The estvin muttered something Arcolin could not understand.

“And the king agreed to the grant of those hills to you and yours forever,” Arcolin said. “You will be safe, in your own home, I hope. Did my steward give you the food I promised?”

“Yes, lord,” the estvin said. “It is that in … in new stone kapristi have no need of as much. By midsummer at earliest will need no more from our lord.”

Arcolin started to say he did not grudge their need and was not their lord now that they had moved out, but the estvin’s expression was set. Better not to argue now, he thought. “You will have food until you say you need it not,” he said. “Do not, I beg you, go hungry. I want you to prosper and grow.”

“It is that my lord is … is beyond the Law,” the estvin said.

“Beyond—have I broken the Law?” Arcolin asked. To a gnome nothing was more serious than their Law—as far as they were concerned, the only law that mattered, rigid and immutable.

“No! Not to break. My lord is … is … more fair than fair.”

“It is Gird’s command,” Arcolin said, having found that a useful phrase before in dealing with the gnomes’ intent to exact precise trade between them.

“Yes, my lord,” the estvin said, bowing. “Will my lord come with me to the cellars to see if they are now acceptable?”

Acceptable? What could the estvin mean? Arcolin went with him into the space the gnomes had occupied. He had assumed they’d leave it clean, but he had not imagined that they would leave it polished, plastered, and whitewashed as well. The stones of the floor gleamed; a little frieze of dark red foxheads ran around the top of the whitewashed walls. When had they had time to do this?

“It is pleasing?” the estvin asked.

“It is very pleasing,” Arcolin said.

Back upstairs, he explained that he would be gone almost a half-year on campaign, not to return until after Autumn Court. “For whatever you need, ask Captain Arneson or the steward. They have my orders to supply you.”

The estvin bowed again. “My lord goes to serve the king?”

“To fulfill a contract made with Foss Council,” Arcolin said. “And to obey the orders of my king that I find out more about the danger to the South. A very bad man seeks to gain power he should not. I will be sending reports to the king during the summer and at least one or two all the way here, to Captain Arneson. If you wish to send me word of your welfare or any problem, you can do so using the same couriers. Only tell Captain Arneson.”

“It is not to write language of men,” the estvin said. “It is that my lord reads kapristi writing?”