unfamiliar. Jethri spun.
Sirge Milton was leaning against a cargo crate, hand in the pocket of his jacket and nothing like a smile on his face.
"Real smart," he said, "setting a Liaden on me."
Jethri shook his head, caught somewhere between relief and dismay.
"You don't understand," he said, walking forward. "The card's a fake."
The man against the crate tipped his head. "Is it, now."
"Yeah, it is. I've seen the real one, and it's nothing like the one you've got."
"So what?"
"So," Jethri said patiently, stopping and showing empty hands in the old gesture of goodwill, "whoever gave you the card wasn't Norn ven'Deelin. He was somebody who said he was Norn ven'Deelin and he used the card and her—the honor of her name—to cheat you."
Sirge Milton leaned, silent, against the cargo bail.
Jethri sighed sharply. "Look, Sirge, this is serious stuff. The master trader has to protect her name. She's not after you—she's after whoever gave you that card and told you he was her. All you have to do—"
Sirge Milton shook his head, sorrowful, or so it seemed to Jethri. "Kid," he said, "you still don't get it, do you?" He brought his hand out of the pocket and leveled the gun, matter-of-factly, at Jethri's stomach. "I know the card's bogus, kid. I know who made it—and so does your precious master trader. She got the scrivener last night. She'd've had me this morning, but I know the back way outta the 'ground."
The gun was high-gee plastic, snub-nosed and black. Jethri stared at it and then looked back at the man's face.
Trade, he thought, curiously calm. Trade for your life.
Sirge Milton grinned. "You traded another Terran to a Liaden. That's stupid, Jethri. Stupid people don't live long."
"You're right," he said, calmly, watching Sirge's face and not the gun at all. "And it'd be real stupid for you to kill me. Norn ven'Deelin said I'd done her a service. If you kill me, she's not going to have any choice but to serve you the same. You don't want to corner her."
"Jeth?" Dyk's voice echoed in from the dock. "Hey! Jethri!"
"I'll be out in a second!" he yelled, never breaking eye contact with the gunman. "Give me the gun." he said, reasonably. "I'll go with you to the master trader and you can make it right."
"'Make it right'," Sirge sneered and there was a sharp snap as he thumbed the gun's safety off.
"I urge you most strongly to heed the young trader's excellent advice, Sirge Milton," a calm voice commented in accentless Trade. "The master trader is arrived and balance may go forth immediately."
Master ven'Deelin's yellow-haired assistant walked into the edge of Jethri's field of vision. He stood lightly on the balls of his feet, as if he expected to have to run. There was a gun, holstered, on his belt.
Sirge Milton hesitated, staring at this new adversary.
"Sirge, it's not worth killing for," Jethri said, desperately.
But Sirge had forgotten about him. He was looking at Master ven'Deelin's assistant. "Think I'm gonna be some Liaden's slave until I worked off what she claims for debt?" He demanded. "Liaden Port? You think I got any chance of a fair hearing?"
"The portmaster—" the Liaden began, but Sirge cut him off with a wave, looked down at the gun and brought it around.
"No!" Jethri jumped forward, meaning to grab the gun, but something solid slammed into his right side, knocking him to the barge's deck. There was a crack of sound, very soft, and Jethri rolled to his feet—
Sirge Milton was crumbled face down on the cold decking, the gun in his hand. The back of his head was gone. Jethri took a step forward, found his arm grabbed and turned around to look down into the grave blue eyes of Master ven'Deelin's assistant.
"Come," the Liaden said, and his voice was not—quite—steady. "The master trader must be informed."
THE YELLOW-HAIRED assistant came to an end of his spate of Liaden and inclined his head.
"So it is done." Norn ven'Deelin said in Trade. "Advise the portmaster and hold yourself at her word."
"Master Trader." The man swept a bow so low his forehead touched his knees, straightened effortlessly and left the Market's common room with nothing like a backward look. Norn ven'Deelin turned to Jethri, sitting shaken between his mother and Uncle Paitor.
"I am regretful," she said in her bad Terran, "that solving achieved this form. My intention, as I said to you, was not thus. Terrans—" She glanced around, at Paitor and the captain, at Dyk and Khat and Mel. "Forgive me. I mean to say that Terrans are of a mode most surprising. It was my error, to be think this solving would end not in dyings." She showed her palms. "The counterfeit-maker and the, ahh—distributor—are of a mind, both, to achieve more seemly Balance."
"Counterfeiter?" asked Paitor and Norn ven'Deelin inclined her head.
"Indeed. Certain cards were copied—not well, as I find—and distributed to traders of dishonor. These would then use the—the—melant'i—you would say, the worth of the card to run just such a shadow-deal as young Jethri fell against." She sat back, mouth straight. "The game is closed, this Port, and information of pertinence has been sent to the Guild of Traders Liaden." She inclined her head, black eyes very bright. "Do me the honor, Trader Gobelyn, of informing likewise the association of Traders Terran. If there is doubt of credentials at a Liaden port, there is no shame for any trader to inquire of the Guild."
Paitor blinked, then nodded, serious-like. "Master Trader, I will so inform Terratrade."
"It is well, then," she said, moving a hand in a graceful gesture of sweeping away—or, maybe, of clearing the deck. "We come now to young Jethri and how best I might Balance his service to myself."
The captain shot a glance at Paitor, who climbed to his feet and bowed, low and careful. "We are grateful for your condescension, Master Trader. Please allow us to put paid, in mutual respect and harmony, to any matter that may lie between us—"
"Yes, yes," she waved a hand. "In circumstance far otherwise, this would be the path of wisdom, all honor to you, Trader Gobelyn. But you and I, we are disallowed the comfort of old wisdom. We are honored, reverse-ward, to build new wisdom." She looked up at him, black eyes shining.
"See you, this young trader illuminates error of staggering immensity. To my hand he delivers one priceless gem of data: Terrans are using Liaden honor to cheat other Terrans." She leaned forward, catching their eyes one by one. "Liaden honor," she repeated; "to cheat other Terrans."
She lay her hand on her chest. "I am a master trader. My—my duty is to the increase of the trade. Trade cannot increase, where honor is commodity."
"But what does this," Dyk demanded, irrepressible, "have to do with Jethri?"
The black eyes pinned him. "A question of piercing excellence. Jethri has shown me this—that the actions of Liadens no longer influence the lives only of Liadens. Reverse-ward by logic follows for the actions of Terrans. So, for the trade to increase, wherein lies the proper interest of trader and master trader, information cross-cultural must increase." She inclined her head.
"Trader, I suggest we write contract between us, with the future of Jethri Gobelyn in our minds."
Uncle Paitor blinked. "You want to—forgive me. I think you're trying to say that you want to take Jethri as an apprentice."
Another slight bow of the head. "Precisely so. Allow me, please, to praise him to you as a promising young trader, strongly enmeshed in honor."
"But I did everything wrong!" Jethri burst out, seeing Sirge Milton laying there, dead of his own choice, and the stupid waste of it. . .
"Regrettably, I must disagree," Master ven'Deelin said softly. "It is true that death untimely transpired. This was not your error. Pen Rel informs to me your eloquence in beseeching Trader Milton to the path of Balance. This was not error. To solicit solving from she who is most able to solve—that is only correctness." She showed both of her hands, palms up. "I honor you for your actions, Jethri Gobelyn, and wonder if you will bind yourself as my apprentice."
He wanted it. In that one, searing moment, he knew he had never wanted anything in his life so much. He looked to his mother.
"I found my ship, Captain," he said.