Chapter 32
By the time they returned to the ship, most everyone was ready to sleep, determined to start fresh and early in the morning by divvying up Ludo’s list. Gaeren waffled over whether this was the right direction to take.
The sprites had told him the starbridge was nailed on a boat in Andel’s harbor.
He suspected they’d have more luck searching the boats than looking for black market traders or museums, but how could he explain that without giving up his source of information?
His gaze swept over the hundreds of boats in the harbor before he slipped below deck, and the deeper he went into the belly of his ship, the more his hope sank with him. Even if he told them what the sprites had said, searching that many boats would be impossible.
He stepped around several sailors already passed out for the night in their overstuffed quarters. Just as Gaeren reached to remove his trousers, Larkos elbowed his side.
“Ready to head out?”
Gaeren started. “Now? Where would you want to go at this time of night?”
Thallahan rose from his bed, fully dressed, and gave Gaeren a wink while adjusting his eye patch. Erech joined them, practically bouncing from foot to foot in his excitement.
“There’s something we want to show you.” Without any more explanation, Larkos headed back toward the stairs to the upper deck, Thallahan and Erech in tow.
Gaeren swore under his breath. Those cryptic words might have been the only thing that could convince him to keep his pants on and head back to land.
Instead of answering Gaeren’s questions, Larkos gave him mundane updates about the ship and sailors while they wove their way through the docks, and Erech peppered them with questions about the various ships.
Gaeren sensed his first mate growing more tense and wary, but Thallahan seemed to loosen up the farther they got from the ship.
Before they made it very far into town, Larkos pulled out a strip of cloth, regret on his face.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you…” He let the words hang until Gaeren grasped their meaning.
“You’re taking me to meet with southern Recreants.”
Larkos winced and nodded. “They gave me permission for a meeting only if you were willing to be blindfolded. Their regular meetings are constantly changing locations, but they want to be extra cautious because of who you are.”
Gaeren sighed and glanced at Erech. “And what if things go badly? You’re willing to put Erech in harm’s way?”
“He brought me because he thinks I’ll keep the others from taking things too far.” Erech’s grin was positively cheeky. “No one wants an innocent to accidentally get hurt because of a misunderstanding.” His grin dropped and his face melted into the expression of a forlorn puppy.
Bringing the boy was probably a brilliant idea.
“I could say the same thing about you.” Gaeren turned to Larkos. “It’s not that I don’t trust you…” He left the sentence unfinished like Larkos had, and the other man chuckled.
“It could go a long way for them to hear from you directly instead of through an old man like me, who they think cares a little too much for the prince he was told to convert.”
“They suspect you of being loyal to the crown because of me?”
Larkos shrugged. “Some of them are stupid, right?”
Gaeren shook his head and turned his back to Larkos, waiting for his first mate to conceal his vision.
In many ways, it was a wasted effort. He could take the memory of approaching the meeting from Larkos or any other of the people there.
But hopefully they all knew of his respect for privacy with his magic just like they knew of his evolving politics.
“Not as roguishly handsome as my eye patch,” Thallahan said from his left, “but it’ll do.”
Gaeren reached out to punch him, but the other man must have moved, because his fist met air.
An awkward half a bell later, Gaeren was led up steps and through a door, where the blindfold was removed.
It took his eyes a frustrating amount of time to adjust considering it was almost as dark in the room as it had been under the blindfold.
Nearly a dozen men and women eyed him nervously, and Gaeren realized he was probably looking at the core members of the Recreant rebellion.
Unlike Sylmar and Velden’s group, these people wanted a full democracy instead of even a spiritual leader. They would kill his parents and sister without question. They might still kill him if he didn’t give them the right answers.
He glanced at Larkos, wondering if he’d made the right decision to come.
“He’s just as pretty in person as he is on his posters,” an old woman from the back yelled.
The tension dissolved with chuckles around the room. When Thallahan shoved Gaeren into a chair, a drink was passed his way, and Gaeren couldn’t help wondering if it was laced with poison. As if reading his mind, Larkos traded mugs with him.
“I’m not sure I trust them any more than you do,” he muttered.
The tension in his first mate’s shoulders had only increased since they’d left the ship, and his hand strayed awfully close to his sword’s pommel.
Erech had already taken to his role of deflecting tension by asking a few of the attendees to watch the magic tricks Thallahan and Riveran had taught him.
Even Thallahan greeted several people by name, leaving Gaeren feeling strangely out of place.
Despite the relaxed chatter, Gaeren knew he needed to maintain vigilance just like Larkos had.
He barely had time to let the thought register before the interrogation began.
“Larkos tells us you left your family because you don’t want to rule with them.” A middle-aged man with squinty eyes said the words like an accusation.
Gaeren nodded, but a second question was fired his way before he could expand his answer.
As the questions grew more specific, Gaeren set his drink aside.
He wouldn’t have time for swigs, but he also couldn’t risk his mind being addled when they watched for him to make a mistake.
Instead, he toyed with the braid hidden beneath the cuff of his sleeve, reminding himself that far more was at stake than how these people perceived him.
The youngest man sitting in the front was still at least ten years Gaeren’s senior, with stringy black hair and a shave well overdue.
He didn’t ask any questions, but Gaeren noticed his knuckles grow white on the handle of his mug every time Enla’s name came up.
The man’s anger wasn’t just for Gaeren’s parents, whose rule had much to question even in Gaeren’s eyes.
The man and his animosity toward Enla made Gaeren more nervous than any of the other patrons, who seemed to be warming up to Gaeren based on his answers.
When the questions subsided, Gaeren decided to ask one of his own. “How do you expect to overthrow a time-tested monarchy without a unified front?”
Several people blinked back at him, brows furrowed.
“I just spent the last several moons with a group of Recreants determined to undermine a high priestess’ power, not the royal family’s. They want Emeris Wyndren to rule instead of my family, but down here in the south, you all want to rule yourselves.”
Understanding flashed, and a few of the attendees exchanged nervous glances. This wasn’t a new topic, but maybe one they weren’t ready to discuss in front of him.
“We respect the priests and priestesses in the Sungazers,” one woman said, “but we don’t want them making decisions for us.”
“Are you able to set aside those differences and work together? Or will you take my family off the throne just to have another battle to fight with people who were supposed to be on your side?”
“Most of those Recreants are in the eastern provinces,” another man said, waving his hand in dismissal. “Let them live the way they want out there and we can live the way we want down here.”
“So now we’re talking about dividing the nation with a theocracy in the eastern provinces and a democracy in the southern provinces.
Why not allow a monarchy in the northwestern provinces to keep all the nobility there happy?
After all, if it’s what they want, let them live the way they want out there and you can live the way you want down here, right?
” He tried to keep his tone light even though he clearly threw the man’s words right back in his face.
Some seemed to consider the idea, but others pursed their lips. One woman in particular laughed. “Because the royal family won’t settle for less than everything.”
Gaeren laughed with her, easing some of the tension. “Maybe you’re right. But they did give the eastern provinces to Mayvus before Mayvus died. We were already partway there.”
This gave the group pause. Maybe Gaeren should have mentioned it was done under the duress of a brand or that Mayvus was still alive.
But those things didn’t change the fact that Emeris fully expected to maintain authority in the Myndren Mountains.
He even suspected his parents would allow it in order to keep the peace.
“I understand the complaints you have with my parents. But do you assume Enla would make the same mistakes, or do you all have some other reason to despise her being on the throne?”
The man before him took the bait, answering the question before any of the others could.
“It wasn’t your parents who last raised taxes.
It wasn’t your parents who decreed that those who couldn’t pay would become vassals.
” His voice rose until it finally broke.
“It wasn’t your parents who sent the order for my boy to be taken away to the schools. ”
Gaeren sucked in a breath, the man’s words hitting him hard. Enla had almost said as much when he’d last met with her. She’d questioned if the mistakes made were her fault, since she’d made so many decisions while their parents were branded.