“Of course not, but you can’t have an inn and not have some of them. Be firm and fair from the very first and you’ll have less trouble.” He fished in his belt pouch and laid a gold coin on the table. “Even the king should pay his way: I will set the example. You have stated no price, but this would cover the room and board for me and my Squires and our horses overnight. Will that suit?”

“You mustn’t,” Lady Tolmaric said, going red and teary-eyed again. “You’ve done so much—”

“The inn must pay its way,” Kieri said. “Let it start now, with the king’s gold Tree.” He smiled at them all. “I am pleased with all of you for your initiative and your work; I want this inn to succeed. So I will pay, and you will allow it.”

Mutters of “Yes, sir king” and “As the king wills” went around the table. Two fat tears ran down Lady Tolmaric’s red cheeks; she wiped them away with her sleeve and nodded. “I cannot thank you enough—”

“Except by thriving,” Kieri said.

He slept well that night, and the next day they rode on, taking Lady Tolmaric with them, to see what progress had been made at the port.

It looked, in fact, like a huge muddy mess. A great swathe of forest cut down, a broad ditch of muddy water leading out to the river, and rows of tree trunks sticking out of the muck that remained.

“But those aren’t trees,” a foreman explained to Kieri. He was a Pargunese Kieri had hired with Torfinn’s help, a man who had helped maintain the Pargunese port and sailed around to Aarenis on Pargunese ships. He spoke Common with a strong accent but was understandable. “They’re sections of tree, pounded in as deep as we can make ’em. That’s to put the buildings above the spring floods. Might be better if we had stones enough, but we don’t. Wood quays will do for now. Had to make it wide enough for ships to pass, and we’d really like a turning basin—but if we want any kind of port by next trade season, that’ll have to wait.”

“How’s the port over on your side?” Kieri asked.

“They’re working on it.” The man spat into the mud. “Fire didn’t hurt the structure itself but took ships and buildings. We had stone, y’ see.” He looked out at the construction site. “Two ports won’t hurt trade at all, my lord. It doesn’t at the Immer mouth, does it? More room for ships, more ships come. We don’t have the ships now, so it’ll be waiting for others to come to us.”

“Are you also a shipwright?”