Ortossi

He is the Caste of Guardsmen, of Ar, and wore its colors, a tunic of gray slashed with red, with the insignia of his rank, a single silvered bar, upon the left shoulder.

He is a large man, broad through the shoulders and deep-chested, with the thick neck and heavy forearms of one long accustomed to the spear and the shock of the shield wall. His hair was cut short, in the manner of the guard, black but shot now with gray at the temples. His face was square and weathered, his jaw heavy, his eyes gray and flat, the eyes of a man who has seen men die and has not flinched.

About his waist he wore the broad belt of his office, from which hung the keys of the house and the short, weighted truncheon of the guard captain. His sword, of plain Ar, hung at his left hip, its hilt worn smooth by use.

He stood not as the warriors stand, with their pride of the codes, but as a guardsman stands, feet planted, arms folded, watchful, patient, suspicious of all who pass.