[Child of the 7th Age]

HARAD/UMBAR

Herumir, King of Ariwenna, paced back and forth. How he hated being cooped up! He wanted to be outside on his oliphaunt, chasing lions through the purple brush of the desert. But he had little choice.

Gondor's victory over Harad had proven bitter. Now Elessar had asked them to travel to Minas Anor to "right such disputes as may yet exist."

Herumir threw back his head and roared, golden chains jangling about his neck and ears. "He thinks to right our quarrel of several thousand years with a single meeting?" Too much anger still ran through his proud people to be bought off with scraps. He himself dreaded the heavy hand of Gondor and its insistence on unreasonable tribute, as had happened in the past.

Yet, Herumir had pledged loyalty to the party seeking to find some honorable road to prosperity, rather than continuing a hopeless war. And once a pledge was given, it could not be honorably withdrawn. Their group would travel to Umbar and free at least one ship. The local Council had ordered the Corsairs to turn over all vessels, but they had defied that order. Now, he--King Herumir--would force them to obey.

He and Fuinur, King of Leowenna, would then sail up the Bay and the Anduin towards Minas Anor. They must go swiftly. Rumor said one Corsair ship had slipped out from Umber a day before, intending to pillage spots along the river in south Gondor. Such an expedition would infuriate the King and negate his own attempts to foster trade. So they might need to do some "persuading " of these Corsairs. He was an expert at "persuading." It might involve a bit of bluff, physical force, a promise to cut the Corsairs in on a share of trade profits, or perhaps all of the above. He'd have to judge what would work best.

For Harad had learned a bitter lesson. It could not exist only on the might of its individual soldiers. Herumir understood they must bring gold into their coffers. The tools were at hand. The west clamored for coffee, a thing so common in Harad that the poor drank it for breakfast. They also wanted spices and tobacco and tea. All that, Harad could supply, if it could make advantageous trading deals. This was the real reason his people had agreed to the meeting. Let the men of Gondor be hanged! He'd take a good dwarf trading caravan any day.

Already, Jarl, a man of some intelligence from Dale, was in Harad to negotiate a joint coffee deal for himself and Fuinur. Gramil hoped to travel with him to eastern Nurn to look at the trading outposts Dale meant to establish. Then, Gramil would turn his oliphaunts to the west and arrive in Minas Arnor through the back door. Jarl and his folk were also welcome to come as guests aboard the oliphaunts.

There was no pretending otherwise. The great Harad Road was largely gone. They would need to rebuild it and many others if trade was to flourish. And dwarves were reputed to have such skills. Certainly, his own people were not road builders. They might have used slaves, but Elessar had issued an order abolishing slavery in Nurn and Harad. So other sources would have to be sought.

No, Herumir had no desire to be a piece of Gondor's great empire or to build roads with his own hands, but the money that would flow from arteries made safe for trade. That was quite another thing!

[ October 20, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]