"At once, my Lady," he said in a confident tone, turning and shouting back to the other men. "Send a runner! Have Master Rallix summoned to Lady Lizelle's office immediately!"
The carriage drove past the front gate, and Azakar was looking strangely at Keritanima. "Why did they just let us in?"
"They'd better just let us in," she smiled. "I own this company, Zak, or at least Lizelle does. I'm not a poor little rich girl, you know."
"How many secrets do you have, Kerri?"
"More than you'll ever find out," she teased in reply.
Where Ulfan's warehouse was dark and grungy, Lizelle's office was impeccably neat and orderly. A desk and chair stood by a window looking out over the docks, with two more elegant chairs for visitors. There was a metal cabinet beside the desk with drawers, for holding documents, and a washstand with a pitcher and basin in the corner. About half of Wikuna had running water, but they had not managed to extend the plumbing lines inside the building. There was a water line downstairs, in the cafeteria for her workers, but nowhere else. Keritanima sat down at the desk slowly, running her hands along its clean, clear top, a strange smile on her face. "Stand behind me, Zak. Miranda already knows what to do."
A few minutes after Keritanima sat down, a short, thin badger Wikuni entered the office without knocking. He bowed immediately and silently to the seated Wikuni. Rallix was a thin, short, energetic Wikuni with a sharp mind and a nose for business. He wore a faded brown waistcoat with a clean white shirt beneath it, to match his tan fur and the black mask-like fur that crossed over his eyes, making him look like a bandit. In matters economic, he was a bandit, taking his colleagues for outrageous sums of money in business deals and trading. He'd run the Twenty Sails for nearly five years, back when Keritanima had to wear lifts in her shoes and padding in her bosom to pretend to be a sophisticated, mature merchant woman. In those five years, the Twenty Seas had gone from a small, local company to a major economic enterprise. And Rallix was the primary reason for that.
"Lady Lizelle," he said in his nasal voice. "I was starting to worry that you weren't coming back."
"I've been busy, Rallix," she said calmly. "Bring me the books."
"At once, my Lady," he said, bowing again before he scurried out.
"The books?" Azakar asked in a quiet tone.
"Lizelle always inspects the books when she visits, Zak," Keritanima replied quietly. "Rallix runs this company, but Lizelle owns it. She's going to check the profit margin."
The badger Wikuni returned moments later, carrying two large tomes in his hands. He set them in front of the desk, and Keritanima only nodded to him and opened the covers of one. They all stood in total silence as Keritanima's finger pored over lines of numbers, page after page, then into the second book. After nearly an hour, she closed the cover of the second book and looked up at Rallix. "Excellent. You outdo yourself, Rallix."
"I try, my Lady," he said modestly. "Was there anything else you wanted today?"
"Yes. Have forty thousand in trade bars put into a chest and loaded onto my carriage." Rallix's eyes widened, and he stared at her. "Do you have a problem with that, Rallix?" she asked dangerously.
"Ah, no, my Lady. How should I mark this in the books?"
"Put it down as a business expense," she replied. "If things work out as I intend, the return on this investment will be tenfold."
"At once, my Lady," he said immediately, bowing to her and scurrying from the room.
"Are you always so terse with him?" Azakar whispered.
"Always," Keritanima replied calmly. "Lizelle is a hard woman to please."
"What is a trade bar?"
"A trade bar is a unit of currency," Keritanima replied. "It's a gold bar stamped with a value, and the crest of the house or merchant company that issued it. It's good for the amount stamped, not its weight, but larger valued bars tend to be much larger than smaller valued bars, as a faith display of the issuing house. That way you can put a great deal of money into something easy to carry."
"Couldn't someone just stamp their own bars for huge amounts and then sell them?"
"A house has to be able to buy back any bar they hold at any time," Keritanima told him. "That means that they don't issure more trade bars than the can pay for themselves. And it's very difficult to counterfeit trade bars, Zak. It takes a master goldsmith, the stamp crest of the issuing house, and a very large and expensive minting operation. Not even Ulfan could steal a stamp crest, and it wouldn't do him any good if he did, because usually a house only keeps one or two. Without the crest, a minted bar is worthless. Stealing one would be pointless, because everyone would just stop accepting trade bars from the victimized house or company."
"Does this company issue these bars?"
Keritanima shook her head. "We use trade bars we get from others in business transactions. We're the largest trading company that doesn't have its own trade bars."
"Why not?"
"It's more profitable to let other companies and houses spend their money to make trade bars," Keritanima winked. "Rallix keeps a healthy supply of bars on hand for large cash transactions, so we're never without some operating capital."
"Clever."
"That was Rallix's idea, actually," Keritanima admitted. "I wanted to issue bars at first, but he showed me the profit projections if we didn't. He sold me on the idea."
"So, you own all of this," Azakar mused, turning and looking out the window.
"You bet," Keritanima told him. "This is just one of the company's properties, and I own the company. My father doesn't know it, but I'm one of the richest women in Wikuna. Between this and my personal fortunes, I'm nearly as rich as he is. Or at least I was."
"I've never had money before."
"You're a Knight," Miranda teased. "You took a vow of poverty."
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Azakar chuckled. "I'd never owned more than what was on my back up until that point."
"Don't worry, Zak, I won't let you go hungry," Keritanima teased.
Rallix returned several moments later. "The trade bars are loaded, my Lady," he said in his nasal voice.
"Very good, Rallix. Anything you want me to sign while I'm here?"
"Actually, yes, my Lady," he said, holding up a sheaf of parchments. "This is business that needs your personal attention, as well as a few proposals from other companies."
"Let's go over it."
Keritanima quickly separated the stack into things she signed immediately, things she read carefully before considering, and four documents she set aside to discuss with Rallix. Miranda and Azakar watched silently as Keritanima and Rallix haggled over the possible benefits of this or that business proposal, the buying of four more ships, and enlarging the trade compound they owned in Dayise. When they got to the last issue, a proposed business alliance with House Zalan, Keritanima snorted and slapped the document down irritably. "I'll not enter business with that lot of parasites," she declared adamantly. "I have it on high authority from a business contact in Dayise that Sheba was personally bailed out of capture by her father. I will not consort with those who condone piracy."
"But House Zalan is powerful and influential, my Lady," Rallix countered. "They seek business alliance with us."
"You mean they seek to overwhelm us," she replied. "Look at this proposal, Rallix! First rights to all our trading docks over our own vessels! Payment for House guards to protect our property, a yearly stipend paid to them for the right to fly their flag while carrying their cargo, even a fee to allow us to place the Zalan crest on our signs! And their price quotes on common trade items are ridiculous! I can get lower prices from an Arakite! They only seek to rape us for whatever they can take," she seethed. "This is an independent trading company, Rallix. We have built ourselves up without noble titles or exemptions, and we will continue to prove that a commoner can compete with the nobility."