Tavi glanced over at him and showed his teeth. "Well. We didn't expect forging the Alliance to be simple."
"Naturally not," Fidelias said, setting down a tray that doubtless had a collection of light snacks on it. Tavi had been insisting on avoiding it for weeks, and it had become a kind of game for the sentenced man to provide Tavi with appetizing temptations. Tavi ignored them. Almost always. "What has most of the Citizens upset is how you handled the land grant for the Canim."
Tavi shrugged. "They're welcome to Parcia if they can take it for themselves. It's the city deepest in vord-held territory. It's our premier seaport, and the Canim have forgotten more about shipbuilding than our own shipwrights know." He shrugged. "Besides, if we didn't give them someplace to call their own, they'd take it anyway - and they wouldn't be inclined to be terribly friendly afterward. They'll be taking Free Alera with them, I'm certain - and any holders there who don't want to operate under Canim rule are free to seek another steadholt under a different lord."
"High Lord Varg." Fidelias sighed. "You know why they're truly upset about it, don't you?"
"Because someone without furycraft has been made a High Lord," Tavi replied. "My heart bleeds for the poor lambs." He took the cover off the tray and found it stacked with small meat pastries. They smelled heavenly. He gave Fidelias a murderous look. "Mark my words. The day is coming when anyone who wishes Citizenship will be able to work for it and get it. When brains will get you further than any fury ever could. And when we overempowered engines of destruction will be a quaint reminder of the past, not masters of the future." He put the lid back down with a sharp clang. "Someone should write that down. They can quote me later, the way they do all the other First Lords."
"I believe they'll save that for your words upon being dragged away to be locked in a tower as a raving madman," Fidelias replied.
Tavi burst out into a quick belly laugh. "No, I'm not quite mad yet. How are the plans for the new program coming along?"
"Covert plans for the covert training of covert operatives? If I told you, I'd have to kill you, sire."
Tavi grinned at him. "I'll take that to mean 'well enough.' "
Fidelias nodded. "Sha has been most helpful. I enjoy working with him. Though his ideas of teaching methods are rather different than mine." He cleared his throat, and asked, "Sire? Do you really intend to wait before taking the battle to the vord in Canea? Senator Valerius - "
Tavi threw up his hands. "Augh. I am sick of hearing that man's name. He wants me to lead an expedition to Canea to find the last queen, does he?"
"Exactly."
"Thus getting rid of me, which should make his campaign to frustrate everything I'm trying to build somewhat simpler." Tavi shook his head. "If we have taken all of Alera back in ten years, we'll be doing well. And that's vital. We absolutely cannot leave the vord supply caches lying all over the place. And I don't like our chances in Canea anytime in the next thirty years or so. It's huge over there. We don't have enough bodies to get the job done."
"But you do acknowledge that it must happen."
"Probably," Tavi said. "Eventually. But for now... the vord in Canea are just too bloody useful."
Fidelias frowned. "Sire?"
"Right now we've got something the world has never seen before: a working alliance among the Canim, the Marat, the Icemen, and Alera. Over the past century or three, how many Alerans have been killed fighting them, hmm?"
"Using the vord to hold the Alliance together. Risky."
Tavi spread his hands. "The fact of the matter is that none of us can stand up to the vord on our own. The only way we have a chance is together. And the only way we'll ever be able to take the battle to them in Canea is to live in peace with one another now and build something capable of defeating them."
"Build something. Like this universal Academy you've been talking about."
"That's one element, yes," Tavi said. "Our peoples have a lot to teach each other. The Academy is an excellent way to do that."
"I don't see what we can teach the Canim or the Marat, Captain. It's not as though we can give them lessons in furycraft."
Tavi suppressed his own grin. "Well. You never know when some furyless freak is going to develop talent. Do you."
Fidelias eyed him for a moment, then sighed. "You aren't going to explain, are you."
"It's a First Lord's sacred right. I get to be cryptic whenever I want. So there."
Fidelias huffed out a short laugh. "All right. That's an argument I'm not going to win." His face sobered. "But... sire. Given my sentence... I thought you'd have settled my account by now."
"Haven't I?" Tavi asked him. "Fidelias ex Cursori is dead. His name is black and ruined. He betrayed a dead First Lord for the sake of a High Lord and Lady who are also dead. All that he wrought for either patron has been destroyed. The labor of a lifetime, gone."
The man who wore Valiar Marcus's face looked down. There was bitterness in his eyes.
"I sentence Fidelias ex Cursori to death," Tavi continued quietly. "You will die in service to me, laboring under another name, a name that will be heaped with well-deserved honor and praise. I sentence you to go to your grave knowing how things might have been had you never strayed from my grandfather's service. I sentence you to die knowing that the First Lord who should have crucified you six months ago is instead granting you trust, a staff, and an expense account that a fictional man deserves far more than you do." He leaned forward. "You have too much talent to throw away. I need you. You're mine. And you're going to help me build the Alliance."
Fidelias grunted. Then he asked, very quietly, "How do you know I won't betray you?"
"The question is," Tavi replied, "how do you know I won't betray you?"
Fidelias looked a bit taken aback by that logic.
"I'm arrogant sometimes, but I'm not a fool. Don't think that I'm not watching you very carefully. I'm simply willing to invest in the paranoia it takes to make sure I get full use out of you. The Realm needs it." He lowered his voice. "The Realm needs heroes. The Realm needs you, Marcus. And I have no intention of letting you go to waste."
The other man blinked his eyes once, and nodded. "Crows," he said quietly. "If only Sextus had your courage."
"Courage? He was no coward," Tavi said.