"It's your business, why can't-"

"Why, why, why. Here, take this order. I don't need to have that blacksmith come all the way down here again and yell at me. He's in trouble with his orders and he needs the iron."

"Why is he in trouble? I thought everyone had to wait their turn."

Ishaq lifted an eyebrow and lowered his voice. "His customer is the Retreat."

"The Retreat? What's that?"

"The Retreat." Ishaq spread his arms, indicating something big. "That's the name of the place being built for the emperor."

Richard hadn't known the name. The emperor's new palace was the reason for all the workers coming to Altur'Rang. He supposed it was the reason Nicci had insisted they come to the city, too. She had some interest in having him be part of the grand project. He assumed it was her grotesque sense of irony.

"The new palace is going to be huge," Ishaq said, waving his arms again. "A lot of work for a lot of people. It will be work for years building the Retreat."

"So, when the goods are for the Order, then you had better deliver, I take it."

Ishaq smiled and dipped a deep nod. "Now, you are starting to understand, Mr. Richard why, why, why. The blacksmith is working directly from the orders of the builders of the palace, who report to the highest people. The builders need tools and things made. They don't want to hear excuses from a lowly blacksmith. The blacksmith doesn't want to hear excuses from me, but I have to go by what the review board says-he doesn't, he goes by what the palace says. I'm in the middle."

Ishaq paused when one of the other loaders came down the aisle with a piece of paper. Ishaq read the paper the man gave him, while the man gave a sidelong look at Richard. Ishaq sighed and gave brief directions to the man.

After he was gone, Ishaq turned back to Richard.

"I can only transport what the review board allows me to move. That paper, just now-it was instructions from the board for me to hold a shipment of timbers to the mines because the load was going to go to a company that needs the work. You see? I can't put other people out of business by being unfair and delivering more than they do, or else I have trouble, and I get replaced by someone who will not be so unfair to his competitors. Ah, it's not like the old days, when I was young and foolish."

Richard folded his arms. "You mean to say that if you do a good job, you get in trouble-just like I did."

"Good job. Who's to say what is a good job. Everybody's got to work together for the good of everybody. That is a good job-if you help your fellow man."

Richard watched a couple of men off in the distance loading a wagon with charcoal. "You don't really believe that mouthful of mush, do you, Ishaq?"

Ishaq sighed in a long suffering manner. "Richard, please, load the wagon when you get to the foundry and then go with the wagon out to the Retreat and unload it at the blacksmith's shop. Please. Don't get sick on me, or get a bad back, or have infirm children in the middle of the run? I don't need to see the blacksmith again, or I will have to go swimming with an iron bar around my neck."

Richard grunted a laugh. "My back is feeling fine."

"Good. I'll get a driver over here to drive the wagon." Ishaq waggled a cautionary finger. "And don't ask the driver to help load or unload. We don't need that kind of grievance brought up at the next meeting. I had to beg Jori not to lodge a complaint after I asked him to help me unload the wagon that day in the rain, when the wheels broke-the day you helped me get the load to the warehouse. Remember?"

"I remember."

"Please, don't give Jori any trouble. Don't touch the reins-that's his job. Be a good fellow, then? Get the iron loaded and unloaded so that blacksmith doesn't come to see me again?"

"Sure, Ishaq. I won't make any trouble for you. You can trust me."

"There's a good fellow." Ishaq started away, but turned back. "Was not so much trouble on a farm-am I right?"

"No, it wasn't. I wish I was back there, now."

Before he got far, Ishaq turned back once more. "You be sure to bow and scrape if you see any of those priests. You hear?"

"Priests? What priests? How will I know them?"

"Brown robes and creased caps-oh, you'll know them. You can't miss them. If you see any, you be on your best manners. If a priest suspects you of having an improper attitude toward the Creator or such, he can have you tortured. The priests are Brother Narev's disciples."

"Brother Narev?"

"The high priest of the Fellowship of Order-" Ishaq waved his arms impatiently. "I have to get Jori to come with the wagon. Please, Richard, do as I ask. That blacksmith will feed me to his forge if I don't have that iron out there today. Please, Richard, get that load out there. Please?"

Richard gave Ishaq a smile in order to put his mind at ease.

"You have my word, Ishaq. The blacksmith will have the iron."

Ishaq heaved a sigh and hurried off to find his driver.

It was late in the muggy afternoon by the time they made it to the site of the Retreat. Sitting in the wagon beside Jori as they cleared the top of the final hill, Richard was awestruck by the sight. It was beyond huge. He couldn't imagine how many square miles had been cleared. Gangs of thousands of men, looking like ants spread out below, worked in lines with shovels and baskets reshaping the contour of the land.

Jori was disinterested in the construction, and only spat over the side, offering the occasional "I suppose" to some of Richard's questions.

The foundation was still being laid in deep trenches, enabling Richard, looking down from the road, to see on the ground the outline of the future structure. It was hard to fathom how enormous the building was going to be.

Seeing the specks moving slowly beside it, it was hard to keep in mind that they were men.

For sheer size, the structure would rival anything Richard had ever seen. There were miles of grounds and gardens going in. Fountains and other towering structures along entrance roads were beginning to be erected.

Sweeping stretches of mazes were being constructed with hedges. Hillsides were dotted with trees that had been planted according to a grand plan.

The Retreat faced a lake in what was to be that majestic park. The short side of the main building was to run a quarter mile along the river.

Stone pilings marched partway out into the river, with a series of connecting arches just starting to be constructed. Apparently, part of the palace was to extend out over the water, with docks for the emperor's pleasure craft.

Across the river lay more of the city. On the palace side of the river, too, the city spread all around, though at a great distance from the Retreat. Richard couldn't imagine how many buildings and people had been displaced for the construction. This was to be no distant and remote emperor's palace, but rather it was set right in the center of Altur'Rang.

Roads were being paved with millions of cobbles, giving the multitudes of citizens of the Order access to come and see the wand structure. There were already crowds of people standing behind rope barricades, watching the construction.

Despite the poverty of the Old World, it would appear that this grand palace was to be a crown jewel of unsurpassed splendor.

Stone of various kinds lay in great piles. In the distance, Richard could see men working at cutting it into the required shapes. The heavy afternoon air rang with the faraway knells of hundreds of hammers and chisels. There were stockpiles of granite and marble in a variety of colors, and massive quantities of limestone blocks. Special quarry wagons waited in serpentine columns to deliver yet more. The long blocks of stone, called lifts, were slung under heavy beams that bridged the front and rear axles. Huts and great open shelters had been built for the stone workers so they could work no matter the weather. Timber was stickered in row upon row of huge stacks covered with purpose-built roofs. The overflow was covered in canvas. Small mountains of materials for mortar were scattered around the foundation, looking like anthills, the illusion aided by all the dark specks of men moving about.