We joined him at the table, and he and I nodded at each other.
“It’s good that you came by,” Tessa said, returning. She shut the door behind her and seated herself next to Fox. “Thane has news.”
He was looking at me, and there was a naked pity on his face. “Robbie. I am so sorry. Had I been here?—”
“Do not take any blame,” I said, cutting him off. “I was careless in town and it cost us all. You cannot always be our protection.”
“And the times in which he has been our protection are so many, I worry it wears thin,” Tessa added, topping off Thane’s tea with the kettle she set back on a pot holder made of lacquered, painted wood she had brought with her from Eccleston.
Thane leaned forward and spoke directly to me. “Get me a list of the books and I’ll buy you every one. I swear it. I am sure I can find a few to start with in the next city I travel through.”
I looked at him and it was as if we were teenaged again, happily lost in the woods, sun-kissed and invincible.
“That would be so costly,” I said, glancing away.
“Tell them the news,” Tessa urged him.
He sat back in his chair, arms crossed, tea untouched. “About two moons ago, Tintar invaded Eccleston. There is no other way to say it.”
I felt my jaw go slack, remembering Starling’s words.
We are at war with Tintar.
Fox frantically signed something at Thane.
“I’m sorry,” he said to her. “I can only understand if you do it slowly.”
“She’s asking why,” I interpreted.
He sighed. “The Council of Ten, Eccleston’s governing body, has broken all trade agreements with Tintar. So, the largest and most armed country in the known world, Tintar, has been denied metals from the city that sits in the center of most of the continent’s mines. There’s never been unrest like this in our lifetimes. Or our parents’.It’s madness. And every country and settlement sides with Perpatane.”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “Why would they side withPerpatane?”
Tessa was shaking her head, and it occurred to me that Eccleston was her country of birth.
“Tessa, you must be beside yourself.”
“I am,” she assured me. “But Tintar conducted a restrained invasion. They only attacked buildings owned by the governing bodies of Eccleston, things taxes pay for and the like.” She snorted. “Eh. May as well have burned it from the city walls. Everything is taxed in Eccleston. It’s the only country run by its citizens. No king. No lord.”
“Why would they break trade agreements? Why is Perpatane involved?”
“WhyisPerpatane involved?” Tessa seconded my question.
Neither of you let him speak, Fox signed and nodded at Thane.
He gave her a smile, and I was reminded that he was handsome. “I think I understood that one, Fox. Perpatane has the only gold in the world. It’s the only metal Eccleston does not have. They convinced Eccleston, with their gold, that they should no longer sell to Tintar. The Council of Ten convinced all the mining territories to go along with this. I do not think the council thought Tintar would actually retaliate, but I think Perpatane did. Perpatane wants a war.”
“I think,” added Tessa, “they want to colonize this whole continent.”
“I suppose their saint and his church’s insidious spread is not enough,” I muttered. “They own half the souls in the known world, and now they want half the land too. Demons. They claim to save us from demons, but it istheyall folk need saving from.”
Thane shrugged. He had been raised as a lord’s son under the care of a priest, and he was a man. He may have offered us his protection, may have questioned the harshness of Rodwin, but it was hard for him to see the church and its country as purely villainous. “What I think,” he said when I was finished, “is that King Pollux has always disliked Tintar. Their gods are very much against the teachings ofRodwin, and he is a holy man. He also enjoys being the sole friend to a place. He is our little settlement’s single ally. But Eccleston enjoys the trade of every country, great or small. You can’t isolate a prosperous, popular city-state governed by its citizens. But you might be able to buy it. With gold.”
“I have only ever seen one gold coin in all my life,” I said uselessly.
“Imagine crates of it, whole transport wagons,” Thane said. “That’s what they say the council was given. And those ten men are nowhere to be found.”
“Cowards,” Tessa interjected.
