The man starts, then coughs, then offers a choked laugh as if he can’t decide whether I’m kidding. “Well. Yes. Of course. Right this way. I’m sure we can find you both something suitable.”
While the man starts asking Lochlan about whether he prefers wool or broadcloth for his trousers, the woman shifts close and peers at me. “Are you serious about the ship from Kandala?” she says quietly.
She’s staring at me earnestly, her lips slightly parted. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I want to figure it out.
“I am,” I say.
She glances at Lochlan, who’s telling the man that we’ll take whatever is cheapest, and moves closer. “Your accents are real?”
“They are.”
She swallows and glances at the door, then drops her voice further. “So Galen Redstone made it to Kandala. Was he able to negotiate for steel?”
Galen Redstone.My chest tightens at the mention of Rian’s real name. I inhale to tell her no, that Galen Redstone is a lying, cheating scoundrel who should be lashed to the bottom of his own ship and run across a bed of rocks, and I’ll do it myself after I break every bone in his body.
But then she swallows thickly and says, “Please. We’re so desperate.”
The emotion in her voice tugs at me. I’ve heard that kind of desperation before.
“Yes,” I say. “He made it to Kandala.”
She grabs hold of my hand, heedless of my appearance now. “You said you fell off a ship. Was it Crane? Did he attack? Was the king able to get past?”
The king.Even now, it’s so hard to think of Rian in these terms.
Her fingers are pressing into my hand so tightly. “Please,” she says. “If there’s any news you can share . . .”
Across the room, Lochlan is staring at me. I can’t read his expression, but no matter what I think of Rian, there’s nothing to be lost in telling this woman the truth.
“He made it past,” I say. “The ship was under fire from Crane’s people, but your king was able to sail on.”
She kisses her fingertips, then presses them over her heart. “Oh, such a relief. If he made it past Silvesse, then he should have been able to make it to Fairde.” Her eyes lock on mine again. “If you’re here, then he must have reached an agreement with the king of Kandala. We’ve been so worried. Everyone knows your King Lucas is callous and spiteful—”
I jerk back. “He wasnot,” I say hotly. I’ve spent years hearing every possible insult hurled at myself and Harristan, but I wasn’t ready to hear someone say that about my father.
Lochlan coughs. “Wes.It’s all right. You know how rumors are.”
Wes.I have to shake myself. And he’s right. I do know how rumors are.
The woman is staring at me. “I’m sorry. I’m speaking of your king. We—we just know what damage he causedhere.”
Supposedly my father didn’t honor a trade agreement and sent ships to attack theirs. I didn’t believe it when Rian first talked about it, but I forgot that peopleherewould see Kandala as an aggressor.
I remember Rian standing at the helm, glaring at me, proclaiming that he hadn’t lied about much of anything.
I can hate him, but maybe that was true.
I take a breath. “King Lucas is dead. His son, King Harristan, is in power now.”
The man seems to have formed a pile of clothes for Lochlan, and he’s approaching us with a pile for me, too. His voice is equally quiet. “It’s a relief to hear that the king made it back. My brother lives on Iris, and they haven’t been able to rebuild yet.”
The woman nods. “All the lumber keeps getting diverted to Roshan and Estar, and I heard that half the freighter ships were damaged in the war.” She squeezes my hand. “But you haven’t said. Was Redstone able to come to terms with this King Harristan? He must have, if he brought people from Kandala back with him.” But then she draws back, looking worried again. “I don’t want to speak ill of your king, but can he be trusted?”
The question pricks at me. I stare at the shop owners, and I’m not sure what to say.
Your king is the one who can’t be trusted. Harristan will never come to terms with him.
Galen Redstone is a dirty liar who approached us under false pretenses.
