and bundled him off to jail. And there he languishes for the next thirty days.'
Kethry applauded, beaming. 'That's thirty whole days we won't have to put up with his singing under our window!'
'And thirty whole days I can stroll into town for a drink without hiding my face!' Tarma looked very pleased with herself.
Warrl heaved a gigantic sigh.
'Look, Furface, if you like him so much, why don't you go keep him company?'
Tarma's retort died unuttered, for at that moment there was a knock at their door.
'Come -- ' Kethry called, and the door opened to show one of the principals of Tarma's story. Sewen.
'Are you two busy?'
'Not particularly,' Tarma replied, as Kethry rose from her chair to usher him in. 'I was just telling Keth about your part in gagging our songbird.'
'Can I have an hour or two?' Sewen was completely expressionless, which, to those that knew him, meant that something was worrying him, and badly.
'Sewen, you can have all of our time you need,' Kethry said immediately, closing the door behind him. 'What's the problem? Not Tresti, I hope.'
'No, no -- I-I have to talk to somebody, and I figured it had better be you two. I haven't heard anything from Idra in over a month.'
'Bloody hell -- ' Tarma sat bolt upright, looking no little alarmed herself. 'Pull up the spare chair, man, and give us the details.' She got up. and began lighting the oil lamps standing about the room, then returned to her seat. Kethry broke out a bottle of wine and poured three generous goblets full before resuming her perch. She left the bottle on the table within easy reach, for she judged that this talk had a possibility of going on for a while. Sewen pulled the spare chair over to the stove and collapsed into it, sitting slumped over, with his elbows on his knees and his hands loosely clasped around the goblet. 'It's been a lot more than a month, really, more like two. I was getting a message about every two weeks before then -- most of 'em hitching about one thing or another. Well, that was fine, that sounded like Idra. But then they started getting shorter, and -- you know, how the Captain sounds when she's got her teeth on a secret?'
'Hai.' Tarma nodded. 'Like every word had to wiggle around that secret to get out.'
'Eyah, that's it. Hints was all I got, that things were more complicated than she thought. Then a message saying she'd made a vote, and would be coming home -- then, right after, another saying she wouldn't, that she'd learned something important and had to do something -- then nothing.'
'Sheka!' Tarma spat. Kethry seconded the curse; this sounded very bad.
'It's been nothing, like I said, for about two months. Damnit, Idra knows I'd be worried after a message like chat, and no matter what had happened, she'd find some way to let me know she was all right.'
'If she could,' Kethry said.
'So I'm figuring she can't. That she's either into something real deep, too deep to break cover for a message, or she's being prevented.'
Kethry felt a tug on her soul-self from across the room. Need was hung on her pegs over there --
She let her inner self reach out to the blade. Sure enough, she was 'calling,' as she did when there were women in danger. It was very faint -- but then, Idra was very far away.
'I don't dare let the rest of the Hawks know,' Sewen was saying.
Tarma coughed. 'You sure as hell don't. We've got enough hotheads among us that you'd likely getabout a hundred charging over there, cutting right across Rethwellan and stirring up the gods only know what trouble. Then luck would probably have it that they'd break right in on whatever the Captain's up to and blow it all to hell.'
'Sewen, she is in some sort of trouble. Need stirred up the moment you mentioned this; I don't think it's coincidence.' Kethry shook her head a little in resignation. 'If Need calls -- it's got to be more than just a little difficulty. Need's muted down since she nearly got us both killed; I hardly even feel her on a battlefield, with women fighting and dying all around. I don't talk about her, much, but I think she's been changing. I think she's managed to become a little more capable of distinguishing real troubles that only Tarma and I can take care of. So -- I think Idra requires help, I agree with you. All right, what do you want us to do? Track her down and see what's wrong? just
