Ranger's Apprentice 10: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja by John Flanagan Page B

interrupted. As he said ‘Our George’ he made a circling gesture that included himself and Alyss.
    Halt raised an eyebrow at him as he saw the impatience on Evanlyn’s face. ‘Perhaps one of those interjections would have been sufficient,’ he said, ‘since they all relate to the same person.’
    Evanlyn nodded gratefully at him. ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘ Your George. He was there to advise Horace on protocol and to act as an interpreter.’
    Halt cocked his head to one side. ‘But the common tongue is spoken in Nihon-Ja, surely?’
    Evanlyn shrugged. ‘Not as widely as in other countries. The Nihon-Jan have kept themselves a little…isolated…over the centuries. And my father thought it might be a diplomatic touch,’ she nodded in Alyss’s direction, ‘if the Emperor was addressed in his own language.’
    Alyss nodded. ‘We try to do that wherever possible.’
    ‘I still don’t see what Horace would hope to learn from the Nihon-Jan about weapons and methods,’ Will said. ‘After all, he’s a Swordmaster himself.’
    ‘The Nihon-Jan warriors – they call them Senshi – use a different technique,’ Halt interjected. ‘And their swordsmiths have perfected a method of making extremely hard blades. Our Ranger weapon makers learned some of their techniques many years ago.’
    ‘Is that why your saxe knives are so incredibly hard?’ Alyss asked. It was a well-known fact that saxe knives could put a notch into the blades of normal swords.
    ‘It’s a technique where several iron rods are heated and beaten, then folded and twisted together to form a composite whole. Over the years, we’ve made it a practice to adopt good ideas from anywhere we can find them,’ Halt told her.
    ‘Our swordsmiths in Dimascar developed a similar technique for creating extra-hard blades,’ Selethen put in.
    ‘You’re talking about Dimascarene blades, I assume?’ Halt said. ‘I’ve heard of them but never seen one.’
    ‘They’re very expensive. Not many people can afford them,’ Selethen told him.
    Halt nodded thoughtfully, filing the information away for future reference. Then he turned back to Evanlyn. ‘I’m sorry, Evanlyn, we’re digressing here. Please go on.’
    ‘All right. Just to cover any further interruptions…’ She looked meaningfully at Will, which he considered to be a little unfair. After all, it had been Halt and Selethen who had prattled on about super-hard sword blades, not him. But his indignation went unnoticed as she continued.
    ‘I take it you’re all familiar with the Silasian Council’s fast message system?’
    They all nodded. The Silasian Council was a cartel of traders based in the eastern part of the Constant Sea. They facilitated trade by instituting a central credit system so that funds could be transferred between countries, without the risk of actually sending money overland or by sea. In addition, they had realised some years prior that fast communications could be as beneficial to trade as efficient money transfers. They had set up a network of carrier pigeon services and express riders to take messages almost from one end of the known world to the other. Distances that might take weeks for a ship or a rider to cover could be traversed in a matter of days. Of course, the service was extremely expensive, but in emergencies, many users felt it was worth the cost.
    ‘We received a message via that service from George several weeks ago,’ Evanlyn said. ‘It was only brief and he sent it from a port on the Ooghly River in Indus – which is pretty much the eastern limit of the message service. Apparently, there was a rebellion against the Emperor of Nihon-Ja, and Horace got caught up in it. The Emperor’s forces are badly outnumbered and he’s a fugitive. When last seen, he was heading north into the mountains, to hide out in some legendary fortress. Horace has gone with him.’
    Will sat back and whistled slowly. It would be just like Horace, he thought, to get