7 VII

Thyrn took Komn's formal surrender the next morning.

The city's people gathered in the agora, Thyrn and Farn standing atop the ziggurat's steps in their armor. Komn, dressed in a crown and unblemished white robes like a priest, then climbed the steps of the zigurrat, knelt, removed his crown, and held it up the Thyrn. Thyrn accepted it, but swore before the crowd that Komn was not giving up his polis, merely his independence. Afterward more of Thyrn's food carts arrived—a gift from the new high king—and the three kings retired to a private lounge in the royal palace.

Thyrn flopped onto the couches once they were alone, a cup of corn-alcohol in hand. Farn sat straight-backed even on the couch, and Komn sat on the edge of his seat, twirling his beard nervously. The three sat so they could face each other.

"Did you mean what you said out there?" Komn asked nervously. "I will get to keep my city?"

Thyrn nodded.

"But don't expect to live here," Farn cut in. "I haven't set foot in Bruston since yielding my crown, and the king of Wirr Dur lives in Nuxdur now."

Komn looked crestfallen. "So I'll be under house arrest, then?"

"Not at all." Thyrn waved a dismissive hand. "I have old Rahl working on something for me up there. He's already cranked out a standardized system of measurement, and he's working on creating a standardized monetary system. No more bartering, or trading for chunks of metal of dubious value."

"And do you have such a project for me?"

Thyrn nodded. "The people here speak differently from my own, who speak differently from Farn's. Someone from Bruston has a hard time understanding someone from Nuxdur, and the Kurbromites may as well be speaking a different language! I don't want that; I want people from across my empire to be able to understand each other. While Rahl's standardizing measurements, you'll be standardizing language."

Komn perked up at that, and Thyrn smiled. He had known Komn was something of a linguist; the man spoke Laksish, Wahhish, and both Low and High Cethish. According to rumor, he had even worked on a new writing system in his free time, one more simple and consistent than the current rune-logograph hybrid system in common use.

"And who will rule in my stead? I can't exactly hold court from Nuxdur." He pointed to Farn. "Will he?"

"No, I'm afraid I still have need his services, especially if what you said about the armies of Cethon are true."

"I thought you didn't fear Cethon's armies."

"I wasn't afraid of them reaching the city and lifting the siege before you yielded. It would probably take a year for them to muster and march, but once they arrive they could be a threat." He looked to the Kurbromite King.

"Well I did send a rider to Cethon," he admitted. "But the high king sent no aid in the famine, so he clearly doesn't care what happens in the Laks Valley. Why would he send an army across the desert?"

"It's a possibility, so we must prepare for it." Thyrn finished off the sweet corn liquor and hot to his feet. "This city's walls are inadequate; my goblins were able to scale it without ladders. Therefore I'll build an even bigger wall east of the city, eight and a dozen measures tall, blocking off the pass from that direction."

"You can't build a bridge over the river," Komn said. "Villages up river use it to bring potatoes to market. You'd wreck the economy and starve the city."

"Don't worry, there's no need to block the river. Or even the north bank, really; that side's too narrow to get an army through without getting pincushioned by archers." It was why he hadn't built a camp east of the city during the siege. "And you could hold it with a pretty small army anyway. Say, is there a way up onto those cliffs?"

Komn shrugged. "I'm not the most familiar with my city's chora. Why?"

"I'd like to build two towers overlooking the pass, a bit further east than the wall. Such towers should be untakeable by assault, and they'll be another place to shower a besieging enemy with arrows."

"Is this where you mean to make a stand?" Farn spoke up. "I'm not sure how I like it. We'll be protected enough, but there isn't much room to maneuver. We'll only be able to destroy their army if they let us."

"It's possible to win without destroying the enemy army," Thyrn reminded him. "But no, I plan to take the fight to the Sodden Lands. Fortifying Kurbrom is only to protect the Laks Valley should the Cethish army try to invade."

"But wouldn't we intercept them if they march on us, and we on them?"

"If we took the direct route, yes, but we could hardly keep an army this large watered through the desert. We're going to take a different path." A smile crept onto his lips. "And you'll get to see where I've been getting all this food from."