Fleet of the Mage (The Unfettered Mage Book 2) by Taki Drake

Author:Taki Drake [Drake, Taki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fleet of the Mage
Publisher: All Chaos Press
Published: 2017-12-14T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 14 – Bidding Time

Planet – Borachland Hot Barrens

Realizing that no other acceptable proposals were going to be offered, Ruth and Pawlik decided that it was time to close the open negotiation session and move on to the next, and final, part of the plan.

It was time for the auction. There were five remaining ships to place into the action. The seneschal directed the interested buyers to move to a nearby room, where the bidding will be held. Arranged with comfortable seats and an embedded acoustic system, the auction area was extremely professional looking and impressive.

Comments about the overall appearance of the spaceport facilities were exchanged among the groups, and many people split off to inspect aspects of the room, and it’s infrastructure as people waited for the auction to begin.

One of the traders, a rotund short man with a long goatee and very cold blue eyes, sidled up to Pawlik and asked, “One wonders if this facility would be open for use by a merchant house that had based its headquarters at the spaceport.”

Pawlik responded easily, “Of course, the facility would be available to one of those organizations that were based out of the spaceport. For a fee, of course.” A massive susurration of interest washed over the room. Ruth saw many heads nodding in agreement.

The bidding started out slowly, although it heated up quite rapidly. The first ship up was one of the flexible high-priority goods merchanter, the Tarendal Wraith. A slow buildup in the bid amount escalated as it was obvious that there were six serious bidders for the ship. By the time the bidding was over, the ship had gone for a considerably higher amount than Ruth and Pawlik had been prepared to sell it for.

Pawlik seemed pleased that the sale had gone to a group headed by Master Trader Wentworth. The other group that had merged with his to mount the bid was ecstatic and could be heard excitedly making plans for a joint venture. The master trader had a gleam in his eye that Ruth found similar to a hunting cat, prey sighted, pounce imminent!

Hunter let his thoughts slip over Ruth’s with an image of a pack of felines, excitedly feinting at an embattled deer-like creature. The young ones were dashing in and out, narrowly avoiding the hooves and horns of the huge animal. Supervising from the side, a grizzled cat, covered in scars and immobile, watched. Suddenly, the older cat pounced, leaping up onto the back of the prey. With one massive bite, the spinal cord was severed, and the horned deer was dead. Raising its large, maned head, the old cat roared its triumph to the sky, leaving the younger cats amazed and confused.

Hunter set an image of the master trader’s face next to the frozen view of the scarred, older cat. Ruth could feel his amusement and agreement. The mage carefully concealed a smile as she waited for the next ship to be announced and the bidding for it to start.

Life was never boring.

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