Master of the Cauldron by David Drake Read Free Book Online Page A

authority.”
    â€œI’m not sure—” Renold repeated, then clamped his mouth closed over the rest of whatever he might have said. The muscles at the back of his jaw were bunched. There was clearly no love lost between the two envoys.
    â€œI had more trouble with priesthoods than I did with usurpers,” Carus said, shaking his head at the recollection. “I knew how to deal with a usurper, but I couldn’t start looting the temple treasuries in loyal cities without having my own soldiers mutter that I was accursed of the Gods.”
    â€œFinancial arrangements would remain unchanged following the coronation?” said Master Colchas. The clerk reminded Garric of a small dog: tense and ill-tempered, but well aware that if he snapped at the wrong person, he was likely to be kicked into the next borough. “Quite frankly, the earl’s revenues don’t fully cover expenses even now.”
    â€œIn the main, that’s correct,” Lord Tadai said easily. In contrast to Liane, who made a point of having relevant documents at hand though she almost never referred to them, the desk or table before Tadai was always perfectly clear. A squadron of clerks stood behind him, however, each with an open file box just in case. “That is, the assessment of the Third Indictionof Valence the Second won’t be increased in the near future. You and I will discuss at another time a schedule for the payment of the arrears accrued during the past seven years.”
    Colchas cringed. “I don’t see…,” he began, then covered his mouth with his hand as if in an access of grief. “Oh, dear,” he muttered through his fingers. “Oh, dear.”
    Garric permitted himself a smile. Valence the Third, his father by adoption, had lost control of everything outside of Ornifal—and indeed, almost everything outside of the walls of his palace—before a conspiracy of the most powerful men in the government forced him to accept Garric as regent and heir. The rulers of the western islands hadn’t wanted to believe that anything was really different, but the arrival of the royal fleet and army was changing their minds.
    â€œThere’s the matter of the upkeep of the three Sandrakkan regiments of the royal army as well, of course,” Tadai continued. “That is—”
    The sky darkened. It had been a brilliant morning before the conference started, but Garric had been under the marquee long enough that clouds might’ve blown in from the sea. It wasn’t until he heard the shouts of fear and anger from everybody who could see the sky that he realized something was wrong.
    He was up from his stone seat and running outside before he thought about what he was doing. That was partly a reflex of King Carus, but shepherds as well as warriors are faced with sudden crises. The reflex that drew the horseman’s sword slung on his left side, that was from Carus alone.
    â€œSister take him!” Lord Attaper bellowed. It was an improper thing to say about his prince, but understandable under the circumstances. “Don’t let anybody knife his highness in this crowd!”
    There were men coming the other way, getting under cover of the marquee while they looked back over their shoulders. Garric shoved them aside. Before he reached the open air, there were Blood Eagles battering a path for him with their shields and breastplates.
    The shape of a filthy black giant hung over Erdin. It was a sooty mass rather than the slate gray of even the darkest rain clouds, covering the sun and perhaps a third of the sky. The air all the way around it remained bright. It was monstrously unnatural.
    As Garric stared up at the giant’s eyes and gaping mouth, he understood why men had run beneath the marquee to avoid looking at the hideous thing. Logically a double layer of sailcloth wasn’t much protection, and for all its unpleasantness, the thing seemed to be only