Haydon, Elizabeth - Rhapsody 4 by Haydon Elizabeth

Author:Haydon, Elizabeth
Language: eng
Format: epub

Ashe sighed. "Well, then, perhaps we can talk when you when you return."

'I am not going to return. I have a cramp in my leg, a horse to buy, and a few hours of sleep to steal before I leave for Ylorc on the morrow."

The Lord Cymrian sat up straight, thunderstruck. "You're leaving? Before this is decided?"

Achmed took a breath. "It could be days, weeks, before a solution is reached here. I have some important things to attend to in Ylorc, and no time to wait around for these fools to sort out their petty differences."

'I have to admit that I am amazed," Ashe said, a tone of wonder mixing with the aggravation in his voice. "You, more than any single member of the Alliance save my paranoid uncle, are utterly distrustful of Sorbold—for good reason, given that it borders your lands. Don't you feel at least some need to stay and see what comes to pass here?"

'I don't think so. Whatever happens is going to be for ill," Achmed said gravely. "Any outcome from this will be something with which we must deal, and prepare ourselves to survive. Watching it come about, being there at the moment it hatches, would only be deliberately dip the open wounds on my hands in salt water. While it's pretty to think that something I might have to say would tip the scales, it won't."

'Well, there's a positive outlook," remarked Tristan Steward, rising from the table as well and smoothing out his trousers.

'Go get another glass of wine, Tristan," Ashe said sharply. "Your comments at this colloquium have

been bothersome, to the point of being embarrassing."

Steward stared at the Lord Cymrian in shock that molded in a matter of seconds into fury, then glared at the Bolg king and departed.

'Stay, please," Ashe said to Achmed when Tristan was out of earshot. "Your counsel may be of great benefit."

'No. I came to listen, not to speak," the Bolg king replied.

'But what are your thoughts? I want to hear them."

Achmed rolled his eyes. "I am not your advisor, Ashe. If pressed to weigh in, if you will excuse the expression, I would lean in favor of stability, at least for my purposes, because there are many trade agreements and peace accords in place currently that would need renegotiating. They were a bother to enact in the first place, so multiplying that nuisance many times over might insure that it does, in fact, not happen again.

'More than that, a united Sorbold is worrisome enough. Sorbold in tatters would be worse; one can only imagine what would rise from a broken land where the army considers itself a faction in the decision-making process of selecting a new leader. If you did not shudder when that commander stood up and objected as if he were a head of state, you are a fool."

'I did."

'Well, you must understand, then, that no good is coming out of this. This dynasty didn't end because everything was going well. These tables aren't here because everyone is feasting a new monarch.

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