Half a quint later, a woman emerged and walked in a measuredly fashion along the corridor. She took exactly one step into the entry hall and halted. Rhella was tall, almost as tall as Quaeryt, slender, and imperious, even in what looked to be riding clothes. Her black hair was comparatively short, cut at jaw length, and her eyes were like blue gems. She appeared to be close to Quaeryt’s age. For just a moment, her eyes widened as she studied Quaeryt. “Why indeed should I talk to you, officer?”
“Commander, Lady Rhella. And you should talk to me because, first, as one of the ministers who will determine which High Holders will keep their lands and holds, it would be foolish not to, and, second, because I’m not your enemy, no matter what anyone may have told you, and, third, because your sister Eluisa requested that I contact you and your father.”
“Eluisa’s dead.” The words were flat.
“On the contrary, she is alive and well at the Telaryn Palace in Tilbora, where she is a musician for Governor Straesyr and his wife. She also, several years ago, taught several clavecin pieces to my wife, who is, by the way, the youngest sister of Lord Bhayar.”
Rhella’s eyes softened from gem-hard to merely ice-hard. “Why did we not hear this earlier?”
“Because Lord Bhayar did not know of the connection of Mistress Eluisa to Taelmyn, and because I only received the correspondence from Governor Straesyr a few days ago, and it took some time to locate your dwelling. All of Rex Kharst’s records about High Holders were destroyed when he was.”
Rhella sighed, resignedly. “We might as well go into the parlor.” Her gesture to the archway from the entry hall was barely perfunctory.
Quaeryt followed her back along the corridor and into the same chamber from which she had emerged. The salon was modest in size for a High Holder, perhaps seven yards by five, with a small writing desk at one end and a fireplace and hearth at the other. Twin settees faced each other, with a low narrow table between them, and there was an armchair at each end of the table.
Rhella took one armchair. Quaeryt took the other.
“What else do you have to convey, Commander? Or is that it, in which case you may report that you have conveyed your message?”
“The dispatch asked that I inform you and your father that Eluisa was well and in health. Before I left Tilbor, almost two years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing her play. She played a piece by the former court composer here, but I cannot remember his name.”
“Covaelyt. She liked his compositions.”
“She also mentioned your other sister … but asked I not press. I did not.”
“And now you wish to know?”
Quaeryt shook his head. “I have already discovered more than I ever wanted to know about the acts of Kharst … and that was without asking.”
“So now you will inform me that we will lose our holding?”
“No. So long as your father pays his tariffs and pledges allegiance to Lord Bhayar, he will keep the holding. Lord Bhayar has already agreed to consider letting widows hold the lands until the majority of a son or the marriage of a daughter.”
“Agreed to consider?”
“One widow has requested that. He granted the request. He has said he will consider others.”
“How generous of him after he caused so many deaths.”
“The only High Holders we killed were those in the battle or in the Chateau Regis with Kharst, and I doubt you had much love for any of them.” Quaeryt looked directly at Rhella.
Abruptly she looked away. After a moment she said, “You said your wife had learned compositions from Eluisa. Might I ask where your wife is?”
“At the Chateau Regis. We recently returned from a mission and a campaign.”
“Then you’re the one.”
“The one?”
“The one who destroyed Kharst and conquered Antiago.”
“I had something to do with that.” Quaeryt laughed softly. “There was one other line in the dispatch. It mentioned Eluisa’s thanks for my acts.”
“Do you expect mine?”
“No.” Although it would be gracious. “I would like you to answer a few questions if you can.”
“Oh?”
“What do you know about Kharst’s imagers? They are often mentioned, but we have found no traces of them, and several people have said that while some were killed at the battle of Variana, not all were, and there is no trace of those who may have survived.”
“There wouldn’t have been. They were lodged in a holding belonging to High Holder Paitrak. Kharst did not wish them any closer. There were supposedly three of them who did not support the armies. Everyone called them the three evils.”
“Do you know who they were?”
“No one knew their names. Few ever saw them, and most of those who did were unlikely to survive long. Kharst used them to fire and destroy the holdings of those High Holders who were not obedient…”
“Or those whose daughters were not obedient.”
“He regarded that as disobedience.”
“Eluisa confided in my wife, but only on the condition she not tell me. Vaelora did not, except to say that his acts were far worse than the stories about him.”
“Your wife’s summary is accurate, Commander. If anything, it is a terrible understatement.”
Quaeryt nodded. “Have you heard anything about those imagers since the battle? No one seems to know where they might have gone.”
“We don’t know, either. Kharst was secretive about them.” Rhella shook her head. “They were never used in battle, Father said. They were sometimes used to keep the marshals and commanders in line because they could kill at a distance.”
“How great a distance? Did he say?”
“He thought it was over a hundred yards.” Rhella paused. “He did say that one of the marshals had his study lined with iron and lead.”
“I’ve heard that the Autarch of Antiago had his imagers housed in iron-lined chambers. I hadn’t heard about lead, though.”
“Father said that was because lead was heavier and thicker than iron.”
Quaeryt nodded. “Put that way, it definitely makes sense.”
“Why do you paint your nails?”
For a moment that question gave Quaeryt a start, because it hadn’t come up recently. “I don’t. They turned white after the battle for Variana, and they keep growing in that way. That was when my hair turned white as well.”
Rhella frowned, but did not speak.
“Did you have another question?”
“Did you really kill fifty thousand troopers?”
“What I did killed most of Kharst’s troopers, as well as anyone who was in the Chateau Regis. I have no idea how many people that was.”
“And you can live with yourself?”
I almost didn’t. Quaeryt looked directly at Rhella. “Is that a rhetorical question, or do you want an honest answer, or at least the best answer I can give.”
“It’s not rhetorical. I can’t see how you could. That’s why I want to know.”
“I spent almost a month after the battle locked in a room that my ravings and imaging turned solid white. I had a solid month of nightmares about the battle. I still have them … just not all day and all night. But … as my wife pointed out, as a commander I did not have a choice as to whether men would die. My only choice was which men would die. Given the stakes of the battle, and Kharst’s avowed intent of destroying all of Lord Bhayar’s forces and then marching down the Aluse, taking Ferravyl and then Solis, and then conquering Telaryn, had I not done what I did, at least as many men would have died. It just would have taken longer.”
“That’s sophistry.”
“Is it, Lady? Knowing what you know about Kharst? Seeing what you have seen? Is it?” Quaeryt waited, not pressing.
“But all at once?”
“Would you have had both lands bled dry? When we first marched up the Aluse, Kharst ordered the fields and crops of all holders burned to deny us food. This was long before the crops could ever have been harvested. We only took the supplies we needed, and we paid for them. Not full price, I admit, but we destroyed nothing we did not use.”