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Richard's flesh went cold. His muscles tightened as hard as stone. He prepared to throw himself into battle. There appeared to be no choice but to fight, now. Neal was about to die.
"You see, I talked to People's Protector Muksin."
Richard was taken aback. "Who?"
Neal displayed a triumphant grin. "The man who sentenced you to work as a carver. He knew your name. He showed me the disposition of the case. You confessed to a civil infraction. He showed me the finetwenty-two gold marks.
Quite a sum." Neal waggled the finger again. "That was a miscarriage of justice, Richard, and you know it. No man can get. a fortune like that through a mere civil infraction. Such a gain can only be ill-gotten."
Richard relaxed a bit. His fingers ached from how hard he had been gripping the hammer.
"No," Neal said, "you had to have done something much more serious to have collected a fortune of twenty-two gold marks. You are obviously guilty of a very serious crime."
Neal spread his hands like the Creator before one of his children. "I am going to show you mercy, Richard."
"Does Brother Narev approve of your showing mercy?"
"Oh, yes. You see, the statue is to be your penance to the Order-your way to atone for your evil deed. You will create this statue when you are not doing your other carving for the palace. You will receive no pay for it. You are commanded not to steal any marble from that which the Order has purchased for the emperor's Retreat, but to procure the marble with your own money. If you have to work for a decade to earn such a sum, all the better."
"You mean, I am to carve, here, in the day, at my job, and I am to carve this statue for you on my own time, at night?"
"Your own time? What a corrupt concept."
"When am I to sleep?"
"Sleep is not the concern of the Order justice is."
Richard took a calming breath. He pointed with his hammer at the thing on the ground.
"And this is what I am to carve?"
"That's right. The stone will be purchased by you, and your labor will be contributed by you to the benefit of your fellow man. It will be your gift to the people of the Order in penance for your evil deeds. Men like you, with the ability, must happily contribute their all to help the Order."
Brother Neal swept his arm out. "There is to be a dedication of the palace, this winter. The people need to see tangible evidence that the Order can bring such a great project as this magnificent palace to reality. They desperately need the lessons this palace will teach them.
"Brother Narev is eager to dedicate the palace. He wishes to hold a great ceremony, this winter, which will be attended by many dignitaries of the Order. The war is progressing; the people need to see that their palace is, too. They need to see results for their sacrifices.
"You, Richard Cypher, are to carve the great statue for the entrance to the emperor's Retreat."
"I am honored, Brother Neal."
Neal smirked. "You should be."
"What if I'm not. . up to the task?"
Neal's smirk widened into a grin. "Then you will go back into custody, and Protector Muksin's questioners will have you until you confess. After you finally confess, you will be hung on a pole. The birds will feast on your flesh."
Brother Neal pointed down at the grotesque model.
"Pick it up. This is what you shall devote your life to."
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Nicci looked up when she heard Richard's voice. He was talking to Kamil and Nabbi. She heard him say that he was tired and couldn't look at their carving, that he would look tomorrow. Nicci knew they would be disappointed.
That was unlike Richard.
She spooned buckwheat mush and peas from a dented pot into a bowl. She placed the bowl and a wooden spoon on the table. There was no bread.
She wished she could make something better for him, but after their voluntary contributions were taken out, they had no money. If not for the garden the women of the building had taken to planting in the back of the house, they would be in desperate straits. Nicci had learned how to grow things so she could have food for him.
His shoulders were stooped, his eyes distant. He was carrying something in one hand.
"I have your di
Richard set the thing on the table, beside the oil lamp. It was a small, intricately carved statue of figures cowering in terror. They were partially surrounded by a section of a ring. A tall lightning bolt, a common symbol of retribution by the Creator, came down in the center, piercing a number of obviously evil men and women, pi
"What's this?" she asked.
Richard slumped down into a chair. His face sank into his hands, his fingers stabbed back into his hair. After a time, he looked up.
"What you wanted," he said quietly.
"What I wanted?"
"My punishment."
"Punishment?"
Richard nodded. "Brother Narev found out about the fine of twenty-two gold marks. He said I must have done something criminal to get that much money, and he sentenced me to make a statue for the grand entrance to the emperor's palace."
Nicci glanced down at the small thing on the table. "What is it?"
"A sundial. This is the ring with the times etched on it. The lightning bolt casts a shadow of the Creator's Light on the ring to tell the time of day."
"I still don't understand. Why is it a sentence? You are a carver. That is your job."
Richard shook his head. "I am to buy the stone out of my own money, and I am to carve this at night, on my own time, as my gift to the Order."
"And why do you see this as what I wanted?"
Richard ran a finger down the lightning bolt, his eyes studying the statue. "You brought me here, to the Old World, because you wanted me to learn the errors of my ways. I have. I should have confessed to a crime and let them end it."
Without thinking, Nicci reached across the table and put her hand over his. "No, Richard, that's not what I wanted."
He pulled his hand away.
Nicci pushed his bowl closer to him. "Eat, Richard. You need your strength."
Without complaint, he did as she told him. A prisoner, doing as ordered. She hated to see him like this.
The spark was gone from his eyes, just as it had left her father's eyes.
When he looked at the statue sitting in the center of their table, his eyes were dead. It was as if the life, the energy, the hope, was gone from him. When he was finished with his meal, he went without a word to his bed and lay down, facing away from her.
Nicci sat at the table, listening to the sputter of the lamp's flame, watching Richard's even breathing as he went to sleep.
It seemed his spirit was crushed. She had believed for so long that she would learn something valuable when he was pushed to such extremes. It appeared she had been wrong, that he had finally given up. She could learn nothing from him, now.
There was little left for her to do. Little reason to continue the whole thing. For a moment, she felt the crushing weight of her disappointment; then even that was gone.
Empty and unfeeling, Nicci collected the bowl and spoon and carried them to the wash bucket. She worked quietly, to let him sleep, as she resigned herself to returning to Jagang.
It wasn't Richard's fault he could teach her nothing; there was nothing more to life to learn. This was all there was. Her mother had been right.
Nicci took out the butcher knife and set it quietly on the table.
Richard had suffered enough.
It would be for the best.