“You have a blood tie with my son,” Jonah replied in a hard voice.
“And of course Egon could be protected from your mistakes,” the Master of the Merchants said in a cool tone.
“Remember who my mother-in-law is, Ahasferus,” Jonah snarled.
“The faerie woman’s only interest in Hetar is her daughter, whom you stole to wed when my poor niece died,” Cuthbert Ahasferus snapped at the Lord High Ruler.
“It was Vilia who chose her!” Jonah almost shouted.
“So you say,” Cuthbert Ahasferus replied. “But this is of no matter, Jonah. You must call a meeting of the High Council. We cannot avoid this disaster any longer.”
“It would have been less of a disaster if your merchants had opened their warehouses and distributed some of their grain,” Jonah responded.
“Forgo a profit?” Cuthbert Ahasferus looked appalled at the thought.
“You cannot make a profit if no one can buy the grain because there is no coin to buy it because there is no employment to earn the coin,” Jonah pointed out. “But, aye, you are right. We need a council meeting. I will call one.”
“You had better, and quickly,” the Master of the Merchants told him.
Jonah was not surprised on the day of the meeting to find that the council chamber was filled to capacity. Larger than it had been in past years when the High Council was made up of two representatives from each of Hetar’s provinces, it now contained as well representatives from the Crusader Knights, the Mercenaries, the Merchants Guild, the Guild of Pleasure Women, the Guild of Pleasure Mistresses and two elected members from The City’s General Population. The women of Hetar had lobbied hard to gain a larger council where they might be better represented, but with the death of the Lady Vilia, who had been their most influential member, they had lost a strong voice. The Lord High Ruler’s new wife had been importuned to join with those working for women’s rights in Hetar, but she had declined for she was very young, and seemed only to be interested in pleasures and the acquisition of pretty things.
“I cannot believe she is the Domina Lara’s daughter,” Maeve Scarlet, a famed Pleasure Mistress, said disapprovingly. “I thought the women of Terah modest in their desires and their needs. This girl is more Hetarian than any born here.”
“And it is said that Lady Farah is quite jealous of her for our
“Of course,” Maeve Scarlet said. “She is her mother’s daughter there, and knows well how to give pleasures to her husband.”
“I have heard she keeps two sex slaves, and performs with them for her husband’s amusement,” Lady Gillian said. “Then he joins them and they all take pleasures together quite enthusiastically, I am told.”
“What a Pleasure Woman the girl would have made,” Maeve Scarlet replied admiringly. “Can you imagine the fortune you could gain from a girl like that?” She sighed. “What a waste! No wonder Jonah doesn’t want to face up to our troubles.”
Lady Gillian and Maeve Scarlet represented the Guild of Pleasure Mistresses, to the annoyance of the Guild’s Headmistress, the Lord High Ruler’s mother, Lady Farah. But she managed to attend the council meeting with her daughter-in-law, seated in a gallery above the council chamber. Zagiri had brought her servant, Alka, who she knew would answer her questions directly, unlike her mother-in-law.
“Do you know who the other council members are?” Zagiri asked Alka.
“Around the main table are the representatives from the original provinces,” Alka explained. “The Shadow Princes are represented by Prince Lothair and Prince Coilin. The one called Lothair has been here before, but Coilin is new to the council. From the Midlands is Squire Darah, and his son-in-law, Rupert. The two Coastal kings are Pelias and Delphinus, who are familiar faces on the council. The Forest Lords, those two rough-looking men, are Enda, who is known as the Head Forester, and his companion, Adal.”
“And the others who sit in the second circle?” Zagiri asked. “I recognize my mother’s half brother Mikhail son of Swiftsword. Does he represent the Crusader Knights?”
“Nay, he is one of the elected representatives of the General Population from The Quarter,” Alka said. “Master Mikhail is much respected, and even loved by the people. The other is a woman, Clothilde, who has a large stall in the main market selling perfumes and soaps. She can be very influential, and her vote is sought by all sides for she is honest and fair. The other women on the council come from the Pleasure Guild, and the Pleasure Mistresses. Cuthbert Ahasferus, who was kin to the Lady Vilia, stands for the Merchants Guild. The other is Aubin Prospero, who was Lady Vilia’s son by the late Emperor Gaius Prospero. The Crusader Knights’ two members of the council are Sir Philip Bowman and Sir Anatol Boldspear. The Mercenaries have elected Peter Swiftfoot and Burley Goodman to serve them.”
Zagiri nodded. “What are they meeting for today?” she asked.
“They must decide how to help Hetar recover from the problems besetting it,” Alka said.
“You mean the disturbances I met with last Icy Season have not been solved yet?” Zagiri asked, sounding surprised. “My lord Jonah said he would take care of it, and I should not be concerned.”
Alka hesitated, then she said in a voice so low Zagiri could only just hear her, “My lady, the troubles besetting Hetar are very great, and no one has, until today, sought to seek a solution for them. Please do not say I said such a thing, but it is true. There is terrible illness everywhere, starvation and general misery. You will hear it all, for no one will remain silent this day.”
Zagiri nodded, and fixed her eyes below upon the double-ringed council table. She was disturbed by what Alka had told her, for her heart was not a hard one. Jonah had said nothing of this. She had let herself be swept up in his love for her, and had thought of nothing else except for how happy she was. Happier than she had ever been in all her life, which seemed odd as her childhood in Terah had been a happy one until last year. Everything had changed when her father had died.
The Lord High Ruler of Hetar looked out over the council chamber from his throne. “This gathering will come to order. We are met here today to discuss the difficulties now facing our glorious Hetar,” Jonah pronounced.
“Glorious no more!” shouted Adal of the Forest Lords. “Do you know what we have been reduced to in our Forests? At least those you have left to us. We ground acorns in order to bake bread this winter past. Had it not been for the game we would have all starved! And there is much sickness among our folk. Tell me, my Lord High Ruler, what are you going to do about it? Why are the Taubyl traders not traveling the land with their goods, or bringing us the items we cannot make or grow ourselves?”
“And why will the magnates not open their warehouses to the people of The City?” demanded Peter Swiftfoot of the Mercenaries. “There is virtually no work for us. Our guild cannot repair the hovels because we have run out of coin. There is sickness in The Quarter, too, while you take pleasures in your palace, Lord Jonah, with your new wife.”
“Be silent all of you!” Jonah roared. He did not as a rule speak loudly, but he needed their attention. Surprised, they looked to him. “Hetar has suffered hard times before, my lords, good masters and ladies. It is the Celestial Actuary who is responsible for too much rain or not enough of it, and decides if our harvest will be good or bad no matter the work we do. Our fates are in the hands of the Celestial Actuary.”
“Who is obviously quite angry at us,” Squire Darah said.
“Aye!” came a chorus of assent at his words.
He heard the words coming from his mouth even as he knew he should not ask them. “And why,” Jonah said, “do you believe the Celestial Actuary is angry with us?”
They all began shouting at once until the Lord High Ruler signaled his guard to beat the council members into silence. Then he pointed an elegant finger.
“King Pelias, what say you?” Jonah asked the Coastal King.
“I believe we have disappointed the Celestial Actuary by moving away from our old traditions,” came the answer. “Recently in our Coastal Kingdom we were visited by a beautiful young man who chided us gently for turning from the old ways of Hetar. He said if we would turn back to them Hetar would prosper once again.”
“A simpleton’s answer to complex problems,” Cuthbert Ahasferus snapped.
“Perhaps,” King Pelias replied, “but for months there have been few fish to be caught in the Saggita or for sale
