“Therefore,” Vaelin continued, “no ship in this port will carry you to the Enlightened Kingdom. However, many vessels sail to the other kingdoms in the Far West every day. Here.” He took a heavy purse from his belt and handed it to Alum. “For your passage and expenses once you reach the Far West. One man alone cannot hope to free so many by force. You’ll have to buy them back.”
Alum eyed the purse, a puzzled frown on his face. “You will not be sailing with me?”
Vaelin glanced over the map once more, taking in the vastness of the region and realising Alum most likely faced an impossible task. Even so, he couldn’t deny a severe temptation to join the Moreska’s search. I could just leave it all behind, he thought. For a time, at least. Petitions, outlaws, Ellese’s lessons . . . Nortah.
“I have duties here,” he said.
Vaelin took hold of Alum’s wrist, planting the purse in his palm and nodding at Kerran. “The Lady Guild Mistress will find you a suitable ship. Come and eat with me again before you sail.”
“We will sail,” Alum said. “Together.”
“I told you . . .”
“My cousin spoke the true word.” The coins in the purse jangled as Alum’s fist tightened on it, a hard insistence colouring his words. Vaelin recalled the eyes of the Moreska woman at the mine, the piercing, knowing gaze. “We will sail together,” Alum repeated. “The path to our children lies with you. Until you are ready to sail, I must remain here.”
“Well,” Kerran said, breaking the silence that followed. “I’ll let Cook know we have one more for dinner tonight.”
* * *
◆ ◆ ◆
Artis scowled into his soup, maintaining a sullen silence as he ate, which was matched by his sister, although she seemed more distracted than angry.
“No next course if you don’t finish that,” her aunt chided from the head of the table.
Lohren gave a small grimace and dutifully spooned some soup into her mouth. Vaelin noted how her eyes kept straying to the portrait over the fireplace. It depicted a middle-aged man in the garb of a sea captain, standing with sabre in hand against a background of smoke-darkened skies and burning rigging. Vaelin had never met him, but by all accounts Kerran’s husband hadn’t been quite so tall and slim of waist, nor the hair on his head so plentiful.
He was a good man, my lord, Brother Kehlan told Vaelin once. Quick of wit and generous of heart for a merchant. But he had no business commanding a warship. They do say he died bravely, nonetheless.
To Vaelin’s eyes the dining room was, like the rest of Kerran’s home, overly large. The husband for whom she still wore the mourning ribbons had been a rich man, although Vaelin suspected much of his wealth had resulted from the acumen of his wife. Following his death, the profits of the Honoured Trading House of Al Verin had doubled and then tripled. Kerran was now one of the ten wealthiest individuals in the Reaches and the much respected head of the Merchants’ Guild. But still, the mourning ribbons remained firmly sewed to her bodice and he knew it wasn’t simply to ward off unwanted suitors, even though there were many.
“The twins aren’t joining us?” Vaelin asked, glancing at the empty chairs to his left.
“I find it best to let them eat in the kitchen,” Kerran replied. “They can be a bit fractious, even more so lately.”
“They miss Father,” Lohren said, which drew a derisive snort from her brother. “Well they do!” she insisted with a glare that she immediately turned on Vaelin. “As do I, Uncle.”
“Your father is where he needs to be,” Vaelin told her. “For now.”
“Leave the piss-stained drunkard there to rot for all I care,” Artis muttered, his first words of the evening.
Vaelin’s fist came down on the table, hard enough to make the cutlery rattle. He stared at Artis, letting the silence stretch until the boy eventually raised his eyes, defiant but also a little fearful.
“Your father,” Vaelin said in a soft but intent voice, “travelled across half the world fighting the worst war this Realm has ever known. He waded through fire and blood to save the life of our queen and watched our brother Caenis die in the process. He didn’t do this out of lust for glory or expectation of reward. He did this to keep his family safe, and it cost him more than you can imagine. Regardless of