Page 12 (1/2)

"What was it like?" Marasi suddenly asked "Lord Ladrian? Living where there was no law?" She seelare fro up Waxillium’s past

"It was difficult sometimes," Waxillium admitted "Out there, some people just believe they can take what they want It would actually surprise them when someone stood up to them As if I were soa"

"Gaure of speech, Lord Harms," Waxillium said "You see, they all seemed to think that if you were skilled or well armed, you could take whatever you want I was both, and yet instead of taking, I stopped the"

"It was very brave of you," Marasi said

He shrugged "It wasn’t bravery, honestly I just kind of fell into things"

"Even stopping the Surefires?"

"They were a special case I--" He froze "How did you know about that?"

"Reports trickle in," Marasi said, blushing "Froet written up by soht bookshop"

"Oh" Uncomfortable, he picked up his cup and drank so slipped into his mouth He nearly spat out the entire mouthful in surprise He contained hi to throttle you He h

"Well," Steris said, "hopefully the constables will soon deal with these ruffians and we can return to peace and law"

"Actually," Marasi said, "I don’t think that’s likely"

"Child," Lord Harh"

"I’d like to hear what she has to say, my lord," Waxillium said "For the sake of conversation"

"Well … all right … I suppose"

"It’s si "Lord Ladrian, when you were lawkeeper in Weathering, as the population of the city?"

He fingered the ite that had been capped with a dab of wax "Well, it started to grow rapidly in the last few years But for most of the time, I’d say it was around fifteen hundred"

"And the surrounding area?" she asked "All the places you’d patrol, but didn’t have their okeepers?"

"Maybe three thousand total," Waxilliu There are a lot of transients out in the Roughs People looking to find afrom place to place"

"Let’s say three thousand," Marasi said "And how many of you were there? Those who helped you keep the law?"

"Five or six, depending," he said "Wayne and I, and Barl most of the tiht

"Let’s say six per three thousand," she said "Gives us an easy number to ith One lawman per five hundred people"

"What is the point of this?" Lord Harly

"The population of our octant is around six hundred thousand," she explained "By the sahly twelve hundred constables But we don’t It’s somewhere closer to six hundred, last I looked over the nue’ wildlands actually had double the nu over it as we have here in the city"

"Huh," he said Odd infor wo to diminish your accoher percentage of lawbreakers as well, since the reputation of the Roughs draws that type But I think it’s a matter of perception As you said, out of the city, people expect to get aith their crimes

"Here, they are more circumspect--and etting robbed, you get a dozen people being robbed on their way hoht The nature of the urban environment makes it easier to hide if you keep your crimes below a certain level of visibility But I wouldn’t say life is really safer in the city, despite what people think

"I’ll bet e of the population, than out in the Roughs There is soon in the City, however, that people pay less attention to it By contrast, when a man is murdered in a small town, it’s a very disruptive event--even if it’s the only murder that’s happened in years

"And all of this isn’t even counting the fact that much of the wealth in the world is concentrated in a few places inside the city Wealth drawsfor opportunity There are a whole host of reasons why the City is hs It’s just that we pretend that it isn’t"

Waxillium folded his arms in front of hi, she didn’t seem shy at all

"You see, my lord," Harms said "This is why I tried to still her"