The Towers of the Sunset - L. E. Modesitt [191]
“How?”
“Piracy. With more than a single ship, we can tell Nordla, Austra, and the other traders that either they trade fair and square or we seize or sink their ships.”
“And just how will you carry out that threat?”
“I don’t want to. That’s why I want the ships. but if we had to resort to piracy, I could ride the winds and see where their ships were. I could probably raise storms and run them aground . . . at least anywhere in eastern Candar.”
“Could he?” Shierra looks to Lydya, who nods.
“This is not a good idea.” Megaera’s words are flat. . . . idiotic, dangerous, and wrong. . .
“We have no choice,” Creslin repeats. “We either act before our position becomes clear and while we have some hope of surprise, or we act later and lose more troopers and guards.”
“I don’t know,” Klerris muses.
“Fine. The fisherfolk were complaining about having no flour. We managed only enough to get us through the fall until harvest . . . from the Dawnstar’s last trip, and from what we could afford to buy from the smugglers. And what we can harvest won’t last through midwinter, if that. For half the year, we were unable to pay our people. Freigr came back with less than half a cargo, and that was before everyone knew about the wizards’ trade edict. We don’t have enough food to last until spring, let alone until our next harvest, and while we could afford to buy food, no one will sell it except a few smugglers, and we can’t afford to buy at their prices. So we steal either ships or money.”
“It’s a terrible idea,” Megaera protests.
“You’re right. You come up with a better one.” Creslin stands, sets the goblet down and walks out.
The five still seated look across the table at each other.
“Sometimes . . . Do we really want to stoop to piracy and theft? Can we?” asks Lydya.
“No,” answers Klerris. “We’ll do nothing and starve. Or we’ll let Creslin destroy himself to save us all.”
“That’s cruel.”
“He offered a solution, and he asked a question. Do we have a better answer? One that allows us to survive?”
The five look at each other again, but no one speaks as the hooves of a single horse echo on the road.
After reaching the Black Holding and unsaddling Vola, Creslin sits on a shaded section of the terrace wall, listening to the low surf. In time, the shadows lengthen to cover the entire terrace, and still he sits there, staring sightlessly out across the Eastern Ocean toward distant Nordla, or even more distant Austra.
He does not look up at Megaera’s approach, nor at her, even when she sits on the ledge with her back to the cliff, facing him.
“We’re not finished. Walking out didn’t help anyone. Like always, you decided that the mighty Creslin was right, and darkness forbid that we should question you.”
“I asked for any answer besides waiting to starve. Besides hoping that someone, somehow, will rescue us—like your dear sister. Do you really think she will?”
“She might.”
“She bound you in iron, and she’s going to provide you with enough supplies to raise a nation that just might threaten Sarronnyn?”
“What you’re planning isn’t right.” Megaera’s words are flat, evenly spaced. “You’re using your abilities to pervert the whole spirit of order-mastery.”
Creslin looks beyond the terrace, at the whitecaps of the Eastern Ocean that seem almost pink in the sunset. For a time, there is silence. “What would you have me do?”
“I don’t think that piracy is exactly honorable.”
“Honor is all well and good, but what would you have me do? The Blacks of Candar are being destroyed one way or another, year after year. Korweil is dead, and Westwind has fallen. Ryessa and Fairhaven have prospered, and we’re struggling to stay alive. No one will help us, and the gold we have left, no one will take. Even if someone did, there isn’t enough of it, and yet the people keep pouring in. Ships come, and they bring no cargo, only mouths to feed. What are we supposed to do? Sit here and starve?”
“You’re not talking about taking food.”
Creslin takes a deep breath, still not meeting her eyes, for he knows that there is truth in what she says. “I