Spellbreaker by Blake Charlton Page B

Disjunction.”
    Dhrun cleared his throat. “Ten days or so ago, I heard a rumor in the wrestling arena. A story that a young Lotus fisherman had gone kayak fishing in the Standing Islands and come back having lost his wits and raving about finding a whirlpool that sucked everything down to the underworld while a plume of smoke appeared out of nowhere sixty feet above the sea. Apparently the fisherman became feverish and died a few days later. I thought it was all a fiction.”
    Leandra straightened. “Well, I always do love these creative little bits of unsubstantiated rumor and hearsay that will be a complete waste of time to investigate, but I’ll add a possible neodemon in the bay to my list of concerns. Are there any other lovely rumors I should know about?”
    Alo shrugged. “There’s talk of crop failures in Verdant. The rice merchants are already racing each other to be the first to profit from it.”
    â€œTypical,” Leandra muttered. Her father had discovered that the Silent Blight had started when the demon Typhon had first landed on the New Continent. The demon’s metaspells prevented misspelling in Language Prime; this reduced the ability of life to diversify itself. However, Nicodemus’s metaspells, which made language more intuitive and chaotic, had reversed the Silent Blight in the league kingdoms. The empress’s metaspells, on the other hand, decreased error in language and so exacerbated the Silent Blight. The past fifteen years had seen three crop failures in the empire. “Is there anything else, Alo?”
    â€œThe matter of our funds.”
    â€œMatter?” Leandra asked, more shrilly than intended. “At last reckoning, we had nearly three thousand rupees worth of uncut jade in our treasury.”
    â€œPerhaps you recall taking half of that for your little rendezvous with the smuggler. If I ask how much jade you have brought back, will I receive an answer other than petulance?”
    â€œCertainly, how about peevishness?”
    â€œMy lady, the going rates of peevishness are quite low.”
    â€œSullenness then?”
    â€œIn even less demand than surliness this year,” Alo said with a sigh. “So, you spent all of that jade?”
    â€œOkay, now you’re just begging me to go back to petulance,” she said petulantly.
    â€œThus swings the great pendulum of our cause,” Alo said dryly, “from great riches to near ruination. As I have previously mentioned, in three days we must pay for provisions for Keyway Island, maintenance of the catamaran, and wages for your crew. Then there are the bribes to the city watch, the bay admiral, and the treasury officers.”
    â€œOh,” Leandra said with a start, “and there’s something else to add to your pendulum.”
    â€œAnother expense?”
    â€œA large one.”
    â€œMy Lady Warden, may I now offer you petulance?”
    â€œNo, I have the market cornered.”
    â€œHow about irritability then?”
    â€œRecently devalued from over-production. I am sorry, Alo, but I’ll need the rest of the jade when I meet with the smuggler again tomorrow night.”
    â€œPerhaps I can better explain what a precarious state we are in. We can’t afford another such godspell unless it magically produces rupees from my earwax.”
    â€œGiven how much earwax you produce, that would be wondrous. But in the meantime have we any incomes? Are we expecting a payment from our allies?”
    The old man shook his head. “We have had no news from the Society of the Eastern Road; perhaps your father has undone them. Vashrama’s gang is again late on their protection fees. Captain Tupo’s catamarans are still at sea. The shipment from the Matrupor is now ten days late, and we don’t expect to hear from our allies on the Outer Islands for at least another season.”
    She looked at Dhrun. “What about the wrestling arena? Our