Trade Secret (eARC) Read Online Free PDF

insolence, to place him in an isolated position on a ship not of Rinork where Rinork could still publicly claim he'd been given responsibility and opportunity.
    The sense Jethri'd made of the contract, and the one taken by Norn ven'Deelin as well, was that the lad was meant to fail miserably. The ship's route was such to make speculative trading difficult at best, and the ship's owner and captain one with little enough capital. Indeed, it appeared that Rinork's part was to sell the contract at an absurdly low price, place Tan Sim on a route with diminishing returns so that one might point to slow genes perhaps and his father's failure, and then to crush him by disallowing his escape from the contract.
    To the few Liadens Jethri could discuss it with, it appeared a slow death sentence, the assumption of failure and disgrace meaning that a dutiful child would do away with himself rather than embarrass the clan. To Jethri, that--at first sight--looked like a good reason to jump ship. On consideration, since he'd been reading among the Code and histories, Jethri knew that wasn't likely and so they'd needed another way.
    Tan Sim's part in the whole was tricky: in theory he oughtn't be party to contravening his delm's will. If he'd been Terran there might have been cause for him to right the wrong as son of a swindle victim, but as Liaden that was an awkward idea--the melant'i of it failing several tests and passing several others. But for Jethri, having been threatened by Bar Jan and falsely accused of assault, there, there could be Balance, and with Jethri having--however casually it had been done--put himself in Tan Sim's debt, yes, there could be an exquisite Balance worthy of the playhouse.
    Given Norn's own willingness to pursue that Balance, they'd put in motion an enormously complex set of subtle negotiations. What was necessary was to find a third party to transfer Tan Sim's contract away from the ship Rinork had sold him to, and then to transfer the allegiance of the third party and the contract in a way that Elthoria and Ixin would have benefit of the trader and his presence without an openly slap-face insult. Subtle insult, now, that was fine and more than fine, and was surely part of the equation.
    The thing was that Jethri wasn't permitted to talk about any of that in a letter for security reasons, to explain things, and as a result Tan Sim was feeling left out, worse so since there'd been some issues with more of their salvage cargo being impounded by the Scouts than originally expected, and Tan Sim feeling the blame. When exactly Tan Sim might escape, that had Jethri depressed. Norn had said she was willing to let it go a dozen Standards if need be!
    Well, Balance was like that for Liadens, but Jethri didn't need to like it. Easy enough to put off the communication another planetfall or two, or until the end of the route, if need be.
    So, next on the list was Terran trade, adjusting a Terran ten-year key to a Liaden ship's data structure wasn't simple and the thing would have to be done, yessir, for he wasn't going to give up his status with them and no one on the worlds he'd been on was willing to press the launch button on his suggestions for how to make it work.
    And too, he ought to have been more forward with writing his note to Scout ter'Astin. True, he was still much more than merely peeved with the whole of the Scout organization for their grab for his book and fractins and all the things that had been his by birth . . . and that . . . he sighed, still not having activated a single writing file.
    His tutor wanted him to understand Balance, the subtle flow of things like honor and necessity that were the underpinnings of Liaden society, in particular that all-powerful melant'i --that concept that had, on the execution of a single bow, led to a simple Terran apprentice trader candidate becoming the appointed son of Clan Ixin.
    If he were to be Jethri ven'Deelin in face and action, he must permit the Scouts