David Drake - Godess of the Ice Realm

A part of Garric and the whole of King Carus wanted to hang the man whose gift had snatched Sharina away to the-Shepherd-knew-where. It wasn't entirely fair to blame Anda for that, because the urn wasn't really his gift-but that same part of Garric wasn't in a mood to be fair, either.

The buildings were easy to come by. Filling them with men who'd act to defend the law and the citizenry rather than this or that individual who believed wealth and strength made them the law-that was more difficult. The process had brought Garric here to the northern corner of the city.

Garric stepped through the line of Blood Eagles and surveyed the new members of the City Watch. The members of the new City Watch, in fact; Carcosa hadn't had a public force to maintain order since the fall of the Old Kingdom.

"You men haven't worked together before," Garric said. He wore his silvered breastplate and the helmet with the gilt wings flaring to either side. This was a public occasion, one on which his job was to beseen. "You're starting out with fresh companions and officers to protect the safety of all the residents of this city. Not just the rich ones, not just the ones who can afford to hire muscle… though them too, so long as they're behaving as good citizens."

The company was lined up in four ranks of twenty five men each. They wore linen cuirasses and protective headgear, though there hadn't been time to standardize that as yet. For the most part they were in iron caps confiscated from the temple thugs, but some men wore leather hats and those who came from the army-Pascus among them-had generally kept their bronze helmets.

"You don't work for me," Garric said, his voice echoing. "You don't work for the Vicar of Haft, either, though your salaries will be paid through his office. And you particularly don't work for an individual nobleman any more, those of you who used to be in private households."

The City Watch-the whole body, not just this company, though Liane had seen to it that the individual companies were widely mixed also-came from assorted backgrounds. Some-including all those who started out with rank in the new organization-were former soldiers from the royal army who'd been pensioned for age or wounds or who simply wanted to retire. Many of those would be abandoning families on Ornifal or elsewhere, but right now Garric and the kingdom had more pressing problems.

Others had been members of Count Lascarg's household troops, but most were former retainers of the city's noble families. King Carus smiled broadly. "If I'd had a fellow as clever as your Lord Tadai," he remarked, "I might not've gotten myself in so much trouble by solving all my troubles with a sword. Though I'd probably have thrown a table at him for disagreeing with me and he'd have left. The Shepherd knows I didthatoften enough; that or worse."

Liane had drawn up the rosters with the help of her spies and a group of non-coms seconded from the royal army and the Blood Eagles both; Lords Waldron and Attaper had checked the results. She'd suggested that households be limited to four bodyguards apiece to create an immediate pool of personnel for the Watch.

Lord Tadai had suggested a refinement: anyone appearing in public with more than four male attendants between the ages of 18 and 45 was taxed at the rate of a hundred gold Riders per man, per year, payable immediately. After that had been enforced-reasonably politely, but with the royal army stationed in Carcosa there wasn't going to be resistance-a few times, the nobles had released most of their guards. If you couldn't display them in public, there wasn't any point in having them.

"You serve the citizens," Garric said. "Everyone who wants to live in peace with his neighbors. Your job is to make it possible for them to do that-and my job is the same as yours!"

Each watchman had a sturdy three-foot club of oak or hickory. They weren't quarterstaffs, but they weren't mere batons of office either. A quarterstaff was a wonderful weapon-a wonderfultool -in trained hands, but training took time, and even so it was awkward to use in a building or a narrow alley.

Besides clubs, the watchmen carried short, slender swords like those of the troops of the royal phalanx. The phalanx used long pikes as its primary weapon, but at close quarters or in an ambush the men had their blades. Carcosa was too dangerous a city at present for Garric to expect men to patrol it with a club and a rattle to summon good citizens to their aid.

"You've been chosen because my advisors and I believe you're responsible men," Garric said. "You have a responsible job. And be very clear, fellow soldiers, that I willhold you responsible for the way you perform this job!"

He put his hands on his hips. The company cheered-the cheers led, he noticed, by the veterans of the royal army, but joined quickly enough and with equal enthusiasm by the rest of the watchmen.

Garric saluted, thumping his right fist against his left forearm-the gesture made more sense if you knew that it had originated among soldiers with a spear in their right hand and a shield on their left arm-and turned on his heel. The company continued to cheer as the prince and his considerable entourage left the compound.

"We'll go to the barracks of the 1^st Company now," Liane said, her fingers flipping the boards of a notebook whose contents she had memorized, "then back to the palace for meetings until the tenth hour. We'll visit the 6^th Company before we eat, then get the rest tomorrow."

Garric grimaced as he handed Liane into her sedan chair; she couldn't possibly walk any distance wearing thick-soled court buskins. Everyone-everyone concerned with protocol-would've been happier if Garric had ridden in another chair or at least on a horse, but he wasn't a good enough horseman to risk that on the cobblestone streets. As for being carried in a sedan chair-he'd have died first.

"I'd rather be doing something real," he muttered to her.

Liane touched the side of his chin to get his attention. "Your highness," she said, her tone formal despite the intimacy of her gesture. "If you sail from island to island crushing opponents and public order collapses behind you as soon as you leave, the kingdom will fall just as surely as if you never left your palace in Valles. Thisis real. This is telling the men that you depend on that youdo depend on them. Nobody else could tell them that and have them really believe it. And they need to believe it, or there'll be no more peace in Carcosa when you leave than there's been for the past thousand years."

Garric patted her hand, then set it in her lap. "To the headquarters of the 1^st Company of the City Watch, Under-Captain Houil," he said to the commander of the escort.

The bearers lifted Liane's chair. The whole procession set off at a stiff pace through streets bordered both by modern buildings and the ruins of far more impressive ones.

"It's easier to go along with them, lad," said King Carus when he got control of his laughter. "Especially when they're dead right. As I know to my cost from having done it wrong a thousand years ago whenIwas king!"

"Does the Visitor have guards out here in the swamp, Evne?" Cashel asked as he probed the bottom of the stream. It was only a hand's breadth deep, but the water was so black with dissolved leaves that he could no more see through it than he could've seen into a stone wall.

"Jump over this," the toad said. "Don't put your foot in it."

Cashel butted his staff in the water and pivoted over it to the other side instead of crossing in two steps as he'd otherwise have done. He landed on a sprawling mat of cypress roots and picked his way over them carefully; his mud-slick feet were likely to slide on the smooth bark.

"There's a flatworm in the water," Evne said. Cashel hadn't been going to ask for an explanation, though he was interested to hear it. "Even if I had a chance to talk with it, which I wouldn't because it never comes above the surface, it probably wouldn't listen. Flatworms are very stupid, even by human standards."