The Legend of Broken

“That was his doing, and not ours,” Caliphestros angrily declares, his fears reignited rather than calmed. “My companions and I sought only to escape this damned city, that has done each of us such injustice.” He glances at the panthers: Stasi’s daughter paces in growing and dangerous confusion, and is clearly prepared to commit more violence of the variety that was inflicted on Baster-kin and his Guardsmen but moments ago, if such becomes necessary. She is only prevented from doing so by her mother: Stasi seems able to communicate to her offspring that these men — particularly the Bane before them, but the soldiers, as well — are not to be feared or attacked: not yet, at any rate.

“It is true, Sentek Arnem,” Keera declares, using the title that the commander of the Broken army seems, for the moment, to prefer, as a method of appealing to him. Veloc and Heldo-Bah nod in agreement. “We arrived just as the two parties met,” the tracker continues. “Caliphestros, Stasi, and her child were attempting only to leave the city, when Baster-kin goaded the Guardsmen with him — who, we now discover, had murdered the priests dispatched by your own God-King to arrest the Merchant Lord — into another, similarly treacherous attack: a decision that they would have been wise not to have taken, if escape was their goal.”

“Although,” Heldo-Bah says, “had they continued to try to run, and made for the East Gate, they would have encountered us, and met with the same fate — if delivered through slightly different means …”

“You would have done murder within the city walls, Heldo-Bah?” Arnem asks.

And for the first time, the three Bane look at Arnem with expressions in their faces that somewhat resemble Caliphestros’s own. “Murder—Yantek?” Heldo-Bah replies, deliberately provoking Arnem. “Were those not your orders — to hunt down and bring to justice every member of Baster-kin’s Guard that could be found?”

“I make no complaint about the Guardsmen,” Arnem answers. “But I gave no orders as to what was to be done with Baster-kin himself.”

“The chief of the Guard was not to be considered a member of it?” Veloc replies, somewhat astonished. “One who had already ordered the killing of an escort of priests who acted under the direct instruction of your God- King?”

“There is troubling inconsistency in that, Yantek, you must confess,” Keera adds gravely. “And, as I have told you, it was they who, in accordance with the Merchant Lord’s orders, attempted to bring about the completion of the sentence — the unjust sentence, as I have heard you yourself say — that was passed upon Caliphestros, so many years ago. The panthers acted in self-defense, and defense of their benefactor — and by urging them all to stay here, we sought only to make that great man’s wisdom available to you, as you assume your new powers.” Keera’s expression changes from surprise to suspicion. “But perhaps we have misunderstood the matter …”

“Yes,” Caliphestros says to the three Bane, nodding. “Now you begin to see it …”

“What ‘new powers’ do they speak of, Sixt?” Isadora says, moving with Dagobert to her husband’s side.

But affairs at hand command Arnem’s attention: “Allow me to say that, on the contrary, it is you, Caliphestros, who do not begin to see,” the yantek calls to the sage. “If this proclamation is true — and it bears the royal seal — then you shall be a lord and an advisor again.”

“I?” Caliphestros laughs. “To whom? To a king whom I knew to be perverse from boyhood, and whom I watched become still more treacherous than ever Baster-kin was as he grew? Or perhaps to his sister, who will wish my throat cut at the earliest opportunity, to rid herself of certain— inconvenient memories? Or is it to the Grand Layzin that you will recommend me, when he himself pronounced me a sorcerer, a heretic, and a criminal deserving of torture and death?”

“No, Lord Caliphestros,” Arnem replies. “You shall become an advisor to me.” The commander glances about at the collected crowd of soldiers, Bane, and residents of the Fifth District. “You have all heard the words that Niksar has proclaimed?” To their general assent, he turns to his wife and son, and summarizes the principal points it contains: “The Merchants’ Council is to be abolished, and the Merchants’ Hall destroyed. Rendulic Baster-kin is declared an enemy of the kingdom, to be arrested and suffer whatever punishment the God-King desires. The Yantek of the Army of Broken—”

“You, Father,” Dagobert says.

“It would seem so,” Arnem replies, not without some reluctance. “The Yantek of the Broken Army will become the chief secular official and power in the kingdom.”

“Father!” Dagobert declares, his recent battle seeming somehow and wholly vindicated.

“The ‘secret children’ of Rendulic Baster-kin—” And to the confusion of most of his assembled audience at this statement, Arnem raises a hand. “I know of this reference, so be calm, all of you. It is enough to say that they are alive, and that their ‘cursed nature’ is declared an innocent inheritance, passed down by the traitor Baster-kin. They are decreed mere unfortunates, to be placed under the healing care of Lady Arnem.” He glances for a moment at his wife. “The Kastelgerd Baster-kin shall, for the time their healing takes, be returned to the supervision of its seneschal, Radelfer. Other members of the Baster-kin family may serve the God-King in their offices in other parts of the kingdom, unless and until they reveal similarly treasonous intentions as the former chief of their clan. Finally, one khotor of the Broken army, rather than the now-finished Merchant Lord’s Guard, shall see to peace within the walls of the city, in cooperation with the household guard that Radelfer has informally assembled in the Kastelgerd Baster-kin.” Rolling the parchment and handing it back to Niksar, Arnem continues, “And you, wife, are absolved of all wrongdoing. As is Visimar. The Fifth District is to be rebuilt, not destroyed. That siege, along with the attempt upon the life of the God-King blamed upon the Bane, were parts of Baster-kin’s pernicious plan to gain near-absolute power, and did not originate with his superiors or with those in Davon Wood. There are more but lesser details, all in the same spirit. And I remind you, Caliphestros, it bears the God-King’s seal.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Caliphestros finally answers, “Sentek — Yantek, whatever rank you now accept: have you seen the proclamation that was posted throughout the city before our entry? It also bears the royal seal.”

Seeing that Arnem has not, Niksar takes a sheet of parchment — this one coated with some kind of glue or lacquer — from a nearby soldier. “One of the scouts cut this from a wall in the Third District, Yantek — they have been posted throughout the city.”

Arnem quickly reads the thing, then passes it to his wife. “And what of it? It simply states the same information, in briefer form.”

“Sixt …,” Isadora says, her voice suddenly worried.

“Your wife sees the truth now as clearly as she did when she studied with the wisest woman in Broken,” Caliphestros declares, somewhat mollified. “My lady,” he goes on, putting a hand to his chest and bowing as much as he can from his place astride Stasi’s neck and shoulders. “Though I did not myself know you, then, I knew your mistress — a fact she doubtless withheld from you. She even suggested that you become one of my acolytes — an offer I refused, for your own safety. It required no great insight to see that you were destined for an important place, and should not risk your life in my service. The fate of Visimar — though he is, thankfully, with us today — and the even worse ends met by the others who followed me will attest to the wisdom of that decision.”

“My lord,” Isadora answers, with no little surprise and gratitude. “Praise from you is honor indeed — my mistress ever said so.” She turns to her husband. “And for this reason, Sixt, I must, as your wife, echo his concerns. This proclamation, issued before the conflict was decided, favors neither you nor Baster- kin. It is, indeed, so worded as to have made the citizenry believe that whichever side emerged triumphant, the God-King and the Grand Layzin had divined and approved the outcome.”

Reviewing the pronouncement, Arnem tilts his head in confusion. “That is one interpretation, surely. But it is the most cynical, to say nothing of the most sinister …”

“Cynical?” Heldo-Bah declares. “Sinister? Yantek Arnem, we, too have seen this decree, and know that your wife speaks only good sense, by the bloody, piss-stained face of—”

“Heldo-Bah!” Keera is forced to order. “Do not worsen matters with your foul blasphemies — of any kind.”

“Blasphemies or no, Yantek Arnem,” Caliphestros says, “you reveal with the smallest statement that you