Free Gold Throne in Shadow by M.C. Planck Page B

the power of your guardian. After all, it might have been an artifact with a single use that saved you before. Hunting ulvenmen is the sort of low-level constant danger that reveals true rank. Why not try the wood with someone else’s ax?”
    â€œAnd if you get eaten by an ulvenman, then their problem is reduced to someone else’s indigestion,” Svengusta pointed out helpfully.
    â€œIf that’s what they want me to do, then I should do something else,” Christopher said.
    â€œYou mean we aren’t going to hunt ulvenmen?” Gregor made a sad face.
    â€œWhat a perfect opportunity that would be for an assassin,” Karl said. “Or an angry lord, with a small but mobile band of knights and an impeccable woodsman for a guide.”
    â€œYou don’t think Nordland would stoop to that?” Gregor said, slightly alarmed.
    â€œNo, I don’t think so,” Lalania said, “but Karl is right. It would be foolish to ignore the possibility.”
    â€œSo what else do I do?” Christopher asked. The King had all but ordered him to the hunt. “Didn’t somebody tell me cavalry was the monster’s weak point?”
    â€œYes, it is,” Gregor agreed. “But you have none.”
    â€œI have money and soldiers. Isn’t that enough?”
    Karl actually looked pained. “That is out of my expertise, Christopher. I can only teach boys to ride; I cannot train them to fight from horseback. That is the province of the knights.”
    Christopher made a face, annoyed by yet another socially imposed restraint on knowledge. Gregor waved it away with one hand.
    â€œIt’s not that special,” the knight said dismissively. “The only thing standing between Karl and knighthood is tael, not ability. I can teach him everything he needs to know.”
    â€œA service I can pay you for,” Christopher suggested, and the blue knight laughed at having been outmaneuvered.
    â€œWill you charge me, then, for Karl teaching me what he knows? If these rifles of yours are here to stay, then I suppose I should learn how to use them.”
    â€œI have no secrets from you,” Christopher said, and then had to modify his statement to remain within the bounds of strict honesty. “On that score, I mean.” This made yet another uncomfortable silence, but Lalania was back on her game and smoothly changed direction.
    â€œThat dispenses with the commoners. Now what of the ranked? Strong alliances keep the peace, Christopher. To be perceived as standing alone invites assault. Because you are not of the Bright Lady, some may think that the Church will not defend you as it would its own. Because Gregor is bound to you only by friendship, they may think that he will not be bound to vengeance.”
    â€œWe have a saying here,” Svengusta interjected, before Christopher had time to register his confusion, “that perhaps is not known to you. Tael is thicker than blood. Your retinue would be expected to avenge you, even more so than your kin, and that expectation would keep you safe.”
    No one had told Svengusta the secret of Christopher’s origin; nonetheless he had clearly guessed more than he had ever told anyone else. He had been the first person to speak to Christopher, and he alone seemed to remember that Christopher was truly foreign to this place, needing even ordinary convention explained to him.
    But if Lalania was given any more time to think about it, she might be making guesses of her own. Quickly he lurched ahead with the conversation.
    â€œI just can’t afford it.” Although he didn’t know how much tael he needed to get home, it was safe to assume it was going to be a lot. Also, he wasn’t trying to make a new group of aristocrats; he was trying to empower the ordinary folk. “And I don’t think I can trust anybody who shows up here, anyway.”
    Lalania sighed. “So you will force us to protect you