Warbreaker (Warbreaker #1)(65)

“By what?” Denth said, amused. “Pagans?”

Vivenna didn’t look at him.

“The old man didn’t seem to care much about heathen ways,” Tonk Fah noted. “Not with the number of Breaths he held. Of course, didn’t your daddy give him the money to buy them?”

Vivenna closed her eyes.

You hold those same Breaths, she told herself. You’re not innocent in all of this.

She hadn’t been given a choice. She could only hope and assume that her father had felt he was in a similar position—no choice but to do what seemed wrong.

Lacking furniture, Vivenna arranged her dress and knelt on the wooden floor, hands in her lap. Denth and Tonk Fah sat back against the wall, looking just as comfortable sitting on a hardwood floor as they were when lounging in plush chairs. “All right, Princess,” Denth said, unfolding a paper from his pocket. “We’ve got some plans for you.”

“Please continue, then.”

“First,” Denth said, “we can get you a meeting with some of Vahr’s allies.”

“Who exactly was this man?” Vivenna said, frowning. She didn’t like the idea of working with revolutionaries.

“Vahr was a worker in the dye fields,” Denth said. “Things can get bad out in those fields—long hours, little more than food for pay. About five years back, Vahr got the bright idea that if he could convince enough of the other workers to give him their Breath, he might be able to use the power to start a revolt against the overseers. Became enough of a hero to the people in the outer flower plantations that he actually drew the attention of the Court of Gods.”

“Never truly had a chance of starting a real rebellion,” Tonk Fah said.

“So what good are his men to us?” Vivenna asked. “If they never had a chance of succeeding.”

“Well,” Denth said, “you didn’t say anything about a rebellion or anything like that. You just want to make it tough for the Hallandren when they go to war.”

“Revolts in the fields would sure be a pain during war,” Tonk Fah added.

Vivenna nodded. “All right,” she said. “Let’s meet with them.”

“Just so you know, Princess,” Denth said. “These aren’t particularly . . . sophisticated kinds of folks.”

“I am not offended by poverty or people of small means. Austre regards all people equally.”

“I didn’t mean that,” Denth said, rubbing his chin. “It’s not that they’re peasants, it’s that . . . well, when Vahr’s little insurrection went bad, these are the people who were smart enough to get out quickly. That means they weren’t all that committed to him in the first place.”

“In other words,” Tonk Fah said, “they were really just a bunch of thugs and crime lords who thought Vahr might be the source of some easy influence or money.”

Great, Vivenna thought. “And do we want to associate with people like that?”

Denth shrugged. “We have to start somewhere.”

“The other things on the list are a bit more fun,” Tonk Fah said.

“And they are?” Vivenna asked.

“Raid the Lifeless storage ware house, for one,” Denth said, smiling. “We won’t be able to kill the things—not without drawing the rest of them down on us. But we might be able to muck up the way the creatures work.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Vivenna said.

Denth glanced at Tonk Fah, who opened his eyes. They shared a smile.

“What?” Vivenna asked.

“Hazard pay,” Tonk Fah said. “We may not steal your money, but we have nothing against overcharging you for extremely dangerous stunts!”

Vivenna rolled her eyes.

“Beyond that,” Denth added, “from what I can tell, Lemex wanted to undermine the city’s food supply. It’s a good idea, I suppose. Lifeless don’t need to eat, but the humans who form the support structure of the army do. Disrupt supply, and perhaps people here will begin to worry if they can afford a long-term war.”

“That sounds more reasonable,” Vivenna said. “What did you come up with?”

“We raid merchant caravans,” Denth said. “Burn things up, cost them a bunch. We make it look like bandits or maybe even remnants of Vahr’s supporters. That ought to confuse people in T’Telir and maybe make it more difficult for the priests to go to war.”

“Priests run a lot of the trade in the city,” Tonk Fah added. “They have all the money so they tend to own the supplies. Burn away the stuff they intended to use for the war, and they’ll be more hesitant to attack. It’ll buy your people more time.”

Vivenna swallowed. “Your plans are a bit more . . . violent than I had anticipated.”

The mercenaries shared a look.

“You see,” Denth said. “This is where we get our bad reputation. People hire us to do difficult things—like undermine a country’s ability to wage war—then complain that we’re too violent.”

“Very unfair,” Tonk Fah agreed.

“Perhaps she’d rather we buy puppies for all of her enemies, then send them with nice apologetic notes, asking them to stop being so mean.”

“And then,” Tonk Fah said, “when they don’t stop, we could kill the puppies!”