Page 30 of Bloodguard

Kaysoon nods. “We’ve lost almost half of our annual grain harvest.”

“That’s a staggering amount,” I whisper.

General Tut nods. “It matches the projections I shared in last week’s meeting, Lord Vitor.” He bows his head in a show of respect. “Things were different in the times of the great phoenix.”

“May she grace our skies again,” Kaysoon proclaims. Both men then make that hand gesture, which is meant to emulate a bird taking flight.

“Hmm,” Vitor mumbles. The people of Libur worship the phoenix. But my uncle…he is not an elf prone to conjecture.

Vitor would never deign to worship anything.

“Can Arrow help us?” Kaysoon asks. His dark eyes flit briefly to me and then back to the regent.

“We have stockpiles of rice and legumes that can help offset this loss,” Vitor says.

“Your donations will make the difference between a lean year and one in which our people go hungry.”

“It’s our pleasure,” I say, then stop talking when Vitor grabs my hand abruptly.

“But many realms are affected by the drought,” Vitor continues. “I can’t say you are the first to ask for aid. We’ve already received many offers tonight topurchasethese supplies from our stockpiles.”

My eyes widen as I stare at Vitor. If such conversations occurred, they haven’t happened in front of me.

“How much on the barrel?” Kaysoon asks.

Vitor is quiet for a moment as he appears to deliberate. “Twenty coin for the rice, fifteen for the beans.”

I bite my tongue. We regularly trade with Libur for a fraction as much. There must be a great number of kingdoms suffering for prices to have climbed so dramatically.

“Is it a deal?” Vitor asks. “As supplies dwindle, there’s no saying how costs might continue to rise.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Kaysoon agrees quickly, but the set of his jaw says it’s begrudging.

“For three months,” Vitor clarifies. “We must be able to reevaluate as conditions change.”

Kaysoon pauses a beat before he nods.

“Now that that bit of business is out of the way,” Vitor says, “I insist that you join me in the royal box for the arena games tomorrow.”

Kaysoon tugs his auburn-and-gray beard. “I accept your very generous offer, Lord Regent.”

“Splendid.”

General Tut gestures toward the tables set at the far end of the room. “Come, Lord Kaysoon. The chef has prepared goat coas-coas.”

“My favorite!”

“I know.” The ogren general smiles genuinely as he moves off with his countryman.

“Couldn’t you have offered him better terms?” I whisper to Vitor when we are alone.

Vitor looks genuinely confused, then speaks slowly as if I might have trouble following. “The only terms that matter are the terms for Arrow.Ourcountry’s strength and prosperity.Ourfinances and caches.Ourmilitary.”

His tone and expression lead me to believe he considers me naive, lacking the acumen to rule. He’s wrong. I’m neither of those things, but my seclusion has left me ignorant. Clearly, I need to know more about what’s happening in Arrow and the kingdoms beyond.

Still, I can’t shake the feeling that we could’ve helped our neighbor through this difficult time with greater ease.

“You’re right, of course,” I say quickly, noticing interested eyes on us. “I was thinking of leveraging goodwill instead of focusing on our coffers.”

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