weâd defend!â
âReally?â Tadai said. âJust how many cavalrymen are there in Earl Wildulfâs household? I ask because my specialty is finance, and I well know how expensive horsemen are.â
âThatâs none of your business,â Renold said. His face had gone red, then white. âThatâs none of your bloody business!â
âHeâs got about five hundred troopers, Tadai,â Lord Waldron said, leaning forward to look at the financier directly. Heâd completely recovered his composure. âLancers. And if he plans to send lancers against our skirmishers in an orchardââ
âPirates, please, Waldron,â Lord Tadai said with an oily grin. âWeâre talking about an attack by pirates.â
âRight, pirates,â Waldron agreed grimly. âPirates with javelins, in an orchard . Well, all I can say is that Iâd pay to watch it.â
âSomebody would pay, Iâm sure,â Tadai said. âBut not any of us who are loyal to Valence the Third and his regent Prince Garric, here.â
âThank you for that interesting digression, gentlemen,â Garric said. âWe need to get down to business, however. I propose that the first matter to be discussed is the confirmation of Lord Wildulf as Earl of Sandrakkan.â
Morchan and Renold were too busy with their own conversation, conducted in snarling undertones, to really absorb Garricâs statement. The third male envoyâ
âColchas or-Onail,â Liane murmured, folding closed the limewood note that sheâd just received from a nondescript man in the crowd. âChief Clerk of the Office of the Privy Purse.â
âsaid nothing, but his expression hinted at a smile whenever his eyes flicked toward his disgruntled colleagues. The fact that they were nobles while Colchas was a commoner might have been part of that smile.
The priestess, Lady Lelor, was probably the oldest member of the delegation, but she remained a strikingly handsome woman. Her black robe was well cut though severely plain, and her hair was piled high on subtly carven ivory combs.
âIâm not clear on what you mean about âthe confirmation of Lord Wildulf,ââ Lelor said in a tone of pleasant inquiry. âSince heâs already Earl of Sandrakkan by right of descent.â
Garric smiled. At least two of the envoys werenât fools; or at any rate, hadnât yet proved themselves to be fools.
âHer templeâs across Market Square from the palace,â Liane whispered in his ear. That information was probably written in one of her notebooks,but since Liane had been schooled at an academy of young ladies in Erdin, sheâd have known it already. âItâs on a high platform with an altar in the middle of the steps.â
âMy thought, Lady Lelor,â Garric said, âwas that Iâd crown Lord Wildulf on the platform of the Temple of the Shepherd Who Overwhelms, while you performed an Offering of Thanks. That permits the largest possible number of residents to watch this evidence of King Valenceâs approval of his lordship.â
It would also explicitly demonstrate that the Earl of Sandrakkan wasnât independent of the government in Valles, let alone superior to it. A coronation made the point more politely than tearing a gap in the city walls and marching in at the head of the royal army, but even Lord Morchanâwho seemed almost smart enough to come in out of the rainâcould see that was a possible alternative.
Marshal Renold looked from Morchan to Garric, then blinked. âIâm not sure that would be possible,â he said. Heâd lost the belligerence with which heâd opened the discussions.
âI believe it would be,â Lady Lelor said in a deliberate tone, her eyes on Renold. âI will certainly impress on Earl Wildulf my opinion that it would be a desirable way to display his
Learning to Kill: Stories