Excerpt: The Coffee War

(Excerpt from chapter eight.)

One day, about six years and three months after Life had last set sail from Arisle, Paramis showed up on his doorstep. She didn’t seem to have aged at all, but her dreadlocks were longer and there was a touch of grey at her temples. Her eyes were the same rich, inviting brown Life remembered and seeing her warmed him in a way that seeing members of his family never did.

“Paramis!” Without thinking about it, Life embraced her and held her close. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Hello, Life.” She returned the hug briefly before stepping back. “May I come inside?”

“Of course.” Life stepped aside to let her in. He scanned the streets but she had come unaccompanied. “The tone of your voices tells me this isn’t to exactly be a joyous reunion.”

“No, I’m afraid not.” She turned a full circle, taking in the surroundings. “You’ve done well for yourself, considering the state you were in last I saw you.”

Although he was eager to know her news, Life found himself swelling with a bit of pride. Despite all the advancement he had made with his steam boats, he had felt aimless and lonely. Just hearing her approval made it all somehow seem worthwhile. “It certainly could be worse. And you? I heard you obtained another ship, but every time I inquired you were at sea.”

Paramis lowered herself into the leather couch in Life’s sitting room. “This is all very Arislean, in a way,” she said, smoothing her palm over the short fur that covered the couch.

Sensing she was avoiding the conversation, Life remembered his manners. “Are you hungry or thirsty?”

“Something to drink would be nice. What have you got?”

“Water, juice, koess wine, tea . . . coffee.”

She barked a laugh. “Coffee? You?”

“I do entertain other guests, you know.”

“Some juice would be fine.” Paramis shook her head, watching him as he moved to prepare her drink. “Still living alone?”

“I know that tone.” Life glanced up at her. “Unless you’ve come to invite me to your wedding, I don’t expect that sort of thing from you.” He handed her the glass and joined her on the couch.

Smiling, Paramis took a sip and shook her head. “It’s not that. I just thought you might be less interested in what I have to tell you if you’d settled down.”

Intrigued now, Life raised an eyebrow. “Go on?”

Paramis stared into her cup. “I’ve just come from delivering a shipment to Arisle. The place is crawling with Tyrankovs and they’ve started turning away anyone who isn’t delivering coffee.” She shook her head. “Seven months to get there and they won’t let anyone dock, not even to resupply. It isn’t pleasant and it doesn’t look likely to get better any time soon.”

Life felt his stomach starting to churn and clenched his jaw in anticipation of bad news.

“We had coffee though, so they let us through. Turns out that’s what the whole mess is about. The Tyrankovs love the stuff but of course they can’t grow it. They’ve been buying excess supply from Arisle at inflated prices and . . . grew tired of it, or demand exceeded supply or . . . I don’t know. Fact is, Arisle is a small and relatively defenseless island. They took it over in a matter of months and now effectively control the entire trade route.

“I managed to get us about a week and a half of shore leave, barely long enough to resupply and get on our way. It was long enough to see the damage the Tyrankov occupation has wrought. They’ve shut down the trains and most of the universities. People aren’t fighting but they’re not helping. I saw a Tyrankov solider beat a man in the street because the man refused to tell him how to work a sewing machine he had.”

“Please,” Life said, “don’t postpone anymore. Tell me about all this later. I need to know about Denny now.”

Nodding, Paramis continued. “About a week into the stay, Cannon drags this Arislean woman into my cabin in the middle of the night. Turns out he found her sneaking on board the ship. He’s ready to throw her into the ocean and let the Tyrankovs deal with her, but she calls for me by name. When I get her to stop her hysterics, she tells me her name is Carelle.” She looked intently at Life.

“Denny’s sister.” He clenched and unclenched his fists. As Paramis bowed her head and closed her eyes, Life knew it meant the woman’s story has just been confirmed.

“She said she was Den’s sister and asked if you were on the ship. She went into hysterics again when I told her that you weren’t—that I hadn’t heard from you in years. After a drop of my sailing ale, she calmed down enough to explain what had happened. She said when the Tyrankovs first came, they didn’t seem so threatening. I think the Arislean king or president or whatever they have over there was hoping to make some trade negotiations with them that later went bad. It meant that in the beginning, despite Tyrankovs being around, things had continued as normal.

“Denny—Den, I mean—apparently performed for one of the higher officials as a . . . court bard or something. She said the two of them eventually performed for the upper ranking Tyrankovs, too. It didn’t take long for one of the officers to fall in love with him. According to Carelle, when they took over and began shutting down the universities, it was largely because many of the most talented occupants were being taken back to Tyrankovstaln as . . . spoils of the war. She says one of the war generals took Den.”

For a long time, Life said nothing. His hands had taken up fistfuls of the fabric of his trousers. He inhaled deeply through his nose and let it out slowly, surprised by just how upset this had made him. It had been over six years since he’d seen Denny, after all. “How long ago was this?”

Paramis was watching him closely now. “Months before I arrived and it took me another six months to get back home, as you well know.”

It took a great deal of will power for Life not to immediately stand up and make for the door. “And she wanted to tell me about this?”

“She thought you might be able to help.”

“Yes.” Life had to laugh to release some of his tension. “Gods above. Did she say where they took him? Who took him? Tyrankov is enormous. You’d never find him without a lead.”

“I’ve written things down. I . . . wasn’t honestly sure you’d be interested. I didn’t even know if you were still alive. It has been a very long time since then.”

Life ran his hand over his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I am, it’s just. What can I do about it? Even if you know exactly who has him and where he’s being held . . . it’ll be months before we can get to Tyrankov.”

“So you’ll just abandon him?”

“I didn’t say that.” Life’s heart ached at the thought of Denny trapped in some cold Tyrankovstaln prison—even if that prison was a rich general’s private chambers. He felt uncertainty waver through him. “He does love fast and free. Do you know for a fact he that didn’t go with this man willingly?”

“No.” Paramis met his gaze. “I know only what Carelle told me. She seems to think he was taken against his will.”

“But she doesn’t know?”

“She wasn’t there when he was taken. She claims to know who did take him though, due to compliments she saw Den being paid. She says the general’s advances were not welcome.”

“But it’s possible we’d go to all this trouble to rescue him only to discover he went willingly.”

“It is possible. Do you think he would, and without telling his sister?”

Life laughed. “Oh, I do. I know you might think it strange. His love for her is deep, but he certainly didn’t put her in front of me when we were together. She did not approve of me then, but he was willing to defy her to be with me. I doubt very much she knew at the time he was planning to leave Arisle with me. Perhaps he had left her a letter, but more likely he intended to send one when he’d arrived in Feor with us. If he fell in love with a general of the army that was ravishing his home country I certainly don’t think he’d tell her he’d done so.”

“Even if not doing so would lead her to launching a rescue party?”

Life laughed. “Do you think he thought she had such capabilities? You saw the woman. I cannot imagine she has changed that much in six years. Besides, who does he think will save him? I knew him for three weeks over half a decade ago and Carelle did not like me at all when I was there. Is that the best she can do? Some old boyfriend of Den’s who lives a six month journey away? Twelve, at least, from Tyrankov? No. I doubt very much Denny expects to be rescued.”

The very thought twist his stomach. It was well and fine if Denny had gone willingly. If he hadn’t, it was unbearable to think about.

“You’re not interested, then?”

Life took a deep breath. “I don’t know. No, I am interested. I’ve just . . . I’ve got a business now. People look up to me now. I can’t just leave all this and foolishly depart on a rescue mission to Tyrankovstaln, of all places, and which may not be desired in the first place! He is not my lover anymore, if ever he was. Undoubtedly he had many other lovers between then and now, and for much longer than the three weeks we were together. Why does she turn to me to save him? Perhaps he has become fat and ugly and cruel so no others will bother. Perhaps I am her last resort.”

“Does that truly matter? Perhaps she knows he’s loved you best all this time, and that you loved him when you were there.”

“You don’t know that.” Unsettled, Life got to his feet, pacing. “Even so. Even so. Thought of it alone strains my mind. I’ve not been to sea for years and such a long trip . . . and further than even Arisle. It would be so cold.”

He thought of Denny suddenly, huddled and shivering. It made him ache in sympathy and longing and he didn’t know why he was trying to talk his way out of this. Surely his business could sustain itself for a year or two, while he was away . . .

Paramis watched him cagily. “I told her at the time it was a long-shot. I told her I hadn’t seen you in years; that I didn’t even know if you were still alive.” She got to her feet. “I’ll send her word that you were killed in an accident some years ago. She need never know the truth. Den is probably dead already, or will be before we could ever get to him. There’s no shame in saying no to her. You’re right—it was years ago and you owe them nothing.”

Life felt himself nodding, but his heart was aching at the same moment.

“I promised her only that I would deliver the message, if I could, and I’ve done that.” She put her hand on his arm. “Let’s talk of other things, Life. It is good to see you again after so long. I’d like to know what it is you’ve done to earn you such a fine house.”

“Perhaps tomorrow.” Life swallowed down the ache rising in him. “I should like to see your new ship as well and—gods, Amist must be a woman now.”

A smile slid onto Paramis’ face. “Indeed, she is. We are in the docks for a week yet, at least. Perhaps tomorrow you will come out and have dinner with us. Cannon serves with me still—can you believe it? He’s become something of a man as well.”

Life felt his tension beginning to uncoil. “Cannon was always a man.”

“No, he just a boy when we met him. Overgrown, indeed, but just a boy. Now he must be near to thirty.”

Life stared at her. “Never was he younger than me!”

“Oh, indeed he was, and by some years at least. What are you now, thirty-four?”

Life balked. “Thirty-one and no older! You’re the one nearer to thirty-four.”

“Ah, no longer.” She raised her chin proudly. “I’m thirty-six now and feel younger than I have for a very long time. You’ll come to dinner with us, won’t you?”

“Of course.” That was at least easy to agree to. “Tomorrow night, then. You won’t stay for lunch?”

“No, I think not.” She studied his face closely a moment, then seemed to nod to herself. “It is good to see you so well, especially when the rest of the world seems to be entangled with war and drought.”

It occurred to Life that if there hadn’t been such a drought, the war might have never started. The lack of water had made the coffee harvests poor, which meant they had even less supply to give to Arisle, which in turn must have affected Tyrankovstaln. “I should have gone into coffee trade.”

“It’s never too late, you know.” She flashed him a toothy smile and then made for the door to let herself out.

He watched her disappear down the dusty street. When she was gone, it seemed almost as though she had never come at all. He closed the door and found himself alone with the memories he had of his life on the Regret with her. It had been five years together, both silently coping mutually with the loss of their spouses. Seeing her again after so long was much more like coming home than returning to Fioryss had ever been.

He was also left with the unpleasant thoughts of Denny imprisoned up in Tyrankovstaln. He knew that if it were only a matter of crossing the border he would have left for him that night, but the journey was so great to undertake on so little information.

Yet his heart ached the longer he thought on it.

That night, he couldn’t sleep at all. It seemed every time he closed his eyes, he saw Denny’s face in the dark, tears streaking down his powdered face. When he did finally fall into sleep, it wasn’t pleasant. He dreamed of being visited in the night by an unwanted suitor; of having his mouth covered in the darkness and his arms pinned. He dreamed of what being left alone and cold in a foreign chamber for months on end must be like.

He awoke at dawn in a cold sweat and it seemed that, despite the thousands of miles between them, Life could feel Denny’s despair. Across the room he could see the little Moorland steam train trinket sitting on the shelf he had fondly placed there some time ago. Denny had inadvertently helped him rebuild his life by buying him that toy. He would have nothing to be worried about leaving now if it hadn’t been for him.

There was also the knowledge that despite all the money and success his industry had given him, Life was still lonely. Even if Denny was no longer interested, Life owed it to himself to go to him.

When he had bathed and dressed he headed out to the docks, determined to find Paramis. Perhaps Denny had gone willing, but he knew there were a great many people who had been taken against their will. That was reason enough to go and without delay.