Master of the Cauldron by David Drake Read Free Book Online

we’d defend!”
    â€œReally?” Tadai said. “Just how many cavalrymen are there in Earl Wildulf’s household? I ask because my specialty is finance, and I well know how expensive horsemen are.”
    â€œThat’s none of your business,” Renold said. His face had gone red, then white. “That’s none of your bloody business!”
    â€œHe’s got about five hundred troopers, Tadai,” Lord Waldron said, leaning forward to look at the financier directly. He’d completely recovered his composure. “Lancers. And if he plans to send lancers against our skirmishers in an orchard—”
    â€œPirates, please, Waldron,” Lord Tadai said with an oily grin. “We’re talking about an attack by pirates.”
    â€œRight, pirates,” Waldron agreed grimly. “Pirates with javelins, in an orchard . Well, all I can say is that I’d pay to watch it.”
    â€œSomebody would pay, I’m sure,” Tadai said. “But not any of us who are loyal to Valence the Third and his regent Prince Garric, here.”
    â€œThank you for that interesting digression, gentlemen,” Garric said. “We 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.”
    Morchan and Renold were too busy with their own conversation, conducted in snarling undertones, to really absorb Garric’s statement. The third male envoy—
    â€œColchas or-Onail,” Liane murmured, folding closed the limewood note that she’d just received from a nondescript man in the crowd. “Chief Clerk of the Office of the Privy Purse.”
    â€”said 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.
    â€œI’m not clear on what you mean about ‘the confirmation of Lord Wildulf,’” Lelor said in a tone of pleasant inquiry. “Since he’s already Earl of Sandrakkan by right of descent.”
    Garric smiled. At least two of the envoys weren’t fools; or at any rate, hadn’t yet proved themselves to be fools.
    â€œHer temple’s across Market Square from the palace,” 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, she’d have known it already. “It’s on a high platform with an altar in the middle of the steps.”
    â€œMy thought, Lady Lelor,” Garric said, “was that I’d 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 Valence’s approval of his lordship.”
    It would also explicitly demonstrate that the Earl of Sandrakkan wasn’t 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 Morchan—who seemed almost smart enough to come in out of the rain—could see that was a possible alternative.
    Marshal Renold looked from Morchan to Garric, then blinked. “I’m not sure that would be possible,” he said. He’d lost the belligerence with which he’d opened the discussions.
    â€œI believe it would be,” Lady Lelor said in a deliberate tone, her eyes on Renold. “I will certainly impress on Earl Wildulf my opinion that it would be a desirable way to display his