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dreamt mere ignorance could be so comforting.
Because he was so comforted, he listened to her longer than he would have
otherwise. Even so, he turned away when Ingegerd came toward him. The matron
muttered something about barbarians and sluts, not quite far enough under her
breath. She never knew how close Rhavas came to cursing her then and there or
how lucky she was that he didn't.
"You spoke well, very holy sir," Ingegerd said. "But then, you commonly do."
Rhavas bowed. "I thank you. I thank you very much. Do you think anyone will
heed me? That is the true measure of speaking well."
The garrison commander's wife only shrugged. "I cannot tell you. I wish I
could. Folk have a way of hearing what they want to hear no more and no less.
And you Videssians, meaning no offense, have a way of quarreling amongst
yourselves."
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"How can I take offense at what is so plainly true?" Rhavas asked.
Ingegerd shrugged again. "Plenty of people have no trouble at all." That was
also true, even if, once more, he wished it weren't. She went on, "You are
trying to take these folk in the direction they ought to go. You deserve the
credit for that, and they deserve the blame if they will not follow."
"I am not the one who will punish them if they do not," Rhavas said. "The
Khamorth will lash them with whips of scorpions."
"So they will, if Phos decides they should." Ingegerd was a convert to faith
in the good god, but her belief was firm.
"Yes, if Phos decides they should," Rhavas agreed, ashamed that she should
have to remind him the lord with the great and good mind lay behind the
barbarians' actions.
Ingegerd sketched the sun-sign. If Rhavas paid more attention to her smoothly
rounded bosom than to the sun-sign itself . . . if he did, he was the only one
who knew it. And he had already given himself penance for a wandering eye. He
could always give himself more.
Yes, go ahead, he jeered silently. You care for the sin more than you care
about the penance. The more you prostrate yourself and pray before the altar,
the more you wish you were doing other things.
He hoped none of what he was thinking showed on his face. It must not have,
for Ingegerd did not pull back from him in anger or disgust. She did ask,
"Very holy sir, has this city done anything to ready itself if the Khamorth
should break in?"
"Not so far as I know," the prelate replied. "Everything that has been done,
has been done to hold them out."
She nodded. "We must do everything we can to hold them out. But we should also
try to be ready in case everything we do is not enough. Or do you think I am
wrong? Do you think I see doom where doom looms not?"
"I don't know," Rhavas said heavily. "By the lord with the great and good
mind, I just don't know. Nor am I any sort of fighting man. You might do
better to speak to Zautzes or to Voilas. You are the garrison commander's
wife, and can be expected to know somewhat of these matters. As for me . . . I
am the man who, they think, cursed their commander. Whatever I say to them,
they are not likely to heed me."
"They may not love you," Ingegerd said, "but I think they will heed you. They
would be fools if they did not." She gave him the beginnings of a curtsy and
walked out of the temple.
Not for the first time, Rhavas had trouble paying attention to the Videssian
who came up to him next.
* * *
After what Ingegerd said, Rhavas had trouble seeing Skopentzana's walls as
barriers against the
Khamorth. Might they not also be traps? If the barbarians did break in, how
would the folk of
Skopentzana protect themselves, defend themselves, escape the foe? Though he
had told her he wouldn't, the prelate went to Zautzes with the question.
"If they break in, very holy sir?" Zautzes stared at him. "If they break in,
we're ruined. It's as simple as
that. We can put up the best fight we know how, or we can hide the best way we
know how, but it isn't likely to make much difference one way or the other. Or
do you say otherwise?"
"No," Rhavas answered unhappily. "I wish I could."
"Holding them out is what walls are for." The eparch warmed to his theme.
"Walls keep the savages out and the civilized folk in. That's what makes
Videssos the city such a special place: it has better walls than any other
city in the world. Folk there don't have to lose any sleep worrying about
whether barbarians will slaughter them in the streets."
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"No, indeed," Rhavas said with politeness as frigid as the weather. "They can
worry about Videssian rebels slaughtering them in the streets instead. See the
progress our wonderful civilization has brought us?"
Zautzes gave him a reproachful look. "You haven't got the right attitude, very
holy sir."
"No?" Rhavas shrugged. "And all the time I thought that was the Khamorth and
the Videssian traitors.
Only goes to show you never can tell, doesn't it? Good morning, most honorable
sir." He left the eparch's office with no ceremony whatsoever. He felt
Zautzes' eyes boring into his back, but the other man said not a word.
An icy breeze brought tears to Rhavas' eyes as he started across the square
toward the temple and his own residence. Winter would have been hard enough
without the barbarians prowling beyond the gates.
Knowing the Khamorth were out there added a different sort of chill to the
air.
There beyond the statues in the center of the square, two small groups of men
were moving toward each other. Because his eyes were tearing, Rhavas couldn't
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