Recluce 07 - Chaos Balance by L.E Modesitt Read Free Book Online Page B

coldly. “I want every peasant to know that I heard and acted, and every officer to know that girls outside the households of officers or the pleasure class are to be left untouched. I do not care how many paid concubines they have, but they must be sure that the purchases of concubines are well witnessed. Well witnessed.” He paused. “Of course, if it is the girl, and you had best be very sure, then she should be publicly violated by at least a company of Mirror armsmen. Whatever happens, I want both punishment choices made public, so that I receive no more petitions such as this.”
       Themphi swallowed.
       “Send some of the engineers to check the forest, and the wards. How could they possibly have failed?”
       “I do not know.” Themphi shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “The wards are very old, and the ancient accounts record that the forest was cunning and patient before it was restrained.”
       “Then you will go and repair the damage, and restrain the forest once again. After you complete your work on this mess with the girl. Send no engineers from the Second. We need them to re-create the fireships, to reclaim the ocean from the eastern traders.” Lephi stared at the wizard. “Had your predecessors not allowed the ancient fireships to deteriorate, we would have no such problems.”
       “Sire, they had no choice.”
       “There is always a choice.”
       “Not where chaos is concerned.” Themphi ignored the dampness on his forehead.
       “Do you question your Emperor, Themphi?”
       “Emperors have choices, Sire, except where order and chaos meet. The same is true of wizards. I cannot change what was and is, even at your command.”
       “Bah . . . you sound just like Triendar. Do they cast spells over you when you are young so that you all sound alike?”
     
      “Chaos and order do not change because we exist, Sire.” Themphi shifted his weight again.
       “Wizard, your powers must serve Cyad, not the other way around. See that they do, or your nephew's children or his children's children will bow under the yoke of the easterners. Lands either become more powerful or less powerful and then perish. I intend to make sure Cyador becomes more powerful. You may go.”
       “Yes, Sire.”
     
     

Chaos Balance
    XI
     
    EVEN BEFORE NYLAN sat at the table and balanced Dyliess on his right knee, his eyes kept ranging to the end of the great room toward the central pedestal and the staircase. He could feel the slight movement of warm air from the furnace ducts set in the central stone pedestal that held the stairs and around which the tower was built. Interspersed with the warmth were gusts of cold dry air from the opening of the main tower door as guards headed up to handle livestock details or wood-carrying.
       Breakfast was the usual-some bread, some cheese, and for the stout-hearted, some thin porridge. Eating one-handed, Nylan suffered through the yellow-green bitter root-and-leaf tea, taking quick sips and keeping the mug out of reach of Dyliess's curious fingers. The bread was dark and cold, but hearty and chewy.
       “Gaaaa ... da ... oooo . ..” His daughter's hands grasped for his bread.
       “Grabby, isn't she, ser?” said Hryessa from farther down the table.
       “They all are at this age, from what I can tell,” Nylan answered. “They want to grab the world and explore.”
       “Don't we all?” mumbled Huldran, finishing a wedge of cheese and some bread.
       Nylan reached out and redirected Dyliess's wandering hand, in time to keep her from grasping the spout of the teapot. “Exploration gets dangerous.”
       “True enough even when you get older.” Saryn frowned, then added after a moment of silence, “Ryba said you were working on more blades.”
       “We've been working on blades on and off all winter. Don't you have enough yet?”
       “For now. She insists we'll have over fourscore guards by fall, maybe