The Chamber sat at every candle-clock for seven days, and Tallow kept each sitting under its own heading in the minutes. He gave each heading a day-number, a count of Hands present, and an estimate for how long the sitting would run. He was wrong about the length of the sittings every single time. He was never wrong about the number of Hands, and after the second day he began to think that the Chamber had come to rely on the one fact in the week that did not change.
On the first day Korrin wanted the sword. He said so in full sentences, which was a sign of his temper, and he kept his fists flat on the table as he said them. Refuse the Writ with the sword, he said. Take the herald’s grey horses for the Hold’s own use and send the Crown’s riders back to Lantern Ford on foot. The Hard Hands would do it. He would do it himself, if the Chamber would not.
Gaunt objected to the word labourers. He objected to the word delivered, which he said was a word for coal, and then he objected to the chairs, which were too low for a man with a bad arm and had been too low since the second winter. He had not yet been hurt, and his arm was whole, and he waved it about to prove it while he talked. The Chamber let him. Tallow noted the objection to the chairs under…
