Theodosius Valkorion's Arc

Chapter 13 of 22

The road to the pass was hard riding, but Theodosius rode with a different weight now. The capital was quiet behind him. The pass was ahead. Between them lay nine provinces that had knelt to his crown and would rise again the moment his horse left their sight. He had put down one rumor at a fountain. He could not ride to every fountain in the empire. He reached the western keep at midday. General Thraxes met him at the breached wall, a red slash on his white pauldron, dust on his boots. The cannon sat in the gap where the north wall had been. Heinrich's column was already inside, the men in white enamel forming up in the yard, black star visors turned toward the king. "Columns?" Theodosius asked. "Two days out," Thraxes said. "Scouts confirm three." Theodosius dismounted. He did not go to the wall. He walked to the keep's hall and sent for a clerk, then for the Prime Consul, who had ridden with the column in his white and light-blue vestments. He sent also for Master Inag Divondûn of the Clandestine Guard, black armor and triangle visor, and for Heinrich. He put it to them plainly. Every province he took by sword would slip the moment the sword moved on. Pledges bought with threat lasted as long as the threatening man stood in the room. He needed something that stayed after he left. A written law. One book, one code, binding every province to the same rule, sworn to the star and blessed by the faith. "How long to draft it?" Heinrich asked. "Tonight," Theodosius said. "Rough. We refine it after the columns break." They worked at the hall table until the candles guttered. The clerk wrote. Theodosius named the pieces: taxes owed to the crown, not the lord. Courts answering to the crown's judges, not the province's. Levies raised by the crown's warrant. Faith administered by the Prime Consul under the star. Every lord to swear on the book or forfeit his seat. Inag added the enforcement: watchers in every province, reporting to the capital, not to the local hall. The Prime Consul read the draft and set his seal beside the king's. "The faith will preach it," he said. "Any lord who refuses the oath refuses the star." By dawn the clerk had a clean copy bound in white, a pale blue star cut into the cover. Theodosius set his hand on it. "Copies to every province by rider," he said. "The five loyal lords swear first. The others swear when Thraxes is finished with the columns." Inag took the first copy. Heinrich took the second. The banner over the breached wall lifted in the morning wind, white cloth, pale blue star, white lotus at its heart. The empire had a spine now. It was thin, and it was paper, and the columns were still coming.