Rhulad set a hand on Trull’s shoulder, then stepped past. ‘Hull
Beddict, hear us.’
The Letherii straightened, blinking, searching until his gaze found the emperor. ‘Sire?’
‘We grieve this day, Hull Beddict. These… ignoble deaths. We would rather this had been a day of honourable triumph, of courage and glory revealed on both sides. We would rather, Hull Beddict, this day had been… clean.’
Cold anger indeed. A greater mercy, perhaps, would have been a public beating of Hannan Mosag. The future was falling out here and now, Udinaas realized. And was that my intention? Better, I think, had I let Rhulad cut the bastard down where he stood. Clean and simple – the only one fooled into believing those words is Rhulad himself. Here’s two better words: vicious and subtle.
‘We would retire, until the morrow,’ the emperor said. ‘When we march to claim Letheras, and the throne we have won. Udinaas, attend me shortly. Tomad, at midnight the barrow for the fallen shall be ready for sanctification. Be sure to see the burial done in all honour. And, Father,’ he added, ‘those Letherii soldiers you fought this day, join them to the same barrow.’
‘Sire-’
‘Father, the Letherii are now our subjects, are they not?’
Udinaas stood to one side, watching various Edur departing the hilltop. Binadas spoke with Hannan Mosag for a time, then strode to Hull Beddict for the formal greeting of the blood-bound. Then Binadas guided the Letherii away.
Fear and Tomad departed to arrange the burial details. Theradas Buhn and the other chosen brothers set off for the Hiroth encampments.
In a short time, there were only two left. Udinaas, and Trull Sengar.
The Edur was studying the slave from about fifteen paces away, with sufficient intent to make the slave begin to feel nervous. Finally, Udinaas casually turned away, and stared out towards the hills to the south.
A dozen heartbeats later, Trull Sengar came to stand beside him.
‘It seems,’ the Edur said after a time, ‘that you, for all that you are a slave, possess talents verging on genius.’
‘Master?’
‘Enough of this “master” shit, Udinaas. You are now a… what is the title? A chancellor of the realm? Principal Adviser, or some such thing?’
‘First Eunuch, I think.’
Trull glanced over. ‘I did not know you’d been-’
‘I haven’t. Consider it symbolic’