(urth) Bee Wrangler

[Roy C. Lackey]

Rex Lycanthrosaurus quoted:

"The dead Autarch, whose face I had seen in scarlet ruin a few moments
before, now lived again. My eyes and hands were his, I knew the work of
the hives of the bees of the House Absolute and the sacredness of them,
who steer by the sun and fetch gold of Urth's fertility. I knew his
course to the Phoenix Throne, and to the stars, and back." (Citadel,
Chapter XXIX)

Damn! I forgot that and should not have, particularly in this context.

Still, while the quote establishes a link between bees and the Old Autarch,
that does not make him Sancha's Appian. If the Old Autarch had been a boy
when he was trained, and went to Yesod as a relatively young man a
quarter-century before Paeon told him about Sev, then he would not have been
particularly old when he made his lament about not thinking his replacement
would be "so soon". If, however, he had held the throne for more than sixty
years at that point, his complaint would be unreasonable.

I think my earlier list of the last four rulers makes more sense, and better
reconciles the apparent with the actual age of the Old Autarch. Lomer's and
Nicarete's longevity can't be helped, no matter who was autarch when.

-Roy