Kanros nodded as he took in the conversations, but responded first and most quickly to Haljon, [b]"I am not calling men together yet in great numbers, because that gets expensive and we have the coffers to consider, but I can quickly put some men under contract for defending the city's territory outside the walls and keeping order on the Great Spice Road."[/b] Much of Kanros' education under the Prince of Killers, Jalal, had been in the finance and logistics of a campaign, how to stretch the gold, how to pay little and drive a hard contract for fighting men eager to fight for plunder rather than take the wage; poor and hungry fought better, greed and the sight of loot made a man fight hard when he was paid only enough to engage him but not enough to make him averse to risk. 

[b]"Patrols on the roads, using outposts put in after the war with Selander but then left empty -- let mercenaries turn them habitable for us in the process of working out of these posts,"[/b] which would save them money to do it themselves, [b]"Two month contract, option to extend upon a need that I will determine with you other Guardians. Bounty for raiders. Bonus for bringing down anyone breaking the contract to raid. Set it high enough to make one think twice -- they'll look at the gain of the raid and how much the men hunting them will be paid and hopefully we'll never have to pay it, but keep them watching each other for signs of treachery and looking for raiders rather than trying to figure out how to profit off the caravans."[/b] He didn't bother to mention that most of the captains in this city knew that to attack Daran trade on the Great Spice Road invited a terrible sort of vengeance -- it wasn't merely a fight in the field. The bounties would go out in other places as well. They'd be knifed somewhere or poisoned. 

[b]"At least, that all makes sense to me. However, Commander Haljon, I do not think we need mercenaries on the streets. The men I use are ill suited to garrison duty, will want more for it and that will cause dissension with the Khavi. I would rather recruit new Khavi than risk having two sets of guards brawling each other in the streets."[/b]

[b]"As to..."[/b] he exhaled explosively, [b]"Melazus and those that died before us. Let's assume it's not a wild beast,"[/b] Kanros said, after a heavy moment of having to debate with himself to say anything at all, [b]"and perhaps, let's instead go right to the heart of it. This reeks of the sorcerer, just as Melazus. The Guardians at the time looked for goats, not truth. We have to learn how he escaped and where he escaped to. We have to find Cyrabassis."[/b]

He could remember the fight, because he'd squared off against the thing Pykas had become; in that fight, Vindurfang came alive as it never had before, suddenly it felt almost as if the blade had a hunger for the fight. He also remembered the beasts they fought; Pykas' royal guards were turned into some sort of monstrous combination of lizard and ape, fur and scales and fangs with weapons, secreting something from a gland, spitting it at them while it was on fire. He remembered the spidery, sing-song chant of Cyrabassis as it all happened, scratching at the darker corners of his memory. A shudder came to him as he tried to visualize things from a place he didn't want to visualize before he himself beckoning a lictor for wine. It was poured and Kanros took several gulps of it. It didn't particularly help, but the moments it took to pour, take and drink gave him time to collect himself; gibbering would not help Dara and it would not save their skins, when you came right down to it. It was one of the real secrets in life; if you could master yourself, then you could master your undertakings.

Once steadied by it, master of himself once more, he glanced to the Blood Rider with a wry smile, [b]"I would wager, though I don't usually consider it wise to do it with you, that we are gathering information in the city, even as the Khavi ask questions. Ephraim might well be the best to root it out, but quietly and carefully."[/b] What Kanros didn't mention, or particularly care about, was the methods his colleagues would use. Blades, powders, guile...it had to be done.

Dara knew when it chose these people, some of them more successful at covering up the ambiguities of their past than others, that they were picking the dangerous ones -- and the bloody ones.

[b]"I would also wager that the next wagons going out will have eyes and ears as well,"[/b] he added to the Green Lady, with a glance to the only woman in the room, [b]"Because I think we need to know if any of Pykas' old generals are doing anything new and interesting,"[/b] though he didn't have to explain 'interesting.' Incense, sacrifices, orgies -- alright, not necessarily, unless in snake costumes or some similarly ridiculous attire -- and other signs of the occult, [b]"including boom prices."[/b] Because if provisions were being bought up by mercenaries and cities with armies, it tended to mean they were preparing for conflict.