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'The ambassador certainly comes with all the usual diplomatic accoutrements,'
UrLeyn said, striding onwards along the terrace.
'From one of the Sea Companies, sir,' DeWar protested. 'They're hardly an
Imperial delegation of old. They have the clothes and the jewels and the
chains of office, but do any of them match?'
'Match?' UrLeyn said, mystified.
'I think,' ZeSpiole said, 'the chief bodyguard means that all their finery is
stolen.'
'Ha!' BiLeth said, with a shake of his head.
'Aye, and recently, too,' DeWar said.
'Nevertheless,' UrLeyn said. 'In fact, all the more so because of that.'
'Sir?'
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'All the more so ?'
BiLeth looked confused for a moment, then nodded wisely.
General UrLeyn came to a sudden stop on the white and black tiles of the
terrace. DeWar seemed to stop in the same instant, ZeSpiole and BiLeth a
moment later. Those following them along the terrace between the private
quarters and the formal court chambers
generals, aides, scribes and clerks, the usual attenders bumped into each
scribes other with a muffled clattering of armour, swords and writing boards
as they drew to a stop behind.
'The Sea Companies may be all the more important now that the old Empire is in
tatters, my friends,' General UrLeyn said, turning in the sunlight to address
the tall, balding figure of BiLeth, the still taller and shadow-dark bodyguard
and the smaller, older man in
the uniform of the palace guard. ZeSpiole a thin, wizened man with deeply
lined eyes
had been DeWar's predecessor as chief bodyguard. Now instead of being
charged with the immediate protection of UrLeyn's person he was in command of
the palace guard and therefore with the security of the whole palace. 'The Sea
Companies' knowledge,' UrLeyn said, 'their skills, their ships, their cannons
. . . they have all become more important. The collapse of the Empire has
brought us a surfeit of those who call themselves Emperors . .
.'
'At least three, brother!' RuLeuin called.
'Precisely,' UrLeyn said, smiling. 'Three Emperors, a lot of happy Kings, or
at least Kings who are happier than they were under the old Empire, and indeed
a few more people calling themselves Kings who would not have dared to do so
under the old regime.'
'Not to mention one for whom the title King would be an insult, indeed a
demotion, sir!'
YetAmidous said, appearing at the General's shoulder.
UrLeyn clapped the taller man's back. 'You see, DeWar, even my good friend
General
YetAmidous rightly numbers me with those who have benefited from the demise of
the old order and reminds me that it was neither my cunning and guile nor
exemplary generalship which led me to the exalted position I now hold,' UrLeyn
said, his eyes twinkling.
'General!' YetAmidous said, his broad, furrowed, rather doughy-looking face
taking on a hurt expression. 'I meant to imply no such thing!'
The Grand Aedile UrLeyn laughed and clapped his friend on the shoulder again.
'I know, Yet, don't worry. But you take the point, DeWar?' he said, turning to
him again, yet raising his voice to make it clear he was addressing all the
rest of those present, not just his chief bodyguard. 'We have been able,'
UrLeyn told them, 'to take more control of our own affairs because we do not
have the threat of Imperial interference hanging over us.
The great forts are deserted, the drafts are returned home or have become
aimless bands of brigands, the fleets were sunk vying with one another or left
rotting, deserted. A few of the ships had commanders who could hold them
together with respect rather than fear, and some of those ships are now part
of the Sea Companies. The older Companies have found a new power now that the
Empire's ships no longer harry them. With that power they have a new
responsibility, a new station in life. They have become the protectors, not
the raptors, the guards, not the raiders.'
UrLeyn looked round all the people in the group, standing blinking on the
terrace of black and white tiles under the fierce glare of Xamis and Seigen at
their mid.
BiLeth nodded even more wisely than before. 'Indeed, sir. I have often '
'The Empire was the parent,' UrLeyn went on, 'and the Kingdoms and the Sea
Companies, to a lesser degree were the children. We were left to play
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amongst ourselves for much of the time, unless we made too much noise, or
broke something, whereupon the adults would come and punish us. Now the father
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