ambassador was worried about being overheard.
“So what did you talk about?”
“The Lady Marketa was curious about recent goings on in the catacombs.”
“You told her nothing, of course.”
“I told her about the coffin and the Old One.”
“What?”
“I do not doubt she already knew or has ways of finding out. I wanted to learn what exactly she knew. She offered to help.”
“You believe she would do that?”
“If it suits her.”
“Why?”
“You know as well as I do that there are factions within the Courts of the Moon. Just as there are within the Siderean Court. It may be that helping us would embarrass one and improve the standing of another.”
“Do not trust her.”
“I do not. But she is the greatest expert on the Old Ones within a hundred leagues.”
“I would not be so sure of that. There are scholars on the Wizard’s Island who are masters of such lore.”
“Unless they have spent their lifetimes dealing with the Old Ones, I doubt they are as knowledgeable as she.”
“She is our enemy,” Jonas said.
“The last time I looked you were not at war.”
Jonas said nothing.
“It’s like that, is it?” Kormak said.
“Believe me. That woman and her masters mean harm to Siderea and the King-Emperor. They are the enemies of the Holy Sun and the Universal Church and they always have been.”
“It does not mean that on a temporary local basis their interests do not coincide with yours.”
“You are the last man I would expect to hear expressing such sentiments.”
“Life is full of surprises, isn’t it?”
“Just be very careful, my friend.”
Kormak smiled at Jonas. In the world they lived in there were few friends. Kormak doubted Jonas was his. “There are those who think Siderea and the Selenean Courts are natural rivals.”
“I have heard that theory,” Jonas said.
“It makes sense. On one hand, you have a rising Solar power, the richest nation in the world, master of the great ocean, a military giant. On the other you have an ancient Lunar Empire, with powerful armies, and mighty magics. It sees the Eastern half of the Dragon Sea as its natural sphere of influence.”
Jonas put his goblet down on the table. “The Lunars see all the lands bounding the Dragon Sea as their natural sphere of influence. The Old Ones see all humans as their natural slaves. You forget Sir Kormak that it was not that long ago that this, the most powerful nation of the West, was under their heel. Our kingdom was forged in the fires of war. We evicted the last Lunar overlords scarcely a century ago. They see this land as theirs. There are many humans who in secret still agree. They still worship their false gods despite the demonstrable error of their ways.
“Look to the East. Taurea, once the bulwark of the Sunlands is collapsing into civil war. Belaria is a cockpit of chaos where the Knights of Blood assert the power of their old gods. Even here in Siderea we are plagued by heresy and secret Shadow worshipping cults. King Aemon does not believe this is an accident. He believes the Old Ones are moving against us in secret, weakening our realms. He believes they plan a new Resurgence, to reclaim what was theirs.”
“He may well be right.” Kormak thought of what he had seen on his own journeys. The world was darkening. “But there has been political turmoil ever since the First Empire collapsed.”
Jonas held his glass up and studied his reflection in its side. He lowered it and took a sip. “That is the problem, isn’t it? It might just be the natural state of things. Brother falls out with brother. Ambitious nobles seek to become dukes. Dukes seek to become kings. Everywhere the peasants suffer. It is the lot of man.”
He paused to consider his words. “Wars cost money just as much as they cost lives. It takes a fortune to raise an army. We know that Lunar silver finds its way into the hands of heretics here. We know that Lunar weapons and armour find their way into Belaria and Umbrea. These things can be tracked. Sorcerers trained in the east come west and they fight in our wars, always to our detriment.”
“It has not been unknown for things to happen the other way too.” Kormak agreed with a good deal of what Jonas said, had seen evidence of such things with his own eyes. But he had also seen that no one side had a monopoly on virtue. “It takes two sides to make a conflict.”
Jonas