At the top of the Wall

The apprentice said: "But how does a place like Miner's Gate get built? It was Harech, but they don't own the Wall, so..."

"Who does own the Wall?"

"The King?"

A shake of the head from the old man. "No. The Crown."

"Oh. Wait... I get that the King has his own holdings, and then the crown itself has some, but - surely then the King controls both. So you're saying the King built it, or allowed it?"

A smile. "Neither. Keep going."

"If he didn't allow or build it... it was built without permission?" The apprentice's brow was furrowed in puzzlement.

A nod, an encouraging wave of the hand - continue.

"But that means the King can't control his own holdings! Or the actions of his subjects... I mean, I'm not naive - don't look at me like that! - I know the lords don't always stay loyal, sure. Only the foolish follow blindly. But to build a whole new gatehouse into such a massive existing fortification? That'd take years."

"Five, I believe."

"Then why wasn't it stopped? I'm right that it was done unpermitted, by King or Crown? Not that I see what the difference is."

The old man sighed, and closed his book. "Let's start with the latter. See if you can figure out your answer afterwards. What's the real, practical difference between the King's holdings and those of the Crown proper?"

The boy drummed his fingers on the desk, idly pushed the book back and forth - before the old man grabbed it away, irritated. "The King can do what he wants with his own holdings. I know that - he'll grant them sometimes, take them back at others, that's about control and politics. The rest he keeps for his own purse, of course. Ah but that's it, the Crown lands are the Crown's purse."

A single slow nod - getting there, yes.

"And the rest of the lords don't want that coin spent the wrong way..."

"Or want it for themselves in effect or by proxy, yes. Often get it, too."

"But the Wall itself was built by King Heilyn. Heilyn's Fancy, that's what it's called. The 'proper noun', right?" the boy grinned, self-congratulatory, rewarded only by an unamused raise of one eyebrow. "We all know how much that cost Ddaran, it's why it's not finished, it's why the next kings... were limited by the council."

The old man waited, expectantly, already finding the page he'd left off from.

"So the council allowed it?" the apprentice frowned. "Oh come on, that's verbal trickery. I said the King built or allowed it, you could have just said 'kinda, it was his council'. You always tell me not to set traps like that!"

Amused now, the old man smiled. "Fair enough, but that wasn't where I was going. I can't really fault your conclusion, but no, there's another possibility."

"Neither the King nor his council built the Gate or allowed it to be built? But..."

"Yes."

"Well that only leaves that Harech's lord just built it? No permission, no interference."

"And there you have it."

"So you're telling me the King, the council, they're too weak to stop a small town from building a brand new gateway through the wall that's supposed to protect us from Kar?!"

"Well, you've made a few leaps there, and in particular you know as well as I do that wall would do little should Kar turn west," the old man chuckled. "Alright, I'll put you out of your misery. The lord of Harech sits on the council."

"So, he just acted because the council acts for the crown and the Wall belongs to the crown..."

"More or less. Your starting premise was reasonable - altering a great fortification like Heilyn's Fancy that belongs to the nation, well, most people would agree that's a decision for the King or at least his council. What you're missing is that the relationship between the King and his council, and more than that, the other powerful lords of the realm, council or no - that relationship is incredibly complex. Sometimes the King is strong, and we have a king like Heilyn getting away with emptying the nation's coffers to build a monument to his own paranoia. Other times, the council itself holds sway and... well, not much happens. But at others, a few of the lords themselves are in ascendence..."

"And that's how Harech could get away with putting a hole in the Wall! Their lord was in high favour, or wealthy, or something."

"Do you even know his name?"

"...no. But I know the names of the most powerful lords, and the Gate isn't that old..."

"So what does that leave, if it wasn't power or wealth that let Harech get away with it?"

"Distraction... or weakness... Oh, bugger me. The war!"

"Well done. It really is that simple. Torchbearer and his council were busy with Hora. Hora is far to the south, we're up here in the north, with the sheep and the miners."

"And their gate, which they built while the King wasn't looking," the boy laughed. "Wasn't looking for five years!"

His mentor was laughing too. "Well, it wasn't a short war, and when you get up past Caer Anddross, and certainly out east towards Derim, they really don't care much about us down in the south."

Standing, the apprentice walked over and looked out of the tower, at the grey line of the Wall carving through the evening fog, the nimbus glows of the two watchtower torches fading one and then the other towards the peak of the hills to the south. From there he knew the towers marched on mile by mile to the great unfinished fortress of Caer Heilyn, where he imagined the soldiers beginning the shift change for the night, laughing with unspent energy soon to be sated in the town at its foot.

Between where he stood and that fortress, the Miner's Gate was probably closed for the night. His mind's eye pictured the new whitewash of that gatehouse stark against the mossed, darker grey stone of the Wall itself. Money to build the Wall. The fortress. The great towers at each end, such as the northern one in which he stood now, contemplating. But not to maintain it properly, to leave much other than a few patches of greening whitewash on most of the run. To leave this tower in private ownership, in fact, the reason he and his mentor now dwelled there.

Heilyn's Fancy indeed. A monument to paranoia, his mentor had said. But as on many nights before, and more to come; at many points along that wall, from many other eyes as they too looked east; the apprentice thought of the shadowy nation of Kar, and their deathly servants and silent way of battle, and shivered.