Ordermaster (53 page)

"He supported Vielam, then."

   
"Let us surmise that he disliked Vielam less than his brothers. He left after the first of the Hamorian white wizards arrived."

   
The more Kharl heard, the less he liked what he felt was happening in Brysta. "I have heard reports of brigandage. One of our merchanters told the lord-chancellor that his men were prevented from traveling south for goods for that reason."

Luryessa laughed. "All the would-be brigands are working in the quar-

ries that Egen has reopened. Do not have any of your retainers walk the streets alone, particularly at night."

"Every man not a lord and not likely to be missed is a brigand?"

"Or a beggar or a thief."

   
Kharl could easily believe that of Egen. "Why does he need that many?"

   
"They're building a road to the south, following the old road to Surien."

"For trade?"

   
"That is the claim, but work on the road did not begin until Lord South refused to consort his daughter Estelya to young Egen."

"And the Hamorians?"

"They are providing tools and knowledge. So they say."

Kharl snorted.

"You doubt the honorable intentions of Hamor?"

   
"From what I have seen, Hamor has no intentions that are honorable. Although I have been told that the Emperors of Hamor are patient, I have doubts about this emperor."

   
"His mightiness Sestar reached his majority less than two years ago. He is little older than your Lord Ghrant. As you surmise, he is not considered patient." The Sarronnese laughed, sardonically, yet good-naturedly. "You have been to Cigoerne, then?"

"Only to Swartheld. Have you seen Cigoerne?"

   
"I have. It is most beautiful, most cultured, and terrifying in what it represents."

"Oh?" Kharl did not know exactly how to respond to that statement.

   
"The city is pleasant and beautiful, as is all around it. But, two hundred kays to the north is Luba, where the sky is black with soot and dust and ashes, and where thousands of furnaces and steam engines roar day and night. To the west stretches the Great Highway, a white stone road that will reach all across Hamor to Atla in the east. It, too, is proud and beautiful, and few see the quarries where thousands labor endlessly." Luryessa gave the smallest of shrugs.

"Beauty built on misery and slavery?"

   
"The Hamorian philosopher Aurelat wrote that most men live lives of misery, and that is indeed the human condition. Since misery has always existed, continues to exist, and always will, he posited that a ruler's task

was to harness that misery in the most productive of ways, creating structures of beauty and providing adequate food and lodging for all so that their misery could be most effectively used to improve the land and the world."

"That serves the lords and the emperor most effectively."

   
"Aurelat has been a favorite of the emperors, especially after he drowned in his bath a hundred years ago."

"I see."

"Do Lord West or his sons know that you are an order-master?"

   
"I am to present my credentials on twoday. I have not said anything about my small abilities."

   
"Most wise. Still, it will not be that long before it is rumored that you are a mage. Lord West retains a chaos-wizard, and anything known in that keep does not remain there. Once that becomes known, those who favor greater alliance with Hamor will claim that your presence signifies an alliance between Nordla and Reduce."

   
"Reduce has never allied with anyone. It is not likely to do so now," Kharl pointed out.

   
"What is in fact has never changed the minds of those who wish to believe otherwise."

Kharl could not argue that. "Is it known that you are a sorceress?"

   
"No, but all women envoys of the Legend-following lands are considered sorceresses. So we never affirm or deny it. What good would it do?" Luryessa's lips quirked. "It is said that you have been studying the laws of Nordla. I would not have thought that of much use, since the lord justicers neither know them nor follow them."

   
"I had heard such," Kharl admitted. "I am hopeful that the way in which they do not follow them might prove helpful in understanding Brysta."

   
"You have greater hopes than do I." Abruptly, she turned, her hand on the lever of the closed study door. "Come, let us have some refreshments, and I will tell you what I know of Brysta and Ostcrag, Lord West."

"And about Sarronnyn. I know little of Sarronnyn," Kharl confessed.

   
"We can help with that." Luryessa opened the door to the private study, then led him through the main library and farther down the corridor to a smaller parlorlike room. The chamber held a circular table of black lorken, inlaid with a floral border of white oak. Five chairs were set around the circular table. The only other furnishings were chest tables set against

the inside walls. Wide glass windows stretched the length of the outside wall, overlooking a garden, except the garden was almost entirely of stones arranged in a pattern that Kharl thought he should recognize, but didn't.

   
Luryessa gestured toward the windows and the garden beyond. "The stone garden is a copy of one I once saw in Viela. I tried to have it laid out from my memory, but you never know. The druids are good with sand and stone, for all that they prefer the forest." After the briefest of pauses, she added, "Please sit down. Ziela will be bringing the refreshments. I've taken the liberty of offering you Shyrlan. It's a light white wine, very refreshing on hot sultry days like these. If you don't like it, we can offer other vintages, or pale ale or lager, as well."

"You know more of it than I do." Kharl smiled.

   
A slender girl, wearing a blue shirt and matching blue trousers, appeared with a tray. Deftly, she set a fluted crystal goblet before Kharl and another before Luryessa, followed by a small blue porcelain plate. Then came three platters, each with different kinds of pastries, which she placed equidistant from the two envoys.

"Thank you, Ziela," said Luryessa.

"Thank you," echoed Kharl.

   
They received a slight bow, and then Ziela was gone. As the serving girl slipped away, Kharl realized that he had not seen a single boy or man since he had entered the Sarronnese residence.

Luryessa lifted her goblet. "To your success as an envoy, Lord Kharl."

   
"And to your continued success." Kharl could detect no hint of chaos or anything untoward in the nearly clear wine, nor in the miniature cakes and pastries on the oval platters of blue-tinted porcelain. He took a small sip. While he was no expert on wines, the Shyrlan was light and cool, as Luryessa had promised, with a slight sweetness and a hint of a fragrance that was fruitlike, but not like any fruit he had ever tasted. "This is good."

"You doubted me?" Her voice was light.

"I did not doubt you, but I am no expert on wines."

   
"You have great knowledge in other matters, I am most certain, else you would not be here."

   
"I've never heard of a name like Luryessa," Kharl said, not wishing to discuss his expertise or lack of such and hoping that comments about her name were harmless enough.

   
"You may never hear of it again. It's an old name, and in the tongue of the Legend, it means 'of Ryessa,' or of the lineage of Ryessa."

   
Having no idea who Ryessa might be, Kharl just nodded and took a sip of the white wine.

   
"Ryessa was the Tyrant of Sarronnyn and the older sister of Megaera. Megaera was a powerful white sorceress in the days of Westwind. I don't know if you're familiar with the founding of Reduce, but she ..."

"That Megaera? You're related to her?"

   
"More to her older sister, according to family stories, but that was hundreds and hundreds of years back." Luryessa grinned. "Seven hundred and eight, actually."

   
Kharl took another sip of the wine, then followed Luryessa's example and lifted one of the white-glazed pastries onto his small plate.

   
"Sarronnyn went into a period of great decline after Megaera's departure," Luryessa went on. "It was gradual, so gradual that few noticed until just before the great cataclysm. Then the Iron Guard of Fairven and the white wizards began to build the last of their great highways. That was the one through the Westhorns so that they could bring Sarronnyn and all the west of Candar under their rule."

   
"But that didn't last long," Kharl pointed out, recalling what Tarkyn had once told him. "Only for a few years."

   
"Less than that, actually, but that was only because Fairven and most of the wizards were destroyed, not because of any strength of Sarronnyn."

"No one knows who did that, do they?"

   
The faintest smile crossed Luryessa's lips. "It is a fair guess that a renegade black wizard and engineer from Reduce did so. There were ... artifacts . . . left, and they were of black iron. There were also bodies, but to this day, no one knows more than that."

"I'm sorry. I was asking about your name."

   
"The name of the Tyrant who let Sarron fall was expunged, never to be used again, according to her heir. So was the name Ryessa."

   
"Why Ryessa? She didn't have anything to do with the fall of Sarronnyn. She was long dead."

   
"The thought was that her handling of Megaera created Reduce and made the rise of Fairven possible. My grandmother disagreed. I was named for Ryessa as a protest. Now . .. names that suggest that lineage are frowned upon."

"Just frowned upon?"
        
>,

"In Sarronnyn, that is as good as an outright prohibition."

That said much to Kharl. "So you still have a Tyrant?"

"Absolutely. And we still follow the Legend."

"How long have you been the envoy here?"

"Six years."

"Isn't that long for an envoy?"

   
"It is, but.. . everyone feels more comfortable with me being here. That includes me."

   
"What can you tell me about Brysta that you think I should know?" Kharl took a bite from the pastry. The inside held a pearapple-almond filling. He managed not to lick his lips.

   
"It seems clear enough that the Hamorians are behind the road-building and the new patroller barracks. They seem to meet mostly with Captain Egen..."

That made great sense to Kharl, knowing what he did of Egen.

   
"They've also been overcharging for the goods they bring to Brysta, and refusing to buy Brystan wares unless they can get them at prices that beggar the sellers."

"But. . . people won't buy then, and they won't sell."

   
"Oh .. . where will the smiths and factors get iron stock? Or copper? Why do you think Egen has his men patrolling the roads to the south, and why there are some white wizards with his forces? Or why Vielam's road patrols to the north and east are levying road tariffs on all merchant traffic?"

"It's that bad?"

   
"No. It's worse. More than a half score merchanters have vanished in the past two seasons, all of them nearing or bound for Brysta or Sagana. They were all from smaller lands, places like Suthya and Spidlar."

"I've heard little of that, and neither has the lord-chancellor."

   
"He and Lord Ghrant doubtless suspect something. Otherwise, why would you be here?" Luryessa smiled once more, knowingly.

   
Kharl could not argue with either the logic or the smile, and he had no doubts that everything she had told him was true. He could only worry about what she had not said-or did not know.

   
"While there are details I may have glossed over, Lord Kharl, that is what we face here in Brysta."

   
There were more than a few details missing, but they wouldn't change the overall view, Kharl suspected as he took another sip of wine. "Could you tell me about the other envoys?"

"I could, but I'd rather not share that information until after you have

met them. Then, you can invite me for refreshments, and we can compare what we have seen."

   
Once more, Kharl could detect no evasions, and none of the chaos that generally signified lying or dishonesty. That was more disturbing than a lie would have been. "Then, if you will not share that information with me now, perhaps you could tell me about Sarronnyn, and about how people conduct their lives under the Legend ... and how you came to be an envoy."