chapter THIRTY-TWO
Corin shouted, full of righteous rage. “Gods’ blood and sinners’ stains! I’d give this kingdom for a sandwich!”
Behind him, Delaen called an admonishing, “Corin!”
Oberon said, “Calm yourself. I’ll see that something’s brought for you.” But his voice was shaky.
Corin sighed and turned back to the throne. “Never mind. I’ll eat when this is through. How can I help?”
“Just bring me the sword.”
Corin blinked. “I don’t have it.”
“But you wrestled it from Ephitel.”
“Aye, and lost it in the dark. The dwarves have it. Avery stayed to bring it to me.”
“Oh.” Oberon’s eyes went distant, and then he said more quietly, “Oh.”
Corin sighed. “I can go and try to talk them back around—”
“No. I may need you here. We can count on Avery.”
Corin frowned. Something in the king’s tone seemed strange, but Corin couldn’t place it.
Before Corin had time to ask, the breathless Jeff reached the throne and launched into his report. “Six hundred men. With horse. One musket each. One pistol. And a bayonet. We saw no powder horns or kegs, or even bags of shot, but they had hard leather cases of a strange design. We don’t know what’s in them.”
“I do,” Corin said. He described the paper packets filled with shot and powder.
Jeff gave a low whistle. “That will help with loading speed considerably. We may have a problem.”
Oberon nodded. “Close the gate.”
Jeff looked doubtful. “That won’t slow him long.”
“I need whatever I can get. Go. Kellen will…no. Not this time. Jeff, I appoint you lord protector—”
Corin interrupted. “What about Kellen?”
Oberon sighed. “As you said, rewards are due. For the valor he has shown this day, I name Kellen, son of Kellen Strong, as the lord protector. But until he joins us, Jeff, it falls on you. Will you be my lieutenant?”
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
“Good. Then close the gates, and muster whatever loyal troops you can find within the city.”
Delaen cleared her throat. “Should we send word to the regiments?”
“No. That hasn’t changed. Bringing them would only start hostilities sooner. And we will need the regiments intact, afterward, to put things back together.”
Delaen now watched the king with the same skepticism Corin felt.
Oberon could not have missed it in her expression, but he clearly had no wish to explain himself. “Maurelle of House Violet, for the aid you’ve given me today, I appoint you hostess to the royal court.”
Maurelle squealed and clapped her hands. She threw her arms around Corin in a strong embrace and planted a great kiss upon his cheek, then darted over to kneel before the king. “Oh, thank you! Thank you! You’re so gracious. I wish Avery were here to see this. Such an honor! Really!” She paused to catch her breath, then cocked her head. “What’s a hostess to the court?”
“You will keep track of all our houses and the channels of command. You will coordinate our social efforts and maintain situational awareness and response.”
Maurelle blinked. “I’ll what?”
“You’ll gossip,” Corin said. “And listen to gossip. And filter gossip and keep track of who gives the best gossip.” He closed his eyes, reviewing all the things that Oberon had said. “Oh. And sometimes you’ll throw parties.”
She grinned at Corin, then turned to the king. “Is that really it?”
“In essence, yes.”
“Yay!”
“But for now, this is what I need of you: spread the word within the city that trouble’s coming. Raise the fire brigades. And evacuate everyone within a mile of the city’s southern gate or anywhere at all on Moneylender’s Lane.”
Delaen started forward. “She can’t do all that! Even I couldn’t do all that.”
Maurelle looked crushed at Delaen’s words. Corin said, “No. She can’t. But I suspect she could name the ten people who among them could accomplish it. She could likely even tell us where to find them.”
“Oh, I could!” Maurelle cried, triumphant. “It won’t even take ten. Give me half an hour and I’ll have it done.”
“Then go,” Oberon said. “But before you do, hear this proclamation. For the service he has given on this day, I name Avery of House Violet as mayor of Gesoelig. I’ll entrust to him the smooth running of this city. As soon as he reports for duty, I will place him at your service for the evacuations.”
“Oh, he’ll like that,” Maurelle said. “He does love making plans and setting them in motion.” She grinned, imagining, then snapped back to herself a moment later. She threw a hasty curtsy, whispered, “Majesty,” then darted from the hall about her errands.
“And your reward will have to wait, I fear,” the king told Corin. “I would not send you home without the sword.”
“Would not, or could not?” Corin asked.
Oberon shrugged. “It matters little to a king and less to a creator.”
“And less to me, I suppose,” Corin said. “For I would not leave anyway until this mess is done.”
“That might be too much to hope for. This mess will not be over for an age. Still, you shall see the shape of things, and that should satisfy.”
“Perhaps,” Corin said, doubtful, but Oberon clapped his hands.
“I will settle for perhaps. Now go and eat and wait for Avery. I must discuss my plans with Delaen.”
Corin looked longingly toward the Midnight Grotto, but then he gave a groan and tore his gaze away. “No. I think I’ll stay. I’ve seen too much to walk away at this late hour.”
“You’ve earned your rest.”
“I’ve earned a place upon your council,” Corin snapped. “I may know other things of value, like the paper bullets. I beg the chance to contribute to your plan.”
The king hesitated, clearly on the verge of saying no. Then he threw his hands up and sighed. “Very well. If you insist. But at least hold your tongue while I sketch out the shape of things.”
Corin nodded his assent and sank down cross-legged on the soft grass before the throne. He fought a weary yawn while he stared up at Oberon.
The king spoke mainly to his druid. “Ephitel means to break my power. That is all he needs. He would prefer to have me dead. He would prefer to take the throne by force and wear this crown upon his brow, but none of that is necessary. If he can show the city that I bleed, if he can start a war, then he will win it.”
Corin nodded in silent agreement, but Delaen seemed surprised. “No. Surely there are those loyal to your name.”
“Not enough,” Oberon said. “Not near enough. Because even if I conquer Ephitel, I will have shown the world that I’m assailable. There will be others sure that they can succeed where Ephitel failed.”
“And you will crush them, too. Right?”
Oberon shook his head slowly. “There was a time when I would have. There was a time when I rode out to war against monstrosities and myths.”
Delaen licked her lips. “And what has changed? Surely you don’t grow old!”
“Not I,” the king replied. “But the kingdom. This world grows heavy beneath the weight of all the stories it has spawned, and it takes everything within my power to keep tomorrows following on the heels of yesterdays.”
The druid took an involuntary step toward the throne. “Your Majesty! You never told us. We might have helped.”
“You do, daily, just by being you. But already I’ve invested more of myself than I ever should have risked. There is just enough left of me to do what must come next.”
Delaen stifled a sob, but Corin could not guess what Oberon intended. Despite his promise, he couldn’t stop himself. He leaned toward the king and whispered, “What? What comes next?”
Oberon turned heavy eyes on him. “We abandon Gesoelig. We give the world to Ephitel.”
“That is no answer at all!”
“It isn’t meant to be the end. It is just a start.”
“But I have seen the end! Ephitel becomes a god over a wretched world where tyrants treat honest men like their possessions.”
“And yet you want to return…”
“Aye! To save someone from just that fate.”
“Your love?” Oberon asked. “This Iryana?”
“She is not my love,” Corin said. “I barely know her.”
“But still you care so much?”
“Aye! Because she’s my responsibility. I placed her life in Blake’s hands, so it falls to me to rescue her.”
Oberon bowed his head. “Gesoelig is no different. More than a million noble lives, and all of them at risk if Ephitel reaches the city. You saw what he had planned at the Piazza Autunno.”
“So you’ll evacuate?”
“Something like it, yes. We’ll disappear, regroup somewhere safe, and come back in force to answer his treachery.”
“Disappear,” Corin said, a growing fear in his belly. “How?”
Oberon spread his hands. “I shall move the very city. I’ll whisk it out from under his advance and hide it in a mountain. Ephitel will march against an empty field.”
Corin only nodded, but his heart felt empty. He remembered the ancient, empty city he had found. For the first time since the fires took him, he remembered the ghostly voices that had so frightened his crew.
This plan never worked. The world forgot Gesoelig and its elf king, and Ephitel built kingdoms on the backs of slaves.
Remember us, the ghosts had begged. Avenge us.
Corin sighed and shook his head. “It isn’t going to work.”