Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 Galvin, Aaron (classic fiction txt) 📖

the crowd to listen once more. “Who among us in this great city would not mourn the loss of any noble soldier? Aye, let alone so many taken from us and slain by our shared enemies? But, tell me true, Makeda, do you not think it odd that a ranging group of Nomads were so close and timely as to be near the place of banishment?” Rupert posited. “Or that their numbers were enough to decimate not one, but two patrols of Painted Guard?”

“I think to be a Nomad is to be a ranger,” said Makeda. “Just as I think it odd that a foreigner with a family reputation for finning Nomads of all ages and genders now questions me on the habits of those his father has long named as our enemies.”

Sydney snorted at seeing Rupert silenced for the moment, even as a shadow crossed his face before he banished it away. She remembered Yvla claiming the same of Rupert and his family too. That Rupert had denied the accusation, citing it was his father who committed such acts and not him. Still, watching Rupert with Makeda now, doubt gnawed away at Sydney’s insides. Did you do it, Rupert? She wondered as the young, seahorse-lord raised his chin, seemingly readying himself for another verbal bout with Makeda. Did you kill innocent Nomads and take their fins?

Rupert took his time in answering Makeda’s claims. “It is true that Nomads are known for ranging in my home waters. Near all of them coming to attack our people too. In my experience and dealings with the savages, I have found their patterns difficult to time and understand, let alone to track. Which is yet another reason I found it so peculiar that a band of heathens knew the precise location and time to arrive that they might rescue this lowly, former Orc recruit you seemed to have been so fond of, pod mother.”

“Fond of?” Makeda frowned. “I treated Recruit Weaver no differently than any other.”

“No?” Rupert asked. “And yet I have it from a number of sources that you met with Recruit Weaver in private on several occasions. Why would you do such a thing if you did not favor him?”

“‘An Orc without her pod is nothing’,” said Makeda. “As pod mother, it’s my privilege and my duty to both encourage and discipline all who seek entry in joining my pod and serving all those who swim the five oceans. As for favoring Recruit Weaver in such instances of private meetings, I seem to remember disciplining him from the start. If you would have the truth of that,” she pointed to the Orcinian prisoner cages, “let you go and ask Recruit Owens of the time when I ordered he and Recruit Weaver to make the Coral Crawl with several others from their training pod.”

Rupert did not budge. “Did you take Recruit Owens and those others to a Selkie tavern with you too?” he asked Makeda. “A tavern owned and operated by the Selkie war criminal and rebel instigator, Jemmy Three-Strikes, I might add.”

Makeda snorted when another wave of whispers struck up among the crowd. “If that Selkie you named were truly guilty of the supposed crimes you would accuse him, why then would the king allow such a rebel and a monster to live and operate inside the city walls? Aye, say nothing of owning an establishment frequented by all in the Painted Guard. If this Selkie were in question, why not throw him in chains long ago as you have so readily done for all of us here?”

“That the king allowed any former enemy to live is evidence enough of his grace and forgiveness,” said Rupert. “To not forgive those who have wronged us, Makeda, is to make new enemies at every turn. By the king’s own laws, even the lowest of Salt races are to be offered a chance at redemption, if swearing fealty to our crown.”

Makeda scoffed at that, but she made no further remark as Rupert pressed on.

“The king would offer redemption to you also, Pod Mother Makeda. As the daughter of Orcin and brother of the Pod Father, Malik Blackfin, you may trust and believe that our wise and noble king, Darius, knows your family for a line that is brave and true.”

“Clearly.” Makeda snorted and raised her arms high enough to make her chains taut. “But if this is the reward for loyalty, Bowrider, what is the price for betrayal?”

“You tell me, Makeda,” said Rupert. “For your ties with this Recruit Weaver and your favoring of him are well documented by those with the king’s trust . . . and you were there that night at the tavern of Jemmy Three-Strikes,” Rupert insisted before his voice dropped, his eyes flashing. “Aye, the same night you were placed in chains along with both Recruit Weaver and the Selkie rebel, Jemmy Three-Strikes. The larger question I have is to wonder why were you there at all? What business would a pod mother and a feckless recruit have in visiting a known Selkie war criminal’s establishment?”

For a moment, the look in Makeda’s eyes made Sydney believe the former pod mother might snap her chains in half before going after Rupert. Before Makeda could answer, however, another spoke up for her instead.

“Makeda,” said Nattie Gao, shaking her head. “Please. No more.” She glanced at Rupert. “Let you ask your questions of me instead, Lord Bowrider.”

“Why should I question you in this respect, my queen?” Rupert asked. “It was not you taken unawares that night at the Selkie’s tavern with an Orc recruit.”

No, Sydney gripped the ends of her chair. No, you were taken unaware later that night here at the Nautilus, right, Mom?

Nattie took a deep breath before answering Rupert. “I was not at the tavern,” she said. “But I am the reason that Makeda went there. Aye, and why she took Garrett Weaver there with her too.”

“How then?” Rupert asked. “For what purpose, my queen?”

Sydney cringed when the king