they’d done for years, no matter that her heart was kicking so hard it felt as if it would leap out of her rib cage and draw attention to her treasonous deeds.
“Beck was very nearly mortally wounded at the front, left blinded in both eyes. But the hotheaded fool survived—and regained sight in one eye. Tao should have let the man fall on his sword when he became useless on the battlefield, the way it was always done.”
Never had such open anger roughened Markam’s voice. His temper was always under tight control.
“Always done?” Appalled, Elsabeth glanced sideways at him. “Where is mercy in all this?”
“To an Uhr, the circumstances of his death are as important as his deeds in life. A warrior must die honorably, even if that end is hastened at the hand of his fellow soldiers to speed the boarding of the angels’ arks. But, Tao had Beck sent home to the Barracks for Maimed Veterans.”
“Tao being Tao?” she prompted.
“His personal sense of honor is so great, he sometimes neglects to believe the lack of it in others.”
“As in Beck…”
“Yes. Beck blames Tao for stealing his warrior’s death.”
“But Uhr-Tao saved him.”
“Of course. But to Beck, Tao dishonored him in the worst possible way. Beck recovered enough sight to train recruits here in the capital, yes, but he doesn’t see himself as serving a useful purpose—he sees himself as an object of shame, and Tao as the one responsible for his plight. Tao allowed a fellow Uhr the chance to resume being an essential part of the Tassagon army, but all he did was create a bitter enemy.”
Tao being Tao. “Because his personal sense of honor is so great, he sometimes neglects to believe the lack of it in others,” she said under her breath. Now she could see why Markam had described his friend that way. Her confrontation with the general had led to this conversation, and to something she hadn’t expected: a revelation.
At the exit, Markam stopped, his heels clicking crisply together as he wished her good-night. “Thank you for your help, Elsabeth.”
“What are you going to do?”
“What I always do. Talk sense into young Xim and steer him clear of Beck’s influence.” Markam nodded pleasantly to a passing guard, then his expression turned serious again. “And hope I’m not too late.”
MARKAM OWED HIM SOME answers.
At the guard barracks, Tao found a party in progress. The majority of his officers filled a balcony, whooping it up. The women hanging on their arms were just as inebriated. Uniforms were half undone, if they were on at all, and the pungent odor of alcoholic spirits was eye watering in the muggy air. Some sort of drinking game was under way that involved belting out awful songs.
Good on them. After all they’d suffered and lost, his men deserved a bit of fun.
“General! Why are you standing out there?” Mandalay cried. “Join us.”
Sandoval, his armory captain, waved his arm so vigorously he almost lost his balance. “Surely you’re not thinking of abandoning us for—” he belched “—royalty, are you, sir? Or better yet a willing wench. Not yet at any rate.”
“We’ve whiskey aplenty here,” Pirelli, his master-at-arms, called to him. “And I dare say a much better party than those stuffy upper-crusters.”
They were right in that regard. This gathering beat the one he’d just suffered through. Tao joined the crowd on the balcony. A good number of the palace guards were there. “Field-Colonel Markam… Have you seen the man?”
“He’s out on some business for the king,” someone answered. “That’s all he’d say.” The man wore the trousers of a palace guard and a plain white jersey on top.
“Find him for me. Tell him I wish his counsel.”
With an unsteady gait, the off-duty guard left to fetch his boss.
“Sir! Have a glass of ale, at least while you wait,” Sandoval offered, thrusting a glass into his hands.
Tao took a long draught of the ale. It was ice cold and slightly sweet, refreshing and welcome in the stuffy heat of a summer that had overstayed its visit to the capital and seemed to have lodged inside the palace walls as a permanent resident. For a moment Tao forgot his worries, too glad to see his men acting without a care. They had won the chance to pursue a civilian life and, perhaps, even grow old.
“General Uhr-Tao!”
Tao tensed instinctively. He’d know that raspy voice anywhere. “Colonel Uhr-Beck,” he greeted the one-eyed warrior.
The sleeves of Beck’s uniform shirt were rolled up, revealing arms that, like the rest of him, were thick and solid without an ounce of fat. Tao knew Beck drilled his basic recruits without mercy, accepting no excuses for less-than-stellar performance. That quality hardened boys into men who could match the fierceness of the Gorr, a quality that Tao had welcomed at the front. It was a less desirable trait when training men to deal with their fellow humans, Kurel included.
Beck wasted no time with pleasantries. “They can’t be gathered here, General Tao. Your men. It’s the law.”
“I know of no such law.”
“As of tonight, sir, there is one.” Shiny pale skin covered the socket of Beck’s blind eye like a leather tarp stretched over a trapdoor. His good eye dared Tao to challenge him.
Tao was in no mood to bicker with the man. “Ah, let them be. They’re enjoying themselves and causing no harm.”
“Congregating of army soldiers in groups greater than three inside the capital is prohibited—by order of the king.”
“Three?” Tao almost laughed. “How does the king expect to raise and maintain an army if no more than a trio of soldiers can be together at any one time?”
Tao’s men snickered at that, winning a deadly look from Beck. “Not other soldiers, General. It’s your men he’s got a problem with. Your army.”
So. There it was again, the insinuation that the army was somehow his to use for nefarious reasons. He was no longer in the Hinterlands where his decision was all that mattered. At home, the commander of the army couldn’t give the appearance of ignoring the king’s orders, however nonsensical they were.
He turned to the officers. “As reluctant as I am to end the party, we’ll have to break it up.”
Sandoval and Mandalay nodded. “It’s all right, sir. We don’t want to cause you any trouble. We’ll tell the men.” Yet, neither looked eager to do so at the height of the party.
Tao couldn’t blame them. “Gentlemen, if there were another other option, I’d take it, but there isn’t. I’ll see to this utterly insane law being struck out first thing in the morning.”
“Utterly insane, is it? Is that what you think of my lawmaking, brother-in-law?”
Xim. Hell and damnation. The king stood at the entrance to the balcony, surrounded by his cronies and, at long last, Markam.
You’ve done it now, his friend’s unhappy face said.
“Your Highness,” Tao greeted, dipping his head, cursing his timing. If this were the battlefield, he’d be dead.
“It’s not comforting to know my top military commander holds such a low opinion of my judgment. Not only that, you’ve just encouraged your entire army to have the same attitude.”
“Your Highness, my choice of words was poor. My aim was only to advocate a more lenient policy concerning my men—”
“I already know what your aim is, Tao. You’ve revealed your true colors. You declared your intent to overturn my law. Field-Colonel!” Xim scowled over his shoulder at Markam. “Arrest