“Thrice ten and two casks of gold.” Tauf stared Ghreid down.
What he asked for was a king’s ransom. The amount of gold could well have purchased the very ports they sat at. Ghreid stared at Tauf as something akin to cunning flashed in his eyes.
Cunning in the eyes of the dim-witted, often came off as entitlement, smugness, and something worse.Smarm.
“You want control of the ports as payment for your brother’s dowry?” Ghreid stared the male down, and Varis took a seat nearby, crossing his slender legs in a slow and methodical way, practiced with all the grace and poise Ghreid often overlooked in him.
“I wantMonsmountas payment, but the ports are a good start.” Tauf crossed his arms, his guards tensing, ready to take a grip on their swords. If they did, it would be the last they ever did so.
“I have a question. When’s the last time Rammolia sent an ashen to Sauria?” Varis trailed a single clawed finger over the end table by his chair, the pointed tip squeaking against the glass.
“It’s not too terribly often. Once a few months or so, they find one.” This time, it was a male at Tauf’s side, someone official who hadn’t introduced himself.
“And what do we pay Rammolia for each find?”
“Fifty silver to the crown, ten silver to the lord, and twenty silver to the family. Eighty total.” The male gave a nod of respect to Varis.
Varis traced his nail over the glass again. The screech it made, not a frequency that bothered dragons but one that made all the humans in the room visibly tense.
“And what exports do we source from Rammolia? To Sauria? And what will we need trade for in the future? It seems we control trade for half of the continent with our positions. We have positive relations with those you aren’t allied with to control another 20 percent. Can you afford to lose that?” Varis inched his nail once more.
Silence stretched on for an uncomfortable moment.
“I didn’t think so.” Varis didn’t move his nail again.
“We could also stop sending them.” King Tauf paled as Varis and Ghreid both turned their gazes on to him. The focus prickled through the link in his heart shared with his mate as he inched his nail once more, causing that flinch to pass through the men.
“I have a counterproposal.” Varis leaned back and switched the cross of his legs; the gentle creak of the chair filled the near-breathless silence. A carriage clock ticked with ominous intent somewhere in the room, each second tolling something more terrible than the last. “How many children do you have?”
Ghreid froze.
“Is that a threat?” Tauf stood abruptly, sending his chair scooting back with a clatter, dulled by the impeccable rug Ghreid had chosen for the room.
Varis inched his finger on the glass again and despite Tauf’s strong posture, he flinched once more. “Is it? Daughters. Do you have them?”
That shriek of nail on glass again. Another flinch. He’d broken the king’s nerve. His attendant and guards were flustered.
“What does that have to do with anything?” King Tauf flinched as Varis brought another finger into place and scratched them both, the noise amplified and, from their reactions, worse. “Two.”
“Ages?” Varis tensed his fingers, and they collectively flinched. Breath halted as the carriage clock ticked.
“Twenty-two and eighteen. Esmerelda is to be wed this summer, and Nenna is searching for her husband and taking offers.” Visibly shaken, Tauf took a deep breath, glued to the spot as Ghreid tasted magic in the air. His mate had a gift, truly. The way it snaked through the air, almost as if it rode the sound in his scratch, breaking their nerves.
“And sons?” Varis tapped his nails, bringing a note of relief, almost as if they deserved the reprieve for honesty.
“Five.” The whisper in his voice trembled.
“Any of them of the floral persuasion?” Varis tapped his fingers again.
“M-my second youngest. I cannot force a wife upon him.” Tauf cleared his throat, relaxing slightly, his shoulders dropping. “Verence. Nineteen.”
“Searching for a partner for him will be difficult, with Monsmount having theopinionsthey have.” Tauf cleared his throat.
“Verence will be sent to live here. He will be put into a position of state with my brother-in-law. The new church will be starting up rather soon, and I’d like representation from every nation here working on educating the young ones.” Varis tapped his fingernails, almost as if he were reminding them he could, at any moment, scratch again.
“But the d-dowry…” Tauf flinched as Varis inched his finger down, the pitch of the scratch making even Ghreid halt.
“We’ll open the ports for you. Trade goods only. Every lot inspected. Escorted at the border. The first twenty ships to comebearing your flags will have the port fees redistributed to the crew itself, as we realize it’ll be difficult to get crew to want to make this port stop again.” Varis sighed heavily. “This begins the moment your son arrives.”
