Every single writer brought in during the first... Every single writer brought in during the first sweep of the khav rooms denied authorship, and then, with time to prepare, every writer in the second sweep claimed to have written the verses
Some advisers suggested peremptory wheels for the lot of them, but Alberico had been giving thought to a larger issueTo the marked difference between his court and the Ygrathen'sOn Chiara, the poets vied for access to Brandin, quivering like puppies at the slightest word of praise from himThey wrote paeans of exaltation to the Tyrant and obscene, scathing attacks on Alberico at requestHere, every writer in the Eastern Palm seemed to be a potential rabble-rouserAn enemy of the state
Alberico swallowed his anger, lauded the technical skill of the verses, and let both sets of poets go freeNot before suggesting, however, as benignly as he could manage, that he would enjoy reading verses as well-crafted on one of the many possible themes of rich satiric possibility having to do with Brandin of YgrathHe had managed a smileHe would be very pleased to read such verses, he'd said,
pasha de cartier wondering if one of these cursed writers with their lofty airs could take a hintInstead, a new poem appeared on walls all over the city two mornings laterIt was about Tomasso bar SandreA lament about his death, and claiming, unbelievably, that his perverse sexuality had been a deliberately chosen path, a living metaphor for his conquered, subjugated land, for the perverse situation of Astibar under tyranny
He'd had no choice after that, once he'd understood what the poet was sayingNot bothering with inquiries again, he'd had a dozen writers pulled at random out of the khav rooms that same afternoon, and then broken, wristed, and sky-wheeled among the still-crowded bodies of the families of the conspirators before sundownHe closed all khav rooms for a monthNo more verses appearedBut the same evening his new taxes were proclaimed in the Market Square in Tregea, a black-haired woman elected to leap to her death from one of the seven bridges in protest against the measuresShe made a speech before she jumped, and she left behind, the gods alone knew how she'd come into
pochette louis vuitton possession of them, a complete sheaf of the "Sandreni Elegies" from AstibarNo one knew who she wasThey dragged the icy river for her body but it was never foundRivers ran swiftly in Tregea, out of the mountains to the eastern sea
The verses were all over that province within a fortnight, and had crossed to Certando and southern Ferraut before the first heavy snows of the winter began to fall
Brandin of Ygrath sent an elegantly fur-clad courier to Astibar with an elegantly phrased note lauding the Elegies as the first decent creative work he'd seen emanating from Barbadian territoryHe offered Alberico his sincerest congratulations
Alberico sent a polite acknowledgment of the sentiments and offered to commission one of his newly competent verse-makers to do a work on the glorious life and deeds in battle of Prince Valentin di Tigana
Because of the Ygrathen's spell, he knew, only Brandin himself would be able to read that last word, but only Brandin mattered
He thought he'd won that one, but for some reason the woman's suicide in Tregea left him feeling too edgy to be pleasedIt
dior gym bags was too intense an action, harking back to the violence of the first year after he'd landed hereThings had been quiet for so long, and this level of intensity, of very public intensity, never boded wellBriefly he even considered rolling back the new taxes, but that would look too much like a giving in rather than a gesture of benevolenceBesides, he still needed the money for the armyBack home the word was that the Emperor was sinking more rapidly now, that he was seen in public less and less oftenAlberico knew he had to keep his mercenaries happy
In the dead of winter he made the decision to reward Karalius with fully half of the former Nievolene lands
The night after the announcement was made public, among the troops first, then cried in the Grand Square of Astibar, the horse barn and several of the outbuildings of the Nievolene family estate were burned to the ground
He ordered an immediate investigation by Karalius, then wished, a day later, that he hadn'tIt seemed that they had found two bodies in the smoldering ruins, trapped by a fallen beam that had barred a
chanel bag gold chain doorOne was that of an informer linked to Grancial and the Second CompanyThe other was a Barbadian soldier: from the Second Company
Karalius promptly challenged Grancial to a duel at any time and place of the latter's choosingGrancial immediately named a date and placeAlberico quickly made it clear that the survivor of any such combat would be death-wheeledHe succeeded in halting the fight, but the two commanders stopped speaking to each other from that point onThere were a number of small skirmishes among men of the two companies, and one, in Tregea, that was not so small, leaving fifteen soldiers slain and twice as many wounded
Three local informers were found dead in Ferraut's distrada, stretched on farmer's wagon-wheels in a savage parody of the Tyrant's justiceThey couldn't even retaliate, that would involve an admission that the men had been informers
In Certando, two of Siferva's Third Company went absent from duty, disappearing into the snow-white countryside, the first time that had ever happenedSiferval reported that local women did not appear to be
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