Retribution Falls - Chris Wooding [83]
“The survivor said they launched a surprise attack.”
“Well, of course they did! We told them the route the Ace of Skulls would be flying! So why weren’t our pilots warned?”
“The pilots were independents, hired through middlemen, that couldn’t be connected to you. We needed them to be reliable, untainted witnesses. We could hardly warn them an attack was coming without giving away the fact that we set up the ambush.”
Amalicia Thade was right, thought Crake. Her father wasn’t in this alone. This goes all the way up to the Duke.
“The Ketty Jay had two outfliers—fighter craft,” Thade went on patiently. “We didn’t even know Frey traveled with outfliers. He’s such an insignificant wretch, it’s a miracle he keeps his own craft in the sky, let alone three.”
“You didn’t know?”
“Your Grace, do you have any idea how hard it is to keep track of one maggot amid the swarming cesspool of the underworld? A man like that puts down no roots and leaves little trace when he’s gone. The sheer size of our great country makes it—”
“You underestimated him, then.”
Crake heard a resentful pause. “I miscalculated,” Thade said at last.
“The problem was that you didn’t calculate anything,” Grephen said. “You allowed your personal hatred of this man to blind you. You saw a chance for revenge because he disgraced your daughter. I should never have listened to you.”
“The Allsoul itself thought that Darian Frey was an excellent choice for our scheme.”
“The auguries were unclear,” said Grephen coldly. “Even the Grand Oracle said so. Do not presume to know the mind of the Allsoul.”
“I am saying that I trust in the Allsoul’s wisdom,” Thade replied. “This is merely a hiccup. We will still emerge triumphant.”
Crake couldn’t help a sneer and a tut. Superstition and idiocy, he thought. Strange how your Allsoul can’t stop me from using my daemons to listen to every word you say.
“The survivor told us that the Ketty Jay’s outfliers were fast craft with excellent pilots,” Thade explained. “The surprise attack threw them into chaos and took out half of our men. We were lucky that one witness escaped to report to the Archduke.”
Nobody spoke for a time. Crake imagined a sullen silence on Grephen’s part.
“This is not a disaster,” said Thade soothingly. “Hengar is out of the way, and our hands remain clean. Don’t you see how things have fallen in our favor? That fool’s dalliance with the Samarlan ambassador’s daughter gave us the perfect opportunity to remove him and make it look like a pirate attack. If he’d not been traveling in secret, if your spies hadn’t discovered his affair, our job would have been that much more difficult.”
Grephen grunted in reluctant agreement, allowing himself to be mollified.
“Not only that,” Thade went on, “but leaking information about the affair to the public has turned them against Hengar and the archduchy in general. Hengar was the one they loved, remember? He stood aside when his parents began their ridiculous campaign to deprive the people of the message of the Allsoul. His death could have strengthened the family, made them sympathetic in the eyes of the common man, but instead they have never been so unpopular.”
“That’s true, that’s true.”
Thade was warming to his own positivity now. “Don’t you see how kindly the Allsoul looks on our enterprise? We have cleared the line of succession: the Archduke has no other children to inherit his title. The people will welcome you when you seize control of the Coalition. You will be Archduke Grephen, and a new dynasty will begin!”
Crake’s mind reeled. This was what it was all about? Spit and blood, they were planning a coup! They were planning to overthrow the Archduke!
It was all but inconceivable. Nobody alive remembered what it was like to live without a member of the Arken dynasty ruling the land. The rulers of the duchy of Thesk had been the leaders of the