Exploitable Weaknesses by Brian Keller (red queen free ebook txt) 📗

for the short term, you’re word. Signal your agreement to our terms within two days by sending your flagship, along with two other warships into the bay, then lower the flags to half-mast before returning to dock. A man’s word, once given…

The Guild of Paleros”

The prince claimed the chair nearest to him as he contemplated this new information. Iona observed him quietly but the Lord General could not contain his protest, “My liege! You cannot possibly be considering-” The Prince raised his hand, effectively silencing the General yet again, “I am, in fact, ‘considering’. There is much this message says. There is also much it doesn’t say. I am ‘considering’ how much of that is deliberate, and how much might be unintentional  .”

The Lord General resumed, his protest following a different track, “But to have slain a member of your Council!” The prince nodded, “To be sure, that is also undeniable. A fact that the author of this note took special care to address. None of this happened without the author having planned it. Yoren was often, shall we say, less productive than one would expect from a Royal Spymaster. I believe we may now have an explanation for that.”

The Lord General was like a dog with a bone, “But to kill a member of your Council?” The prince pressed his fingertips together in front of his mouth, a gesture Iona had seen from him earlier, only this time he smiled from behind his fingers, “Yes, and as many times as you’ve wished him dead, don’t tell me that you now mourn him.”

The Lord General took a step backward, “Of course not, my liege, but to make light of my intended meaning is reckless.”

The Prince stood abruptly, almost upending his chair, and placed both his palms firmly on the table. His voice reflected the warning in his eyes, “And you are not my father, to lecture me. You advise me. I trust you to lead my army. I must insist that you trust me to govern. You are dismissed, Hennit.”

The Lord General looked like he was prepared to respond but instead, perhaps wisely, he closed his mouth, performed an about-face and left the room. Iona wasn’t entirely sure what was on the Prince’s mind but she recognized the expression on the Lord General’s face all too well. She’d worn that same expression for several years at the University.

Iona turned back to face the prince, “My Liege, the final sentence is left incomplete. I don’t understand.” Prince Lancaster was staring at some imaginary scene playing out in front of him. He answered absently, “The author is clever. He’s quoting my father. Something he said when he appointed his first advisors, ‘A man’s word, once given, either binds him or defines him’.”

*****

Chapter 21

Cooper spent the next several minutes alternating between sprinting from one shadow to the next, and pausing to listen for any sounds of pursuit. He wouldn’t pause for more than two or three breaths at a time. If he didn’t hear the shouting of orders or the pounding of footsteps that meant they were either far behind, or close enough to keep him in sight but not attacking. For all he knew, one of the mages had sufficient Talent for flight and was soaring overhead, watching him right now. It was considered ‘common knowledge’ that no mage alive today could actually throw fire. “It’s safe to say that ‘common knowledge’ isn’t the same as ‘truth’. That might not have been fire that killed Aporigh, but that mage was at least a dozen steps away. To my mind, that qualifies as thrown energy.” He’d paused long enough. He sprinted again, this time turning north, toward the Ruins, but not leaving Batter’s Field. “If anyone’s still pursuing me, I hardly want them to follow me home.” He’d been replaying the confrontation in his head, “The Spymaster knew who I was! Or, at least he knew who I wasn’t! And he brought the Hunter and mages, instead of soldiers.” He sprinted again, then paused to observe his surroundings while he was bathed in shadow, “If the Prince is already in league with the University then any arrangement the Guild might make with the Palace could be worthless.” He still neither saw nor heard any sounds of pursuit. He skirted the Ruins, then turned northeast into the Waterfront.

It took a little more than twenty minutes of sporadic sprinting to reach center of the Waterfront. It was easier than expected, almost all the extra Watch points had been vacated. He wondered, “Surely they haven’t been called away to look for me?”, but he supposed it was certainly possible. The death of the Royal Spymaster in such close proximity was certainly cause to reposition, or even reassign much of the Watch. He ventured further northeast and hunkered down near one of the Lukasi warehouses, one of the first that he’d revealed to the Watch. Surely by now it was leased to a different business but he'd studied the surroundings long enough to feel comfortable waiting here, to see if anyone was actually still chasing him.

He waited for nearly an hour. In that time, he hadn’t seen a single patrol. He thought, “I’d be willing to bet my boots that this time last night I’d have seen two, maybe three patrols go by already. Tonight, I seem to be the only one here.”

He walked south toward the boardwalk and stopped after he’d passed two buildings. He waited another ten minutes. He heard a dog barking somewhere to the west and some kind of vermin scratching through some debris nearby, but otherwise he heard nothing to draw his attention. He walked to the boardwalk and out onto a pier. His night wasn’t finished yet. He needed to speak with Mardon, and he didn’t dare wait until daylight.

He hadn’t expected Mardon to be pleased about being visited so late at night, but