Korrin brought the motion to the Chamber in the form he always used for motions, which was short, and had an order to it, and did not contain a single clause that a Lessaran could hide behind. He had written it on the back of a tally-stick with a burnt twig, in letters a child could have read, and he had carried it up from the Watch’s hut in his coat for two days before he gave it to the Chamber, because he did not want the Regent to think he had been hasty.
He stood at the foot of the long table with the stick in his hand and read it aloud.
“Open the Lessaran granaries at the marsh’s edge,” he said. “Take the grain by force. Take the sacks. Leave the Crown’s clerks their ledger. Carry the grain up the grain-road to the Hold’s gate before the blight spreads to the Hold’s own store. That is the motion.”
The Hands looked at him. Nobody said anything for a moment. The candle-clock dripped on its iron tray, and the light from the high windows came down through the dust in long slants that made the table look like the bottom of a river.
