Chapter Six #3
“This is Lady Merrilyn, my consort, and one of the best Moss and Mischief players in the whole of Melowynn,” Aelir announced.
The lady said nothing to me but did thank the king for the compliment.
He moved me along a step to meet his commander of the guard.
“And my other consort, Commander V’alor.
” He was an imposing elf indeed. Beautiful of face, stiff of spine, his love for Aelir was clear when he gazed at the king.
He lacked my height but only by a few inches.
Short military hair. A perfect specimen of elven masculinity.
“Pleasure,” V’alor said, which made me chuckle inside, for it was obvious it was anything but a pleasure. He, I was sure, would prefer to toss me over the wet railing into the sea than sit down to a meal with me. Dastardly pirates.
“The pleasure is mine, Your Highnesses.” I bowed again and then allowed Aelir to guide me to a large wooden chair at the table.
Food was brought in, servants rushing about on silent feet, placing dishes here and there, uncovering platter after platter.
Stuffed pheasants, roasted hares, venison rounds, stuffed eels, and fried greens with caraway sauce.
“Please, sit, eat.” Aelir sat across from me, sitting primly in the largest seat, his back to the hearth.
The others in his family took their seats, the queen to his left, V’alor to his right, Lady Merrilyn to the queen’s other side.
I was tucked neatly into a space I assumed would have belonged to the twins.
“Thank you, it looks wonderful.” That was no lie.
The aroma of the meal was mouthwatering.
I opened my napkin and laid it across my lap.
Everyone’s eyebrows rose. Aelir waved the first of probably many awkward moments away with his own napkin.
Fukkate. Had I committed a napkin blunder?
The others waited until the king had his napkin on his thighs before they placed theirs on their laps.
Ah. “I see the twins are not joining us?”
“No, we thought it best to not introduce them to you just yet,” Aelir explained as the room cleared of servants.
Like smoke, they were here one second then gone on the damp wind the next.
It seemed when the king was in his solar, it truly was family time.
“They tend to embrace people quickly, so we felt it was best to not let them meet you until the results of the blood testing are back.”
“I see. That makes sense.” Why let the twins get to know a possible uncle and then have to explain that the nice uncle was now hanging from a gibbet.
That could be confusing to the little ones.
“Perhaps someday soon I can make their acquaintance.” Seeing that the king was helping himself to a stuffed eel, I moved a pheasant to my plate as my stomach rumbled softly.
“How is it that you explained my presence here to the staff and people of Celear?”
“We sent out criers to announce that the navy and the privateers were going to be involved in a truce to try to come to a mutual agreement on the new port fees and other points of contention,” Raewyn said while Merrilyn passed over the platter of venison rounds to V’alor.
“This way, the arrival of a well-known pirate ship sailing into our port would not upset the people.”
“I see.” I tore a leg off my pheasant as I spoke. “And is that true?” Raewyn looked at me in confusion. “Would you be willing to meet with freebooters, picaroons, and sea rovers as well as the scores of humble fisherfolk who are being strangled by the royal tariffs already in place?”
The air in the solar grew incredibly stuffy. I tore off a bite of perfectly prepared pheasant with my teeth and chewed as I waited for a reply.
“The crown is willing to meet with any law-abiding citizen of Melowynn, as well as any of the neighboring kingdoms and provinces, to discuss ways to ensure the livelihoods of those who harvest the sea.”
Well, she certainly was good at speaking like a queen. “And what of the others who have been forced to steal from the crown in order to feed those the nobility has little care for?” I enquired between bites of dark meat. “Your cook has a fair hand with peppercorn and mountain sage.”
Raewyn leaned over her dish of eels. The others appeared to be growing more tight around the mouth by the second.
“There are laws on how the navy deals with those who steal from the crown,” Raewyn snapped back, the brown scars on her cheek growing darker with her pique.
“Oh aye, we know well the laws the navy follows when it comes to those of us who borrow from the nobles to distribute to the needy,” I said, waving a hand into the air, blue sigils flaring to life around my fingers as ice wine rose from an open bottle in front of V’alor and splashed joyously into my empty goblet.
A pulse from the lucent in my pocket was a pleasant feeling of familiarity in an unfamiliar setting.
Aelir’s mouth fell open, as did V’alor’s and Lady Merrilyn’s, as I showed off a bit. The queen was too angry to be agog.
“I am not wholly sure that your kind take the goods they steal from hard-working farmers and craftsmen then turn around to feed the indigent,” Raewyn fired back.
I sipped my wine, noting I had left greasy fingerprints on the glass before my sight went to the queen.
“Have you ever come to Quinn’s Quay to see how the ships that we sail are unloaded or the goods handed out?” I asked in my most polite tone.
“I did not intend for this meal to turn into a heated discourse over—”
Aelir was cut off by his wife. A common thing for a husband to endure, to be sure. “How would I have come to Quinn’s Quay or any other privateers’ stronghold when the moment your people see a naval ship, you attack and sink it?”
“We rarely sink a ship. Getting the goods from the bottom of the sea is incredibly difficult. We prefer to weaken a vessel and then board it to plunder the hold,” I explained to all in attendance before I took another bite of pheasant.
“As for the crew, we most generally leave them be unless they attack us when we board. Then we must defend ourselves, as is a given right under the bylaws of the seafarers’ society. ”
“The seafarers’ society? What manner of bullshit are you trying to push down our gullets?
!” Raewyn shouted, her hands slapping the table as she shot to her feet.
Petite she may be, but when riled, she was most formidable.
“You thieves and murderers may call yourselves the seafarers’ society or any other nonsensical moniker you dream up, but that does not change the fact that you and your crew have stolen countless thousands of gold coins from the crown with little to no remorse to be shown! ”
“Enough!” Aelir barked just as a servant bearing dessert snuck into the solar, the young girl’s eyes round as a ship’s wheel.
She placed a large red raspberry cake with white icing drizzled over the four tiers of bright red cake on the table, curtsied, and raced out the servants’ door.
“Enough. Raewyn, please take your seat.” The queen sat but did so with marvelous attitude.
I rather liked her spirit. Most queens were meek, little, biddable things raised to pop out heirs like a brood mare, but this noble elf was not of that ilk.
“Thank you.” Aelir glanced at V’alor, who said nothing, merely returned to cutting into his very rare venison with precision.
A man used to using a blade and seeing blood on his plate.
Noted. “This meal was not intended to devolve into a political spat. I deal with those day in and day out. Now, may we just enjoy the food Widow Poppy has prepared for us?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” I murmured softly as a stilted silence fell over the table.
The heavy rain quieted outside. I enjoyed knowing I had made my point.
That was an inherited trait that rankled mostly everyone who did not boast Cadere as their surname.
Pity Le’ral had not been here. I suspected he would have enjoyed the discussion, or if not, the pheasant.
Perhaps I would take him some cake and fill him in on the evening’s chitchat. He did owe me a tour after all…