Drake took a moment to process Felix’s odd question. Why would Felix Proudglade want to “speak with the silverwood”? Was that even possible?
“What did you want to ask my tree?” Drake asked finally.
“That is between me and the silverwood.”
Drake wasn’t sure how to respond. He didn’t know much about the silverwood—other than that it was apparently alive, and a former Lord Gloomwood had agreed to watch over its sapling in exchange for the privilege of living within its borders—but if Felix put so much value on speaking with it, the chance to speak with it must be fairly valuable.
He wasn’t about to make a promise now. Not until he’d talked to Lydia, Samuel, and his mother. Between the three of them, they could explain what it meant to “speak to the silverwood” and why Felix might be so interested in doing so. Yet while he didn’t want to make a decision one way or the other about this now, he did want to know more.
“By peace, you mean we’ll normalize relations between our manors? No more bad blood based on stuff that happened twenty-five years ago?”
“Between the fact that you saved Westin from being ritually sacrificed, stopped the former lord from summoning a demon, and saved my father himself from a vicious beast in the battle we undertook yesterday, I would consider the scales between us balanced if you were to allow me to ask a question of the silverwood.”
“I understand,” Drake said. “I can’t give you an answer now, because this isn’t something I’m just going to casually agree to without thought. But I appreciate you reaching out. I’ll consider your offer and get back to you once I’ve had time to think it over.”
“Thank you,” Felix said. “To be clear, it is my hope you will have many decades to consider your question. Yesterday’s battle was... stressful. My father would be dead if not for your heroic actions, but I do not wish to succeed my father for some time.”
“So why bring it up at all? If it’s that far away?”
“This may be the only opportunity we get to speak privately, and my only opportunity to make the request. I’d prefer not to reveal anything more than that.”
So Felix’s father didn’t want him talking with the silverwood, or asking it whatever question he wanted to ask? It seemed Westin wasn’t the only Proudglade kid who might be hatching plots and schemes while sneaking around their old man. Did they all do that?
Drake was intrigued by Felix’s request, but he did his best not to reveal that. “So here’s a question for you, then. While we can speak privately. It’s fine if you don’t want to answer.”
“I would assume so,” Felix agreed flatly.
“Keep in mind I’m not from your world. I’m approaching this question as an outsider, and I’d like to get a better idea of how you think.”
“Of course.”
“Why do you think Prince Varnath wants to destroy all blood pacts?”
“He believes blood pacts are the core of our manors, and our manors are the strength of the realm. He has judged destroying the pacts the best way to defeat us.”
“So you don’t think he’s opposed to blood pacts on moral grounds, as he claims?”
“On what moral grounds would he be opposed?”
Drake glanced at Sky to see if this conversation had alarmed or unnerved her. It was obvious where he was going with this. However, she looked amused, not worried or annoyed, so he took that as confirmation he wasn’t treading anywhere she hadn’t already tread.
“Prince Lorel explained it pretty well,” Drake added. “Prince Varnath thinks it is wrong for one person to compel another through blood magic slavery.”
“Then many would suggest he simply does not understand the blood pact.”
“I’ve heard the same argument many times,” Drake agreed. “I don’t believe it. Where I come from, your blood pacts would absolutely be slavery. Compelling people to do things against their will is bad however you dress it up.”
“Are you somehow unaware that a person enters a blood pact by choice? They willingly swear loyalty to a lord they wish to serve.”
“That’s only accurate to a point,” Drake reminded him. “Once the lord they serve dies, they’re bound to serve the new one even if he’s an asshole. People can also be tortured until they submit to a blood pact, at which point the new lord can compel them to do anything.”
“No lord in my domain would pervert a blood pact in such a manner.”
“You sound awfully confident of that. Which is odd, considering it’s happened multiple times. The former Lord Gloomwood forced his thralls to harm and even kill other thralls when they displeased him, and I’m sure you also remember how the former Lord Frostlight cleaned house after she took over her manor. With murder.”
“So you believe that because a few people of low moral character perverted a blood pact, all blood pacts should be abolished?”
“One hundred percent,” Drake said confidently. “If any manor lord can take power over people by force, and can then use that power to compel them to act against their will... to hurt themselves or hurt others... that power needs to be abolished. It’s a shitty way to run things.”
“And yet the blood pacts have kept our manors strong and kept peace across the realm for well since the dawn of time,” Felix said.
“Many who survived the lord before me would disagree about that. So far as I can see, the only action anyone has taken to assure blood pacts aren’t abused is to trust to the good nature of people. Which is, if you’ll excuse my bluntness, intensely stupid.”
“Yet you accepted the blood pact when you took it from the former lord,” Felix said calmly. “Even now you command a manor whose denizens are kept loyal through the same blood pact you claim is slavery. So if you believe the blood pact is slavery, and you believe slavery to be wrong, isn’t your decision to lead a manor hypocritical?”
Felix would have been right had Drake not defanged the blood pact the day he arrived, but he couldn’t just tell the man that. “My people follow me because they want to do so.”
“As do all who follow my father,” Felix said. “He does not abuse or harm his thralls. He protects and shelters them, and in return, they swear unconditional loyalty through the most ancient and sacred of pacts. If no one forces them to do so, then how is that slavery?”
“Because after they sign up, they can’t refuse an order even if your father goes nuts and gives them orders to hurt themselves or others. Free will goes out the window once you join a blood pact. You aren’t loyal once you no longer have any choice but to be loyal.”
“Some would say swearing to follow your lord’s orders even if you disagree with them is, in fact, a choice, and the ultimate act of loyalty.”
“And those people are idiots. Besides, if your father’s so confident everyone loves and respects him, why even bother with a blood pact? You’re really going to tell me that your dad is all that, and he still can’t run a manor without blood magic?”
“Again, I would ask the same of you,” Felix said calmly.
Drake grimaced. Felix wasn’t wrong. So far as Felix knew Drake was being a hypocrite, and if he told Felix why he wasn’t, he could put his whole manor in danger. So perhaps she should redirect the conversation another way.
“Aren’t you at all worried about what will happen to your people if your father and you both get taken out? If some evil asshole like Lord Redbow takes over your manor? Aren’t you worried that he could abuse or harm people you care about?”
“I am not,” Felix said.
“So you think you’re invincible?”
“My father and I have taken steps to ensure that never happens. I have already chosen my successor, whom I will name should my father fall. They have chosen their successor as well, and so on through our manor.”
“Yet it’s still possible that if you and all those successors were to fall in battle, everyone in your manor could be enslaved again. So why aren’t you worried about that?”
“I have already answered your question. Now, I have a question for you. If you believe your people will be safer if you were to eliminate your blood pact, and if you are confident they would follow you without it, why have you not done away with it?”
“Because we can’t,” Drake said. “Right?”
“What gave you that impression?”
He eyed Felix a moment. “Are you saying there is a way to dissolve a blood pact?”
Lydia had implied that a blood pact couldn’t be dissolved no matter what he did or decreed. Had she been wrong? She couldn’t lie to him, but it was possible she might not know everything about them. Lord Crow certainly wouldn’t have told her that was possible.
“Of course there is a way to dissolve a blood pact,” Felix said. “All that is required is a unanimous vote of all sitting manor lords in good favor with the noble court. Any lord can make such a request, yet no lord has since their inception. Do you intend to make such a request?”
So it was possible. It was also as straightforward as simply asking the noble court to dissolve it. The only hard part was getting all eight remaining manor lords to agree to that.
“That depends,” Drake said. “Do you think your father would vote yes?”
“He would not. It is possible a lord whom he agrees with will one day take your blood pact from you. Allowing you to dissolve the Gloomwood Manor blood pact to win a short term victory would be the same as discarding a valuable blade simply because you are at odds with its current owner.”
“Then let me ask a different question,” Drake said. “If you were in charge of your manor, and I asked to dissolve my blood pact, would you vote yes?”
“Why does it matter? I will not command Proudglade Manor for decades yet.”
“It matters because I’m curious how you feel about your own and blood pacts in general,” Drake said. “Also, you just sidestepped my question. If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine, but just say that. The less dancing we do, the faster this summit will be over with.”
“When will you make this request of the noble court?”
“This is a philosophical discussion. Like I said, I want to know how you think.”
“Then to be blunt, Lord Gloomwood, I’d ask we move on to other matters. I find philosophical discussions to be a waste of time. Simply talking accomplishes nothing when both parties know no action will come of the talk. Action defines character.”
Drake wanted to win this argument, or at least prove he wasn’t a hypocrite, but that satisfaction wasn’t worth endangering his manor or his life. Felix didn’t seem angry at him, but the man also wasn’t impressed. Overall, he’d gotten very little out of this “summit.”
“What about you, Sky?” Drake asked. “You have anything to add?”
“Oh, I don’t feel any need to wade into this discussion,” Sky said... mischievously.
She looked amused. Not worried. Not angry. Not even a little bit disturbed despite the sensitive topic. She looked like she was having the time of her life watching them argue, but why would she be so relaxed when Drake had come so close to revealing his secret and hers?
Unless Felix already knew her answer?
Sky had mentioned she and Felix had been friends for a long time. She’d even said Felix was like a brother to her. Was it possible he and Sky had already discussed how Sky felt about blood pacts? Was it possible Felix agreed with Sky about this?
He looked back to Felix. “You’re right, you know.”
“About what?”
“Talk is pointless. So as you’ve suggested, let’s take action. Here’s my proposal. Once you’re Lord Proudglade, you, me, and Sky will all simultaneously ask to dissolve our blood pacts. My people would follow me without it, and I know hers would. So would yours?”
“My people follow my father willingly,” Felix said. “They would follow me as well.”
“Then you don’t need a blood pact. None of us do, and we all have evidence that if a blood pact falls into the wrong hands, people... our people... will suffer. So that’s the action I am willing to take. To agree, right now, to dissolve my blood pact when you dissolve yours.”
Felix watched him without saying a word.
“If any of us did this alone, the other manors and the noble court would never go along with it. But if we all agree to it together, we’ll prove to the other manor lords, the noble court, and everyone that it’s possible to run a manor with blood magic slavery. Once the rest of the realm sees that, the other manors could follow. We might even shame them into it.”
“Why would I agree to such a thing?” Felix asked.
“Because maybe you don’t trust your line of succession as deeply as you claim,” Drake said. “Because beyond you and your ambitious sisters, you can’t truly be confident no one is going to turn into a tyrant like the former Lord Frostlight or Lord Gloomwood. So dissolving your blood pact is the only way you can be completely certain your people won’t suffer.”
“Your proposal is interesting, Lord Gloomwood,” Felix said. “But I cannot agree to it.”
Had he misjudged this man? He was certain he’d read Sky’s amusement correctly, and now, Sky looked like she was on the verge of bursting into laughter. Was she amused at his inability to pin Felix down? Being amused by an ally’s failure didn’t feel like the Sky he knew.
“It’s fine, Felix,” Sky said. “If you wish to add him to our proposal, I’ll allow it.”
Felix glanced at her. “You’re willing to amend our existing arrangement?”
“I am. If you feel the same, I believe Lord Gloomwood would be a good addition.”
“Very well.” Felix looked at Drake. “While I cannot agree to your proposal, Lord Gloomwood, it is because I have already committed to a similar proposal. So you, if you wish it, may agree to join ours.”
Drake stared at Felix, then Sky. “Wait just a fucking minute. You two already had an agreement to dissolve your blood pacts once you’re both manor lords?”
“The arguments you’ve made are arguments I and Sky have often made among ourselves,” Felix admitted. “Until I succeed my father, making such arguments public would ensure my father removed me from his line of succession. So until you made the offer, Lord Gloomwood, I was not willing to trust you with such a sensitive matter.”
“And I couldn’t tell you he and I had already agreed,” Sky said. “Since we promised never to speak of each other’s agreement to anyone else unless they agreed to it first.”
Drake understood now. “You were testing me. You were both testing me.”
An edge of a smile finally curved Felix’s lips, an emotion that cut through the flat mask the man had worn to show what might be an actual personality.
“And it seems you passed,” Felix said. “So... welcome to our private cabal, Lord Gloomwood.”
Drake took a moment to process Felix’s odd question. Why would Felix Proudglade want to “speak with the silverwood”? Was that even possible?
“What did you want to ask my tree?” Drake asked finally.
“That is between me and the silverwood.”
Drake wasn’t sure how to respond. He didn’t know much about the silverwood—other than that it was apparently alive, and a former Lord Gloomwood had agreed to watch over its sapling in exchange for the privilege of living within its borders—but if Felix put so much value on speaking with it, the chance to speak with it must be fairly valuable.
He wasn’t about to make a promise now. Not until he’d talked to Lydia, Samuel, and his mother. Between the three of them, they could explain what it meant to “speak to the silverwood” and why Felix might be so interested in doing so. Yet while he didn’t want to make a decision one way or the other about this now, he did want to know more.
“By peace, you mean we’ll normalize relations between our manors? No more bad blood based on stuff that happened twenty-five years ago?”
“Between the fact that you saved Westin from being ritually sacrificed, stopped the former lord from summoning a demon, and saved my father himself from a vicious beast in the battle we undertook yesterday, I would consider the scales between us balanced if you were to allow me to ask a question of the silverwood.”
“I understand,” Drake said. “I can’t give you an answer now, because this isn’t something I’m just going to casually agree to without thought. But I appreciate you reaching out. I’ll consider your offer and get back to you once I’ve had time to think it over.”
“Thank you,” Felix said. “To be clear, it is my hope you will have many decades to consider your question. Yesterday’s battle was... stressful. My father would be dead if not for your heroic actions, but I do not wish to succeed my father for some time.”
“So why bring it up at all? If it’s that far away?”
“This may be the only opportunity we get to speak privately, and my only opportunity to make the request. I’d prefer not to reveal anything more than that.”
So Felix’s father didn’t want him talking with the silverwood, or asking it whatever question he wanted to ask? It seemed Westin wasn’t the only Proudglade kid who might be hatching plots and schemes while sneaking around their old man. Did they all do that?
Drake was intrigued by Felix’s request, but he did his best not to reveal that. “So here’s a question for you, then. While we can speak privately. It’s fine if you don’t want to answer.”
“I would assume so,” Felix agreed flatly.
“Keep in mind I’m not from your world. I’m approaching this question as an outsider, and I’d like to get a better idea of how you think.”
“Of course.”
“Why do you think Prince Varnath wants to destroy all blood pacts?”
“He believes blood pacts are the core of our manors, and our manors are the strength of the realm. He has judged destroying the pacts the best way to defeat us.”
“So you don’t think he’s opposed to blood pacts on moral grounds, as he claims?”
“On what moral grounds would he be opposed?”
Drake glanced at Sky to see if this conversation had alarmed or unnerved her. It was obvious where he was going with this. However, she looked amused, not worried or annoyed, so he took that as confirmation he wasn’t treading anywhere she hadn’t already tread.
“Prince Lorel explained it pretty well,” Drake added. “Prince Varnath thinks it is wrong for one person to compel another through blood magic slavery.”
“Then many would suggest he simply does not understand the blood pact.”
“I’ve heard the same argument many times,” Drake agreed. “I don’t believe it. Where I come from, your blood pacts would absolutely be slavery. Compelling people to do things against their will is bad however you dress it up.”
“Are you somehow unaware that a person enters a blood pact by choice? They willingly swear loyalty to a lord they wish to serve.”
“That’s only accurate to a point,” Drake reminded him. “Once the lord they serve dies, they’re bound to serve the new one even if he’s an asshole. People can also be tortured until they submit to a blood pact, at which point the new lord can compel them to do anything.”
“No lord in my domain would pervert a blood pact in such a manner.”
“You sound awfully confident of that. Which is odd, considering it’s happened multiple times. The former Lord Gloomwood forced his thralls to harm and even kill other thralls when they displeased him, and I’m sure you also remember how the former Lord Frostlight cleaned house after she took over her manor. With murder.”
“So you believe that because a few people of low moral character perverted a blood pact, all blood pacts should be abolished?”
“One hundred percent,” Drake said confidently. “If any manor lord can take power over people by force, and can then use that power to compel them to act against their will... to hurt themselves or hurt others... that power needs to be abolished. It’s a shitty way to run things.”
“And yet the blood pacts have kept our manors strong and kept peace across the realm for well since the dawn of time,” Felix said.
“Many who survived the lord before me would disagree about that. So far as I can see, the only action anyone has taken to assure blood pacts aren’t abused is to trust to the good nature of people. Which is, if you’ll excuse my bluntness, intensely stupid.”
“Yet you accepted the blood pact when you took it from the former lord,” Felix said calmly. “Even now you command a manor whose denizens are kept loyal through the same blood pact you claim is slavery. So if you believe the blood pact is slavery, and you believe slavery to be wrong, isn’t your decision to lead a manor hypocritical?”
Felix would have been right had Drake not defanged the blood pact the day he arrived, but he couldn’t just tell the man that. “My people follow me because they want to do so.”
“As do all who follow my father,” Felix said. “He does not abuse or harm his thralls. He protects and shelters them, and in return, they swear unconditional loyalty through the most ancient and sacred of pacts. If no one forces them to do so, then how is that slavery?”
“Because after they sign up, they can’t refuse an order even if your father goes nuts and gives them orders to hurt themselves or others. Free will goes out the window once you join a blood pact. You aren’t loyal once you no longer have any choice but to be loyal.”
“Some would say swearing to follow your lord’s orders even if you disagree with them is, in fact, a choice, and the ultimate act of loyalty.”
“And those people are idiots. Besides, if your father’s so confident everyone loves and respects him, why even bother with a blood pact? You’re really going to tell me that your dad is all that, and he still can’t run a manor without blood magic?”
“Again, I would ask the same of you,” Felix said calmly.
Drake grimaced. Felix wasn’t wrong. So far as Felix knew Drake was being a hypocrite, and if he told Felix why he wasn’t, he could put his whole manor in danger. So perhaps she should redirect the conversation another way.
“Aren’t you at all worried about what will happen to your people if your father and you both get taken out? If some evil asshole like Lord Redbow takes over your manor? Aren’t you worried that he could abuse or harm people you care about?”
“I am not,” Felix said.
“So you think you’re invincible?”
“My father and I have taken steps to ensure that never happens. I have already chosen my successor, whom I will name should my father fall. They have chosen their successor as well, and so on through our manor.”
“Yet it’s still possible that if you and all those successors were to fall in battle, everyone in your manor could be enslaved again. So why aren’t you worried about that?”
“I have already answered your question. Now, I have a question for you. If you believe your people will be safer if you were to eliminate your blood pact, and if you are confident they would follow you without it, why have you not done away with it?”
“Because we can’t,” Drake said. “Right?”
“What gave you that impression?”
He eyed Felix a moment. “Are you saying there is a way to dissolve a blood pact?”
Lydia had implied that a blood pact couldn’t be dissolved no matter what he did or decreed. Had she been wrong? She couldn’t lie to him, but it was possible she might not know everything about them. Lord Crow certainly wouldn’t have told her that was possible.
“Of course there is a way to dissolve a blood pact,” Felix said. “All that is required is a unanimous vote of all sitting manor lords in good favor with the noble court. Any lord can make such a request, yet no lord has since their inception. Do you intend to make such a request?”
So it was possible. It was also as straightforward as simply asking the noble court to dissolve it. The only hard part was getting all eight remaining manor lords to agree to that.
“That depends,” Drake said. “Do you think your father would vote yes?”
“He would not. It is possible a lord whom he agrees with will one day take your blood pact from you. Allowing you to dissolve the Gloomwood Manor blood pact to win a short term victory would be the same as discarding a valuable blade simply because you are at odds with its current owner.”
“Then let me ask a different question,” Drake said. “If you were in charge of your manor, and I asked to dissolve my blood pact, would you vote yes?”
“Why does it matter? I will not command Proudglade Manor for decades yet.”
“It matters because I’m curious how you feel about your own and blood pacts in general,” Drake said. “Also, you just sidestepped my question. If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine, but just say that. The less dancing we do, the faster this summit will be over with.”
“When will you make this request of the noble court?”
“This is a philosophical discussion. Like I said, I want to know how you think.”
“Then to be blunt, Lord Gloomwood, I’d ask we move on to other matters. I find philosophical discussions to be a waste of time. Simply talking accomplishes nothing when both parties know no action will come of the talk. Action defines character.”
Drake wanted to win this argument, or at least prove he wasn’t a hypocrite, but that satisfaction wasn’t worth endangering his manor or his life. Felix didn’t seem angry at him, but the man also wasn’t impressed. Overall, he’d gotten very little out of this “summit.”
“What about you, Sky?” Drake asked. “You have anything to add?”
“Oh, I don’t feel any need to wade into this discussion,” Sky said... mischievously.
She looked amused. Not worried. Not angry. Not even a little bit disturbed despite the sensitive topic. She looked like she was having the time of her life watching them argue, but why would she be so relaxed when Drake had come so close to revealing his secret and hers?
Unless Felix already knew her answer?
Sky had mentioned she and Felix had been friends for a long time. She’d even said Felix was like a brother to her. Was it possible he and Sky had already discussed how Sky felt about blood pacts? Was it possible Felix agreed with Sky about this?
He looked back to Felix. “You’re right, you know.”
“About what?”
“Talk is pointless. So as you’ve suggested, let’s take action. Here’s my proposal. Once you’re Lord Proudglade, you, me, and Sky will all simultaneously ask to dissolve our blood pacts. My people would follow me without it, and I know hers would. So would yours?”
“My people follow my father willingly,” Felix said. “They would follow me as well.”
“Then you don’t need a blood pact. None of us do, and we all have evidence that if a blood pact falls into the wrong hands, people... our people... will suffer. So that’s the action I am willing to take. To agree, right now, to dissolve my blood pact when you dissolve yours.”
Felix watched him without saying a word.
“If any of us did this alone, the other manors and the noble court would never go along with it. But if we all agree to it together, we’ll prove to the other manor lords, the noble court, and everyone that it’s possible to run a manor with blood magic slavery. Once the rest of the realm sees that, the other manors could follow. We might even shame them into it.”
“Why would I agree to such a thing?” Felix asked.
“Because maybe you don’t trust your line of succession as deeply as you claim,” Drake said. “Because beyond you and your ambitious sisters, you can’t truly be confident no one is going to turn into a tyrant like the former Lord Frostlight or Lord Gloomwood. So dissolving your blood pact is the only way you can be completely certain your people won’t suffer.”
“Your proposal is interesting, Lord Gloomwood,” Felix said. “But I cannot agree to it.”
Had he misjudged this man? He was certain he’d read Sky’s amusement correctly, and now, Sky looked like she was on the verge of bursting into laughter. Was she amused at his inability to pin Felix down? Being amused by an ally’s failure didn’t feel like the Sky he knew.
“It’s fine, Felix,” Sky said. “If you wish to add him to our proposal, I’ll allow it.”
Felix glanced at her. “You’re willing to amend our existing arrangement?”
“I am. If you feel the same, I believe Lord Gloomwood would be a good addition.”
“Very well.” Felix looked at Drake. “While I cannot agree to your proposal, Lord Gloomwood, it is because I have already committed to a similar proposal. So you, if you wish it, may agree to join ours.”
Drake stared at Felix, then Sky. “Wait just a fucking minute. You two already had an agreement to dissolve your blood pacts once you’re both manor lords?”
“The arguments you’ve made are arguments I and Sky have often made among ourselves,” Felix admitted. “Until I succeed my father, making such arguments public would ensure my father removed me from his line of succession. So until you made the offer, Lord Gloomwood, I was not willing to trust you with such a sensitive matter.”
“And I couldn’t tell you he and I had already agreed,” Sky said. “Since we promised never to speak of each other’s agreement to anyone else unless they agreed to it first.”
Drake understood now. “You were testing me. You were both testing me.”
An edge of a smile finally curved Felix’s lips, an emotion that cut through the flat mask the man had worn to show what might be an actual personality.
“And it seems you passed,” Felix said. “So... welcome to our private cabal, Lord Gloomwood.”
