Ordermaster

by L. E. Modesitt Jr.

  “Yes, ser?” She glanced toward the kitchen nervously. “Selda’s your server...”

  “Not about servers,” Kharl replied. “A silver for you, if you can answer a question or two. Nothing more.’

  “A silver?” Clearly, she didn’t believe him.

  He beckoned for her to lean down. “When I was here, a year ago, there was a dark-haired girl, very friendly. Enelya, I think her name was. She had a sister, too, except something terrible happened to her.”

  “Right awful it was. She drowned in the harbor. The sister, I mean. Poor thing.”

  “Does Enelya ...?”

  “Left here, not more ‘n eightday ago. Couldn’t say where.”

  Kharl could tell she was lying. He added a second silver to the first. “You might know where she went.”

  “Couldn’t say, ser.” Her voice wavered.

  “Is she in trouble?”

  The server glanced to the door. “Please, ser.”

  “Egen?” Kharl added another silver.

  Her mouth opened. “She told him no.” Her eyes darted away. “Said she had to go. Knew a place to hole up, wasn’t bein’ used. Didn’t say where.” “The urchin’s place?”

  The girl’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell.”

  Kharl pressed the silvers into her hand. “I won’t. Tell the others that you’re meeting me later.” He smiled. “Then sneak away and get some sleep.”

  “Ser...”

  “Go...”

  She darted away, but Kharl noted that she had kept the silvers-out of sight.

  “Ser?” asked Erdyl.

  “Later.” Kharl took another small swallow of the lager. He kept listening, but he heard nothing new.

  After another half glass, he nodded to Demyst. “Time to go.” He stood and could feel eyes turning to watch him and the others as they walked from the White Pony.

  Outside, Kharl walked to the first cross street, Second Cross, and turned westward.

  “Ah, ser,” murmured Erdyl, “the residence is back that way.”

  “I know,” Kharl said cheerfully. “We need to investigate something.”

  “You know where the missing server is, don’t you?” Erdyl’s tone was almost accusatory. “What does she know?”

  “I don’t know, but I’d like to find out. I’d also like to repay a favor, if I can.” Kharl lengthened his stride. The air had cooled some while they had been in the White Pony, and a slight breeze blew out of the north, mixing the scent of harbor and dead fish with smoke, cooking oil, and other odors. A year before, he would not even have noticed the smell.

  As they neared where Second Cross met Copper Road, Kharl could not only see but sense the Watch patrollers coming up the darkened Copper Road, even before he heard their boots on the yellow brick pavement of the street, not that he could tell the color in the darkness, but he recalled it all too well. “Patrollers are coming.”

  Demyst, Cevor, and Alynar all checked their sabres. Belatedly, so did Erdyl.

  Kharl stopped at the intersection, waiting.

  “Where are you headed?” The lead patroller barked at Kharl. Then as his eyes took in Demyst, Erdyl, and the two guards, he added, “Ser.”

  “I was taking an evening walk, patroller,” Kharl said politely. “I was told it was unwise to walk alone. So I brought some friends.”

  The patroller looked at Kharl, then at Erdyl and the others. “Can be, ser. Take care. Best to avoid the area just above the harbor.”

  “Thank you.” Kharl watched as the patrollers turned and headed back along Second Cross.

  “... hate that... have to tell the serjeant... five of ‘em ... three guards .. . think I’m going to take on that...”

  “... serjeant understands ...”

  “Captain doesn’t.. .”

  “Serjeant won’t tell him ... never does ...”

  Only when the patrollers were a good five rods away did Kharl turn onto Copper Road, heading toward the tannery and the rendering yard.

  Kharl could smell the rendering yard long before they reached it, except the pungency was not what he had recalled. “That’s the Tenderer’s.”

  “Looks like the gate’s boarded up,” Erdyl said, stopping momentarily.

  Kharl tensed momentarily, then took a deep breath. Werwal had been known for speaking his mind. “Is there a proclamation or anything posted there?”

  “No, ser.”

  Werwal would have to wait. There was little Kharl could do now. There might be little enough he could do for Enelya, but if the other server at the White Pony knew where she was, she would not be safe from Egen long. Kharl kept walking.

  Uphill from the Tenderer’s was the serviceway off the alley, and Kharl recalled both all too well. He stopped and studied the short serviceway beyond the alley.

  “You going in there, ser?” asked Demyst.

  “There aren’t any brigands or beggars here,” Kharl replied softly. He eased forward along the alley, then turned into the serviceway, stopping short of the brick wall. Behind it were hidden two walls less than four cubits apart, one the brick wall of the renderer and the other stone wall of Drenzel the tanner. Even in the dim light the ancient and worn yellow bricks of the wall directly before him stood out from the newer red bricks paving the serviceway. He cast his order-senses beyond the wall that was but a head or so above his own height. One person crouched in the hidey-hole that had been Jeka’s. Enelya? Who else could it be?

  “She’s alone,” Kharl whispered to Demyst. “I’m climbing over.”

  “Ser!” hissed the undercaptain.

  “I’ll be careful.”

  Kharl scrambled up to the top of the wall, then used his order- senses to harden the air just outside where Enelya crouched in the hidey-hole Jeka had made-or found. He stumbled slightly coming down off the wall, but caught his balance. There was no sound from behind the worn burlap that concealed the hidey-hole.

  “Enelya, I’m someone Jeka sent.”

  Still no sound.

  “You stay here, and Egen’ll find you, sure as I’m standing here.”

  She lurched from the hole, half-staggering, half-lunging at him, using a sabre broken off a span short of the tip-but with a sharp and jagged edge that almost came to a point.

  Clang! Fragments of metal sprayed off the hardened air shield onto the summer-hardened clay between the two walls. Enelya went down in a heap.

  Kharl could sense the knife.

  “The knife won’t help. You can either trust me, or wait for Egen to find you.”

  “Won’t go ... no one ...”

  Kharl stood there. What could he do? He didn’t know the gentler uses of order. After a moment, he tried again, speaking softly and trying to use his order-senses to project a sense of truth and calm. “I’m trying to help you.”

  “No one can.”

  “I can.” He dropped the air shield, but remained ready to call it up again if he needed to.

  “Sure . .. and I’m Lady of Brysta.” Enelya sat up, her eyes taking in Kharl. Abruptly, she swallowed, looking at the fragments of metal on the clay, then at Kharl. “You some kind of mage?”

  “I know a little.”

  “Why didn’t you . ..” She shook her head.

  “It doesn’t work that way. It’s better for defense.” Kharl didn’t like mentioning magery, but he didn’t know what else to say.

  “You ... you coulda killed me.”

  “I’m trying to keep you from being killed.”

  “Why me? You’re some sort of mage ... or a lord. Easier to buy a girl from the Bardo ...” Enelya slowly stood, her eyes glancing past Kharl to the wall behind him.

  “I’m not looking for that. I’m trying to pay a debt.”

  “Think I’d pay a clipped copper for that?” The woman snorted.

  “For a friend. Jeka helped him, and he said you helped her. He said that you’d been through hard times. You lost your sister. Everyone thought she drowned in the harbor. Jeka told my friend that she almost drowned
as a child. She was afraid of water, and wouldn’t go near it.” “What do you want?”

  “I want to give you a position in my house, as a helper to the cook and as a server for dinners. I’ll pay you well, maybe not so much as you get at the White Pony, but you’ll keep every copper, and you’ll have a room of your own in a place where Egen won’t find you. Even if he did, he’d have to cross his father and his brother to hurt you.”

  “He would? How’s that?”

  “I’m the Austran envoy here in Brysta. I’ve been here less than two eightdays.”

  “Sure...”

  Kharl sighed. “Do you think that I’d go to the White Pony, and climb over Tenderer’s walls just to find someone for bed? Besides, you need a bath.”

  Abruptly, Enelya laughed, if softly. After a moment, she said, “How are you going to get me to your place safe-like?”

  Kharl gestured to the wall. “I have three guards and my secretary waiting to see if you’ll accept the offer.”

  There was a long sigh. “Guess I’ve got little choice.”

  “Ah . .. the knife ...” Kharl said. “If you want to keep it, then you go over the wall first.”

  “I’ll keep it.”

  Kharl stepped back until he was almost against the stone wall. “Then you may go first.”

  Enelya nodded, then nimbly climbed the wall.

  Kharl followed, half-amazed that the woman was waiting in the ser- viceway when he descended. Then, the four men had stepped back.

  “This is Enelya. I’ve offered her a position as a retainer at the residence. You’re not to mention her name to anyone except to people in the house.”

  “Yes, ser.”

  Kharl, his order-senses half on Enelya, led the way back to the residence. He did make one detour, to avoid another set of patrollers, but in half a glass, they stood in the back hall of the residence as Kharl rang the bell for Fundal.

  The steward appeared, dressed in his trousers and boots, and in a hastily donned tunic.

  Fundal looked from Kharl to the bedraggled Enelya. “Ser?”

  “This is Enelya. She’s going to help Khelaya ... and you, when she’s not working in the kitchen. She has some experience serving, but it’s mostly in taverns.”

  “Ah ... ser,” stammered the steward.

  “It’s not like that,” Kharl snapped. “She once helped someone I knew. Someone I owe a lot to. There’s a man after her who’d kill her if he could. I’m paying a debt, and I don’t want a word about her going out of the residence. It does, and you go with it.” Kharl’s last words were cold.

  Fundal took a step backward and swallowed.

  “She’ll need some better clothes, but I imagine Khelaya can help with that, and she’s to have something to eat and a chance to clean up.”

  “Ah ...” Fundal kept glancing from the woman to Kharl, then back to Enelya.

  “Fundal...” Kharl sighed.

  “You seen what’s happening to women here?” asked Demyst, glaring at the steward.

  Surprised by the undercaptain’s statement, Kharl glanced at Demyst.

  “I have,” came another voice-Khelaya’s. The cook stepped into the foyer. She nodded to Kharl. “Begging your pardon, Lord Kharl, but I was checking the marinade.” Her eyes went to Enelya. Her voice softened. “You need a bath, woman, and some clean clothes. We’ll take care of you.” She looked back toward the men. “There won’t be any words out of the kitchen, and it’s about time we got more help around here, ser, especially if you want functions.”

  Kharl suppressed a grin.

  Khelaya looked at Kharl. “Lord Kharl... best you lay out that set of garments for cleaning. Look like you’ve been crawling through alleys.”

  “We have,” Kharl replied. “And I will.”

  He was smiling as he headed upstairs. He only hoped that Enelya would realize that she was safer in the residence than anywhere else.

  LXVIII

  Kharl woke on fiveday to a gray drizzle outside his open windows. The air was so warm that he was covered in sweat, even though he had thrown off the light sheet sometime in the night. He struggled to his feet and to the bath chamber. There, after shaving, he splashed his face with cool water, knowing that the relief would be momentary and the afternoon would be even steamier.

  Had Enelya stayed or sneaked off? He’d already decided that he would not pursue her if she had. One chance was enough. Still... he wondered what she really felt.

  After dressing, but not with either waistcoat or jacket, he slipped down the back stairs to the kitchen, using his sight shield to conceal himself. There, in the rear washroom, off the kitchen, Enelya was scrubbing something, actually humming to herself. She wore a faded maroon shirt and gray trousers. Her dark hair was tied back.

  Khelaya moved to the door, less than a rod from where Kharl observed through his order-senses. For a moment, she stood watching the younger woman, unaware of the concealed mage. Then she cleared her throat. “How’s that coming?”

  “Need more pumice, but it’ll be clean. Hasn’t been in a while, looks like.”

  “Way it ought to be, but never have enough people here to do things right.” Khelaya snorted. “You stay here, and you’ll be a big help. Don’t really have enough retainers here for a proper envoy’s residence. Lucky we are that Lord Kharl’s a practical sort.”

  “Lord Kharl. .. that was Lord Kharl that found me?”

  “Large as life.”

  “He’s really the envoy from Austra?”

  “Don’t know of none other. Good enough sort, but don’t mess with him. Set Fundal right about who had the best goods. I’d been telling Fundal that for years. Never listened to me. Lord Kharl had him straightened out in less ‘n day.” “What kind of lord is he?”

  “Can’t rightly say. He’s Lord Kharl of Cantyl, and he did a lot for Lord Ghrant when some of the lords rebelled. He’s some sort of advocate or something, too. Say he was an officer on a trading ship when he was younger.”

  “I wonder...” “What’s that?”

  “He knew about me. He said that he was paying back a favor because I’d been good to someone else. But... he knew where I was.”

  “He just showed up where you were hiding?” asked Khelaya.

  “Like he knew all about it.”

  “Someone musta told him. Do you know who?”

  “I’m not sure ... there was an old man, a beggar ... he was with a girl I grew up with in Sagana ... I was hiding where she’d been. She got a better place here in Brysta. Never said how ... Told me not to say where. Haven’t. Won’t.”

  “I’m not askin’,” Khelaya said with a laugh.

  Behind his sight shield, Kharl winced. Old man? Maybe he’d just looked that way when he’d been hiding from Egen while he had been waiting for the Seastag to return to Brysta.

  “Tellin’ you like it is.”

  “Just count yourself fortunate.” Khelaya sniffed. “Sun doesn’t always shine down the alleys.” After a moment, she added, “There’s more pumice in the storeroom. You can get it.”

  Enelya rose from beside the scrubbing tub. “I’ll be right back.”

  Kharl slipped away and up the rear stairs before releasing the sight shield. Then he made his way down the main staircase and to the breakfast room. Old man?

  He had barely seated himself before both Fundal and Khelaya entered the breakfast nook, almost behind Kharl.

  “Lord Kharl, ser?” began the steward.

  “Yes?”

  “About Enelya, ser?” asked Fundal. “You never said ...”

  Kharl studied the two. Fundal shifted his weight from boot to boot. Khelaya wore a faint smile above the batter-stained apron.

  “How much to pay her?” Kharl frowned. “Isn’t there a standard wage for servers? Or wasn’t there?”

  “Last one we had was Chovara,” Khelaya said. “She got a silver an eightday. That was two seasons back, though.”

  Kharl reflected. Khelaya received three silvers an eightday, as wel
l as a large room in the rear quarters. “She’s getting a room and food.”

  “Better than she had,” said Fundal.

  “She needs better clothes,” added Khelaya, “if you want her to serve at functions.”

  “What do you two think?” Kharl nodded at Fundal.

  “Silver an eightday.”

  “Silver and three,” suggested Khelaya.

  “How about a silver and two?” Kharl said. “But she gets three silvers for better clothes. Just this one time.”

  The two exchanged glances. Then both nodded.

  “Why don’t you both tell her?” Kharl paused, then added, “I checked the ledgers. You’ve both been paid the same amount for over two years. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, ser.”

  “Starting this eightday, you each get more. A silver an eightday more. Each. For now.” Both smiled.

  “And you can promise Enelya that she can look forward to more if you are both satisfied with her work.”

  “Yes, ser.”

  After Fundal had left, Kharl reminded himself that he also needed to raise Mantar’s wages, but less than those of Khelaya and Fundal. From what he could see, Fundal and Khelaya were doing most of the work, although the steward did the dirty cleaning when he thought Kharl would not be needing him, something Kharl had become first aware of when he and Demyst had inspected the empty barracks spaces. He didn’t know about the gardener. He’d have to talk that over with Fundal and perhaps Mantar.

  Khelaya returned with a platter of fresh egg toast and ham slices, and a small pitcher of redberry syrup. “Here you are, ser.”

  “Thank you.” He paused. “Do you think she’ll work out?”

  “I’d say so, ser, but the proof’s in the pie.”

  Kharl laughed softly. Wasn’t that always so?

  After breakfast, he ushered Erdyl into the study, closing the door behind him.

  The secretary waited, a faintly quizzical look on his unlined face.

  “Erdyl... I have another task for you.”

  “Ser?”

  “The Tenderer’s place we passed last night. .. there’s a tannery just above it.”

  Erdyl’s quizzical smile faded.