The Rebel Assassin

Chapter 47: The Day of Prosperity, Part One

On the whole, the Day of Prosperity was more respected by those who had more money, in direct correlation with their amount of wealth.

The wealthy nobles made a day of feasting and dancing and crowding the throne room to hear the queen's speech. One level down, merchants and other well-off city folk would pack the central square to hear Commander Kadence's speech, no doubt telling themselves this was almost as good as hearing the state of the kingdom from the queen herself.

The intellectuals of the city, meanwhile, could choose to squeeze into the city library to hear the royal historian's speech. Those who straddled the line between prosperous and poor — respectable tradesmen who nonetheless worked hard to survive — might, depending on their own preferences, attend the central square speech, or picnic outside the city.

But the citizens of the lower city universally had little need for speeches, and even less patience for them. If some ruffians showed up, it was only to heckle and laugh. This was a pastime for those with guts. These days, the royal guards would seize on any opportunity to arrest suspected rebels, and suspects were not always seen again.

Still, Gordan wasn't surprised to see more than a few thieves and fighters he recognized claiming audience seats, of sorts, on the roofs of houses surrounding the square. They'd probably brought rotten fruit and choice insults to throw, in defiance of the squad of guards surrounding the commander's makeshift stage. Some of them took shots at the tapestries depicting the royal family that hung from a rope stretched between two houses on opposite sides of the square.

Gordan had no such desire to draw the royal guards' attentions. He slipped into the standing audience of respectable folk and made himself small and mild. Like Jaden would have done. To keep tabs on what was going on, as well as what the queen wanted them to think was going on.

The Day of Prosperity was mostly a day of propaganda. Grandiose speeches would be presented, nobles would feast at the castle, and a fair was held in the golden quarter. But that didn't mean it was totally useless as a way of gathering information. So in honor of Jaden, Gordan attended, and watched everything closely.

He saw the tenseness of the crowd, an undercurrent in their shuffling and small talk as they waited for the commander to appear. There were fewer smiles, less festivity in the air. Fewer parents had brought children to hoist on their shoulders and introduce to the glory of their kingdom. The mood was less one of celebration and more of a serious audience. They wanted information, he thought, not the vain, patriotic self-congratulations the Day of Prosperity usually entailed.

There were other differences today, as well. It was not usually the commander who gave the Prosperity speech to the city. Normally it was the Sage, this the one day of the year when he showed himself to the ignoble public. And perhaps his absence added some of the edge to the crowd.

Of course, by official explanation, the Sage's heart had failed one night when he was out in the city alone, with no one accompanying him to go for help. By the time he was found, he was dead of natural causes.

But there were rumors. That the city guards who found the Sage had also found several other bodies as well. That he had been ambushed by rebels. That something was very wrong.

And how could that be, some in the city asked, when everyone knows the murder of a Guardian would have caused a disaster of the kind there hadn't been in decades?

But then where had these persistent rumors come from? the less trusting, or more paranoid, would respond.

The shadow of these debates hung over the crowd. There was less mixture, Gordan noticed, between the well-off and the workingmen; an almost tangible divide between those dressed in fine cloth and those in clothes flecked with flour or mud or grease. Suspicious looks were cast to the workingmen, outright glares to the ruffians perched on the roofs, keeping quiet until their target arrived.