Taxes were higher to fuel the war machine, but that was only the most obvious diversion of funds. Craftspeople, metalworkers, carpenters, even seamstresses were underpaid to support the military, leaving little time and raw material for them to manufacture goods that might bring them a fair price in the free market. The work force itself had been gutted because all of the able-bodied young men had been conscripted into service, transformed into warriors rather than learning a trade or taking their places as the heads of households. All in service to the whim of the king.
This was the reason Miranda’s father could never direct his scorn toward the warmen. The baron considered them victims of circumstance, as helpless as the lowliest of peasants, unable to determine their own destinies or i
