“I spoke to Marshal Cedlin,” he said, “and asked if he had thought of making Arvid a yeoman-marshal. He said he had not, but Arvid was outpacing the other yeomen, so he allowed him to read deeper into the Code.” Deinar looked hard at Arianya. “I would like to be able to say that this is unwise in all cases, but Arvid seems to have an unusual ability to absorb the meat of the matter. Although he often seems glib in his speech, there is nothing superficial about his understanding.”
“Have you an explanation for his progress?” Arianya asked.
“He is unusually intelligent, obviously. Quick to learn, Marshal Cedlin says, and says he was so informed by Arvid’s former Marshal in Aarenis.” Deinar tipped his head. “Have you considered, Marshal-General, that he was, before becoming a thief, a defrocked judicar, perhaps in Tsaia?”
“No,” she said. “That never occurred to me. It is my understanding he was born into a thief family and brought up as one.”
“I have not known many thieves—we do not have the Guild here, as you know, so our thieves are not so organized. But this man—truly, Marshal-General, he is in some way not … not what I expected. I still do not understand his motives …”
“I’m sure you will,” Arianya said. “You are perceptive; I believe all judicars are.”
“Perhaps. We try to be. Mostly we try to be very precise and very clear.” A long pause as Deinar looked out the window. Finally he turned back to her and said, “I suppose there’s no possibility that he’s half-elven …”
“Arvid? Not so far as I know, and I myself have seen nothing elven about him.”
“It is his way of speaking, at times,” Deinar said. “Very … elaborate.”
“He is from Tsaia,” Arianya said. “And I know he spent much time in Vérella. So perhaps he picked up that way of speaking from the court.” She wondered why she had never thought about that before. Arvid had been a thief—why would he speak with such sophistication?
“Perhaps.” Deinar sighed. “But at any rate, Marshal-General, I must say … he is far more interesting a pupil than I expected, and so far I would judge that he will master the entire Code fairly quickly. What then? Surely you have plans for him.”
“Not precisely,” Arianya said, folding her hands. “I feel he has great potential, and I feel Gird’s own hand pushing me to see that he learns to use it. But as what exactly—that I do not know.”
“You are sure it’s Gird—” Deinar stopped and shook his head. “Of course you are. You would not say it if you weren’t.”
“Excuse me, Marshal-General, but there’s a man—”
Arianya and Deinar both turned. A young yeoman-marshal stood in the doorway, looking worried.
“A man,” Arianya said. “What kind of man?”
“A Girdish yeoman from someplace I never heard of. He wants to put a cow—I mean a … a sort of statue of a cow, though it isn’t really a statue, exactly, but the skin and the head and bones, and all that, over some kind of frame—”
“Come now, Yeoman-Marshal,” Deinar said as Arianya was trying to imagine a cowhide draped over sticks tied together to make a cow shape. The head would surely stink. “Do you mean a cow statue or not?”
“It’s supposed to look like a cow, but it isn’t a cow, it’s got the hide and all, but it’s not alive and it’s not made of stone or wood,” the yeoman-marshal said in a rush, her ears bright red with embarrassment. “He wants to put it in the High Lord’s Hall.”
“He can’t—” began Deinar.
“Why does he want to?” asked Arianya, cutting across Deinar.
“He says it’s because Gird loved cows. And if there’s a cow to remind people, then they’ll think about Gird instead of magelords.”
Arianya looked at Deinar. He shrugged, eyebrows raised. “It has a certain logic,” he said. “The original Gird, his known fondness for cows … but I don’t think it would work.”
Rapid boot steps rang down the corridor, more than one pair, and loud voices with them.
“I don’t care—nobody is taking that stinking thing—”
“You can’t just—it’s up to the Marshal-General—”
“No, it’s not—it’s up to the Marshal-Judicar-General.”
Voices arrived at the door simultaneously—High Marshal Bradlin and High Marshal Celis, both ready to leap into argument. Arianya held up her hand.
“If it’s about the cow, I’m about to go see it.”