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They had him give an audience to the pirates. Like a king, the king that Anton was supposed to be. “They” were a lot of people, but the ones he listened to were Suliel and Elara. Aris did not have an opinion and had gone down to greet them at the docks. Anton wished he could join her, but there were a lot of people who cared about his dignity, all of a sudden.

“If you want to be treated as a King, you have to behave like one,” Elara explained patiently.

“I don’t really—”

“I’m not talking about the luxuries; I’m talking about ruling,” Elara stated, riding roughshod over his half-hearted objections. “The bowing and scraping is how they get used to obeying you.”

“Which part is the scraping, exactly?” Kelsey asked. “It’s never been clear to me.”

Elara looked suspiciously at Kelsey, no doubt wondering if this was one of Kelsey’s classic diversions into absurdity, but she did have an answer.

“When you bow, kneel or curtsey,” she said, “You push your back foot further back, and it scrapes against the floor.”

Kelsey blinked. “Okay, I did not know that,” she admitted.

Anton hadn’t known that either, but he figured that part of his dignity as a king was not revealing that fact.

Anton didn’t have a throne, or a throne room, but he did have a Great Hall. It was fine enough for a small barony, but felt quite lacking compared to some of the spaces available to other nobles. They had dragged the tables to the sides of the rooms, placed the biggest chair at one end and lined the rest of the chairs in front of the tables. Those chairs were for the watching nobles, and they were filled.

Anton was very popular these days. Wedding Elara and seizing the throne had looked like a desperate gamble only two days ago, but now it seemed like genius. Routing the combined Tiatian and regime forces had brought everyone around to his side now. Only some of the nobles thought that this had been his brilliant plan all along. The others just thought he was really lucky.

Those nobles would only follow him until his luck ran out. But the fervent believers would keep them in line… for a while. So Anton took Elara and Suliel’s advice, sat on his makeshift throne, and waited for the pirates to be brought to him.

Aris led them in, and watching her untroubled stride let some of his worry unclench from around his heart. A flag left behind by Kelsey was hardly proof of anything, and it wasn’t exactly a well-omened flag. The two weatherbeaten sailors that followed her were familiar, though.

Lioren Vaid, Level 29, Human, Pirate Captain, Helot/Slave/Galley Slave (Broken) Mutineer/Pirate Captain, S: 38 T: 24 A: 19 D: 23 P: 17 W: 12 C: 9

Tevan Rallis, Level 22, Human, Navigator, Helot/Slave (Broken) Mutineer/Navigator, S: 23 T: 20 A: 8 D: 18 P: 18 W: 20 C: 8

Lioran and Tevan were dark-skinned Zamarrans. Not so dark as to suggest pure Tiatian heritage, but darker than Anton was. They were wearing clothes that Anton suspected had been liberated from their former captors. Heavily embroidered vests over loose red cotton shirts and blue trousers. Anton was pretty sure he’d seen naval officers wear something similar.

They didn’t show any surprise when they entered the room, and performed the required bows unprompted, going down on one knee. Aris had no doubt informed them of what they were walking into on the way.

“Still free men,” Suliel muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. Delver’s Discernment told Anton a lot, but Nobility’s Privilege had the edge when it came to political information.

“Lioran, Tevan, you’ve both been busy,” Anton said. That was their cue to rise, but they both stayed down.

“Hardly at all, compared to some,” Lioran said. He cast a dubious glance at the nobles sitting to the side. “You weren’t a king when we last met.”

“I suppose I’ve been busy too,” Anton admitted. “You can stand, if you like.”

The sailors rose warily to their feet, casting uneasy glances all around.

“For the benefit of the audience, I should mention that we met on the high seas when I was coming back from Elitra,” Anton announced.

“Freed us is more like it,” Lioran corrected. “And gifted us our boat—for which we’re truly grateful, Your Majesty.”

“It was nothing more than you deserved,” Anton said, waving the man’s thanks away. “At the time, I remember offering you safe harbour in Kirido. Is that why you’ve come here today?”

“Ah, we might yet, Your Majesty,” Lioran said cautiously. “What we were mainly coming for was information.”

“We’re keen to hear what news you have as well. What was it that you wanted to know?”

“News, aye, we have some of that. But first, the Tiatian fleet that was here has got the whole ocean abuzz. What was it doing and where has it gone?”

“You might be able to guess where it’s gone better than me. As to why it was here… Elara?”

She was the one who had explained it to him, after all. And deferring to her in court signalled to the nobles that she wasn’t going to be a purely decorative queen.

“The Tiatian fleet is a precursor to the Empire’s new push for expansion,” she explained. “They are seeking a base for their operations in the western Sea and thought to use Zamarra as that foothold.”

Lioran grimaced. “The Elitran’s won’t like that,” he promised. “They don’t like that, what they know about it. They got all riled up just because there were more ships up here.”

Elara nodded. “It may be fear of a response that has set the Tiatians running,” she said. “They were here to support the siege of this town, and left when the land forces did. I assume they headed east.”

“Would that they run all the way east,” Lioran muttered. He glanced at his silent companion. “We’ve been hearing things, here and there. We found a few berths in fishing villages that don’t ask questions. Did a little trade, here and there.”

“Flying the black flag,” Kelsey put in proudly. Lioran nodded.

“Aye, it puts the navy off, sometimes. But before the Tiatians showed up, we were hearing about a big gathering of ships on the Elitran side.”

“Another raid?” Anton asked grimly.

“Bigger than that, from what I heard.” Lioran shook his head. “A big push, with Tier Fours behind it. Maybe they’re planning expansion of their own.”

“Where?” Anton kept his voice calm. The one thing he didn’t want to do was panic his supporters. Lioran shrugged.

“How should I know? The only thing I could say for sure was that it was gonna get real hard to make a living on the seas to the south. So we were already planning on heading north when the Tiatians showed up.”

“And then they did show up.”

“Aye. We don’t have a problem with Tiatian patrols. We’re a free ship, and not flying Elitran colours, so they give us a pass. Didn’t mean we were going to pass right through a blockade, though, so we hung back until the way was clear.”

“So the Elitrans aren’t aware the fleet has left,” Anton mused.

“Won’t be long before they do,” Lioran warned. “Their patrols couldn’t get as close as us, but they kept as close as they could. Once word gets back, they’ll either come looking for the fleet… or go back to their original plan.”

Anton grunted in acknowledgement and started thinking about the possibilities. There were counties to the west and east of him that could be the object of this expedition, but he had painted a target on Kirido. He wasn’t sure how far up the chain of command word of his exploits had passed, but there would be some in the Elitran hierarchy that would want this fleet to come after him.

“Sounds like we might have more visitors,” Kelsey said. “I wonder if we could get them to visit our main tourist attraction?”

“The Lucina family cake shop?” Anton joked. Kelsey stuck her tongue out at him.

“We can only hope they’re just here for pastries. What will you do now?” he asked the pirates.

“We’re, uh…” Lioran looked at his crewmate again. “You said you just fought off the Tiatians? What’s the situation here?”

“Your Majesty,” he quickly added.

“Briefly, then,” Anton said wryly. “The previous King, Kalond, signed the country over to the Tiatian Empire. It turned out that he was a false King, and the objectors, to both his rule and his betrayal, gathered together under the true heir, Queen Syrelle. She was assassinated, and I’ve inherited her mantle. We’re now fighting a civil war against the combined forces of the old regime and the Tiatian invaders.”

“Seems like you skipped a few steps—more than a few—but I get the picture. Zamarra doesn’t sound too safe.”

“I’m not sure anywhere is safe right now,” Anton admitted. “All the little nations are caught between the two Empires. If both of them are expanding, then survival becomes… Difficult.”

Lioran took a long, direct look at Anton. A pirate probably wasn’t allowed to look at him like that, but Anton just returned his gaze.

“All things being equal,” Lioran said slowly, “I’d put my money on the side that has support from the Empire.”

“We have other advantages,” Anton said.

“Like me!” Kelsey put in. “Anton’s newly minted Master of Ordinance.”

“Master?” Lioran asked. “And what is ordinance?”

“We weren’t going to let her near Mistress,” Suliel said.

“And as for ordinance, well, you saw what my boat could do,” Kelsey boasted. “I’ve got a lot more where that came from.”

“I see.”

“We can always use more people, if any of your crew want to stay,” Anton said. “The one thing I can’t do is keep them out of the war. You can sail west and find kingdoms that have a chance of riding this out without bloodshed.”

Lioran winced, as if Anton’s words were causing him pain. He held up a hand to stop Anton talking.

“Most of my crew owe you their freedom,” he said. “They would not let me abandon you during such a dangerous time. Could you flee west and seek…”

“The Ett Confederacy,” Anton supplied. “To the east lie Rothid, Moghon and Tiakal. Then, some wilderness before you reach the start of the Tiatian Empire. But east is where you’ll most likely find the Tiatian fleet.”

“Most likely. Could you flee to the Confederacy?”

“No,” Anton stated firmly. Not unless we lost all hope, he added to himself.

“Then neither can we. None of us wants to fight, and one boat can do little against a fleet, but—”

“Wait,” Anton interrupted. “To the west, there’s a big river that comes out to sea. That serves as the border between Zamarra and the Confederacy.”

Lioran nodded. “What of it?”

“If you go up that river, you’ll sail past counties that support us,” Anton said. He looked over at the counts in his court. “Velmire, Rosenholt, Calbray… I’m not sure what others. We can go over the maps. But…”

He looked over at the counts again. They were stirring, taking an interest. “We’ve been cooped up in here for a while. You can get news to them faster than a rider could, and you can send goods…”

“We can’t take much,” Lioran cautioned. “Our hold is made for oarsmen, not goods.”

“You can take some,” Anton insisted. “We have some valuable trade goods you can carry, but most of all, you can carry news. The counts here need to send word back to their domains. Troops need to be co-ordinated—you might be able to take some soldiers where they’re most needed.

“These things we can do,” Lioran agreed. “Will it be enough?”

“I don’t know if anything will be enough,” Anton said. “But right now, the one thing we’re starved for is information.”