Ordermaster

V

Kharl made his way to the kitchen, where he ate heartily, if guiltily, then hurried back to his chamber-carefully-to recover The Basis of Order before returning to Hagen’s small chamber. The pair of guards in yellow and black who had been posted there since his departure a half glass before opened the door for him.

“The lord-chancellor said it might be longer than he thought, ser mage.”

“Thank you.”

Kharl didn’t mind the quiet of the chamber. He needed to think. If armsmen did attack or storm the Great House, what could he do? His skill of hardening air-or anything-was of limited use, except against a very few individuals, and it tired him quickly. He was good with a staff, but that would only be useful in defending himself while he did something else.

The one thing that would be useful would also be the most dangerous-and it would work only if there were but one or two leaders of the attackers. He could use his ability to move unseen and attack the leaders.That worked only if the attackers did not have a mage who could detect him-and if someone didn’t detect him by other means and fill the air with arrows. His ability to order-harden air and other things was useful only for defense or against one or two people from a very close distance.

What else could he do? The ability to know and tell the truth had only created more problems-or perhaps it had simply made obvious problems that were already there. But sometimes, it was clear, revealing the truth directly was not the best course. Very few people liked hearing the truth.

His thoughts skittered back to the passage in The Basis of Order that he had read earlier in the day. What if there were no such thing as truth? He shook his head. That was not what the words had meant, because the book had said that what was, indeed was. Did that mean that there was something wrong with the idea of truth? That it was something beyond what was?

He nodded. When people talked about truth, there was a righteousness in their words, a belief that the truth was absolutely the way they saw it. That was what the book had meant, and that was why revealing what in fact had happened or what someone believed could be so dangerous. It was not because of the rightness of what was revealed, but because revealing that kind of truth showed people’s weaknesses. So often what one person saw as truth was another person’s failing.

Kharl smiled wryly. That was an interesting insight, and one he should have understood years earlier, but that was the sort of thinking that wasn’t usually required of coopers. Interesting or not, it didn’t offer a way to solve the immediate problem of what he could do to help defend the Great House.

He opened The Basis of Order and began to leaf through the pages, hoping that something, on some page, might spur an idea. After several pages, his eyes caught on several lines.

… when chaos that is bound to nothing strikes an object, it loosens the bonds that hold the object together. Order holds all together. Without order, stone would be as sand, water as mist or rain. Thus, order can strengthen what is beyond its natural strength, while chaos weakens it …

That didn’t help, except to confirm what he already knew. That additional order was what made the staff of a beginning mage as strong as iron,if far lighter. He might be able to strengthen a weapon or two, but that was all, and someone still had to wield those weapons, and it wouldn’t be him, unless it was a staff. He certainly wasn’t that good with weapons like sabres.

Kharl skimmed through nearly thirty pages before he found something else.

Light from the sun is thought by the learned to be chaos, but it is not that. Rather it is not precisely that. Light is composed of tiny particles of order that can be thought to flow like water in a millrace from the sun-or from a lamp. The flow is chaotic, but the light itself is not. Could the light be ordered, in a fashion similar to what a burning glass will do, except within itself, its power would be almost without limit …

Kharl pursed his lips. He wasn’t sure exactly what the words meant, but they did mean that sun and light itself were somehow linked to order. How that might benefit him … or how he could use it … that was another question. The words suggested that there was a way to make the light from the sun terribly powerful, but the book did not say how. Or did it?

He read on, but there was nothing in The Basis of Order that suggested how sunlight might be ordered to create such power. Had anyone ever done so? Kharl smiled faintly. With all the secrets Recluce kept, how would he or anyone else ever know?

The mage who knew that he knew too little kept reading, searching, but, as he had suspected, order was far better suited to protection of an individual than to attacks against an army. Or … whoever had written it had hidden the aspects of order suited to attack so that each had to be ferreted out in the way that Kharl had figured out how to use the hardening of air as a weapon as well as a defense.

Kharl straightened in the chair, then rose, as the door opened, and Hagen entered.

“I apologize for being so long, Kharl.”

“I’m the one who should be sorry. If I hadn’t-”

Hagen waved off Kharl’s protest. “You may have staved off a worse disaster. Some of my scouts report that a number of the midlands lords have been riding west to meet with Lord Malcor.”

“Wasn’t he the lord who killed Lord Estloch?”

“It was suspected, but there was no way to prove it. Once word got out about your ability to discern the truth, several of the more dissatisfied lords scurried off to tell Malcor. Since he’s avoided Lord Ghrant, I think we can take it that he did murder Lord Estloch.”

“They wouldn’t be plotting another revolt if it weren’t for me, because they could just cover up what happened.”

“There’s some truth in that,” Hagen admitted, “and Ghrant could have used some time to deal with it quietly. But he hates conflict and scheming, and there’s a good chance he would have done nothing.”

Kharl could tell that Hagen believed his own words, and that was both disturbing and a relief of sorts for the mage.

“I’ve talked it over with Ghrant. We’ve sent Casolan west to gather his forces. Casolan’s confident that most of the western lords will either back Lord Ghrant or remain out of the conflict.” Hagen laughed. “Strange, isn’t it? The lords who backed Ilteron are likely to support Ghrant against Malcor and his allies. They don’t want years of squabbling. Most of them backed Ilteron because they felt he was stronger. The way he fought Ghrant weakened their support. Casolan thinks the way that you and Ghrant handled Guillam will add to their backing of Ghrant. They’ve been worried about the power that the factors have been gaining, anyway.”

“But … trade … doesn’t it help all Austra?”

“It does, but it helps the east more than the west.”

As Hagen talked, Kharl felt as though he stood in the middle of a storm at sea, with lightning likely to come from anywhere and waves and treacherous currents all about him.

“They also back you,” Kharl suggested.

“That doesn’t hurt, but it’s not enough.”

“What do you think will happen next?” asked Kharl.

“We won’t see an attack today. Perhaps not even tomorrow. We will see one,” Hagen said tiredly. “Vatoran threatened the guards who imprisoned him. He had already ordered the eastern companies to obey Lord Kenslan if anything happened to him.”

“He wasn’t threatening them. He was bargaining for his own safety.”

“Kenslan, unfortunately, is a better arms-commander than Vatoran, and his son is one of the subcommanders.”

“What if something happens to Kenslan?”

Hagen shook his head. “If it happens in battle, everyone will accept it.If you kill him with magery, without even an audience, that will just stir things up more.”

“He can start a revolt, take over some of Lord Ghrant’s armsmen, but if I use magery …?”

“Exactly.” Hagen snorted. “I know. It makes no sense, but that’s the way people are. Everyone knows Malcor killed Lord Estloch; but there was no proof, and without it, no one wanted to act.”

“So we wait?”

“We gather forces, strengthen our position, and see where they plan to attack. There is little doubt that they will attack.”

Kharl could tell he would not be headed back to Cantyl anytime soon.