The amounts collected, the frequency, what happened when villages could not meet the collection, and where the collected goods and money are currently located."
Silence.
She waited.
She was good at waiting.
"Your Majesty," he said, in the tone of a man attempting to shift the ground of a conversation to somewhere more comfortable, "perhaps this would be better discussed in a more formal setting, where the full administrative context—"
"The men of Tarven village who are standing behind my guards," she said, "include one whose leg will not heal correctly because of what happened during your last collection. He walked four miles through forest terrain to be here today." She looked at Harwick steadily. "I think the current setting is adequate."
Harwick looked at the Tarven men. His jaw tightened.
