Crow gave a halfhearted nod when Penelope said she hoped the villagers would be alright. He hoped so too, but based on what he had seen th last time he had been to Aramoor, it wasn’t likely. He and his companions had stayed there for quite a while, trying to defend the people during the battles that were happening at the time. Back then, none of them had been nearly as skilled in fighting—he hadn’t even overcome his fear of blood yet—so even though they tried hard to defend the village, their efforts hadn’t made much of a difference. In the end, they had been forced to pull out and take refuge in Silverpool after sustaining a number of serious injuries that had left them all in no condition to fight.

He glanced at Penelope as she spoke about the border villages’ recovery after the war. The thought was a depressing one for the thief. All of the villages were going to have a repairing after the war was over, but there was no doubt that the bordering villages were going to come off the worst of everyone. If they all even managed to survive, he would have been shocked. While he had never seen another war in his lifetime, he had heard plenty of stories from elders in the outer villages about the ones in the past. Apparently, the outer villages as a whole used to have quite a few more towns along the border with Waithen.

He opened his mouth to respond to her comment, but Gavin spoke first. He looked up at the knight as he said the villagers should be offered aid after the war. He rolled his eyes at the ridiculousness of it. The king would never spare his gold nor any men for such an assignment. The people of the outer villages were just another source of revenue for him. The quality of their lives mattered little as long as they continued to funnel their tax money to the inner kingdom.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to say anything on the matter because Penelope spoke first, seeming to understand the unlikelihood as well. Crow glanced towards Gavin as the knight added something that made him bristle. It sounded like he was trying to hint to Penelope that she could change the king’s mind if she didn’t leave her life as a noble. He narrowed his eyes. What a dirty trick. The knight was clearly using her desire for justice to sway her to his side, and he wasn’t even bothering to do so when the thief wasn’t around.

[i]Arrogant noble,[/i] he thought scathingly, clenching his jaw to keep from spitting the words out loud.

“It all sounds like a waste of time to me,” Crow finally spoke up with a bitter edge to his voice. “The king is a selfish man with no care for the peasants in his kingdom. I’d be shocked if he even sent one knight to help them repair their homes after this war is over.” He averted his gaze, suddenly a bit self-conscious of the hatred in his tone. Of course, he doubted that any of the knights knew his relationship with the current king, except, perhaps, for Penelope if she remembered who he had told her his father was years ago.

During the beginning of the war, the former king had been killed by the nobles who had been planning to assassinate him and take over the throne. However, their plan had only been successful in part. They had managed to off the king, but the knights in the palace had prevented them from usurping the throne. After that, his father—only the gods knew how—had jumped from his role of viceroy to king. As far as the thief knew, he had been ruling ever since.

“I would just forget about it, if I were you,” Crow muttered. “The people of the outer villages will figure out a way to pull through on their own, just like they always have.”