'Can this be true?' Elaz asked.
'Monstrous,' Hunt said.
'Worse than monstrous,' Renold added. 'It will look clean to the world. The people won't see it, but it will go on and on.'
'They'll see it if we shout about it!' Lady Shenk said.
'Perhaps, but if they cover their ears…'
Barad let them argue for a while. Renold had confirmed what he had already expected. It was good that the group hear such things from one another, though. He had always known the league was capable of anything- anything at all-that would ensure their profits. This business on the islands was a logical progression of sorts. Why roam the Known World rounding up children, taking them from parents who then needed to be appeased or quelled? It was inefficient and messy. How much better to control production themselves, to treat the children purely as products, and to do it all far from the sight of the masses? If it proved feasible, the day might indeed come when the queen and the league stopped requiring quota from the provinces. Corinn could declare that she had freed them from the burden, and the Known World wouldn't feel the crime. If that happened, they could shout about it all they wanted. People rarely believe what they cannot see. Not, at least, when seeing is more frightening than not.
'You understand the murky ground we tread on, then,' Barad eventually said, cutting in. 'If Corinn declares to the masses that she has abolished the quota trade, they will hail her as a savior. She'll put the scholars to work writing new volumes of the Akaran myth. She will tell the people that she has delivered on the Snow King's promises, and the people will eat the lie. They will not believe-or care-unless we could take every one of them to see the place. Obviously, we cannot do that.'
Barad let this sit a moment, shifting his eyes from one to another. 'That is why time is of such importance. We should announce the uprising before the winter sets in. I proposed we rise at the beginning of the harvest. We spoke of this before. What better time, when the world sees the fruits of a year's labor seized and taxed by Alecia? I mean, we rise at the beginning of this year's harvest, just four months from now. We cannot wait longer, not with the queen spinning magic and the league about to start this slave factory. This is our time. Do any doubt me?'
None seemed to, but Elaz did offer, 'There will be many details to see to before then.'
'Yes. Yes there will. Let us not fear details. Let us make them our friends instead. For one, there is the issue of the queen and what she is doing. Has she the book of sorcery? If so, what other powers might it give her? And what powers would it rob from her if we took it?'
'Barad, we don't have anyone to answer those questions,' Elaz said. 'We had an agent within the palace-a maid I had great faith in-but she has gone missing. And we should not forget the blacksmith of the lower town. He was caught outright with an unfortunate document in his hand. He died to keep our secrets. And even they had no real access to the queen. She is not easy to get to, especially not when in spying on her we're always at risk of bumping into the league-who are doing the same with all their considerable resources. At present we are blind-'
Barad interrupted. 'What if we send the young king?'
Elaz froze. 'Grae?'
The king, who had been considering the selection of carrots before him, snapped to alertness. 'Me? You want me to spy on the queen?'
'You are due to visit Acacia, aren't you? Drop in on them now. You would be received as befits your royal status. You can get yourself and your servants into areas of the palace we could not gain. You would arrive with a particular purpose, of course, one that would get you close to the queen.'
The young man looked startled for a moment, but then resumed a calm air. Plucking up a thin carrot, Grae considered it from several angles before he crunched down on the root. He spoke while he chewed. 'And what purpose is that?'
He would have us think him calm and collected, Barad mused. He did not fault the young man, but he thought bluntness might crack the facade usefully. As with most things that Barad ever spoke aloud, he had considered what he was about to say carefully. He said, 'You arrive on Acacia as a suitor! Flowers in hand, honeyed words on your lips.'
Grae spit out the chunk of carrot. 'You're joking!'
'It has been a long time since I felt mirth enough to jest.' He glanced at Hunt, winked, and looked back at the Aushenian. 'I appreciate humor in others-but, no, Grae, I do not joke.'
Elaz sucked his teeth, a sure sign his mind was turning over the possibilities rapidly. 'There is a movement in the Senate to force the queen to marry,' he said. 'It's gaining steam, I hear. While she's away making water flow from the dry ground, the talk in Alecia is about who should bed her and how she can be convinced that she needs a man at her side for the benefit of the empire.'
Lady Shenk laughed. She slammed the table with one of her large, big-knuckled hands. 'For the 'benefit of the empire,' they say? More like for the benefit of some lecher's cock. That's what they're thinking with. It's a mass agitation of ambitious cocks! Believe me, I've seen it before.'
'Lady Shenk is not wrong,' Renold said, speaking as the scholar he had so recently been, 'but the Alecian Senate is not a Senivalian tavern. No, let's not jest too readily about this. Acacian monarchs are bound by the old laws. Among them is the provision that the ruling monarch should be wed. They should endeavor to produce heirs to the throne, as many of them as possible to keep the royal line alive. Corinn has a son, yes, but a single heir is not enough, and Aaden is not the child of a legitimate union. If the senators push this issue formally, they have a case.'
'It's about cock,' Lady Shenk repeated. 'But you're right about the Senate being no tavern. I'd not let a senator into a tavern of mine. Poor tippers, they are, and always complaining.'
Barad placed a hand atop the woman's fleshy arm, to acknowledge her humor while also silencing it. To Grae, he said, 'It is rumored that before Hanish's war Corinn-then just a princess-was enamored of your elder brother, Igguldan. Had things been different, they might have married. You might be linked directly to the Akarans already. I know; things are not different. They are what they are, but there is history here to be exploited. I don't just propose this because of Grae's fine jawline and long legs. Those things will help, but what may entice the queen more are the political factors. If I read her correctly, she disdains the Senate. It is a necessary nuisance to her. I doubt that she will wish to marry anyone from that gilded chamber. A union with Aushenia would shut the senators up without giving them any new power. Actually, it would bring her your military might, which would make it even harder for the senators to cause her trouble. I'm sure Corinn will calculate all these things in the time it takes you to bend your knee in greeting. And besides that, the queen is a woman still. She must have womanly needs, just like any other.'
'Cock,' Lady Shenk said, looking at Grae as if the idea of sending him on this mission no longer seemed quite so absurd.
'Lady Shenk, you have added considerable wisdom to this discourse,' Barad said. 'Even if the royal cock does not prove sufficiently enticing, Grae will still have the time and resources to uncover whatever secrets he can- including searching for The Song of Elenet-if it exists and if Corinn does possess it.'
'What if her highness accepts the king's offer?' Lady Shenk asked.
Barad leaned back from the table, inhaling a long breath through his nose. 'In that case, friends, we will have to keep a close eye on the young king. The lure of imperial power will be great. Just as the lure of Corinn Akaran's bed will be. I trust, King Grae, that the honor of your ancient line and the righteousness of a free world will shield you against temptations to betray us?'
Grae aimed his blue eyes at Barad and held his gaze a long moment. 'If I betray you, it will only be in that I cut the bitch's throat before I deliver her. On all else, though, you may be sure that nothing can tempt me. I carry a hope that generations have been denied. It is bigger than you and bigger than I. I will be true to it.'
To this, Barad nodded, a gesture of finality that he would let stand for words. What he did not say was that he would arrange to ensure Grae's loyalty by keeping Ganet close at hand. He would teach the prince things, mentor him, complete his knowledge of the Known World. Or so he would explain it. In truth, the young prince would be insurance. He would be safe and prospering as long as Grae stayed true. If the king somehow fell under Corinn's power, however… well, they would face that if they had to.
