By the time Saryn had ridden past the larger houses between the green and the square, she had noticed several other things. More than half the once-fashionable dwellings had been shuttered, but whether for the summer, or for other reasons, she couldn’t tell. The handfuls of people on the street barely gave her a glance, but it was an avoidance based on apprehension, not on fear, nor on familiarity. One other thing was very obvious when Saryn dismounted in front of the Square Platter. There was no bouncer on the narrow porch.
She stepped up onto the porch and went inside, but she didn’t immediately see anyone. Before she could call out, though, Vanadyl hurried up.
“Commander…” He bowed.
“If she’s here, I would like a few moments with Haelora or you and Haelora.”
“She is. I think she would be more than ready to talk with you. If you wouldn’t mind going to the front table, I’m sure that she will join you there soon.”
“Thank you.”
After Vanadyl left, heading toward the kitchen, Saryn entered the public room and walked to the table in the right front corner. She didn’t bother to seat herself but looked out the window at the three guards. Dyala was explaining something to Cenora, who was nodding.
Two men hurried by, but neither even looked at the three guards. That was a change, Saryn thought.
Haelora walked toward Saryn. “I was thinking I should have heard from you sooner.”
Saryn could sense a certain anger. “I’m very sorry. I’ve been in the north with Lady Zeldyan with half my guards.” Except they’re no longer half. “We just returned last night, and you’d said you’d prefer to talk in the mornings. I heard that one of our recruits took a blade to Rhytter. That’s why I’m here.”
“He mighta deserved it. I don’t know. Fynna was no great shakes, either.”
“No, I don’t think she is,” Saryn concurred.
“What are you going to do with her?”
Saryn could feel that some of Haelora’s anger was fading. “She’ll be executed in public. Her sentence will be carried out on the front palace green at noon tomorrow.”
“Yet she came to you…”
Behind the words was a mixture of emotions, and Saryn tried to address them. “She did, and then she broke the rules and killed two people. As you said, Rhytter might have deserved it, but the other woman didn’t, and we don’t like our guards going off and killing people. Who would trust us for long if we allowed that to happen and didn’t punish the one responsible?”
“Lord Nessil did. No one said anything.” There was a challenge, and resignation, beneath the words.
“I’m not Lord Nessil. Neither is the regent.”
“That’d be good.” Haelora smiled, a wry yet sad expression.
“If we can make it last?”
“That’d be up to you, Commander, I fear. The Lady Regent is fair and has a good heart, but the lord-holders respect only strength and power.”
“What about the people?”
“The people…we don’t expect much. Don’t tariff too high and don’t rip down doors and take our daughters. Pay for most of what you take. That’s what most people expect.”
Saryn concealed an internal wince. “I don’t think that’s all. I doubt you like fighting among the lord-holders because the deaths fall on your sons and cousins.”
“And now, if you fight, some will fall upon daughters.”
“That is true, but they will have a chance to be more than victims.”
Haelora’s expression remained sad. “What will that change?”
Saryn almost said that she was in Lornth to stop the senseless fighting-except that she realized she had already been fighting in what were nearly senseless conflicts. “I can only say that I will do what I can.”
“That is an honest pledge, unlike many.”
Saryn looked squarely at the innkeeper. “What should I know that you know, and I don’t?”
Haelora shook her head. “I cannot say…for I do not know what you do.”
“You know I am a stranger in a strange land.”
“You are, and yet you are not. You look like a young woman, except in your eyes, but you are not. Those eyes have seen what I would not wish to have seen…”
Saryn waited.
“Do not worry about the people of Lornth, except to save them from the worst of the lords. We can live through anything except the worst of weakness and of evil. Even that, we will survive.” Haelora smiled, faintly, but not unhappily. “Thank you for coming. I will tell others, and your guards are always welcome here.”
“Thank you.” Saryn nodded politely. “I must go.”
As she left the public room, she could sense Haelora watching her. Why does everyone watch me leave? Because they want me to go, or because I’m something strange that they’ve never seen? Or both?
She didn’t have an answer to that…or to more than a few other questions.
LXV
Early as she had been up the day before, Saryn was up earlier on threeday and meeting with Hryessa in the small space at the west end of the barracks, assigned to the captain as a company officer.
“You’ve checked the platform and the scaffold?” asked Saryn.
“Yes, ser. The ropes are in place, and they’ll hold her tight.” Hryessa looked at Saryn. “I can’t say as I like doing this in public.”
“We do it anywhere else, and someone will claim we were hiding something or that we really didn’t do it at all, and that they saw Fynna in Rohrn or Carpa or who knows where else. It’s going to be a show, no matter what we do,” Saryn said gruffly. “So we need to make it a good show-one that demonstrates that we mean what we say and that no one should mess with us, either. Besides, you have to deal with Sineada.”
“That’s just a whipping. She’ll recover, and she might learn something from it,” replied Hryessa. “You…that’s different. You sure you want to do it, Commander?” asked Hryessa, her voice deferential. “We could use an ax.”
“Do I want to? No. Do I have to? Yes. It sends a message that even the Commander of the Westwind Guard knows weapons…and needs to be treated with the same respect as any male commander.”
“Men don’t-”
“They don’t have to. Everyone believes that they can. In Lornth, they don’t believe that about women, and we have to change that.” As quickly as possible.
At that, Hryessa nodded.
“Now…can we mount three squads?”
“I’d figured that, one squad on each side of the space you’ll need, and one squad behind, with two guards on the platform for each of them to tie her up.”
“They can handle Fynna if she gets wild?”
“Those two can. Zelha grew up tossing steers, and Marha is just as tough. If they’d been with Fynna, been a different matter.”
“Good.”
Once they had the details worked out, Saryn spent some time sharpening both her blades, then doing what amounted to a casual inspection of barracks and stables. Both were far neater and cleaner than when they had first come to Lornth.
At half a glass before noon, the procession from the palace began with a mournful trumpet fanfare from the gate tower. Mournful, but off-key. That was just another part of the palace staff where competence was less than marginal. Is that true of all small kingdoms…or is Lornth worse?
Saryn didn’t have an answer to that question, like she didn’t to so many others, and she watched as the first squad rode out and drew up in a north-south line, each rider facing east, and the first rider close enough to the stone platform that the nose of her mount was even with the west-southwest corner. The second squad rode out and took position in a line opposite the first, the distance between them the width of the platform. Then came three guards, with Rheala and Hoilya from fourth squad escorting Sineada-the girl who had been discovered stealing-with her hands tied before her. Behind them came Zelha and Marha, with Fynna between them, her hands tied behind her. Marha held the leads to Fynna’s mount. Saryn and Hryessa, riding slowly, followed, accompanied by Agala, who rode slightly behind them. Behind them rode the third group of riders-the remainder of fourth squad, led by Klarisa.