Chapter 210: Red Tide Conclave

Brinewatch held Keth’s public hearing on the repaired boardwalk near the harbor.

Keth stood shackled next to the evidence board. His black coat was torn and still soaked from the flood. His red ledger lay open on a table for everyone to see, and dock workers, canal workers, and caravan workers had gathered around to read it. The Blue Merchant broker stood near him. She wasn’t conducting the auction anymore. She was there as a witness to the charter.

"You can make your case," Corin told Keth. "The evidence will back you up or it won’t."

Keth looked at Austin Veyron.

"Devour me and be done with this."

Austin Veyron caught the scent of the demon in the broker again: red ink, flood debt, and fear. DEVOUR wanted an easy victory. Keth had hurt people, so devouring him would feel right.

Veyra saw Austin Veyron’s jaw clench.

"What do you want to devour?"

"I want to devour him."

"What would that create?"

"Someone who values testimony less than devouring."

Sable’s crown shard stayed dark at her side. "Then let the testimony convict him first."

Keth chuckled dryly, his chains clinking as he shifted his weight.

"The Red Tide Conclave will be convening in Cindervale tomorrow. The Blue Merchant council is purchasing the Ember Canals. They’ll claim it’s to help manage them after the recent drought. The first item on the list will be the emergency water of a canal district."

Tessa pulled out the route map she had found.

"Whole provinces rely on the Ember Canals," she said. "For water, transport barges, and crops. If they buy the canals, they can control every price."

The Blue Merchant broker spoke up. "The council will say the canals need better management. Some of that is true. The canals need repair, and the workers aren’t paid enough. But this purchase will let them tax every repair and every shortage."

Oona stood by the harbor channel, the water rippling up her silver-blue arms.

"Brinewatch will send a public agreement," she said. "If there’s a flood, it will have to be made public, and anyone who charges for a harbor will have to maintain it."

The caravan clerk spoke up as well. "The water council in Seregate will do the same. The inner provinces need to know they aren’t the only ones being targeted."

A relay crystal lit up.

A woman with dirt on her face and a hood over her head appeared in its light.

"My name is Asha. I’m a delegate from the East Ember Canals. We know the conclave is corrupt. Our emergency water is being sold off, but no one in our district has voted to sell it. We need someone to witness our route."

"Will you accept us as witnesses?" Austin Veyron asked.

"I’ll accept people who aren’t going to come in saying they own us," Asha said.

"That’s all we are," Tessa said.

They left Brinewatch on a barge at high noon, the deck crowded with crates of repair iron and the caravan clerk’s bundles of evidence. Some of the dock workers watched them go and waved as they sailed away.

Cindervale was an inland city, ringed by red cliffs that rose around the Ember Canals. The water ran warmer there because of the volcanic rock beneath it, and steam drifted off its surface. A long series of locks climbed up the canals. The locals had run them until the Blue Merchants got their hands on the permits.

Tessa and Ceryn were looking over the contracts from the conclave.

"Look here," Ceryn said. "They’re including the lock repairs in the emergency water sale. Whoever buys it can order the districts that use the locks to repair them."

"And here, they can withhold water counts from the public in times of commercial instability," Tessa said. "Just like Keth was doing in Seregate."

Austin Veyron watched the lock workers open the gates and check the steam pressure. They all looked worn out from working in the heat, and none of them looked like they wanted to be sold off to the highest bidder.

When they reached the third lock, the barge ground to a halt against the stone, and Blue Merchant collectors stepped aboard.

They wore blue sashes and red heat masks. The head collector held a contract stamped with a seal from the canals.

"We’re here to collect on your passage to Cindervale. Everyone traveling to the city must sign a debt for access to the Red Tide."

Asha’s crystal lit up again. "That debt didn’t exist before. They’re making the witnesses pay to reach the conclave."

The collector unrolled the contract.

CANAL ACCESS BELONGS TO THE BUYER OF LOCK REPAIRS.

The barge workers looked nervous, and the captain let go of the wheel.

Rin moved to the railing, and Tamsin took her place beside the wheel. Veyra stood in front of the collectors with no weapon drawn.

Austin Veyron knew what he needed to target: the ownership of the canal access. Not the lock, not the workers, and not the water itself.

"Target," he said. "The canal-access ownership claim. Not the lock. Not the workers. Not the water."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron touched the white root chain to the contract seal.

DEVOUR opened, and he could taste the lie in it. The claim tasted like help built for others and sold to the highest bidder.

CANAL ACCESS BELONGS TO THE BUYER OF LOCK REPAIRS.

He consumed belongs.

The seal broke in half.

The collector’s sash dimmed, and the barge workers didn’t celebrate. They opened the contract and read the repair numbers. The locks did need repairs, but the debt was far higher than it should have been.

The collector stared at the contract in disbelief.

"I was told it was to keep the locks safe."

"Will you tell the workers what you were told?" Veyra asked. ℯ𝕝.

The collector thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

She gave the contract to Ceryn and left the barge at the next lock station. She wasn’t taken prisoner. She left carrying what she knew about the corruption.

It was getting dark as they drew closer to Cindervale, and the red cliffs turned the color of embers in the fading light.

The city was full of red stone bridges arching over the warm canals. Lanterns hung over the water and gave off an orange glow. Blue banners draped the conclave hall, and local delegates waited at the gates with their own route maps while merchant guards checked that they had the proper invitations.

Asha was waiting for them at the public board. She was shorter than she had looked on the crystal, and her hands were thick with calluses from working the locks.

"They started early. We need to get in there."

The group made their way inside the Red Tide Conclave. The air smelled of incense and the warm damp rising from the canals below.

Rows of merchant seats faced an auction floor with canal water running beneath it. The Blue Merchant council sat above the auction floor, and the local delegates were kept apart behind a low rail. Their votes lay on the auction table in sealed envelopes.

The lead councilor, a tall man in a coat of deep blue silk, opened his ledger.

"The first item on the auction is the emergency water of the East Ember District."

"Those waters aren’t for sale," Asha said.

The councilor looked at the sealed envelopes.

"You have already voted to sell them."

Asha reached for one of the envelopes, and a merchant guard stopped her. The wax seal bore the emblem of the East Ember district, but Tessa could see more writing beneath it. It was a credit transfer from a Blue Merchant.

"That isn’t a vote," Tessa said. "That’s a transfer of debt."

"Debts make votes responsible," the councilor said with a smile.

Ceryn opened the contract the collector had given them. "The same words are here. Lock repairs, and then debt for access to the canal. You didn’t buy votes. You created a debt and called it a vote."

Some of the delegates began murmuring to each other, and the sound spread along the rail like wind through dry grass. One of the lock foremen stood up.

"My district never voted on that envelope."

Another delegate stood as well. "We were told that if we didn’t accept it, we’d lose our repair barges."

The councilor struck the table with his blue rod, and the sound echoed through the room. "The conclave will accept these votes as purchased items."

Asha turned to Austin Veyron. "This is why we needed witnesses. If we take those envelopes, he’ll claim we’re causing a disturbance. If we don’t, he’ll sell off the water."

Austin Veyron wanted to smash the glass and tear the ledger away from the councilor. The red water running beneath the auction floor made him want to act now.

"What do you want to devour?" Veyra asked.

"I want to devour him before he finishes that sentence."

"What would that create?"

"It would let him shut down the conclave for causing a disturbance."

Sable’s crown shard gave off a faint glow. "Then create a disturbance that exposes the lie."

Tessa laid the evidence from Seregate and Brinewatch on the auction table for all to see. Asha began reading out the contracts aloud, and Ceryn noted how each district responded.

Beneath them, the water began to turn red.