Prince, perhaps it might be best if you talked this over with StarSon Cae –”
“I will inform Caelum of my decision, Roscic!”
The Chamberlain subsided. He had already said too much, considering that his very position relied on Askam’s goodwill. Goldman, however, had no such qualms.
“These taxes are so grievous, Sir Prince, that perhaps they should be discussed with –”
“StarMan Axis SunSoar himself gave my father the right to tax the West as he willed, Master Goldman! I will inform StarSon Caelum, but I have every right to impose these taxes without his assent. Is that understood?”
The four bowed their heads.
Askam looked at them a moment, then resumed. “There is one other thing. Over the past eighteen months, if not more, over two thousand men have moved their families north of the Azle.”
Askam shrugged a little. “If they want to subject their families to the northern winters, then so be it, but the fact remains that most of those two thousand have been men skilled in their crafts, professional businessmen, or successful farmers. They have left a considerable gap in the West’s resources – no wonder I have so much trouble trying to meet debt repayments.”
No, no, Goldman pleaded silently, don’t do it! Don’t –”
In order to stem the tide I have instructed the border guards at the Azle and Jervois Landing to exact the equivalent of ten thousand gold pieces from each family that intends to leave for the North.”
But that is ten times my annual income, Goldman thought. How will an ordinary craftsman pay it?
“That should go some way towards balancing the loss of their skills,” Askam said. “That is all, gentlemen, you have my permission to leave.”
That evening Goldman called more than a score of men to his townhouse in upper Carlon, all of them leading citizens and tradesmen, and there he spoke volubly about the new taxes and their implications.
“I will be ruined!” cried Netherem Pumster, Master Bell-Maker. “How else can I transport my bells if not by riverboat?”
“And I!” said Karl Hurst, one of the leading wool traders in Tencendor. “As will most of the peasants in the West! All rely on transporting their wool bales across the roadways of the West to the Icarii markets in the Minaret Peaks!”
His voice was joined by a dozen others, all increasingly angry and indignant as the implications of the tax sank in.
“As will everyone eventually be ruined,” Goldman said quietly into the hubbub. He held up his hands. “Gentlemen, please …”
Men slowly subsided into their seats, worry replacing anger.
“I should have moved north last year, when my brother went,” Hurst said as he sat down. “The North may be further from the markets that I’d like, but at least Zared wouldn’t try to take my soul to put meat on his table.”
“More like,” put in a stout silversmith, “he’d give his soul if he thought it might put meat on your table.”
Goldman nodded to himself, pleased with the direction the conversation had taken, content now to sit back and let the treason take its course.
Treason? he asked himself. Nay, natural justice, more like.
“Things have never been the same since Priam died,” said a fine-metal worker.
“Not the same since Axis SunSoar proclaimed Tencendor on the shores of our lake,” said another.
“Now, now,” Goldman demurred. “The SunSoars have done us proud. Have you ever known life to be better? More peaceful? Who dislikes trading with the beauty-loving and generous-spirited Icarii? Or even the Avar?”
There was a small silence, then Hurst spoke up again. “Our quarrel is not with Tencendor as such, nor with the Icarii or the Avar. I, for one, admire the SunSoars greatly for what they have done for our land.”
“Oh, aye!” a dozen voices echoed fervently.
“Aye,” Hurst repeated. “I voice no wish to resurrect the hatreds of the past.”
“Nay!” came the resounding cry.
“Nay,” Hurst echoed again, then looked about and licked his lips. “But these taxes … I cannot believe them! It never would have happened under King Priam, or even King Karel, from what I have heard of the man! Askam will destroy the West in his attempts to solve his debts!”
No-one missed the emphasis.
“Of course, Askam was not bred for such responsibility,” said a merchant named Bransom Heavorand. He was one of Goldman’s closest friends, and he knew the way the Master of the Guilds’ mind was travelling. “He has not the blood for it. No wonder he missteps so badly.”
“Yet his father, Belial, base-born as he was, was a kind and effective prince,” Goldman said, working as closely with Heavorand as two voices in a duet. “And he was Axis SunSoar’s right-hand man. Surely he deserved the reward of Princedom of the West?”
“Askam is not the man his father was,” Heavorand said. “Unlike Belial, he’s lived a life of ease. He’s not had to fight for his life, nor the life of his country. He’s not been tempered by the sacrifice and loss Belial endured. Nor has he inherited his father’s courage and fairness.”
Men nodded about the room.
“Given an estate to run, no doubt he would prove capable enough,” Heavorand finished. “But so large a responsibility as the Princedom of the West has Askam flummoxed.”
“And us bankrupt,” someone muttered, and the room broke into subdued laughter.
“Yet the North prospers,” Goldman said. “Zared, as his parents before him, has built steadily on solid foundations. He is generous but firm, courageous but conservative in the risks he takes – or exposes his people to. His people love him.”
“Many among our people love him, too,” said one of the men.
“And there’s the nub of the matter,” said Heavorand, speaking only at the slight nod of Goldman’s head. “Zared was born of the blood of kings, Askam was not. Thus the North prospers while the West strangles.”
Silence.
“Born of the blood of kings,” said a voice far back in a darkened corner. “Are you saying what I think you say? Zared was born to rule?”
“What I say is only fact,” Heavorand replied. “Zared is born of Rivkah, last princess of Achar, and Magariz, one of the highest-ranking nobles Achar had ever seen. They were legally married. Borneheld, Rivkah’s eldest, was illegitimate, and thus his attempts to claim the throne of Achar met with disaster. Axis, may he live forever, was also illegitimate, and while he founded the Throne of the Stars, he rightly made no claim to the Acharite throne. Zared was Rivkah’s only legitimate child. Zared,” he paused, reluctant to speak these words even among friends, before finally gathering his courage, “is the legitimate
