The Bloody Quarrel (The Complete Edition) (45 page)

“It is mostly true,” she said evenly. “Aidan captured the three of us and wanted to sacrifice us to Zorva. That was his plan to stop you. He was going to summon the power of the Dark God to rule not just Gaelland but the whole of the Empire as well. Fallon stopped him and killed him. Yet he does not rule Gaelland. He controls Berry and the surrounding countryside but Aidan’s son Swane is still out there.”

Fallon saw her words hit home with Kemal, although he said nothing, merely looking thoughtful. He nodded to Gallagher who instantly hustled Feray away and back over the side.

Only then did Kemal react. “Wait!” he cried. “Not yet!”

But Gallagher ignored him and Feray did not fight the fisherman, so they vanished back to the docks.

Kemal took three quick paces forwards as if to pursue them, and Fallon moved to cut him off, only for the massed Kottermani soldiers to react angrily, drawing arrows from their quivers.

Kemal seemed to come to his senses then and wave the soldiers down. He also stepped back a pace, breathing heavily. “It seems we have much to talk about then,” he said. “Firstly, I thank you for stopping that madman from harming my family. I know that few indeed of my men would have done the same, were the positions reversed. But it seems you have some equally big decisions to make now. There may be no King but it is obvious that whoever rules Berry rules Gaelland. And, from what I know of what has been happening in your country, I cannot imagine your people will have any love for Swane, even before they hear about his father worshipping Zorva. So you will rule Gaelland, which means we need to discuss how this country of yours becomes part of the Kotterman Empire.”

“That is not going to happen,” Fallon said instantly. “I will have no more of my people become your slaves.”

“Fallon, you cannot stop it happening. But you can spare your people much bloodshed,” Kemal said gently. “You stand here at a fork in the road. Down one path, Gaelland will grow strong and safe, nurtured within the Empire. Yes, there will be slaves, but we shall only take the criminals. Thieves, rapists and murderers – the ones you would normally execute or banish anyway. And instead of paying half of everything to the crown, you will pay but one part in ten to the Empire. You will all grow richer and—”

“Have Kottermani soldiers in every village? We are a free people. What price would you put on that freedom?” Fallon interrupted.

“The price for not listening to me will be too much for you to pay,” Kemal warned. “For I will return with a fleet and an army in the spring and I shall bring Gaelland into the Empire by fire and sword. You cannot stand against us, for we are too many. It is already decided. You cannot stop it: you can only make the best possible deal for your people.”

Fallon swallowed awkwardly. Was this Aidan’s prophecy coming true? “And what if we keep your wife and children? Could you attack us knowing we shall kill them? What then?” he asked.

Kemal met Fallon’s gaze steadily. “That would be the worst choice of all,” he said softly. “I would not attack you under those circumstances, but my father the Emperor would. And he would no longer be interested in having a few of your people as slaves. He would kill most of you and enslave the rest. Gaelland would be a ghost country, with nothing but a few wild animals. Peasants from around the Empire would be shipped here to work it but not a single Gaelish person would be left.”

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 take. 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!”