L. Modesitt - Scholar

Straesyr frowned. “I’d like to talk to Myskyl when he returns. That should be within the week. What do you think?”

“I think it’s a good idea. It will also aid in continuing to change the outlook at the scholarium. You’d likely lose Gauswn anyway, and this way, Major Skarpa has more time to groom his replacement.”

“That makes sense. We can work it out.” The princeps nodded slowly. “I’ll still have to talk to the commander. You’re not to say a word to anyone, even Phargos.”

“I understand, sir. I will tell him that I asked you, and you and Commander Myskyl will decide.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Not at the moment, sir.”

“Then you should get on with those matters.” But Straesyr did smile warmly as Quaeryt slowly rose from the chair.

Quaeryt didn’t return to his own small study until almost ninth glass, where he began on the various tasks the princeps had assigned him.

Given his physical condition, the remainder of the week passed, steadily, if not swiftly. On Jeudi, Quaeryt spent a good glass with Straesyr and several more with the chief accounts clerk and a stack of ledgers, learning enough about the tariff and expense accounts so that he could assist Straesyr at least until Bhayar sent word as to what he intended to do about who would be governor, if not Straesyr, and who would be princeps if the princeps became governor.

On Vendrei, Quaeryt dispatched his reply to Vaelora, one on which he had labored long and carefully. Commander Myskyl returned, in another light snowstorm that tapered off around sunset, with those battalions-and the engineers-who would not be immediately posted to the Boralieu or to Zorlyn’s hold, now being called Rescalyt. With Myskyl came several hundred prisoners … or refugees.

Quaeryt was not included in the discussions between the governor and the commander, which was probably a good idea, he decided upon reflection.

On Samedi morning, the princeps informed Quaeryt that many of his recommendations had been taken and that the scholarium would need to foster some twenty-one orphans. He also gave his decision regarding Undercaptain Gauswn, and on that afternoon Quaeryt rode, with the escort of a squad from Sixth Battalion, to the scholarium, where he spent the rest of the day with Nalakyn and Yullyd over those matters and a quint with Cyrethyn informing him about the acting governor’s decision to release Gauswn from his obligation at the end of Finitas. While there, he recovered the gear and clothing he had left-and everything was as he had left it.

Quaeryt actually rested on Solayi. He did not attend services.

On Lundi morning, a courier delivered a letter to the Telaryn Palace, a letter that made its way up to the princeps’s anteroom, from where Vhorym delivered it to Quaeryt in his small study.

There were two names on the outside of the envelope. One indicated it was from Jorem Rhodynsyn, and the other was given as “Scholar Quaeryt, Telaryn Palace.”

Why was Jorem writing him? Another Pharsi problem? Had something happened to Rhodyn? He opened the envelope, extracted the single sheet, and began to read.

Dear Scholar Quaeryt:

I have heard from many that you are a person of position in Tilbor. I would not impose on you for any favor for myself. I know of no one else to whom I can turn. Hailae has a young cousin named Chartyn. He is barely a youth, but he has been discovered as an imager. As such, and as a Pharsi, his very life will be endangered. Young Chartyn is most industrious and intelligent. He would make a good scholar, but we cannot afford the fees to pay for such an education.…

Quaeryt set the letter aside and took a deep breath. Finally, he picked it up and finished the last lines. He supposed he could include Chartyn as a sort of fosterling and ask Nalakyn to look after the boy. Perhaps even Lankyt would help.

Outside, the wind howled, reminding him that winter was little more than a week away.

He shivered.

Quaeryt returned to the Telaryn Palace at just past second glass on Meredi afternoon. He’d spent more than a glass at the scholarium persuading Nalakyn and Yullyd that young Chartyn needed discipline and support, and that to accept young Chartyn would be to everyone’s advantage, not to mention that the scholarium owed the governor/princeps for agreeing to a forty gold a month payment for fostering and other services. Their acquiescence had been better than grudging and less than heartily enthusiastic, and the returning ride had been in a cold and biting wind.

He had barely gotten the worst of the chill out of his bones and his arm, which only pained him intermittently, if especially when he was tired, and was seated back in his study, looking at a ledger that held the tariff collections for the factors in southern Tilbor, when he heard horns and the sound of horses. He didn’t get up because he couldn’t see much of the courtyard and because he was tired and the riders were most likely the battalion that Straesyr had ordered transferred from Midcote to Tilbora.

More than a glass later, he’d finished checking the autumn receipts when Vhorym knocked on his door. “You’re needed in the governor’s study, sir.”

“Do you know why?”

“No, sir. I wasn’t told.”

Quaeryt rose, but he couldn’t help but notice an odd expression, one he couldn’t identify, on the squad leader’s face. “Are you all right, Vhorym?”

“Yes, sir. You’d best hurry … as you can.”

Quaeryt still limped, as he always had, but the pain of his other injuries had almost vanished, unless he bumped into something with a few parts of his body where the bruises had been especially deep.

Vhorym did not accompany Quaeryt to the governor’s anteroom, where Undercaptain Caermyt stood by the door to the study. Otherwise the anteroom was empty.

“You’re to go right in, sir.” Caermyt opened the door.

Quaeryt saw Straesyr standing behind the governor’s desk. Another man, brown-haired and in traveling grays, stood beside him, but continued to look away from the door. Straesyr motioned Quaeryt forward, his face pleasant, but unsmiling.

As the study door closed, the man in grays turned, and his dark blue eyes fixed on Quaeryt. The scholar managed not to gape. He inclined his head. “Lord Bhayar.”

“Scholar.” Bhayar did not smile, but looked to Straesyr. “You may go, Governor. We will finish our talk later.”

“Yes, sir.” Straesyr nodded, turned, and walked toward the study door. He avoided looking at Quaeryt.

Only when the door closed did Bhayar look directly at Quaeryt. The scholar immediately noted the circles under Bhayar’s eyes and the fact that the wiry lord appeared thinner, if possible, than the last time Quaeryt had seen him.

Quaeryt waited.

“It appears as though you have been busy,” said Bhayar in formal Bovarian, his voice calm, not quite flat. “If not exactly in the manner which you had suggested upon your departure from Solis. You know, scholar, this has been an arduous trip. We rode from Solis, pressing all the way. We did accomplish some good along the way. We wiped out the last of the ship reavers, and we enjoyed the hospitality of a holder-Rhodyn, I think his name was-who thought quite highly of you. Still … I do believe you exceeded the charge with which I sent you. Especially by requiring, in effect through a missive to my sister, that I come to Tilbor or risk losing my rule.”

For a moment, Quaeryt hesitated, before replying in Bovarian, “I did what I thought best and in your interests, sir.”

“As I recall,” replied Bhayar, “you said you would recommend how to reduce the number of soldiers required in Tilbor. You didn’t say that you would take matters into your own hands and make it happen-regardless of the consequences. You didn’t happen to mention that you intended to have a governor vanish-and in a fashion that no one can possibly trace to you-or that you’d make a princeps whose greatest value was to keep tariffs honestly flowing to Solis into his successor, or that…” Bhayar did not finish what he might have said, instead pausing, then asking, “What exactly did you have in mind?”