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His grin dropped into the waves like so many other treasures and disappeared.
“But surely the Chromeria wouldn’t send the Prism himself just to kill a few of my men.” Rask pretended to be thinking, but didn’t wait long enough for Gavin to get a word in. “No. The Prism would only come if there was something much more important to accomplish. Something that would ensure the Chromeria’s stranglehold on the Seven Satrapies continued. Tell me, Lord Prism, have you come to assassinate me?” One doesn’t send a lion to kill a rat. So help him, Gavin almost said it out loud.
“When you don’t know what to do, do what’s right and do what’s in front of you. But not necessarily what’s right in front of you.”
“Wait, so men lose both ways? Blind to colors more often and really good at seeing them less often? That’s not fair.” “But we can lift heavy things.” Kip grumbled. “And pee standing up, right?” “Very useful around poison ivy.
The red stepped forward, pulled off her mask, and stepped out of her robe. She was young, athletic, beautiful, and also naked. Kip’s eyes widened. He tried to hold them to her face. Somber ceremony, Kip. Orholam’s watching, Kip. Straight to hell, Kip.
Gavin shrugged. “I was a bad child. Fortunately, I’ve come a long way since then. Now I’m a bad man.”
The point for you is to imagine I’d drafted you a plow instead of a sword. Great, it works while the drafter is at your farm, but ten minutes after he leaves, all you’ve got is dust, literally. Not helpful. This is why superchromats are heavily recruited by all satrapies.” “So they can make plows?” “Not all magic is for fun and dismemberment, Kip.
A ruler who would sweat with them was a ruler who might understand men who won their bread by the sweat of their brow.
As Kip joined Gavin and walked through the gate, Gavin said, “You have that green luxin ball for me yet?” “What?” Kip protested. “I can’t believe—I didn’t even have a chance—” Oh. He got me again. Gavin was grinning. “Look, Kip,” Kip said, “gullible’s written on the sky!” He gazed up as if clueless. “Huh? Where?”
“At some point, you have to decide not merely what you’re going to believe, but how you’re going to believe. Are you going to believe in people, or in ideas, or in Orholam? With your heart, or with your head? Will you believe what’s in front of you, or in what you think you know? There are some things you think you know that are lies. I can’t tell you what those are, and I’m sorry for that.”
“How much am I paying you?” “Uh, nothing yet, Lord Prism.” “Well, double it!” Gavin ordered.
Now Corvan did look him in the eye. “I don’t know whether to admire you all the more, or to be horrified that you’d be so stupid.” “I usually opt to admire me all the more,” Gavin said, grinning.
What? Well sometimes when you don’t know what the hell someone’s talking about, the best thing to do is play along. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Gavin said. Oops.
“The Philosopher said that a man alone is either a god or a monster,” Gavin said. “I’m no god.”
