Princeps: A Novel in the Imager Portfolio

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  “Do you think that means they’re not so desperate … or that they’re out of coins?”

  “The squad leader says they’ve got more coins.”

  “Why don’t you have them announce on Meredi that after this week, we’ll only be selling on Samedi?”

  “The squad leader suggested that, sir.”

  “How are we coming on flour and potatoes?”

  “Gone through a lot, sir, with all that the regiment takes and what we’ve sold…” Heireg opened the ledger he had carried into the study. “Oh … and we got twenty-five barrels of good flour from young holder Wystgahl … and he left this for you.” The major handed over a sealed envelope.

  Quaeryt broke the seal, extracted the single heavy sheet of paper, and read.

  Governor Quaeryt,

  As we discussed, I have delivered the additional barrels of good flour, and will fulfill the contract my father failed to meet.

  I apologize for that difficulty.

  Below was a signature and a seal. Quaeryt didn’t quite wince. He had as much of an apology as he would ever get. At least, there was a written acknowledgment of the former High Holder’s failure.

  Quaeryt handed the note to Heireg. “You should read this.”

  Heireg did, then handed it back. “Right kind of him. He didn’t mention all the bad flour and all the extra time it took us to sift it clean.”

  “High Holders sometimes have a different view of things,” Quaeryt said mildly.

  Heireg nodded.

  Quaeryt finally got back to his study at a quint past second glass.

  Vaelora returned to the post, although he didn’t realize it until she knocked on the study door several quints after third glass. At that point he put aside the ledgers and walked with her to their quarters.

  “How did your day go?” he asked as he closed the door.

  “Grelyana returned some of the furnishings to the villa … almost enough for us to live there.”

  “Almost?”

  “The master suite now has a bedstead, bedside tables, and two matching armoires … and a dressing table. They’re a little worn, but they’ll be fine with oil and polish. The main study has a desk and several chairs, as well as a table and four chairs … and there are several old-style parlor pieces that could go in either the receiving parlor or the salon. They’re in the salon at present. There’s nothing for the upstairs study, but I wouldn’t have expected that. Those pieces were likely hers. There are several worktables for the kitchen, and a small and very battered dining table and chairs for the private dining and breakfast room.”

  “That’s a beginning,” he said cautiously.

  “The beginning of a beginning. There are no linens, and we need a mattress for the bedstead. There are no kitchen utensils, no cutlery, no plates, no platters, no cauldrons, no pots, no table linens, no towels. We have no staff…”

  “Do we have anything else at all?”

  “There are platform beds in the servants’ quarters and in the stable quarters, but no mattresses.”

  Quaeryt couldn’t even imagine what it was going to cost to set up even a minimal household in the villa. More to the point, at that moment, he didn’t want to.

  “Some of that will not cost all that much,” added Vaelora. “It will take time, and I will need a steward or someone in that capacity.”

  “Do you know where to find one that we can trust?”

  “Shenna has some ideas.”

  Quaeryt had no idea who Shenna was, and it must have shown on his face.

  “She’s the older sister of Rhyena. Rhyena was a friend when we were both little. She—Rhyena, that is—married a High Holder somewhere near Cloisonyt. He was an older widower. Shenna hasn’t married, and she’s a governess for Aramyn’s youngest daughter. When she found out I’d come back…”

  “You’re thinking of Shenna as … a female steward?”

  “That would never be accepted. But she could be my private secretary and be a great help.”

  “Then ask her.”

  “I already have … but I’m glad you approve.”

  “What else…” Quaeryt stopped. “How long will setting up the villa take?”

  “Several weeks before anyone else should see it. A week before we can move in—if we can find basic staff.”

  “Skarpa will agree to detailing some troopers for temporary guards. They’ll only be available for little more than a month.”

  “That will help.” Vaelora smiled. “How was your day?”

  “I think yours was better. What do you know about a High Holder named Cransyr?”

  “Dear Cousin Cransyr? He was always a nettle to Father, but he’s tried to play up to Bhayar. Why do you ask?”

  “Because his nephews and their friends tried to beat up a local factor. The patrol caught them, and one of the nephews—Versoryn—fell on the point of an iron fence. It went through his eye and killed him. We have his brother, the other nephew, locked up in the brig here. He says Bhayar will make sure all the rankers are executed. He also threatened me, but backed off that somewhat. He still believes, I think, that he can get me dismissed as governor.”

  “That won’t happen. Nephews who aren’t the sons of High Holders can’t claim privilege. Even ‘nephews’ like Versoryn can’t claim it.”

  “Privilege? That’s in the case of wrongful death. Being caught in committing a crime and dying in trying to escape isn’t wrongful death.” Quaeryt paused. “And what did you mean with that cynical comment about ‘nephews’ like that? That there was a much closer relationship?”

  Vaelora nodded. “Their mother was Cransyr’s mistress. She died several years ago. It was quite a quiet scandal because everyone thought Cransyr’s wife had poisoned her. It happened on his lands, and he had the right to apply justice even to his wife…”

  Quaeryt knew that High Holders had that right for offenses taking place on their lands.

  “… but Cransyr pronounced it an accidental poisoning. He built separate quarters for his wife and hasn’t spoken to her since … or so it’s said. The boys were sent to live with the sister of the mistress here in Extela.”

  “Why didn’t he find his wife guilty?”

  “She was always Bhayar’s favorite cousin. I never cared for her much, but I was only ten or so when it happened.” Vaelora shook her head. “Still … it would be best to handle the boy carefully. You’d be surprised at what the High Justicer of Telaryn has found to be wrongful death, dearest, especially when well-connected High Holders and their sons are involved.”

  “I don’t know that I’d find it that surprising. Depressing, but not surprising. I need to find a justicer. I could act as justicer. Scythn was his own high justicer.”

  “He was?”

  “That’s what several of the patrollers first said.”

  “Bhayar forbid that practice except as a very temporary expedient. I know. I heard him tell Aelina that.”

  That was another item that Quaeryt would need to put in the dispatch he planned to send off on Lundi. He wondered what else he’d remember to add.

  37

  Quaeryt had thought he might sleep late on Solayi morning, but he woke up with the first light. Because Vaelora was still sleeping, he lay there and thought about what else he needed to add to his report to Bhayar. He couldn’t help but wonder and worry about whether Kharst had attacked Ferravyl … and how soon Bhayar would need Third Regiment, especially since the Civic Patrol wasn’t ready to take over full patrolling duties in all parts of Extela.

  He was still thinking about all the additions to his report when she woke.

  “It would be so nice to wake up in a real bedchamber,” she said with a yawn.

  “Before long…” he said quietly.

  “Longer than I wish to think about, dearest. There is so much to do.”

  “There’s been so much to do for both of us,” he pointed out.

  “I should have gone to the market squares yesterday. Until life is better, the p
eople should see me.”

  “You can’t do everything.”

  “No, but some of them have so little. At times, it bothers me that I’m concerned about furnishing and setting up a villa when even these quarters are so much better than what they have.”

  The sadness and wistfulness in her voice moved Quaeryt, and he said, “You can’t stay here forever, and someone has to rebuild a place for us and for the governors to come.” After a moment he added, “It’s better to purchase an existing villa, because I’ll still need to build a place to house a justicing hall and studies and chambers for those who serve Lord Bhayar and the governor.” His eyes were drawn to her … again.

  She sat up in the bed and yawned once more, before looking at him. “Stop staring,” she added, not quite sharply.

  “Can’t I appreciate how my wife looks?”

  “You appreciated enough last night.”

  Quaeryt offered a mock wince.

  “That’s almost disrespect.”

  They both laughed.

  Later, they dressed and ate at the mess, another meal that had Quaeryt wishing for either their own kitchen or even the meals fixed by the officers’ mess in Tilbora. He supposed he could have gotten involved with the kitchens at the post, but that was just another problem … and one that was far from urgent, especially when he felt he didn’t have enough time to do everything that needed to be done. Then he escorted Vaelora back to their quarters before heading to his study to write out the final version of his report to Bhayar. Close to two glasses later he scurried across the courtyard through the drizzling rain to their quarters.

  While Vaelora continued to go through her lists of what the villa needed, Quaeryt tried to think of something that he could offer as a homily. Finally, he eased away from the small writing desk and went out onto the balcony, where he stood looking out into the chill rain and the mist sweeping eastward into the post from the river, trying to think of something that would inspire and not sound worn with time and repetition.

  How long he stood there, he wasn’t certain, but Vaelora seemed to appear beside him from nowhere.

  “What are you doing out here? You’re just staring into the rain.”

  “I don’t know what to say for the homily for services this evening,” he admitted. “I’ve been so busy trying to resolve this and that problem that when I finally have time to think … I can’t.”

  “Talk about what you told me this morning,” she suggested.

  “What was that?”

  “You said I couldn’t do everything. Neither can you. Neither can most people. Life’s not about what we can’t do, but what we actually do.”

  “I might be able to do something with that.”

  She smiled. “I’m sure you can.”

  Quaeryt finally did manage to find a way to tie what Vaelora had suggested into a passable homily, enough so that when he finally stood on the dais in the anomen facing the officers and men of the Third Tilboran Regiment, he could begin the homily without feeling that he was repeating something they had heard from others too many times.

  “Under the Nameless all evenings are good, even those filled with rain and mist…” The slight pause he offered allowed for a few smiles before he continued. “All of us have been very busy the past weeks. We’ve been trying to make things work here in Extela, to keep order at a time of disorder. For all of our efforts, there are as many problems arising as we have resolved … so many tasks uncompleted, and even more that we have yet to begin …

  “As I thought of all those undone tasks, it came to me that dwelling on what one has not done, or what one plans to do, but has not done … well … that it’s a form of Naming. Why might that be? Because we’re spending words in worrying about something that has no value. A deed not done is not a deed. It’s one thing to acknowledge what needs to be done. It’s another to fret and worry and talk endlessly about what has to be done. Spending time and words on nothing … if that isn’t Naming, then what is?

  “We think of Naming in terms of vanity, of using words to lift ourselves above others or to gain an advantage over them by word-painting them as less than we are or ourselves as more than others. And those uses of words are indeed Naming. But what of those uses of words and thoughts that distract us from what we must do? We all know people who worry and fret and worry so much that the worries keep them from even trying to do what is necessary. In such instances, the words erect a barrier between a man and productive accomplishment … and they make that man less than he could be. Naming is not just an offense against others. It can also be an offense against ourselves and how much better we could be…”

  It wasn’t one of Quaeryt’s better homilies, but what he’d said was indeed true enough.

  He just hoped that his next homily was more inspiring, for both himself and the men of the post and the regiment.

  38

  With the Civic Patrol under the control of Pharyl and Hrehn, Quaeryt concentrated on various other problems on Lundi and Mardi, the most pressing of which, Jhalyt reminded him politely, was to locate the tariff collectors and either continue them in their past employ or dismiss them, but not before obtaining their ledgers—since all records of who had paid and how much had presumably been charred in the lava.

  Given how many records he was realizing were missing and would need to be replaced, Quaeryt requested a company from Skarpa and returned to the governor’s square. After two days of digging through chambers and checking file chests, they were actually able to locate the tariff records for those paid two years previously. There was no sign—no uncharred and unburned indication—of any records more recent. Nor did they find any more golds or silvers, although there were signs that other looters had been there, but it appeared they had found nothing of great value either.

  In his riding back and forth from the post to the entombed governor’s square, Quaeryt also traveled different routes through Extela to see how repairs were coming and how many shops and crafters were back at work … and it did appear that the majority were actually open. How well they were doing was another question, but he could hope that their being open was a good sign.

  In the end, until Baharyt’s efforts were more urgently needed, Quaeryt assigned the junior clerk and a half squad of troopers to continue looking through the shambles that had been the governor’s building in an effort to find and salvage any records of any possible usefulness. He wondered if he should have tried such reclamation sooner, but it still seemed to him that he’d been right to place restoring order and providing food ahead of finding tariff ledgers and other records. He then had Skarpa assign several rankers to accompany Jhaylt while the chief clerk tried to locate and contact past tariff collectors.

  At eighth glass on Meredi morning, Quaeryt rode to Aextyl’s dwelling to see if the old justicer had returned from Tulagne. Only half a squad accompanied him, since Extela had returned to an appearance of order, and since the troopers were better used in patrolling areas where the Civic Patrol did not have enough men to cover—and helping Baharyt and the engineers.

  A sad-faced hound, chained to the side of the house, bayed once as Quaeryt dismounted, then watched him as he walked up the steps.

  A narrow-faced woman whose blond hair was streaked with gray opened the door. “Yes?”

  “I’m Governor Quaeryt, and I’m here to see High Justicer Aextyl.”

  The woman’s eyes hardened, then looked past to the ten uniformed troopers, still mounted and waiting, one of whom was holding the reins to Quaeryt’s mare. After a moment she looked reluctantly back to Quaeryt. “He’s no longer a justicer, Governor.”

  “I know that, but I would still like to see him.”

  Another long moment passed. Then she sighed. “Very well. If you’d come in. He’s in his study.”

  Quaeryt followed the woman through an entry hall that was more the size of a small vestibule and down a narrow hallway for only a few yards to an oak door aged to a deep golden brown shade. She stopped at the doo
r, barely ajar. “Father … the new governor is here to see you.”

  “Send him in, daughter. Send him in,” replied a hearty voice.

  At the woman’s gesture, Quaeryt stepped into the modest study, more like a small library, with bookcases on every wall. The door closed behind him. The man who sat in the worn brown leather-upholstered chair had a lined face with sunken cheeks, wispy white hair, and red-rimmed eyes. Even so, those pale green eyes were intent and imparted a cheerful expression.

  “Good morning, Governor. Do sit down. You’ll pardon me if I don’t stand.”

  Quaeryt smiled as he seated himself in the straight-backed chair. “I appreciate your taking the time to see me.”

  “Time … time … these days I’ve got plenty of that.” The alert green eyes continued to study Quaeryt. “Hmmm … a scholar. That’s what they said, but you never know. How did Bhayar ever have the nerve to appoint a scholar? Or is your father a High Holder to whom he’s beholden?”

  “I was orphaned when I was barely more than an infant and raised by the scholars of Solis. I was scholar advisor to Lord Bhayar, and then a scholar to the governor of Tilbor, and then princeps there before Lord Bhayar sent me here. After I became princeps, he insisted I marry his sister.”

  Aextyl laughed. “Rather the other way round than the path taken by most ambitious young men. They usually wed the sister or daughter to obtain the position.” He studied Quaeryt again. “You look more like a ship’s officer than a scholar.”

  “I spent time at sea, six years before I returned to being a scholar.”

  “So … now you’re the governor. I hear that you’ve already changed things. Any change is welcome, and if it took an eruption to get it … then things might have been for the best.”

  “With almost a quarter of the city destroyed?”

  “Scythn was destroying it already.”

  “Was that why you stepped down?”