Chapter 16As the coach moved steadily away from the centre of Arvenshelm, Vashnar leaned back into its plush upholstery. Slowly his eyes closed.
The coach was a well-sprung and luxuriously appointed vehicle built at the behest of Vashnar’s more hedonistic predecessor. On his appointment, Vashnar’s immediate response, as it had been to much of his predecessor’s handiwork, was to dispense with it on the grounds that its conspicuous lavishness was not appropriate to the stern office of Senior Warden Commander.
Both Bowlott and Vellain, however, had persuaded him otherwise, Vellain citing her own comfort when she accompanied him on official occasions, Bowlott citing both the cost of using an ordinary coach while that stood idle — ‘It’s not as if we could sell it.’ — and reminding him that, ‘
