The Invisible Hand

by Chris Northern

  A few moments of thoughtful silence passed as we ate, but I knew we weren't done here and it was Orasin who finally gave voice to what concerned him.

  "A magistrate of finance would be in charge of taxation and have authority over expenditure?"

  I nodded, rapidly translating his real meaning. "Someone has to do it. Under city law only direct beneficiaries pay direct tax. They are the top five classes of society based on wealth who are assumed to be benefiting from expenditure by government, and I see no reason to change that. Here, that would be only landlords and as yet there are none; but the tax on use of the pass and markets will provide income for the treasury. For now, as far as the city is concerned, only I and the knight Lendrin Treleth will be liable."

  There was a moments silence as they took it in. It was Vedat who put it into words. "You will pay tax?"

  "Just one of life's little ironies. Trust me, it works. You will see in time. For now I'll keep control of the courts and the military. But I won't be here forever." The real power and the legitimate purpose of government was tied up in those two things, the courts and military; the areas of responsibility I was dishing out to the magistrates were just jobs. Later, the real power would have to be handed over, and I intended to hand it to as many people as possible, as many as I could prepare in the meantime. I could see the three of them exchanging glances and recognised the stirrings of greed and ambition as they saw where their advantage lay, saw that they had their feet on the path that led to power. I was content with that. Men must want to do things out of their own inner drives, and greed and ambition were normal human traits that would motivate these men to action. Government, I reflected as I judged these men, was a 'necessary evil', with equal accent on each word. It is the work of the entire people to facilitate the necessary aspect and restrict and restrain the evil component, the tendency to centralize control and power in few hands to the detriment of the majority. I would give the entire people the tools to do that, and make sure they understood what those tools were and how to use them. Anyone here planning to advantage themselves at the expense of the people was in for a nasty surprise. I had no sympathy for that; after all, there are plenty of ways for those who govern to advantage themselves without exacting a price from their people.

  Of the four of them, Mielkan worried me the most. His experience was of oppression and I didn't doubt that he was still acting out of fear. I'd destroyed his town, slain his masters and led his people away from what they knew. When he realised that he had power, if he took it up and used it, he would be the most likely to wield it like a blunt instrument to the detriment of his own people. It was the way he had seen power used his whole life and was what he understood. He'd bear the most watching and had the furthest to go. The men of Learneth had been a free people with a stable government. The people of Darklake knew loyalty to their chieftain, at least. What did Mielkan and his people know? They knew fear and hunger, slavery and oppression. Still, I felt obliged to give them a chance at freedom and see what they did with it.

  "Is it your intention to create a single kingdom here?" Vedat said.

  "Not a kingdom," I said "a republic."

  I reached for the wine. I still had some more talking to do and it was starting to make me thirsty.

  #

  Sleep fled me in an instant of panic and instinctive movement. The blankets were flying toward the noise at the window and I was on my feet with a sword in my hand before I knew what was happening.

  "Not bad," Sapphire said, his face lit from the faint light that followed him through the open window.

  I stared at him for a moment, heart thudding slowly back to calm and breathing settling into a controlled rhythm. It took effort. I wasn't going to swear. That took effort, too.

  "What have you been doing?" I asked, as casually as I could, while I put the borrowed weapon back where it had come from.

  "Spying. There are a lot of people here and you can't assess them all, or freely act on what you find out."

  I frowned my suspicion. There had been deaths in the night. "I've had reports of deaths. Are you responsible?"

  "For one or two of them, yes."

  I closed my eyes, containing my irritation. "The laws are in place to protect people."

  "The laws protect the guilty as well as the innocent," he shrugged as though the matter was of no importance.

  "Stop killing people!"

  "No chance of that. Besides, they were plotting to kill you, why would you want me to let them try?"

  "If someone recognises you and prosecutes you, I will have to sit in judgement."

  "No one is going to recognise me." His face and body posture shifted suddenly and I was looking at a completely different man.

  I didn't recognise him, even though I knew who he was. The darkness of the room didn't account for all of it. "Illusion?"

  He shrugged. "Drugs and training and fear of failure."

  It was more of an answer than he'd give anyone else, I knew, with the possible exception of my father.

  He shifted back to look like himself. "You do understand that if you so much as hint of my abilities, I'll break your arms."

  "And Dubaku said we could be brothers."

  "I had a brother, Sumto. I killed him when I was eleven. So, not brothers." He grinned "Friends, maybe. How would that be? I haven't killed a friend yet."

  I didn't like the 'yet' part of that sentence. "Gods help your wife and children."

  His expression went suddenly blank. "I won't have a wife, or children."

  "I understand." Or I thought I did. He was afraid of hurting them.

  "I doubt it. Remember, most of us were boys, the girls didn't tend to last long. Picture the scene, lots of adolescent males full of fear and anger and tension. What do you think happened?

  "You're telling me..."

  "I'm not telling you anything. You are inferring something. Let's leave it like that, shall we? Do you have anything to eat?"

  "In the other room, or I can send out for something."

  He moved to leave the room and I found myself following him after pulling on some clothes. I didn't like what he had possibly revealed to me. Nor did I trust it. Who knew what his motives were in anything he said? I knew from experience that he revealed little, and that he valued his secrets. I guessed he revealed them to me because I needed to know what he was capable of. I probably knew as much about him as anyone alive but had no idea how much of what he'd told me was true. Had he just thrown out the question of his sexuality to deflect me from the other issues?

  I shrugged it off. It didn't matter; hopefully.

  I found him downing the residue of my last meal. I'd been too tired to finish it myself. It had been a long day, but a good start to things, I thought.

  "What are you doing here now?"

  He shrugged. "Reporting, if you want to listen."

  There was a movement outside the door and Sapphire backed against the wall before the guard looked in, sword in hand. "Sorry, Commander. We heard voices."

  I gestured to the food. "Hungry," I said "talking to myself."

  He frowned, sensing the lie but accepted it with a nod before he withdrew.

  Sapphire came away from the wall silently and gestured with a chicken drumstick to the inner chamber, passing me without waiting for my assent. I grabbed the wine and cups before following. He'd tested me to see if I was alert to danger, I realised, and he'd tested the guards at the door for the same reason. But he had succeeded in coming through the window unchallenged. I'd deal with that in the morning. It wouldn't happen again. I liked my sleep and he could find another way of reporting.

  "So, report," I said, keeping my voice low looking around for somewhere to sit that wasn't the bed, where he'd taken up residence.

  I heard his snort of laughter. "Sit on the damn bed, Sumto. It's a wound, not a sexual preference, and even if it were that, I'm not a rapist."

  "What?"

  "She got me in the groin but hit the wrong flesh,"
his voice was dark and cold. "She was the last girl left. I thought I loved her, and thought she loved me; we were fourteen. I still had delusions that more than one of us would survive the training; maybe that we would escape together. She had no such illusions. The knife sheered part of my manhood away... the important part."

  I didn't wince. I couldn't muster any kind of response at all and he was relentless, voice calm like it didn't mean anything.

  "I killed her then, of course. I had to act fast to survive all the same. I cauterized it. It was tricky, I had to seal some pipes and leave the important one functioning. It took time."

  I couldn't imagine it. I didn't want to. But I couldn't help imagining it.

  I sat on the bed. There was plenty of room. It was a big bed.

  "When I was done with that, enough so that I wouldn't bleed to death, I dragged her body into the hall and dumped it for disposal. There were few being dumped by that stage. We were all good by then; the survivors. It was that night I realised for sure that only one of us was going to make it through, and that night I resolved that it would be me. I reasoned that if I could kill her, I could kill anyone. That if she could try to kill me, then anyone could. It was a long night."

  I was stuck in my imagining of his memory. Sick with it, really.

  "You have enemies here. Best deal with them before they deal with you."

  I nodded after a while. There was nothing to say. I poured him a cup of wine and passed it over, then poured one for myself. A thought occurred to me and I bit my lip on it. Balaran or one of the top end healers could deal with even an old wound like that. But Sapphire would know that, wouldn't he? He wasn't looking for me to solve the problem; he was making a point.

  "You've made your point."

  "Good. The Necromancers’ leavings are rats, and you had better treat them that way. The women and children of Darklake hate you but are being bought, bit by bit. Those of Learneth are divided, some loved the Necromancers’ message and hold it in their hearts, but they hadn't been exposed to it for long and can be changed; some seem to have other loyalties that I haven't figured out yet. The rest are with you more or less, or looking to their own best advantage, which is the same thing for all practical purposes. It might have been different if Meran had acted sooner, but some of the resentments have been driven deep, and the fear-resentment-dependency-scavenger culture of the Necromancers’ lot have been more reinforced than anything. You'd be best off getting rid of them."

  "How?"

  "Why not shift them en masse to Duprane's Keep? Let them prey on each other and maybe grow into being able to handle the responsibilities of freedom."

  I nodded. It was an idea. I'd looked at the maps, knew the terrain, and knew they could scratch a living there to begin with, and make better lives than that if they worked at it. But I wanted to take a look at the keep myself, first. I'd move that up to tomorrow. And I needed to talk with Anista more than I had. I'd take her with me.

  "The wife of Orlek wants her town back to rule in her son's name until he's old enough, so you'd best be wary of her."

  "How do you know that?" I asked, wondering if he could read my mind.

  "She's a human being," he said. "Besides, her women are talking, what they say and don't say is instructive. What have you decided about the priest? He's another problem waiting to happen; some people revere him and that makes him a potential threat to your authority."

  "I need him for now, so he stays. I have him under house arrest." I had read Meran's report on the battle here and knew that Caliran had probably played a part in it, but I didn't see that he could do much harm locked in his rooms.

  Expression neutral, Sapphire was appraising me when I looked directly at him. He held the cup of wine untouched in one hand.

  "Killing people isn't always the answer," I said.

  He shrugged. "It's the simplest and most effective one, once you have identified a threat; but it's your decision."

  "Is there anything else?"

  "There are a lot of people here. I'll keep you informed. What about the rest?" He indicated the north and I took his meaning.

  "I'm sending Meran and Balaran with a century to bring Hederan to heel and deal with any Necromancers who may remain there. I'm not anticipating any problems with that. They'll take a full baggage train and head on into the Necromancers’ territory and bring that under control. I'd an idea to send the refugees here back to their own lands, but the keep is another solution, maybe better in the long run. Some of the people of Learneth will return to their own lands when Hederan is secured. It's all going to take time to resolve and settle."

  "So I told your father."

  I'd forgotten that he had a way of reporting to him. "And is he content?"

  Sapphire smiled. "Yes, well enough for now. Not that you are responsible to him. Still, he's mindful that you will be reporting everything to the assembly of patrons and needs to be aware of what happens here so that he can fend off possible problems there."

  "And are there any?"

  "He hasn't said so, but I'd be more surprised if there were none. At least one man won't take Tahal's death well, or the fact that the Grave is no longer a family secret. I'm wary of assassins."

  I’d forgotten about that. It was just one more thing to be aware of that I didn't need to be distracted by. After a long silence, while I digested what he had said, I sucked in a deep breath and blew it out.

  "So, that's all good, then," I downed the wine and put the cup on the floor.

  "Good enough," he agreed, getting to his feet and downing his own drink. "I'll see you tomorrow night," he said, then slipped out the window and disappeared silently.

  "Good luck with that." I intended to post extra guards.

  After a while I rolled back into my bed, hoping for sleep but not expecting it. It wasn't long before I gave up on the idea and got up. I took the wine into the other room and sat at the desk with freshly lit candles and drank while I thought. It had occurred to me that I might have just been lied to. I knew Sapphire, or thought I did, as well as anyone could, and I had trusted him. I imagined the situation; a thousand boys pushed hard, constantly under threat from their masters and each other. Few girls, getting fewer all the time. They would have turned to each other for comfort, I accepted. It was almost inevitable that sexual tensions would be high under those circumstances, and that they would need an outlet. So, maybe the first hint had been the truth and the second story a lie to make a point? Or maybe both stories were true, or neither. I couldn't know for sure. What I did know was that Sapphire was not the kind of man to need to unburden himself, or so he had always seemed to me; but he had told me things that I was sure he'd never told anyone else. He'd broached the subject of his childhood reluctantly, that first time, when he had agreed to teach me what he had scathingly called 'swordplay.' Then, in the Eyrie, he'd been close to death and exacted a promise from me to destroy the culture that had made him what he was. The scars ran deep. He knew what had been made of him and hated it. How much of that was related to what he had just told me?

  I sighed and rubbed at my face, feeling the fatigue and need for sleep that was going to be denied me. I poured more wine, staring into the dark. I was thinking myself in circles and getting nowhere. I did what I always did when something happened that I didn't understand. I forgot about it.

  #

  After rinsing my mouth out, I nearly spat the wine out the window but decided it would be a waste. I wondered how long it would be before it was safe to attempt to cast even the few simple cantrips I knew. Judging by the way I felt, it would be a while yet. The interrupted night’s sleep had left me feeling slow-witted and groggy, and the light and noise coming through the window had barely been enough to wake me.

  I watched a good number of my soldiers march through the settlement to their new, as yet unbuilt, quarters. They would be working through the day on that, I knew. The slope of the town gave me a view of the ruined gate and the marked off area outside; materials
had been acquired and I figured that it wouldn't be long before there was shelter enough for the men. It's surprising how quickly a well-practised military unit can get things done. I leaned out the window and looked down; it was ten feet to the ground. I'd have to post a guard outside somewhere to watch my window; or maybe on the roof. As I looked down it occurred to me that there was room enough for there to be chambers under the hall and I found myself wondering what was down there. Storage rooms? I shrugged. I'd explore later, when I had time. There was a lot of exploring I wanted to do. The terraces behind the town, for example. How extensive were they? How well used? The maps indicated a shallow valley back there, and I wanted to assess its current use as farmland. And the area around Duprane's Keep was woodland, but I had no idea what kind of trees grew there or how deep and fertile the soil was. Darklake could not be self-supporting with its current population, and I also wanted to explore how it could make money to buy in grain. People would solve their own problems in time, but I knew I would have to continue nudging things to get them started.

  The door opened behind me and I turned away from the window to see Renik entering with a bucket of steaming water, a clean towel thrown over one shoulder. Through the briefly open door I caught a glimpse of Meran and the centurions, and stifled a groan. Another day was starting and I'd just have to get on with it, regardless of how little I felt inclined to. Behind me, the rest of Darklake was waking and moving; many of them would be heading out to begin work on jobs I had hired them to do or to reclaim their land and work it. More and more of them would be waking with a purpose as the days passed, and soon enough I would be able to take time to indulge my own interests; the faster I shoved responsibility off onto other shoulders, the sooner that would be.