Chapter 26: A Little Local Business

Leon’s question stayed in the room a beat longer before anybody bothered to answer it. Vito caught Caterina’s eye just long enough to remember the nights aboard the flagship when they had argued over which of them would get to open the pitch.

Caterina had won that argument by rushing to it.

She left her cup where it was. "Simply to have your blessing to our presence here, Ser Skordilis. The rest is easier to show a man than to argue at him."

Vito took the thread before Leon could ask what she meant.

"Have you heard of a fondaco, amico? Imagine a building with three personalities."

He raised a finger with each part of the explanation. "One is a warehouse, one is an inn. The third..."

Caterina finished without missing a beat. "...keeps the books, collects the dues, and has the unpleasant habit of always being right."

Leon looked from one to the other, as if the discussion turned into two acrobats who had just completed a trick he had expected to kill at least one of them.

"I appear to have bought a seat at a performance."

"Best seats in the house, too," Vito laughed. "We rehearsed the difficult parts."

Caterina added, "Only after enough wine to make us believe we were good at it." And left the matter there.

Leon’s lips made a small attempt of a smile and thought better of it.

"In this case, there is a market by the old fish piers."

He named it with the indifference of long neglect. "By recent years it was left empty enough that the gulls have a better claim to it than any merchant or fisherman."

"Then I imagine no one will mind the new neighbors moving in."

There was genuine amusement in Leon’s eyes, dry and unhurried. "Perhaps. Whether they believe it worth the trouble is another matter entirely."

Vito felt that was the sort of doubt a profitable harbor could settle faster than any speech he had prepared. So he let it rest and moved on to the harder half.

"There’s another thing we’d like from you, Ser Skordilis."

He let out a warm smile. "The Republic has been drawing maps of the island for centuries, but I suspect a great deal of the coastline has never made it onto one of them, or not properly, at least. The roads, the villages that never make it into a clerk’s report, the coast that looks rather different when you’ve actually travelled it, and..."

"...and the places only a man who grew up here would think to mention," Caterina finished.

"We only need you knowledge for that, Ser Skordilis."

Leon thought about that longer than he had thought about the market. "My family has charts enough to fill a chest, some from my grandfather’s time and some much older than that. The other archons have their own collections."

He glanced between them. "You may copy whatever is useful, for a price."

Caterina simply nodded. "Then we have no quarrel there. We’ll agree on the price when we see what you’ve got. You can try to overcharge us, and we’ll try to haggle you back down."

Leon let the silence rang for a second, before sharply asking.

"And I imagine you don’t need charts of the island merely for sightseeing."

Vito shrugged, without dressing the words up. "The whole island has been claimed, amico mio. Sooner or later La Serenissima will press inland and into the neighboring towns. Better that it comes under a man you can actually do business with than some fleet armed up for war."

Leon frowned.

"So that is what this is."

He put the cup down with more care than an empty cup seemed to deserve. "I have spent most of my life watching men from elsewhere arrive with maps, decrees, and very firm ideas about what belongs to whom. My father had the pleasure of it before me, and I had hoped to spare myself the experience a second time."

A faint, humorless smile touched his mouth. "Apparently Kriti is not finished changing masters."

Vito waited for the old archon to make up his mind.

Leon continued. "Inside these walls, my word is law enough. Past them, I can only offer you a name and a recommendation. My own cousin in Rethymno bows to nobody, myself included."

The man exhaled deeply, as if he had finally let out an unseen weight from his shoulders.

He reached for the wine jug, topped his own cup and took a drink. Only then did he extend his hand across the table.

"Regardless, we have an understanding, Ser Barozzi."

His grip was firmer than his voice had been. "Bring your scribes another day. I believe I’ve endured enough bargaining for one night."

Vito took the hand. "A pity. I’m told my signature looks much more official after somebody has been paid to make it impossible to read."

Leon gave a short, genuine laugh and stood. Instead of calling for a servant, he pushed open the doors himself.

Lamplight spilled across the doorway, and beyond it, a crowd busied the ballroom, voices overlapping as men and women talked among themselves. Vito recognized enough fine cloth to understand that most of Candia’s minor nobility had rushed there.

All of them waiting to find out which way their representative archon had decided to lean.

Vito discovered, to his considerable and slightly embarrassing satisfaction, that this was the part he had actually been waiting for.

🪙 [SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

Quest Complete : Crete’s Not For Beginners

Reward : 100 Fate

Reward : Title — Conquistatore per Contratto

It is encouraging to discover that, when swords are inconvenient, you possess a tongue capable of doing some of their work for you. Caterina’s assistance was also surprisingly useful, although it is difficult to determine whether she improved your chances or merely prevented you from ruining them.

Between the two of you, an evening of polite conversation accomplished what steel, threats, and several very expensive men-at-arms might otherwise have required considerably more effort to achieve.

You may wish to remember this for future negotiations. Not because diplomacy is preferable, obviously. Simply because, in certain rooms, it appears to be the cheaper weapon.

Vito barely had time to enjoy either part of this achievement before a hand caught him by the sleeve.

"Ser Barozzi!"

A broad man in violet silk seized his arm and pumped it as though he meant to draw water from a well. "You must forgive me for not coming sooner. My late wife’s cousin once captained a vessel for the Empire, and my own uncle supplied timber to three admirals, so when I heard a Barozzi had arrived in the city I said to myself, surely there is some connection here. There must be. Families such as ours do not simply find themselves in the same room by accident..."

Another noble cut in, pushing past him with weary impatience. "Of course they do. He has discovered three new relatives since sunset, and tomorrow I expect he will announce that his grandmother was raised in the same convent as your mother. Come with me instead, I have wine from Chios, a cook who can prepare a banquet, and a mansion large enough that if he follows us there I can have him thrown out without disturbing the supper."

Vito looked for Caterina and found her already three currents deep in the crowd. Both had been swallowed by a room that had plainly spent the entire evening waiting for this moment.

He grinned, shook the hand that was still attached to his sleeve, and let the room have him.