Chapter Three

Valygar Corthala swept into the courtyard at the head of his patrol. Drawing his two katanas with one lithe, fluid motion, he snapped to the legionnairres, "Quickly! Take the doors! Get the crossbowmen to cover the windows!" As he shouted orders, he looked around for Temmeus, one of three wizards who were adjoined to the garrison in Athkatla. "Temmeus, be ready, in case they have a caster!"

The elderly wizard, whose one eye was white, blind, and who walked with an obvious limp, had served in Maztica since the lands in the west had been discovered, and had been rewarded with estates in Amn, for his services in pacifying the savages there. Yet retirement apparently did not agree with the battle-mage, and although he was finding it difficult to keep up with the fast-moving patrols Valygar had implemented as Chief Inspector, his experience and aid was invaluable. The wizard nodded, and chanted a brief spell. Valygar knew enough of magic to recognise the words - a spell to keep simple missiles from harming him.

Suppressing a shudder, Valygar moved forward, to stand beside the two legionnairres who were pounding at the heavy oaken doors with a small, buy heavy, battering ram. The Chief Inspector of Amn despised magic. His admiration for Nalia had tempered that view somewhat - after all, her magic had delivered his country, but she was one of the few wizards he liked. Even Temmeus, he treated with a certain degree of suspicion.

From within the house, came a sudden clatter.

Valygar frowned, trying to work out what the sounds signified. Then, he blinked, and made an urgent gesture to the men beside him, shouting, "Back! Away from the door! They have soldiers! Temmeus," he yelled at the wizard as he sprinted away from the door, angling to one side, to position himself behind a pillar. "When the door is opened, send a fireball into the soldiers!"

The wizard nodded.

"Crossbowmen, aim for the doorway!"

The Chief Inspector of Amn gazed around the nobleman's courtyard. It was archetypical, for Amn. A low wall surrounded the manse, easily scaled by the professional soldiers under his command. However, the house itself was a sturdy affair, with but one door. Many balconies provided some hope of infiltration, but Valygar did not want to risk storming the house by asking his heavily-armoured legionairres to scale a wall with only the aid of weak vines. Which meant that his force was gathered in the large courtyard, some crouching behind rose bushes, some, like him, standing behind the pillars which supported the balconies.

The merchant family of Arawn who owned this manse, it had been discovered, were trading in slaves in one of the organised enclaves of illicit dealing within the sewers. It was a veritable badge of honour for Valygar, that after two years as Chief Inspector, he had cleaned the streets of the organised smuggling cartels. Unfortunately, he did not have enough manpower, nor did he believe he ever would, to purge the sewers and then keep it patrolled. The undercity was the new centre for the crimelords of Athkatla, and the only way to get at them was to target their holdings above ground.

"Look to the door," one of the soldiers called out.

The doors slammed open, but Valygar could not immediately see how many soldiers he was dealing with, for Temmeus, true to his Art, had unleashed a fireball that burst into a plume of flame that flared bright. Valygar heard the click of crossbows, and saw a small hail of black death rush in the wake of the magical blast. He heard the groans of anguish from those who were hit, heard the screams of those burned by the flames. Above him, he heard the tramp of iron-clad feet on the balcony above. Turning to the crossbowmen, the first rank of which was kneeling as the second rank fired now, in a time-honoured tactical movement. "Fire at the windows! Stop them from flanking us!"

And then he was moving, shouting for the first division of troops to move in. He had five divisions of ten men each at his disposal, two of which were crossbowmen, three of which were equipped with pikes and short-swords. His enchanted katanas flashed in the firelight, and Valygar swept into the press of dying soldiers, fire and smoke. He wore no helmet, and his family armour was scratched from the battling he had done this year, yet he was not afraid. Nalia's magic had enchanted his armour beyond its normal powers, and he saw the benefits of her magic, when he noticed that the searing hot flames were retreating from him. The crimson sash he wore across his waist that marked him as Chief Inspector, and the signet ring on his bare hands, made him a target, for soon a pike was thrust towards him.

Batting it to one side with one of his blades, he stepped inside its reach, and his other blade bit into the neck of his attacker. There was a pained, startled gurgle, and Valygar saw a shadowy form drop to the ground with a rattling thud. Someone within the house was ordering the defenders to drop pikes, and draw swords. Sure enough, Valygar was soon fending off an attack with a shortsword, though the motion, a thrusting one, was clumsy. He side-stepped the attack, and kicked out. His leather-booted foot encountered heavy armour, but his kick was hard enough to knock the warrior off balance, long enough for him to slip one katana into his groin, through a gap in the armour.

He heard a movement behind him, and twirled, his movement swift indeed, as he was unencumbered by the heavy armour the rest of the combatants wore. His family katana blocked an attack by a dagger, and his other blade moved in to slice towards a neck, but he blinked when his swift attack was parried by a second blade. Valygar stepped back, his eyes stinging from the smoke that was surrounding him. From a single fireball? he asked himself, wonderingly. The smoke should have long faded, by now...

Allowing the attacker to make the next move paid off. Although Valygar could not see much, save for the reflection of orange flames in the steel armour, he could see that whoever it was who wielded these two blades was not entirely skilled in the use of both of them. That lack of skill was fatal, as Valygar unleashed a flurry of movement, which soon left another corpse on the floor.

"Temmeus," Valygar shouted, coughing for a moment after it, as he inhaled smoke, "do something about this damned smoke! Second division move in! Third, standy by!"

He heard the jingle of his own troops' armour as more of them entered the fray. In the world of shadows and smoke, of hot sweat and wet, sticky blood, Valygar felt the line of the enemy soldiers give way, shift, weaken, and then collapse. Leaping forward, he struck to his left and right, in a move that felled two warriors. A gust of wind, powerful and fierce, started blowing from his right, and he saw the smoke beginning to clear.

The courtyard was filled with the dead and dying. The doors were closed again. His two divisions of crossbowmen had lost two soldiers. He saw quarrels sticking from their chests. Their had obviously been a firefight between them and those warriors on the roof. Of the two divisions he had sent in to battle, the first had lost three men, the second just one. There were perhaps twenty dead defenders. Yet he had no idea, still, how many more remained in the house.

"Third division, break the door! First and second, rest! Healer!"

His last, hoarse shout, was directed to the priest of Tyr who he had kept safe outside even the perimeter of the walls. He turned, to see a robed, youthful man, running forward. Judith Blaize was a relative unknown in the social circles of Amn, but in the religious circles, he was viewed with a mixture of amusement and respect. First, for his name, which was obviously meant for someone with breasts, he was treated as a joke. But second, for his healing power and his piety, he was treated with respect. Valygar had heard Nalia suggest that Judith might one day grow to be extremely influential in the temples of Amn. For that reason, Valygar had offered the man experience in battle, with the garrison.

Valygar took a swig of water from his hip-flask, and sat down, watching as Judith dashed between the three divisions who had been in battle, summoning the healing magic of his god for serious wounds, and binding the minor wounds with salves. The heavy thud of the battering ram against the door beat a cadence in the courtyard. Reaching into his pouch for a leather cord, Valygar re-bound his braided locks into a ponytail. Somehow, the binding had come apart in the battle, and he did not want to risk his hair obscuring his vision in midst battle. He had been lucky that it had not happened in the battle that had just finished.

After two years, Valygar had changed greatly. In one way, in the new scars that adorned his body and face, he had, according to Nalia, lost his instantly handsome features, though he had never considered himself attractive. However, all who knew him said his eyes, which used to be hollow and dark with the desire for revenge on all wizards, were now deeper. He had experienced more, and had seen the depths of human depravity, within the gutters of Athkatla. Something in him had changed. He had lost his rabid hatred of wizards, tempered by the fact that he saw that acts of terrible evil were committed as often against a wife by her husband, as by a power-addicted lich consumed by magic.

He stood then, as he saw the hinges of the oaken doors buckle once with a metallic groan.

Temmeus was readying a spell, without being told.

The crossbowmen were loading their weapons.

Two divisions out of three were readying a charge into the house.

Valygar smiled thinly. House Arawn would receive the full weight of Amnian justice, this day.

Still reeking of sweat and blood, Valygar strode into the sombrely decorated council chamber where Nalia and her five councillors conducted the business of the day. In chains behind him, were dragged Lord Nihmvail Arawn, with his wife Alietta and his twenty-six year old son. The rest of his family, one son aged twelve and several daughters all younger, were kept under house arrest in their townhouse, guarded by those legionairres who had served under Valygar for the full two years he had remained in his position, earning his trust.

The archmage de'Arnise stood, wearing the plain black cloth robes with a cloth-of-gold cloak that had become her garb of state. Along with the family crest that adorned her right breast, and a simple gold circlet that framed her temple. Upon seeing Valygar, she smiled, "Welcome, dear friend, welcome. I see the day has gone well. But," she paused, her expression sad, "were there many casualties?"

Valygar sighed, "More than ever I would want, but less than there could have been. He had a mage. Temmeus lies in a critical condition in the temple of the Even-handed God. I have myself paid for his healing. All in all, we lost thirteen. But we have apprehended the Lord Arawn, so I deliver him to you now."

He stepped to one side, wondering inside as he always did upon seeing Nalia, at the change in his friend. Her eyes were strained by the pressures of rulership. There were a few tiny threads of grey already in her hair, and she was only about twenty years of age. Although beautiful, there was a haggard, pained expression about her, and Valygar wanted more than anything to be able to take the problems that must weight her down, and lighten her load. But he would never demean her by asking, and he knew she was too strong of will to ask it of him.

So he stood in silence, watching as Nalia stepped forward to gaze at Lord Arawn, a fat, bulbuous man who would have looked grand in his silks, were he not bearing an expression that transformed his face into what was almost a parody of hatred. Behind Nalia, the five council members, in their silver masks, stood in silence. Valygar did not know the identities of the council members - none did, but he knew that some of them must have allies in the houses that Nalia was pursuing for their crimes against the state. For too long, she said, the rich and the nobility, had existed as if they could act as they wished, expecting no retribution for their crimes. As soon as she was delivered action, Nalia would implement justice according to the law, not according to the old method of bribery and favours in exchange of an 'imperial pardon'.

Turning to one of the guards, she sighed, and spoke gently, "Remove their gags if you would, goodman."

The guard nodded, and with a respectful bow of his head to Nalia, reached down, and first undid the gag that prevented Nihmvail from speaking. As soon as the gag was off, the lord drew in a deep breath, and screamed, "You cannot do this, you have no right! No right!"

Valygar, with his hands clasped behind his back, bowed his head so he was able to smile ever so faintly. The protests of those brought to face Nalia very rarely changed form. Always, it was nobles bellowing about the legitimacy of Nalia's rule, gibbering about tradition and such like. And Nalia always treated it with the same medicine.

Smiling softly, Nalia simply ignored Nihmvail.

"Nihmvail, of House Arawn, an imperial court has found you guilty of high treason, exhortation to murder, smuggling and rape, according to the evidence given by many witnesses who underwent examinations of truth. As well, documents have been located proving your connections to gangs in the undercity. It has been revealed that you have taken money from those known as the Twisted Rune, in exchange for secrets about the defensive capabilities of Amn."

Arawn stuttered, before chocking, "You had the trial without my presence? That is not lawful!"

Nalia spoke, "If the defendant does not answer the summons of a court, the court has the right to appoint an impartial priest of Tyr to speak on behalf of the defendant, allowing the trial to be conducted in his absence, that justice may be brought to this land. Now, as for your sentence," her eyes, still sad, stared a long time at the noble on the floor before her. "We of the council have taken advice from the priests of Justice, and we have decided that you are to be executed on the morrow, in the market square, as a public example to Amn. Your holdings have been confiscated by the crown. My general is on his way to disband your mercenaries and your house guards. Your wife and your children shall be given enough money to make their way in the world, but they will lose their vast fortune and their titles, and all the priveliges it provides."

The lady Alietta shrieked, then, "What? We become like the chattel of this city? This is preposterous!"

The son nodded his head emphatically, "Ridiculous! Ludicrous!"

Neither of them seemed particularly bothered about the impending death. Nalia ignored their protests, and nodded to the guards, "Take the lady Alietta and her son, and re-unite them with their family. Then, escort them to the streets, provide them with the money I have set aside for them, and let them go. Remove the traitor to the cells, and give him his last meal according to tradition."

And then she turned away, ignoring the impotent shouts of the remnants of House Arawn, all three.

When the council chamber was emptied of the guilty, Nalia sighed, and took a seat at the table that adorned the room. One of the council members spoke, the voice in peculiarly monotone, obviously the result of a spell to hide the gender of the council member from detection. "Who then, shall govern the holdings of House Arawn, Open Councillor?"

Nalia said, "I have received your recommendations, and find that the cousins of the Arawn family, or distant relatives, are inadequate. Consider this proposal, if you will. Valygar," she said, beckoning him to join them. "Who was the woman that was assaulted by Nihmvail, three weeks ago? She was the daughter of a merchant he ahd murdered, if I you remember...?"

Valygar nodded. He remembered exactly. Both the murder and the assault had been horrifying. Many in the garrison said it was worse that the young woman had survived. Better dead than bearing a monster's child, they said. But the woman loved her unborn child, clung to it as the only remnant of a life she had once had with a father, mother and prosperous business. "Harrietti Marllon, councillor."

There was a long silence, until another of the masked councillors said, "You wish to raise one of the commons to the nobility?"

Although the spell kept the voice monotonous, Valygar knew the councillor was furious. They did not balk at Nalia's swift justice any more, or if they did, they did so in private. What they despised, was the incredibly logical, but entirely unorthodox way, in which she acted. In the recent history of Amn, even if a noble was found guilty and executed, their sons would still inherit. Nalia had removed them of that idea. The nobility must learn responsibilities. If they harmed one of the common people, and were executed, their descendants would lose all rights to the House. The victim would then, depending on their abilities, be given control of the House. Simple justice, but it made many of the nobles furious.

"Of course."

Valygar watched Nalia's back stiffen. It was a motion imperceptible to any but him. But after two years of watching the Open Councillor battling the other five every inch of the way she had to travel for a new Amn, he could recognise it instantly. His heart thudded once with acute pity. She would be here for hours, she knew, arguing, cajoling, perhaps even resorting to offering the five council members lucrative trading deals or something to sweeten the deal for her. After all, it was still Amn, no matter how much Nalia wanted to change the nation, and certain things still revolved around one thing.

Gold.