He sat down on the hard floor, motioning for her to sit in front of him. Emily sat; Cat stood behind her, his presence surprisingly reassuring. Tam didn’t look pleased to see him there, but he didn’t seem inclined to make a fuss. Emily suspected that wasn’t a good sign. The Levellers were as desperate as everyone else.
She wished, with an intensity that surprised her, that she dared use a truth spell. Or something to loosen his tongue a little. But a merchant would be aware of the dangers, even if he wasn’t carrying something designed to protect him from outside influences. She’d blow any trust out of the water if she forced him to talk. Tam would never forgive her. Nor would anyone else. They’d see it as a clear sign she had no intention of dealing with them as equals.
“I’ll cut to the chase,” Tam told her. His voice was very blunt. “I have been informed that you wish to make a deal with us. Why should we make any deal with you?”
You wouldn’t have come here if you hadn’t wanted to make a deal, Emily thought, any more than a shopkeeper would set up a stall if he didn’t want to sell anything.
“We have things we can trade,” Emily said, carefully. “And we can make reforms…”
Tam spat, loudly. “Five years ago, my uncle told me that you were wonderful, that your inventions would change the world. He gambled everything on you, Lady Emily. Now, my uncle is dead and his wife has fled and his children have been marked down for death. I think you have brought nothing but misfortune to the family.”
Emily felt Cat shifting behind her. She ignored him, choosing–instead–to keep her eyes on Tam. He had good reason to be angry, both with her and the king. There was no point in trying to deny it. Better to admit it and hope she could smooth things over.
“The Crown Princess made promises, five years ago,” Tam reminded her. “And were those promises honored? No! The Assembly has been shut down and those of us who didn’t flee are in prison! Why should we put our lives on the line for you?”
“Because you need us,” Emily said. It was true. “You wouldn’t have come here if you didn’t need us.”
She spread out her hands, making a gesture of openness. “On one hand, you have a king who is steadily turning into a tyrant. King Randor has closed the Assembly, crushed free speech, shut down broadsheets and is trying to register the entire population. It won’t be long before the king’s justice is nothing more than a joke. You’re in trouble and you know it.
“And, on the other hand, you have the nobility. They’re gathering their forces for a final battle, one that will determine who rules the country. If they win, they’ll stamp out all the improvements and reforms you’ve fought for over the years; the railways and factories and everything else will be torn up or burnt to the ground. And if they lose, large swathes of the country will be devastated and the king will have all the power he needs to wipe out dissent and freethinking once and for all. Either way, you’re going to lose.”
Tam looked displeased. Emily pressed on, silently grateful that Jade had made her go through all the talking points ahead of time. She’d never liked preparing for an exam, but this was far more important than anything she’d done at Whitehall. Her name and reputation might get the Levellers to listen to her, yet she had to be convincing. If the Levellers suspected they’d be betrayed again, one final time, they’d walk away.
“King Randor and his rebellious aristocrats are about to have their final clash,” she said, putting it as plainly as she could. “And whoever comes out ahead, you’ll lose. The commoners will suffer. Randor won’t tolerate more threats to his power, even indirect threats like a say in how the money is spent, while the nobles will try to turn the clock back. Either way, you lose.”
“I might agree with you,” Tam said. His face was expressionless. “That doesn’t mean that we are prepared to put our lives on the line for you.”
Emily took a breath. “You have two problems, as I see it,” she said, feeling her heart start to race. Too much of what she was about to say was based on guesswork. “The first is that you cannot take the city, let alone hold it. You cannot capture the castle, let alone the garrison and the walls, before the king’s reinforcements overwhelm you. The second is that, even if you did succeed, you’d have to fend off the nobility and run the country. And revolutionary movements tend to collapse because they’re trying to set up a new government in the middle of a war.”
And because they’re trying to be all things to all men, she added, silently. It was a shame she couldn’t talk about the French or Russian Revolutions, both of which had been unable to impose fair and just governments before they’d run out of time and devolved into tyrannies that were far worse than the ones they’d overthrown. But he’ll have heard of peasant revolts in the past…
“You don’t want to destroy the government,” she added, “because that would lead to absolute chaos. You’re a merchant. What do you think will happen to your interests if the entire country collapses? You need the government. What you want to do is co-opt it so you can make gradual reforms over the next few years without causing a total disaster.”
She took a breath. “And the only legitimate heir to the throne, the only one who can and will change things for the better, is the Crown Princess.”
Tam studied her for a long moment. “You expect us to put our lives on the line for a royal brat?”
Cat snickered. Emily turned and glowered at him, then looked back at Tam.
“She’s grown up a lot over the last six years,” she said. That was true, even though the common folk probably weren’t aware of it. The barrage of negative propaganda hadn’t helped. “And she’s also the only option you have, unless you want to trust the king–again.”
Tam didn’t look pleased, but he didn’t offer any counterargument. Emily understood. Merchants were dependent, more than they cared to admit, on the government keeping the country relatively stable. Runaway inflation, mass confiscations and constant changes to the law were not good for business. A noble-dominated government would drive the merchants out, as spreaders of disharmony, while a peasant-dominated government might try to communize everything. Any moderates amongst the Levellers would need a government to impose their reforms.
“She’s also a princess,” Tam said. Emily thought he looked interested, but she couldn’t be sure. “Can she be trusted?”
“She’s married to a commoner,” Emily reminded him. “And she does understand that things have to change.”
She sighed, inwardly. Alassa might understand that things had to change, but she wouldn’t like it. She’d worked so hard to inherit her father’s power…Emily hoped, grimly, that Alassa would accept that she would never be an all-powerful monarch. Either she moved with the flow, riding the waves of change, or she let them overwhelm her. There was no other choice. No one could keep the lid screwed down indefinitely, not now. She’d seen to that when she’d introduced the New Learning.
“We would find it hard to trust her,” Tam said.
Emily met his eyes. “Do you have any other choice? Civil war is about to break out. Either you try to shape events, as best as you can, or you let events shape you.”
“I am aware of the dangers,” Tam said, stiffly. “I also have to consider the long term…”
“There won’t be a long term,” Emily told him. “If the king gains undisputed power, you will be crushed; if the nobility takes control, you will be exterminated. There won’t be a second chance to make the reforms you need.”