“Lord Jade,” Tam said, after a moment. “That is your title, isn’t it?”
“Technically, it’s Prince Consort Jade,” Jade said. His voice betrayed no irritation at a title that was, as far as most noblemen were concerned, laughable. “But it is also Baron Jade too, if one wishes to be formal.”
Tam bowed his head. “Titles mean very little to us,” he said, quietly. “I’m sure you’re aware of that.”
Master Abrams clapped his hands. “Mouse, drinks for our guests,” he ordered, motioning for them to be seated. “This will be a long conversation.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Tam said, as Mouse hurried to obey. “But we do have a lot to cover.”
He took another sip from his mug. “One thing is certain, someone within my inner circle is a traitor. Those guards believed they were hunting me, a Leveller. They received a fairly precise tip-off too, but none of our sources within the army were able to tell me who tipped off the Black Daggers.”
Emily leaned forward. “How many people knew where you were going and when?”
“Counting me, seven,” Tam said. His hand shook. He put the mug down hastily. “And I would have trusted my life to all of them. I did trust my life to all of them. One of them is a weasel.”
“There are ways to turn someone into an unwitting spy,” Emily said, as Mouse passed her a mug of Kava. “Someone could have been enchanted to betray you.”
Cat nodded. “They might not even know what they’re doing,” he added. “If the right sort of spells were used, they’d think themselves loyal–they would be loyal. They’d pass truth potions and spells with ease. But they’d be secretly communicating with their masters every time the enchantment took hold.”
Tam bit down a curse. “Is there any way to stop it?”
“Several,” Jade said. “The easiest would be to test each of them, thoroughly. If they were willing traitors, we could make them spill the beans; if unwilling, it would be a little harder.”
We might have to use Soul Magic, Emily thought. She shuddered, helplessly. I’m not going to be reading their minds just to check they’re not under an enchantment.
“Right,” Tam said. “We will discuss that, later. For the moment…”
He sucked in his breath. “I’ve discussed your proposals, as vague as they are, with some of the other cell leaders. I’m sure you can understand that, as we were bitten once, we are unwilling to commit ourselves again. If you”–he nodded to Emily–“were not involved, we would not have taken the risk of linking up with Lord Jade. We don’t know him.”
There was a pause. “Let me be absolutely blunt,” Tam added. “We will not be fooled again. If we are to commit ourselves to you, we want ironclad guarantees, backed by magic.”
Jade looked grim. “Ironclad guarantees of what?”
“We want the Assembly back, with real power,” Tam said. “We want the Cockatrice Charter to apply to the entire country, without exception; we want an end to serfdom, an end to excessive taxes, universal law applicable to all…”
“You want a lot,” Jade observed.
“We want to be sure that neither the king nor the nobility will ever be in a position to betray us again,” Tam said. “That is our price for assisting you, Lord Jade. It makes very little difference to us who is on the throne, as long as they swear to uphold the charter.”
He looked at Emily. “Will you support us?”
Emily forced herself to think. “What else do you want?”
Tam raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“You’re thinking in the short term,” Emily said. “What about the little details? Who gets to vote? Everyone? Or merely the people who own property? What about women? Or former serfs? Who gets to vote? And what happens to the former aristocrats? And their lands?”
Tam scowled. “We can work out the details later. But we are not going to put our lives at risk, again, without ironclad guarantees.”
“So you said,” Cat said, without heat.
Emily ignored him. “What do you want to happen to the former noblemen? What about their children? Or their lands? It seems to me that you have a long way to go if you want to keep the country stable.”
“We do not trust the king,” Tam said. “But we insist on guarantees before we fight for any of his rivals.”
“I see,” Emily said.
She had to fight to keep her face under control. Tam was asking for everything, more or less…and demanding that Jade swear an oath to uphold the deal. Cold anger washed through her as the implications became clear. Jade would have to force Alassa to keep the deal or die…leaving his child without a father. Jade would die, she was sure. He wouldn’t try to force Alassa into doing anything. Unless the oath was designed to compel him to do just that…
“Your movement would become a nightmare,” she said, finally. “I would suggest, for the moment, that you concentrate on the Cockatrice Charter.”
“It doesn’t have enough clauses to protect the weak and powerless,” Tam said, flatly. “And it doesn’t include anything like enough guarantees…”
“It was designed as an evolving document,” Emily said. She’d written it herself, with a great deal of effort. “Look, here’s your problem. You’ve been burnt before, quite right, and you’re trying to close every loophole. But your efforts will lead to a rigid social system or utter madness. Not everyone is a merchant and not everyone’s conception of the Levellers includes leaving the merchants in control of the economy. You need something that will evolve over time.”
“But not one that permits the nobility to regain power or the king to crush us,” Tam said, firmly. “We would sooner tear down the entire country than let that happen again.”
“Think of it as a balancing act,” Emily said, with the private thought that Randor felt pretty much the same way. “The commons, the aristocracy…and the king.”
“Queen,” Jade said. There was a certainty in his voice that could not be gainsaid. “Randor is not going to accept the Cockatrice Charter, is he?”
“No,” Emily said. “He’d sooner die than accept any limitations on his power.”
Tam took a long breath. “Very well. Let’s talk.”
Emily sighed. It was going to be a long day. A very long day.
But at least we’re making progress, she thought. If only we could figure out a way through the wards…
Chapter Twenty
EMILY LIFTED HER EYEBROWS AS A young woman–she couldn’t be more than a year or two older than Emily– stepped into the room. She wore a simple brown dress, her hair wrapped up in a headscarf; she could have passed for a fishwife if her fingers hadn’t suggested a gentler life. Emily thought she would have known the woman for a merchant even if she hadn’t had the same general attitude as Imaiqah, a subservient nature masking a calculating mind. The merchants had always given their daughters as full an education as possible, almost as much as they gave their sons. Their girls couldn’t be allowed to sit around and look pretty.
“Hello,” the woman said. Her eyes flickered to Cat, then back to Emily. “I understand you wanted to see me?”
Emily nodded, bracing herself. Two days of careful arrangements, two days of vetting potential suspects…it was tiring, even without the edge of danger. Lady Barb had taught her some things, but she was grimly aware that an unwitting traitor might slip through her wards and report straight back to the king. Or whoever had cast the compulsion spell in the first place. The Black Daggers had no compunctions about turning a commoner into a puppet. It wasn’t as if the commoners were noblemen.
“Take a seat,” she said. “You’re called Flower?”
“That’s what they call me,” Flower said. “It’s as good a name as any.”