Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)(45)

A low, rumbling round of chuckles rolled through the hall.

Bernard's eyes narrowed a bit, and Amara recognized the first sign of his irritation. "Be that as it may, honored Senator," he replied, "I fear that I have nothing to offer you except the truth."

"The truth," Arnos said, nodding. "Of course. But I think we all know how... amorphous, shall we say, the truth can be."

"Forgive me," Bernard said. "I did not mean to confuse you, Senator. I must amend my statement. I have nothing to offer you except fact."

"Fact," Arnos said, nodding again. "Excellent. I have questions about some of the facts you have presented today."

Amara got a sickly little feeling in her belly.

"By all means," Bernard said.

"Do I understand you correctly that you learned of these creatures' presence from a barbarian Marat. "

"From Doroga of the Sabot-Ha," Bernard said. "The most powerful and influential of their chieftains."

"But..." Arnos shrugged a shoulder. "A Marat."

"Yes," Bernard said.

"That is how you know that they are called the vord?"

"Yes."

"In fact," Arnos continued, "no Aleran had ever heard of this creature before the barbarian told you of it."

"Given the kind of danger the vord represent, I suspect that by the time one learns of them, it may already be too late to fight them. Without Doroga's warning, we might already have lost half the Realm."

"And you believe that?" Arnos asked.

"Yes," Bernard said.

"And yet, according to the barbarian, his own unlettered, tribal, pauper-folk, without a civilization, without furycrafting, somehow managed to defeat them in the past."

Bernard paused for a moment before speaking. Amara recognized the gesture: it was the same one he got on his face before rebuking a particularly foolish subordinate. "They did not defeat the vord, Senator," Bernard said. "The refugees of their civilization managed to flee and survive."

"Ah," Arnos said, skepticism flavoring the sound. "Come now, Count. What surety can you give that the entire situation was not some kind of ploy on behalf of the Marat? There are many dangerous creatures in the world. It seems to me that we had nothing to fear from these vord before the Marat spoke to you about them."

Bernard's jawline twitched. "Doroga very nearly gave his life in defense of me and mine, when we fought the vord together. He lost nearly two thousand of his own people fighting them before they came to Calderon."

Arnos waved a vague hand. "Come now, Your Excellency. The Collegia contains a thousand years of military history, hundreds of battles faithfully recorded, large and small. The morale of a military force in the field breaks well before it sustains fifty percent casualties. Are we really to take the barbarian's word that his people fought on after losing ninety percent of their force?"

"If Doroga says so. I believe him."

The Senator permitted himself a small, sly smile. "I see. It would appear, then, that your struggle together against these creatures the barbarian knew all about has engendered within you a sense of trust." He paused, then added lightly, "Or credulity."

Bernard stared levelly at Arnos for a long moment. Then he drew in a breath, and said in a patient tone, "Senator, disregarding any evidence I did not see with my own eyes, the vord are still clearly an intelligent, resourceful, ruthless foe who will not discriminate between armed forces and noncombatants. They clearly possess the wherewithal to inflict tremendous damage upon anyone unfortunate enough to be near them."