by Kate Elliott
“Here we assemble,” said Jehosh at once, as if he had tired of a charade she wasn’t aware they were playing. His tone was sour, and shadows darkened his eyes. “Let the priests sing a prayer of mourning in praise of Chief Marshal Auri whose spirit has so recently departed the mortal land and returned to the embrace of Beltak the Shining One.”
The priest who sang the prayer had a pleasant voice that spun a praise to grief and exaltation into a soaring melody that her mother would have loved. But even as lovely and heartfelt as the man’s voice was, Dannarah could not relax. She surveyed the crowd, seeking the rats biding their time among the mice. Off to one side she saw Captain Kellas standing so still he seemed part of the mural commemorating Jehosh’s great military victory. Catching her glance, he dipped his chin in acknowledgment. She tilted her head as a question but he had already looked away.
The priest finished the prayer. People murmured the correct response. Her lips moved in the phrases she had memorized as a girl, although she had long ago given up making any but required offerings. Her mother’s compassionately simple belief in a shining god who brought happiness and good fortune into the hearts of believers seemed a far sight removed from the elaborate hierarchy of the priests Chorannah favored.
Jehosh stood. “In the honored tradition of the land, it is time to elect a chief marshal who will oversee the administration, training, and well-being of the reeve halls. The reeves are the eyes of the land. They are the messages flowing among us, the voice that speaks here atop Law Rock and then can fly to every border station in the Hundred within a few days. Our victories in Ithik Eldim came about because of the reeves. Peace in the land rests on their vigilant patrol.”
“Peace in our hearts and our spirits rests on the vigilant patrol of Beltak’s appointed holy leaders, Your Highness,” said the high exalted priest. “As it is said, Let the servants of the Shining One see into your hearts so all darkness may be cleansed from the world.”
The shock of this impudent man interrupting the king jolted Dannarah out of her complacency.
Jehosh went red. His gaze flew to the screen behind which Queen Chorannah was seated, then dropped as Tavahosh abruptly got to his feet. Without being invited to do so, the prince took a step up to his father’s side.
“My thanks, Father,” he said in a voice that carried to the corners of the hall. “You will not regret the responsibility you grant to me today. Your wisdom in passing the reeve halls out of the supervision of the army and in under the sheltering hand of the shrine will serve the land well in the years to come. The reeves will be trained by priests to see with a righteous heart. Hand in hand with the shrines they will serve the god’s justice at the assizes.” He placed both hands against his chest in the manner of priests bowing with hand to heart before the god. “I will serve as chief marshal at your command with an eye only for purity and a heart only for the god’s justice.”
The hells!
Jehosh’s blindsided expression would have made her laugh except that the attack came at her expense. It was exquisitely done: the interruption, the claim made via the king’s authority before the king had a chance to make his own appointment. Jehosh looked weak for allowing the interruption and would look weaker if he denied the whole and tried to bluster his way back into control of the assembly.
Frustration and humiliation seared through the king’s face but he turned it into a smile as he fought for a last piece of ground in this rout. “As you are not yourself a reeve, I appoint Marshal Dannarah to act as your second and adviser in all matters.”
She strode up through the generals and the Guardians to join Jehosh, embracing the disaster even as she was spittingly furious. “Naturally I am at your disposal, nephew,” she said to Jehosh, then whispered, “Call an end to the assembly now, while you still can.”
Jehosh grasped Tavahosh’s arm as he addressed the hall. “All has now been revealed. Everyone shall go at once to the West Portico where a troupe of singers and players under the direction of the Honorable Lord Usi of Clan Herelia will entertain with a series of tales.”
Not waiting for a response, he dragged Tavahosh out the back door of the hall. Supreme Captain Ulyar bolted after him, and Tarnit and Lifka hustled after Dannarah quickly enough that the three of them got through the door before Ulyar closed and barred it so no one else could follow.
In a private inner corridor King Jehosh tightened his grip on his son’s arm as the young man gritted his teeth. “Tomorrow morning we will announce there has been a change of plans and you have decided to resume your studies with the priesthood. You know perfectly well I intend Dannarah to become chief marshal.”
Tavahosh carried his pride like a mighty banner. “I will do no such thing. It has already been arranged and settled. Under the oversight of the supreme exalted priest and the shrine hierarchy, the reeve halls will finally make needed changes.”
“Already arranged and settled!” Jehosh released his son with a shout. “This is nothing more than a naked gambit by your mother to increase the power of the shrine hierarchy and thus wrench control of the Hundred away from me!”
“We are not plotting against you, Father. We are saving the Hundred. You have spent your coin chasing women and pretending to be a soldier in the north when you should have been here administering your kingdom. You take the advice of outlanders and consort with people who do not worship at the shrine. We are the ones doing what is best for the Hundred.”
Jehosh raised a hand as if to slap his son, then laughed harshly as he caught himself and lowered it.
Dannarah broke in although she knew she ought to wait for Jehosh to speak. “You can’t transfer control of the reeve halls to the priests.”
“Of course we can transfer control to the priests,” said Tavahosh. He wasn’t even crowing with victory. He was convinced he was right. “It should have been done years ago.”
“The priests know nothing about reeves and eagles!”
“The priests know it is long past time to make changes.”
“What sort of changes?” she demanded, for his words struck her in a most ominous way.
“For one thing, it is absurd that women serve in such dangerous and violent positions. Women are too subject to emotion to make rigorous decisions. Pregnancies interrupt their duties. They can be more easily hurt than men and therefore put other reeves at risk. They aren’t strong and forceful enough to apprehend criminals. The women currently in service will be allowed to retire honorably—”
“Your ignorance stuns me, Tavahosh. Besides the evident fact that women have served capably as reeves for generations, reeves don’t retire.”
“Why not? Their eagles can simply be issued to new reeves.”
Such words spewing from his lips made her go blind with anger for one heart-hammering moment.
“Aunt Dannarah, calm down,” said Jehosh in a commanding tone.
“Calm down? Are you afraid I will whistle Terror down from the heavens to rip you all apart in order to end this travesty now? Because I give my oath that it is a cursed tempting idea. As for you, Tavahosh…” Her contempt was too roused to calm now. “Either you and your priests are stupid, or you are all as bloated with arrogance as a full bladder is with urine. Eagles jess reeves. We humans have nothing to do with it.”
“So everyone claims, but King Anjihosh arranged for you to become a reeve!”
She laughed wildly. “Is that what you believe?”
“Here you stand! He even arranged for you to become chief marshal. Is that not proof?”
The beauty of such ignorant words sprayed by a voice so sure of its knowledge and authority never failed to impress Dannarah. “Arranging for me to be properly trained to act as chief marshal is not the same as arranging for me to become a reeve. When Terror jessed me it was as much a surprise to my father as it was to me.”
“The reeves all say that, but we have only their word for it. People follow custom blindly until they are shown a better path. Under the shrine’s su
pervision, things will change. For now, those women who do not choose to retire will be allowed to carry on serving, separated from men. It isn’t fitting for women to roam about the roads and be asked to arrest and confront men.”
“Even though they have always done it and without any trouble?”
“So you must claim. Those women who remain in the halls will be remanded to a new service, as couriers.”
“What in the hells are you talking about?”
Jehosh had gone utterly still, his body tensed as for battle although he did not even twitch. Back by the wall, Ulyar watched.
Tavahosh was well wound up and happy to keep talking, secure in his triumph. “We will institute a service for any reeves deemed unsuitable for military service and patrol. They will fly as couriers for the palace and the shrine, and as hired couriers for merchants and other people who can pay for a message to be taken at speed from one place to another.”
“Reeves have never been paid for their service or hired out. We are paid in kind. We serve the land, not ourselves. Hiring out reeves like hiring wagoners is a sure road to corruption.”
He tugged at an ear as if to make sure everyone knew what a clever lad he was to think so fast. “Since you are so concerned with the matter I will grant you this honor to your great age. You may oversee the new courier patrol. It will be based here atop Law Rock. The reeve compound is being refurbished even now so it can house more reeves.”
With abrupt decision, Jehosh turned. “Captain Ulyar, arrest my son.”
The man pressed a hand to his heart. “Your Highness! Do not demand a rash action that you will regret!”
Jehosh put a hand on the hilt of the jeweled dagger he wore as part of his formal garb. “Then you are dismissed, Ulyar.”
“He is not dismissed!” blurted out Tavahosh. “Supreme Captain Ulyar has served loyally for years. With great distinction and efficiency, I must add.”
The contrast between the son’s youthful vigor and confidence and the father’s weathered face and frayed tension became stark. One was coming into his own with every expectation of victory and the other had already started down the slope into oblivion. Yet for all that Jehosh had spent his youth making one reckless and idiotic decision after the next, he had enough wisdom now to lower his hand from the dagger.
When his gaze crossed with Ulyar’s, it was the captain who looked away. “It seems you no longer serve me, Ulyar. As for you, Tavahosh, is there anything else you care to reveal?”
Tavahosh hesitated as if unsure whether he had just made a blunder. Although Dannarah would gladly have let him know he had, she kept her mouth shut this time. Let Jehosh scrape a sliver of satisfaction from the fray.
To her disquiet Prince Tavahosh’s gaze flashed to Lifka. What simmered in his expression disturbed her because he was a man who did not like to be thwarted.
“All who live in the Hundred owe their loyalty to the god and to the king,” said Tavahosh tendentiously. “All must serve god and king first rather than their own plots and plans. I have seen with my own eyes a slave girl steal the eagle of the chief marshal. Yet my aunt stands aside and lets it happen, perhaps even approves it. After what I witnessed in River’s Bend, Lady Dannarah, how can you convince me that eagles are not merely tools in the hands of ambitious people?”
“With your own words you speak of yourself,” she said.
“Enough!” The king stepped between them. “You may go, Tavahosh. Take Ulyar with you since apparently you already have.”
Ulyar bowed in the proper fashion, caught the prince’s eye, and nodded. They left together, not bothering to hide their alliance now it was revealed.
Captain Kellas stepped out of the shadows. “That went well.”
Jehosh was rubbing his forehead. “They ambushed me.”
“It was well played on their part,” agreed Kellas blandly. “It certainly caught everyone by surprise, even me.”
“Chorannah means to render me superfluous at my own court!”
“Yes, you are stuck in the ditch they dug for you, Your Highness, while Lady Dannarah has lost her temper in such a way that Prince Tavahosh may be excused for cutting her off entirely.”
“You’re wrong about that,” said Dannarah as her rage abated and she could think again. “I recognize his sort of folly. He’ll decide he has to prove me wrong in such a way that he can gloat over my fall. To do that he has to keep me close, as he already means to do since he has just assigned me to be head of this courier service. In truth, Jehosh, this works to your benefit.”
“To my benefit? How can you possibly say so?” The king began to pace.
“Be patient, Jehosh. They will overreach, and when they do, you’ll find your opening.”
“My opening!” he said bitterly. “They treat me as if I am no longer king. Why doesn’t Chorannah just have me murdered and get it over with?”
Kellas chuckled in a way that made the king stop dead and stare at him, alarmed. “No, Your Highness, I’m not saying I have proof that she plans to do so. But it is a question worth pondering. If she intended merely for Farihosh to take over as soon as possible, murdering you would be the wiser move.” His gaze met Dannarah’s in private acknowledgment of their long-ago pact that had come to nothing, then returned to the king. “Why grab hold of the reeve halls so boldly and publicly now, while leaving you alive?”
“The hells,” muttered Jehosh. “Auri must have been working with them all along, too.”
Kellas nodded. “I think they did not intend to act publicly yet. Mostly likely they were forced to act precipitously upon Auri’s death to protect an asset they can’t afford to lose control over.”
“The reeve halls.” Dannarah turned to her nephew. “Do you still control the treasury?”
“Yes, I control the treasury and all taxes and tolls and other such imposts and income.”
“So Chorannah’s treasury is dependent on whatever allowance you give her?”
Jehosh stared down the empty corridor to a sun-washed garden where a fountain splashed merrily. The sheer toil it took to feed, water, and maintain people atop Law Rock was one of the reasons Anjihosh had kept his palace small and housed most of his administration in the city below. But people who had no concern for the amount of labor and inconvenience needed to keep them in their own personal luxuries would never stop to consider such incidentals.
“Yes. Chorannah is always after me for coin. How much control I retain over the assizes I am no longer sure, now that the shrine demands the right to arrest people for blasphemy. As for the rest, Ulyar controls the army although I believe I retain the loyalty of certain of the generals, like Shevad, and the military governor and forces stationed in Ithik Eldim. Lord Vanas also supervises the granaries and my personal guards.”
“Are you sure you can trust Vanas?” Dannarah asked.
“Oh, yes, I am sure of him,” said Jehosh so carelessly that she might as well have asked if the sky was blue. “I believe you are right, Captain. I appointed Vanas, Auri, and Ulyar to protect my interests so I could come and go as I needed. But clearly over the last few years Chorannah turned Auri and Ulyar against me. It’s so obvious now! If Auri were alive she’d have left things as they were because I was still oblivious to her maneuvering.”
He began pacing again, five steps up and five steps back as he talked. “I was left completely ignorant about the situation in Sirniaka because Ulyar and Auri control the information I receive. That’s why Aunt Sadah’s visit and the news she told me about the strife between the imperial princes took me by surprise! Now I must wonder if Chorannah had Aunt Sadah murdered.”
The captain nodded. “I shall see if I can offer you better intelligence, my lord.”
The king went on as if he hadn’t heard, his words as clipped as his restless stride. “I have held Kasad at arm’s length so as not to seem like I favor him more than the older boys. If Chorannah truly believes I intend to disinherit her sons and put Kasad on the throne, then she will feel she
must have a powerful ally to protect her sons.”
“The priests,” said Dannarah drily.
“Yes, but the priests here in the Hundred only have as much power as she can create for them. To really back her up she needs someone like a queen mother of the Sirniakan emperor. How convenient that her older sister now fills that position! But Chorannah knows I will never involve the Hundred in a Sirniakan civil war, so she has hidden her involvement from me.”
“She must have had this in mind for some years,” said Kellas, “what with Emperor Faruchalihosh getting older, especially if Farovadihosh is truly an incapable heir.”
“Yes, yes,” murmured Jehosh, still pacing.
“That’s why Auri moved the base of his operations to Argent Hall in the south!” exclaimed Dannarah as the cunning complexity of the plan unfurled in her mind’s eye like wings lifted for flight. “If Auri and Ulyar have been in on Chorannah’s plan for years, then it makes perfect sense to move the reeve administration to where they can best control any news from the empire.”
Jehosh slammed to a halt as suddenly as if he’d hit an invisible wall. “They think they’ve kicked me but all they’ve done is forced me to see the truth. My troops still love me. Maybe I can’t strip Ulyar of his position openly, not yet, but we’ll see how long he lasts as supreme captain when I rally the soldiers to my side. Are you with me, Aunt Dannarah? Captain Kellas?”
32
Lifka had never expected to find herself pressed against a wall forced to listen while the king argued with his son the prince in a language she couldn’t understand. A pleasant woodcutting journey into the skirts of the Wild with Papa seemed like the best thing in the world right now, the mules plodding in their patient way, the dogs eager with their happy faces, and she and Papa talking about anything that came into their thoughts. She didn’t want or need palaces.