A Dragon's Ascension - Ed Greenwood [133]
"You will all be still! Flaeros Delcamper shouted, his face as red as ruby wine. In startlement they fell silent, blinking at the young and slender buffoon who was now dancing on his toes with anger, that same rage making him bolder than he'd ever been in his life before. "Listen to me, Lords High and Mighty!" he snarled. "And heed-for once! I've heard quite enough preening and sitting in judgment from barons and tersepts in my life to fill a library of sneering words-but in my very few years of seeing Aglirta, I've also seen many brave folk fighting, with barons and tersepts either the very villains they must struggle against, or nowhere to be seen when the realm needs them! Where were you when Bloodblade came riding up the Vale, swording knights and armsmen alike for the crime of staying loyal to their sworn oaths of fealty? Where were you when the Serpent-priests made sacrifices of your own people whom you were sworn to protect, on land you were sworn to keep safe and peaceful? Where were you just now, when your king needed you and the Throne stood unguarded?"
A chorus of sneering shouts began, but Flaeros cut them off with a bitter, louder shout: "No! No, my Lords, your answers don't matter! If you choose to mock at the regent's choice, I choose to mock at your excuses and your intrigues and your own mockings-and, Lords, I am a bard! When I mock, the world hears! From Carraglas to Gloit, from the shops of Sirlptar to the taverns in your own towns and villages, folk will hear my mockeries of you! Yes, and they'll sing along, and whisper my words at your backs, and tell their sons and daughters, and long after I am dead and gone-and you are dead and gone, too, taken by the Three just as we all are, for all your fancy tides-your sons and daughters will hear my songs and gnash their teeth at the truth of what their fathers were! Oh, yes, mock away at the boy king-and I'll spread a ballad of the churls who wouldn't trust a boy to rule, in their greed to seize the Throne, each one for himself!"
"Not if you're dead before you leave Flowfoam, you won't," a tersept growled. Craer gave that man a brittle smile-in the wake of a hurled dagger that took his cap off and pinned it to the wall behind him.
"More than one can play that game, Tersept of Fallenbridge," he said softly.
"Bah!" another tersept spat. "Bards! Dogs of the realm!"
"Perhaps," the Regent of Aglirta said mildly, "but this one's also a Tersept of Aglirta."
"I am?" Flaeros gulped, all his rage spent-and as astonished as the line of nobles were.
"Aye," Blackgult replied, "I just made you one."
He let the gathering storm of scorn gather volume, and then crooked a little finger. The Dwaer-Stone flashed as it rose out of Embra's grasp and flew through the air to his hand-and every noble in the long line facing him was suddenly shocked silent, with all their hair standing on end and the air in their lungs a chilling, searing dung. More than a few hands also jerked away from sword-hilts that were suddenly as hot as roaring fires, to be left trembling.
Blackgult gave them a smile of cold promise and said, "I am still regent, Lords of Aglirta-and I can have every last one of you beheaded, and your families stripped of their land and titles, at will. Or take lands and castle from any one of you, give them to your most hated baronial rival-and give his to you. Or simply blast you all to ashes, here among the honest dead of this day, and appoint your own kitchen maids barons and tersepts in your place."
He hefted the Dwaer meaningfully in his hand. "Remember that… and tell me again if you'll pledge allegiance to King Raulin Castlecloaks."
Chapter Twenty
Four Once More
The Basket of Eels was not a well-favored tavern. No loud revels befell there, no high ladies nor young blades of Sirl desired to strut or be seen there, and its name did not feature prominently in daily discourse, social plans, or even juicy gossip.
Neither its owner nor its patrons desired it to offer competition