Arms-Commander Read Online Free PDF

want a demonstration of what the best archers and Hryessa’s top squad can do?”
    “That might be useful. I’d also like you…” Ryba smiled, but did not finish the sentence.
    “My little act?”
    “It can’t hurt, if only to make their envoy wary.”
    Saryn nodded. Whether one dealt with lands where rulers used cavalry or worlds using neuronets and mirror towers, shows of prowess were necessary. And that need is almost endless.
    “I don’t like it, either,” Ryba added, “but these people have been conditioned so that, without a show of power, even repeated displays of it, they can’t respect others. They respect tyrants, not coordinators. That’s where the engineer went wrong. He’s out there looking for a way to make things work without force.”
    “For someone who didn’t like force, he mustered a frigging load of it. The whole world shivered. Cyador’s pretty much collapsed, and what was left of their fleet sailed off to Hamor. That was what the traders said some years back.”
    “Something like that. A good chunk of the eastern section of Cyador is reverting to that strange forestland, and most of the rest of the country is in chaos. It will be for years, if not centuries, until someone musters enough force to put things back together.”
    Saryn just nodded, although she had the feeling that Ryba was seeing what she wanted to. “Have you actually… visualized… that?”
    Ryba shook her head. “I never get any insights there. I think it’s because there are too many possibilities for now.”
    “Do you know when on eightday the Suthyan will arrive?”
    “Plan for a demonstration in late afternoon, before the eve ning meal. And have the juniors clean up the guest cottage.”
    “I checked it the other day, but it won’t hold all that many armsmen.”
    “Duessya will have to clean out the end section of the stable, then. That’s more than adequate for Suthyan armsmen. I’ll see you at supper.”
    “Until then.” Saryn smiled, then turned and left the study, walking down all the flights of stairs to the tower’s lowest level.
    A Suthyan envoy? And Ryba had been expecting him for half a year?

VII
    T he wind whipping around Tower Black on sevenday night when Saryn finally dropped off to sleep told her that the weather was about to change. When she woke in the early chill the next morning, a thin layer of wet snow lay across the fields and meadows around Westwind, but the roads and causeways were only wet. By the time the white sun first cleared the peaks to the east, the blue-green sky was empty of clouds, and the snow had nearly all melted away, but the air was chill. Even in midafternoon, when she had received word from the scouts that the Suthyan party was less than a glass away, and she walked back downhill after checking the stables, the air was cold enough that her breath steamed as she entered Tower Black.
    Ryba was standing inside the foyer, talking to Dyliess.
    Saryn stopped well short of mother and daughter, out of courtesy, although she could hear their words as clearly as though she had been standing between them.
    “…don’t see why we couldn’t. We shoot better than any of the guards.”
    “Because that would be too great an insult. It would only make them more intransigent,” the Marshal said.
    “They’re already intransigent, Mother.”
    “No.” The single word was low, but carried enough ice and force that Dyliess stiffened.
    “You will not. Now…” Ryba continued more softly. “You will keep the other two out of sight, but you three may observe from the second level of the tower. I want you to watch closely enough that you can describe Envoy Suhartyn perfectly and tell me exactly what sort of man he is and what he is thinking at each moment. I also would like you to be able to pick out any member of their party who appears dangerous.”
    “Yes, ser.”
    “Good. Round up the other two and take your positions. Not a word… and you cannot let them see