Traitor's Masque by Kenley Davidson Page B

after.” He considered for a moment. “This is about Caelan, isn’t it?” Brawley was silent. “Caelan…” Ramsey continued, his expression thoughtful. “They’re going to ask for a reversal on the ban, aren’t they?” Brawley still said nothing, but he didn’t have to. Ramsey could read the grim expression on his captain’s face. “Half-wits,” Ramsey muttered, making little effort to quash his annoyance.
    Caelan was their neighbor to the east, a large, powerful country that had all but ignored them for years. Andar had always been too small, too poor, and too surrounded by mountains. There had never been much point in conquest, even if one of their neighbors had been inclined to try. But a few years before Ramsey was born, all of that had begun to change.
    Silver was discovered near the south Andari coast. Vast deposits of it. A new class of merchant nobility had emerged, and with it a sense of economic discontent. While the wealth had vastly improved the people’s standard of living, it had also given rise to several unpleasant consequences.
    The luxuries market, until that point fairly small, had expanded enormously, almost overnight. Fine wines, exotic furs, elaborate jewelry, and fabulous delicacies had become the greatest concerns amongst the wealthier classes, and their burgeoning appetites had engendered a growing clamor for access to an ever wider range of commodities. The answer, of course, was trade. Andar had quickly established diplomatic relations with several nations eager to benefit from their neighbor’s new prosperity. But not with Caelan, despite the polite overtures of numerous Caelani ambassadors. King Hollin had flatly refused to even discuss the possibility.
    The king did not object to trade, or to prosperity, but he did object to slavery, and Caelan had long been known as a place where you could buy or sell anything, including men, women and children. King Hollin remained adamant in his insistence that Andar not gain from such a disgusting practice, either directly or indirectly. Unfortunately, all that most of the court could see was the king’s obstinate refusal to permit them access to the most convenient source of fantastic and exotic goods from all corners of the known world. He had even closed the borders and put guards on the passes that led through the eastern mountains. This unyielding stance had proven to be a matter for increasing contention and concern. The merchant guilds were showing a swiftly diminishing degree of deference in their demands to have the ban reversed. And there were other, clearer heads amongst the nobility who feared that Andar's refusal to appease their larger, hungrier neighbor might lead to far more dangerous consequences than the petty wrath of a few blustering guild leaders.
    Had Andar not been bordered on three sides by mountains and on the fourth by an easily defensible ocean harbor, Ramsey might have shared their worries. As it was, Andar was still too small, too isolated, and possessed of only the one commodity. He could not imagine anyone risking war for so little gain.
    Ramsey glanced over at Brawley, trying to guess from his captain’s expression just how much chaos was waiting for him at home. “Is Father howling for my head?” Ramsey ventured to ask.
    “Only since just after sunrise.”
    “What joy is mine,” the prince groaned. “I suppose I’d better go face my doom.”
    “Your just desserts, more like,” Brawley responded acerbically. His prince didn’t answer, only exhaled wearily and pushed his horse just a little faster up the rising road towards home.

    Evenburg Castle and its grounds sprawled self-consciously at the top of a gradual rise in the terrain, backed up against the gentle green hills of crown lands. The rise on which it was built had, over the centuries, been covered by the haphazard sprawl of Evenleigh Township.
    The gray stone walls and towers of Evenburg had been Ramsey’s place of residence for much of his