Setting Out

The Emperor had granted me two things: leave to conclude a sham peace with the elves, and a month in which I might act as I pleased while he looked the other way.

There was a condition attached, of course. Visible results, inside that month.

I was confident I could produce them. The trouble was that those results were likely to be so ugly no sober mind would want to look at them. Even so, better a litter of addicts sprawled through that sweltering Great Forest than a litter of corpses. Better the drug than a full-scale war.

"Sir Allan. You understand, I trust, that this is a matter of the greatest weight."

Victoria had abruptly turned solemn. She was the one who had wrung an imperial decree out of her father so that I could sell drugs to my heart's content. If she had something she wished to impress upon me, I was perfectly willing to hear it.

"Yes, Your Highness. I understand."

"By this decision we must abandon three logging camps, one natural saltpeter cave, and two mines we have been operating on the outskirts of the Great Forest. We can hardly withdraw the troops protecting the laborers and expect the businesses to carry on, can we? The abandonment is temporary, of course."

"…"

"Suppose we fail to show results within the allotted time. We will not then be able to reinforce those troops again as if nothing had happened. Someone will have to pay for advancing a peace only to withdraw it in vain."

She wanted me to feel the weight of it. She had seen the addict Leon with her own eyes, and still it was hard to believe a single drug could bring the elves down. Tell her what heroin could do and she would change her mind—but I could hardly produce a specimen on the spot.

If it fails, I could always say I'll bear the blame myself.

No. It wouldn't be a convenient line. That was exactly what would happen. If this went wrong, there would be no strolling back to the ordinary business of selling drugs. The interests at stake were on a scale morphine could not even begin to touch, and I was the one who had volunteered to break through that problem with narcotics.

Before I could start in on responsibility, Victoria spoke first.

"I know. A man of your character would insist on bearing it himself. Of course he would."

Character…?

I flinched and looked at her. Victoria smiled as if she had expected as much, and nodded. That smile alone told me precisely what delusion she was under. The misunderstanding that had begun with morphine had reached its height with ephedrine. She now took me for the most loyal subject the Britannia Empire possessed—not merely some villain who had seen the light.

Hardly worth the trouble of correcting her.

I gave her an awkward smile and left it at that, doing my best to look like a man concealing how heavily the burden sat on him.

"I know your heart. …But Sir ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Allan. I am the one who agreed to a month's limit with Father. It will not come to this, yet if the matter goes wrong, I am also the one who must bear the responsibility. I have no intention of standing aside with my hands behind my back to watch, so do your work without worry."

"First Princess."

"And if we can manage it, far better to bring that arrogant race to its knees and raise the cup together. If anyone can do it, I believe it is you. I ask only this—do not be afraid of failure."

With that, Victoria set a hand on my shoulder. Clear eyes, blue as topaz, held mine without wavering. Encouragement far too earnest for a drug dealer to receive. Feigning humility now would only cheapen the image I had built, so I nodded and nothing more, my face as grave as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hers.

"Thank you, First Princess. I will be certain to meet your expectations."

"I trust you."

Victoria left on that brief farewell. She had not shown her trust in words alone.

The next day a letter of appointment came down from the Foreign Ministry, which governed the Empire's dealings with the world beyond its borders. They had conferred on me a post that would let me come and go from the Great Forest in perfect legitimacy.

And so, between one day and the next, I was bound for the Great Forest with the title of consul hung on me. It was not so strange, if one thought about it. The Great Forest was treated as something very like a state. This world was not without the notion of a resident ambassador, but it was more common to commission a merchant as consul and put him to diplomatic use. I was a knight and a man of business both. The only peculiarity was that the goods I dealt in happened to be morphine and heroin.

The conditions are in place, then.

A title, the drugs, and the plan in my head. Nothing more was required.

"I will depart for the Great Forest as soon as preparations are complete."

That was my answer to the senior official of the Foreign Ministry who had brought the commission. I did not explain that I was going to spread heroin rather than peace. Once I produced results, everyone would know in any case.

Five days later, the moment to set out arrived. The imperial troops stationed along the border of the Great Forest had withdrawn to the rear. At that speed it was less a withdrawal than a flight in the night. Perhaps because the humans they could not bear to look at had finally cleared off, the elves were said to have given them a send-off that was warm in its own fashion.

"As of today, every outpost has been dismantled. However… ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠warriors believed to belong to the Udriina clan appeared without warning and loosed arrows at the officer directing the withdrawal. They did not mean to harm anyone. They aimed for his cap and the regimental colors."

"I believe we may take it as a warning not to come back."

"In any case, in exchange for the withdrawal we asked the elves to receive an imperial mission. We barely carried the point, and only by borrowing the influence of the Darien Kingdom, which keeps on relatively close terms with the Great Forest. We did secure a promise that they would not treat the mission as hostile, should it come."

Not content with pulling the troops back, we had gone to them hat in hand and begged for an exchange, and in the end the elves had barely deigned to permit a mission at all. Humiliation hardly came more complete.

From the elves' side of it, they could hardly smile and oblige us.

Even so, offer to clear out without a major battle and one might expect to be seen off gently—and instead they had shot arrows. It drove home, all over again, how deep their hostility toward the Empire ran. That they had allowed a mission at all, under the circumstances, was almost to their credit. The ground was prepared regardless. It was time to leave.

Just before I departed, I went to pay my respects to Sienna, my liege and my partner in the business.

"I won't be seeing you for a while, then?"

"Yes, Your Highness. Most likely. Unless something exceptional arises, I mean to remain near the border for some time, rather than coming and going from the capital."

She received me over breakfast. Today, as ever, her menu was oatmeal—wholesome steel-cut oats. Perhaps she kept herself so carefully because one had to stay healthy to savor, at leisure, the sight of other people going to ruin. She didn't smoke at all and hardly drank; it might genuinely have been for that.

I wonder whether Sienna will behave herself while I'm gone.

These days her greatest hobby was drugs. More precisely, she enjoyed studying the drug business I was running, and watching it. Had she meant to take the stuff herself I would have supplied her free of charge, but a girl who had acquired a taste for spectating was not so easily managed. Telling her to sit quietly would be useless. What was I to do?

Just then she seemed to read what I was feeling. It was not the first time.

"Don't worry, Allan. The thing you're afraid of isn't going to happen."

"I was only worried you might be bored."

"That's kind of you. Fortunately I have a new hobby besides you. Writing to Anais is more fun than I expected. I thought she might be lonely at the convent, so I sent her news of the Academy. I am her older sister, you know, however I look."

"Letters."

"Mm. The Academy's been rather entertaining lately. Anais ought to know."

I had a fair idea of what she found entertaining. The number of addicts among the students was steadily growing, no doubt. Most of them lived in dormitories, so a fashion was bound to spread faster there than anywhere else. Even at this moment, someone was probably puffing away.

"I'm glad Your Highness has found something to occupy you."

"Regrettably, not quite enough to lose myself in. Not yet. …That aside, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Allan. You're being awfully quiet. Someone like you must already have a rough sense of how things stand at the Academy. What do you mean to do?"

"There's nothing to do or not do. The Academy isn't my responsibility."

"You give that piece of trash his drugs for free."

"You mean Leon Lauderdale? Sooner or later I'll have cause to borrow that man's strength. If a few morphine tablets can keep him in hand, it's cheap at the price."

I was not saying it to humor her. I had no time to spare for any problem but pickling the elves in narcotics. This was not so easy a task that I could mind the Academy on the side, and in any case I could hardly solve every trouble in the world.

"Fine. Allan. Anything you want of me before you go?"

"While I'm away, I would ask you to look after the psilocybin beds. Once every two days—only enough water that the surface of the mushrooms doesn't get wet."

"I'll do it myself, as a way to pass the time. Leave it to the maids and they might make off with some, no? There isn't a soul who doesn't know how fond Mother is of psilocybin."

"If you would, it would be an honor."

A princess, offering to help me grow mushrooms. If she truly spent her days watching the Academy and misting fungi with a spray bottle, I could sell drugs with an easy mind. Even if she didn't, I was prepared not to care. I trusted at least this much of her: she would not make herself a nuisance to me.

"I will let you know the moment there are results. Or show you myself."

I promised her only that, by way of return. A fat dividend out of heroin sales did not seem like something she would particularly welcome.

"Good. I'll look forward to it."

Fortunately, Sienna seemed satisfied.

A short while later, the mission I led as consul set out for the border. Bono of Madoff Pharmaceuticals; Erica, a knight among Sienna's escorts; and a few officials of the Foreign Ministry, brought along so the party would look properly staffed. Counting me, there were only three Experts—far too slight a force to invade the Great Forest.

Numbers did not matter. I had 50.9 kilograms of heroin, and that was more powerful than a respectable army.