'That's silenced him, thank the gods,' muttered the Snake.
He could not speak, not even to cut that damned snake to pieces. That Peddo was hiding his eyes behind a hand did not blunt the shock.
The commander studied him. There was not a hint of softening, not in her, not even though she had let him into her bed off and on for over a year about twelve years back, before he became a legate and she the commander. Before her injury. She was not a woman swayed by fond memories. She was not sentimental, not as he was. If nightmares haunted her, she gave no sign of it. She was cold and hard and in charge of an impossible situation.
The Guardians are dead and gone.
And the young Joss, that utterly stupid and bullheaded youth who had thought far too much of himself back in those days, was the one who had brought that knowledge back to the reeve halls while abandoning his lover and her eagle to be murdered at the hands of a band of criminals who had never been caught and bound to justice for the deed. Maybe, somehow, by breaking the boundaries, he was the one who had brought it down on their heads.
As if the commander knew the way his thoughts were tending, and because she would not have said those words if she hadn't meant to hurt him, she went on.
'So. That leaves us with a hundred towns, a hundred villages, a hundred arkhons, a hundred captains, a hundred lords and landowners, a hundred local guild masters, a hundred times over, according to the holy tales recorded by Sapanasu's clerks and chanted by the Lady's mendicants. Any of these towns and villages and lords and guilds may be governed by a wise or by a foolish council, according to what fortune or misfortune has befallen their leading clans. Any of these councils may support an indifferent or a useful militia, according to their custom and that of the surrounding clans. That leaves the holy temples, whose authority is unquestioned but diffuse. And that leaves us, the six reeve halls, over whom I stand as Commander. Which position, as you know, gives me no authority except that of suggestion and coordination. Not in the halls, and not in the temples, and not in the Hundred. This is the strength we possess against an enemy who may not even be an enemy, one who cannot be found or grasped.'
'It's part of what's happened in Herelia,' said Peddo suddenly. 'Every village and town asking reeves to depart and never come back. No reeve patrols in Herelia now. The folk there came to hate us because they didn't trust us. Because they feared someone or something else even more. There's a power at work in Herelia, everywhere north of Iliyat and the Haya Gap. Yet we can't track it down.'
Her gaze, bent on Peddo, caused him to sit back and grin nervously, as does a boy called out for whispering to his neighbor during recitation drill.
'This is the strength we possess,' she repeated. 'And it is failing us.' She turned that gaze on Joss. He stood his ground, even under her harsh stare. 'I need Master Tanesh. He has supported the city by providing triple rations of grain and meat, although he's under no obligation to increase his tithing, and a doubled complement of young folk to serve their rotation in Toskala's militia.'
'All of which serve to protect his estates and investments.'
'Nevertheless, it ends up protecting all of us as well. I need Master Tanesh's support. And I need you concentrating on the matter at hand.'
'I thought a reeve's work to rule fairly and uncover abuses and bring criminals to justice at the assizes was the matter at hand.'
'You are so damned naive. You know what they call you?'
Joss glanced at Peddo, but the young reeve shrugged to show he hadn't a clue what the commander was going on about.
'The incorruptible,' she said with disgust.
'I take that as a compliment.'
'I suppose it is one given your predilection,' she said.
The Snake snickered. He was enjoying the free show.
'What I do when I am off duty has nothing to do with-'
She lifted a hand. He shut his mouth.
'I'm stripping you of your position as legate.'
'Stripping me-!'
She lifted her baton; she knew how to menace with it, although he wasn't actually within reach. 'I have already sent a messenger to Copper Hall asking Marshal Masar to appoint a new legate to Clan Hall. One who will replace you.'
He cursed under his breath. Had the wall been close enough, he would have slammed his fist through it-
'Never heard of a legate being stripped of his position like that before,' said the Snake. 'That must hurt.'
— Or into the Snake's face for the second time that day. But, thank the gods, the distance between them saved him from that folly. 'This is Master Tanesh's doing, isn't it? You're doing this to placate that bullying, lying, greed-ridden bastard.'
'No,' continued the commander in the manner of the flood tide, unstoppable, 'it's your own doing. You've forgotten that although the law is carved in stone, people are not. People are water, or earth, or fire, or air. They are not fixed and immutable. There must be room to maneuver, especially in an emergency. And this is an emergency.'
'But it's just that kind of thinking that's caused us to lose so much ground-'
She thwacked her baton against her desk, cutting him off. 'Also, bluntly: You drink too much. You're becoming unreliable.'
He indicated the Snake, whose stare challenged him. 'Reeves are often unreliable. In many different ways.'
The Snake flicked up a little finger. Peddo, seeing the rude gesture, winced.
The commander either ignored the exchange or did not notice it. 'Neither I nor the six marshals can unmake a reeve. However, I can ask for a legate to be withdrawn and replaced. As I have done. Because legates cannot be unreliable. Now. Do you want to know why I called you in today?'
'This hasn't been enough?'
'I'm hoping for much worse,' muttered the Snake.
'Volias,' said the commander in a tone so genial it seemed threatening. 'Do not tempt me to start in on you and your manifold faults.'
Peddo sucked in a breath, as if in pain. Then, amazingly, he laughed, and somehow his laughter released a bit of the tension in the chamber. Joss wiped his brow, chuckling. Even the Snake cracked a smile.
The commander nodded. 'I have a mission of particular importance. It is customary for the merchants' guild to hold its grand conclave in Toskala at the advent of every Year of the Fox. The fox being a cunning animal beloved of those who take to the merchant's craft. And so the merchants and folk associated with the guild convened at the Guild Hall at the end of this last ibex year. Their meeting is now over. The first topic among them, I am reliably informed, was the safety of the roads. Roads are their lifeblood. Without safe passage, a merchant cannot arrange for the transfer of goods.'
Joss's attention began to wander during this schoolroom speech. He noted how sparsely furnished the chamber was. Only last week a low couch had stood in the far corner, but now that space was empty except for a thin mat rolled up and tied with red string. The cupboard with its multitude of cubbyholes and small drawers remained, on the other side, but the fine glazed vase, normally filled with flowers and set atop the cupboard to give the room some color, was missing. A large gold-plated hairpin weighed down papers on the desk. The commander had served the Lantern in her youth; her ability to write and read was one of the reasons she had been elevated to the post. Her pen-and-ink case, lid firmly closed, sat by her right hand. A painted chest sat on the matting behind her, so she need only turn to get into it. An enameled tray had been shoved back, to the left; it held an orangeware ceramic pot suitable for brewing khaif, as well as two thin wooden drinking bowls small enough to cup in the hands. No doubt Master Tanesh had been offered the hospitality of the hall. Where had the couch and vase gone?
'According to the delegation who met with me this morning, the guild council in association with the guild of carters and transport compiled a list of roads along which caravans and wagons have been attacked in the last three years. These are attacks, mind you, in which both the attack and its aftermath were at no time witnessed by or in contact with reeves. The list is extensive, the danger widespread, and moving steadily into the southern
