P I And Magic
Copyright© 2005 by Volentrin
Chapter 29
I hung my head, and winced.
Mirwanna was laying into me about my unauthorized trip away from the palace, without my guard detail. Everything she was saying was true. But, Damn It, I was a powerful magic user! I could take care of myself!
"I still can't believe you, Paul! Didn't the assassination attempt teach you anything? Your defense is that nothing happened for the two days you had gone out? Are you MAD?!!!" Mirwanna said, with a screech in her voice.
I winced at hearing it. "I am not a helpless child, Mirwanna. I am a very powerful magic user, and a dragon. I have spells at the ready the likes of which you have never witnessed.
"Furthermore, as the Duke De Landkur, I really need to understand my city and my people. I went out, yes. But I went as a person, not as the leader of this city. I have already discovered things that have to be straightened out. I refuse to stay hidden behind walls and magic in fear, within my own city!" I finished with my voice rising.
"All right. Fine. You are a powerful magic user. But you still need to use caution! As your ruler, I am commanding you to maintain a proper guard when you leave the palace, from this time forward. A poisoned dart does not respect magic. While your draconic magic protects against many things, nothing protects against magically enhanced poisoned weapons. Do you understand me?" Mirwanna said icily, tacitly referring to the fact that while the knife thrown into my back by the assassin was magicked, it was not a 'magically enhanced poison weapon', which was an entirely different level of weaponry.
"I understand," I replied, just as icily.
She nodded and left. I was feeling very pissed, myself. I stormed out, and wound up visiting the gardens outside. As I sat outside, I noticed someone enter the gardens from further along. It was Mariel Minturi with her attending guards.
I got up and wondered over to her. She stiffened at my approach. Her features went dark.
I bowed to her. "Princess Minturi. It is a pleasure to see you again," I said to her.
"My Lord Landkur. What can I do for you?" she asked through stiff lips.
"Simply a little of your company. The garden is lovely, is it not?" I asked her.
She looked at me curiously. She was sure I wanted something. I couldn't blame her for her being suspicious. If I were in her situation, I would probably be very suspicious and resentful, myself.
She shrugged, and remained silent. As we moved through the garden, I tried to make conversation. Nothing. She was probably feeling like the world was against her. Poor kid.
I could also see that she was a very powerful magic user herself; or at least, she had the raw ability. She fairly glistened with power. As I looked closer, though, I could see that there were very few magical 'connections'. She was either untrained, or someone had purposely broken most of the connections she'd had.
I wondered if her own father had severed her connection with her magic. No, that didn't make sense. I could only come to the conclusion, that for some reason, her father had never let her be trained. It was something I could not understand. She was brimming, overflowing with power. She had a very pleasant aura. It was a pale blue, with a nice greenish tinge.
I finally gave up trying to talk to her. I bowed, and left her in the garden. I made my way to my suite in the palace. When I got to my outer room, Vivian was there, 'holding down the fort'.
"Good. You're here. I have two appointments for you. The first is with the guard commandant. That will be in one hour. The second is with the head tax collector. He will be available for you, when you are finished with the commandant. You're seeing the tax collector?" Vivian asked curiously.
"I want to know how taxes are assessed and collected. When I was in the city, yesterday, something started nagging at me. I want to know how it is determined that the tax money is collected, and I want to know how and why it is disseminated the way it is," I explained.
"As long as he doesn't try to collect from me, we'll be all right," Vivian growled.
I grinned, and went into my 'home office', as I called it. I had my main office (in the palace, an office which connected to my rooms), and I also had an office down in the city center, which I had still not visited. I was thinking it was about time to visit it.
The meeting with the commandant went well. I explained what I wanted to do, and he was very willing, though just a bit surprised. I was going to do inspections of the watch houses throughout the city. No inspections had been done by a Duke, in uncounted years.
The next interview, with the head tax collector, was a different thing altogether. I got the feeling he was reluctant to be here. He evaded most of my questions, and was hiding things. I decided a closer look at the tax situation was in order.
Two days later, with an appropriate guard that even Mirwanna would not complain about, I started my inspection of the watch houses. I started with the sector captain's headquarters, then I went to each sub-station in that area.
The city was divided into 4 sectors. North, South, East, and West. I had started with the sector captain closest to the palace, which was the north sector. While going from headquarters to the sub-watch stations, I would stop at a merchant's at random, and ask about how he paid his taxes.
He explained that he was required to be registered with the tax assessor and the city planner. He was required to keep records of his sales, and once a month he would be taxed on his sales. I nodded at that. Not a bad system. So why was the head tax man so nervous about my asking him about taxes?
I asked how he paid his taxes, and he showed me his receipt from the tax runner. It seemed to be a viable system. I committed the receipt number, and total amount of payment, to memory.
I did this with several businesses. I wanted to have a grasp of what was paid. I would then see how it was disbursed. It took the whole day just for the northern sub-stations.
I was able to view a watch change. I saw that a captain or a lieutenant was in charge of the house. Sometimes the captain was absent, due to obligations, and his assistant took over.
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