by Duncan Lay
Fallon wanted to snarl defiance at him, but Kemal’s words were spoken simply, not as a threat but sounding like the truth. None of the choices sounded good and he frantically searched for a way to preserve Gaelland.
“Listen to me, Fallon. I respect what you have done and what your wife Bridgit did. You are brave, resourceful people and you could be good friends to the Empire. Give me back Feray and my boys and I swear to you that Gaelland will have a friend at the highest level of the Empire. I will be appointed the first Governor of Gaelland but I shall need a trustworthy local adviser – or two. You and your wife, for example. You would effectively rule the country, albeit in the name of my father. You could make sure that your people still feel free and that none are harmed. As I said, the only slaves we would take are the criminals you have spent a lifetime catching, and the tithe we will take is far lower than King Aidan and the nobles demanded. You say your people need to be free but how free are they, having to devote their lives to making the nobles and the Guilds rich? You want to get rid of the nobles, the Guilds, let the people enjoy some freedom? Then join with me and rule this country. I will finish off Aidan’s filthy son Swane and make sure there is no more Zorva worship going on. A new country, and you will be at its head. All you have to do is return my family to me. Or you can make the biggest mistake of your life and doom your people to death.”
Fallon hated that he was agreeing with it, but Kemal seemed so reasonable and his words made so much sense. A glance at the other ship and the ranks of bowmen there told him holding off a huge army of them was going to be almost impossible. He barely controlled Berry, and the bloody nobles, not to mention Swane, would probably side with the Kottermanis rather than fight them. He could not let Aidan’s prophecy come to pass!
“And what is to stop you taking your family and then destroying Gaelland anyway?” he asked, mustering his defiance.
“Burning the country and enslaving the survivors would not deliver much in the way of gold or honor to my father,” Kemal said simply. “I am my father’s servant in this. He has sworn to be the first Emperor in a hundred years to bring a major new province into the Empire. He will have Gaelland, one way or another. A smoking ruin is not much of a boast. Far better to tell the court of a beautiful new province, with a happy people who will sing his praises for delivering them from an evil King.”
Fallon shook his head, trying to blot out the words. Yet they sank deep into his mind. Did he really want to keep arguing with the Guilds and dealing with the treacherous Duchess Dina and the rest of the slippery, corrupt nobles in an attempt to keep the firewood and food flowing into Berry? Would it not be easier to give it all up and slip away to Cavan’s island? Then he thought of all the recruits he had trained, as well as the people who had cheered him as he marched through the city streets. He could not let them down.
“You know it makes sense. I can land ten thousand men anywhere on your coast and then march them through Gaelland like a plague of locusts,” Kemal said.
“A plague of what?”
Kemal smiled. “Something from my homeland that you should be happy you know nothing about. They strip everything away and leave only barren land behind.”
Fallon nodded as he desperately tried to think of how he could get his country out of this. Kemal would not want to admit to his father that he had been captured, his family held by the Gaelish and the Prince forced to help the new batch of slaves escape and return home. For all his confidence and apparent lack of care, Kemal wanted to come out of this looking good. Maybe there was a way to give him back his family in exchange for a better deal for Gaelland.
“Can I trust you?” he asked bluntly.
He saw Kemal’s eyes flicker in surprise, then the Prince let out a short bark of laughter. “You ask me that? After you lied to me, led me into a trap, tortured me, threatened my son and now are delaying returning my family to me? Whereas I have lived up to my end of the bargain. Your families are home, thanks to me. The word of a Kottermani Prince is better than gold. Once we say a thing, it is, how do you say it here? As solid as rock.”
“That is the problem. Because I worry that you want to take revenge on me. My wife told me you are consumed by hatred for us.”
Kemal laughed again; this time it sounded more natural. “Your wife is a cunning woman. She has been saying whatever comes into her mind if it gets her what she wants. You see that giant of a man back there?”
He pointed back at his ship and Fallon followed the gesture warily, seeing a large man with a huge scowl and an even bigger moustache.
“That is my slave master Gokmen. Your wife told him she was pregnant and that the child was mine in order to make him do what she wanted. She hates me for attacking your village, for making her the leader of your people and taking the children away from their parents.”
Fallon stopped, thunderstruck. Bridgit was pregnant again? He flashed back to her breasts – never far from his thoughts anyway – full despite her terrible thinness and to the fierce light inside her. And, Aroaril, if she could lie about pregnancy, of all things, she had indeed changed as much as he had. He glared at Kemal. What had the Kottermanis done to them while they were away?
It appeared Kemal was following his line of reasoning, because he held up his hands.
“Of course the child is not mine; nor is it Kottermani. I merely told you that to show you there are two sides to every story. And that you can trust me. If I give my word and sign my name, then that is unbreakable.”
Fallon walked closer, until they were no further apart than they had been the night when he had tortured Kemal. That knowledge lay between them, unspoken but lurking like a hungry pike in a river. He stared into Kemal’s eyes, sure that he could tell when the man was lying. The slightest flinch and he would know Kemal was trying to deceive him. The Prince looked tired but that was only to be expected. It was the eyes that would seal the deal.
“Then let us make a new treaty for Gaelland, you and I. One where we both get what we want,” he said. “You get a piece of parchment that says Gaelland is now part of the Kotterman Empire. Your Emperor gets to sail here in the summer and be cheered by adoring crowds. Your tithe of gold, as well as a ship full of criminals, will arrive back in your country each year, to do with as you wish. But the only Kottermanis here will be merchants, albeit merchants who are paying less tax. We rule ourselves. Our duties to you consist of paying you each year and giving you honor every time you or your Emperor want to travel here.” This way he could avoid an invasion, while buying the time and space needed to build a proper army. Train them in the mountains, away from prying Kottermani eyes. Let them bring their fleet then! Aidan’s dying prophecy would never come to pass.
“And how can I trust that you will keep to such an agreement? You could say that to get me to sail away, then break it,” Kemal asked sharply.
Fallon liked the sound of that. If Kemal had been too eager, he would have mistrusted it. And the man’s eyes were rock steady.
“You still have your army and fleet. If we do not pay up, you arrive and take what you want, as you threatened,” he said. “And we will need some soldiers based here, for the first few moons anyway.”
“Really? You would let Kottermani soldiers stay here?” Kemal’s voice betrayed his disbelief.
“I need them to break Swane and the nobles who are still allied to his cause, the ones who had pledged themselves to Zorva. They are the ones who tried to sacrifice your wife and sons, so I would have thought you would be pleased to help destroy them.”
He watched Kemal stroke his beard.
“So, I return with a small army, which we use to crush Swane and his nest of Zorva-worshipping vipers, then my father has a triumphant parade through your cities and we all go home, leaving you to rule Gaelland in our name, sending tribute each year?” the Prince asked.
“You sign that treaty and, in exchange, you sail away with your family this very day,” Fallon offered. “That is what we give you. Anything else, you will have to ta
ke. And you will lose your family and your position as well.”
“My position? How will I lose that?” Kemal asked, a half-smile on his face.
“Because if I or any of my men are taken before your Emperor, we shall tell him the truth of this. That you helped slaves escape to cover up your family being captured,” Fallon said fiercely.
Kemal sighed. “So there is the stick to go with the carrot. A threat to end me as Crown Prince and heir to the Elephant Throne. A threat that, in your death throes, you will reach out and sting me.”
Fallon shrugged. “It seems that we can both come out of this looking good, or we can both suffer. It is your choice.”
He stared evenly at Kemal, who matched his gaze. Neither of them said anything for a long time, then Kemal nodded.
“Draw up the treaty. If it promises what you said, then I shall sign it, take my family and sail away, to return in the spring with two thousand men to destroy Swane and then, in the summer, bring my father back so he can be cheered from one end of Gaelland to the other.”
“Agreed. I shall have scribes write it up now,” Fallon said, letting a little smile slip onto his face. He had the measure of the man. Kemal would hold to his word.
“And food. I shall need more food for the return trip. I gave much of my supply to your families when they were starving,” Kemal added.
“That will not be a problem,” Fallon promised.
*
Bridgit had waited on the dock, barely able to disguise her impatience as Fallon talked with Kemal on board her ship. She tried to break out of his grip but Brendan held her back easily.
“Brendan, you know I am going to make you pay for this later. I need to be up there. Look what trouble Fallon got into without me. Who knows what is happening now?” she threatened, but the smith was implacable.
“Fallon has been going crazy without you. He is right. If Kemal is planning a trap, then he will try to seize you and then where will we be? Having to hand back Kemal’s family to get you both,” he said. “Besides, seeing you and Fallon together again will only infuriate the Prince. He might do something foolish.”
Bridgit shook her head. Brendan might think he was making sense but she knew she had to be up there. Fallon was too trusting.
She tugged again at his arm and he tightened his grip, only for Kerrin to rush over and poke the big smith in the chest.
“Brendan, you need to let Mam go,” he declared.
“I can’t do that. Your dad told me to keep her safe,” the smith replied.
“I will keep her safe,” Kerrin said aggressively. “Let her go or you will have me to deal with!”
Brendan looked more amused than angry but Bridgit reached out to grip her son’s shoulder and pull him back. Except he did not move back but withstood her grip to still face Brendan.
“When did you turn into such a little lion?” she asked.
“I won’t let you be hurt ever again,” Kerrin said, eyes boring into Brendan.
“It has been quite the journey for all of us,” Brendan said, without a smile. “But I can’t risk letting her go.”
Padraig pushed his way through the crowd and into the middle of them.
“Well, would you look at you?” he exclaimed, embracing her.
She smiled, not just to see her father again but because he looked so different. His face and body had filled out and his clothes were clean, but the biggest change was in his eyes, which sparkled with life again.
“It has been amazing,” he said, seeing her surprise. “You stop cooking and I put on weight and you lose it! Maybe we should get Fallon to move into the kitchen from now on!”
Everyone smiled at his flood of nonsense, but he reached out to both Kerrin and Brendan.
“Nobody is going to hurt your mam, lad,” he said. “And Brendan, you can let her go. Because she is going to wait with me, isn’t that right?”
Bridgit hesitated, then nodded. Brendan released her arm and Padraig hugged her again.
“By Aroaril it is good to see you,” he said hoarsely. “You have been through the fires – literally, for you look like bread sat too long on the toasting fork.”
“It is good to see you too, Father,” she said. “And see the real you, not a shell.”
“Well, to be sure I am the fine figure of a man now. Getting on for two men, even!” He released her and sighed. “We have much to tell you, but I have kept an eye on both Kerrin and Fallon, and kept them mostly safe for you. But what about you? What have you been doing?”
She did not know where to start, and was worried about saying too much in front of Kerrin, so merely patted him on the arm. “Maybe later. Now I want to know what Fallon is up to.”
Waiting there was not the hardest thing she had had to do in these past moons but it was still frustrating. And when Fallon finally returned, to tell everyone he was ready to make a new treaty with Kotterman, that bubbled over and she was unable to hold back her words.
“Are you an idiot?” Bridgit demanded. “You cannot trust a word he says!”
Fallon rubbed his face. “Can you keep your voice down a little? These people think that I am a wise and careful man, worthy of their trust, so they will accept this treaty when I tell them about it. Having my wife announce I am an idiot at the top of her voice is not helping!”
“Well, if you are going to be an idiot, then the people need to know! Keep the family but send him packing. He is bluffing. He would never risk his family,” she insisted.
Fallon turned away, ordering men to find scribes in the nearby warehouses, then waved to Gallagher for Feray to be brought over.
“Why are you asking her?” Bridgit demanded. Was the man going out of his way to annoy her?
“Because she is his wife and she knows him better than we ever could.”
“And you think she is going to help us?”
“I think she owes me something after I saved her life, and that of her sons,” he said, an edge to his voice.
But Feray appeared less than happy when she was escorted over. “What is going on?” she demanded.
Fallon swiftly explained. “I know I have no right to ask this but can you tell me if Prince Kemal will hold to a signed treaty?” he finished.
Bridgit looked at Feray closely. She was a graceful woman, with an intelligent face. It seemed open enough. Kemal might be used to disguising what he was thinking but she reckoned she might be able to see if Feray was trying to lie.
“If he signs a treaty then he will hold to it,” she said with a shrug. “He has always been an honorable man. And the Kotterman way is not to get something through trickery. They have never needed to resort to that, when threat and force are always more than enough.”
Bridgit could see nothing there to tell her the woman was lying. But that was not enough to risk the whole country on!
Fallon nodded his thanks but Bridgit grabbed his arm and pulled him away.
“You have listened to his wife; now you need to listen to your wife. Kemal wants you dead and probably thinks the same way about Kerrin and me. We cannot trust him. His family is the only leverage we have—”
“His family will give us nothing. The Emperor wants Gaelland for his empire and nothing is going to stop that,” Fallon interrupted. “If we threaten Kemal’s family then they will come and get them and turn our country into a smoking wreck. Our only chance is to make a new treaty with the Kottermanis, one where they do not rule here but we run the country. It will be like Baltimore, where we send a duty off to our Lord and they leave us to run things as we see fit.”
“Except they want slaves as well,” Bridgit said flatly.
“One shipload of criminals a year. The ones we would be sentencing to death anyway,” Fallon replied.
She shook her head at him. “You need to speak to me before making these decisions.”
He laughed. “This is not about whether we get a new chair carved! This is the future of these people. Aidan warned me with his dying breath that my choice
s could doom Gaelland. I can’t risk that. You don’t understand what it is like, having so many depending on you—”
“Are you mad?” she demanded. “What do you think I have been doing? I risked everything to bring these people home, and I will not risk any of them being sent back! You have to tell me what is going on, so we can decide together.”
“What you went through was terrible. But you can’t compare it to what I am doing—”
“Oh, really?” she growled. She hadn’t been back for a turn of the hourglass and already he was driving her mad. She took a deep breath. “Put that aside. Listen to me. Nothing Kemal says is true.”
He looked at her strangely. “So are you pregnant or not, like he told me? And was he right in saying the baby is not his, nor any of his men’s?”
She staggered back, feeling as if she had taken a blow to the head. That was her special news, the thing she wanted to tell him quietly tonight, when everyone had gone away and definitely when Kerrin was asleep. Now Kemal had dared to tell Fallon? He had ruined what was an intensely intimate moment between her and Fallon. What they had gone through, what she had endured over the past twenty years had nearly broken her. It had created something between them, something nobody else could understand. It had nearly destroyed her this time. That was her news!
Some of that must have shown on her face because Fallon reached out for her. She knocked his hand away. This was too much.
“Yes, I am pregnant.” She managed to force the words out. “Maybe two moons in. Aroaril willing, we will have another child. I wanted to tell you tonight, when it was just us—”
She could say no more and he jumped in, ignoring her outthrust arm, and gathered her up.
“We will keep this one,” he said fiercely. “I know it.”
These thoughts were too painful, coming on top of everything else that she had endured. She could not answer him. It was all she could do not to lose all control.
“How dare he say that? How dare he take that from me?” she hissed.
“I am sorry. I cannot imagine what you have been going through, having that on top of everything else,” Fallon said gently. “And of course I trust you. But I have made so many mistakes, been so scared that I will make a decision that will destroy the country. I fear holding on to Feray might protect me but doom Gaelland. And I swore on Kerrin’s life to return them.”
