The Presentation

At noon the watch on the Hallow road sounded the horn three times, which meant more than twenty riders under a crown banner. They were seven days early.

Treasurer Odalric Stane had a reasonable voice.

That was the first thing Ilse noticed about him, standing in the courtyard in the grey afternoon while twenty-three horses steamed and stamped and the crown’s banner hung limp in the still cold. He was a small, neat man of sixty in a very good coat, and he dismounted without help and thanked the groom by name — he had asked it — and when he turned to Casimir he spoke as a man speaks to a colleague he respects and regrets having to trouble.

“Lord Warden. Forgive the early arrival. The roads were better than anyone expected, and the Justice agreed it would be a kindness not to keep your march waiting on a…