The following passage is one I've previously posted (in the King Joyse thread), but fits in nicely in this thread at this time. The Tor and Castellan Lebbick visit King Juyse before he is ready to retire for the night, and the King and Lebbick discuss how the Alends will start the next day's siege. Lebbick and Joyse both agree catapults will be used, and Joyse seems satisfied to leave it at that and bid them good night.
[quote="In Chapter 28 of the Mordant Need's story, in A Man Rides Through, entitled "A Day Of Trouble", was"]"My lord King." It was the Tor who spoke.
The King raised his eyebrows tiredly. "Was there something else?"
"Yes," the Tor said sharply before Castellan Lebbick could break in. "Yes, my lord King. Lebbick has put the lady Terisa of Morgan in the dungeon. He struck her. He means to question her with pain. And he may"--the Tor looked at Lebbick and fought to contain his anger--"may have other intentions as well.
"He must be stopped."
The Castellan started to protest, then caught himself. To his astonishment, King Joyse was glaring at the Tor as if the old lord had begun to stink in some way.
"What difference does it make to you, my lord Tor?" retorted the King. "Nyle was killed. Maybe you didn't realize that. The son of the Domne, my lord Tor--the son of a friend." He spoke as if he had forgotten why the old lord had come to Orison in the first place. "Lebbick is just doing his job."
In response, the Tor's expression turned to nausea; his mouth opened and closed stupidly. He was so appalled that a moment passed before he was able to breathe; then he said as if he were suppressing an attack of apoplexy, "Do I understand you, my lord King?" His lips stretched tight, baring his wine-stained teeth. "Does Castellan Lebbick have your permission to torture and rape the lady Terisa of Morgan?"
A muscle in King Joyse's cheek twitched. Suddenly, his eyes were no longer watery: they flashed blue fire. "That's enough!" Echoes of the man he used to be rang off the walls as he articulated distinctly, "You fat, old, useless sot, you've interfered with me enough. I'm sick of your self-righteousness. I'm sick of being judged. Castellan Lebbick has my permission to do his job."
Behind his constant scowl. inside his clenched heart, Lebbick felt like cheering.[/quote]
This passage in the Mordant's Need story delivers my strongest empathetic moment with the Tor. No way that the Tor deserves this kind of treatment from the King. I say this because the Tor's trying to save Terisa from an extremely cruel and uncalled-for treatment, he has been Joyse's ally for longer than anybody, he came to his king while heavy with the loss of his eldest son, and his desire for retributive action against renegade Imagery by his king has been rebuffed.
The Tor's face swelled purple; his eyes bulged. His fists came up trembling, as if he were in the throes of a seizure--as if he had finally been provoked to strike his King. When he lowered them again, the act cost him a supreme effort. As the blood left his face, his skin became waxen.
"I do not believe you. You are my King. My friend." His voice rattled in his throat; his gaze was no longer focused on anything. "I, too, have lost a son. I will not believe you.
"Be warned, Castellan. You will suffer for it if you believe him."
His flesh seemed to slump on his bones as he moved away and went slowly down the stairs, carrying himself as if his years had caught up with him without warning and made him frail.
It is well that the Tor keeps himself and his anger under control after rude awakening Joyse has just given him, so that Lebbick doesn't get the pleasure of arresting him. But in a way, it's also not well he keeps it bottled up, because in search of relief he begins to turn too many wine bottles up.