“I suppose this would have to be called detached duty,” Lewin said. His smile seemed glued on, rather like a cheap seal to a letter. “But duty also implies doing what it is lawful for a knight to do.”
“What have I done that is unlawful?”
Lewin’s answer at least came swiftly to his tongue. “You have set yourself in arms against the servants of Istar-you, a Knight of Solamnia and therefore sworn to Istar. You have shed blood of comrades in fighting the tax soldiers!”
“They may rank as such,” Pirvan admitted, “but my orders were to see if the tax soldiers would seek justice between Istar and the Silvanesti. They have not as yet fought the Silvanesti, but have behaved, where I have seen them, more like thieves and outlaws.”
“You would know, I am sure.”
Pirvan took a deep breath. “I also fear that the tax soldiers, left unopposed, will provoke a war with the Silvanesti.”
“Our honor demands that we fight at Istar’s side, if so.”
“If the war comes, then so be it. But the Measure also commands that justice be sought in peace, before one draws the sword. And it is commanded that if we see those to whom we are sworn doing injustice, we consider where our honor lies. You know as well as I do the times knights have refused to keep an oath that would require them to wrong the innocent-or the times they have slain themselves after obeying such a command.”
Lewin’s eyes were on the floor. Was he trying to read the smudges that had been Nuor’s map, or was he merely unable to meet Pirvan’s eyes? Or, as likely, was he just weary from a long journey and unfit to make hard decisions?
Pirvan considered the questions, turning them over in his mind like a joint on a spit over hot coals-which seemed to rather describe his situation.
The Measure of all the orders, the True Gods of Krynn, and the common sense of any man able to find the jakes when he needed them spoke against doubting another knight’s honor. His wisdom was fair game; his honor was not.
What did you do when your own honor was deeply engaged to folk whom the other knight might endanger? What if you erred on the side of charity toward him? What happened to your honor if you ended with their lives on your conscience for the remainder of your days?
What Pirvan did was decide, yearn briefly for the days of his youth when he thought the gods and even some men knew what was just, and spoke.
“Sir Lewin, I do not beg your pardon, but say it will be a pleasure to learn I have misjudged you. I have seen far too many follies these past few days, and men have died of them. I will not stand by to see more follies and more dead.
“But I promise you this: You may feel free to go where you wish, anywhere in the citadel. We are none of us safe outside it, so I cannot allow you beyond the walls.
“Within them, however, you may see whatever you wish to see, ask any questions you wish answered, of anyone you think will answer them, and otherwise do as you please as long as you do not hinder our work of defense.
“Within days, I think you will see that the tax soldiers are not serving justice, honor, or even Istar. Our oath demands that they be kept from doing further harm, not that they be aided in doing it.
“Have I your word of honor about doing no harm?”
“I thought I had already given it.”
“No one ever swore too many oaths.”
“Except at bad wine and ugly serving wenches, perhaps,” Lewin said with a flicker of a smile that now seemed to come from within. “Very well. Upon my word of honor, I will do naught that you consider hindering the defense of Belkuthas, while learning the truth of its situation. Will that suffice?”
It would. Pirvan hastily scribbled and sealed a pass for Sir Lewin. Even so, as the Knight of the Rose departed, Pirvan felt an itching between his shoulder blades and a hollow feeling in his stomach.
I do this for you, Sir Marod, more than for Sir Lewin, he thought. But none will be happier than I if he proves he can learn from his errors, and with us seek justice among all the folk of Krynn.
Pirvan’s bodyguard was waiting outside the chamber. He had ordered that they be sent up, a man-at-arms and a Gryphon warrior, before he went to meet with Nuor. He looked at them; they tried not to look at him, sensing his embarrassment. He had never been one for keeping state, or holding his life more precious than the lives of the fighters he led.
This had changed. It was not, in his opinion, a change for the better.
“Summon an escort for Sir Lewin, and then go find the Lady Rynthala.”
“The escort is on the way,” the man-at-arms said.
“Lady Rynthala is in the stables, with the pegasus,” the Gryphon said.
Pirvan frowned at both of them. He thought they were too new to the role of guards to be undertaking the management of his comings and goings, so that he never had a moment alone.
“Very well. One of you stay here until the escort arrives. The other will be enough to keep me safe between here and the stables.”
The man-at-arm’s salute was more polished than that of the Gryphon. On the other hand, the Gryphon warrior did a better job of keeping his face straight.
Pirvan had never seen a pegasus so close as he saw Amrisha when he reached the stables. Rynthala had arranged for two stables to be thrown together to provide Amrisha enough room for her wings. Now she stood tall and proud, favoring one leg as if weight on it strained her wounded flank.
“She hasn’t tried to spread the wounded wing yet,” Rynthala said. “I hope Belot can at least exercise her in the courtyard within a day or two.” She looked at Pirvan in appeal, and the knight would have sworn the appeal was echoed in Amrisha’s almost luminous green eyes.
A shrug would have been as accurate an answer as any number of words. But Pirvan knew the requirements of courtesy.
“One-company, or maybe alliance of companies-has had a bloody nose. The other two seem to have lost their chiefs. They’ll be back, but we may be able to find fresh water supplies and evacuate the refugees while they’re sorting themselves out.”
“So said Darin.” Rynthala cocked her head to one side, a curiously girlish gesture considering that Pirvan had to look up to meet her eyes. “Is that the truth, or are you knights conspiring to deceive us-not only me, but my parents?”
“We’re only conspiring to avoid raising false hopes or throwing people into despair without reason,” Pirvan said, more sharply than he had intended. “Either kind of folly has overthrown more fortresses than siege engines, dragons, and spells put together.”
“I am sure you know better than we do,” Rynthala said. “Perhaps even as well as you think you do.” She turned and walked away. Her hips swayed naturally as she walked, rather as Haimya’s had done-and indeed, Rynthala was built like a younger, taller version of Haimya. The elven slenderness of both her parents had given way to a more human solidity of bone and fullness of hip and breast.
If she wed anyone of her own stature or taller, they might breed up a race of giants.
Meanwhile, Pirvan had completely forgotten what he had come down to the stables to say. He resolved to see if Sirbones or Tarothin could do anything to further speed the pegasus’s healing. If they could do anything for the flying mare … after they had healed the day’s wounded among both defenders and prisoners, without needing healing themselves!
The dwarves seemed to interpret “nightfall” rather generously. The sun had barely touched the horizon and the evening coolness had yet to flow over Belkuthas when Pirvan felt the ground quiver faintly.
“Good for the dwarves,” Tharash said, coming up on the wall behind Pirvan.
“I thought that was a secret,” the knight snapped.
“From men, maybe. From elves-elves with my kind of hearing, at least …” He shrugged.
“Let’s talk of this somewhere else,” Pirvan said. He tried to moderate his tone, but today his tongue seemed to have a will of its own and an edge like a razor.