Chapter 208: River Mouth Auction

The Blue Merchant broker raised her blue book over the square in Brinewatch.

"Lot One. The exclusive rights to the river mouth," she announced loudly. "The buyer will be awarded control of flood routing and the right to charge anyone traveling down the river. They will also hold seasonal entry, and they may withhold the harbor count in times of crisis if they feel necessary to do so."

Several of the wealthier captains held up their blue bidding chips quickly. They stood toward the front of the auction block in their pristine clean coats and polished boots, a world away from the damp stones where the harbor workers stood upon.

The dock workers stood around them, taking it all in. The gates of the river mouth rumbled in the background. Moss and grime covered the iron bars as the water tried to force its way through. Seagulls circled above the square, and the smell of brine and river mud filled the air.

Corin stood at the public harbor board with Tessa and Ceryn.

His hands trembled as he nailed the evidence sheet to the board. He was skinny and ink-stained, a man used to writing down what other people decided.

"These are the terms that come with it," he said. "The auction isn’t going to fix these gates. It’s selling them off to whoever buys them."

The Blue Merchant broker turned toward him, and the silver piece at her throat pulled tight.

"You are a dock recorder," she said. "Do not interfere with the sale of these goods."

"I’m reading the terms you chose to hide," Corin replied.

Tessa held up the supporting papers. "The dock workers, the canal crews, and the huts that keep watch on the river were all left out of this. There’s already a repair plan, and the merchant contract doesn’t allow for it."

Keth stood beside the Blue Merchant broker with his red book under his arm.

"There hasn’t been a fix in years," he said. "We need someone who can control this situation."

Austin Veyron felt himself getting caught up in the argument. There was truth in what Keth said. The gates did need fixing, and if something wasn’t done, people would die. If one person controlled it, it could be fixed faster.

Veyra looked at him.

"Name it."

"I want to destroy the auction block and end the auction."

"What would that create?"

"A battle Keth could use to push everyone into an emergency."

Sable kept her crown shard lowered. "Then we break their claim."

The Blue Merchant broker opened her blue book.

A giant sentence appeared over the gates of the river mouth, glowing blue in the air.

THE RIVER MOUTH BELONGS TO THE STEWARD.

The Blue Merchant enforcers came down the stairs of the customs tower. They all wore coats of scales and carried ledger books that could stamp a permit with a single touch. Each one walked toward the harbor board where Corin stood, their scaled coats rasping with every step.

Rin tore through the first enforcer’s book with her claws. Blue paper birds burst out of it and flew at the evidence sheet. Tamsin knocked the birds away with her spear while Ceryn held the papers flat against the board.

Veyra blocked two more enforcers on the stairs. She cut their books in half without harming the men holding them. Sable laid her crown shard over a stamped permit, revealing what was hidden beneath.

People began to read what was on the harbor board. At first only a few looked, but as they read, others came forward to see what was going on.

"The flood will be redirected into the lower docks!" one of the canal workers shouted.

"If a council disputes the buyer, they’ll be charged double the toll," a captain read aloud.

The Blue Merchant broker looked shocked.

Keth snatched the book out of her hand.

"They don’t know how to do business," he said. "We need to control the river."

He pressed his hand to the claim floating over the river mouth.

The water rushed through the gates and crashed against the iron, throwing up a cold spray that soaked the front rows of the crowd.

Austin Veyron could see the true claim.

THE RIVER MOUTH BELONGS TO THE STEWARD.

The river didn’t need to be owned by one person. It needed people who could keep it clear and know when the floods were coming.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The claim that owns the river mouth. Not the river. Not the gates. Not the dock workers."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron laid the white root chain across the blue page.

DEVOUR opened. The claim tasted like river gates closed to everyone but one person.

THE RIVER MOUTH BELONGS TO THE STEWARD.

He consumed belongs.

The sentence crumbled in the air and drifted down over the square like snow.

The blue bidding chips in the captains’ hands faded and vanished. The lines of control over the gates drew back into the book. The river mouth gates stayed exactly as they were, and they still needed people to operate them.

Everyone started arguing with one another. Voices rose from every corner of the square, overlapping and interrupting, sharp with years of grievances.

They weren’t panicking. They were arguing.

Corin climbed up beside the harbor board. "Here’s the repair plan the council came up with. It includes all three dock councils, the canal workers, the huts that monitor the river, and the pilots who sail it."

One of the older dock workers raised her hand. "Who’ll pay for the new iron?"

The caravan clerk stepped forward from the group that had traveled with them. "Seregate’s council will trade for the iron you need, if Brinewatch posts its river exit counts on the board."

The Blue Merchant broker looked out at the crowd.

"You are asking for a marketplace that is not run by one person."

"Yes," Tessa said.

Corin turned to the workers. "If the council agrees to this, we can start the emergency count of workers now."

An older woman who piloted a boat on the canal raised her hand. "I choose the old plan. Three crews to work the gates and keep watch on the flood."

A ship’s captain said he would choose it if the tolls stayed public.

A worker from one of the lower docks pointed at the map. "I choose it if the flood doesn’t come into our district without us knowing."

The people of Brinewatch chose to keep the council’s repair plan. They each added the conditions they wanted to see on the board. Corin wrote them down, and Ceryn helped work out what they would need to make it happen.

Keth’s eyes darted around the square, and his hand tightened on the book he had taken from the Blue Merchant broker.

The Blue Merchant broker lowered her coral horns. "I have the power to stop the auction, but Keth still holds the key to the customs house."

Keth smiled.

"Not for long."

He threw a capsule of blue salt into the river. It hit the water without a splash and glowed faintly as it sank. It drifted down beneath the gates and out of sight.

Corin saw the rune on the capsule. "Everyone get away from the lower docks! That capsule will trigger the customs engine!"

The pilot who had backed the plan began calling out orders to her crew. Some carried the children and supplies up the stairs while others checked that the gates would hold. The last group carried the repair plan and the evidence papers to the customs house.

The Blue Merchant broker stared at the water where the capsule had vanished. "That engine was shut down after the last flood."

"Keth doesn’t care what it does," Austin Veyron said. "All he wants is for people to panic."

The water shot up from beneath the docks and sprayed everywhere.

The salt demon engine woke under the harbor. Lines of blue shot through the ground, and the old stones cracked under the force. The river mouth gates began to shake, as if something beneath the water had started to breathe.

EVIDENCE WASHES AWAY IN FLOOD.

Keth ran toward the customs house with the book clutched to his chest, shoving dock workers out of his way.

"He’ll flood the harbor and destroy the evidence!" the Blue Merchant broker shouted.

Corin shielded the evidence sheet from the spray.

Austin Veyron stared at the flood rushing toward them, gray and churning and full of debris.

He could devour the flood and take it into himself.

Veyra looked at him.

"Name it."

"I want the flood."

"What would that create?"

"It would make me the owner of the harbor."

Sable pointed toward the customs house. "Then we save the evidence and stop the engine."

Water was already flowing through the square, washing away permits and bidding chips.

The auction was over, but the battle for Brinewatch had just begun beneath the harbor.