“Do you plan to kill them all?” Arcolin asked Arvid. His breath came short. He had not expected Arvid’s instant attack on Coben or the way he’d killed the man. Surely that blade was more thieflike than Girdish.
“This mob, all in one or in pieces, has terrorized a quarter of the realm, killing over a hundred sixty,” Arvid said, his voice cold as winter. “Men, women, children, they didn’t care. Yesterday they wiped out an entire village. And they’ve caused trouble with the gnomes and with Tsaia—which I suppose is why you’re here and not in Valdaire.”
“Yes,” Arcolin said. “The king’s worried.”
Arvid nodded. “So I thought. And so, yes, I plan to kill them all. The Marshal-General has tried reasoning with them, but it does no good.”
“It may cause trouble after.”
“She knows that. But it leaves the innocents like the people in this vill alive.”
The battle once joined was short and brutal, the outcome inevitable. Afterward, as the sun set, Arcolin, Arvid, and a High Marshal named Donag sat in Arcolin’s tent. Arvid had spent most of his time with the villagers, reassuring them and explaining the Marshal-General’s intentions. Now he explained them to Arcolin.
“She’s made progress in the northwest,” he said. “Fin Panir and the land around it. Also most of the land north of the Honnorgat, downriver almost to Hoorlow.”
“They were never as fervent about Gird up there,” Donag put in. “That’s why there’s trouble on the Tsaian border—those mage-hunters moved east, found allies there.”
“And south,” Arcolin said. “The Gnarrinfulk gnomes have seen too many people coming across their boundary, including mage-hunters killing people on their land.”
“Marshal-General was worried about that,” Donag said. “That’s one reason she chose him.” He pointed his elbow at Arvid. “Saw you knew him. Proof things change. Never had a Thieves’ Guild enforcer as a Marshal before.”
“Never needed one before,” Arvid said, just loud enough to be heard.
“What he won’t tell you,” Donag went on, “is how he saved nearly all the children of a grange in Fin Panir from mage-hunters who’d taken them and hidden out in a wool warehouse.”
“Short version: I came too late for three,” Arvid said, red to the ears.
“And had already been learning so much so fast, it spooked people. And when he took his Marshalate oath, he lit up the whole High Lord’s Hall, convincing some he was a mage himself.” Donag was grinning at Arvid.
“It was Gird,” Arvid said.
“Of course it was Gird. Wanted us to notice the mage-haters in the group, no doubt.”
“How’s your son?” Arcolin asked, changing the subject for Arvid’s sake. “Is he coming to stay here now that you’re Marshal?”
“No, he’s in Fin Panir. Good people are taking care of him. I don’t expect I’ll be here long, but as High Marshal Donag said, the Marshal-General wanted me here because of the Gnarrinfulk, because Dattur and I were friends and I speak a fair bit of gnomish.”
“You should talk to them,” Arcolin said. “I’ll introduce you.”
“You know them?”
“Hmm. Yes. Remember what Dattur said about me being a gnome prince? I didn’t really—it was hard to believe—until I had a message from the Aldonfulk prince, and he gave me this stole—” Arcolin pulled it out. “Dattur is now my hesktak—my advisor in legal matters that a prince must know. Lord Prince Aldonfulk and I communicate by regular courier, and when my king told me the Gnarrinfulk were threatening to invade Tsaia and Fintha both, Aldonfulk provided me guides and envoys to the Gnarrinfulk prince.”
“What did he say? Are they going to invade?” Donag asked.
“They accept the Marshal-General as the legal ruler of Fintha,” Arcolin said. “They understand now that the mage-hunters alone have breached the old contract between Gird and Gnarrinfulk, and they consider mage-hunters kteknik, outlaws. The main reason for that is the child killing. They found a child’s hacked corpse on their land, and that’s what really set them off. They have offered help to the Marshal-General and to my king. Since I have met you, High Marshal, and you, Marshal Arvid, I assume I have made the required contact with the Marshal-General’s forces and can now go tell my king where the situation stands.”
Donag nodded. “After today, we should be able to get back through to Fin Panir with no difficulty. I may be able to attend the fair at Hoorlow after all. You, Arvid, will have to miss it this year.”