about her. Silence was about to endure a ritual no one (outside the lobes of ears, piercings Silence did not have) did in her world, and it included pain.
When True visited Silence that morning, she didn’t seem resigned to it. Nor did she seem to fear it. Perhaps she was not eager, though she was curious, as she had an active mind and was wont to be.
She was also keen to do something for Mars.
They seemed a good match.
Surprising.
But gratifying.
And this was where Ophelia was, and why she was not at that diplomatic table.
She would attend the ceremony.
But as she would just be an observer, and it didn’t start for some time, there wasn’t actually an excuse not to be there at the present time.
Thus True had the sense that something else was keeping her away.
“Well, is no one going to say anything?” Gallienus demanded with narrowed gaze at True’s father.
True felt his jaw tighten.
He could not believe this.
Gallienus had negotiated something with Wilmer.
And his father had not shared with True what they’d negotiated.
This being a direct confrontation with a mighty king that was bound to bring discord.
It was just, without Carrington whispering in his ear, and in the face of uncertainty since no one else had backed Gallienus’s declaration, his father was holding silent.
A gauntlet had been thrown on a table meant to bring forth diplomacy.
And it was not shocking that Gallienus had thrown it.
What was unknown was what would come of it.
And True did not have a good feeling about it.
“You do know, Aramus’s great-great grandfather enacted the Those in Service Act,” Cassius said to the ceiling, his eyes still closed.
“‘Those in Service,’” Gallienus scoffed. “Is that a jest?”
“No,” Cassius replied, opened his eyes and turned his head on the back of his seat to look at his father at the foot of the table. “The Act is relatively all encompassing.”
“Binding is binding,” Gallienus bit.
“For instance,” Cassius went on like his father had not spoken. “You cannot take your hand, nor fist, whip, paddle, crop, or other to your bounden in anger, in punishment, in retribution, or for any reason. If you do, the punishment served will be jailtime for the proprietor.”
“And I’ll repeat, binding is binding,” Gallienus decreed.
“You also can’t force your intentions on a bounden, be you male or female, your bounden male or female. If you do, your jailtime is much increased. And if it’s a child, you face a noose,” Cassius shared.
True looked to Aramus.
He was studying the fingernails of the hand attached to the arm hooked on the back of his chair.
Cassius turned his gaze again to the ceiling and closed his eyes. “And if a bounden serves his or her proprietor for fifteen years, they can petition for liberty, which must be granted. They then are given any belongings they’ve collected, a new set of clothes, boots, a steed and a bag of silver. Or they could petition to stay in service as a paid servant. And a proprietor cannot sell or trade a bounden. If they cannot keep their bounden, they must free him or her.”
“Perhaps we should ask a Mar-el bounden here, son, and he can lay testimony to his fair treatment,” Gallienus suggested acidly.
Cassius turned his head again and the air in the room changed when he whispered, “I note you said ‘he.’”
Aramus chuckled.
Gallienus moved with agitation in his seat.
Cassius continued speaking.
“The Act also includes strict edicts on the provision of food, medicine, garments and housing. Bounden can marry at will. Spouses cannot be separated for any reason, not of their own choosing. And any child they produce is born free.”
“So it’s all right with you that any ship from the Northlands, the Southlands, The Mystics or Triton can sail through Mar-el’s waters, be boarded and innocent people pressed into service for fifteen years?” Gallienus demanded.
His emphasis on the word “Mar-el’s” was telling.
What peeved Gallienus was that the waters belonged to Mar-el.
He didn’t give a damn about the bounden.
He wanted the seas.
However, how he thought he’d get them, or access to them, by possibly angering the man who ruled them, True couldn’t begin to imagine.
“It is not unknown the perils of the sea, Father.”
“How about this?” Aramus took his arm from his seatback and turned fully to the table. “The Airenzian give women leave to own property. To press charges and have them justly tried if anyone causes her physical harm, rapes or violates her in any way. And all are freed to the right of peaceable assembly should