In part, this was no more than a function of his age, for he was at a stage in life when young people
questioned everything they had been taught. To a large degree, however, his doubts had grown as a result of his exposure to the Fatalists, a group of young people who believed that when the old gods died at the Battle of Mount Deismaar, the storm of dissipated god essence gave birth to the bloodlines, but no new gods were created.
What proof was there, the Fatalists asked, of their existence? The priests claimed to speakfor them, but what proof was there that they spoke to the priests? None. The new gods were a fiction, they maintained, devised merely to give the people hope and the priests power. Haelyn and the other champions of Deismaar had simply died from being too close to the explosion, and that was all there was to it.
There were no more gods. The people of Cerilia were on their own, and their fate was their own responsibility.
When Aedan first heard this philosophy expounded in the tavern known as the Green Basihsk, back in the capital city of Anuire, he had been deeply shocked. It was sacrilege to speak so, nothing short of outright blasphemy. And politically dangerous, as well. But at the same time, the rather shocking nature of the patrons who frequented the tavern was the reason he kept going back there. The Green Basihsk was a bit disreputable, and known to be the gathering place of some unsavory types, but that only added to its allure.
During the day, the only breaks he had from Michael were those hours in which the prince was forced to spend in study, during which time Aedan had to be with his own tutor. At night, however, his time was more or less his own, and he was anxious for stimulation in the company of people his age. He had found that in the Green Basihsk.
The tavern was little more than a hole in the wall in the artists’
quarter, a square room with a bar in the back and no windows in the walls, which made the atmosphere inside quite dark and stuffy. The Green Basilisk catered mostly to a younger crowd, a mix of artists and bards, craftsmen, students, and the more adventuresome children of the noble class and merchant guilds, who saw themselves as daring nonconformists. They all dressed down when they came to the Green Basilisk, in plain tunics, demicloaks and breeches of dark gray or black, though Aedan noted that the material and cut of the clothing worn by the children of aristocrats was markedly superior to those of all the others. During his first visit, shortly after he had turned eighteen, he had been attracted by a girl seated with a group at one of the tables and had wandered over to join their discussion.
The young nobles among them had naturally recognized him, for his father was prominent at court, and a few of them he knew, although not very well.
They introduced him to the others, whom he had never met before. The girl who caught his eye was Caitlin, the pretty blonde daughter of a farrier.
Aedan was very much attracted to her, though he knew a serious relationship would have been out of the question. As a tradesman’s daughter, she was of the peasant class and not descended from a bloodline. A serious liaison between them would have been frowned upon, as any offspring such a relationship might produce would dilute the powers of the bloodline. Nevertheless, Aedan had started frequenting the tavern and often met there with the
others for long discussions over ale, bread, and cheese, late into the night.
Initially, Caitlin was the main attraction, but Aedan soon discovered she was interested in another member of the group, a young hard named Vaesil, who was the chief exponent of the Fatalist philosophy. For a short while, Aedan allowed himself to nurse the hope that Caitlin might eventually come to prefer him, but he soon realized that he could not compete, either with Vaesil’s handsome looks or his sharp wit and musical talents. The two of them always sat together, and Caitlin hung worshipfully on Vaesil’s every word.
With a wistful resignation, Aedan had eventually accepted that Caitlin saw him as no more than a casual acquaintance, merely one of the crowd, and he began to entertain the thoughts of other possibilities. Caitlin was not the only pretty girl who came to the Green Basihsk, and the Fatalists always attracted a good deal of attention. For the young aristocrats, the Green Basihsk was a place they could go slumming, mingling with the lower classes and getting a taste of common decadence.
For the others, the tavern was a stimulating gathering place for freethinkers and rebels, albeit the rebellion was mostly in the form of dress and conversation. Young women went there to meet interesting young men, hopefully someone from a well-off merchant family or, better yet, a blooded noble, and young men, whether of the aristocratic class or not, went there to meet young women.
For the blooded young aristocrats, it was fairly easy pickings, for there was no shortage of young women from the common classes who nursed the
dream of marrying a nobleman. Most of them, however, were doomed to disappointment. Though it occasionally happened that a blooded aristocrat took an unblooded commoner to wife, weakening the bloodline was the sort of thing that could get a man disowned. Most of the young men of the Anuirean aristocratic class had their marriages arranged for them by their families, often at a very early age.
Still, that did not stop many of them from dallying with young girls from the lower classes, most of whom were more than eager to accommodate them.
They
