dominate their policy!'
A surge of violent protest bellowed from the galleries; Sumbrian and Lomatran commoners leapt to their feet and roared disagreement, echoed by the meek voice of their prince in the hall below.
'Um… well, I do rather think we'll be absorbed by Svarezi, rather than the other way around…'
A beery voice rose into a roar.
'So? Mannicci was already trying to place a finger in our pie! Why ally through marriage, when we can amalgamate our councils?'
Suddenly a loud, good-natured rumbling sound came from the far end of the hall; the Blade Captains turned as a sedan chair swayed in through the doors and settled by the council table. The council relaxed, the audience busied itself with a speculative roar, and Miliana steepled her fingers and gave a thoughtful frown.
'Who is it?'
'Spirelli, our only nonhuman Blade Captain.' Lorenzo coldly gnawed upon his lower lip. 'This could be bad; Spirelli could swing the voting either way. He's an invertebrate politician.'
'You mean 'inveterate'…'
'No, invertebrate.' Lorenzo moved to give a clear view of the speaking stand. 'Still, it makes for a nice change.'
Miliana kept her face frozen, unamused, as a huge, slimy snail slithered from the sedan chair and took the floor. The creature had the voice and demeanor of a village schoolmaster gargling on a mouthful of soap.
'Colleagues, colleagues, colleagues!' The snail Spirelli had an unnerving habit of looking both his supporters and detractors in the eye at once. 'Pray forgive my tardy arrival. I have been gazing out across the city roofs, contemplating our luck in avoiding the recent storms. The waves bring a wealth of driftwood to the beaches; merchant ships dock in our harbor and pay our docking fees…' The snail puffed himself up with pompous pride, swiveling his eyes to examine the hostile commoners. 'I wonder if, perhaps, we cannot learn a lesson from the storm. It is our particular strength to turn disasters into assets to us all.'
Miliana shifted forward in her seat and glared at the snail in hate. At her side, Tekoriikii finished plucking the emerald out of a merchant's signet ring and turned about to stare at Spirelli in surprise.
The snail cruised silkily along behind his prince's throne.
'Lomatra has always been an ally to Sumbria. If we break with that tradition, we make ourselves seem faithless in the eyes of the world. Let us take it that Svarezi's conquest of the Blade Kingdoms is a fait accompli. He has the wealth of Sumbria; the population of Colletro. Zutria has shown us just how all the lesser kingdoms shall fall.' The snail coiled its neck about the prince's shoulders. 'By maintaining our traditional ties with Sumbria, we place ourselves in a position of unexpected power. How else can Lomatra be expected to survive?'
'With an alliance!' A sooty chieftain of the metalworkers guild shook his blacksmith's hammer as he roared. 'An alliance with our neighbors against Svarezi's hordes!'
The cry was met by a storm of agreement from the upper galleries; the commoners had spent long weeks succoring refugees from Sumbria and beyond. They roared and raged, hammering fists against the railings and showering curses through the air…
… All of which the Blade Captains ignored. As autocrats, they held the demands of commoners as less than smoke upon the wind.
Rising to his feet, a slim captain clad in sapphire armor calmly addressed the hall.
'I think the council is essentially agreed. Cooperation and compliance with Svarezi's program is the most beneficial course for us all.'
Despite the frantic protests of their prince, the murmured agreement of the Blade Captains rumbled around the tabletop; until, suddenly, a fierce new voice ripped out to stun the hall. 'Traitors!'
The Blade Captains wrenched about in shock, staring up at a pointy-hatted form that leaned out from the galleries to cast a giant's shadow.
'Beneficial? As nobles of a defeated city, you would all be nothing!' Miliana's voice twisted like a poisoned dagger from the crowd. 'But as willing lackeys of Svarezi, you keep your palaces while the citizens of Lomatra are crushed by Svarezi's taxes, and die in Svarezi's wars!'
Miliana had the commoners leaping to their feet and echoing her words. Fists pumped into the air as the gallery shook to the people's rage. The Blade Captains glared up at the mob in absolute disdain, then turned back to put the seal on their affairs.
'The vote proposed: That Lomatra declare a unity between its own Blade Council, and those of Sumbria, Colletro, and Zutria. Those in favor?'
'Wait!'
Prince Rosso shook like a leaf blown by a storm. All around him, his people roared in hatred for the council, demanding courage-demanding war. The little prince, sweating, tugged at his armor's tight gorget.
'Colleagues-this decision, it seems… it seems unpopular. It seems…' The prince jittered like a captive bug. 'It seems… cowardly. Surely an alliance with our neighbors to the-'
'I think that option has already been discussed in full.' Spirelli spared his fellow Blade Captains a glance rich with self-interested irony. 'Shall we conclude our business with the vote?'
'No. No, not yet!' Desperate to at least delay their inevitable fate, the prince scrabbled with the covers of the great book which lay upon the table-the Articles of Association for the Lomatran Free Company. 'Um… wait a minute! It-it's just in here!' The prince flipped through vellum pages almost larger than he was tall. 'Here we are… a recess may be declared without a vote, once only, if any member so demands.' The prince jumped at the noise as he let the covers slam to the tabletop. 'Well, I'm a member, and I do think that this requires more than just… just a quick vote without even a debate. The people really don't seem very happy at all.'
The fat, barrel-shaped Blade Captain stirred in his chair.
'Oh, my liege, commoners never really do know what's good for them. This is why important decisions are left in the hands of better men.'
'Even so, I'd like a recess, just so everyone can think about it.' The prince banged his blade upon the table, almost jumping from the violent noise. 'Dismissed! I–I mean, let's break until after lunchtime. Maybe until the second hour after noon?'
The Blade Captains exchanged weary sighs; shrugging amiably, they deferred to the wishes of the prince and pushed back their heavy chairs. Walking out beneath the fury of the city's common citizens, they wandered back to the comforts of their palace walls.
'Those treacherous, self-seeking, backstabbing, vermin ridden…'
When Miliana ran herself out of invective appropriate for a noble lady, Tekoriikii's head surfaced from behind the innkeeper's bar.
'Onk gronk!'
'Thank you… lowlife, frog-sucking scum!' Miliana slammed her back against the tavern wall, her face beet-red with rage. 'They're willing to sell you all into slavery for sake of a cash reward!'
The upper balcony above Lomatra's largest tavern, the Besotted Python, scarcely managed to rise above the worst of the noise. The taproom below had packed itself with soot-smeared workers from the powder mills and iron foundries, the joiners' guilds, the seamen's guilds, and masters of apprentice halls. Despite the sheeting rain, the streets about the tavern had jammed tight with angry crowds as half the city tried to cram inside to hear the news.
A guildmaster stood on a table railing at the crowd; although the commoners thundered their agreement to every single word, the citizens were utterly impotent. The Blade Captains were the Blade Captains, and they held the power.
In Sumbria, the citizens were taxed into the ground to finance the hiring of vast companies of mercenaries. Svarezi's agents roamed far and wide seeking swords-for-hire. There were turbanned horse archers from the south, brigands, berserkers, and buccaneers. Foreign mercenaries had already swept the cattle from Lomatra's outlying fields, fuel for an army which slept beneath a field of gallows trees.
'Kirenzia just fell!'
A soldier, one of Lomatra's city sentries, fought his way in through the throng. 'I just saw the dispatch! Kirenzia is no more!'
Uproar swelled through the rain-soaked crowd. The soldier's voice diminished like a child's cries against the
