You'll notice I highlighted Gart's kicking of the Tor. Given the present circumstances there may be only one course of action left in chapter 40: The Lord of the Last Resort. King Joyse has disappeared, Terisa has been taken, Lebbick is dead and Prince Kragen is out cold. The Tor might be the only person who can take positive action on behalf of Orison (and, possibly, all of Mordant) at this point. But how can he? Gart's kick almost killed him. A severely injured, fat, wine-besotted, lord betrayed by his King can't possibly do a thing at this point...or can he?Eremis wants to kill Geraden right there and then, but something dangerous in Geraden's gaze makes him hesitate. The Master goes instead to grab his prize: Terisa. But out of nowhere the massive bulk of the Tor slams into Eremis, forcing him back. Gart then stuns the Tor with a kick and prepares to behead the old lord, while Gilbur knocks out another son of the Domne, Geraden.
But Gart is prevented from killing the Tor by Castellan Lebbick, who, broken bones and all, has somehow come up to the Monomach. Gart whirls, and stabs the Castellan right in his heart:
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"Bastard," he breathed between gouts of blood as if he were talking to someone else, not Gart at all. "Now I'm free. You can't hurt me anymore."
Slowly, as if performing at last the only graceful action of his life, he slid backward off Gart's sword.
In that way, Lebbick finished mourning for his wife.
The chapter ends with Eremis and his gang finally getting their hands on Terisa, and she can't break free of them. Eremis makes "a strange, familiar gesture," and then he, Terisa, Gart and Gilbur are translated out of the thronehall of Orison.
All the King's conselors and almost all the Imagers have fled. Basonage has taken off with Geraden and the only Imager left is having his bones stripped by a demon fruit bat. Lebbick's second in command, Norge, is trying to pick up some of the pieces and working to restore what little order he can. But he is resolved to the fact the everyone will talk and panic and that the Alend seige will succeed, if it hasn't already. Norge works to round up the conselors and Imagers, makes sure that Kragen and Atagel are alive, sends a search party after the King and goes to help the Tor up.
The Tor is in terrible shape as he gets to his hands and knees he finds himself physically unable to avert his eyes form the Castellan's "ruined and happy face" Lebbick had, finally, been allowed to do something on behalf of his King and Orison and died fighting Gart in a release from frustration and Joyse's betrayal. Once the Tor's shock wears off he knows he'll be in more pain than he can imagine, only suprise and wine sustain him, perhaps Gart's boot had torn something vital inside him, perhaps it would be preferable to die.
The Tor drags Norge down into his face to find the King has, indeed, vanished and, probably of his own accord.The alternatives were distinctly unpleasant.
Unfortunately, the expression on Lebbick's face wouldn't let him go. The first twinge of pain rumbled through his guts, and he nearly groaned aloud, Oh, Castellan. Mordant and Orison and you, he betrayed us all, abandoned us all--and you fought for him to the end. What did he ever do to deserve such service?
As soon as the Tor asked the question, however, he found he knew the answer. Despite his tears, he could see it in Lebbick's twisted face, his wounds and his blood. What King Joyse had done was to create something larger than any one man, something which deserved loyalty and service no matter how fallible and even treacherous the King himself proved to be.
Mordant. A buffer between the constant, bloody warring of Cadwal and Alend.
The Congery. An end to the ravages of Imagery when mirrors were used for nothing but power.
"Help me up." The Tor made no effort to move, The pain squeezed his voice to a husk. "I will take his place"
The Tor works to convince Norge that he is the right choice at the right time. Argueing that he is Joyse's oldest friend and has served as advisor and chancellor--and, in fact, is the only lord present in Orison. Does Norge want Havelock? No, in order to avert chaos, the people need a voice they can trust, his. However, he knows that he must win the support of Norge and the King's guard in order to be accepted as leader. Norge has a hard time accepting this and would rather get the Tor to a physician.
Artagel is still out cold, being flung halfway across the room by Gilbur, but Kragen begins to come to and gropes for his sword as Norge moves to kick it away. The Tor forbids him and lets the Prince have his fury. Both the Tor and Norge explain what has happened, that Artagel knocked him out, the King has fled, Gart attacked and that Eremis and Gilbur have stolen Terisa. All three cooberate the present evidence and Terisa and Geraden's warnings to Kragen and argree that the Masters set up Alend are working for Cadwal."Fool," the lord moaned. "You do not understand."......."Someone must take command. Orison has to be led. And I am here. Prince Kragen is here. For the first time, we know our enemies. We must not miss this opportunity."
"Opportunity?" Norge asked noncommittally.
Oh, for the strenght to scream! The Tor's stomach and throat seemed to be filling up with blood. "An alliance with Alend," he croaked out. "Against Cadwal. A chance to end this seige and fight."
The captian said nothing his reaction was unreadable.
"Norge." Peering though a blur of pain, the lord leaned closer to whisper straight into the captian's face. "If I can make an alliance with Prince Kragen, will you support me?"
Norge spent an astonishing amout of time lost in thought. He took forever to arrive at a decision. Or maybe he just seemed to take forever.
Then he said, "All right, my lord Tor," as if he had never hesitated in his life.
Artagel finally comes to, apologizes to the Prince and has his heart broken when he sees his friend, Lebbick, lying lifeless. He explains to Kragen that Joyse had the crazy notion of challenging the Prince to a duel and that he knocked him out to save Joyse from being killed. The Tor convinces Kragen that he and Norge are all the power left in Orison and that he needs to know what Terisa and Geraden have told him. Kragen is not easily swayed - but has second thoughts on acknowledging the Tor's leadership when he hears Norge command Artagel to follow the Tor's orders.
The Tor purposes the idea of an alliance to the Prince offering the aid of the Congery. Reports come back that chaos is ensuing and that no sign of the King has been found (and reports also state that Havelock's brown cloud of Imagery floated away from the castle, but did not harm the Alends). The Tor did not see Terisa taken away and was shocked when this information reached him. Everybody is shocked when Prince Kragen tells them that he knows the location of Cadwal's armies. The Tor suggests they go off to discuss matters further, where he might sit down (instead of dropping dead where he stands).
Talk about ponying up to the plate! 
