CHAPTER 10 #3
“During the Corios campaign.” His voice was quiet and light. “They had us raiding the coastal forts in small boats, trying to keep the defenders guessing when and where we’d show up.”
Corios, meaning the “middle sea,” was a landlocked sea about twice the size of Lake Superior.
It cleaved the continent in two, separating Rellas in the west from the Crimson Empire in the east, and it was a bad-tempered sea.
Its storms sank a lot of ships, to the delight of the marine monsters swimming in its depths.
“The second week in, our captain took an arrow to the chest and went overboard. The wind blew us farther from the coast. We drifted for hours before we figured out how to work the sails. I decided that sailing was something I should know how to do.”
“You’re a very good sailor,” I told him.
He smiled. “Thank you.”
It felt like we had stopped moving completely. We just hung there, between the ocean and the sky, watching the trails of three moons shine on the water.
“What are we waiting for?”
“The wind,” Reynald said. “We’ll need it to pick up before we start.”
I didn’t mind if the wind didn’t pick up for a while. It was so beautiful here, almost romantic. Floating on a starry night across a magical ocean, just me and Reynald . . . And eleven corpses we needed to dispose of. So Kair Toren.
Reynald stirred. “About Hreban . . .”
“Yes?”
“I know a bit about him. He was born rich, like his father, and his grandfather. Generations of wealth.”
“The gift of Mirror Heart is wrapped in gold,” I murmured. It was a line in the first book.
“And misery.”
True.
Each of the Eight Families had their own special brand of magic.
The Everards had the Fatefire, the Arvels had the Enduring Flame, and the Hrebans had the power of Mirror Heart, meaning they knew exactly what someone was feeling.
They could tell when people lied. They knew when their opponent was unsure, desperate, or terrified.
It made them excellent judges of character and brought them unimaginable wealth.
From a very young age, Ulmar sensed people’s hidden motives.
They approached him and his family with smiles on their faces, pretending to be solicitous and loyal, while he soaked in their greed, jealousy, hatred, and derision.
It convinced him that he was inherently superior, and that people were fundamentally selfish and needed discipline and punishment to be useful.
“Ulmar is a reflection of what he feels,” I said. “He sees people as sheep, a stupid, panicky commodity to be bought and sold. He isn’t the sheep dog that protects the flock. He is the shepherd with a big heavy stick.”
Taking a tour through Hreban’s head killed your will to live. He had forever ruined empath and telepath characters for me.
“The other seven Great Families hold him in contempt,” Reynald said.
I had caught some of that in the books, but it was nice to get a first-person account. “Why?”
“Rellas is a kingdom of knights and merchants. There is a reason why knights are listed first. We are surrounded by enemies on all sides. Without the protection of the knights, the merchants would not exist.”
“But the Hrebans are not the only non-martial Great Family.”
Reynald nodded. “True. However, the other three contribute in their own way. The Yolentas provide steel for weapons, the Jals produce grain for provisions, and the Graives build roads and castles. The Hrebans buy and sell a great many things but produce little. They made their money trading in luxuries and precious metals, and they are proud of it, which is why their crest is awash in gold. Gold is soft and heavy, Maggie. You cannot make a sword out of it.”
Also, true. Not that Ulmar hadn’t tried. Once he’d decided that he wanted power, Hreban realized that he needed martial achievements. Ten years ago, he got his chance. An impregnable castle had rebelled, and Sauven needed someone to go and sit on it until the rebels saw the error of their ways.
The campaign promised to be long and boring, with minimal casualties and few opportunities to show off, and nobody except Hreban wanted to deal with it. For some bizarre reason, Sauven decided to let him.
Hreban was given two battalions of the King’s Army, all seasoned troops to compensate for his inexperience.
He marched them to Lerem Castle, and then he hurled them against the walls again and again, in defiance of every military strategy and against the advice of his knights, until the defenders literally ran out of soldiers and arrows.
He took the castle in a month, but he lost more than sixty-five percent of his army.
After, when Sauven screamed and threw things at him, Hreban countered that he had saved the kingdom money because none of those casualties would need to be paid and new soldiers could be recruited for less.
To Hreban, the loss of experienced, battle-seasoned veterans meant nothing, because in his view, people were expendable and infinitely replaceable.
There were always more of them. He would’ve made an excellent modern CEO.
That campaign made Hreban into a laughingstock among the knighthood. He had never gotten over it.
“If what you told me is true, then the Fool of Lerem Siege suddenly became a master strategist,” Reynald said.
“As I said, it’s likely he has allies. Someone with a greater vision who is behind him steering his boat.”
“Do you know who that is?”
“No.” I knew who it wasn’t, but that still left plenty of suspects.
He gave me a long, probing look. “There is something you’re not telling me.”
There was a whole lot I wasn’t telling him. “Yes.”
“You mentioned there would be three murders. The second is Kiel, the crown prince. Who are the others?”
I really didn’t want to have this conversation. Let me out of this boat.
“I don’t want to tell you.”
I should’ve thought of some clever answer, but instead the truth came out.
Reynald studied my face. “You don’t trust me.”
“I do trust you. I told you about my magic. I’m alone in this boat with you.”
I’d been in his head. Reynald would kill me if I became a threat, but he would never backstab me.
“Then what is it?”
Reynald was a knight kardar, from kar, an old word for banner.
In battle, he led his own detachment of knights and fighters with junior officers under him.
He was used to being in command. He also had serious doubts about my ability to get things done.
Oh, he believed I could see the future, but like he said, my first plan had ended with me dying.
If I wasn’t careful, he would bulldoze right over me, wreck the flow of events beyond repair, and then get himself killed.
He knew just enough about the future now to royally screw things up.
I had to earn his trust. I had to demonstrate that my schemes worked, and that I was capable. I had to come up with a brilliant plan . . . and I had nothing.
Making grand pronouncements about bringing Hreban to justice was good and all, but now I had to actually do it, and when I tried to come up with a plan, all I got was a dark emptiness with a faint buzzing sound.
The enormity of the stakes paralyzed my poor traumatized brain.
If I made a mistake, Reynald and the kids would die and Rellas would collapse. No pressure.
I had to buy some time.
“You’re half right,” I said slowly. “It is a matter of trust. You don’t know me, Reynald. If I told you to do something right now, would you do it?”
“If I understood the reasons behind it and agreed with them.”
“Exactly.” I nodded. “You wouldn’t act just because I told you to.”
His eyes narrowed. “So, you’re expecting blind obedience?”
This conversation was going off the rails in a hurry.
“Not at all. But I know you. Once you decide on a course of action, you follow through even if it is unwise, like the time you decided to climb into an underground catacomb in Gassargand alone, without telling anyone. You knew there would be a monster waiting for you there, a monster you and three other experienced soldiers had failed to kill the first time around, and you climbed in there anyway.”
“It had to be done.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. That I will tell you what I know and then you’ll decide to do something about it and get yourself killed.”
“I’m resilient.”
“I know. But in my version of the future, you still died. And unlike me, you didn’t come back from it.” I sighed.
He pondered me.
The best defense was an effective offense.
“I’m not completely dense, Reynald. I know why you didn’t tell me that Clover was standing there or that Kaiden was hiding under the bed.
You realized that I cared for the kids, and having both of them there would convince me to lean on you.
It’s one thing to talk about the kingdom ending and people dying, but it’s completely different when two children are standing in front of you, and you know you are their only hope to survive.
You have no resources, except for the deadly blademaster in the room willing to lend a hand. ”
His face shut down.
“I understand why you did it.”
He waited, his expression blank.
“You think that I’m your best chance at saving Matheo.”
If I was missing back home and not in a coma or just dreaming in my bed while the events here passed before me at a thousand minutes per second, my parents would be frantic.
My dad would do anything and everything to find me and bring me home.
He would sell his soul to the devil if it would help.
I was Reynald’s devil, and I was sitting right here.
“I give you my word that I will do everything I can to keep your son alive. You asked to join me, not the other way around. So trust me and be patient. Let me prove to you that my way is the best way.”
I tried not to hold my breath. He’d notice.