The irrigation keeper brought a boot to the charter sitting.
It was a large boot with a split sole, wrapped in a cloth that had once been white. He set it on the table beside the spring map and waited while Elian finished reading the proposed agenda.
Hedra looked at the boot.
“Alun.”
“I know. I’m speaking when it’s my turn.”
“Then put it under your chair until then.”
Alun Vett obeyed. The boot disappeared, leaving a small patch of dried mud on the table.
Iven sat at the side with the other technical witnesses. He had brought a notebook, the proposal about his own authority and no intention of making a speech before he understood the question. The room was the school assembly hall. The smaller orchard meeting house remained a drawing, with a price and a protected path, rather than a building conjured by the need to meet.
