The Reformation Wars: Countdown to Catastrophe

Chapter 3

By and by, the knights' meal with Princess Kate and Captain Sloan came to an end, and after thanking them heartily for their assistance, she dismissed them. Manfred, Nathan, and Tom all rose at the same time, and after each man gave one last bow, they made for the balcony door.

At first, Manfred's pace would have brought him to walk alongside Nathan, but Tom held a hand on his shoulder to slow him. Nathan entered the main part of the castle ahead of them while Manfred leaned his ear down nearer Tom as they strolled at a slower speed behind.

"I want you to be careful, Manfred." Tom whispered, "Nathan may very well be knowledgeable where you need him to be, but I don't trust his character."

"Why's that?" Manfred asked, "Just curious."

"In his trial, he encountered a hostage situation, and I believe he shed the blood of a defenseless man rather than letting the dispute be managed with words. My advisory council was nearly unanimous in acquitting him of any guilt, insisting he had no alternatives, but I disagree. Nonetheless, without any concrete evidence to the contrary, I had to accept the situation as it was, and so he passed. Maybe that was a mistake."

"Well, I'll keep a close eye on him, sir. Sometimes men enter knighthood as brash hotheads, but the weight of duty eventually tempers them."

Tom nodded. "I do hope that proves true in his case. At any rate, I wish you well on your assignment."

"Thank you, sir. Lord willing, we'll finally get to the bottom of all this."

After Tom muttered something presumably affirmative, Manfred took a few long strides to catch up with Nathan. The dark-skinned Raskan glanced up with a pleasant expression and a nod.

"So, Manfred," Nathan began, "are you ready to go undercover?"

Manfred paused a moment in confusion. His brow furrowed and mouth opened for a few seconds before words spilled out. "Excuse me? Undercover?"

"Yeah, that's what I said. Surely you don't think we're going to the smokin' shadow markets and makin' it obvious we're knights. Much information we'll get out of criminals if they know we're the upholders of peace and justice."

"Oh...that's true. I hadn't thought that through."

Nathan threw up his hands with a wide grin spread across his face. "Hey, that's what I'm here for."

"I guess so. Now...where exactly would we look for a shadow market, anyway? I mean, if that sort of thing can be readily known, then doesn't that defeat the purpose?"

"Well, I wouldn't say it's readily known, but good thing for us, I know where to look."

Manfred narrowed his eyes, and the slightest hint of a smirk crept to his lips. "Do I even want to know how you—"

"It's not as bad as you think. The thing with selling illegal stuff is, though some of it's truly nefarious of course, a lot is due to royal bans on innocent things. For example, you ever seen a Rostacian ruby?"

"No...I've heard about them, but never seen one."

"There's a reason for that. Princess Kate's grandfather banned them from Monterayne several years ago, branding them 'devil's stones' and saying their redness was from being bathed in the blood of infants. Where he got that idea from, don't ask me, but to this day, those perfectly innocent but beautiful gems can't be sold at any honest establishment."

"I think I see where you're going with this." Manfred said, "Looking for harmless but illegal goods like that will be easier, and I'm assuming will lead us to the worse stuff?"