When this war is over, I will seek my revenge against him next. Shame is a powerful emotion. I will fill him with it.
Morwenna Argentine
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Queen’s Revenge
The city of Comoros could be seen from a great distance. It had taken two more days of hard walking for them to finally reach it. All the roads leading to the city were choked with armed caravans bringing food and war supplies to the capital. Trynne and Fallon had managed to join the one they’d found earlier. The merchant, Nellic, had promised to pay them well for protection because they already wore swords and armor. Some of the nobles in the realm had defied the royal summons to fight Dahomey. But most, Trynne and Fallon discovered, were hot for revenge against the former nobleman who was now ruling the enemy.
Trynne had new appreciation for the splendor of Kingfountain as they approached Comoros, walking alongside the trudging oxen and gazing at the massive city before them. It was black with soot, and the defenses were crumbling where siege engines had battered them away. The city was split by a huge befouled river, but the other side had been put to the torch and never rebuilt. Nellic pointed to the mass of blackened stones and called it the Stews. His face twitched with antipathy.
“It burned down years ago,” the merchant said, shaking his head. “Nothing is ever repaired around here. I wouldn’t trust crossing a bridge unless I saw another cart, equally laden, go over safely first.
Some have collapsed without warning. Buildings fall all the time. It’s a wreck.”
Fallon flinched as if physically repulsed. “Are there no craftsmen who can do the work?”
Nellic shrugged and scraped his dirty fingernails on his hairy throat. “The king has done nothing but tax us since the war with Dahomey started. All trade has halted. Everything is for the war.
We’re going to hit Dahomey hard. So hard she’ll never rise again.
I’ve heard rumors that there is a massive blight in that land already.”
Trynne could see the anger burning in the man’s beady eyes.
“You think we will win?” she asked softly.
“Of course we will!” he spluttered. “We’re a stronger kingdom by far. After we’ve littered Dahomey with their corpses, we’ll rebuild our lands with the spoils we take. In the meantime”—he waggled his brows—“this cargo of wool will fetch five times its value in Comoros.
Every man must do his work to meet his own ends.”
A haze hung over the city, and the road leading into it was full of ruts and holes big enough to rattle the wagons. The stink of the air made Trynne want to cover her face. Carrion birds flew in lazy circles in the sky. The land had a sick look to it. All the vegetation was stunted and the weeds were vast and filled with thorns and bristles.
The royal castle, perched on higher ground, could be seen from a great distance looming over the river, which was choked with vessels of all sizes preparing for a voyage across the sea. White gulls zipped above the harbor in huge flocks and dived for spoiled food that had been left to rot. The smell in the air was sickly sweet, the odor of all manner of things rotting.
“I had expected more grandeur,” Fallon murmured to Trynne.
“It’s quite a contrast to Gahalatine’s Forbidden Court,” she observed.
Fallon’s mouth turned down in a sour frown when she said her husband’s name. But he said nothing.
“We’ll part company after we pass through Ludgate,” Nellic said.
He paused, looking back and forth between the two of them, and then gave them a wary look. “I had an eye on you day and night. I thought you’d try to rob me, but you never did. I’ll pay you when we reach the city gates.”
When they reached the huge stone buttress called the Ludgate, the entryway was clogged with people waiting to get in. Stern soldiers wearing blotted tunics stood on either side of the massive double doors, directing the traffic.
“There’s no one leaving the city from the gate,” Fallon observed to Nellic. Trynne hadn’t noticed it until then. Comoros sucked in everything but released nothing.
Nellic shook his head. He had a shifty look in his eye that Trynne distrusted. “Everyone is leaving on the ships. It’s easier to get work and higher wages in the city. Many have left their families to work here for coin. I brought all the wool I could with this shipment.
They’ll take my cart and buy my oxen too. No sense going back to my Hundred with pockets full of coins, only to be robbed. No, I’ll stay here until the war ends and the king’s peace is reestablished. I’d offer to join the soldiers, but I’ve got a game leg.” He patted his and began to limp, although he’d been walking just fine for the whole journey.