"I know this is true," Barad said. "You were wronged."
"We were wronged!" Grae echoed, his voice higher and louder than the large man's. "Once we were beaten, Hanish Mein gave us over to those beasts. And yet Queen Corinn expects us to forget the past. She'll have us take what scraps she throws our way, even as she stands with her dogs at either hand. The insult of it is more than I can bear. So I will not bear it."
"We are on the same side, then," Barad said. "The suppression of the many by the few insults us all."
Grae drew himself upright and inhaled through his nose before he spoke. He put emphasis on one word, thereby stressing the particularity of his agreement with the statement. "The suppression of the many by the few does insult us all. The Akarans are the suppressors of this world. Aushenia will never forget that. I, as their king, will make sure of that."
The representative from Aos, a man named Hunt, said, "King, your conviction on this is clear, but I hear Dariel is spoken of fondly by your people. Has he not committed himself to benevolent projects in your kingdom? Rebuilding much of what was-"
"The prince's work is nothing to me. I let him drop his sweat on the ground of Aushenia, but I do not love him for it."
"But the people, do they not-"
"My people are not so easily appeased. Remember that we went twenty-two generations outside the Acacian Empire. None of my people has forgotten that. None of them wants things to remain as they are."
Elaz, the warehouse manager who had greeted Barad in Nesreh, asked, "What do they want, then?"
"They want what all of us here want; the end of Acacian rule, the return to the power of independent nations. The world was shaped better before Edifus went mad for power. In Aushenia we have long memories. Children are even taught to read using Queen Elena's Decree. We know in our bones that all the people of the Known World have the right to govern themselves. Let us return to what he destroyed with his Wars of Distribution."
Lady Shenk, a tavern mistress from Senival, asked, "Do you think that the world was paradise then? It was not. It was a mess! The world was a patchwork of feuding tribes led by petty chieftains. Dogs fighting for scraps, they were. Is that what you want to have again?"
"Of course not," Grae snapped. He seemed taken aback by being spoken to thusly by a commoner. He had asked to be here, though, and controlled the temper that flushed his face crimson. "But much has changed since then. We would return to the best of the past and strengthen it with the best of the present. Each nation will have its own king and queen, who will decide what is best for their people, not an outsider sitting in her palace in Acacia deciding for everyone. This is what we all want, right?"
Silence. The others looked about. For a moment they heard the commotion of the pub through the walls-chatter, a tune sung by a melancholy voice. Their eyes came to rest on Barad, who eventually answered, "You are the only one here who wears a crown. Too much talk of kings and queens does not go down well with this wine. Remember, King Grae, that no monarch can win against Corinn now. No nation can overthrow the Akarans by force. The Mein did it, yes, but the Mein have been vanquished. And the Mein nurtured their plans for years and years before they acted. You surely have not the patience to wait overlong. No, Corinn has a firmer grip on the Known World than her family has had for years. She feeds the nobles of each nation rubies, even as she digs diamonds from their land. She keeps a court made up not just of the best from all the nations but of the most beloved sons and daughters of all the world's kings. Your own sister is among her ladies. Isn't that so? She holds them hostage, the first victims to suffer in the event of any attack. If there is no such attack, all is well. The court is pleasure. The nobles collect their rubies. The kings and queens, Grae, are the only ones in the Known World who aren't suffering like the rest.
"That is why the rising will not be one of massed armies standing behind banners. Instead, it will be a unity of action among the common people. They will rise. They will all put down their tools and demand that the world be remade. That is what the rising will be based on. There will be blood, yes. There will be turmoil. We will be tested. But we will win because we are right, our cause is just, and the world cannot remain blind to it forever. We do not even hate the Akarans. It is Aliver who spoke to me and put this mission inside me. It is possible, when the change has happened, that Corinn will be a part of the new order, if she accepts it. All this may be hard for a king to imagine."
Close lipped, Grae asked, "Do you so doubt me?"
"No. If we did, you would not be here. Many have vouched for you. Hunt has watched Aushenia for years. He believes you are different from most in your class. We question you now only because you must understand our objective. It is not to wipe away corruption and replace it with new corruption."
"So what sort of system do you foresee? When the Akarans are gone, who will rule?"
"The people themselves."
"The people themselves?" Grae checked other faces, apparently wondering if any found that as amusing as he did. "I trust you have a more detailed plan than that."
Barad knew that was a reasonable supposition. He had been asked it many times before, and he had meditated on it quite often. He always returned to the same central conviction: what happened after the rising was not his concern. The people would have to face that themselves, together, in many different ways in all the many nations. He would be one among them, but he had no desire to impose his rule on them or to dictate what they should do with their freedom. His charge-given to him by the Giver and through Aliver's voice-was to break the shackles, to clear minds, to instill a belief in a better future. That was as far as it went. He knew there was danger in thinking thusly, for some men, like this king here, would surely grasp for the reins of power themselves, but this was as it had to be.
He answered as he always did. "The people will do what they will with their freedom. They have earned that right many times over."
"And if someone else tries to take Corinn's throne as his own?"
"The people will make this change happen. They are tired, tired of trading one despot for another. I pity the man-or woman-who tries to reenslave them."
Grae thought about this for a while. He fingered the stem of the chalice. "I was born a prince of Aushenia. It fell to me to become my people's king. I would just as soon it had not and that I still had my brother and father. But this crown is my fate. It is not my fate, though, to wear any other crown. I do not covet Corinn's empire. I want only Aushenia. My rule of it is a matter between me and my people. Will the Kindred acknowledge that?"
Barad shrugged. "As I said, I will not dictate how people should live. Yes, that can be between you and the people of Aushenia." Nobody said anything, but several nodded curtly. "What of your brother? Might he not wish to be a king?"
"A king of Aushenia, perhaps," Grae said, "but only if I venture to the marshes to hunt with Kralith-"
Lady Shenk interrupted him. "Quit the Aushenian poetry and speak plain. You mean to say only if you die, right?"
"Only then," Grae said curtly. "I swear to you that my brother and I are of one mind on this. How about this, then? I'll pledge you my people's support. Aushenia will join this rising, and when it's accomplished we will demand only our freedom to live as we will, to our benefit."