“No prison, Your Highness, but mines.”
“Mines,” I echoed, as if befuddled by the entire concept.
“To the north.” Syr Leuthar flicked that away as inconsequential, which it absolutely wasn’t. Mines to the north. I knew of none such. Though that explained the appearance of new players in the game. Hmm. I would have to inquire with my scholars. The many kingdoms and forgotten empires had included lands distant and varied. Before Anure had brutally thrown us all into one stewpot over his fire, we’d had little reason to know much of the far reaches. Calanthe had enjoyed a historic insularity for good reasons that hampered me now. We’d never needed the rest of the world before.
With so much riding on me and the decisions I made, I needed all the advice and information I could gather. All the more reason to offer sanctuary to the learned and the artists. I’d long hoped that perhaps a wizard who’d escaped Anure’s notice would answer the call. My father would laugh at me, calling me unwise and insecure in my rule for seeking advice. A king or queen should depend only on themselves, he often said. But he was gone, and I had my own ways of protecting Calanthe.
“The imperial forces are indeed moving to retake Keiost,” Leuthar continued in the same breezy tone, “which should be the work of a moment.”
Anure wished it would be so easy, though he’d accomplished far more uncertain victories in the past. I doubted it would be the “work of a moment,” especially as he wouldn’t have his emissary speaking in my court about it if he weren’t invested in making us believe that.
It served the emperor’s interests to present an image of unassailability. Still, he would—easily or not—undoubtedly manage to squelch this uprising. Then he’d make an example of all involved, which would include most everyone in Keiost not already slaughtered, no matter their affiliation. After that, he’d likely sanction the rest of us, to spread more fear and make himself feel better. The prospect made me feel ill, and I took a moment to look out the window at the shining sea, so blue and calm. No blood or fire. Not yet. How could I avert that?
“The ships that brought me here will continue on to dispatch this vermin,” Leuthar added, solidly in his prepared soliloquy again. “I’ve a list of required supplies before they depart in the morning.”
I glanced back to see Dearsley take the scroll with the list of supplies, a line between his silver brows for the additional demand. We’d already tithed more than three times our due this season. Why the imperial toad couldn’t use his own vast supplies, I didn’t know. Oh wait, yes I did—because he had so much more fun reminding me of his power to demand I give whatever he wanted. His way of making me pay for denying him his ultimate desire. At least the warships wouldn’t be lingering. I’d likely pay more than whatever Anure asked to remove their taint from my waters. Even awake, I heard the muttering of Calanthe’s seas, unhappy about the old violence soaked into the wood of the warships.
“I’ll see it done,” I replied in a bored tone. “If that’s all…?” I let the question trail, raising my brows ever so slightly.
“Not quite, Your Highness. The emperor wishes me to relate a warning and deliver a charge.”
Finally we got to the crux of it. I couldn’t sit straighter, but a line of sweat crawled down my spine beneath the corset. Leuthar tugged just a bit too hard on the feather, a few of the barbs coming loose in his fingers. The situation had him far more concerned than he wished me to know. I gestured to Calla, who handed me a cool fruit juice to sip while I waited for Leuthar to spit it out.
“Your Highness, His Holiness, the Divine Emperor, bids me warn You to guard Your shores. And should any of these ferals escape the net of the Imperial forces, You are to make certain they don’t travel past Calanthe. At any cost.”
I made certain to show no reaction, even as the court fell into a frenzy of whispering—silenced when I flicked a quelling gaze over the room.
“I see no problem with that, Emissary. Surely a ragged band of escaped slaves can hardly pose a threat to Calanthe.”
“They are … uncommonly organized, Your Highness. They supposedly defeated the walled city of Keiost in only two days by all accounts, unlikely as that seems.”
That confirmed the time line in the coded letter from my spies. A piece of information I’d hoped wouldn’t be corroborated. “How could they accomplish such a feat? Keiost is small, but hardly indefensible. Their fortifications are like none other.” Certainly Calanthe had no such physical barriers. The juice had gone sticky in my mouth and I handed it back.
The emissary hesitated, chewing over his reply. “It’s … rumored that they have obtained some sort of weapon. They use a fire that rends stone from stone.”
I giggled through my jeweled nails, hiding my instant horror. My ladies laughed with me, leading the court in the joke. Fire that rent stone from stone. Like the secret weapon Anure had used to subdue all the realms that we all had to pretend we didn’t know about. We knew he’d been getting it from somewhere. Mines to the north, perhaps?
“Oh, Leuthar!” I exclaimed, silencing the laughter but keeping my merry smile. “Surely you don’t mean to imply they use magic.” I made the word scathing, to remind him that we lived in the emperor’s world now.
“Not magic, no, Your Highness,” he bit out. “A product of nature, twisted to their purposes.”
A rock that produced fire with the force to rend stone. It made sense it would come from the ground. Coupled with these “mines” I’d never heard of, the information had me wondering what our devious emperor had been up to. Escaped rebels from mines with explosive rock.
“They do sound more organized than your typical cluster of criminal elements,” I observed. “Somewhat more intelligent than feral livestock.”
He nodded, once, sharp and concise, missing or ignoring my barb. Oh yes, they were concerned. Was Anure afraid? That would be something, though a frightened emperor meant more pain for us.
“Your Highness, they are led by a man known only as the Slave King, a brute of a creature, reported to be a ruthless rapist and murderer. He conquers through terror, then torture, laying waste to all in his path and leaving devastation behind.”
My ladies exchanged apprehensive looks, two falling into whispers, which I allowed this time. The court, taking the permission, also began to murmur among themselves again. Let them talk. The conversations would stimulate chance overheard remarks and rumors to surface in their minds, so Tertulyn could later ferret out what they knew.
“And does this Slave King have a purpose?” I asked, shading it so I sounded amused, as if I believed such a thing to be impossible. But a group organized enough to take Keiost in two days had their sights set on more than that battle. Keiost was far too poor to be an end in itself, which the emperor knew as well as I did. He might be a corrupt tyrant, but he wasn’t stupid. Alas for that. “Surely this feral mutt doesn’t think to take Calanthe.” I waved my jeweled nails at the astonishing and unblemished view out my windows.
Syr Leuthar shrugged, his confidence that he’d bamboozled me regained. “Who knows what motivates such a depraved creature? The craven desire for whatever power he can grasp, lust to possess treasure and captives.”