Page 66

“About ending his work in this room.”

She sits opposite me. “He needs to hear it from you.”

Outside, keepers cross the courtyard carrying unused bridge boards back to the store. The whole line shifts to clear a woman with two baskets. I have known some of their families for longer than the bridge has stood. They deserve a lord who can answer a petition without turning every practical question into an argument about whether he is being obeyed.

Neimura enters carrying the old boundary records. He stops at the chair Reivaka has occupied for the past hour.

I point to the one near the door.

He sits. His leaves are thin around the temples. I remember him coming into this room forty years ago with a split lip and a toll chest he had refused to abandon on a flooded road. He saved the accounts because he thought the outer groves would be paid last if there were nothing to prove what they were owed.

I trusted him for reasons. Remembering them makes this harder, and changes none of what he did to Vai.

“The council has ruled. Give the remaining records to the new clerk,” I say. “Your work in this room ends today.”

Neimura looks at the books in his lap.

“Where am I to go?”

“You may stay in your rooms. Reivaka will arrange work that carries no authority over anyone else’s agreements. If you would rather leave the Ilden, speak to her.”

Reivaka gives a brief nod. Neimura notices it.

“You’ve discussed this.”

“This morning.”

“I thought you would want me here until the road hearing was finished.”

“I don’t need its result to decide whether you can act in my name.”

He opens the upper book, though no one has asked him for a figure. A corner has torn away from the page. He smooths the remaining paper against his knee.

“I believed she would stay.”

“You knew she might not come at all if you told her the truth.”

“I’ve admitted that.”

“Yes. You’ll have to keep living with it after you’ve finished admitting it.”

His mouth tightens. I expect the familiar appeal: the winter stores, the succession, the things I refused to discuss. He could name failures of mine that I would rather leave outside this conversation.

He closes the book.

“Will she be at the hearing?”

“That is her decision.”

“Of course.”

He stands and gives the records to Reivaka. At the door, he turns back.

“I did serve you well once.”

“I know.”

I cannot give him the rest of what he wants.