Kings of the North by Elizabeth Moon Read Free Book Online Page B

people saw me battle my father in the courtyard? How many heard of the gifts I brought the king? Whatever is widely known, he will know, and things we think confined to a few he may also discover.” She turned to the king. “The regalia, Sir King, are not safe: he will seek to have them stolen for his benefit. He will hire the Thieves’ Guild.”
    “It’s in my treasury,” the king said. “He couldn’t possibly get to it, nor could any thief of the Guild.”
    “Sir King,” Duke Mahieran said, “remember the assassinations. We thought we had secured the palace then.”
    “If he has allied with my surviving relatives,” Dorrin said, “he may have powers through them.”
    “True.
You
had not mentioned Alured before.”
    “No, my lord. I thought his menace confined to Aarenis and his domain large enough to keep him busy longer.”
    “Have you heard from Arcolin?”
    “No, my lord.” She wondered at that, since Arcolin had been writing to the king, but those messages would have been carried from Valdaire to Vérella by royal courier; his to her would be by private messenger and no doubt slower.
    The king nodded as if satisfied. “Is there any way we can interdict the spies’ report?”
    “No, my lord. If they deemed the information important—and I’m sure they would have—they will have sent it ahead already. Those rumors about the crown were circulating before your coronation.”
    Duke Serrostin spoke up. “It’s possible that the Thieves’ Guild could be convinced to cooperate with the Crown, after the scouring we gave them.”
    “For a price,” Count Kostvan said.
    “You would pay thieves not to steal?” asked the Marshal-Judicar, raising his brows.
    “Isn’t there a master thief the Marshal-General has invited to Fin Panir?” Serrostin asked, with a glance her way.
    “Yes,” the Marshal-General said, “Arvid Semminson, to tell what he knows of Paksenarrion.”
    “Well, it’s my understanding he now stands high in the local Guild. I see no harm in asking him to report any offer he gets from this Alured.”
    “Indeed,” the king said with a sidelong glance at the Marshal-Judicar, who had clamped his lips together as if to hold back something he might say later.
    That first Council meeting lasted well into the afternoon, and Dorrin left it feeling even more that she had been caught up in awhirlwind. She knew less of Tsaia as a whole than any of the others; they talked of agriculture, industry, and trade in terms that confused her. But when the topic of defense came up, everyone looked at her.
    “Duke Verrakai, I wish you to assess our readiness,” the king said. “Review our resources and our training methods. If this Alured fellow tries force a few years hence, we must be ready.”
    Dorrin assented: he was right; she did have the expertise for this. But the looks she got from the other Council members suggested that not all of them would be eager to have her questioning the way they organized their troops.
    A palace servant stopped her on her way out. “The Marshal-General would like to speak with you,” he said. Dorrin followed him to the offices of the Knights of the Bells, the Girdish training order housed in the palace complex.
    The Marshal-General was talking to the new Marshal-Judicar, Oktar, when Dorrin arrived. “Ah, Duke Verrakai. Have you a little time?”
    “Yes, Marshal-General,” Dorrin said.
    “You gave us all a surprise yesterday,” the Marshal-General said. “Like most, I believed all the magelords long dead or frozen in time like those in the far west. Safely distant. What I knew of your family’s treason and the magicks used there, I thought due to blood magic alone. But you—” She shook her head. “Neither I nor any of the Marshals I’ve spoken to here have sensed evil in you. They tell me you asked for help from a local grange.”
    “Yes,” Dorrin said. “And two Marshals came. We have not yet gone into the cellar, though, where I expect the