Page 84 of Salt in the Seas
Gaeren nodded, but a second question was fired his way before he could expand his answer. As the questions grew more specific, Gaeren set his drink aside. He wouldn’t have time for swigs, but he also couldn’t risk his mind being addled when they watched for him to make a mistake. Instead, he toyed with the braid hidden beneath the cuff of his sleeve, reminding himself that far more was at stake than how these people perceived him.
The youngest man sitting in the front was still at least ten years Gaeren’s senior, with stringy black hair and a shave well overdue. He didn’t ask any questions, but Gaeren noticed his knuckles grow white on the handle of his mug every time Enla’s name came up. The man’s anger wasn’t just for Gaeren’s parents, whose rule had much to question even in Gaeren’s eyes. The man and his animosity toward Enla made Gaeren more nervous than any of the other patrons, who seemed to be warming up to Gaeren based on his answers.
When the questions subsided, Gaeren decided to ask one of his own. “How do you expect to overthrow a time-tested monarchy without a unified front?”
Several people blinked back at him, brows furrowed.
“I just spent the last several moons with a group of Recreants determined to undermine a high priestess’ power, not the royal family’s. They want Emeris Wyndren to rule instead of my family, but down here in the south, you all want to rule yourselves.”
Understanding flashed, and a few of the attendees exchanged nervous glances. This wasn’t a new topic, but maybe one they weren’t ready to discuss in front of him.
“We respect the priests and priestesses in the Sungazers,” one woman said, “but we don’t want them making decisions for us.”
“Are you able to set aside those differences and work together? Or will you take my family off the throne just to have another battle to fight with people who were supposed to be on your side?”
“Most of those Recreants are in the eastern provinces,” another man said, waving his hand in dismissal. “Let them live the way they want out there and we can live the way we want down here.”
“So now we’re talking about dividing the nation with a theocracy in the eastern provinces and a democracy in the southern provinces. Why not allow a monarchy in the northwestern provinces to keep all the nobility there happy? After all, if it’s what they want, let them live the way they want out there and you can live the way you want down here, right?” He tried to keep his tone light even though he clearly threw the man’s words right back in his face.
Some seemed to consider the idea, but others pursed their lips. One woman in particular laughed. “Because the royal family won’t settle for less than everything.”
Gaeren laughed with her, easing some of the tension. “Maybe you’re right. But they did give the eastern provinces to Mayvus before Mayvus died. We were already partway there.”
This gave the group pause. Maybe Gaeren should have mentioned it was done under the duress of a brand or that Mayvus was still alive. But those things didn’t change the fact that Emeris fully expected to maintain authority in the Myndren Mountains. He even suspected his parents would allow it in order to keep the peace.
“I understand the complaints you have with my parents. But do you assume Enla would make the same mistakes, or do you all have some other reason to despise her being on the throne?”
The man before him took the bait, answering the question before any of the others could. “It wasn’t your parents who last raised taxes. It wasn’t your parents who decreed that those who couldn’t pay would become vassals.” His voice rose until it finally broke. “It wasn’t your parents who sent the order for my boy to be taken away to the schools.”
Gaeren sucked in a breath, the man’s words hitting him hard. Enla had almost said as much when he’d last met with her. She’d questioned if the mistakes made were her fault, since she’d made so many decisions while their parents were branded.
But these weren’t the kinds of mistakes she was talking about. These were probably papers she’d signed off from the advisorswithout a second thought. Because in her mind, what Vendaran family wouldn’t be grateful enough to pay back the royal family’s protection in the form of taxes? What man should be governing his own land if he couldn’t produce enough to pay those same taxes? And what progeny wouldn’t want to train among the nobility?
He’d thought his sister was still moldable, but maybe he’d been even more blind than he’d realized.Hewas the one who had been open to change. It wasn’t just that Larkos had infected him with Recreant ideals. Gaeren had been open to them.
And Enla never had.
As much as he hated the idea of his sister’s philosophies being so different from his, he still longed for a way to make things right, not just with her and not just with these people, but between her and the people.
“I’m so sorry.” He held the man’s gaze even though it physically pained him to sit under the harsh judgment his family rightly deserved. “I can’t promise I can reverse any of that. I can’t even promise I can change their minds for the future.”
Whispers started in the back of the room, the faces that had begun showing warmth and acceptance now closed off with furrowed brows.
“When my ideas differ from theirs,” he admitted, “they remind me I’m trained as a throne warden, not as a king. My parents are too far gone to reconsider the way their actions are harming Vendaras instead of healing it. There might not even be hope for my sister. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t hope for all of you. I don’t deny that I would be eager to see my parents step down from the throne, but that would only lead to my sister taking their place, with me as her throne warden. Something I have no interest in.”
He watched that same man’s reaction, and his knuckles grew predictably white.
“And what if that’s the exact place you should be in?” It was the first time Larkos had spoken since they’d arrived, his words quiet, as if he feared they were disrespectful even though he’d spoken them before.
This time the question stirred up Gaeren’s own fear and regrets. Had he made the wrong decision in leaving Enla? Not just for the sakeof the Recreants like Larkos had suggested, but also to protect his sister? By widening the divide between them, he might have sentenced her to the fate he’d sworn to protect her from. He’d much rather work alongside Aeliana and the others to find peace in Vendaras. To help Orra find the starbridges. To maybe even be rid of his useless bond and sever the last of the ties to his family.
But after hearing these people question his views on taxes and feudal servitude and knowing the trials they experienced that led to their frustrations, he understood Larkos’ suggestion on a deep and painful level. What if he could do more good for these people by staying in his role of power? By placing himself in the right place at the right time so he could defend and support them when they made their final move to take Enla off the throne? And what if that was the move that would put him in place to protect Enla when she needed him most?
He almost laughed, thinking of Orra and all her talk about throwing stones and moving things in the paths of ripples.
Perhaps when they found the starbridge, he should return home and make amends, both for the sake of the people and for Enla. The image warred with his desire to defend the people and help them find freedom on his own terms, as a treasonous vagrant. The longer Larkos waited for an answer, the less Gaeren felt prepared to give one.
“I hope I’m not meant to remain on as throne warden, but…maybe. It’s something I’ll have to consider. Either way, I will do everything in my power to sway her. I want you all to have the opportunity to build the democracy you crave, whether it only takes in the south or whether it spreads to all of Vendaras.”
