Seasons of War

the Council since you gave your report. They aren’t happy,’ the Lord Convocate said. ‘The High Council doesn’t look favorably on men of . . . what should I call it? Profound initiative? None of them had any idea you’d gone so far. Not even your father. It was impolitic.’
    ‘I’m not a man of politics.’
    The Lord Convocate laughed.
    ‘You’ve led an army on campaign,’ he said. ‘If you didn’t understand something of how to manage men, you’d be feeding some Westland tree by now.’
    Balasar shrugged. It wasn’t what he’d meant to do; it was the moment to come across as controlled, loyal, reliable as stone, and here he was shrugging like a petulant schoolboy. He forced himself to smile.
    ‘I suppose you’re right,’ he said.
    ‘But you know they would have refused you.’
    ‘ Know is a strong word. Suspected.’
    ‘Feared?’
    ‘Perhaps.’
    ‘Fourteen cities in a single season. It can’t be done, Balasar. Uther Redcape couldn’t have done it.’
    ‘Uther was fighting in Eddensea,’ Balasar said. ‘They have walls around cities in Eddensea. They have armies. The Khaiem haven’t got anything but the andat.’
    ‘The andat suffice.’
    ‘Only if they have them.’
    ‘Ah. Yes. That’s the center of the question, isn’t it? Your grand plan to do away with all the andat at a single blow. I have to confess, I don’t think I quite follow how you expect this to work. You have one of these poets here, ready to work with us. Wouldn’t it be better to capture one of these andat for ourselves?’
    ‘We will. Freedom-From-Bondage should be one of the simplest andat to capture. It’s never been done, so there’s no worry about coming too near what’s been tried before. The binding has been discussed literally for centuries. I’ve found books of commentary and analysis dating back to the First Empire . . .’
    ‘All of it exploring exactly why it can’t be done, yes?’ The Lord Convocate’s voice had gone as gentle and sympathetic as that of a medic trying to lead a man to realize his own dementia. It was a ploy. The old man wanted to see whether Balasar would lose his temper, so instead he smiled.
    ‘That depends on what you mean by impossible.’
    The Lord Convocate nodded and stepped to the windows, his hands clasped behind his back. Balasar waited for three breaths, four. The impulse to shake the old man, to shout that every day was precious and the price of failure horrible beyond contemplation, rose in him and fell. This was the battle now, and as important as any of those to come.
    ‘So,’ the Lord Convocate said, turning. ‘Explain to me how cannot means can .’
    Balasar gestured toward the couches. They sat, leather creaking beneath them.
    ‘The andat are ideas translated into forms that include volition,’ Balasar said. ‘A poet who’s bound something like, for example, Wood-Upon-Water gains control over the expression of that thought in the world. He could raise a sunken vessel up or sink all the ships on the sea with a thought, if he wished it. The time required to create the binding is measured in years. If it succeeds, the poet’s life work is to hold the thing here in the world and train someone to take it from him when he grows old or infirm.’
    ‘You’re telling me what I know,’ the old man said, but Balasar raised a hand, stopping him.
    ‘I’m telling you what they mean when they say impossible. They mean that Freedom-From-Bondage can’t be held . There is no way to control something that is the essential nature and definition of the uncontrolled. But they make no distinction between being invoked and being maintained.’
    The Lord Convocate frowned and rubbed his fingertips together.
    ‘We can bind it, sir. Riaan isn’t the talent of the ages, but Freedom-From-Bondage should be easy compared with the normal run. The whole binding’s nearly done already - only a little tailoring to make it fit our man’s mind in particular.’
    ‘That comes back to the issue,’ the Lord Convocate said. ‘What happens when this impossible binding works?’
    ‘As soon as it is bound it is freed.’ Balasar clapped his palms together. ‘That fast.’
    ‘And the advantage of that?’ the Lord Convocate said, though Balasar could see the old man had already traced out the implications.
    ‘Done well, with the right grammar, the right nuances, it will unbind every andat there is when it goes. All of this was in my report to the High Council.’
    The Lord