AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Another matter I would like to discuss,” Sai went on, apparently oblivious to the fact that the whole thing had gotten away from him, “is ways that we can change the culture of the cities—and the forest where it is needed—to create a greater feeling of understanding and to eliminate prejudices that have been held for too long.”
Jorgen snorted with laughter. He seemed to react on behalf of all of the wolves at the table, who wore expressions as if Sai had just asked for the most impossible thing.
“And how do you propose to change this culture?” Jorgen asked.
“I don’t know,” Sai said, frowning at Jorgen as if he’d decided he didn’t particularly care for the man. “All I know is that it must be done if we are all to continue to exist in harmony. And I think Magnus would agree that it is essential that all of our kingdoms, that everyone on the frontier, live in peace and harmony so that we can restore what we have lost in this last year. We must work together if we are to have a future.”
“We are already working together,” Olympus said.
Everyone looked at him for a moment. Even I wasn’t certain what he meant. Did he mean that Good Port was working with everyone? The city did a minimal amount of trade with Inverhaus, and I didn’t think we had anything at all to do with Jorgen. Or did he mean that each of the kingdoms that were represented at the table were already engaged in some sort of exchange with each other?
“Yes,” Sai said, shifting restlessly in his chair. “And I think we should continue that. We should continue to discuss ways we can thrive as a whole, as the frontier, instead of keeping ourselves separate from each other.”
It was a bullshit answer to make him look like he understood when he didn’t.
“Don’t tell me you’re in favor of frontier-wide unity,” Hati said, glancing across the table to Magnus.
“No!” Sai said, letting his frustration show. “I’m not suggesting that. I know that isn’t going to happen. I would just….” He sat back a little and sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I just want to see us all working together with greater acceptance.”
“Perhaps we should begin by discussing trade deals,” Magnus said, sitting a bit straighter. He let go of Peter’s and Neil’s hands and leaned his forearms on the table. “We should begin by being honest about what trade is already taking place between our kingdoms and areas where it could be enhanced.”
And that was it. Magnus had let Sai set the meetings up, and as soon as Sai had stumbled, he’d taken over. More than that, everyone at the table—even some of Sai’s councilors—seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when he did. There could be no doubt now. Magnus was the most powerful man on the frontier.
And I still thought it was rich that his brother was the king of the Old Realm.
I watched Hadrian, Sai’s spy. He looked relieved that things had moved on as well. He seemed interested in learning who was trading what with who as the trade talk began. I decided then and there to keep an eye on him. And maybe to bring him up at our Sons meeting later.
But within an hour, my attention had drifted away from the incredibly boring discussions about food, metals, luxury goods, and necessities and what was fair for each kingdom to share with the others, and back to things that interested me more.
Did this Hadrian person know about Gregorius? Did he know what Sebald said his aunt had told him? Was he a part of the conspiracy, or was he truly just a former commander of Sai’s? And what exactly did the Old Realm need spies on the frontier for?
The answer was pretty obvious to me, but it also felt ridiculous. The Old Realm wanted its frontier back. From their point of view, we were probably all just a bunch of disobedient children that had stopped doing what daddy said. No one had ever officially declared an end to the kingdom as a whole, so for all I knew, The Old Realm could still think we all, city-dwellers, wolves, Good Port, and other forest-dwellers, were still a part of their kingdom, their vassals.
If that was the case, what must they think of these new entities that called themselves kingdoms now?
I knew the answer to that right away too. We were rebels and traitors, and everyone knew what happened to rebels and traitors.
I peeked across at Hadrian again. The conversation at the table had shifted slightly to establishing rules about the movement of people and settlers between the four kingdoms. Hadrian was giving all of his attention to Magnus, Jorgen, and Olympus. Even though Peter and Jace actually had a lot to say on the subject of freedom of movement, particularly for orphans and young men who wanted to start a new life. Peter was adamantly arguing that young men should be protected from being claimed as a pup if they had to cross through Jorgen’s kingdom, and Jace was trying to make a point to Sai that anyone who wanted to leave the cities should be allowed to go. Hadrian wasn’t interested in what they had to say, though. I guess he didn’t think that young men had any business in governance.
That thought sparked another one. Most of the men at the table were in their twenties. Magnus, Olympus, Jorgen and Hati, and Hadrian were older, but everyone else was young. It made me wonder how Hadrian viewed the entire meeting, which caused my thoughts to drift on to what the Old Realm must think of a frontier that was increasingly led by young and inexperienced leaders.
And that led me right back to Good Port, to wondering about Vikhrov and the election. Vikhrov was the most experienced leader on the frontier now, really. He had been running a business for longer than Magnus had been in charge of Gravlock. Before the current system of government, Vikhrov had been one of the men who steered policy in Good Port, which meant he’d been in charge of others even longer than Jorgen.
But if someone was trying to remove Vikhrov from power, if the Old Realm had been responsible for Gomez—who had killed all of the older leaders—was the point to weaken the frontier to the point where…where what? We would beg the Old Realm to come back in and restore order? We would cave when King Julius sent an army to reconquer the frontier?
The first possibility was unlikely. Everyone but the cities seemed to be getting on with the new order well enough. Good Port had always been independent, and both Magnus and Jorgen were clever. But maybe the Old Realm only thought of the cities when they thought of the frontier. Maybe they weren’t fully aware of how numerous and advanced the wolves were.
And maybe, if Hadrian was here as a spy, and if he reported back to King Julius that there were at least two powerful wolf kingdoms existing where the Old Realm thought there was only one weak confederation of cities—and that one of them was led by King Julius’s brother—then they would send an army.
The thought was so unsettling that I sucked in a breath and jolted in my chair, writhing a little in alarm.
Unfortunately, my movements were enough to draw attention, and the conversation about issuing the citizens of each kingdom some sort of paper or pass for when they traveled from one kingdom to another stopped.
“Everything alright, Lefric?” Olympus asked in a quiet voice, resting a hand on my thigh.
“Yeah, yeah,” I nodded tightly, then rolled my shoulders. “I…I guess I just nodded off for a moment.”
The others laughed, which broke the tension at the table.
