Chapter 49: Edric’s Greed
"Look..." Edric drawled, his eyes drifting lazily across the encampment, as though the place itself bored him. "...You no longer bear the authority of the Dravion Household. Your younger brother, the duke, cast you out the moment he took over from your father. Threw you into this forsaken patch of land like yesterday’s scraps. This land has always been tended to under Baron Fenlan’s watch."
He leaned forward in his saddle, his voice lowering to a condescending murmur.
"Submit to the baron, and you’ll live a comfortable life in this forest. Who knows... maybe he’ll even be kind enough to send women to warm your bed at night. Not that you’ve earned it."
Beside him, Mirabel’s eyes flared with quiet disgust. Her gaze remained fixed on Kaelor, but it carried a weight now, a silent reprimand for the indignity of Edric’s words.
Kaelor, unfazed, responded not with anger but with a smile that hinted at something deeper. Slowly, he dipped his hand into his pocket and brought out a single gold coin. Its surface caught the sunlight and shimmered like firelight off still water, drawing every pair of eyes like moths to a flame.
"Here," Kaelor said calmly, his voice smooth as still wine. "I’ll give each of you a gold coin. Return every month and I’ll keep giving you one. All I ask is that you tell the good baron we’re ’taking care of his fields.’"
The weight of the coin’s offer settled over the group like thick smoke. Even Edric and Mirabel faltered. They were paid fifty silver coins monthly, five thousand copper coins, a decent wage for their work, perhaps even noble by some standards.
But Kaelor was offering them ten thousand copper coins in the form of a single golden coin... for silence.
And silence, in that moment, became tempting.
Unfortunately, too tempting. Edric cleared his throat, stealing a glance at the grinning Footmen behind him and then at Mirabel’s unreadable, stony face.