Chapter 44
Five Years Later
The farmer toiled in his field, hoping this year would give him a good crop.
Well, unless the bugs kept eating his leaves. Or they went too many days without sunshine. Or too many days with too much sunshine. Or animals burrowed holes in his ditches and stole his irrigation water again. Or one of the hundred other things that could happen to make a farmer’s life miserable.
It turned out farming was a lot more complicated and far less relaxing than he had imagined it to be…but it was far more peaceful than tracking down lawbreakers and killing them with a hammer.
As it grew too hot to continue laboring beneath the Uttaran sun, Karno put his shovel over one broad shoulder and began walking back toward his humble cabin. When he saw that there was a group of warriors on horseback approaching, he scowled, for it was rare to have visitors in this isolated place.
The warriors were fellow Uttarans, but they were escorting a young arbiter. That was probably because this area was notorious for being menaced by bandit gangs. Except, he had dealt with those already, no different from the other pests who damaged his crops.
They stopped their horses in the dusty lane and the arbiter addressed him. “Hello, worker. We seek retired Protector of the Law, Karno Uttara. Which way must we go to reach his estate?”
Karno pointed at the nearby cabin. “It’s right there.”
The arbiter frowned at what he assumed to be a joke. “That’s a hovel, unfit to hold fish-eaters or pigs.”
There was some offense to be taken at that, since he had constructed it himself. It was no mansion, but it had a solid roof and four sturdy walls which kept out the wind and rain. What more could a man ask for?
“The mighty Karno Uttara was friend to Maharaja Devedas himself and was once master of the disbanded Defender Order. Maharani Radamantha the Wise has named him a hero of Lok for his service at the Battle of the Capitol and the Rakshasa’s Reckoning.”
He grunted at that, because he’d not known they’d come up with an official name for that momentous yet terrible day. “I am Karno Uttara.”
Covered in mud, he hardly looked a hero of Lok, but even the dumbest warriors had to realize that men of such physical stature were exceedingly rare, and this farmer was a head taller than the biggest among them. They immediately saluted. The arbiter quickly realized his mistake and began to stammer his apologies.
Karno was not offended. If he had wanted to be recognized he wouldn’t have asked his Thakoor to grant him land in the middle of unsettled nowhere. He’d requested no bank notes or slaves. Everything here had been built by his own two hands. He had chopped down the trees and made fence posts to put in the holes he’d dug in the ground. He had carried off the rocks so his oxen could plow. It was humble, but it was honest, and it gave him plenty of time to think without people constantly yammering at him. Even the workers in the nearest village thought he was just some manner of hermit.
“Have you come about my application?”
“Your application, Master Karno?”
“I sent a letter to the Thakoor requesting a marriage be arranged for me several months ago.”
“An arranged marriage?”
Would this annoying little man repeat everything he said? “Yes, an arranged marriage.” It had been a simple request. Karno had not asked for much. Though he was technically a man of status, a worker-caste farm wife would do. In fact, that would be preferable, because at least she’d already know how to milk the cow and cut the hay. He didn’t care about her family name, or if she was a widow, or even if she was ugly. His only request to his Thakoor was that she be kind natured and smart enough to have a good conversation with, because he had grown lonely.
The arbiter swallowed nervously. “I am sorry, Master Karno. I was unaware of this letter and was not sent by your Thakoor. It is the Capitol that has summoned you.”
“What for now?”
“I don’t know the purpose. I am to deliver this.” The arbiter pulled out a letter with a wax seal. “And then we are to escort you directly there.”
There was no question that he would serve as expected, because that was what a man of honor did when called. The Capitol was a long way from Uttara. His crops would surely wither and die while he was gone. His animals would starve, so he would give them as gifts to the local workers instead. And when the Law was done using him again, he’d return to fields overgrown with weeds to start all over again.
Karno sighed. “I will fetch my war hammer.” Because obviously, if the Capitol called for him, someone or something was in need of killing.
Once inside his home—which despite the arbiter’s offensive description was perfectly acceptable—Karno studied the letter. It bore an unfamiliar seal with an ornate crown upon it. He broke it open and read.
“Hmmmm…”
It appeared his request for an arranged marriage had been answered after all.