The instructor pointed to Sazium. "Have you ever had a good glass of Lanachronan wine?"
'No, honored one."
'I'd imagine not. In Krost, you can get a glass of it for a copper. A small bottle, holding perhaps five glasses, costs two golds in Dekhron—two silvers for one small glass of wine. It certainly doesn't cost a silver and four coppers to cart that wine from Krost to Dekhron…"
Alucius understood the argument, but wondered what he was missing, although the woman felt she was conveying the truth.
'… and that is why Madrien has troopers. As you ride through Hieron, and through any town in Madrien, look at what you see. You do not see masses of poor people. You do not see hovels and huts, but comfortable dwellings for all. Yes, you and many others wear torques, but those torques also free you from hunger, from want, and they allow you to walk anywhere at any glass in Madrien without fear and without danger. That is the greatest boon of the Matrial…"
Alucius knew what he had already seen, but it troubled him that everyone in Madrien seemed to accept the idea that men had to wear torques so the land could be free from poverty and danger. How could they believe so readily that men were so evil?
On the fourth Quattri that they had been in Hieron, Jesorak—the senior squad leader who directed their training—summoned all eleven to the stables at the time of their first morning classroom instruction. They wore no weapons, since those remained under lock except during weapons instruction.
'This morning, you're going to learn something in a different way.
We're going to ride over to the southeast market." Jesorak gestured to a narrow tack table beside the stall door where he stood, on which were eleven forest green belt wallets. "Those are trooper wallets. Each has nine coppers in it, for each of you to spend as you wish—or not, as you choose. I'd suggest you not purchase more of the fruit than you can eat there. You have nowhere to keep it, and you're not used to too much fresh fruit at the moment. Also, I'd not buy anything terribly large, because you're troopers and all you possess has to fit in two saddlebags. Oh, and you get to keep the wallets, too, but you don't wear them except when you're traveling or going off post." Jesorak paused. "One other thing. Troopers don't steal. From anyone, and not from other troopers. If something's missing, I bring in an officer with Talent. She discovers who did it. You steal, and you're a public laborer for life, probably in the stone quarries. Life isn't very long there." He lifted one of the wallets and tossed it to Sazium, then the second to Murat. Alucius caught the fourth one and fastened it to his belt.
'Saddle up and meet in the courtyard."
Wildebeast seemed almost puzzled, Alucius sensed, to be saddled so early. Was the horse so spirited because he was more intelligent and sensitive than most mounts? Alucius was careful to project calm, and the two were ready outside the stable before the others.
Jesorak was already mounted. He had a sabre at his belt, but the rifle case at his knee was empty. The squad leader eased his mount over to Alucius. "Know animals, don't you, trooper?"
“Yes, sir.”
'Know weapons and fighting, too," Jesorak said, adding conversationally, "Good trooper can make squad leader quickly, less than a year, if there's heavy fighting. You serve fifteen years, get a good stipend, live well here, or anywhere you want in Madrien. Happened to my brother."
'Yes, sir." Alucius paused. "Where are you from, if I might ask, sir?"
'Me? Born a Madrien boy, down in Hafin." Jesorak laughed. "Don't you go thinking all the troopers are former captives. Less than a third. Most captives aren't good enough. Something like fifty of you came through that week. Three artisans, eleven of you, and the rest'll end up public laborers. Even a laborer in Madrien's better than being a scutter in the Iron Valleys or a field worker in Lanachrona, or seaman in Southgate—if you're not in the quarries."
'I've seen that, sir," Alucius replied politely.
'Just keep your eyes open, trooper," Jesorak said with a nod. "You'll see." He glanced toward Beral and Kymbes, who were mounting outside the stable. "Form up on Alucius here."
The other eight appeared within moments, and the small column rode out of Eltema Post gates. As they headed southward, Alucius noticed a full company of horse troopers moving through some sort of parade.
Jesorak turned in his saddle. "That's the Twentieth Company. They busted up an attack by the Lanachronan Southern Guards—trying to test us on the high road from Tempre to Salcer. Wiped out the entire company. Matrial's going to honor them at her residence tomorrow. They're practicing the parade." After a moment, the squad leader added. "Her residence is the big low dwelling on the hill park on the west side of Hieron."
Alucius recalled wondering what that structure had been. Now he knew.
Even before midmorning, the day was warm, under high and hazy clouds, with barely a hint of a breeze. The air held a warm dampness that would have suggested rain to Alucius in Iron Stem, but in Hieron dampness without rain was all too usual.
On the south side of the post, across another stone side street from the redstone walls, were at least five or six small shops. Like those he had viewed from the prisoners' wagon in Harmony and Arwyn, they looked spotless from the outside. Alucius could see several troopers in their uniforms on jthe streets, and going in and out of the shops. From the smell, somewhere there was an eating place, perhaps a bakery or a cafe. He'd never seen a cafe, because there were none in Iron Stem, but he'd read about them in one of his grandsire's books.
While not in groups of eight, most troopers seemed to be in pairs or groups of three. Alucius could hear them talking, and while their voices were not raucous, some of the conversations were animated, punctuated with expressive gestures. The more he saw of Hieron and Madrien, the less he understood.
Beyond the shops were more of the neat dwellings, again with painted shutters, but these shutters were painted in forest green with crimson edging. Housing for senior squad leaders or officers? They rode past the houses with the green shutters that covered three blocks, before passing houses that looked much as had those in other Madrien towns, but Alucius was able to see more now. The rear of every house contained a walled garden, and he did not see any gates in those walls, although he did see the tops of trees and a grape arbor in one place.
After riding perhaps another two vingts, the column reached a wider street, and to the right was a large walled structure with a stone-framed entrance a good twenty yards wide, without a gate. Jesorak rode through the entrance, and the other eleven followed into what looked at first to be a large courtyard in the middle of a square building. The courtyard was paved entirely in redstone. In the center were lines of posts, for tethering mounts, or teams—although Alucius could see but one of the small carriages, attended by a trim white-haired man with a high-necked tunic that concealed whether he wore a torque. There were so many people in the marketplace, and so many who projected the grayness brought by the collars that Alucius doubted he could tell who was wearing one and who was not—except by being so close that his eyes would tell him as well as his still-feeble Talent-senses. But then, he had not seen a man who did not wear a torque, not that he knew.
Unlike the market square in Iron Stem, there were no carts for vendors. Instead, the building held stone carrels of sorts, some large, some small, open to the inner square. Each contained goods and a seller, and there had to be over a hundred sellers there, if not more.
'Column halt!" called Jesorak. "The posts with the green bands are for troopers. You tie your mounts there. They'll be safe. You've got a glass and a half. When you see me mount, head back here." He grinned. "Enjoy yourself."
Alucius could tell that the grin was forced, that the squad leader was nervous. He also could feel a stronger sense of the pinkish power behind them, at the corner, and he had no doubts that one of the officers with the Talent had followed them—or had been waiting for them. In a way, that almost reassured him that there were some limits to the power of the torques. He just had to find out
what they were. He was also feeling reassured by the fact that with each day, he could sense a bit more with his Talent. He just hoped that his abilities continued to improve.
Alucius dismounted and tied Wildebeast, spending a little extra time, soothing the stallion and projecting reassurance before he walked away from his mount, heading almost at random toward the north side of the marketplace.
His first stop was at the carrel of a silversmith, where he just looked, taking in the sleek lines of the work, mainly items such as ornate boxes lined with colored velvet, candelabra, and silver serving platters. The silversmith was a woman, without a torque, who studied him but for a moment before returning to discuss a silver platter with an older gray-haired woman and a younger woman in pale yellow.
Beside the silversmith's was a carpet seller. Alucius stopped and stared, not at the carpet displayed on the wooden rack, but at a smaller one, a yard and a half by two, which had a deep green midground with an eight-pointed pale blue star in the center. The border, a hand in width, was woven so intricately that the silver and crimson filigree pattern looked as though it were indeed enamel and metal. With a rueful smile, and a hidden laugh, he turned. Even as a herder, he doubted he could have afforded the carpets, not the ones he liked, and he certainly couldn't have justified spending the golds they must have cost, even if he had such.
Beyond the carpet seller's was a cabinet-maker's space. Alucius only gave the chests and cabinets a cursory glance. They were dark and heavy, cumbersome in appearance, if well made. He passed by a small space filled with bright scarves, scarves made of shimmersilk, not night-silk. While he looked over the scarves for a moment, he knew they were far more expensive than his nine coppers, and, besides, how would he ever get one back to Wendra?
The western side of the marketplace held sellers of produce and foods. Alucius did buy a sticky honey roll, eating it carefully before moving on to the adjoining stone stall.
The fruit-seller was a woman with black hair shot with white. Unlike most of the women, she also wore a torque, with somewhat more filigree than a trooper's collar, but Alucius could sense that slight touch of the chill and evil-feeling pink. He studied the fruits—recognizing some, such as the lemons and the small bitter oranges, and the apples, although he wondered how they might taste, since they had to have been kept in a winter cellar somewhere. Others, such as the greenish oval that he thought might be a melon of sorts, were unfamiliar.
'What is best?" he asked in his still limited Madrien.
'The alewine." She pointed to the green melon, smiling faintly. "But it is a silver."
Alucius nodded. "Do you grow them… in…" He groped for a word.
'I have a glassed indoor garden. It isn't large, but I can sell melons a season before the ones in the fields come in. So I do."
Alucius was intrigued. "What else do you grow there?"
'The oranges, and the lemons. Some spices for cooking, but you would not need those now." The hint of a smile filled her voice. "You are young for a trooper."
'One of the younger ones," Alucius admitted.
She handed him an apple. "You may have this."
Alucius returned a copper.
'It was a gift." She smiled.
'Then the copper is also a gift." Alucius wasn't certain why he said that, but it felt right.
The fruit-seller laughed. "Then you must take two. They are two for a copper."
That felt right, and he accepted the second apple with a smile, and a slight bow.
'The best of fortune, young trooper," she murmured as he straightened.
'Thank you." He slipped the apples inside his tunic for later.
On the southern side were those who sold more practical goods. There, Alucius stopped by the cooper's stall, where there was an array of barrels, mainly finely finished half and fifth barrels, but no sign of tools. That indicated that the working shop was elsewhere. A young woman—a girl younger than Wendra, he decided—looked at him dubiously.
'I can't buy your barrels, but I know a cooper where I come from, and I just wanted to see yours and compare." He smiled gently as he bent to inspect a polished lorken fifth-barrel, bound not in iron, but bronze. The workmanship was good, but not any better than Kyrial's.
'How do you find them?" the black-haired girl finally asked.
'The workmanship is good, especially the bronzework."
'You speak Madrien almost without an accent," she observed. "Have you lived here long?"
Alucius smiled. The girl believed what she said. Perhaps his Talent had helped him in learning Madrien. Then, the language was not that different, and many words were almost the same. "I know less than you think. I've been here less than a year." That was true, but he decided against a more precise time.
'You must have a gift for tongues."
'Good teachers," replied Alucius with a slight laugh. "Thank you." He bowed and slipped away.
Long before the glass and a half was over, Alucius left the carrels and shops and walked back into the hazy warm sunlight, crossing the redstone pavement and carefully avoiding the other shoppers—again mostly women or older men wearing torques.
Once he was standing beside Wildebeast, he pulled out one of the two apples. Since he had no knife, he used a trick he had learned as a boy. Using his fingernail, he cut the skin of the apple all the way around, then put a hand on each half, twisting abruptly and hard. The apple split into two halves. Alucius offered a half to Wildebeast, then waited and offered the second.
Only then did be begin to eat the second apple.
'A trooper at heart!" Jesorak laughed from behind Alucius. "The man gets two apples, and one is for his horse, and the horse eats first. Your mount must have sensed that. Sywiki said he was smart." The squad leader shook his head.
Alucius couldn't help but like and respect Jesorak, enemy though he might be.
More than a week later, again just before the scheduled morning classroom instruction, squad leader Jesorak appeared with an order. "Mount and form up in the courtyard."
Alucius could sense that the squad leader was less than happy, but, as a trainee, he wasn't about to say anything. He and the ten other troopers-in-training saddled their mounts and led them out into the courtyard. There, under a clear and hot sun that was more like summer than spring, a round-faced, blonde woman wearing a captain's uniform and insignia was mounted beside the squad leader. Despite her pleasant appearance, Alucius could sense the coldness behind the facade.
As soon as the eleven were mounted and formed in a two-abreast column, Jesorak announced, "You've seen the benefits of what Madrien has to offer. Captain Tyeal is going to take us to see what happens to law-breakers in Hieron."
Once the column was headed eastward, Alucius and Sazium exchanged glances, but not words. Sazium glanced forward and raised his eyebrows. Alucius shrugged in return.
As they rode away from Eltema Post and toward the center of Hieron, Alucius could see that the streets, while not totally empty, had far fewer souls on them than had been the case in the other few rides that they had taken since arriving in Hieron.
After about three vingts, they rode up another inclined stone ramp, and crossed the ancient road, descending on the far side into an area of the city where the dwellings were larger, and with walled courtyards in both the front and rear.
Their destination was a circular plaza two vingts to the west of the ancient north-south highway that divided Hieron into eastern and western sections. The plaza was unadorned, a paved expanse a good three hundred yards across set in the middle of a parklike expanse. Just to the west was the hill park with the Matrial's low and sprawling stone dwelling.
In the center of the plaza was a circular gray stone platform—actually a platform within a platform. The outer platform was roughly fifty yards across, and raised a yard above the redstone paving. The inner platform was twenty yards in diameter and raised two yards above the outer platform. Each platform had a set of stone steps on the south side. The lower paved
section of the plaza was more than half filled, mainly with men and women on foot, although there were more than a score of small carriages lined up together on the southwest quarter.
The squad leader guided them to an open space less than twenty yards back from the edge of the lower stone platform, but on the southwestern side. "Double staggered line, six and five," Jesorak ordered. "Guide on me."
Once the trainees were aligned, Jesorak added, "Saddle ease… no talking."
Alucius shifted his weight in the saddle, then studied the platform.
Two people stood strapped in T-shaped braces on a temporary wooden stand on the south side of the inner stone platform. One was a powerfully built woman, her thick brown hair cut short. She glared at the assembled crowd, and a scabbed scar running from below her ear to the base of her nose stood out. Opposite her was a man, taller and even more powerfully built, if older, and partly gray-haired.
Both wore the silver torques, and plain gray trousers and shirts.
A squad of guards—all women—stood in the open space between the two prisoners. The guards wore forest green tunics, but the piping was not crimson, but a pale purple, and the cuffs of their tunics were also pale purple. Before the guards, stood another woman with a thatch of short gray hair and a firm, hard jaw. Her tunic and trousers were purple, and the piping green. She wore a black sash that ran from her left shoulder across her chest to her right hip.
As Alucius anithe others waited, more people filtered into the plaza until, more than a half a glass later, it was more than two-thirds full. By then, Alucius was sweating in the heat. A trickle of moisture ran down the back of his neck, and he continually blotted his face and forehead.
From somewhere a bell rang, and all the murmurs and whispers died away.
The gray-haired official stepped forward. "We are here to do justice. You are here to see justice done. So be it." She turned toward the woman. "You, Luisine of Hieron, cheated the Matrial by failing to pay your tariffs, and lied about the revenues from your business. When you feared your husband would reveal your lawbreaking, you murdered him and falsely claimed you had acted in self-defense because he had abused you. He had done no such thing. When the auditors confirmed your dishonesty and your murder, you attacked and wounded them. For committing murder, for your treachery, and your dishonesty, you have been sentenced to die." A pause followed the words. "Have you any last words of repentance?"
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