Zarrah
There was something freeing aboutwalking through a city and no one knowing or caring who she was. By privilege of birth, Zarrah’s face had always been well known in Valcotta. First as the empress’s niece and then as a ranking general in the army. Now that she wore the crown of Valcotta, it was next to impossible to achieve anonymity, because her goddamned portrait hung in inns and common rooms across her empire.
In the port trading city of Sableton, there’d been a risk she’d be recognized because there were individuals who traveled to Valcotta, but in Verwyrd, all the people saw was a Valcottan soldier who was part of Prince Keris’s bodyguard. At most, she received curious looks, but for the most part she met only polite indifference.
Which served Zarrah’s purposes well.
With each passing hour, her certainty grew that the infected cattle had been sent to Valcotta on purpose. Not just sent, but willfully set loose to spread their disease with no regard to the harm that it caused her people. All so that when Aren came begging her for aid, Zarrah wouldn’t be able to give it, leaving Ithicana easy pickings. Alexandra intended to gift her son the bridge with no care for the fact it had been paid for with the blood of innocents.
Zarrah had no intention of allowing her to get away with it.
Her father and Daria were back in Valcotta working to trace the merchants and investors behind the imported cattle, but if it was Alexandra, she would have carefully covered her tracks full well knowing that the source would be investigated. Full well knowing that, if she were caught, her actions would be seen as an act of war against Valcotta. Every care would have been taken to leave no trace of the conspiracy for Zarrah to find in Pyrinat, but what Alexandra wouldn’t anticipate was Zarrah going to the source for proof.
Proof that, if found, would be what Zarrah needed to declare war on Harendell with the full support and backing of her people. Proof that would allow her to be the ally that Aren and Lara so desperately needed.
An austere stone building loomed in front of her. Zarrah stared at the name carved in sharp letters above the door, then squared her shoulders and went inside the bank.
Where she was immediately met by a smartly attired older gentleman wearing spectacles.
“Good day to you, miss,” he said, nodding his head. “I trust you are here on behalf of His Royal Highness, Prince Consort Keris? Was he pleased with the dog? A Fitzgibbons is a most excellent investment if he chooses to get into the business of dog breeding.”
Not long ago, Zarrah would have said that the chances of her husband getting into dog breeding were next to zero, but she had not failed to notice how Keris had taken to carrying Fiona around tucked under one arm, despite the animal having yet to prove her worth. “He is most pleased about the dog, but I’m here on behalf of the empress.”
“Oh!” The banker visibly perked, the smell of money catching hold of him like a terrier scenting a rat. “Let’s take this conversation to my office. Astrid, would you make us up some tea?”
He took her into a large room lined on one side with labeled cabinets. He gestured to a leather chair. “Please, sit.”
Zarrah sank into the chair, then smiled at Astrid as the woman set a tea service on the desk while the banker shuffled papers before sitting himself.
“How can I be of service to the empress?”
“You may have heard of the struggles with wasting disease in Valcotta.”
“Nasty business, that.” He poured the tea, then took one of the tiny cakes for himself. “Harendell knows that disease and fears it like none other. You are young, Miss…?”
“Daria.”
“Beautiful name! As I was saying, you are young, Miss Daria, so you won’t recall the great culls near the beginning of the late king’s reign. The sky turned black with soot from the cattle that had to be burned, and no one would stand beneath the Sky Palace lest they be struck by a despairing nobleman who’d lost everything. Another branch of the Fitzgibbons family raises hounds that can scent the disease on cattle. I’d be happy to direct you on how to invest in their stock. I have close connections with the family, and they’d be delighted to have animals in the empress’s service.”
“I’m sure she’d be interested in such a creature,” Zarrah replied. “But of more pressing interest is replacing lost animals, particularly breeding stock.”
“Easier said than done in these troubled times.” The banker steepled his fingers, sighing deeply. “We could run them in large numbers through the bridge, but shipping them through the Tempest Seas is risky business. They panic in storms, and even if the ship makes it through, half the animals are dead or dying from injury. Better to wait for matters to be resolved with the bridge, is my recommendation. In fact, I’d suggest purchasing stock now and grazing them in the Ranges until such time they can be transported, because the situation in Valcotta will surely drive prices sky-high, especially given that several herds in east Harendell recently had to be culled after animals presented with the very same disease. There is good profit to be made in investing now and selling high.”
The man droned on and on, and Zarrah ate a piece of cake and sipped tea, nodding from time to time as he set out a suggested plan of action.
“This all sounds like a solution,” she said when he was finished. “With the authority granted to me by the empress”—she produced her personal seal—“I would like to begin making these purchases.”
“Wonderful,” the banker declared. “We will draft the purchase agreement on the empress’s behalf.”
He strode to his cabinets, stopping before the one labeled with aV,but Zarrah swiftly said, “The empress desires this business to be conducted under her personal accounts, not with the coffers of Valcotta.”
“Ahh, of course. Anaphora, then!” He stepped sideways before the cabinet on the far left, opening it with a small key. Zarrah watched as he thumbed through folders, then murmured, “It seems we’ve not done business with her directly before. We’ll have to start a new file. Excuse me for a moment, Miss Daria.”
He left the room, leaving theAcabinet unlocked. In two quick strides, Zarrah reached the cabinet, swiftly thumbing through until she found the Ashfords. She pulled out sheaves of paper and shoved them under her uniform coat before sitting back down on her chair.
The pages felt like they were burning against Zarrah’s skin as she went through the lengthy process of buying cows for herself under her Daria alias, finally escaping the bank as dusk was beginning to settle. The guards at the spiral offered her no quarrel when she returned to begin the climb.
Her breath came in ragged gasps as she jogged around and around, the majesty of the structure lost on her because her mind was all for the thick stack of papers shoved under her coat. It was a huge risk stealing the banking records of the royal family, but it was her best bet for finding proof of Alexandra’s move against Valcotta. It took forever to reach the top. Darkness had already fallen across the city by the time she did, but again, no one stopped her as she entered, weaving her way to Keris’s rooms.
