KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Twenty Two

By the time Amantis arrived for dinner, Corago and some of his friends were already reclining on couches and enjoying drinks. They went into the dining room, reclined at the table and continued their plans for Corago's birthday. After they finished discussing guests and food and other supplies, Corago turned to Amantis.

"I hear spear training is going well."

Amantis dipped a piece of bread into the meat sauce. "Well enough for now. There is still a lot to organize and we can never seem to get enough weapons for everyone. If the angorym were to attack now, we would have no way to stop them."

This seemed to make Corago uneasy. He paused and lifted his bowl for Troekis to refill.

Amantis enjoyed using the angorym to make people uneasy. It was a guaranteed conversation stopper. He just had to remind himself not to use it too often.

"Still," Corago continued uncertainly, "I hear you have them well organized and have even appointed others to help lead and train your new reavers."

Amantis grabbed a carpon and began to peel it. "I consider my organizational abilities one of my special talents." He licked at the juice running down his hand and slurped up the fruit. "That's why I've been able to be so helpful to you in the business."

"Well, that's what I've wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?"

"Yes. With my birthday, things are going to change a bit. I'm not going to be able to take as active a role in the business as I have in the past. I would like you to take over that for me."

Amantis shrugged. Corago had increasingly deferred his business decisions to him so that Amantis had basically been running everything anyway. He fought down a little irritation at the idea that Corago would continue to enjoy the income from the business without doing any work for it. "I'm sure I can manage."

"Until now you've been doing very well, but I don't want you to be distracted now that more will be asked of you."

"What do you mean?"

"I would like you to turn your spear training over to your assistants."

Amantis tore off a chunk of bread and bit back an angry reply. "I don't think I am in danger of becoming distracted."

Corago shrugged. "Perhaps not. I assume, then, that you are addressing the storage issue?"

Amantis scooped out more meat sauce with the bread. "Yes. I leased out all the warehouses available in Nur. I'm afraid we may have to build more."

"Build? Why in heaven's name would we build more? We should be selling this stuff off—especially grain. That won't last forever."

"We can't sell now. The prices aren't high enough."

"How high do you think they'll go? I hate to tell you this, but you'll never be able to create enough scarcity to drive the prices up. We just don't have the resources to do that."

Amantis leaned back and smiled. "We won't have to worry about that. The scarcity will take care of itself. This fall will be the last good harvest for some time. After that, the fighting begins."

Corago frowned. "You're convinced of this aren't you?"

Amantis untied the pouch containing his oracle stone and flopped it onto the table. "I've seen it."

"Be that as it may, we'll discuss selling next year. But that and the storage issue only emphasize the need for you to focus on the business instead of this spear fighter thing."