Chapter 10: Why Rebel?

Elia shook her head in terror, tears gathering in her eyes.

“Found them!” Hongye cried, pulling a roll of yellowed parchment and a charcoal pencil from beneath the jumble. “I’m ready, Your Highness! I can start taking notes whenever you like.”

She composed herself and stood straight beside Rhode. He sighed deeply, deciding to get to the point.

“Good.” Turning back to Elia, he put away his careless smile, leaned forward and fixed her with a sharp gaze. “Let’s start with the simplest question.”

He looked into her frightened eyes and asked slowly, “Princess, tell me: did you elves have too much time on your hands, or had you lost your minds? Why did you choose this moment to rebel?”

“Too much time on our hands?”

Vera’s hoarse roar rang through the empty lower prison. Still hanging from the rough iron chains, she suddenly struggled as if electrified, her brown face red with fury and her eyes fixed on Rhode.

“You empty-headed human idiot! Do you know we elves had no bark left to eat? Do you know what the children had to do in winter—”

“Mmph! Mmph!”

Selena swiftly clapped a hand over her mouth from behind, pressing against Vera to restrain her thrashing. Even the queen was struggling to maintain her gentle, dignified facade. Fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and her eyes were full of anxious exasperation. *Please! Didn’t I tell you again and again to keep quiet? Are you trying to get us killed?*

Rhode picked at his ear after Vera’s sudden shout. He had merely been probing, but the general was remarkably easy to set off.

“All right, let her go, Your Majesty. Any longer and she’ll suffocate.” He crossed his legs and slouched in the battered chair, hardly the picture of royalty. Then he looked back at Elia, who was clutching her skirt in fright. “So it wasn’t boredom. You were starving? Tell me exactly why you rebelled.”

Elia shrank back. She glanced up cautiously, her lips trembling. Her face crumpled, and tears welled in her eyes.

“If we’d had enough to eat… we never would have rebelled.” Her voice was thick with distress. “The Calindia Empire raises our taxes every year! Last winter a terrible snowfall killed all the crops in Silvermoon Forest. We didn’t ask the empire for disaster relief, but instead of reducing our taxes, they demanded twice the usual grain levy! How could we possibly pay?”

*What a rotten empire,* Rhode thought. Back at his old company, if anyone had raised his performance targets so unreasonably, he would have spent three days complaining about it on an anonymous forum.

The familiar words of a manager came to mind: *Even if the empire oppressed you, you shouldn’t have rebelled. You could have reported your difficulties to your superiors…*

He certainly wasn’t foolish enough to say that aloud. If he offered such callous nonsense to the princess of a fallen kingdom in this gloomy cell, the dark-skinned general would probably tear off her own arm to get free and bite him to death.

He rubbed his temples and turned to his temporary clerk. “Hongye, is she telling the truth? What have imperial taxes been like these past two years?”

Hongye was drawing circles on the parchment. Without looking up, she said, “The empire’s tax laws haven’t officially changed for three years, Your Highness. The rates have remained fixed.”

Rhode caught the key word. “Officially? Is there a ‘but’ coming?”

Hongye finally stopped and looked up at him as if to say he wasn’t entirely stupid. “How clever, Your Highness.” She pursed her lips. “But last year the Second Prince, who controls the treasury, imposed a special levy on Silvermoon Forest in the name of border defenses. Then the First Prince, who commands the army, forcibly took half their winter grain for military supplies.”

“Wait.” Rhode raised a hand, astonished. “You’re a little maid who follows me around serving tea. How did I never notice you paid so much attention to politics?”

Hongye rolled her eyes, resentment almost visible around her. “Why do you suppose that is, Your Highness?” she asked through clenched teeth. “For at least half of every day, you keep my mouth occupied. When you pinned me to your desk, or the carpet, or even in the carriage, it never occurred to you to discuss politics with me, did it?”

She pursed her lips and resumed drawing circles. “I did receive a proper education, you know.”

*What on earth did my predecessor do?* He had taken a highly educated person and reduced her to an object dressed in provocative uniforms.