The Hunters' Haunt (Omar Book 2) by Duncan Dave

Author:Duncan, Dave [Duncan, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

16: Interlude

That was how it should have been told. Instead, the notary quoted interminable legal texts, political commentaries, and religious tracts, with no eyewitness account at all. Any story is improved by the authority of personal testimony. Unethical tellers of tales sometimes stoop to attributing their narratives to fictional onlookers, just to gain that effect. Present company excluded, of course.

My reverie ended. I was back in the dim coolness of the inn, in the flickering firelight. The rafters upstairs clicked and creaked as they adjusted to the plummeting temperatures. And Tickenpepper had not done yet.

“Cold-vengeance united the Seven Cities and the steppes in the Kingdom of Verlia…”

How easy the little hack made that seem! It took a lifetime, and it was Juss who did it, not Ven. Juss was the politician of the family. His brother, after all, had promised to restore democracy to the Land Between the Seas and then contrived to have the god proclaim him king. Revolution simmered below the surface for a long time because of that. Juss devised a compromise whereby the monarch ruled with the guidance of elected representatives. The system was cumbersome, but not without merit. The people had someone to cheer in good times and someone else to throw out in bad.

I did not stay to see all that. I watched the king’s wedding procession from a distance and heard news of Juss’s engagement on the very day I sailed away. Many years later, in a far land, I learned from a chance remark in a spice bazaar that both marriages had been fruitful.

Still the notary droned. “Following the precedent thereby established by Cold-vengeance, his son Bright-dawn returned to the cave on his accession, and Hool confirmed him as true heir.”

No mention of the rebuilding of the cities, the civilizing of the Horsefolk, the great capital that sprang up at Uthom in the Middle? A lot of that was done by later rulers, of course. It took more than a century.

“The death of True-honor without living issue established two other tenets.”

I perked up half an ear.

“The rival claimants were prevailed upon to present themselves together before the god, and he made judgment between them, thus establishing both his willingness to decide such disputes among the direct descendants and the primacy of primogeniture. A further precedent was set at the accession of Fair-pearl, whom the god accepted as queen regnant—‘to the surprise of many and the chagrin of her cousins,’ as the learned Doctor Forstein put it.”

I lost interest again. The fire was smoldering low, starting to smoke and stink up the room. The shutters rattled as if the storm had just been having a rest and was about to return. I considered strategy. Some person in this room knew something I very much wanted to know.

The merchant and his wife seemed extraordinarily smug. If Master Tickenpepper’s tedious dissertation was so pleasing to them, his fees must be extremely reasonable.

On the other hand, the dowager’s arid visage was all scowl surrounded by the folds of her hat.

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