Reaching the quay, they found four litters awaiting them. The various city officials, who had not uttered a word, retired to their various offices and the Chancellor indicated a litter for Jim to enter. Pug motioned for Magnus to take one of the litters as he would share the other with Amirantha.

The litter bearers were all uniformly muscular young men, wearing only the heavy linen skirt of their craft, and heavy-soled, cross-gartered sandals. Their bodies were oiled with flower-scented oils so their perspiration would not annoy their passengers. They picked up the litters and were off at a good pace, while two soldiers marched ahead clearing the streets of the citizens of Queg.

Amirantha kept his voice low, and in neutral tones said, “So, this is Queg?”

Pug smiled. He nodded. He knew as Amirantha did the chance was good they were being listened to by more than one of the bearers, who would almost certainly be a Quegan agent. “Yes,” said Pug. “Does your master know much of this place?”

“A little,” said Amirantha, going along with the pretense that he represented the Maharaja of Muboya. “One of my tasks was to learn as much about the Kingdom’s neighbors as I could, despite being tasked to study your nation. Queg was once part of Great Kesh, true?”

“Yes,” said Pug, assuming the Quegan agent listening would not be particularly attentive to a history lesson he knew as well as Pug did. “A great revolt in the south of the Empire of Great Kesh, among the client states known as the Keshian Confederacy, caused the Empire to recall her legions from the north. They abandoned all the lands west of and south of Yabon. The Kingdom pushed out of Yabon into what is now the Far Coast, but the former Keshian cities on the shore of the Bitter Sea repulsed the Kingdom’s conquest and formed the Free Cities.

“Queg was unique as it had served as a naval yard to the south, and as garrison here, and while the Legion left, the navy refused to depart, as their families and lives were here. Kesh was too busy fighting in the south, and by the time that rebellion was crushed, Queg had achieved independence and controlled the Bitter Sea.” He paused as if thinking. “The people who lived here came from a relatively small province of the Empire, I believe called Itiac.” He knew better than that; they came from a province called Itaniac, but he wanted to have whoever listened think he was not an expert on the history of the island nation. “I want to study some documents from that era and before, as our Kingdom history is full of holes and many misunderstandings.