Path of the Stonebreaker

Chapter 106

Rebels

Later that evening, Femira once again found herself sitting on the deck listening to the crew entertain themselves with stories and songs. They were a lot more lively than the bloodshedders who were always very serious, disciplined and reserved individuals that were wholeheartedly dedicated to their training and missions. Even her only real friends in the bloodshedders—Jaz and Aden—rarely spoke about anything other than training.

While many of the bloodshedders had impressive feats and stories to share, their approach to social situations was typically more formal and reserved. Femira had never really enjoyed the company of many bloodshedders—or many people in Epilas at all for that matter.

The group of smugglers were easy-going in their ability to simply have a good time. After the previous night of singing songs, one of the crew members—Farns—suggested a game of cards. It was a simple, fast-moving game called ‘shithead’ that Femira had never played before but picked up the rules quickly. The aim of the game was to get rid of all of your cards by following the rules, the nature of the game also made it impossible to cheat at so it was favoured amongst the crew of former criminals, who often accused each other of such. The player left at the end of the game was deemed the ‘shithead.’

Femira wasn’t the fastest at clearing her own cards, but she had yet to be declared the shithead in any of the plays the group had done, to which she was proud. Playing the game reminded her of when she and her brothers used to play cards and dice in Altarea. It felt comforting.

“How about yourself, Lydia?” Sleek asked after a lull between games. “How’d you find yourself up for a coronation?”

So far Lydia—like Femira and Hest—had been more reluctant to open up about her past but as she was becoming more familiar with the rest of the crew on board, they felt comfortable asking her more personal questions.

“I was caught doing something illegal,” Lydia said coyly.

“Surprise, surprise,” Sleek grinned, “and what was the nature of your illegal activity?”

“I was a revolutionary,” Lydia admitted, then looked at Hest, “Hest and I were in the same cadre.” Hest turned his eyes to the floorboards.

“Had to out me, didn’t you?” Hest shot at her, then to the wider group, “look, yes. I was part of it. But I don’t want nothin’ to do with it anymore. You saw what happened to our cadre leader. I never want to find myself in that position again.” Hest fidgeted awkwardly as he spoke.

“Don’t worry, Hest,” Connie cut over, “we won’t report you. You’re on our crew now.”

“Ma’am,” Hest bowed his head respectfully.

“And my offer still stands, Lydia,” Connie went on, “there’s a place for you, if you’ll be wantin’ it?”

“Thank you, but no.”

“Surprised you didn’t stick around the city,” Sleek said to Lydia, “your people must be taking advantage of the situation to try to take power. It’s what you lot have been plotting for years, no?” Sleek didn’t sound like he approved much of the revolutionaries.

“Well,” Lydia shifted uncomfortably, “like Hest… I didn’t particularly feel like facing that throne again anytime soon.”

“So you’re giving up, too?” Connie asked pointedly, there seemed to be additional weight to her words.

“No,” Lydia replied sharply, “Duke Avriem’s injustices to the people are too great to forgive. His taxes are too heavy on the poor and his punishments for any kind of opposition to his word is that damn throne.”

“Violence only leads to more violence,” Sleek shook his head, “like your lot will be any better than Avriem.”

“We’re trying to minimise the risk to innocent people as much as possible. We’re not targeting civilians, only the Duke's army and his supporters. And we’re also trying to provide assistance to the poor and needy, to show that we are not just fighting for our own benefit, but for the benefit of all.”

“We’ve heard all this before,” Sleek retorted, “your enlistors have been creeping the taverns around the docks for months. If you can convince Duke Avriem to relinquish power without burning down half the city to get it, then I’d listen to you. But your group has done nothing but make things worse for anyone, if ye ask me.”

Cowbell grunted, it was his turn to deal out the cards and pointedly dealt out to Sleek first, the bell on his wrist jingled as moved his hands.

“I’m not trying to pick a fight here,” Sleek said, more to Cowbell than to Lydia, “seems to me though that life would be a lot easier in Port Novic if we just stopped fighting each other all the time.”

“What do you think, Femira?” Lydia asked her. Femira was taken aback by the question as she didn’t often participate much in the evening conversations. Learning that Lydia was a member of a rebel group in Port Novic wasn’t a huge surprise. The woman had originally thought that Femira was too, and that Femira had rescued her from the throne because she’d been instructed to.

“I don’t know Avriem,” Femira admitted, “I barely know Port Novic. So I can’t say much about it.” It was all true. Femira didn’t have much interest in Port Novic, she’d simply been passing through. And somehow became the spark that lit the dragon-oil dousing the whole damn city.

Femira felt like Lydia’s words about Avriem and his injustices were for her benefit. Despite them not having that many interactions over the past days, she felt like Lydia had been slowly trying to convince her that the rebel groups in Port Novic needed support.

“Frankly, I’m not hugely interested in the politics going on in Port Novic,” Femira said.

“I want to make it clear that our cause is not just about politics,” Lydia pressed, she was becoming heated now, as she was earlier in the day in her discussion with Connie. “It's about justice. It's about standing up against the crimes that are being perpetuated by those in power. You have a unique ability to make change happen. Imagine what we could accomplish if you were to—”

“—I don’t want to get involved,” Femira cut her off harshly. She pushed forcefulness into her tone, annoyed that Lydia would proposition her like this, and in front of the rest of the crew.

But then again, maybe this was exactly the cover she could use? If the crew believed that she was also a member of the rebels, then it might lead any potential betrayals in the wrong direction. She didn’t care if her whereabouts became known to Avriem’s men, she could escape them easily. It was Garld, she was worried about. Femira had never once expressed to him any knowledge of Athlin. If he got word of an exceptional stonebreaker working for a rebel group in Port Novic, would he even bother to investigate further? Even if she was described as being from Keiran? It seemed unlikely now that she thought about it. Her skills were too identifiable and Garld would likely be interested in anyone that had displayed the skills of a soulforged.

Femira fell into her own thoughts and Sleek promptly moved the conversation onto the game that was now dealt. Femira pushed her cards away, deciding to not partake in this play.

It was likely that Garld had already heard about what had happened in Port Novic. Femira only hoped that the chaos she caused in her attack, and the ensuing riots, had caused enough confusion to muddy the waters about her. She needed to be far more discreet moving forward.

Her first objective was to find Daegan Tredain, but then she somehow needed to get him safely out of Rubane and back to Landryn so that he could see his brother alive with his own eyes. If Garld discovered that she’d headed north, he’d surely have agents looking for her, and it would make getting back to Epilas a lot harder. She still wasn’t even entirely sure how she’d manage to smuggle Daegan to Epilas… Smuggle. She would need some smugglers for that.

Femira chuckled to herself looking around at the group of people. She’d rescued almost all of them from a horrible bloody death. Many of them had already expressed to her how they owed her their lives, or some variation of that statement. She had a few more days on the ship before they reached Nordock to see if she could really trust them to help her sneak Daegan to Epilas.