“And the royalist scum will put that time to good use,” Storm snapped. “What will they do with that time?”
“Form an alliance with one of the other kingdoms,” Althorn said. “They won’t want to leave us alone.”
He’s already planning to form a marriage alliance with Red Rose, Emily thought. She wasn’t sure if she should tell them or not. How long until the match is made and consummated?
“They were already talking about a formal alliance between Alluvia and Red Rose,” Jair said, curtly. He shot a look at Aiden. “Was that not true?”
“Yes,” Aiden said. “Councilor Triune headed a mission to explore the prospects of arranging a marital alliance shortly after the end of the Necromantic War. King Rupert was apparently open to the offer, so matters proceeded to the next step. From what my sources told me, King Jorlem and his wife took over the discussion personally.”
“So we ask the bitch,” Jair snarled. “She’ll tell us.”
Emily winced, inwardly. She’d hoped to have a chance to speak to Althorn privately, to plead for the queen’s safety. She hadn’t realized that rumors had already begun to spread, or that Councilor Triune had been involved. She was surprised anything had leaked out, let alone enough to convince Aiden the story was true. Both parties would have preferred to keep the talks secret, just in case they failed. It would be embarrassing, even though everyone knew marriage talks failed all the time.
“That will not be necessary,” Emily said. “I heard the story, too. Talks are still in progress.”
Jair glowered at her. “And you didn’t think to tell us?”
He went on, addressing the table before Emily could reply. “It doesn’t matter. There are Leveller cells in Red Rose. There are Levellers everywhere. Let them plan to marry a royal whore to Prince Cock. We will rise up everywhere. Our armies will take the fire of revolution right across the Allied Lands!”
“Once we’re ready to move,” Sergeant Oskar said.
“Let us move now.” Jair thumped the table. “Let us send a challenge to the prince. Let him meet us on the field, if he dares, or be known forever as a base and cowardly dog.”
“We are not ready to meet him outside our defenses,” Oskar said.
“Then he can test himself against our defenses,” Jair insisted. “And once we crush his armies, it will be all over. We’ll win.”
“He’ll work to buy time,” Scribe Bajingan said. “He’ll try to refuse battle until he thinks he can win.”
“The aristos think one of them is worth ten of us,” Jair snapped.
“Wonderful,” Scribe Bajingan said. “We outnumber them twenty to one.”
A chuckle ran around the table. Jair scowled. Emily eyed him thoughtfully, wondering why Althorn wasn’t moving to take command of the meeting. The debate appeared to have become pointless. The rebels weren’t going to surrender and Dater wasn’t going to accept their terms. She suspected her mission had become equally pointless. Or, at least, the first part of it.
Her eyes lingered on Jair. He sounded like a fanatic, yet - if Aiden was to be believed - he was also a man of good business sense. Why was he pushing for a war that would be immensely devastating even if the rebels won? Did he believe his own propaganda? Emily had read stories in Jair’s broadsheets that would have made the average tabloid editor throw up his hands in horror, tales of royal depravity that would have shocked a libertine to the core. She was fairly sure they were made up of whole cloth... did Jair believe them? Or was something else at work?
“There are vast swathes of the landscape under royalist control,” Oskar said, slowly. “We can march out troops and take them. If the royalists stand and fight, we will have a battle on our terms. If they run, we destroy the manors and shatter their power base once and for all. Either way, we win.”
“It doesn’t force Prince Cocky to come get us,” Jair snapped.
“It does,” Oskar said. “His support is primarily drawn from the aristocracy. Half of them have nothing to offer but their bodies and whatever they could carry when we kicked them out of their homes. The remainder have troops and men, as well as access to recruiting grounds. He’ll have to risk battle or lose a large chunk of his support.”
“Particularly as we can make offers to individual aristocrats,” Scribe Bajingan said. “We can promise them anything, including the return of their lands.”
“You would suggest letting them have their lands back?” Jair sounded furious. “The people would turn on us in a heartbeat.”
His voice hardened. “But then, I suppose we don’t have to keep the promises. It isn’t as if they ever bothered to keep promises they made to us.”
“If we start breaking promises,” Aiden said quietly, “no one will ever trust us again.”
“And who’ll trust them, when they insist we broke our promises?” Jair snickered. “They always lie. They lie even when it would be more practical not to lie.”
Emily kept her face impassive as the debate raged around the table. Jair was a hard-liner, backed by Oskar. Scribe Bajingan seemed more inclined to keep talks going, although Emily wasn’t sure if he genuinely intended to come to terms with the king or if he was simply stalling for time. Aiden and Storm seemed caught in the middle, the latter clearly stinging under the suggestion he could simply leave the city and make his way to a magical community. Dragon’s Den was only a day’s travel away. Whitehall had declared the borders closed, but Gordian would probably make an exception for a magician. He’d say he was merely upholding the Compact.
She felt her eyes narrow as she studied Althorn. Dater would have taken charge by now... but everyone knew he was the legitimate ruler. Althorn had no precedents backing him up, no long line of previous kings supporting his rule. He didn’t even have the institutional support of a president or a
