The Invisible Hand

by Chris Northern

  I looked to Elendas. He gave a slight shrug. "I doubt you intend her any harm," he said. "So long as that's true, what matter?"

  "What I intend is that Darklake and this region function without my presence or the need for my presence. What I intend is that city traders be able to pass here without undue risk. What I intend is that the people prosper. For that to happen, certain ideas of the contract between ruled and rulers have to change. Anista's actions damage my belief that that is possible. If she persists in being part of the problem then I will not permit her to be involved in the solution. She has other family?" I addressed the question to Kathan.

  "Another brother; my elder by some years. He is the chieftain of our clan and holds land. He can support her should she go to him, but he might not be willing and.."

  "And?"

  He shrugged. "The people of Darklake are fond of my sister."

  I sighed. For every solution another problem. "And you?"

  "Am I fond of her? Of course. Should she be harmed her family will avenge her, but that is not your intention, is it?"

  "Matters of family honor can be a prickly business."

  Kathan cleared his throat, took a gulp of wine and shrugged. "I think you made a mistake in taking her to your bed. Putting her aside will only offend me if you do it without care for her future well-being. I have sworn an oath to you, Sumto. It won’t be broken lightly. I see a future for myself that was better than what I had. As I understand it, Anista has the same opportunity, to take or squander as she sees fit."

  "She still has, for now," I said. "Elendas?"

  He thought about it. "Men rule," he said. "Women don't figure much in that. They have their areas of responsibility, and we have ours. As to the oath, I've learned it but it might be better if we settle my mother’s future before I give it," he glanced at his uncle, a hint of disapproval in his expression, "in case of conflict."

  There was a moment of tension between them, then Kathan shrugged and finished his wine. "If you put her aside, return her dowry and an honor-guard to go where she wills. That will satisfy me."

  I frowned. "I'm not her husband. Her dowry is hers already. If she stays or goes it will be her choice. If she takes up the duties of the office of magistrate she will be responsible for her actions under the law. I can't change that. A fine and exile is the usual penalty for abuse of power, but for treason it is death."

  Elendas looked up. "You suspect her of plotting against you?"

  "No, but if she takes office she must understand her position. She will have power and should she abuse it, use it against the city, there will be consequences. How far does this habit of not listening stretch? By allowing her some measure of power, am I in fact putting her at risk?"

  Elendas and Kathan exchanged a long glance. "With your permission, Patron, we will discuss this and perhaps speak with my sister on the matter. I assume you intend to speak to her yourself on this score?"

  "That is my intention, yes." I downed the wine and grabbed a sheet of paper. "I'll leave you to discuss it;" I scribbled a brief note, sanded it, sealed it and headed for the door. "Should Meran come looking for me, tell him to wait."

  #

  The funeral pyre burned on the rough ground south of Darklake and we, the comrades of the fallen man, stood at parade rest and waited for the fire to do its work. It takes a good sized pyre to burn a man to ashes. The heat makes you stand well back if you value your hair. Dusk came on to dark in silent increments, moments when a man's comrades can think about the dead. If family are present, one of them will speak about the man; there were none of his family here so Talin's closest friend spoke for him. He kept it simple. Spoke of his life, his intentions and actions, his successes and failures, his plans and actions. Talin was a man of the city. Born a man of the fifth rank, he had died a man of the fourth. He had sons. He was a success. A wolf howled while his friend spoke, one long ululation. A good omen. There is a myth that the city was founded by orphaned twin babes, suckled by a she-wolf. Probably just a myth, but still. A good omen. I thought about my brother, having no other dead to think about. I'd liked him. Admired him. Doubted he would be much proud of me. He was a soldier in the mould of my uncle; and I am not.

  Done with that, I turned my mind to other subjects. Anista would either come round to my way of thinking or not. Nothing to think about. She stayed and was useful or went; either way I doubted she would be sharing my bed again. I wasn't much troubled about that. I missed Jocasta.

  I turned my mind to Sapphire. I had dropped a message with the mad old man who tended the latrines. I had learned that the old boy was proud of him, as though Sapphire, or Saff as he called him, were his son.

  "Good man, Saff," he'd said, pride shining in his eyes. "Knows his dunnies," I had felt my eyes glaze over at the thought of Sapphire cleaning latrines, "And howter fight! Aye, fights like I uster when I were a young'en."

  "Yes," I had been feeling singularly uninspired. "You will give him the message?"

  "He saidter do 'et, Iyul doet."

  "You will see him?"

  "Boundter; he al'ays comes round with a bit o' fodder fer uz. Don'e fret. An anythin' fer e' Iyul see e' getzit."

  I took me a moment to puzzle out what he had said, but after I had there didn't seem to be much point in prolonging the conversation. The note would get to Sapphire; he would know I wanted to see him, that I wanted an accurate count of the numbers of Necromancers there had been and how many in his estimation had been accounted for.

  He had not appeared yet.

  I would stand like this for my parents one day. For my father. I wondered how I would feel about it.

  Meran had caught up with me shortly after I had returned from delivering the message to Sapphire. I had not had much to add to his instructions; only that no serving magistrate of Hederan was to be left in power. Kathan would take charge and enforce order with most of his sixty men and a few hand-picked soldiers of Meran's command. Balaran was to accompany him. I had been in two minds about keeping Balaran with me, but finally the decision was made. One of the healers could stay with me, just in case of need.

  "Before you move on from Hederan," I'd told him, "investigate the execution; be as sure as you can be that those two were Necromancers."

  "You suspect a ploy?"

  I'd shrugged. "I've no reason to, but take the robes off a Necromancer and put him in trousers and a shirt, how would you tell? Be sure. Then succour their subjects; secure the area; leave men in charge as soon as you are confident of each settlement; check up on the Grave itself. Send messages. Are all the scouts in?"

  They were, apart from the scout who had gone east and the scout who had passed through Duprane's territory. He had given me the written reports. A representative of Twobridges was on his way to negotiate for Dannat's wife and children. There had been a letter from my uncle. He was pushing north with one legion, making a road as he came. It would be weeks before he got here. He approved my actions but made no mention of the Assembly of Patrons. That made me wonder how well my own actions had fitted into my father's plans. Made me wonder how much the Assembly knew.

  In the cold night sky I could see a single star, glimmering in the south. The fire was dying down. It would be some hours before it cooled enough to be racked for the few slivers of bone that would remain, but dusk was turning to full night, there were stars out, and our ceremony was done.

  It was time. "Dismiss the men."

  I turned away from the centurions as they called the order and moved to walk beside Balaran so that we headed back toward Darklake together. "I'm having trouble seeing in the dark."

  He cocked his head to one side as he regarded me, one eyebrow raised.

  I didn't acknowledge his scepticism. "I plan to drop by the Trading Post. I won't be needing company; but maybe best if I can see, don't you think?"

  There was the hint of a flash of light glimpsed from the corner of my eye and the world brightened to monochrome clarity. "That should hold all night," he s
aid.

  "Good," I said, and angled away. No one else had any night vision. No one was looking for me. I was beyond the edge of the firelight and pretty much invisible to men whose night-sight was ruined by the fire. Slipping away was easy.

  #

  Some things can't be delegated. Some things you have to do on your own. I couldn't remember the last time I had been truly alone. As I crossed the uneven ground, keeping a good pace, I entertained the fantasy that I could walk away, just keep walking. But reality intrudes on even the most appealing fantasy. Where would I go? And why? And to do what? Out of the highlands for certain; away from the barbarian north. How far would I have to go before I found something approaching civilization? I was heading east and the nearest city was either south, back to the life my fantasy rejected, or west, ten or more hard days’ travel to one of the coastal kingdoms. A town, a tavern, a beer. Then work, a room, a different life. It was a stupid fantasy and didn't last long. It was also empty. Jocasta and I had joked about running away together and starting a new life; just us. It was never going to happen; not then and even less so now. Some things you have to do alone. But we all live in the context that other people’s lives make for us. An echo of something someone had said came to me then. What freedom in that?

  For the next few paces, as the woodland ahead edged closer, I frowned and tracked down the memory. It had been Dannat. Railing against his fate, justifying his actions while I, concussed, had barely understood his words let alone his meaning. Now I conceded that he had a point; we are not free; we are all constrained by the actions, the lives of others. Our options narrowed, our choices defined by the lives of other people. The invisible hand; the accumulated effect of every individual’s perceived self-interest and the actions they take in the belief those actions will achieve their desired goals. The invisible hand created a sea of eddies and currents and tides that impacted on every individual and turned their actions away from their goals, or sometimes strengthened them and pushed them to success almost without their volition. All invisible. All unknown but affecting your own actions, taken to achieve your own perceived goals. Had I a better idea of each individual’s motives I could better predict their actions, assuming they acted rationally, which was far from usual. Fifty per cent of people are below average. As I understood it, that is what average meant; they might believe that their actions would achieve their perceived intent, but those plans were rarely well conceived, as they were based on incomplete understanding and flawed reasoning. In the context of the city things were easier; we are an oligarchy, pure and simple. The motives were clear; greed, advancement and wealth. Stability, trade, wealth, power. Each individual wanted the same things and they were self-reinforcing; more stability, more trade, more wealth, more power, used to achieve more stability to encourage more trade, and so on. Any time I interacted with another man of the city I knew his goals and ambitions. He wanted more wealth and, more to the point, he understood that the best way to gain more wealth for himself was to promote situations where everyone gained. Lendrin Treleth was easy to deal with once I put him in his place and stopped him from usurping my authority. Work with me and you too will gain; work against me and I will crush you.

  The slope under the woodland was harder on foot and I worked up a sweat before I reached the trail that Anista and I had ridden just the other day. I stopped at the top of the slope and turned back to look over the broken landscape to view Darklake. A cool breeze evaporated the thin sheen of sweat that covered my face. I breathed deep and slow and scanned the terrain, seeing no hint of movement between here and Darklake. I wanted to see a thriving town there; a place where even the poorest had as much as they needed, with opportunities and the ability to gain more. A place where my clients were content yet ambitious, where they used my money to make more for themselves and for me. I imagined a road through this pass, heavy with trade, a vein of increasing wealth pumped by the strong heart of the city. Anista did not see the same vision; she saw a humble cluster of hovels where everyone was fed and everyone looked to her for even that much. She saw wealth as something to control and hoard against hard times; I saw it as something to liberate and keep in free circulation to make sure the hard times never came. And at the heart of her attitude, it came to me, was that she had no skills or abilities to affect her own advancement; her only hope lay in the control of others, ultimately she was a parasite sucking the life-blood out of her host. Her primary host, the man from whom she derived her power to feed, had been Orlek.

  And was now me.

  "Shit." I turned and walked into the woodland and the potential meeting with Duprane. A woman I didn't know or understand; but not necessarily a more dangerous one.

  #

  A small flickering flame illuminated the dell below me as I crouched on the lip of the slope and soaked up the scene.

  Once I had entered the woodland I knew I would have to find higher ground. I knew what I was looking for but had no real idea where I would find it. Only that it would be inconspicuous, a fire lit to guide me but not to announce her location to the world. I'd angled right and crossed the face of the slope, gaining height without putting myself to the strenuous exertion that a direct climb would demand. Gnarled trees clung to the rocky slope, sparse enough to let light pass and encourage a dense undergrowth of tangling bushes and brambles. It was slow going, but I needed higher ground. Maybe an hour passed before I was high enough to catch a glimpse of light to the south of Duprane’s Keep. Now I crouched at the edge of a slope that fell gently down into a dell, and more steeply to my left. One figure sat by the fire. It could be anyone, shrouded in layers of cloth, cloak and hood, but I was sure it would be Duprane. The message I had left for her to find had been short and simple. Make a fire on the night of the new moon, site it between Darklake and your Keep. I will meet you alone.

  Was she alone?

  I had remained still and hidden for some time and saw no hint that she was not. The figure below cooked meat over the small fire. In a small pot that hung from a triangular frame she brewed tea. She sipped from a white metal cup. She waited.

  A slight movement drew my attention away from her. I was keyed to the night, senses alert, but still the wolf had come close enough to leap if it chose to. Up the slight slope to my right and slightly behind me. I turned my head to look. The wolf had frozen. Its gaze met mine. My legs were cold and stiff. I'd been crouching too long. I wouldn't be able to move fast. My hand strayed to the hilt of the sword I wore high on my left side. The ears of the wolf pricked, turned, its attention shifted as it growled deep in its throat, body tensed, teeth bared, snout wrinkled. Its focus shifted and so did mine; a whisper of sound behind me. Left knee grounding, I shifted my weight, turning, blade coming free. The wolf spun, lower and slightly back from us as the apparition ghosted toward me. A blur of shifting darkness merging with the shadows. A glimpse of steel, bright and sharp, held low. I slid slightly down the slope, blade coming up and round, too slow. Something struck the figure hard and both spun away down the sheerest of the slopes. The wolf landed a moment later, just beyond the reach of my blade. Hackles raised, feet splayed, fierce but still. Gut cold, blood tingling, breath slow and deep, I watched the wolf. It whined, turned its head to look at me. An explosion of sound burst from the undergrowth below us. Neither I nor the wolf looked. It blinked, deliberately looked at the sword in my hand, the point within a foot of its muzzle. Then it once more met my gaze and slowly it shook its head. It kept eye contact as it did so. Like a man would.

  The voice behind me made me twitch, though it was raised just enough that I could hear. An old woman's voice.

  "Leave him alone."

  I didn't know if she was talking to me or the wolf. I had not thought that she was talking to Sapphire or whoever he had intercepted in the act of trying to stick a knife in my back. I was sure it was Sapphire, though I'd caught but the briefest glimpses of him, wrapped in shadow as he was. I breathed deep and slow, calming myself. The wolf backed away, circled ar
ound me and went down the slope to join its mistress. I looked down the slope that was much sharper than the one that now lay behind me. I couldn't see anything for the undergrowth and the trees. I wasn't sure I could hear anything either. Her voice came again.

  "I thought you wanted to talk, cityman. So come and talk."

  The wolf was gone. The shadow man was gone. Sapphire was gone. And I was alone on the lip of the slope with nothing to do worth trying to do. Sapphire would either win or lose, survive or die. He was on his own and it was far from the first time. I doubted I would even find him unless he let me. I puffed out a breath of air that misted in the cool night air then I climbed stiffly to my feet and went down the slope alone to talk to Duprane. Just like I'd planned.

  By the time I got down to her level, the wolf was sitting close to Duprane, eyes on the night and ears cocked and twitching. I figured he could hear more than I could. Duprane dipped a second cup into the tea and held it out over the fire for me. I took it and sat on a log, big enough to be comfortable, cut and placed for the purpose.

  "You said you would be alone."

  I pointed to the wolf. "So did you."

  Duprane was as Anista had described. Tall, straight backed, slender, old, yet vital; her eyes, maybe grey and maybe green, twinkled merrily but her expression was sharper and more judgemental. "I said nothing. My being here will have to do. What do you want of me that you don't already have?"

  Good question. I was mustering an answer when I heard a twig break and the wolf growl low. My head was turning that way at the same time as Duprane spoke. "That's close enough, Iscarian."

  I turned sharply, expecting to see the shadow man or some other threat. Instead, I saw that Sapphire stood not more than thirty feet away. I could see him clearly, though there was no way Duprane should be able to with the fire between them. There was a sheen to his tunic. Blood, perhaps.