I met with my uncle twice during this time.They were largely impersonal affairs in which I strove to impress upon him my concerns about the Black Tide and reacquaint myself with the current state of the Navy and the government.
I found my questions rebutted at nearly every turn.Even thoughHartwould be sailing with the fleet, I was no longer one of Her Majesty’s officers, and my uncle could not speak freely.
Being shut out by my own uncle and former admiral was not only painful, but endlessly frustrating.Even when I broached topics not directly related to the fleet and the coming conflict, such as restricting the arrival of Black Tide devotees, I was disregarded.
“I say this with full awareness of the past, but the Black Tide poses no real threat to Renown.Why ever would they?They are a nuisance, to be sure, and fools, but there is no law against idiocy,” my uncle told me at our first meeting.“This port is not simply a naval base.It is asettlement, with citizenry who may do as they wish, within the law.I advise you to ignore them, Samuel.”
“What of their ghisting?”I pressed.“The Ess Noti know of it, sir.What if there is a connection?”
“Then that is a matter for more appropriate parties to concern themselves with,” was the admiral’s reply.“Not an Usti privateer.”
“Of greater concern is the mere twenty armed vessels in Renown,” Alamay said that evening as I hosted a dinner inHart’s great cabin, a company that included Maren, the Uknaras, Grant and Mary, and even Fisher, who had been brought fully into our confidences.She sat beside Maren, who nursed a cup of mildly alcoholic tea.“How many more ships can be brought in before the Mereish Fleet arrives?”
“Fifty,” Ben replied.He had taken to smoking a pipe since our arrival, and a cloud of blue-tinted smoke clung to the ceiling above his head.The habit seemed to calm him, however, and no one complained.
“If we are fortunate,” I hedged.Outside the open gallery windows to the rear of the room, rain pattered on the quiet harbor waters and fog obscured the town.
Fisher raised her own mug of rum-laced tea.“I shall be among them.I’ve accepted a temporary commission, and I was not alone.Three armed merchants have been pressed, captain through cabin boy.”
“Still, I do not believe your people understand the threat to be as great as it is,” Alamay said.“They do not believe the Tide will reach the heights the Ess Noti predict.They still believe their fortifications will mean something.”
I watched the small woman, considering, not for the first time, what an asset she would be not only to the Aeadine but to my concerns about the Black Tide.She was already investigating.Perhaps I should encourage her efforts.Equip her, even.Perhaps she could not be wholly trusted, and I would need to be careful, but I was in want of allies.
And she had far more skills in espionage than I.
“How do you know what they believe?”Grant asked her from where he hunched over a spread of cards, playing a distracted game with himself.“Have you been spying on them?”
Alamay’s level look was enough of an answer.She said, “Missives have been sent to Tithe to enlist the Usti’s aid, but I doubt we have enough time.”
“Tithe rarely has more than four Usti warships in the area,” I said.“Even if they could render us aid, they must remain neutral.”
“Outwardly, in any case,” Olsa said.
“What will you do?”Benedict asked Alamay.
“I cannot say.It may be some time before I receive new orders.”
“That is not what I asked,” he pressed.“What willyoudo in the coming conflict?With your skills?”
The company was quiet, waiting for her response.
“I will remain aboard ship until after the Black Tide,” the Usti spy said, though she did not add why—Ben remained in the dark about our plan to heal him.“But I will not fight, that is not my way.Then I will return to Hesten.Your brother has promised to deliver me there.”
Ben did not look convinced.“You should tell us what you know of the Usti’s meddling.Whatever documents Jessin Faucher gave Sam may be gone, but I cannot believe you are ignorant of what was in them.”
Ben’s words must have come with Otherworldly force, because Alamay’s expression tightened in the barest, unwilling betrayal.She did know more than she chose to share.But that in itself was no great shock.
Ben caught my eye meaningfully.
“Why do you care?”Mary challenged Ben.
Ben only shrugged.
Alamay rallied, her expression growing opaque once more.“Even if Jessin’s claims are true, and the powers of Mere and Aeadine could be convinced that my people are propagating their conflict, will they care?Do your divisions not already run too deep?Or will it cause a greater war—one where Usti is no longer neutral?”
“That would be catastrophic for everyone on the Winter Sea,” Olsa pointed out.
Ben hid a smile in the corner of his lips.“What a shame that would be,” he commented, placing his pipe back between his teeth and unleashing a fresh stream of smoke.“What chaos.”
