Part 14 (1/2)

”That'll teach me to make suggestions,” Otorin said wryly. ”Seriously though, if you hold this Hallmoot, are you going to collect t.i.the and taxes?”

Darius grinned. ”Only where absolutely necessary.

We depend on the goodwill of the local population. If the Semicount had been an exemplary lord, I might fee!

differently, but my gut tells me that he's an exploiter.

He'll have no complaint about our treatment of his lands, unless it's unavoidable, and I'm having a tally kept of everything we eat that has his brand on it. He'll be paid for that.”

”And who's going to pay for his tumbled walls?”

Otorin asked teasingly.

”Oh, I should think his freedom ought to be worth something,” Darius replied, deadpan.

74 ”And if he doesn't survive, it won't bother him,”

Otorin added.

”True.”

Otorin shook his head and smiled. ”You're such a wonderful old relic,” he observed. ”Spa.r.s.edale's petty malfeasances have really riled you, haven't they? They offend the tenets of your cla.s.s. I have a suspicion that if the manor house was occupied by a contingent of his tenants and cottars, you'd support them.”

”Let's not go too far,” Darius said. ”The social order must be preserved. When you look closely at the way of things, a Holdmaster's tenure is a precarious thing.

Rebellion and the resulting anarchy can never be con- doned.”

Otorin smiled lazily and finished his ale. ”G.o.ds but I hope your kind survives,” he said lightly. ”Honorable, old-fas.h.i.+oned, cleaving to tradition and giving it mean- ing.” He put his tankard down on the tray. ”The world's changing, old friend. Enclosure's but the beginning.

There will be a mad dash to the new and the best of the old will be forgotten.”

”Gloomseeker,” Darius said good-naturedly. ”The old ways will survive because they're good ways. My daughter runs Gwyndryth as I ran it. Our people would not have it otherwise.”

”And your grandson will be a Magician,” Otorin said, almost as an aside, as he got to his feet. ”I'll take a bath. General, and then I'll get about organizing the sappers.”

”You'll dine with me,” Darius said sternly. ”There's a deal more I need to know about your trip.”

”As the General commands,” Otorin replied, mock- ing smile back in place.

ChAptCR 8

uring the slow days of high summer, the Hall- moot was held within sight of the walls of Spa.r.s.edale.

The villagers gathered to pa.s.s judgment on their peers.

Fines were levied for the brewing of inferior ale; there were two cases of ”lying together before the banns,”

five of slander, six of illegal entry into tenure stemming from the disappearance of some of the cottars. Deci- sions were arrived at for the harvest, simplified this year by the destruction of a large part of the crop, and for the autumn ploughing. By the end of the sennight a hundred petty details of everyday life were settled.

Otorin watched the proceedings with a nostalgia for an age-old practice that he had never shared. He was a new landholder and an absentee at that. but here, in the center of Paladine, the immemorial ritual unfolded with a solemn civility that pleased him deeply. Darius, as Otorin had expected, presided superbly. His Pallic was serviceable though far from elegant, but his quiet air of authority was undeniable. The villagers themselves in- creasingly turned to him for decisions despite the fact that he was a foreigner. Darius held firm for the lord in the matter of fees and fines, but over the th.o.r.n.y ques- tion of the evening impoundment of livestock he took the other tack.

By long tradition, all livestock were brought back from their daily grazing across fallow belonging to the lord and penned in areas adjacent to the outer walls.

76 This ensured that demesne lands remained well fertil- ized. Since the seizure of Spa.r.s.edale, the locals had kept their beasts on their own land, claiming, not without reason, that the lord's pounds and sheepcote were no longer safe places. The General concurred, knowing that this year's lean harvest would have to be remedied by a larger than usual winter wheat crop. This, the final judgment of the session, was met with approbation, and the villagers dispersed peaceably to their homes.

Darius was clearly pleased with his own perfor- mance. He bantered lazily with his officers at dinner that night. Though there was an air of celebration, Oto- rin noticed that the General drank very little. His offi- cers, perforce, did likewise. The reason came clear at the end of the meal when he ordered a doubling of the guard and told the men to be on the lookout for a sortie attempt around dawn. After he had dismissed them, he and Otorin returned to the back room of the Stook and Plough for a nightcap.