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Ghrant?
Hagen s countenance turned sober.  It s said that his older brother Ilteron
has landed an army at Bruel, and the highland barons of the west have thrown
in with him.
Bruel? Where the Hamorians could still send brimstone? Kharl decided not to
ask, not yet, instead saying,  I d heard that Ilteron was a cruel sort. Why
would they support him?
 They can accept his cruelty more than the rule of his brother. They dislike
the reforms that Lord Estloch forced on them and Lord Ghrant is said to favor.
Especially the right of peasants to buy their way out of indenture. They claim
that they ll lose all their lands because the peasants will all leave.
 How will most peasants ever raise that kid of coin? asked Kharl.
Hagen looked sharply at Kharl, then smiled wanly.  Most won t. It doesn t
matter. The highland lords are used to being absolute rulers over their lands.
The merchants and factors have more power in the north and east, and most
won t support Ilteron because they feel that his rule will ruin trade and
factoring.
 Are the east and west of Austra that different?
 They are indeed.
 Will the merchants and factors stand behind Lord Ghrant? I d heard that
someone on the factors council& 
 Guillam has left Valmurl. The others will hold for Ghrant, but it will be a
hard battle because Ilteron has more than a few companies of Hamorian-trained
free armsmen.
 Free armsmen?
 Armsmen who serve the highest bidder.
 The Emperor of Hamor is paying them, you think? asked Kharl.  With the
brimstone going there, isn t that likely?
 How would one know? I would guess so, but that isn t something that s proof& 
Hagen shrugged.  The highland barons love warfare, and they have waited for
years to take revenge on the easterners and merchants.
 If they are so warlike, how-
 They are fewer, and they could never long hang together, and when Lord
Estloch s great-great-grandsire subdued them, he stationed arms-men all along
the borders and stopped their raids. It was bloody, because the easterners
lost twice as many men, but Lord Isthel kept the highlanders from getting
enough food. After three years, they were starving, and he marched into the
highlands and leveled all their keeps and took all their weapons. For two
generations, he and his son garrisoned the west. Hagen laughed, ruefully.
 Then the garrison commanders became the lords of the highlands& 
Kharl shook his head.
 Seems like what the fathers learn, the grandchildren forget, Hagen said.
 Enough of that. I m keeping you from your work, and we ll need the Seastag
back afloat as soon as we can. He nodded.  Good to have you back. Then he
was gone.
Kharl turned his attention back to the planer and the next set of
measurements. As always, he recalled his father s maxim: Measure twice, cut
once.
But he still fretted about landowners who seemed just like Egen. Did every
land have them? What did it take to keep them from their evil? Was greater
power or violence always the only answer? Then he shook his head, ruefully.
Just what could a carpenter do?
Abruptly, he stopped.
Taleas had said that if he did not learn more about himself and the staff, he
would end up as dead as Tyrbel. With turmoil everywhere he went, those words
carried more impact.
LXXIII
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For the next several days, Kharl and the rest of the crew worked from just
before dawn to after dusk. By twoday of the following eightday, Kharl and
Tarkyn had replaced all the damaged planks in the Seastag, including several
that Tarkyn had not realized were damaged, but that Kharl s order-senses had
discovered. Kharl had been careful enough to show the damage with a hammer and
chisel, rather than claiming anything.
In the evenings, on a straight-backed chair pulled up under one of the few
wall lamps in the common room of the bunkhouse, Kharl had taken to reading and
rereading sections of The Basis of Order.
He was puzzling over a phrase- the greater the concentration of order within
objects, the greater the amount of free chaos in the world. At that moment,
the door to the outside opened, and a gust of wind whistled through the room
for the instant that it took a short and stocky man in a brown cloak to enter
and close the door behind him. The newcomer glanced around the common room
before his eyes lighted upon Kharl. Nodding, as if to himself, he stepped
forward.
Kharl closed the book, still holding it, and stood. Although he had never seen
the man, he could sense the darkness of order surrounding him.
 I ve heard about you-felt you as well. The man was well muscled, if graying,
and his hair and the tunic under his heavy brown cloak were almost the same
shade. He pulled up a chair and seated himself but a few cubits from Kharl.
Kharl sat down slowly.  Felt me?
 Bit old for a blackstaffer, though.
 Blackstaffer? Kharl shook his head.  I m not from Recluce. I m a cooper from
Brysta. Or I was. Who was the man, and what did he want with Kharl?
 You can t stay as a ship s carpenter forever, much as Hagen would like to
keep you. Sooner or later, you ll do too much, or one of Lord Ilteror/s mages
will discover you re here.
 An assistant to a carpenter?
 You re a better carpenter than Tarkyn is. He knows it, and that s why he has
you doing the precise work. He s been around long enough that it doesn t
bother him, and it makes his life easier. The other smiled.
 Why are you here? Kharl asked.  Who sent you?
 No one sent me. I came to see you, to offer you some insight& if you re
interested. You should be, if you ve got any sense.
Kharl still felt uneasy and off-balance.  Why did you mention Lord Ilteron?
And not Lord Ghrant?
 Lord Ghrant doesn t have any mages.
Kharl guessed.  He has you& doesn t he?
The other smiled.  Such as I am, I suppose. I couldn t do much against true
chaos-wizards. My little tricks wouldn t even slow them down. That s why I
stay away from the Great House. I d just call attention to Lord Ghrant s lack
of magery.
 What kind of tricks?
 Each skill has to be learned. Most cannot be taught.
Kharl snorted.  I can t teach coopering to everyone, but I can teach it to
those who have the good hands and the wish to learn. I don t see that magery
is that much different.
 It s not. But the costs are so much higher if the student is ungrateful. The
mage, if indeed he happened to be one, rose from the chair.  Now is not the
time or place to talk. If you want to learn more, not that I can offer you
more than a small portion of what you could do, you need to come find me. I m
in the Nierran Hills. That s just northwest of here.
 You walked here?
 Why not? It s only five kays, and I had to see who was creating such an
order-focus. Besides, I could use the exercise.
 Order-focus? Kharl frowned and, when the other did not respond, asked,  Who
told you to come to me, and how would I get away? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]