The Phoenix Guards by Steven Brust Read Free Book Online Page B

sheath, along with belt and chain. Without deigning to inspect any of them, Aerich placed on the table the Imperials he had been given by the Captain for the sword. The Vallista seemed satisfied, and bowed deeply. Aerich led them out of the basement.
    “Come then,” he said. “Let us see about our uniform cloaks.”
    This was done in due course, after which they repaired to The Campaigner, which inn they had noted earlier, and had a meal while waiting for their cloaks to be finished. Their host brought them several bottles of
wine from the Ailor region, and a dish involving darr meat rolled around chunks of delicately seasoned beef and covered with a sauce in which butter, cream, and tarragon figured prominently. For a while, the only sounds from the four friends were those scrapings, of wooden spoons in wooden bowls, so beloved of the hungry, the epicurean, and the cook. At last Khaavren gave forth a sigh and announced that he was finished with the meal.
    “That is well,” said Aerich, “for I think it is time we take our uniform cloaks and return to the Captain who will, no doubt, assign us trial duties.”
    “Well spoken!” said Tazendra. “For my part, I am quite ready to begin.”
    “As am I,” said Khaavren.
    Using the money given them for the purpose, they paid their account, and picked up their cloaks from the Chreotha across the street. Each cloak was made of linen and silk brocade, of a fine golden hue, and was fastened at the neck by a cunning clasp made of copper and inlaid with a stylized phoenix. On the left breast was a small pair of boots, embroidered in red thread. Khaavren, Aerich, and Tazendra had half-cloaks, while Pel’s was knee-length.
    After settling with the clothier, they returned to the Imperial Palace and informed G’aereth that they were prepared to take up their duties.
    We will pause, then, long enough to say two words about Captain Gant-Aerethia. He had arrived in Dragaera City, the poor younger son of a poor Dzur baron from a marshy south-western lake region, late in the Seventeenth Teckla Republic. He joined the army of the Jhegaala, and was involved in the fall of the Republic and the establishment of Empress Viodonna the Sixth, of the House of the Jhegaala. He then enlisted in the armies of the Empire under the command of Lady Yaro e’Lanya, and came to her notice during the Island Wars, especially at the Battle of Near P’iensotta, where he received a battlefield promotion to officer. He ended the Wars on Lady Yaro’s staff, and it was actually in his arms that she died in the famous Charge of the Brown River.
    At the end of the Wars, and the subsequent beginning of the Reign of Cherova III of the House of the Athyra, the entire battalion that had been Lady Yaro’s was eliminated, but by then Lord Gant-Aerethia had earned many friends at court, not the least of whom was Sethra Lavode herself, who served as Warlord during the last half of the Island Wars. For these reasons, then, Empress Cherova was unable to dismiss him. She finally found a spot for him commanding her personal guards, thinking thus to keep him from doing anything noteworthy. When she next noticed him, these guards had become an elite fighting corps—none other, in fact, than the famous Featherhats, although this name wasn’t given them until hundreds of years later.
    After that, he was involved in the Lavode scandal, although in what capacity is not clear. He emerged in good form, however, appearing, somehow, not to have made an enemy on either—or, rather, any—side. When
the fires died, as the saying is, he had earned such powerful friends among the courtiers and allies of the Empress that her own personal dislike for him was unable to harm him.
    Among his friends for many years was the young Prince Tortaalik, to whom he had, in fact, given some lessons in swordplay before the Prince became Phoenix Heir. Their friendship grew no weaker as the years wore on, and Tortaalik never stopped admiring