“Should I show this to him? Let him take it to Lord Prince Aldon?”
“Show it to him, yes. Allow him to make a copy—or ask your hesktak to make the copy and stamp it with your seal.” He nodded to the desk, where the seal of Arcolin’s gnome tribe lay, the first gift of his people, carved from stone of the hills.
“And should he see the Hall, or is it not ready for visitors.”
“We would prefer not, my prince. It is … the kapristinya are at work there, and also … childer … and it will be more fitting later.”
“Then so it will be. And should I write to Aldonfulk prince, as he wrote to me?”
“As my prince wishes. A prince may thank a prince, and ask help of a prince, where one kaprist may not. This list will make exchange for what he told you.”
“Add to the list, then, a letter of thanks for his information and due respect, and say that I concur in the need for us to exchange information. I will also write to my captains in Aarenis and ask that he pass that letter to them, at his convenience. Will that do?
“Yes, my prince.”
“Ask him to return, please.”
Faksutterk came in and bowed again.
“My hesktak came with word of the health and names, and here is the list,” Arcolin said in gnomish, handing it across the desk. “If it is that Lord Prince Aldon needs a copy, it would be my desire for my hesktak to make that copy for you. And I would ask that you take a letter to Lord Prince Aldon, and carry one I am asking him to give to my captains in Valdaire, to do as he suggested.”
“It is marks here?” Faksutterk said. He used his right little finger to point.
“Those who came from where Dragon cast them out.”
“It is so few.”
“Yes.”
“It is that so many now means health,” Faksutterk said. “Lord Prince Aldon glad of copy.”
“Dattur—”
“It is done at command,” Dattur said, and then in Common, “If I may have use of paper, less time.”
“Of course. In the clerk’s office; you know where that is.” He turned to Faksutterk. “It is that Dattur will write list on paper from here. It is that you go with him.”
“Lord Prince, I go with him.” Faksutterk bowed, Dattur bowed, and both gnomes left the office.
While they were gone, Arcolin drafted a letter to Selfer, briefly explaining what the gnome prince had told him and giving him authority to issue what orders seemed best until Arcolin returned. He sealed that with wax and his ducal seal, then mixed the ink he would need for the gnomish seal. When the gnomes returned, Dattur handed Arcolin the original and the copy of the list and a short letter in gnomish to the Aldonfulk prince. Arcolin looked them over carefully, then inked his seal and set it on the page with the list while he pricked his thumb with the stone knife used only for this purpose. He lifted the seal and squeezed one drop of blood onto the circle to one side of the seal design. As Dattur had taught him, he said in gnomish: “With this life under Law, it is done.” When the blood and ink dried, he handed the paper copy to Faksutterk, who bowed low. Then he did the same with the letter to the Aldonfulk prince and handed that and his letter to Captain Selfer to Faksutterk.
“Lord Prince, it is that I return to my prince now.”
“I offer welcome to Lord Prince Aldon’s envoy, Faksutterk,” Arcolin said. “Guesting as long as desired, and no exchange.”
“It is that I return quickly, my prince says, when I know. Now I know. Now I go.”
“It is that supplies for journey—”
The merest hint of a smile lit Faksutterk’s face. “It is not need, Lord Prince Arcolin. It is good offer. It is that this one excused?”
Arcolin nodded. “It is so. Travel in Law, arrive in Law, be held in Law.”
“It is Law,” Faksutterk said. Arcolin rose and went with Dattur to the inner courtyard gate while Faksutterk fetched whatever he had left in his guest quarters. When he came out, they all bowed, one to another, and Faksutterk headed back down the road to Duke’s East.
Chapter Four
“You had things to tell me when you came,” Arcolin said to Dattur. “You wanted me to visit the stone-right, but it is too late in the day. Will you stay here overnight and we will go in the morning?”
Dattur bowed. “That is well, my prince.”
“Under stone, you may choose your chamber,” Arcolin said. “But for now, tell me more details of my kapristin.”
“My prince has names and ages—what more to know?”
He would have known how to ask another military commander whose company had been near-destroyed—indeed, people had asked him about his cohort’s recovery after Dwarfwatch. But he still had no idea how gnome society was organized and thus could not find the words for the questions. He tried to explain that to Dattur.