Law of the Broken Earth by Rachel Neumeier Read Free Book Online

cousin?”
    “We know this man,” Lord Bertaud said patiently.
    “You don’t, my lord, begging your pardon. You mighthave done once, but now he’s been in Linularinum, hasn’t he? For years, isn’t that so? And this is a man my guardsmen took up for mayhem and murder! He had two bodies at his feet when they found him, and him unmarked!”
    Bertaud’s eyebrows rose. The king sat back in the chair, crooking a finger across his mouth. Erich grinned outright, but Mienthe looked solemn and a little distressed. The guardsmen all stared at their captain in horror.
    The guard captain said grimly, “My lord, neither you nor His Majesty nor Lady Mienthe will be left alone with a dangerous prisoner while I’m captain of the prison guard. Nor I won’t resign. You can dismiss me, if it please you. But if you do, if you’ve any sense, my lord, you’ll call for someone you trust before you talk to this man. Dessand, maybe, or Eniad. Or some of His Majesty’s men.” He glared at Bertaud.
    “I think,” Bertaud said gently, after a brief pause, “that you had better stay with us yourself, Geroen.”
    Captain Geroen nodded curtly.
    “Then, if you will free the prisoner’s hands, and dismiss your men—”
    “Nor you won’t loose those manacles, my lord, not without you keep more than one man by you! No, it won’t do him any harm to wear iron a bit longer.”
    This time the pause stretched out. But at last the lord said, with deliberate patience, “Perhaps you will at least permit me to dismiss your men?”
    Geroen set his jaw. His heavy features were not suited to apology, but he said harshly, “I’d flog a man of mine for defiance, my lord, of course I would. I’ll willingly take a flogging on your order, just so as you’re alive to
give
the order! I beg your pardon, my lord, and beg you again not to take risks that, earth and
iron
, my lord,
are not necessary
.”
    Tan was impressed. He rather thought the guardsmen had all stopped breathing. He knew they had all gone beyond horror to terror. If he’d meant to try some move of his own, this would surely have been the moment for it, with all attention riveted on the captain. Alas, he had no occasion to profit from the distraction.
    “Captain Geroen, you must assuredly dismiss your men, if you are going to corrupt their innocence with so appalling an example,” Bertaud said at last, after a fraught pause. “You may do so now.”
    The captain made a curt gesture. His men fled.
    “I think,” Bertaud said drily to the king, “that this is all the privacy we will be afforded.”
    The king was very clearly trying not to smile. “Your captain’s loyalty does you credit, my friend.” He transferred his gaze from Bertaud to Captain Geroen. “Of course, without discretion, loyalty is strictly limited in value.”
    There was nothing Geroen could say to that. He set his heavy jaw and bowed his head.
    “So,” Iaor said to Tan, his tone rather dry, “perhaps you will now tell us the news you’ve brought out of Linularinum.”
    Tan glanced deliberately at Prince Erichstaben, at Lady Mienthe.
    “I think we need not be concerned with Erich’s discretion,” King Iaor said.
    “Certainly not with Mienthe’s,” Bertaud said crisply.
    Tan sighed, bowed his head, and said, “I’m one ofMoutres’s confidential agents, as you no doubt recall, Your Majesty. I don’t know whether you knew that I’ve been in Linularinum, in Teramondian, at the old Fox’s court? Been there for years, doing deep work, do you understand? And I won something for it. I got Istierinan’s private papers.”
    “Istierinan Hamoddian?” King Iaor asked sharply.
    Tan tried to look modest. “Why, yes. Himself. He was a little upset, as you might imagine. I got out of Teramondian two steps in front of his men. I’d intended to run for Tihannad, but they clung too close to my heel. By the time I got to Falle, they were only half a step behind, and less than that by Desamion.” Tan stopped,