Page 29 of The Prince's Wife

"You don't," Aradishir said unhappily.

Shah waved the words aside. "I'll get plenty of rest when this is over, believe me. I am king, this is what I do. Were you able to get the contracts, my love?"

"There was a bit of an issue, but also an impressive resolution," she replied, and by the time she'd finished, Merza and Tashi had returned with the copies.

"Well done, Merza," Shah said. "You have an instinct that one can only be born with."

Merza flushed, looking at the table as he replied, "Thank you, Your Majesty. You're far too kind."

His fatherwaskind, but he also did not dole out praise that wasn't earned.

"So what are we looking for?"

Beynum, sitting to Shah's right, said, "We're matching contracts to manifests. These manifests list things like barrels of certain wines, sacks of spices, which on the surface seem normal, but these particular wines and spices are not sold in these quantities. Other strange things like that—I've made a full list. Normally a full contract would not be necessary for such things…"

"But they're not really trading those kinds of goods, so assurance of payment and such was necessary. Right beneath my nose this whole damned time," Aradishir said bitterly.

"They've been destroying many of them for some time, and without the contracts to match to the manifests, why wouldyou know? None of us knew, until Beynum happened to look at one while waiting for me to finish speaking with someone. We all missed it for years. That was the whole point," Shah said. "Do not berate yourself for such things, my son. It accomplishes nothing. We showed our wisdom in picking pirates and thieves, hmm?" He leaned up to kiss Beynum softly. "Though I think my pirate picked me, really."

Aradishir didn't roll his eyes, but only because he knew he had no room to talk, at all, even a little. He was just as sappy with his concubines as his parents were with theirs. "So we go through the contracts and manifests, match them up? Wouldn't that be fairly simple?"

"Yes and no," Beynum said. "The contracts only state what is traded, with no specific dates, only a broad, unhelpful range to meet the barest legal requirements. Further arrangements, not written down in any useful legal way, would have been made later. So we have to look through the contracts and figure out which manifests they go with, hope they are specific enough to irrevocably prove the connection, the nefarious actions they are hiding."

"Their arrogance will certainly work against them," Shah said. "I have this well in hand, though, now you've brought the contracts to me. All the merchants have been rounded up, so you—" He stopped as a frantic knock came at the door. "Enter."

Two guards burst inside, barely toppling to their knees and bowing their heads before saying, "Your Majesty, we've found Lady Kubra! She's being escorted to the palace as we speak and should be here soon."

Aradishir bolted, hastening through the palace, barely noticing everyone around him or the admonitions to slow down. Mere moments after he'd reached the main entrance, exasperated concubines and aggravated guards right behind him, a cart belonging to the city guards pulled into the pavilion.

It came to a stop in front of him, guards saluting, other people bowing, still others gawking not-so-subtly. The doors opened, and a guard offered assistance to a pale, exhausted and still-shaken Lady Kubra. "Y-Your Highness!" she said, clearly surprised.

Aradishir dismissed the guards, lending his own assistance into the palace. "I am so sorry you've endured such torment, Lady Kubra."

"Masood?" she asked, and from the look on her face it was clear she was bracing herself for the worst possible news. "He went over the balcony trying to defend me, I—" Her bottom lip trembled, and she bit it in a vain attempt to hold back tears.

"He's fine, doing quite well in fact. I was going to go see him when I was done meeting with my father."

Kubra cried in earnest then, and Aradishir hugged her close, stifling his anger for the time being. Everyone responsible would pay eventually, and he would make them suffer a thousand-fold for all the torment they had caused hundreds, possibly thousands, of people. Right now, though, anger would help nothing.

So he led her through the halls to one of the royal guest rooms, prepared in anticipation—hope—of her arrival at some point. He left her there, with plenty of guards stationed outside and well-trained servants within, to get cleaned and fed and rested.

With nothing else to do, but unlikely to be able to focus on work, he headed out to his gardens to simply breathe, get his thoughts in order, and start plotting how he was going to destroy all these worthless merchants once and for all.

He'd been sitting there for a couple of hours, though after an hour he'd resumed work by sending out notes, letters, and more, slowly bringing all the pieces he needed together, whena servant came to inform him that Lady Kubra would enjoy speaking with him at his leisure.

"Escort her to my sunroom, please. I'll speak with her there. Have a late lunch brought, and whatever Lady Kubra would like. If Master Masood is fit to join us, invite him as well. I'll be there shortly."

"Yes, Your Highness," the woman replied, and faded off in that smooth, silent way that staff mastered so easily and nobles only wished they could do half as well.

"Are you all right, my prince?" Javed asked.

"Been better, but also I'm not the one who has been beaten and kidnapped and further terrorized. I'm only angry I did not stop all of this before it came to this point."

"You are fighting against a tide with a bucket," Merza said. "Golds don't give up their comforts without a fight, and the more spoiled they are, the nastier they fight. You're also fighting the reds that cater to the golds, and they're even worse, because unlike golds, most of them had to make their money first. If stopping them was easy, someone would have already done it."

"Reds," Aradishir echoed. Because red was an expensive color, difficult to maintain the brightness of, and one of the first colors people indulged in when they had money enough. Also, merchants were flashy by nature, and red was a flashy color. There was rarely anything subtle or understated about red. "They'll have a new, bloody reason for their nickname by the time I'm finished. " If he had his way, several would be sentenced to execution, which would be enough to scare good behavior into the rest, at least for a time.

He sent off the last of his messages with another servant standing by to take them, then finally left the garden to go freshen up properly before he joined Lady Kubra.

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