Exploitable Weaknesses by Brian Keller (red queen free ebook txt) 📗

horse that had broken his arm. Cooper asked, “Were you given any indication of when the Sundancer expected to arrive here?” Loryn shook her head, “Only that Captain Rigel said that it’d take a day to off-load the cargo for Temidan and a day or two to haggle for the goods he would bring to Paleros. He said he hadn’t planned on returning to Paleros yet, but he couldn’t refuse a request from you. He said he wanted a rematch. I think he was smiling when he said it, though with him, it’s difficult to tell.” Cooper made a mental note of three days, plus another to load the cargo bound for Paleros. He asked, “Final question. Did he say how long it took to sail from Temidan to Paleros?” Loryn shook her head and looked at Balat, who shook his head. Cooper nodded, “Ok. Thanks. At least I might be able to guess and be fairly close.” He gave a brief wave and walked to the door. Rukle was close behind, his voice insistent, “Where you goin’?” Cooper stopped and replied, “Waterfront. You want to come along?” Rukle squinted at him, “Are you going out to kill someone else?” Cooper grinned, “I sincerely hope not. I’m going to check if the Sundancer has arrived, and I need to find out if the Prince sent his flagship out into the bay today.” Rukle nodded. He seemed to think about it, then replied, “I’ll go with you.”

Cooper was ticking off days in his head. It normally took ten to twelve days with a wagon to get to Kalistos. Temidan was supposed to be a little further away; another day’s travel maybe. It took five to seven days to sail from Kalistos to Paleros, but that depended on the season since wind direction often changed with the season. He deduced that the sailing distance from Temidan to Paleros must be between six and eight days, but this also depended on the wind. Allowing for three days for unloading, haggling and loading; with favorable winds, the Sundancer might have already arrived, or would within the next two or three days.

Rukle intruded on his calculations, “I thought you might still be upset with me about killing a few tax collectors. We might not all be alive next week and I didn’t want to get caught up in all that without knowing where we stood. Are we still good?” Before Cooper could reply, Rukle started in again, “I mean, I want you to know that you can rely on me. I may not have a full grasp on your ‘grand vision’ of what the restored Guild is supposed to look like but… well, to speak simply, whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.” Cooper chuckled and Rukle demanded, “I’m tryin’ to be serious here. Did I say something funny?” Cooper took a breath and spoke before Rukle became more uncomfortable, “I was chuckling since I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you say, all at once.” Rukle opened his mouth to retort and closed it again as he combed his fingers through his wiry, red hair. He finally replied, “You could be right about that. So, are we good?” Cooper clapped a hand on Rukle’s shoulder, “We’re very good. I was even thinking that you might have been right to kill a couple of them.” Rukle took a breath to speak but Cooper quickly interjected, “Don’t kill any more of them. At least not unless someone with some kind of authority tells you to. Hopefully within the next week or so, I won’t even qualify to be one of those people.” Rukle was confused, “What do you mean? You’re the one in charge! Even Mister Ysel and Miss Camilla are doing what you tell them!” Cooper sighed, “Everything we’ve been doing, following my plans… I’ve just been trying to get things started. Now that things are moving in the right direction, my main goal is to find someone, or free someone from prison, that we can trust to take charge. I am an Adept, not even a Master. I have no business running the Guild. I only worked to get things started because I want to put things back the way they were.” He took a deep breath, “I want my family back.” Rukle stopped walking, a blank look on his face, “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right. We are family, aren’t we?”

Even in the darkness it was simple to identify two things: the Sundancer had not yet arrived, and the Prince’s flagship had sailed. He voiced those observations to Rukle, who asked, “How can you tell? It’s dark.” Cooper replied, “It’s easy to see that the flagship isn’t moored in the same location as it was yesterday. As for the Sundancer, it’s a caravel rigged for lateen sails. That means the masts are different from the ships with square sails. It’s distinctive, even in the dark.”

He chose a wharfside tavern and sat at a small table near the door and listened to the chatter while the barmaid wove her way through the tables, serving patrons as she made her way closer to them. There were the usual conversations; the weather, the fishing, problems with Apex addicts and the complaints that the City Watch weren’t doing enough. A nearby table was just coming around to topic of the flagship when the waitress reached their table, and her voice drowned out any hopes of overhearing the discussion from the tables nearby. Rukle ordered small beers for both of them, which she placed unceremoniously on the table, the handles of both mugs in one hand while balancing the platter in the other. Cooper asked her directly, “What’s the story about the Prince’s flagship? What was its course? And how many ships went with her?” She sniffed at them, her face expressed disdain for their ignorance. Her clipped reply indicated she was bored to be discussing a